It looks all so official, proper, formal, and stately. A complex issue goes before The Supreme Court. Wise men are asked to use their formal education, knowledge of the law, and their wide human experience to determine the justice or injustice of an important matter. No one would ever presume that a court of law in a free country shaped by Christian civilization would legalize the killing of innocent children—an unprecedented law that no civilized nation in the course of history has ever adopted. How could a blatant, egregious evil be approved, justified, rationalized, and applauded as enlightened thinking? The following story offers special insights into the types of lies that make evil appear good and the innocent seem guilty. Someone innocent dies, but somehow it does not matter. The august image of the highest court of the law of the land merits its prestige more than the life of the guiltless victim deserves respect. The court must balance the scales of justice and render a wise verdict —obedient only to the objectivity of the law and not subject to the feelings of the heart or the human sentiments.
In Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd, Sailor,” an innocent man, known as the “Handsome Sailor,” is hanged for committing a murder on a British naval ship. Pure of heart, innocent of foul play or guile, and praised as a noble sailor, courageous man, and person of moral integrity, Billy Budd has earned an honorable reputation as a natural leader who brings good will, camaraderie, and unity to all the ships where he has served: “Tales of his prowess were recited. Ashore he was the champion; afloat the spokesman; on every suitable occasion always foremost.” When Billy is transferred from one government vessel to another, his former captain introduces him to his new commander, Captain Vere, with the highest recommendations: “Lieutenant, you are going to take my best man from me, the jewel of ‘em.” Renowned for his strict honesty, Billy makes the same favorable impression on the Bellipotent: “To deal in double meanings and insinuations of any sort was quite foreign to his nature.”
Billy Budd
The innocent, guileless Billy Budd, however, awakens envy and professional jealousy in Claggart, the master-at-arms who resents Billy’s popularity and purity. A man with a corrupt past and a guilty conscience, Claggart takes offense at Billy’s pristine goodness and harbors a secretive ill will toward him. Innocence and purity cause discomfort and uneasiness for the crooked and malicious who take offense at virtue they regard as a reproach to their own depraved life. Melville writes, “Did ever anybody seriously confess to envy?” Waiting for some event to provoke his malice and hatred toward Billy, Claggart overreacts when Billy accidentally spills soup on him and interprets the spilled soup as a deliberate insult. He then testifies to Captain Vere his suspicions of a mutiny on ship led by Billy Budd, the most popular and likeable sailor on the ship, always in the center of a crowd of sailors. Reporting his fear of “one dangerous man aboard,” Claggart weaves his artful lie: “Not for nothing does he insinuate himself into the good will of his shipmates . . . . You may have but noted his fair cheek. A mantrap may be under the ruddy-tipped daisies.” Claggart calls good evil and pretends evil is good.
Captain Vere, suspicious of Claggart’s motives and aware of his shady past—questions the truth of his officer’s insinuations about Billy’s treachery and confronts him: “Do you come to me, Master-at-arms, with so foggy a tale. As to Budd, cite me an act or spoken word of his confirmatory of what you in general charge against him.” Captain Vere summons both men, orders Claggart to state his case against Billy, and commands Billy to defend himself from the charge: “Speak! Defend yourself!” Shocked at the false accusation of mutiny, Billy struggles to speak, finds himself tongue-tied and inarticulate because of a speech impediment, and finally vents his anger at the outrageous lie by striking a blow with his right hand, a punch that unintentionally deals death to Claggart. Acting in self-defense and provoked by a blatant falsehood, Billy’s reaction that proves fatal to the officer neither intended death nor proceeded from malice or premeditation. Although Captain Vere witnessed the entire proceedings, suspected Claggart of envious jealousy and artful lying, and observed Billy’s justified anger and self-defense, the commander quickly concludes, “Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!” The innocent must be sacrificed for evil to triumph.
Captain Vere summons a drumhead court of his own officers, predisposes them to render the verdict he demands, allows for no careful judicial review of all the facts of the case, prevents a fair trial, and never acts as if a man is innocent until proven guilty. Vere wants no bad publicity that would even hint of a possibility of a mutiny on his ship. It is of utmost importance that his reputation of strict disciplinarian goes unquestioned. The dispatch with which he settles Billy’s case will preserve his image of authoritative commander. As he advises his court, “But let not warm hearts betray heads that should be cool.” When an officer argues, “But surely Budd purposed neither mutiny nor homicide,” Vere rejects his logic: “But Budd’s intent or non-intent is nothing to the purpose.” Martial law, military discipline, the fear of scandal, and Vere’s untarnished reputation of strict commander outweigh the justice due to an innocent man falsely accused of mutiny. Vere justifies his proceedings, the court’s verdict, and Billy’s execution with the assurance that “private conscience should . . . yield to that imperial one formulated in the code under which alone we officially proceed.” Human law supersedes self-evident truth, common sense, and divine law.
After Budd is found guilty of murder and hanged, an official record of the entire event documents the facts for historical accuracy with this false report: Claggart discovered a plot devised by Billy Budd and arraigned him before the captain. Claggart’s attempt to foil a conspiracy incited Budd to retaliate, and Claggart “was stabbed to the heart by the suddenly drawn sheath knife of Budd.” When the captain and the court finally resolve the whole episode and the naval journal presents the historical account with all the pertinent “facts,” the case appears closed and justice rendered. As sailors reflect on the trial and death of Billy Budd, however, they offer another interpretation: “But aren’t it all sham?” The average sailor is not fooled, and common sense speaks. However, political authority, the willing legal profession, and the acquiescent journalists recording history have all conspired to twist the law to serve the self-interests of the powerful elite few whose narrow agenda supersedes the common good and the enforcement of justice. The appearance of goodness triumphs over the reality of truth. Melville writes, “With mankind . . . forms, measured forms, are everything.”
Someone innocent and guiltless dies, but it does not matter. Captain Vere’s comfort and convenience count more. The captain misrepresents all the facts of the case to make an innocent sailor appear as a malicious aggressor. The official hanging of a man on the basis of rigid naval law, the hasty judgment of a court, and a fanatical captain ignore the truth that Billy committed no crime. Billy Budd is the victim of educated men misusing the law and weaving lies to make barbaric cruelty assume the appearance of enlightened morality and a higher moral consciousness that transcends obvious evidence and common sense.
All the forces that condemn Billy Budd to his death epitomize the same social and cultural forces that legalize abortion and same-sex marriage. The will of a small minority, the authority of a political leader, the decisions of the courts, and the propaganda of the media manipulate language to deconstruct the simple truth and replace it with the elaborate complexity of an artful lie. It is mandatory that Billy Budd die so Captain Vere’s ship escapes all suspicion of mutiny. It is imperative for children to die in the womb so no one’s personal pleasures, worldly desires, career advancement, or professional ambitions encounter any obstacles. Innocence does not matter. Goodness is not real. The law is a joke. “But aren’t it all sham?”