A Private Sector Solution
To Crime And Corruption

In 1777, just months after the Declaration of Independence had been signed, 10 sailors in the new American navy gathered secretly aboard a warship anchored off Rhode Island. 

The sailors weren’t plotting against the British, but documenting the violent, corrupt behavior of their Commodore, Esek Hopkins. 

They penned a letter describing how Hopkins tortured British POWs and used navy vessels to smuggle goods for personal profit. 

In a high-stakes move against a powerful figure, the sailors delivered their letter to the Continental Congress, which voted in March 1777 to suspend Hopkins from his post.

Hopkins swiftly retaliated, filing a criminal libel suit against two of the sailors who happened to be in Rhode Island, landing both men in jail. 

In a petition to Congress, the sailors pleaded that they had been “arrested for doing what they then believed and still believed” was their duty. America’s first lawmakers agreed, allocating funds to pay for their legal representation in the following year.

The two men successfully contested the libel charges. Their names were Third Lieutenant Richard Marven and Midshipman Samuel Shaw. 

Shortly after their trial, the Continental Congress enacted a law declaring that “it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States… to give the earliest information to Congress or any other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge.”

Our firm answers this call. 

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