This essay argues that Captain Vere should have been dismissed from command of the Avenger for sentencing Billy Budd to death. While Vere technically followed the Letter of the Law as codified in Article XXII of the Articles of War, the paper contends that he violated the Law's Spirit by condemning a man universally understood to be innocent of malicious intent. Drawing on Herman Melville's novella, the essay examines how Vere's Enlightenment-shaped worldview led him to privilege cold reason over moral conscience, rendering his judgment not only unjust but tyrannical. The paper concludes that the Law exists to govern, not to destroy, and that Vere's failure to balance its Letter with its Spirit makes him unfit for command.
This essay argues for Captain Vere's dismissal from his command of the Avenger in His Majesty's Royal Navy. By finding Billy Budd guilty and sentencing him to death, Vere violated the Spirit of the Law, though he followed its Letter.
The Letter upon which Billy Budd is condemned is read by Vere from Article XXII of the Articles of War:
If any officer, mariner, soldier, or other person in the fleet, shall strike any of his superior officers, or draw, or offer to draw, or lift any weapon against him, being in the execution of his office, on any pretense whatsoever, every such person being convicted of such offense, by the sentence of a court-martial, shall suffer death.
Vere and the rest of the crew know Budd to be innocent in that he had no intention of striking Claggart, inciting a riot, or causing harm. Claggart had slandered Billy Budd, and the good nature of Budd could not but react to the lie that Claggart issued. Therefore, though Vere understood this completely and his conscience prodded him toward another conclusion, he would not relent: "Do not think me pitiless in thus demanding sentence on a luckless boy. I feel as you do for him. And for myself — revulsion. Shame. And rage" (74).
Nonetheless, Vere — for all his rage — sends Billy to his grave under the verdict of an unjust and unwarranted death sentence.
It must be conceded that Vere desired to operate according to the requirements and demands of the Law. The Law, it should be noted, is instituted for a reason: to keep order amongst the affairs of men, to regulate their actions, and to help govern their wills.
Yet Billy Budd had a good will, and his numerous good actions and laudable reputation preceded him. His goodness was not inhuman either — as Vere attempts to rationalize within himself. As though one could say: "Billy is inhumanly good, therefore inhuman; therefore it is no crime for him to be judged guilty of Claggart's murder. Claggart also was inhuman. Impossible goodness killed by impossible wickedness." Vere rationalizes their nature to the point of absurdity in order to avoid dealing with reality.
The fact is that Vere did not and could not judge this case appropriately. His education formed him only half so. His ideas of duty, justice, order, and responsibility before the law all rose from the Enlightenment doctrine of his day and age. He let slip the simple fact that the Law has two natures, which must always be observed together: the Law is one part objective and one part subjective — it contains a Letter as well as a Spirit.
Some will say that Vere was only doing his duty to keep open rebellion and mutiny from occurring on his ship. Yet he is fortunate that no such mutiny arose following his cynical judgment upon Billy. Billy Budd was a sailor beloved of all who met him. That Vere judged him guilty should have provoked the crew to judge Vere unfit for command — such would have been fitting. But the crew followed Vere in his sorry example of upholding the Law. Vere did not uphold the Law. He upheld a Letter — just as the ancient Pharisees would have done to the God they denied — a man of as much goodness and truth as Billy Budd.
"Vere suppresses conscience and dismisses pity"
"Letter kills; Spirit gives life — Vere inverts this"
I believe Vere will be defended for having followed the Law despite his love for Billy. But my vote would go against Vere — for exactly that reason: yes, he followed the Letter of the Law. But he ignored the Spirit — the Spirit that makes every nation great and every man good. Herman Melville's novella ultimately indicts Vere not for his adherence to duty, but for his willingness to sentence the very Spirit of justice to death along with Billy Budd.
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