In 1865, the Governor of Jamaica, Edward Eyre suppressed an uprising know as the Morant Bay Rebellion. In 1866, back in England a committee was formed urging that Governor Eyre be tried for murder. The Jamaica Committee consisted of John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, and Herbert Spencer among others. A rival committee was also set up defending Eyre. It was composed of Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Charles Kingsley, Charles Dickens, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. According to Wikipedia Eyre was twice charged with murder, but the cases never proceeded. I'm not sure if these two committees ever met, but if they did, I would have liked to have heard that debate.
Here is a news story from the August 7, 1868 New York Times about the affair.
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