The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-09-21
From the New York American.
Schooner Amistad.

The questions arising from the capture of this
vessel are assuming a degree of Importance tina
seems to demand some notice of them from the
press.
Under first representations or Impressions tina
the revolted crew were legally held as aaveS, anc
that, being such, they had risen and murdered the
master and crew of the vessel, it seemed TO be a
pretty general opinion, that demand for them
would be made by the Spanish authorities, to
which this Government could not do otherwise
than accece. For, inasmuch as our own laws rec
ognze property in slaves, and consequently pun.
ish crime committed by them, even for the recove-
ry their liberty, it does not appear how we could
avoid recognizing the right of another nation to
consider and treat Slaves, and their crimes, after
the same fashion.
I Built would now seem, from the admissions of
the white survivors Of the AmiStad, that the blacks
on board acere not slaves, by the Spanish laws
E@but, on the contrary, had been feoniously taken
away from their own country, Africa, and in vio-
alton Of the Spanish laws, as we'll as the laws of
Heaven, had been surreptitiousy landed in Cuba,
and there held in duresS till they could be sold as
Slaves.
| If at any period before their being landed in
Cuba the vessel having them on board had been
fallen in with by British Spanish cruiser, they
who are now held by the authorities ofthis Repub-
lie as pirates would have been considered Snjur-
ed treemen, and the whites who had stolen them
would have been hanged as pirates.
In like manner after their landing in Cuba, if
the laws of Spain had been enforced, these blacks
could not have been treated or sold as Slaves
and their captors who struggled them on shore,
must have been treated as felons.
If this be, as we apprehend it is, true state
ment of the case, the next and pregnant inquiry is
whether the act Of purchase by Signor Jose Ruiz
of men thus illegally transported to Cuba, could
alter their condition, and from much wronged u
injured reemen, convert them into hopeless slaves?
The answer to this inquiry does not seem doubt
full or difficult and then, if, as is inevitable, it
must be resolved in the negative, the light into
which we are 10 regard the black men of the Am
istad, who, to recover their freedom, destroyed
their oppressors, may be safely ascertalned, we
think by supposing, as writer in the Boston Cou-
rier has done, in this case If, instead of africans,
the revolters of the AmiStad were Englishmen, &
if, instead of Spaniard the master of the vessel
had been an Atgerine, and the An,iStad had been
brought into port of the United States, the En-
glishnen have risen upon the Algerine, put him
to death and recovered their liberty-what would
have been their reception in country born of Rev.
oution, and where life, liberty and the pursuits of
happiness, are declared to be the equal and inal-
ienable rights of all men?
Would the ringleader have been thrown into
irons and held as pirate, or have been welcomed
as hero, and carressed as worthy, even in land
of fireman. of particular honor, for that he prefer
red the chance of death to the prospect of slave
ry?
We leave our readers to make such answers to
these questions as their own hearts and judgments
will sanction.
Meanwhile, will some jurist among our friends
inform u.s. and, through our columns, many other
persons who are in doubt on the subject, by what
authority and for what special offence, the black
men of the Amistad are detained in custody of
the United States Marshal And whether any
United States Court can have jurisdiction in the
case, even if the crime had been committed?
We ask sincerely for we want the information.