Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-03-25
Mr. Adams on the AmiStad Case.
| am yours very truly,
LEWIS TAPPAN.
from the National MtcMgcncr

IRON thc N0ttGRdt IhtGth9CRcfr.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,, March 2, l847.
The question coming up on agreeing to pro-
posed appropriation for making indemnity to the
proprietors Of the Amistad (the Spanish vessel
which became two years ago the subject Of liti-
cation before the judicial tribunals Of the Uni
ted States.)
Mr.. Adams rose to address the House, and i'm
mediately there was general forsaIing CT the
more dist1nt seats Of the Hall, and the members
came Aocking from all sides to listen to the only
speech made by Mr.. Adams this session. His
voice though still feeble, was frmer in its tone
than it had been when he lately spoke few
words on resuming his seat.
The reporter was suffered to approach very
near to the venerable speaker, and took such
notes as he could.
When first heard Mr.. Adams was observing
that the Secretary Of State Gin letter from
him which had been read at the Clerks table in
relation to the claim of the Spanish Government)
must have been mistaken as to the facts Of the
case 1t was impossible he could have known
the merits of the case or he never would have
signed his name to such paper, He said the
Secretary must have been mistaken, because it
was not a fact that the Spanish Minister had et-
er demanded the negroes of the Amstad as slaves,
but as freemen-as they had been declared to be
by the Supreme Court of the United States In
consequence of which declaration they had been
discharged and sent back to their own country
as free. But, whether free or slaves, the Span
ish Minister never demanded them as slaves
What he demanded had been that the President
of the United States should not suffer the U.
S. Courts to notice the case but that the men
should be delivered up as assassins. Any one
who would look into the history of the case would
see this to be So When the Secretary of State
refused to deliver them up en- the ground CT their
not being slaves, the Spanish Minister disclaim-
ed having ever demanded them on that ground ;
he had demanded them not as slaves, but as as
sassins. He wanted to have them delivered up
to the Spanish Government, and sent to Havana
to be executed as murderers; in which case all
claim OF their owners to them as property must
have been forfeited. He wanted to have them
tried and executed for liberating themselves
Mr.. Adams insisted that there was not even
the shadow of pretence fer the Spanish de-
lnand of indemnify. These negroes were not
slaves; they never had been slaves. The Su-
preme Court pronounced them to be freemen :;
and as such, entitled to the value Of the vessel
which they had taken possession CT. And this,
after they had suffered two years Imprisonment
The Secretary Of State could not have been ac-
quainted with the facts, or he never would have
sanctioned the demand Of indemnity as a fair
claim on this Government.
1t was true, these men had been demanded by
Ruis and Montez, if there was any property in
the case. These men, after the negroes had
risen and libera4ed themselves by Staying the
captain, had deceived them by steering the ship,
not to the coast of Africa as the negroes suppos-
ed, but to the coast of America, so that she was
ultimately wrecked upon the beach of Long Is
land There the ship was taken possession of
by Lieut.. Gedney, in the United States naval SER
vice, and the men committed to llil RUS and
Montez were at once liberated, and demanded
the negroes as their property; but the Supreme
Court decided that they had no just claim and
directed the men to be liberated. The demand
CT the Spanish minister never looked to them as
slaves at all. 1t was the opinion Of the Secreta-
nv that his demand was fair, and ought to have
been complied with under the Sth and 9th or 10th
article CT our treaty with Spain, the negroes
must have been given up not as slaves, but as
criminals, and they would have been sent to Gu
ba and executed; so atthose who claimed to be
their owners must have lost their value entirely.
L nelf Clalm ndu OCCupltu CHe loupIcuc OOurI
for two weeks, and the court declared that these
negroes were the slaves of no man upon earth
Was the very extraordinary letter of the Sec
rotary of State, which had been read here, Civ
ing his opinion on the claim of these Spanish
slave-dealers, in opposition to the finding Of the
Supreme Court, to be law to the two Houses
of Congress If the question was yet to be de-
cided, let it be decided by the Congress of the
United States, and not by the opinion Of the Sec.
rotary Of State.
There had been a long correspondence be-
tween the Secretary and the Spanish Minister
and it was true that in the Supreme Court the
instructions of the Secretary of State to Capt
Gedney were considered The Spanish Minis
ter made one demand for these negroes, and the
District Attorney of Connecticut another, but
the Secretary of State had not demanded them
The ground of the Spanish Minister was. that
the Court could not take cognizance of the c,se
but that the President "by his gubern,toria
power" as President, should seize the ship and
send them to Cuba
And now this same Spanish Minister CAME
here and asked the people of the United Stlte
to pay $4,000 to the pretended proprietors o
these men, when he had, at the time, never de
manded them as property, but as assassins.-
Such a total perversiop of the whole subject new
er had been witnessed God forbid that an,