Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-01-08
HISTORY OF THE AMISTAD CASE.

As an attempt is now being made by some of
the leading democrats in the United States Sem
ate to pay Spain for the Amistad negroes, the
following letter from Lewis Tappan, giving a
history of the case and exposing the fallacy of
the claim, will be read with interest, more es-
pecially by those whose personal recollection of
political matters does not date back to the time
when these negroes were declared free;
To the Editors Of the Erening Post:
For the information of members of the pres
ent Congress, many of whom were not CONVEX
SAINT with the proceedings in the case of the
Africans of the Spanish schooner Amistad, will
you insert the following particulars:
l. Fifty-four recently imported negroes, held
as slaves in Havana, were purchased there by
two Spaniards, Messrs Ruiz and Montez, and
shipped on board the schooner Ell Amistad to
Principe, about one hundred leagues distant, on
tho Ieland af Cuba
| 2. After being four days out the negroes rose,
in the night killed the captain and cook, placed
Montez who had been a sea captain at the
helm. requiring him to steer the ship for Africa,
and confined Ruiz below
3. Montez steered eastwardly in the day.
time, because the negroes could tell his course
by the sun, but put the vessel about in the night
They boxed about some DAYS in the Bahama
channel and at length came near the coast of
the United States.
4. In August, 1889, the Amistad was near
the shore at Culloden Point on the east end of
Long Island, where part of the crew came on
shore for water and fresh provisions, for which
they paid hberally.
3. On the 26th August, the vessel was espied
by Captain Gedney, U. S. N, in command of
the brig Washington, employed on the Coast
Survey, who dispatched an officer to board her.
Montez and Ruiz announced themselves as
owners of the negroes, and claimed Captain
Gedney's protection He took possession, and
carried the schooner into the port of New Lon
don.
6. The Judge of the United States District
Court Uudson) and the United States Marshal
were sent for by express. A hurried examina-
ton was held on board the Washington, at
which the two Spaniards and the cabin boy An
tonic, creole negro, were examined on oath as
to the facts in the case.
I. No person appeared on behalf of the AZ
ricans; the Judge had no communication with
manning alive, thirty-eight in number, were com
mitted for trial for "murder on the high seas"
The cabin boy, Antonio, and four children,
three girls and one boy, native Africans, were
committed as witnesses. The whole were then
transferred to the jail at New Haven. Montez
and Ruiz went at large.
s. A few friends of freedom met in the city
of New York, and appointed S. S. Jocelyn, JOSH
ua Leavitt and Lewis Tappan, committee to
secure donations, employ counsel, and act 9TH
erwise as circumstances might require.
8. The committee Immediately announced
their appointment, appealed to the public for
funds, employed as counsel Seth p. Staples,
Roger S. Baldwin and Theodore Sedgwiok, Es-
quires, and after repeated inquiries, found an
interpreter-a native African-who was able to
converse with some of the prisoners.
10. On request of the committee at New
York, Rev. Leonard Bacon, Rev. II. G. Ludlow
and Amos Townshend, Jr., of New Haven con-
sented to act as the committee to take measures
for giving intellectual and religious instruction
to those benighted pagans.
IL. The prisoners were taken to Hartford,
September, 1889, where Judge Thompson, of
the Circuit Court, charged the Grand Jury that
the "court has no jurisdiction of the offence
if it was an ohence-committed on board
Spanish vessel on the high seas" He, howev-
er, denied the motion for the discharge of the
Africans, and left the matter IN litigation in the
District Court, subject to appeal
H. The District Judge directed an inquiry to
ascertain where the seizure wns made, &t,., &r.,
and the prisoners were remanded to jail at New
Haven. Afterwards the court found, in sub
stance, that these Africans, when seized were
in the condition of freemen; that they were
born free; that they had been kidnapped in
their native country, and forcibly and unlawful
ly transported to Cuba that they were wrong
fully and fraudulently put on board the schoon-
er Amistad by Ruiz and Montez; that after
achieving their own deliverenoe they sought an
asylum in the State of New York, by the laws
of which they were free; and that while here
they were illegally seized by Lieut.. Gedney, and
brought into the district of Connecticut. The
court decreed that the Africans should be deliy-
ed to the Executive to be sent back to Africa.
13. The Attorney of the United States, on
behalf of the United States, entered an appeal,
''claiming in pursuance of demand made upon
them by the minister of the Queen of Spain,"
&c.
IA. The case was argued before the Supreme
Court of the United States by Hon. X. S. Bald
win and Hon. John Quincy Adams. The Court