Description

A letter from John Quincy Adams acknowledging a letter from March 24 from the Amistad Committee (Tappan, Leavitt, and Jocelyn). In his letter, Adams writes that he has considered the Committee's proposal that he write to Lord Palmerston regarding the Amistad Case and address "the abusive collusions of the Colonial Authorities with the Slave traders in the Island of Cuba," a statement by Antonio G. Vega, Spanish Vice Consul at Boston, the bearing of the Amistad Case on the interests of Great Britain. Adams states that there has been ongoing negotiations between the United States and Great Britain about the slave trade and that any correspondence by Adams to Palmerston may be regarded as interference in those negotiations. Adams directs the Committee to "the voluminous correspondence relating to the Slave trade" published by the British Parliament and says that "the slightest glance over almost any part of that correspondence would convince you, that there have long been floods of evidence before the British government, of the practices not only of the Colonial authorities in Cuba, but of all Spanish and Portuguese to say nothing of other authorities to uphold, while professing to put down the African Slave Trade." Adams would rejoice at the institution of suits for the unlawful arrest and false imprisonment of the Africans, which could lead to a review of the District, Circuit, and Supreme Courts "so as to harmonize with that final decision of the highest Court which pronounced the Africans free." He discusses the question...

From Collection

Slavery and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Amistad Case

Record Contributed By

Amistad Research Center