View Document Frames
"Mr. Holabird to Mr. Forsyth, 9th September, 1839." U.S. Congress. House. Africans Taken in the Amistad. 26th Congress., 1st sess., 1840.H. Doc. 185.
Mr. Holabird to Mr. Forsyth.
[EXTRACTS]
" HARTFORD, (CONN.) September 9, 1839.
" SIR: I wrote you a few days since on the subject
of the blacks taken on board the Spanish schooner 'Amistad.' Since then, I
have made a further examination of the law on the subject of the jurisdiction of
our courts, which has brought me fully to the conclusion that the courts neither
of this nor of any other district in the United States can take cognizance of any
offence they have committed, as the offence by them committed was done and committed
on board a vessel belonging exclusively to citizens of a foreign State, on the high
seas, and on and against subjects of a foreign State: and they (the blacks) not being
citizens of the United States, the vessel having a national character at the time
the offence was committed. I refer you to the case of the United States vs.
Palmer et al., 3 Wheat., p. 610; United States vs. Pirates, 5 Wheat.,
p. 195; and the more recent case of the United States vs. Henry Kessler, Baldwin,
C. C. Rep. 15.
" I would respectfully inquire, sir, whether there are no treaty stipulations
with the Government of Spain that would authorize our Government to deliver them
up to the Spanish authorities; and, if so, whether it could be done before our court
sits?"
