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"Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Holabird, 12th January, 1840: extracts." U.S. Congress. House. Africans Taken in the Amistad. 26th Congress., 1st sess., 1840.H. Doc. 185.
Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Holabird
[CONFIDENTIAL.]
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, January 12, 1840.
SIR: Your letter of the 11th instant has just been received. The order for the
delivery of the negroes of the Amistad is herewith returned, corrected agreeably
to your suggestion. With reference to the inquiry from the marshal, to which you
allude, I have to state, by direction of the President, that, if the decision of
the court is such as is anticipated, the order of the President is to be carried
into execution, unless an appeal shall actually have been interposed. You are not
to take it for granted that it will be interposed. And if, on the contrary, the decision
of the court is different, you are to take out an appeal, and allow things to remain
as they are until the appeal shall have been decided.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
JOHN FORSYTH.
W. S. HOLABIRD, Esq.,
Attorney U. S., for Dist. of Connecticut.
