View Document Frames
"Messrs. Staples and Sedgwick to the President, 13 September, 1839." U.S. Congress. House. Africans Taken in the Amistad. 26th Congress., 1st sess., 1840.H. Doc. 185.
Messrs. Staples and Sedgwick to the President of the United States.
NEW YORK, September 13, 1839.
SIR: We have been engaged as counsel of the Africans brought in by the Spanish vessel, the Amistad; and, in that capacity, take the liberty of addressing you this letter.
These Africans are now under indictment in the circuit court of the second circuit
on a charge of piracy, and their defence to this accusation must be established before
that tribunal. But we are given to understand, from authority not to be doubted,
that a demand has already been made upon the Federal Government, by the Spanish minister,
that these negroes be surrendered to the authorities of his country; and it is on
this account that we now address you.
We are also informed that these slaves are claimed under the 9th article of the treaty
of 1795, between this country and Spain, by which all ships and merchandise rescued
out of the hands of pirates and robbers on the high seas are to be restored to the
true proprietor, upon due and sufficient proof.
[63]
We now apply to you, sir, for the purpose of requesting that no order may be made by the Executive until the facts necessary to authorize its interposition are established by the judicial authority in the ordinary course of justice. We submit that this is the true construction of the treaty; that it is not a mere matter of Executive discretion; but that, before the Government enforces the demand of the Spanish claimant, that demand must be substantiated in a court of justice.
It appears to us manifest that the treaty could never have meant to have submitted
conflicting rights of property to mere official discretion, but that it was intended
to subject them to the same tribunals which, in all other cases, guard and maintain
our civil rights. Reference to the 7th article, in our opinion, will confirm this
position.
It will be recollected that, if we adopt this as the true construction of the treaty,
should any occasion ever arise when our citizens shall claim the benefit of this
section, Spain would be at liberty to give it the same interpretation; and that the
rights of our citizens will be subjected to the control of subordinate ministeria1
agents, without any of those safeguards which courts of justice present for the establishment
of truth and the maintenance of rights. We submit, further, that it never could be
intended that the Executive of the Union should be harassed by the investigation
of claims of this nature, and yet, assuredly, if the construction contended for be
correct, such must be the result; for, if he is to issue the order upon due
and sufficient proof, the proof must be sufficient to his mind.
We further submit that, in regard to the Executive, there are no rules of evidence
nor course of proceeding established; and that, in all such cases, unless the claimant
be directed to the courts of justice, the conduct of the affair must, of necessity,
be uncertain, vague, and not such as is calculated to inspire confidence in the public
or the parties. We can find nothing in the treaty to warrant the delivery of these
individuals as offenders; and the Executive of the Union has never thought itself
obliged, under the law of nations, to accede to demands of this nature.
These suggestions are of great force in this case, because we, with great confidence,
assert, that neither according to the law of this, nor that of their own country,
can the pretended owners of these Africans establish any legal title to them as slaves.
These negroes were, it is admitted, carried into Cuba, contrary to the provsions
of the treaty between Spain and Great Britain of 1817, and of the orders made in
conformity therewith; orders which have been repeated, at different times, to as
late a date as the 4th November, 1838, by which the trade is expressly prohibited;
and if they had been taken on board the slaver, they would have been unquestionably
emancipated.
They were bought by the present claimants, Messrs. Ruiz and Montes, either directly
from the slaver, or under circumstances which must, beyond doubt, have apprized them
that they were illegally introduced into the Havana; and on this state of facts we,
with great respect, insist that the purchasers of Africans illegally introduced into
the dependencies of a country which has prohibited the slave trade, and who make
the purchase with knowledge of this fact, can acquire no right. We put the matter
on the Spanish law; and we affirm that Messrs. Ruiz and Montes have no title, under
that law, to these Africans.
[64]
If this be so, then these negroes have only obeyed the dictates of self-defence.
They have liberated themselves from illegal restraint, and it is superfluous to say
that Messrs. Ruiz and Montes have no claim whatever under the treaty.
It is this question, sir, fraught with the deepest interest, that we pray you to submit for adjudication to the tribunals of the land. lt is this question that we pray may not be decided in the recesses of the cabinet, where these unfriended men can have no counsel and can produce no proof, but in the halls of Justice, with the safeguards that she throws around the unfriended and the oppressed.
And, sir, if you should not be satisfied with the considerations here presented, we then submit that we are contending for a right upon a construction of a treaty; that this point, at least, should be presented to the courts of justice; and, should you decide to grant an order surrendering these Africans, we beg that you will direct such notice of it to be given, as may enable us to test the question as we shall be advised, by habeas corpus or otherwise.
We have only, sir, to add, that we have perfect confidence that you will decide in this matter with a single regard to the interests of justice and the honor of the country, and that we are, with the greatest respect, your most obedient servants,
SETH P. STAPLES.
THEODORE SEDGWICK, JR.
MARTIN VAN BUREN, Esq.,
President of the United States.
