View Document Frames
"Southern Reaction to Abolitionists' Interest in Amistad," Richmond
Enquirer, Sept. 10, 1839, p. 3.
The Amistad
The Northern prints are full of articles upon this subject. The flood gates of discussion
are thrown open, and almost every press in New York, Philadelphia and Boston are
teeming with Essays upon it.--The pestilent Abolitionists have seized upon it at
once as the means of raising capital for their association. The "Freeman"
of Philadelphia has cried up Joseph Cinquez (the African, whose dull sulky portrait
graces one of the daily New York papers.) as a sort of hero, and a "master spirit"--and
Jocelyn, Leavitt, and Lewis Tappan have leaped into the arena, and addressed the
following card to the people of New York:.
"Appeal to the Friends of Liberty--Thirty-eight fellow men from Africa,
after having been piratically kidnapped from their native land, transported across
the seas, and subjected to atrocious cruelties, have been thrown upon our shores,
and are now incarcerated in jail to await their trial for crimes alleged by their
oppressors to have been committed by them. They are ignorant of our language, of
the usages of civilized society, and the obligations of Christianity. Under these
circumstances, several friends of human rights have met to consult upon the case
of these unfortunate men, and have appointed the undersigned a committee to employ
interpreters, able counsel, and take all necessary means to secure the rights of
the accused. It is intended to employ three legal gentlemen of distinguished abilities,
and to incur other needful expenses. The poor prisoners being destitute of clothing,
and several having scarcely a rag to cover them, immediate steps will be taken to
provide what may be necessary. The undersigned, therefore, makes this appeal to the
friends of humanity to contribute for the above objects. Donations may be sent to
either of the Committee, who will acknowledge the same, and make a public report
of their disbursements:
SIMEON S JOCELYN, 34 Wall st.
JOSHUA LEAVITT, 143 Nassau st.
LEWIS TAPPAN, 122 Pearl st.
New York, Sept. 4, 1839
Leavitt has visited them in person, and published the result.--Messrs. Choate of
Boston, Baldwin of New Haven, Staples of New York, and Paul Brown of Philadelphia,
have been engaged as Counsel, in behalf of the prisoners.
Various questions have been started, under the laws of Congress, and the laws of
Nations. The Ultra friends of the prisoners hold, that they can be convicted of no
crime under our laws; that they cannot be surrendered to the claimants as slaves,
nor to the Spanish Government, to be disposed of according to their laws--that according
to the treaty of Spain with Great Britain, these people could not be held as slaves;
that if on the passage from Africa to Cuba, they had risen against the Captain, they
had the right to assert their liberty--that after their arrival in the Island, no
sale which could be made of them could change the character of the transaction, and
make them slaves--that they had the same right to rise upon their alleged masters,
who were carrying them to another part of the island; that they are therefore not
subject to punishment, nor to restitution to their masters, &c, &c.
The other, and we suspect the more correct opinion is, that these are questions,
which it is more becoming the Spanish Courts to decide--the act happening in their
own vessel, under their own laws--and that if it be conformable to the customs of
our own government, (Federal or State,) they had better be sent to Cuba, to await
the decision of their own tribunals--There is no danger, however, of the lack of
argument on this subject. We shall calmly wait for further developments and lay the
best Essay before our readers, which we find published in other papers or written
for our own. (We ask light from our own jurists upon it.) As at present advised,
we concur with the following suggestion from the Globe:
"THE AMISTAD CASE.--The National Intelligencer's New York editorial aid, makes
it evident that the desperate party to which it belongs are already looking to the
case of the African murderers on board the Amistad, as one which is to feed the Abolition
excitement. It will doubtless become a new ligament between Federalism and Abolitionism.
The Intelligencer's man (Master Brooks) says:
"The principles involved in the seizure of the Africans,and capture of the schooner
Amistad, are likely to lead to a great deal of discussion. They will be defended,
I foresee, to the last, for some of the ablest counsel in New York and New England
are already engaged. Their trial, it is now believed, will come off in New York,
inasmuch as the capture was made in Suffolk county, in the Southern District of New
York. The newspapers are already advancing questions in one form and another, and
the probability is, that we will leave about as exciting a topic as has lately
inflamed this community."
The New York Evening Post, we are glad to see, takes a right view of one, at least,
of the questions involved. It says:
"It has struck us, on a hasty view of the case, that both the vessel and those
on board, upon a competent demand and ample proof on the part of the Spanish authorities,
must be delivered up."
