Description

Joshua Leavitt begins his letter with corrections to his previous reports on the Supreme Court case. He writes that he needs money and asks for seventy-five dollars, explaining that he provides his reports to the attorney general for examination and has not received Roger S. Baldwin's comments, "in regard to the filling out of his argument. The purely legal part, he can do better than I can probably or he has the authorities at his command." Leavitt acknowledges Lewis Tappan's letter from February 25, 1841, stating, "You are right, probably in part, about the effect of my unguarded remark with regard to the Mixed Commission, though not as to the results. Perhaps it would be well to address the [British Minister] & tell him that the Mixed Commission ought not to claim them, except in the settled alternative of their being as actually given up, [illegible] about to be given up to 'the vengeance of the barracoons.' If they can be protected & cleared by our laws, as they right to be, he ought to insist upon its being done." Leavitt further states, "I believe it is the first blunder I have made in the case, & I think this is neither very great nor irretrievable" and claims he will endeavor to complete the report of John Quincy Adams' speech before the Supreme Court after her returns home; however, the decision may be delayed.

From Collection

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

Record Contributed By

Amistad Research Center