The appearance of John Quincy Adams in behalf of these Negroes before the Supreme Court of the United States February 24 and March 1, 1841, is in every way one of the most beautiful acts in American history.  In the fullness of years, with his own administration as President twelve years behind him, the “Old Man Eloquent” came once more to the tribunal that he knew so well to make a last plea for the needy and oppressed.  To the task he brought all his talents—­his profound knowledge of law, his unrivaled experience, and his impressive personality; and his argument covers 135 octavo pages.  He gave an extended analysis of the demand of the Spanish minister, who asked the President to do what he simply had no constitutional right to do.  “The President,” said Adams, “has no power to arrest either citizens or foreigners.  But even that power is almost insignificant compared with that of sending men beyond seas to deliver them up to a foreign government.”  The Secretary of State had “degraded the country, in the face of the whole civilized world, not only by allowing these demands to remain unanswered, but by proceeding, throughout the whole transaction, as if the Executive were earnestly desirous to comply with every one of the demands.”  The Spanish minister had naturally insisted in his demands because he had not been properly met at first.  The slave-trade was illegal by international agreement, and the only thing to do under the circumstances was to release the Negroes.  Adams closed his plea with a magnificent review of his career and of the labors of the distinguished jurists he had known in the court for nearly forty years, and be it recorded wherever the name of Justice is spoken, he won his case.

Lewis Tappan now accompanied the Africans on a tour through the states to raise money for their passage home.  The first meeting was in Boston.  Several members of the company interested the audience by their readings from the New Testament or by their descriptions of their own country and of the horrors of the voyage.  Cinque gave the impression of great dignity and of extraordinary ability; and Kali, a boy only eleven years of age, also attracted unusual attention.  Near the close of 1841, accompanied by five missionaries and teachers, the Africans set sail from New York, to make their way first to Sierra Leone and then to their own homes as well as they could.

While this whole incident of the Amistad was still engaging the interest of the public, there occurred another that also occasioned international friction and even more prolonged debate between the slavery and anti-slavery forces.  On October 25, 1841, the brig Creole, Captain Ensor, of Richmond, Va., sailed from Richmond and on October 27 from Hampton Roads, with a cargo of tobacco and one hundred and thirty slaves bound for New Orleans.  On the vessel also, aside from the crew, were the captain’s wife and child, and three or four passengers, who