John Adams: ...the test ahead of us is an exceptionally difficult one.

Cinque:  We won’t be going in there alone…

Adams: Indeed not, no, we will have right on our side, we will have righteousness at our side…

Cinque: I meant my ancestors. I will call into the past, far into the beginning of time, and beg them to help me at the judgment. I will reach back and draw them into me. And they must come…for at this moment I am the whole reason they have existed at all.

Trial:

John Adams:     My colleague, and Mr. Baldwin, here, has argued the case in so able in so complete a manner and as to leave me scarcely with anything to say. However, why are we here? How is it that a simple plain property issue should now find itself so ennobled as to be argued before the Supreme Court of the United States of America? I mean do we fear the lower courts, which found so easily, have somehow missed the truth, it that it? Or, is it our great and consuming fear of civil war that has allowed us to heap symbolism upon a simple case that never asked for it. And now would have us disregard truth even as it stands before us, tall and proud, as men. The truth…and the truth has been driven from this case like a slave, to flock from court to court, wretched and destitute. And not by any great legal act on part of the opposition, I might add. But, with the long powerful arm of the executive office. Yea this is no mear property issue this is the most important case ever held before this court. But what it in fact concerns is the very nature of man…

        These um… these are transcriptions of letters written between our Secretary of State, John Forscide, and the Queen of Spain, Isabella II. And I ask that you accept their parasols as part of your deliberations. Thank you sir (speaking to the Bailiff). I would not touch on them now except to notice an acquits phrase, which is much repeated. The Queen again and again refers to our incompetent courts. And what I wonder would be more to her liking, huh? A court that finds against the Africans, I think not. And here’s the fine point of it…what her majesty wants is a court that behaves just like her court. The courts this eleven-year-old child plays with in her magical kingdom called Spain. A court that will do what it is told a court that can be toyed with like a doll. A court, as it happens, of witch our own president Martin Van Buren would be most proud.

        Thank you (to Mr. Baldwin for passing him documents). As, ahhh, this is a publication of the office of the president… it’s called the executive review. And I’m sure you’ll all read it, at least I’m sure the president hopes you’ll read it. This is a recent issue and there is a article in here written by a keen mind of the south. Who is my former vice president John Caulhon perhaps, could it be… Who asserts that:

"There has never existed a civilized part of society in which one segment didn’t thrive upon the labor of another. As far back as one chooses to look, to ancient times, to biblical times, history bares this out. In Eden, where only two were created, even there one was pronounced bonded to the another. Slavery has always been with us and is neither sinful, or immoral. Rather, as war and antagonism are the natural states of man so too slavery, as natural as it is inevitable."

        Now gentlemen I must say I differ with the keen minds of the south, and with our president who apparently shares their views. Offering that the natural state of mankind is instead, and I know this is a controversial idea, is freedom. Is freedom. And the proof is the lengths to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it once taken. He will break loose his chains, he will decimate his enemies, he will try, and try, and try against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home.

        Cinque would you stand up, if you would, so everyone can see you. This man is black; we can all see that. But can we also see as easily that which is equally true, that he is the only true hero in this room. Now if he were white he wouldn’t be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white, and his enslavers were British, he wouldn’t be able to stand so heavy the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him... The great authors of our time would fill books about him… His story would be told and retold in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it would know his name as well as they know of Patrick Henrys. Yet, if the south is right, what are we to do about that embarrassing, annoying document, the Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits? All men created equal, inalienable rights, life, liberty, and so on, and so fourth. What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion (ripping the executive review and dropping it on the prosecutions’ desk).

    The other night I was talking with my friend Cinque, he was over at my place, we were out in the greenhouse together. And he was explaining to me how when a member of the Mende, that’s his people, how when a member of the Mende encounters a situation where there appears no hope at all he invokes his ancestors…tradition. See the Mende believe that if one can summon the spirit of ones ancestors that they’ve never left, and the wisdom and strength they’ve fathered and inspired will come to his aid.

    James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams… (Long pause). We have long resisted asking you for guidance, perhaps we have feared in doing so we might acknowledge that our individuality, which we so revere, is not entirely our own. Perhaps we’ve feared an appeal to you might be taken for weakness. But, we have come to understand, finally, that this is not so. We understand now, we’ve been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding, that who we are is who we were. We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, ourselves. Give us the power to do what is right, and if it means civil war, then let it come. And when it does may it be finally the last battle of the American Revolution. That’s all I have to say.

-- John Adams, Amistad - the movie                   

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