What a triumph! At the close of it, the moral conqueror exclaimed, 'God be praised; the seals are broken, the door is open.'" [Footnote: Rev.S.J.May.] If anything were wanting to crown the fame of Mr.Adams, in the Last days of life, with imperishable honor, or to add, if possible, new brilliancy to the beams of his setting sun, it is found in his advocacy of the freedom of the Amistad slaves.
A ship-load of negroes had been stolen from Africa, contrary to the law of nations, of humanity and of God, and surreptitiously smuggled, in the night, into the Island of Cuba.

This act was piracy, according to the law of Spain, and of all Governments in Christendom, and the perpetrators thereof, had they been detected, would have been punished with death.
Immediately after the landing of these unfortunate Africans, about thirty-six of them were purchased of the slave-pirates, by two Spaniards named Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes, who shipped them for Guanaja, Cuba, in the schooner "Amistad." When three days out from Havana, the Africans rose, killed the captain and crew, and took possession of the vessel--sparing the lives of their purchaser's, Ruiz and Montes.

This transaction was unquestionably justifiable on the part of the negroes.
They had been stolen from their native land--had fallen into the hands of pirates and robbers, and reduced to abject slavery.

According to the first law of nature--the law of self-defence--implanted in the bosom of every human being by the Creator, they were justified in taking any measures necessary to restore them to the enjoyment of that freedom which was theirs by birthright.
The negroes being unable to manage the schooner, compelled Ruiz and Montes to navigate her, and directed them to shape her course for Africa; for it was their design to return to their native land.

But they were deceived by the two Spaniards, who brought the schooner to the coast of the United States, where she was taken possession of by Lieut.