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Here it is plain that the vessel was in the hands of the Africans, it was not under the Spanish flag, they were at peace with the United States, their voyage is lawful, the personal relations established among the persons on board were that the Africans were masters and the Spaniards captives, subjects;-perhaps by the laws of Mendi they were slaves. So much for the resolutions, which the Secretary of State says coincide "with principles which the President considers as founded in law and justice," but which does not alter "the determination he found himself obliged to make on the reclamation" made for the Amistad "and the property found on board of her."

I will now make a few observations on the passport, or permit, as it has been called, which is relied on as of authority sufficient to bind this Court and Government to deliver up my clients irrevocably as slaves, on a claim of property by Ruiz and Montes.* Here we have what appears to be a blank passport, filled up with forty-nine Spanish names of persons, who are described as ladinos, and as being the property of Don José Ruiz. Now, this on the face of it is an imposture. It is not a passport, that can be inspected as such by this Court, or by any tribunal. It appears on the face of it to be a passport designed for one person, a man, as there are blanks in the margin, to be filled up with a description of the person, as to his height, age, complexion, hair, forehead

*It is thought best to give a copy of this celebrated passport, as it appears in the Congressional Documents, with the exception that the interpolate word negroes is omitted, and the portions of the paper which were in writing are printed in italics. It will be seen that the signatures of the Captain General, of which so much was made, was printed!

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| Filacion. | N. HABANA, 26 de Junio, de 1839 |
| Estatura - - Edad - - Color - - Pelo - - - Frente - - Cejas - - - Ojos - - - Nariz - - - Boca - - - Barba Senales particulares | Concedo licencia a cuerenta y nueva ladinos nombrados Antonio, Simon, Lucas José, Pedro, Martin, Manuel, Andres, Eduardo, Celedonio, Bartolo, Ramon, Agustin, Evaristo, Casimiro, Melchor, Gabriel, Santorion, Escolastico, Pascual, Estanislao, Desiderio, Nicolas, Esteban, Tomas, Cosme, Luis, Bartolo, Julian, Frederico, Salustiano, Ladislao, Celestino, Epifaneo, Tibureo, Venancio, Felipe, Francisco, Hipolito, Benito, Ysidoro, Vicente, Dionisio, Apoloneo, Esequiel, Leon, Julio, Hiplito, y Zenon, de la propriedad de Don José Ruiz, para que pasen à Puerto Principe por mar, debiendo, presentarse con esta al juez territorial respectivo. |

Derechos do real es-una rubrica.] ESPELETA.
Commandancia de Matriculas.
Pasan en la goleta Amistad à la Guanaja, patron Ferrer.
MARTINEZ.
Habana, y Junio 27, de 1839.

eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, beard, and particular marks. This particular description of the person is the very essence of a passport, as it is designed to identify the individual by the conformity of his person to the marks given; and a passport is nothing, and is good for nothing, if it does not accord with the marks given. The man who presents it must show by this accordance that he is the person named. Every body who has ever had occasion to use passports knows this. We are not in the habit of using passports in this country; you may go through the country from State to State, freely, without any passport or to show who and what you are and what is your business. But throughout the continent of Europe, passports are everywhere necessary. At every town you show your passport to a public officer, who instantly compares your person with the description, and if it corresponds, you proceed, but if the description varies from the reality, you cannot pass. That is the nature of a passport. It says, let the person who bears these marks pass the custom-house, or the guard, as the case may be. And its validity depends on the accuracy of the description.

I once had occasion, many years ago, to see the operation of these things in a very remarkable case. I was a passenger in a merchant vessel, bound to the north of Europe. In passing through the Sound, at Elsinore, we were arrested by a British squadron, who brought us to, and sent a lieutenant on board to examine our crew. He ordered all the men to be mustered on deck, and the captain had no alternative but to comply. It was a most mortifying scene to an American. Every American seaman was obliged to show his protection, the same thing at sea as a passport on the land, to secure him from impressment by British cruisers. The officer examined every man carefully, to see whether his person corresponded with the description in his protection. He finally found one young man, who was a native of Charlestown, Massachusetts, within ten miles of where I was born; but his description was not correct, whether through the blunder of the man who wrote it, or because he had taken another man's protection, I do not know, but the officer said he had a good mind to take him, and if I had not been on board, as the bearer of a public commission in the service of the Government, I have no doubt that the man would have been taken, and compelled to serve on board a British man of war, solely for the want of correspon-