Amistad Quotes
Baldwin: [writing a letter to John Quincy Adams] To His Excellency, John Quincy Adams, Massachusetts member, House of Representatives. I have understood from Mr. Joadson that you are acquainted with the plight of the Amistad Africans. If that is true, then you are aware that we have been, at every step successful in our presentation of their case. Yet despite this and despite the unlikelihood of President Van Buren's re-election, he has appealed our most recent favorable decision to the highest court in the land. As I'm sure you are well aware, seven of nine of these Supreme Court justices are themselves Southern salve owners. Sir, we need you. If ever there was a time for a man to cast aside his daily trappings and array himself for battle, that time has come. Cicero once said, appealing to Claudius in defense of the Republic, that the whole result of this entire war depends on the life of one most brave and excellent man. In our time, in this instance, I believe it depends on two. A courageous man at present in irons in New Haven, named Cinque... and you sir. Sincerely Robert S. Baldwin, attorney-at law.
Movie: Amistad
Baldwin: [holds up a knife] Have you seen this before?
Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] I could kill you with my bare hands before you raise that sword.
Baldwin: This belongs to you? Does this? No, no. Umm, I need to know where you're from.
Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] I could kill you with my bare hands before you raise that sword.
Baldwin: This belongs to you? Does this? No, no. Umm, I need to know where you're from.
Movie: Amistad
John Quincy Adams: [to the court] James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington... John Adams. We've long resisted asking you for guidance. Perhaps we have feared in doing so, we might acknowledge that our individuality, which we so, so revere, is not entirely our own. Perhaps we've feared an... an appeal to you might be taken for weakness. But, we've 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 courage 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.
Movie: Amistad
Joseph Cinque: [in Mende] What kind of a land is this where you almost mean what you say? Where laws almost work?
Movie: Amistad
[the slave fortress in Sierra Leone is being bombarded from sea]
Captain Fitzgerald: Fire. Fire. Fire. Take a letter, Ensign. To His Honor, the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Forsyth. My dear Mr. Forsyth, it is my great pleasure to inform you that you are, in fact, correct. The slave fortress in Sierra Leone does not exist.
Captain Fitzgerald: Fire. Fire. Fire. Take a letter, Ensign. To His Honor, the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Forsyth. My dear Mr. Forsyth, it is my great pleasure to inform you that you are, in fact, correct. The slave fortress in Sierra Leone does not exist.
Movie: Amistad