Amistad Page #2

Give me your hand.

Oh, he requests, does he?

Yeah. I don't know

anyone called Tappan.

- Sir, you do. You've met him often.

- Where?

- Where is he?

- He's right over there, sir.

Oh.

- What is that?

- Where?

- Right there, sir.

Lewis! Good to see you again!

- And you, sir.

- This is Theodore Joadson.

- How do you do, sir?

- An honour to meet you, sir.

- Yeah.

- Sir? Is there somewhere...

- Let's stroll in the garden...

- Yes.

- What?

Let go of my arm. Over here.

This case has

great significance.

Our secretary of state

is paying it his attention.

You don't have to shout!

He supports the Queen's

claim that she owns the Africans.

- Two sailors are making claims.

- What season is it?

- Pardon?

- I said, what season is it?

I don't understand what you mean.

There are two ways of knowing

without consulting a calendar.

The leaves on the maple trees

have all gone,

and the fact that the President is

not at home on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Tell me, sir...

Do you really think Van Buren

cares about the whims

of an 11-year-old girl

who wears a tiara?

I assure you, only one thing occupies

his thoughts this time of the year,

being all things to all people,

which means nothing to no one.

In other words,

gettin' himself re-elected.

Give me a hand.

Huh?

- Will you help us, sir?

- Let go of my arm.

Take my stick.

- Mr. Adams?

- Yeah, what?

As an advocate for the abolition

of slavery, will you help us?

I'm neither friend nor foe to the

abolitionist cause. I won't help you.

Sir...

- What?

- I know you, Mr. President.

I know you and your presidency as

well as any man, and your father's.

You were a child at his side

when he helped invent America.

You, in turn, have devoted your life

to refining that noble invention.

There remains but one task undone.

One vital task the Founding

Fathers left to their sons,

before their 13 colonies could

precisely be called United States.

And that task, sir, as you

well know, is crushing slavery.

Your record confirms you're an

abolitionist, sir, even if you won't.

- And whether or not you admit it...

- Mr. Joadson.

..you belong with us.

You're quite the scholar,

Mr. Joadson, aren't ya?

Quite the historian.

Let me tell you about

that quality, if I might.

Without an accompanying mastery of at

least one-tenth its measure of grace,

such erudition is worthless, sir.

Now, you take it from one who knows.

If you gentlemen will excuse me.

- We know we aimed high asking you...

- Well, aim lower!

Find yourselves someone

whose inspiration blossoms

the more you lose.

If the court

awards them to Spain,

they'll be taken to Cuba

and executed.

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