A letter from William Jay acknowledging Lewis Tappan's letter from January 22, expressing his sorrow for Tappan's belief that the Supreme Court will surrender the Amistad Captives. Jay writes that such "judicial malfeasance" would present a "deeper shade" of his unfavorable view of human nature. He states that an effort will be made to induce the court to send the Amistad Captives to Africa rather than Cuba: "To liberate them would be a triumph to the abolitionists & a sore & bitter mortification to the slaveholders." Jay explains that to send them to Africa would be a disappointment to the abolitionists, a triumph to the colonizationists, and more acceptable to slaveholders. Jay goes on to write that there are many in the North who are neither abolitionists nor colonizationists who would be shocked at the murder of the Amistad Captives in Cuba but contented if they were returned to Africa. Jay believes such to be illegal but "far less wicked" and feels rather than surrender the captives, the court "may be induced to transport them." Jay asks whether it is best to trust them to the African or "Cuban Savages." Jay advises that counsel should "urge upon the Court the right of these men to their liberty & then rest their case" and that he would not oppose the proposal to send them to Africa. Jay also writes that he regrets hearing of Tappan's daughter's illness.