“I derive consolation from the thought that this Court is a Court of JUSTICE.  And in saying so very trivial a thing I should not on any other occasion, perhaps, be warranted in asking the Court to consider what justice is.  Justice, as defined in the Institutes of Justinian, nearly 2000 years ago, and as is felt and understood by all who understand human relations and human rights, is – ‘The constant and perpetual will to secure to every one HIS OWN right.’   … When I say I derive consolation from the consideration that I stand before a Court of Justice, I am obliged to take this ground, because, as I shall show, another Department of the Government of the United States has taken, with reference to this case, the ground of utter injustice   … The charge I make against the present Executive administration is that in all their proceedings relating to these unfortunate men, instead of that Justice, which they were bound not less than this honorable Court itself to observe, they have substituted Sympathy! – sympathy with one of the parties in this conflict of justice, and antipathy to the other.  Sympathy with the white, antipathy to the black … It is but too true that the same spirit of sympathy and antipathy has nearly pervaded the whole nation, and it is against them that I am in duty bound to call upon this Court to restrain itself in the sacred name of JUSTICE.  …”

John Quincy Adams