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ADDRESS 
 
 NEW-YORK YOUNG MEN S 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 
 
 TO THEIR FELLOW-CITIZENS, 
 
 N E W . Y O R K : 
 W. T. COOLIDGE & CO., 55 WALL-STKEET- 
 
 W. S. DORK, PRINTER- 
 
 1834. 
 

ADDRESS 
 
 Fellow-Citizens. 
 
 Fiftv-eight years have elapsed since our fatliers 
 declared to the world the great fundamental doctrme 
 of human freedom, that " all men are created equal, 
 that they are endowed by their Creator with certam 
 unalienable rii?hts; that among these are life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness.'^ Sincere in this de- 
 claration, they called God and the nations to witness 
 their truth ; no hypocrisy lurked in their hearts, and 
 their actions set the seal to then- professions. Scarcely 
 had the war of independence been concluded, ere the 
 citizens of the several states commenced a course 
 of action calculated to abolish slavery, the only re- 
 maining feature of that oppression which a foreign 
 yoke had imposed upon them. The immortal names 
 of Franklin and Rush are enrolled among the first 
 officers of the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania. In 
 New-York, names as illustrious were to be found m 
 the same cause.— Jay, King, and Hamilton, were men 
 Avho not only engaged in the contest for liberty during 
 the Revolution, but were active in every eifort to effect 
 the abolition of slavery after its conclusion, and the 
 writings of the sage of Monticello contain abundant 
 evidence of his strong aversion to slavery.* In Mas- 
 
 ♦ The foUowinK extract from Jefferson^s Notes on V.rgu.ia NviU sho^v whether tmie« 
 have improved since that ,.?reat man flourished. If Mr. Jefferson were now ahve and. 
 
sachusetts, the name of Sedgwick is as distinguished 
 for philanthropy towards the slave, as for genius, learn- 
 ing, and patriotism. 
 
 should venture such sentiments as these, is it probable that he would share a better 
 fate than has befallen every man who has of late had the courage and conscience to 
 plead the cause of the slave ? 
 
 " It is difficult to determine on the standard by which the manners of a nation may 
 he tried, whether catholic or particular. It is more difficult for a native to bring to 
 that standard the manners of his own nation, familiarized to him by habit. There 
 must doubtless he an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by 
 the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave 
 is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despo- 
 tism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see 
 this, and learn to imitate it ; for man is an imitative animal- This quality is the 
 germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning t» do 
 what he sees others do. If a parent could find no motive either in his philanthropy or 
 his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should 
 always be a sufficient one that his child is present. But generally it is not sufficient. 
 The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the Uneaments of wrath, puts on the 
 same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to his worst passions, and thus 
 nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with 
 odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and 
 morals undepravcd by such circumstances. And with what execration should the 
 statesman be loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the 
 rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the 
 morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the other. For if a slave can have a 
 country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to 
 live and labor for another; in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, con- 
 tribute as far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evanishment of the human 
 race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless generations p.-oceeding from 
 him. With the morals of the people their industry also is destroyed. For in a warm 
 climate no man will labor for himself who can make another labor for him. This is 
 eo true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen 
 to labor. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed 
 their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are 
 of the gift of God ? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath 1 Indeed, I 
 tremble for my country when I refect that God is just ; that his justice cannot sleep 
 forever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the 
 wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it may 
 become probable by supernatural interference ! The Almighty has no attribute vhich 
 can take side with us in such a contest. But it is impossible to be temperate and to 
 pursue this subject through the various considerations of policy, of morals, of history 
 natural and civil. We must be contented to hope they will force their way info every 
 one's mind. I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of the present 
 revolution. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave is rising from the 
 dust, hie condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of heaven, 
 for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed, in the order of events, to be with the 
 consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation." 
 
Opposition active and virulent, unprincipled and 
 persevering, it must be admitted, was excited then, as 
 well as now, not only by the avaricious and interested, 
 but by many who ought to have been guides in virtue. 
 
 But notwithstanding this opposition, the principles 
 of liberty triumphed in the northern and middle states, 
 and that they were advancing at the south until within 
 the last twenty years is susceptible of demonstration.* 
 They have, it is true, since that period been arrested 
 in their progress, but their foundation is in eternal 
 truth and in the very nature of the human mind. What 
 if a treacherous affectation of philanthropy have misled 
 the public ; discussion of the points at issue must result 
 in the triumph of truth, justice, and humanity. Indeed 
 whoever regards with attention the signs of the times, 
 whether in relation to our own political position, the 
 aspect of other nations, or the developments of pro- 
 
 * " In 1790, the free colored people were 20,415 in all the States south of the 
 Potomac and the Ohio. 
 
 Iq 1800, they had increased to 32,604, or at the rate of 60 per cent. 
 
 In 1810, they were 58,046, an increase of 78 per cent. 
 
 In 1820, they amounted to 77,040 ; which is an enlargement of only 32 per cent. 
 
 In 1830, the free colored people had increased to 112,708, which is an increase 
 of 45 per cent 
 
 So that by comparing the 26 years before the Colonization Society was insti. 
 tuted, with the 14 years subsequent to its establishment, it appears that there was 
 an average disproportion in the emancipation of slaves of 74 per cent, per annum 
 to 32 ; or in other words, that the number of slaves annually liberated before the 
 Colonization Society was formed, was at the rate of 7 to 3 emancipated since the 
 year 1816, 
 
 According to the previous enumerations and the advances of the free colored 
 people before the Colonization Society was formed, the free colored people in 
 1820, should have numbered 112,464 ; and in 1830, they should have increased to 
 244,000 : whereas in 1830, they only amounted to the number which they should 
 in ordinary course have attained in 1820." 
 
 We merely adduce these statistics without comment; leaving it to the reader 
 to decide what has been the practical effect of the Colonization scheme to which 
 so many of the friends of human rights have heretofore looked with the sincere 
 anticipation of good results. 
 
phecy, now on the eve of a glorious famiment, luusl 
 come to the conclusion that the time is at hand when 
 - the merchants of the earth" who have '' waxed rich" 
 in the accursed traffic, shall no longer trade in " slaves 
 and the souls of men."* 
 
 The watchword of liberty and right, caught from 
 \merica, was repeated with enthusiasm by the people 
 of Europe :— Tlie blood of our fellow-creatures, and the 
 treasures of empire have been lavished for the last 
 half-centurv, by the nations, to obtain the blessmgs we 
 enjoy To them America is the mornmg star of uni- 
 versal liberty. That the clouds of slavery should dim 
 her lustre, that the sounds of violence and T^'o should 
 ascend from these shores of the free, is cause of grief to 
 the friends of freedom in all lands. They grieve at our 
 dereliction of the principles of our ancestors. Despo- 
 tism mocks at our boasted liberty, and brands with 
 hypocrisy our professions of freedom and republicanism. 
 ^ It is for us as Americans to wipe from the escutcheon 
 of our country the only blot that stains it, to prove the 
 sincerity of our principles, to establish not only our 
 patriotism in giving liberty, the birth right of an Ameri- 
 can to more than two millions of our own country- 
 men in bondage, but to prove our philanthropy and 
 religion, by delivering the poor and needy, by loosing 
 the bands' of wickedness, by undoing the heavy bur- 
 dens, by breaking every yoke, and by letting tlie op- 
 pressed go free, t 
 
 We contemplate a resort to no measures but tliose 
 of argument and truth; and in the exercise of the 
 
 t LctTrv Christ.an read and ponder the fifty-e.gluh chapter of Isaiah, if he 
 would Icana ihe Divine will concerning oppression, and the Divine indignation 
 against that kind of piety which is indifferent towards it. 
 
constitutional privileges of freedom of speech and free- 
 dom of the press, we helieve that the light of truth may 
 be so diffused as to destroy sLavery, a system which 
 loves darkness because its deeds are evil. 
 
 In discussing this subject, we purpose to prove- 
 First, That slavery is a national evil, and requires 
 to some extent a national remedy. 
 
 Second, To show the true character of slavery as 
 it exists in the United States, and 
 
 Third, To propose and vindicate the remedy, viz : 
 Immediate Emancipation, as enforced alike by expe- 
 diency and duty. 
 
 Fuit. Slavery is a national evil, and requires to 
 some extent a national remedy. 
 
 If slavery were a mere local abuse of one of the 
 states of this Union, affecting only its own interests, 
 and capable of being controlled by its own authority, 
 it might, at least with some show of propriety, be 
 urged'' that the interference of the citizens of another 
 state were gratuitous and improper. But slavery is 
 not only degrading to our character abroad as a nation, 
 it is the great cancer of this Union, corrupting the 
 moral, social, and political sympathies of the country, 
 gnawing at the very heart of its welfare, threatening 
 hi different forms immediate disunion and anarchy,* and 
 laying the foundation of an ultimate separation of in- 
 terests, deep in the very nature of things. 
 
 Slavery is then a national concern m its nature and 
 tendencies, but it is also sanctioned directly by Congress 
 in the District of Columbia, and in the territories under 
 the control of Congress. To remove slavery from these 
 
 * Witness the Nullification of South Carolina, of which slavery, and not the 
 TarilT, was confessedly the true carco. 
 
8 
 
 portions of our country the national legislature is alone 
 adequate, as they are entirely under the control of 
 Congress in every respect. Every citizen of the United 
 States is then equally interested and equally repre- 
 sented in a government which sustains and perpetuates 
 this enormous violation of those natural rights, the very 
 foundation of all law, the protection of which gives to 
 governments the only just authority over their subjects. 
 Any law w hich violates the great principles of natural 
 justice is essentially null and void, can be enforced only 
 by violence, and contains within itself the elements 
 of its own dissolution.* Our own happy government 
 has been agitated to its foundations by disputes which, 
 wliatever may be their form, have their substance in 
 slavery only. But passing over that succession of 
 measures by which the slave-holding interests have 
 uniformly thwarted and crippled the industry of the 
 northern and middle states, we contemplate with grief 
 the crisis which must arrive in a confederated govern- 
 ment, continually agitated by deeply opposed interest* 
 of free and slave labor. Discontent, extravagance, and 
 impoverishment, every wdiere prevail in slave-countries. 
 The nominal wealth of the master, in the persons 
 of his slaves, is no permanent source of support to his 
 family, but on the contrary increases his care in providing 
 for them, while the purchase money of the slave absorbs 
 capital which might be much more profitably invested. 
 Nothing is more certain, both in theory and fact, than 
 that slavery is a cause of national poverty. It con- 
 
 *"We hold these truths to be self-evident: — that all men are created equal, 
 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights : that among 
 thcBc are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights 
 governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
 governed." — [ Declaration of Independence-] 
 
verts the sinews of industry into the causes of want. 
 The laborer, by this system is hardly worth his own 
 support; while his voluntary toil would enrich both 
 himself and his master. A deep seated hostility against 
 the free is often engendered among slave-holders, 
 which no concessions can assuage. It bursts forth, 
 after every attempt to suppress it, with accunuilated 
 energy ; the only effectual remedy for this evil being 
 the establishment of a homogeneous interest, throughout 
 this great nation, by the suppression of slavery. The 
 emancipation of the slave, the elevation of oppressed 
 humanity, and the increased productions of rewarded 
 industry, are the proper and only remedies for the evils 
 of this system. 
 
 2d. Again, the evil of slavery is national, because 
 the internal or domestic slave-trade, now carried on to 
 an incredible extent, depends absolutely upon the 
 authority of the general government.* The first article 
 
 * The following opinions of the Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, on the Constitutional 
 power of Congress to abolish the slave-trade between the states, as well as slavery 
 in the District of Columbia, are extracted from a communication in the N. Y. Evan- 
 gehst of Oct. IS, 1834, under his own signature. We are pleased to find that the sen- 
 timents of this distinguished gentleman on this most important subject of national 
 welfare, are exactly in unison with those expressed in the Declaration of the Anti- 
 Slavery Convention held in Philadelphia in Dec. 1833. In proof of which we will extract 
 a few sentences from that document, on the subject in question: "We fully and 
 unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each state, to legislate exclusively on the 
 subject of the slavery which is tolerated within its limits ; we concede that Congress, 
 under the present national compact, has no right to interfere with any of the slave 
 states in relation to this momentous subject ; but we maintain that Congress has a 
 right, and is solemnly bound, to suppress the domestic slave-trade between tlie several 
 states, and to abolish slavery in those portions of our territory which thcCon.«titution 
 has placed under its exclusive jurisdiction." 
 
 Mr. Breckenridge, in the communication alluded to, says : — 
 
 " I have continually held that this whole nation and world are bound to use all 
 lawful means to put an end to slavery every where upon earth ; and that to do this 
 we are all bound to us(! legal means where they exist, and moral means always. 
 
 That the Congress of the United States lias power to abolish slavery in the District 
 
 of Columbia, no reasonable man can doubt ; that this power should be exercised 
 
 without delay, every humane man ought to admit. But that Congress possesses the 
 
 power to abolish the domestic slave trade under that clause of the Federal Constitution 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 (sect. 8,) of the Constitution declares that *' Congress 
 shall have power to regulate commerce vv ith foreign 
 nations and among the several states.'' The power to 
 abolish both the foreign and domestic traffic in slaves 
 is then derived from the same authority, and placed by 
 this article on precisely the same footing. By virtue 
 of this authority, Congress did abolish the foreign 
 
 which (section viij, of art. 1,) confers authority to regulate cormnerce among the several 
 States, I have never asserted; nor do I now assert it, nor yet deny it. I firmly be- 
 lieve, however, that the ix. section of article 1, which is in these words, 'The migra- 
 tion or importation of such persons, as any of the states now existing shall think 
 proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior io the year 1808,' does 
 expressly allow Congress to regulate, and if need be, prohibit, both impovtation from 
 foreign countries, and emigration from state to state, of the persons intended in these 
 words. Moreover, I consider that Congress has wisely and repeatedly in substance 
 exercised these powers ; and I am ready to vindicate and uphold, as far as one man 
 may, the future exercise of the same beneficent authority ; since I am fully convinced 
 nothing would niorc efedually tend to sap the foundation of slarenj iit several of the 
 slave states. 
 
 It is clear to my mind, that each state has exclusive power to say whether or not 
 slavery may continue in its borders ; yet it is equally clear that each state for itself, 
 and CongTess for them all, has power to prevent the emigration and importation 
 of slaves — or of any other persons, not being citizens of the state whence they 
 migrate. 
 
 So also, while no person, not a citizen in one state, has a right to set up any claim 
 in another state, except under the le.r loci of the latter ; yet the third section of the 
 iv. article expressly say.", that ' The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the 
 privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.' So that all laws that 
 bear distindiveli/ and harshly on the free people of color, are void as to those already 
 citizens of any state ; and may be made void as to all of them, by their all becoming 
 entitled to citizenship, under the lex loci, in any state of this Union." 
 
 We quote the above remarks with great pleasure, and while we agree fully as to the 
 result of this gentleman's argument, we must observe, that his reasoning from the 
 prohibitory section (9, of article 1,) appears to us defective. The prohibition of Congress 
 from exercising a certain power previous to 1S08, in itself confers no power, even after 
 that period, but implies as strongly as it is possible directly to express any idea, that 
 without such temporary prohibition, Congress would immediately possess this power. 
 Hence wc infer that agreeably to the intention of the original framers of the Consti- 
 tution, Congress does possess exclusive power to regulate trade among the several 
 states, and that the trade in the souls of men cannot by any rule of interpretation be 
 excepted. But this power to abrogate the domestic slave-trade is certainly derived 
 from the article which gives to Congress the right of regulating commerce among the 
 several states, and as certainly not from the article prohibiting this action of Congress 
 previous to 1808. Although this prohibitory article implies that the Constitution 
 somewhere endows Congress with this power, and may be regarded as alluding toviii. 
 eection of article 1, and regulating its time of going into operation. 
 
11 
 
 traffic. Was this legislation in favor of humanity 1 or 
 was it in favor of the domestic trade, the market 
 of which would be overstocked by foreign importa- 
 tions 1 If the former was the object, why do not our 
 representatives abolish the domestic iniquity imme- 
 diately 1 Is it not an object sufficiently worthy of 
 Congress 1 Shall a traffic, abhorred by all men, be 
 permitted to tarnish the glory of our beloved country 1 
 Shall the bodies and souls of native Americans be 
 subject to purchase and sale under authority of the 
 general government ? 
 
 If then it is manifest that Congress alone is compe- 
 tent to legislate on the subject of the domestic slave- 
 trade, and the slavery of the District of Columbia and 
 the territories, it is certain that no power could resist 
 the will of the nation whenever that will shall be fully 
 and constitutionally expressed. 
 
 Let it, however, be remembered that we desire no 
 action of Congress in " regulating commerce among 
 the several states" calculated in any wise to interfere 
 with "the sovereignty of each state to legislate on the 
 subject of the slavery which is tolerated icithin its own 
 limits." * Yet while we respect the sovereignty of the 
 individual states, we deem it the duty of every Ameri- 
 can to vindicate the proper sovereignty of tlie national 
 government. 
 
 It may be asked what good result would follow, if this 
 measure could be carried into effect? would not slavery 
 still exist and exhibit all its liorrors ? No — certainly. 
 The prohibition of the domestic slave-trade would in 
 all probability destroy slavery. Already the most 
 northerly slave-states derive no other profit from the 
 
 * Declaration of" the National Anti-Slavery Convention. 
 
1^ 
 
 vsystem, than that wliich results from supplying the 
 southern markets. They would then very probably 
 emancipate, and thus add their influence to the cause 
 of righteousness and of liberty. 
 
 3d. Slavery interferes with and annuls the rights 
 of citizens as guarantied by the Constitution. In the 
 second section of the Constitution (article 4,) it is said 
 " The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the 
 privileges and immunities of citizens of the several 
 states." But in the face of this express article, laws 
 exist in almost every slave-state by which free colored 
 citizens of the northern states may be, and actually 
 are, taken up and imprisoned as runaways, and if not 
 claimed, are sold for jail fees into perpetual slavery. — 
 This horrid outrage is habitually practised in the United 
 States prison in the District of Columbia and through- 
 out the whole south.* Where, we ask, is the majesty 
 
 * " On the 1st of August, 1826, a notice appeared in the National IntelHgencer at 
 Washington, from the Marshal of the D. of C, that a negro named Gilbert Horton, 
 and claiming to be free, had been committed to jail in Washington city as a runaway, 
 and unless his oicner proved property, and took, him away by a certain time, the negro 
 would be sold \for his jail fees and other expenses, as the law directs.' Horton was a 
 native of Westchester Co. N. Y., and known there to be free. A pubhc meeting of the 
 inhabitants of the county was called, to take measures for his liberation. The meeting 
 was held 30th August, 1826, and aseriesof resolutions were unanimously adopted; one 
 of them calling on the Governor to demand the instant hberation of Horton as a free 
 citizen of the State of New-York. Two of the resolutions were as follows : 
 
 " Resolved, That the law under which Horton has been imprisoned, and by which 
 a free citizen without evidence of crime, and without trial by jury, may be condemned 
 to servitude for life, is repugnant to our republican institutions, and revolting to justice 
 and humanity ; and that the representatives from this State in Congress are requested 
 to use their endeavors to procure its repeal." 
 
 " Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare and present to the citizens 
 of this county for their signatures, a petition to Congress for the immediate abolition 
 of Slavery in the District of Columbia." 
 
 Governor De Witt Clinton, in compliancewith the request of the meeting, wrote to the 
 President of the United States, forwarding evidence of Horton's freedom, and requiring 
 his immediate liberation "as a free man and a citizen." Horton was released before 
 the receipt of the Governor's letter. The Westchester petition was signed by 800 
 and presented to the House of Representatives. 
 
 In December, 1826, Mr. W^ard, representative in Congress from Westchester, Intro- 
 
13 
 
 of a state, whose feeblest citizen iinds no protection 
 from violence and outrage? Where the Christianity 
 of a country, whose churches are dead to the cries 
 of the poor and tlie needy 1 
 
 What renders this more ii>sulting' to the northern 
 states, is the fact, that while this article of the Con- 
 stitution is trampled under foot, together with the 
 sacred right of citizenship, our southern brethren pay 
 particular respect to the claims of a i^W/isA^Mss, which 
 is sure to regain the liberty of any colored man thus 
 arrested, " to be sold for jail fees and other eiyenses, as 
 the law directs^ But our own citizens have not equal 
 advantages with foreigners ; fortified as their rights are 
 by express enactment of the Constitution. If the rights 
 of Americans cannot be preserved against such viola- 
 tions, the Constitution is already in ruins. It is too 
 late to sound the notes of warning, it were better to 
 
 duced a resolution calling on the committee for the District of Columbia to inquire 
 whether there was any law in the district authorizing the imprisonment of a free per- 
 son of color, and his sale as an unclaimed slave for h\s jail fees. The resolution was 
 adopted after much opposition by the southern members. The committee reported 
 that there was such a law, vindicated its general policy, but recommended that when 
 the arrested negro was unclaimed, he should not be sold, but that the county should 
 pay the cost of imprisonment. The people of Georgetown presented a remonstrance 
 against this proposition of the conmiittee. The law remained unchanged, and so re- 
 mains, it is believed, to this day. 
 
 On the 27th March, 1827, a petition was presented to Congress from 1000 citizens 
 of the D. of C, praying for a revisal of the slave laws, and an act declaring that all 
 children of slaves to be born in the District after the 4th of July, 1828, should be free 
 at the age of 25, and that the importation of slaves into the District might be prohibited. 
 From this petition, the following is an extract: viz. 
 
 "A colored man last summer, who stated that he was entitled to freedom, was taken 
 up as a runaway slave and lodged within the jail of Washington city. He was adver- 
 tised, but no one appearing to claim him, he was according to law put up at public 
 zmction for payment of his jail fees, and sold as a slave for life! He was purchased 
 by a slave trader, who was not required to give security for his remaining in the Dis- 
 trict, and he was soon after shipped from Alexandria for one of the southern states. 
 Thus was a human being sold into perpetual bondage, at the capital of the freest 
 government on earth, without even a pretence of a trial, or the allegation of a crime." 
 — [Extracted from Judge Jay's letter to Professor Wright, published in the American 
 Anti-Slavery Reporter, for May, 1834.] 
 
14 
 
 toll the knell of her dissolution. For what security is 
 there that the rights of any other class of citizens may 
 not be likevrise invaded with impunity ? While the 
 slave-holder so contemptuously tramples on the Con- 
 stitution in this respect, it is monstrous to Avitness his 
 tenacity in enforcing the claims which the Constitution 
 authorizes him to urge in the recovering of fugitives. Let 
 our own prisons in this city, whose cells, 7 feet by 3^ 
 and without ventilation, have been filled with these 
 unfortunate beings through the past season of pesti- 
 lence, bear witness ! Sure we are that the judgment 
 of the Almighty must overtake this nation if it do not 
 repent of these outrages. 
 
 The provisions of the Constitution fully and fairly 
 carried out, would cripple and destroy slavery, not- 
 withstar.ding the repugnant clause relative to fugitives, 
 and induce the vstates to banish every trace of it from 
 their statute books and from the land. Let this subject 
 be examined, and let the responsibility of every citizen 
 be felt, the prayer of every Christian ofifered, and the 
 effort of every lover of his country be put forth, to do 
 what can be done, for liberty and for our beloved land. 
 
 On this subject, a iz : the political question involved 
 in slavery, we would recommend and entreat our 
 fellow-citizens to petition Congress, for the abolition 
 of slavery in the District and Territories, and the 
 prohibition of all trade, in the bodies and souls of men, 
 between the several states. Farther than this we 
 wish no interference of Congress, but within these 
 limits, the Constitution authorizes, and we desire, its 
 action. 
 
 The moral effect of merely abolishing slavery in the 
 District of Columbia, placing as it would the national 
 
15 
 
 frown upon this criminal system, would undoubtedly 
 be such as to promote the progress of liberty through- 
 out the Union, and prove an essential means of re- 
 moving this stigma from the character — this curse on 
 the prosperity — this upas on the morals of our nation. 
 
 Second. We proceed to take a view of the true 
 character of slavery, as it exists in the United States. 
 
 Shavery is a system of compulsory, perpetual, lie- 
 reditary, unrequited toil. It is a state of bcin* into 
 which humanity has been reduced by violence, outrage 
 and robbery. A condition worse than that of the 
 brutes. Nature designed them for the service of man ! 
 and no violence is done to them in subjecting them to 
 that service. Brutes too are protected by law against 
 cruelty, and are not rendered liable to its penalty, but 
 the slave is an outlaw from the mercy, and a victim to 
 all the terrors of legislation. 
 
 There are seventy-one crimes recognized by the 
 slave-laws of the south, for which colored men suffer 
 death, and for which a white man would be liable to 
 no severer penalty than imprisonment in the peniten- 
 tiary.* 
 
 The testimony of a negro, whether bond or free, is 
 not received as evidence, except to criminate one of his 
 own color.t 
 
 Female virtue is not defended by the laws of the 
 slave states, in this Christian land ; while the pagan 
 laws of Rome and Greece authorized a female slave to 
 shed human blood in her own defence. J 
 
 * Vide Stroud's Sketch of the Laws relating to slavery in the several states 
 of the United States of America, Page 107. 
 
 t Idem. Page 27. ' 
 
 t A slave cannot even contract matrimony — the association which takes place 
 among slaves, and is called marriage, being properly designated by the word contu- 
 
16 
 
 As if the outrage were not sufficient for men profes- 
 sing the principles of universal liberty, to deny to the 
 poor and oppressed the inalienable right to their own 
 souls and bodies, Americans, by the most cold blooded 
 legislation, have put out the eyes of the mind, and 
 quenched the light of everlasting life by denying to 
 their own countrymen the knowledge of letters and 
 the Gospel of God our Saviour.* 
 
 Thfcse poor creatures are sold in the streets of our 
 southern cities without regard to decency or humanity. 
 Parents are separated; children torn ruthlessly from 
 the very bosom of their mothers, and exposed to sale 
 like cattle, under the auctioneer's hammer.! 
 
 Marriage is unsanctioned and unprotected by law, 
 and all the domestic relations are summarily violated.;}] 
 In this country of light and knowledge, in this land 
 of religion and revivals, in this home of liberty, it is no 
 disgrace to the Christian minister, to the dignified 
 judge. of our highest courts, to the eloquent senator or 
 to the delicate female, thus to have dealt in the trade 
 of human hearts ; in the sighs and groans of God's 
 poor. While ^'to cry aloud" in behalf of the oppressed, 
 to repeat the Scripture commands " Thou shalt neither 
 vex a stranger nor oppress him," is the sure way to 
 proYoke persecution and calumny.§ But blessed be 
 
 bcrnium — a relation which has no sanctity, and to which no civil rights are attached. 
 " A slave has never maintained an action against the violator of his bed. A slave is 
 not admonished for incontinence, or punished for fornication or adidtcry : never prose- 
 cuted for bigamy, or petty treason for killing a husband being a slave, any more than 
 admitted to an appeal for nuu-der."— Opinion of Daniel Dulany, Esq., Attorney General 
 of Maryland— 1 Maryland Reports, 561, 563.— [Stroud's Slave Laws, pages 61, 62.] 
 
 » Vide Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws, Page 90. 
 
 + Vide Advertisements, in all the Southern prints. 
 
 t Vide Stroud's Sketch, Page 61. 
 
 §It were easy to cite instances to prove every statement of this paragraph. A 
 wish to avoid personality alone prevents references to facts published in southern 
 
ir 
 
 God! there are some who, like Moses, choose "rathef 
 to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to 
 enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."- — Heb. xii. 
 25. 
 
 Torture and the scourge, nakedness and hunger, are 
 not uncommon sufferings of the slave. Slaves have been 
 coursed v.ith bloodhounds, and pursued by parties 
 of men as wild beasts, in what is familiarly known as 
 a negro hunt. "* 
 
 '• If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn 
 unto deatli, and those that are ready to be slain, If 
 tliou sayest behold, we knew it not ; doth not he that 
 pondereth the heart consider it 7 and he that keepeth 
 thy soul doth he not know it ? and shall not he render 
 to every man according to his works V — Prov. xxiv. 
 vs. 11 and 12. 
 
 What a commentary on the profession of religion is 
 the apathy of our churches ! We may mock each 
 other, and deceive ourselves, but the Searcher of hearts 
 will by no means clear the guilty. 
 
 Slaves are forced by the lash to work without 
 w^ages, sometimes even by professed Christians, in 
 spite of the divine malediction, '' Wo unto him that 
 useth his neighbor's service w ithout wages, that giveth 
 him not for his work." — Jer. xxii. 13. 
 
 The concubinage which is permitted or encouraged 
 among tlie slaves, rolls back its pollution upon the 
 master ; and it is beyond dispute, and evidenced by the 
 complexion of the slaves, that a large portion of them 
 
 prints, amply proving all that is here asserted ; whilst other facts are fresh in the 
 memory of the public to show that the freedom of speech and opinion, exercised 
 on this " delicate subject," has cost some of our best citizens both safety and 
 reputation. 
 
 * Vide Stroud's Sketch, Pages 38 and 40. 
 3 
 
18 
 
 are the children of their oppressors. What was ever 
 heard of in the darkness of Africa, or in guilty Sodom, 
 to transcend in enormity the crime of enlightened free- 
 men trading in the bodies of their own children, and 
 selling them into bondage more hopeless than Algerine 
 slavery ! for in the Barbary States, a slave is instantly 
 set free, on embracing the faith of Mohammed ; while 
 in our Christian country, conversion sometimes renders 
 the slave more valuable as an article of merchandize, 
 and thus increases the difficulty of his manumission. 
 
 A show of argument is sometimes made of Scripture, 
 in defence of slavery ; but it needs only a moment's 
 reflection to discover the fallacy of this reasoning ; 
 since all distinctions of nation are done aw^ay in 
 Christ, who '' hath broken down the middle wall of 
 partition" (Ephs. ii. 14.) between the Jews and other 
 nations. Christians should remember that " what God 
 hath cleansed" they should not " call common." Our 
 duties to the whole human family are those of love and 
 kindness, as constituted by our own pardon and salva- 
 tion in Jesus Christ. It were more pertinent to the 
 subject of our duties to our fellovr-men, to quote the 
 words of the beloved Apostle — " If a man say, I love 
 God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar : for he that 
 loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he 
 love God, whom he hath not seen 1" — 1 John iv. 20, 
 
 Let Christians remember the instructions of their 
 master to the lawyer, that demanded of him, who is 
 my neighbor? The Samaritan, who was of a nation 
 despised by the Jews, and held in the same contempt 
 that we indulge towards the negro, is in that inimitable 
 parable held forth as " neighbor to him who fell among 
 thieves." Hence the commandment " thou shalt love 
 
19 
 
 thy neighbor as tliyself/" is totally irreconcilable with 
 involuntary slavery, or any other form of oppression 
 exercised even towards the meanest members of the 
 human family. Our duty to the colored people of this 
 land is urgent, and the retribution of Divine justice, if 
 suspended in order to solicit our repentance, is yet im- 
 minent, and must overtake us, unless we speedily 
 repent, and " do w^orks meet for repentance." 
 
 Third. We propose and vindicate the remedy, viz i 
 Immediate Emancipation, as enforced alike by expe- 
 diency and duty. 
 
 Whatever exception may be made to the term, the 
 thing- itself must at some period be adopted, or slavery 
 will be perpetual ; for no plan of gradual emancipation 
 has yet been proposed, or can be, which does not be- 
 come immediate, whenever it is reduced to practice. 
 
 But if slavery be a sin — and the universal conscience 
 of man thus brands it — by w^hat code of morals, we 
 ask, can a gradual abandonment of it be justified ? 
 That coerced labor and loss of freedom for crimes are 
 authorized by the Divine law, we w ill not deny. Such 
 an argument might be urged if w^e were pleading for 
 criminals. But our enslaved countrymen are innocent 
 individuals ; they are unaccused of crime, and the only 
 cause of their suffering, is the avarice of their op- 
 pressors. 
 
 We as freely admit that a man may sell himself, as 
 was the case in the bond-service authorized by the 
 Jewish law, for a term of service, but not as a slave, 
 and that such voluntary bond-servants may of right 
 become the inheritance of children, subject to original 
 engagement, or, among the Jews, to the law of Jubi- 
 lee ; by which, on every fiftieth year, '' liberty" was 
 
20 
 
 proclaimed ^'throughout all the land, unto all the 
 INHABITANTS thereof."'* 
 
 We thus confess that servitude may begin by one's 
 selling himself to another — " if only meant of contracts 
 to serve or work for one another" — and that this is 
 " very just, but when applied to strict slavery, in the 
 laws of old Rome and modern Barbary,"t or the United 
 
 • That the individuals to whom this law solely applied were the bond-servants 
 bought of the strangers is evident, because there is an absolute prohibition in the 
 Divine law against the Hebrews ever being permitted to take their brethren as 
 bondsmen ; Vide Levit. xxv. 39 and 40. By what right then can we take our 
 brethren as perpetual slaves ? 
 
 t "As to the several sorts of servants, I have formerly observed," says the learned 
 Blackstone, " that pure and proper slavery does not, nay cannot, subsist in England : 
 such, I mean, whereby an absolute and unlimited power is given to the master over 
 the life and fortune of the slave. And indeed it is repugnant to reason, and the prin- 
 ciples of natural law, that such a state of things should exist any where. The three 
 origins of the right of slavery, assigned by Justinian, are all of them built upon false 
 foundations. As first, slavery is held to rise "jure gentium," from a state of captivity 
 m war; whence slaves are called mancipia, quasi, manu capti. The conqueror, say 
 the civilians, had a right to the life of his captive, and having spared that, has a right 
 to deal with him as he pleases. But it is an untrue position, when taken generally, 
 that by the law of nature or nations, a man may kill his enemy : he has only a right 
 to kill him in particular cases, in cases of absolute necessity for self-defence, and it is 
 plain this absolute necessity did not subsist, since the victor did not actually kill him, 
 but made him prisoner. War is itself justifiable only on the principles of self-preserva- 
 tion: and therefore it gives no other right over prisoners but merely to disable them 
 from doing harm to us, by confining their persons : much less can it give a right to 
 kill, torture, abuse, plunder, or even to enslave an enemy when the war is over. 
 
 Since therefore the right oi making slaves by captivity depends on a supposed right 
 of slaughter, that foundation failing, the consequence drawn from it must fail like- 
 wise. But secondly, it is said that slavery may begin "jure civili," where one sells 
 himself to another. This, if only meant of contracts, to serve or work for another, is 
 very just: but when applied to strict slavery, in the laws of old Rome and modern 
 Barbary, is also impossible. Every sale implies a price, a quid -pro quo, an equivalent 
 given to the seller in lieu of what he transfers to the buyer : but what equivalent can 
 be given for life, and liberty, both of which (in absolute slavery) are held to be in the 
 master's disposal ? His property also, the very price he seems to receive devolves 
 ipso facto to his master, the instant he becomes his slave. In this case, therefore, the 
 buyer gives nothing, and the seller receives nothing: of what validity can a sale be 
 which destroys the very principles on which all sales are founded? Lastly, we are 
 told that besides these two ways by which slaves "fittnt," or are acquired, they may 
 also be hereditary " serri nascuntifr ;" the children of acquired slaves are jure 
 naturee, by a negative kmd of birth-right, slaves also. But this being built on the two 
 
21 
 
 States, tliere is nothing but injustice, a violation of all 
 sound principles of government, and a practical insult 
 to the authority of God, the common Father of us all. 
 But our countrymen in chains have never sold them- 
 selves. The slavery of this land having originated in 
 man stealing, is prolonged, by successive acts of vio- 
 lence and injustice. Every new-born child, appro- 
 priated by the avarice of its master, is in fact the 
 victim of the same injustice by which the parent was 
 at first torn from his home in Africa. 
 
 The true question before the American people, and 
 especially American Christians, is, whether American 
 slavery, ^\ hose origin and continuation are undeniably 
 in violence and injustice, can be gradually repented 
 o^] or in other words, whether, according to the morals 
 of Christianity, it is possible to postpone the duty of 
 repentance. Could a greater absurdity be proposed, 
 than to continue the crime and cruelty of slave-holding 
 for any defined term, as an act of repentance ? It is 
 at best purposhig repentance at a distant day. The 
 insincerity of such a proceeding is too palpable to be 
 argued. If we do not repent absolutely, we continue 
 in the sin, and only compromise with conscience. The 
 injunction of the Apostle is here exactly in point: "Let 
 him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labor, 
 working with his hands the thing which is good, that 
 he may have to give to him that needeth." — Eph. iv. 
 28. If then a gradual discontinuance of crime be 
 incompatible with genuine repentance, how shall those 
 who cry against this sin be justified in the sight of God, 
 
 former rights, must fall together with them. If neither captivity, nor the sale of one's 
 self, can by the law of nature and reason, reduce the parent to slavery, much less cii 
 they reduce the offspring." — [Blackstonc's Commentaries, Vol. 1st, Chapter 14, 
 Pages 423-4.] 
 
22 
 
 unless they prer.ch the duty of an immediate, sincere, 
 total and absolute abandonment of it 1 
 
 The voluntary bond-service of the Jews was broken 
 up every seventh or Sabbatical year, (which was the 
 Jubilee of the Hebrew servants,) so that those en- 
 gagements could never become perpetual, and degene- 
 rate into slavery and oppression. This was done im- 
 mediately and invariably, and was never followed with 
 consequences worse than the blessing of God, the re- 
 pairing of the waste places, and the renewal of those 
 voluntary engagements by which servants among them 
 were held by bond to labor. The master had no pro- 
 prietorship in their bodies, but possessed only a claim 
 on their services until the expiration of the engagement 
 or the return of the Jubilee. In case the servant was 
 an Hebrew, and ^^ as even sold as a bondsman the 
 master being a Hebrew could not extort service from 
 him without wages. "If thy brother that dwelleth by 
 thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee ; thou shalt 
 not compel him to serve as a bond servant. But as 
 an HIRED servant and as a sojourner, he shall be with 
 thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee." — 
 Lev. xxv. 39 and 40. And again that the Jubilee of the 
 Hebrew servant was at the end of every six years, or on 
 the commencement of the Sabbatical year, is evident 
 from the following passage. " If thou buy a Hebrew 
 servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh 
 he shall GO out free for nothing." Hence it ap- 
 pears that the great Jubilee which was proclaimed * 
 " throughout all the land to every inhabitant thereof," 
 was in fact the year of enfranchisement to other 
 than Hebrew servants, for these were released 
 
 • Levit. xxv. 10. 
 
23 
 
 on the Sabbatical year, after six years servitude as 
 liired servants, and not as bond-servants. We are now 
 able to understand what is meant by the following 
 passages, appealed to with such triumph by the de- 
 fenders of slavery, to prove that Jehovah has au- 
 thorized oppression.* '• Moreover of the children of the 
 
 * To show with what effrontery the very fountains of the water of hfe have been 
 poisoned, we transcribe from Calmet's Dictionary, (article Slavery,) the following 
 passages, in which he undertakes to prove that the Hebrews were authorized by 
 Jehovah to enslave men in several different ways. 
 
 "A Hebrew," says this author, " might fall into slavery seyeia.1 ways; (1.) If re- 
 duced to extreme poverty he might sell himself. — Lev. xxv. 39. (2.) A father might 
 sell his children as slaves. — Exod. xxi. 7. (3.) Insolvent debtors might be delivered 
 to their creditors as slaves. — 2 Kings iv. 1. (4.) Thieves not able to make restitution 
 for their thefts, or the value, were sold for the benefit of the sufferers.— Exod. xxii. 3. 
 (5.) They might be taken prisoners in war. (6.) They might be stolen, and after- 
 wards sold for slaves, as Joseph was by his brethren. (7.) A Hebrew slave redeemed 
 from a Gentile by one of his brethren, might be sold to another Israelite." 
 
 Now wc dare assert, and will prove, that this writer has made a mere show 
 of authority, and that in the whole seven ways "in which a Hebrew mi^htfall into 
 slavery," he has not been able to produce a single reference which bears out his pro- 
 fane charge against God's holy law. 
 
 This we will proceed to establish, by quoting the very passages to which he has 
 referred, and proving that they authorize no slavery whatever. 
 
 (1.) " If reduced to extreme poverty he might sell himself." The text here referred 
 to, to prove that a Hebrew might sell himself into slavery, says nothing about slavery- 
 whatever; but on the contrary declares, "thou shalt not compel him to serve as 
 A bond servant, but as a hired servant, and as a sojourner," and that for no period 
 longer than six years ; and further on, in the 42d verse, it is distinctly stated that "they 
 (the Hebrews) shall not be bondmen." Hence the bondmen of the Hebrews were 
 never of their brethren, and the first "way intchich a Hebrew might fall into slavery," 
 as Calmet has it, has no existence in the authority of God, or the customs of the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 (2.) " A father might sell his children as slaves." What hbel on the law of God 
 greater than this could have been invented ? 
 
 The text referred to is as follows : "And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid 
 servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do. If she please not her master 
 WHO HATH betrothed HER TO HIMSELF, then shall he let her be redeemed ; to sell heb 
 UNTO A strange NATION, HE SHALL HAVE NO POWER." The whole tcxt and context 
 showing as clearly as possible that a father had no right to sell his daughter, except 
 AS A WIPE. Her rights are clearly protected, and she is to be married by the pur- 
 chaser OR his son — otherwise (Uth verse) "shall she oo out free without money." 
 
 (3.) "Insolvent debtors might be delivered to their creditors as slaves." The text 
 is, "And the creditor is come to take imto him my two sons as bondmen." Here 
 the sophistry consists in changing the word bondmen to slaves. The word slave cannot 
 be found in the whole law, and we know what the law of bond service is, viz : that it 
 shall terminate at the year of Jubilee. This is no slavery, but bond service. 
 
'^4 
 
 strangers that do s^ojourn among you of them shall ye 
 buy and of their ftiinilies that are with you, which they 
 begat in your land, and they shall be your possession : 
 and ye shall take them for a possession, they shall be 
 your bondmen forever, but over your brethren the 
 children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another 
 with rigor. " * — Lev. xxv. 45 and 46. Here we have 
 an authority to keep slaves forever ! according to the 
 advocates of slavery ; and certainly at first sight 
 there seems to be a contradiction to the law of Jubilee, 
 when liberty was proclaimed '' throughout all the land 
 to ALL the inhabitants thereof." Like other seeming 
 contradictions of the Bible, however, it needs only to 
 
 (4.) In the case of thieves the text is, "If he have nothing, than shall he be sold for 
 liis theft." Here is nothing said of slavery, it is bond service merely, and even a thief, 
 who thus righteously incurred the penalty of forfeited hberty, '■vould enjoy the mercy 
 of the Jubilee. If he were a Hebrew, he would go free at the lesser Jubilee, the 
 Sabbatical or seventh year; but if a stranger, or foreigner at farthest, he would be 
 released a( the great Jubilee of bond servants, when all the inhabitants were released. 
 
 (5.) "T;iey might be taken prisoners in war." Here our author makes not even a 
 show of authority ; but we will help him to a text : Deut. vii. 2 — " Thou shalt smite 
 them and utterly destkov them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor 
 show mercy unto them." There is no statute of commutation for the seven guilty 
 nations ; none of them were ever reduced to slavery, nor did "pure and proper slavery" 
 ever exist under the Hebrew pohty. 
 
 (6.) "They might be stolen and afterwards sold into slavery, as Joseph was sold 
 by his brethren." This is the most extraordinary of all commentaries ! They might 
 be stolen ! Indeed ! But here again a text is wanted, and we have one at hand. 
 Exod. xxi. 2 — "And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in 
 
 HIS HAND he shall SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH." 
 
 (7.) "A Hebrew slave redeemed from a Gentile, by one of his brethren, might be 
 sold by him to another Israelite." Here again no show of authority is adduced what- 
 ever. It will be sufficient, in order to prove the utter inaccuracy of this assertion, to 
 quote from Lev. xxv., 39th and 40th verses, the prohibition of the Divine law against 
 making any Hebrew a bond servant : " Thou shalt not compel him, [a Hebrew,] to 
 serve as a bond servant, but as an hired servant." Hence it is evident that the 
 Hebrew could not be sold as a slave, or even as a bondman. 
 
 + " Rigor" here used cannot mean oppression or cruelty, but is merely applied 
 to the mode of obtaining labor from a bond- servant ; and is used in opposition to 
 wages, the means of soliciting cheerful labor from an hired servant. Otherwise 
 it would be contrary to the command of the most High, not to oppress the 
 stranger. 
 
25 
 
 be understood, and the contradiction vanishes. They 
 and tlicni in the 45th verse, referring to tlie children 
 of strangers, are evidently in opposition to your breth- 
 ren^ in the next verse. The meaning of the passage 
 is therefore evidently that the Jews should forever be 
 privileged to hold as bond-servants persons purchased 
 of strangers, but this privilege was forbidden them with 
 respect to their brethren the Hebrews. The word 
 forever^ if rendered always, would have answered the 
 proper meaning of the Hebrew. The emphasis of the 
 passage is on they^ and not on forever. They shall be 
 your bondsmen forever, not the Hebrews your brethren. 
 But let us take it in a literal sense. Then those men, 
 both masters and servants, must live forever in those 
 capacities to fulfil the meaning of the text. Other texts 
 prove conclusively that the slave-holder's interpretation 
 of the passage under consideration is in direct variance 
 with its true meaning and with the whole spirit of the 
 dealings of Jehovah towards our race. " For the Lord 
 your God is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, a great 
 God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not 
 persons, nor taketh reward : He doth execute the 
 judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the 
 STRANGER, in giviug him food and raiment. Love ye, 
 therefore, the stranger." — Deut. x. 17, 18, 19. 
 
 " Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye 
 know the heart of a stranger, for ye were strangers in 
 the land of Egypt." — Exod. xxiii. 9. 
 
 " Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress 
 HIM, for ye were strangers in the land of Egy|3t." — 
 Exod. xxii. 21. 
 
 But what oppression could be greater than to take 
 them for slaves and their posterity after them forever, 
 4 
 
26 
 
 to hold them as chatties, and to deprive them of every 
 right ? Jehovah is not the author of oppression. 
 
 The bondmen among the Hebrews who were bought 
 of strangers, were sold for debt,* for a limited period 
 of time, at farthest not beyond the fiftieth year. Even 
 if the sum for \yiich they were sold was greater than 
 the value of the services, yet in no case could the 
 bondage be protracted beyond that period. But sla- 
 very in this country has its origin in man-stealmg ; and 
 the same law to which the slave-holder so confidently 
 appeals, makes no distinction between the original 
 thief and the person in whose hands the stolen man 
 may be found. " And he that stealeth a man and 
 selletli him, or if he be found in ms hands, shall surely 
 be put to death." — Exod. xvi. 21. 
 
 This text alone proves that the bond service of the 
 Hebrews, as sanctioned by the Divine law, was never 
 involuntary and coerced — never originated in violence 
 and robbery. Is it not enough to cause the blush of 
 shame, that in the nineteenth century it should be ne- 
 cessary to prove to Christians, that their God is not 
 the founder of slavery and justifier of man-stealing ? 
 
 Oppression in every form was not only denounced 
 and put under the curse of the Most High, but was 
 entirely precluded by the following enactment : " Thou 
 shalt not deliver unto his master, the servant which 
 hath escaped from his master unto thee ; he shall dwell 
 with thee, even among you in that place which he 
 SHALL CHOOSE, iu oue of thy gates where it liketh him 
 best; thou .shalt not oppress him." — Deut. xxiii. 15, 16, 
 So that in case of cruelty, unkindness or even dissatis-^ 
 
 * Vide 2 Kings, iv. L — " The creditor is come to take my two sons to be 
 bondmen." 
 
fiiction, the servant might leave hk master, and was 
 protected from being delivered to him by an express 
 law. Far be it from the God of the oppressed to have 
 authorized a system of slavery and robbery ; instead 
 of this he has forbidden with a curse to take the labor 
 of another without* wages ; and when he makes pro- 
 vision for sending away the servant on the year of Ju- 
 bilee, (the Sabbatical Jubilee,) after ordering the 
 master not to let him go empty, he uses this inmiitable 
 and eloquent language : " It shall not seem hard unto 
 thee, when thou sendest him away from thee ; for he 
 hath been Avorth a double hired servant unto thee in 
 serving tliee six years: and the Lord thy God shall 
 bless thee in all that thou doest." — Deut. xv. 18. 
 
 Thus so far from the institution of slavery being 
 traceable to the Divine law, we find, upon an atten- 
 tive examination of the subject, that that law has no 
 other tendency than to prevent, by wholesome pro- 
 visions, the possibility of voluntary bond service ever 
 degenerating into slavery, and to forbid even bond 
 service itself among the Hebrews in the persons of their 
 brethren. 
 
 A candid examination of the subject will satisfy 
 any intelligent person that the bond service of the He- 
 brews, as authorized by the holy and merciful law 
 of God, w^as a system of just and equal service, and 
 although rigorous compared with hired service, was 
 still assuaged by many important regulations, and has 
 no affinity whatever with slavery, a system in which the 
 master claims a proprietorship in the soul and the 
 body, impiously wresting, (as it were,) from the Most 
 High, his right ; for God is manifestly the only pro- 
 prietor of human beings.* 
 
 * Among the Romans, slaves were procured by being captured in war. The 
 
28 
 
 Indeed many advocates of anti-slavery, themselves, 
 seem to have fallen into the common error that Jehovah 
 authorized the Hebrews to take captives from the 
 seven accursed nations, and reduce them to bond ser- 
 vants. This was never authorized by the law of God. 
 The Hebrews were directed " tS make no covenant 
 WITH THEM, nor show mercy to them — Deut. vii. 2.; and 
 for the express reason, " For they will turn aw ay thy 
 son from following ine," &c. — 4th verse. 
 
 Even the Gibeonites who deceived Joshua, and were 
 saved iu consequence of his rash covenant with them, 
 were not made slaves, or even bond servants, but were 
 destined to be "Hewers of wood and drawers of water 
 
 FOR. THE CONGREGATION, AND FOR THE ALTAR OF THE 
 
 LORD. — "Josh. ix. 27. The most merciful God would 
 not even make these wicked men slaves or perpetual 
 bond servants ; they were servants of the lowest sort 
 to the altar — never slaves. God authorized Joshua to 
 take the lives, but not to commute to servitude the sen- 
 tence of the vanquished heathen. 
 
 That gradual emancipation is but cmancii^ation in the 
 abstract^ a postponed duty, a cruel injustice, is proved 
 by the fact of its failure in this country, after being in 
 vogue for half a century. It is confirmed also by the 
 opinions of Wilberforce and Clarkson themselves, who 
 rejected it after several years of trial, and confessed 
 that their first efforts were ill-directed. It authorizes 
 a continuance of evil, of suffering and sin. 
 
 Emancipation is always immediate ichen it takes 
 
 etymology of the Latin words mancipium, (quasi manu capti,) slave, and servus, 
 an abbreviation of servatus, (saved,) both prove this origin of slavery. But it was 
 this very sin of oppression, among others, which induced the Divine ven- 
 geance on the Pagan nations. This heathen violence was never authorized by 
 the Most High. 
 
29 
 
 place ; and there is ikj other meaning in the term 
 gradual in this connexion than is better conveyed by 
 the expression, prospective emancipation. There is a 
 real ilhision in the idea of gradualism. In the year 1827, 
 ten thousand slaves were iinmcdiatelij set free in this state 
 by virtue of an act passed in 1799. This is an instance 
 of what is called gradual emancipation, but in fact it 
 was immediate when it occurred, jjros/;cc?ifc before, but 
 never gradual. It is a plan obnoxious, hoAvever, to many 
 objections ; among which not the least is the opportunity 
 thus afforded to slave-holders within the period between 
 its enactment and execution, to sell and transport their 
 slaves to slave countries. In this view of. the subject 
 the boasted scheme of gradualism is no more than a 
 hollow pretence of philanthropy, made by slave-dealers. 
 
 But a real and honest practice of gradual abolition 
 amounts to this, and to this only, viz : to compel, by 
 law, a future generation to manumit their slaves, while 
 the present race is retained in bondage. It says — 
 to emancipate the present number is impracticable, we 
 will then oblige our children, in twenty years from this 
 time, to set free twice the number. For it is a fact 
 tested by all experience, that slaves double their num- 
 ber once in every twenty years, while the free negroes 
 do not double theirs under forty years. Is not the 
 advantage then decidedly on the side of immediate, and 
 the disadvantage with postponed emancipation ? 
 
 What real difficulty would have been encountered 
 by New-York if she had manumitted her slaves in 
 1799, that was not experienced in 1827 1 
 
 But while the benefit of this measure to the north 
 was in course of preparation, the slaves at the south 
 alone have become more than four times as many as 
 
30 
 
 Avere in the whole country at the close of the Kevolu- 
 tion. Thus, the most important practical result of the 
 doctrine of gradual emancipation has been to multiply 
 four or five times the number of slaves that were in the 
 land at the time of its being first inculcated. They 
 have more than doubled twice since the peace of 1783. 
 Many people regard the preponderance of the colored 
 population at the south with dismay ; and nothing can 
 be more certain than that the ratio of increase of the 
 slave population can only be equalled by the diminished 
 rate of increase of the white people.* All experience 
 
 * It is shown by the census of the United States, that during the period of 40 
 years immediately preceding the year 1830, the slave population south of the 
 Potomac and the Ohio had QUADRUPLED in number ; and in the states north 
 of those boundaries, in a majority of which the abolition principles of our revolu- 
 tionary ancestors have triumphed, the colored population had NOT QUITE 
 DOUBLED. 
 
 In Eastern Virginia (according to a communication in the Af. Rep. for April 
 1833, page 16,) it appears that from 1790 to 1830, the white population had di- 
 minished 131,915, and the colored had increased 143,063. This almost incredi- 
 ble disparity of population occurred notwithstanding the vigorous prosecution 
 of the domestic slave-trade, by which Virginia has been in the habit of exporting 
 annually to the south, 6000 slaves. The same result followed the oppression 
 of the Hebrews in Egypt, " and the land was filled with them." 
 
 From these facts, it is evident that the condition of bondage, is the real 
 
 CAUSE OF augmenting IN AN UNNATURAL AND FRIGHTFUL RATIO THE NUMBERS OF THE 
 OPPRESSED. 
 
 Every moment of delay only sweeps us nearer to the awful precipice of destiny. 
 The slaves double in less than 20 years, while the whites in many places by 
 licentiousness and emigration actually diminish ; thus it is evident that no in 
 fatuation is so mad, none so blind as that which urges the delay of measures 
 already difficult, and which must soon become absolutely impracticable. 
 
 Whatever may be the considerations derived from these facts, one circum- 
 stance should be borne in mind by every lover of his country, viz : that the recent 
 act of the British government in liberating the slaves of Jamaica, and the other 
 British Islands, has rendered abolition in our country imperative and una- 
 voidable. It is this fact, which adds certainty and gives impulse to the progress 
 of universal liberty throughout the world- We are thus driven to the conclusion 
 that slavery must terminate in one of these ways : — 1. By the extermination of the 
 blacks. 2. By the cxtirmination of the whites. Or 3. By voluntary emancipa- 
 tion.— [Ncw-York City Anti-Slavery Society's Address, Oct. 1833.] (Third 
 Edition.) 
 
31 
 
 leaclies that the colored portion must soon vastly out- 
 number the other, I'rom the established facts of their 
 growth ; but in addition to this the emigration of white 
 families from motives of prudence ; and the licentious- 
 ness of others, together with the degraded state of the 
 negroes, will continue to effect a greater disproportion 
 of the races. The result, as horrible as it is inevita- 
 ble, in the present state of hatred engendered by 
 oppression, is only to be averted, by establishing a 
 kind relation between the races. Unless mercy takes 
 the place of cruelty, repentance of wrongs, and the law 
 of kindness be substituted for the scourge, the thumb- 
 screw, the torture and gibbet, nothing is more certain 
 than that, in the common course of things, a most awful 
 retribution will visit our southern country, overwhelm- 
 ing the master in utter ruin. 
 
 Will it be objected that emancipation is dangerous ? 
 that the slave, so inoffensive under injuries, is fierce 
 and blood-thirsty when emancipated 7 Shall we be 
 told that to give him liberty will endanger his master ? 
 His master already reposes on a volcano's crater. To- 
 him the night is a period of danger and dread. Profound 
 peace a time of extreme exposiu'e, to which the terrors 
 of civil war are preferable. Governer Hayne, of South 
 Carolina, boldly advocates this doctrine, and explains 
 in some measure the turbulence for which the party 
 he leads is notorious. " A state of military preparation," 
 says his Excellency, " must always he icith us, a state 
 of perfect domestic security. A peiiod of profound jjeace 
 and consequent apathy may expose us to the danger 
 of domestic insurrection. But when the freemen of the 
 country are in array, with arms in their hands, there 
 must be an end to all apprehension from this source.'* 
 
32 
 
 It is difficult to conceive of a state of greater danger 
 than that described by Governor Hayne. 
 
 Tlie testimony of all history is against the safety 
 of the slave-holding system, and as decidedly in favor 
 of the safety of emancipation. Every state in this 
 Union, which, under the colonial period of our history, 
 tolerated slavery, was the scene of repeated insurrec- 
 tions, while no state in which slavery has been abolished 
 has ever witnessed any insurrectionary tumult of the 
 black population.* On the contrary, the free colored 
 people have suffered the rude and unmerciful assault 
 of mobs throughout the country, within a few months, 
 and have conducted themselves, notwithstanding, with 
 commendable, and almost unexampled forbearance 
 tliroughout the whole scene of outrage. 
 
 St. Domingo, in the year 1794, after five years of in- 
 surrections and massacres, received from the French 
 Directory the enfranchisement of 500,000 slaves. At 
 this time the white population were but 100,000. Here, 
 though the negroes were to the whites in the proportion 
 of five to one, accustomed to arms and the injured party, 
 emancipated, not by their masters but by the French 
 government, yet the effect was instant and permanent 
 pacification. The Island advanced from one degree 
 of improvement to another, and was very soon as pro- 
 ductive, as well cultivated and profitable to the land- 
 holders themselves, as in any former period of its 
 history. This state of things continued until the year 
 1802, when Le Clerc, with 30,000 men, sent by Na- 
 poleon, under the influence of advisers anxious to regain 
 the ascendency of lust and cruelty which they had 
 
 •For a full and interesting account of the different servile insurrections in 
 these states by Joshua Coffin, of Philadelphia, see Appendix to Phelps' Lectures 
 on Slavery. 
 
33 
 
 possessed before the period of liberty, began a course 
 of murder and devastation unheard of m the history 
 of blood. The cruelties which this man practised on 
 the colored people of St. Domingo, were in tlie end 
 visited on his followers ; and the war of extermination 
 which ensued, with the pestilence which assailed the 
 oppressors, ended in their total destruction. Since 
 that time, the people of Hayti have advanced in the 
 arts of peace and of war, in prosperity and refinement. 
 Many of her citizens are on a level, in point of cultiva- 
 tion and intelligence, with any people in the world : 
 whatever prejudice or malice may object to the fact. 
 
 A million and a half of our fellow beings were 
 emancipated in Colombia and Mexico, and not a drop 
 of blood was shed ; since that day no one has heard 
 of any disturbances among the colored people of those 
 countries. 
 
 The native gentleness of the negro character is 
 therefore as conspicuous in sudden elevation of fortune, 
 as in submitting to that most galling and cruel oppres- 
 sion which has disgraced Christendom for three hundred 
 years — 
 
 '' Since holy men gave scripture for the deed," 
 
 and led the march of pirate nations to the shores of 
 Africa. 
 
 The testimony of Mungo Park, of the Landers, and 
 of other travellers, agree in representing this injured 
 and degraded race, as peculiarly inoffensive, gentle 
 and patient in their own country, and this testimony 
 is fully corroborated by our knowledge of their patient 
 endurance of the complicated wrongs heaped upon 
 them here. 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 We have no historical evidence that a chop of the 
 white man's blood has ever flowed in consequence 
 of liberating the slave, and " every day's report" from 
 the hundreds of thousands recently emancipated in the 
 British West Indies, confirms the safety of the measure : 
 to question which is, in some sort, to libel human nature 
 itself; for what motive could remain to incite hostility 
 in the bosom of a man delivered from the horrors 
 of perpetual slavery ? The newly made freemen, ac- 
 cording to some accounts, work better than they for- 
 merly did in slavery. And though lying newsmakers 
 have represented them as turbulent, direct accounts, 
 more recent and more respectable, prove exactly the 
 reverse. 
 
 As a motive to immediate emancipation we would 
 observe, that wherever slavery exists, and human 
 beings are bought and sold, slaves are attracted by the 
 market, and thence the stimulus of avarice is propa- 
 gated even to Africa ; a tide of human wo sets in, a 
 tide '■ that knows no ebb," in spite of all those deceitful 
 enactments of legislatures, which in words denounce, 
 but in fact reward the traffic. 
 
 The foundation of the African slave-trade is unde- 
 niably in the market for slaves, and while the latter 
 remains, the former will continue. It follows that that 
 people who retain the one, whatever may be their 
 professions, are the true authors of the other enormity. 
 
 Agahi, immediate emancipation is considered most 
 feasible and safe by slave-holders themselves. In 
 proof of this we have only to advert to the fact that 
 Bermuda, and nine other British Islands, have imme- 
 diately emancipated their slaves, rather than adopt the 
 
35 
 
 system of seven years apprenticeship ; the alternative 
 offered them by the parent country. 
 
 Where there is no motive to insurrection, but the 
 strongest to gratitude ; where the power to do injury 
 is not in the hands of the freedman, but all the means 
 of restraint are possessed by their former masters ; 
 where learning, legislation, arts, arms, and the habits 
 and associations of government are exclusively the 
 wiiite man's ; w hat, we ask, is the source of danger 
 so loudly deprecated by our opponents, in restoring to 
 the slave his rights'? When the negro, accustomed 
 to submission and labour, is no longer lashed, but 
 rewarded for his toil, what is there to induce him to be 
 less industrious than Avhen the fruits of his labor were 
 torn from him without compensation 1 Accordingly 
 all accounts agree that free labor is more profitable to 
 the employer than that of the slave. 
 
 We will close by asking the intelligent reader, if 
 there be any thing contrary to sound morals, to de- 
 cency, to religion, to correct notions of government, to 
 the doctrine of "unalienable rights," * to expediency, to 
 the duty of citizens of the United States tow^ards the 
 slave-holders ; in a plan for the improvement of the 
 colored people, which shall abrogate the system of com- 
 pulsory, perpetual, hereditary, unrequited labor, and 
 substitute in its place the just rewards which stimulate 
 honorable toil all over the civilized world ? which 
 shall raise the slave from the state of brutal degradation 
 into which oppression has .sunk him, to the protection, 
 elevation and proper responsibility of a citizen 1 
 
 What danger will there be, in admitting the testi- 
 
 * Declaration of Independence. 
 
36 
 
 mony of a man, without regard to complexion 1 will he 
 feel insulted or injured? 
 
 Will the protection of female virtue by the majesty 
 of the law, stimulate to phrenzy the brain of the black 
 man? 
 
 Will it endanger the happiness aod peace of society 
 to permit the liberty of conscience, of speech, and of the 
 press, to native Americans, whatever be the hue of their 
 complexion? 
 
 Will the preaching of the gospel of peace send dis- 
 cord into the heathen breast of ignorance ? 
 
 Will it endanger the Republic, if we hold no more 
 auctions for human cattle ? if our white citizens should 
 cease to sell their own flesh and blood into slavery ? 
 
 Would the curse of God come on our land, if marriage, 
 which is '• honorable in all,' should be sanctioned and 
 protected among the colored race ? 
 
 If the tender and dear relations of life should be 
 protected by law from ruthless sundering ? 
 
 If the trade in "slaves and the souls of men"' should 
 cease '• among the several states' by the wise and just 
 legislation of Congress, according to the express words 
 of the Constitution, as w-ell as the spirit of the gospel 
 of peace and good will to men ? 
 
 If torture and scoiu-ging, men-hunting and legalized 
 murder should no more exist unpunished and even 
 sanctioned ? 
 
 If the land and its inhabitants should rid themselves, 
 by repentance, of God's curse on them who "take theii- 
 neighbor's service without wages ; that give him not 
 for his work." 
 
 If pollution and violence should no longer be tolera- 
 ted ; but men should begin to give evidence of loving 
 
37 
 
 their neighbors as themselves, and of some sincerity in 
 the profession of the American principle, that " all 
 men are created equal." 
 
 If all this should happen, and no danger follow to 
 our homes, our country or our persons, then Immediate 
 Emancipation is safe ; because these alterations in the 
 present state of slavery, define its nature and constitute 
 its essence. 
 
 There would be no general change in the state of 
 society; the same laborers would remain on the same 
 plantations, subject to the same masters; and any 
 slight changes would occur as amongst servants in 
 free countries, by mutual consent of master and servant. 
 
 To the young men of our country we look with in- 
 tense interest. On them will soon fall the responsi- 
 bility and the glory of this great work. If they imbibe 
 the short-sighted and selfish principles of a dark age, 
 not only will the progress of this great work be re- 
 tarded, but the glory of America will set in the night 
 of nations. Her epitaph will quickly be written : 
 
 She was free, — 
 
 but denying to her own citizens 
 
 the justice she claimed of others, 
 
 THE God of Retribution 
 
 HAS 
 
 OVERWHELMED HER 
 
 WITH 
 
 HIS VENGEANCE. 
 
 But " we hope better things, though we thus speak." 
 We pray God to deliver our guilty land ! May we learn 
 to leave off oppression, to break the bonds of wicked- 
 ness, and to let the oppressed go free; then will liberty, 
 
38 
 
 peace, equality, and the blessing of the Divine favor, 
 rest upon our country forever, 
 
 " Spirit of Freedom, on ! 
 Oh, pause not in thy flight, 
 
 'Till every clime is won, 
 To worship in thy light. 
 
 On, 'till thy name is known, 
 Throughout the peopled earth ! 
 
 On, 'till thou reign' St alone, 
 Man's heritage by birth ! 
 
 On, 'till from every valo 
 And where the mountains rise, 
 
 The beacon light of 'Liberty' 
 Shall kindle to the skies." 
 
CONSTITUTION 
 
 OFTHS 
 
 NEW-YORK YOUNG MEN's 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 
 AaxicLE I. This Society shall be styled the New-York Young Men's Anti- Slavery 
 Society, and shall be auxiliary to the "American Anti-Shivcry Society." 
 
 Art. II. Any young man may become a member of this society by subscribing to 
 these articles, and shall be entitled to vote at its meetings ; contribution to its funds 
 being left to the option of each subscriber. 
 
 Art. III. The officers of this society shall consist of a President, two Vice 
 Presidents, a Corresponding and Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and twenty 
 Managers, who together shall constitute a Board of Directors ; to be elected annually 
 by the Society, and shall have the power to form their own By-Laws, and to fill all 
 vacancies in their body. 
 
 Art. IV. It shall be the duty of the President, (or in his absence, one of the Vice 
 Presidents,) to preside at all meetings of the society, and of the Board of Directors. 
 
 Art. V. It shall be the duty of the Corresponding Secretary to conduct the cor- 
 respondence, prepare the Annual Report, and perform such other services as may be 
 required of him by the Board. 
 
 Art. VI. It shall be the duty of the Recording Secretary to keep the minutes of the 
 society, to file all its papers, to give notice of its meetings, and to register the names 
 of its members. 
 
 Art. VII. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to receive and disburse the funds 
 of the society by authority of the Board of Directors. 
 
 Art. VIII. The foregoing officers shall constitute the Executive Committee of the 
 society, to whom shall be entrusted the disposition of the society's funds, and the 
 general management of its affairs. Nine shall constitute a quorum. 
 
 Art. IX. The object of this society shall be to promote the entire abolition of 
 slavery in the United States, by collecting and diffusing information concernng its 
 true character ; by endeavoring to convince our countrymen, by arguments addressed 
 to their understanding and consciences, that slave-holding is a heinous crime in the 
 sight of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned, require its 
 immediate and unconditional abandonment. 
 
 Art. X. This society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the people 
 of color by encouraging their intellectual, moral and rehgious improvement, and by 
 correcting the prejudice of pubhc opinion ; but never to countenance the oppressed in 
 vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force. 
 
 Art. XI. It shall be the especial duty of the Board of Directors to employ their 
 best endeavours to obtain the signatures of as many young men of the city of New- 
 York as may be disposed to join the association, and also to report this Society to the 
 Secretary of the American Society. 
 
 Art. XII. This society shall meet as occasion may require, at the call of the 
 Board of Directors, and annually, at such time and place as the Board shall appoint, 
 ■when their report shall be read, the accounts of the Treasurer be presented, appropriate 
 addresses delivered, and the officers chosen. 
 
 Art. XIII. This Constitution may be altered or amended by a vote of two-thirds- 
 of the members present at an annual meeting. 
 
LIST OF OFFICERS. 
 
 ABRAHAM L. COX, M. D., President, 
 THERON T. POND, 1st Vice President, 
 ROBERT F. WINSLOW, 2d Vice President, 
 JAMES F. ROBINSON, Corresponding Secretary, 
 EDWARD A. LAMBERT, Recording Secretary, 
 JOHN WILEY, Treasurer. 
 
 MANAGERS. 
 
 Geohge p. Fitch, 
 John Jay, 
 
 Thomas W. B. Dawson, 
 HEN-nv F. Brayton, 
 
 WiLILAM HOMMANN, 
 
 William S. Ross, 
 Daniel Chase, 
 Ebenezer H. Burgeb, 
 KiciiARn L. Clauk, 
 
 Ishael VV. Clabk, 
 Wm. Steele, M. D., 
 James Kennedy, M. D., 
 John Bvrdell, 
 Alexander Peloitjet, 
 William R. Sutton, 
 James H. Parker, 
 Jeremiah Wilbub, 
 George A. Dwight. 
 
 54 W 
 


 
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