of dangers to which you
were exposed; reflect on that period in which every human
aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and
fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and
you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of
your miraculous and providential preservation; you cannot
but acknowledge, that the present freedom and tranquility
which you enjoy, you have mercifully received, and that it
is the peculiar blessing of heaven.

"This, Sir, was a time when you cleary saw into the
injustice of a state of Slavery, and in which you had just
apprehensions of the horrors of its condition. It was then
that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you
publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which
is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding
ages: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are,
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'

"Here, was a time in which your tender feelings for
yourselves had engaged you thus to declare; you were then
impressed with proper ideas of the great violation of
liberty, and the free possession of those blessings, to
which you were entitled by nature; but, sir, how pitiable is
it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of
the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal
and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges
which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the
same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and
violence, so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning
captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same
time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you
professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.

"Your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too
extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to
prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise
than by recommending to you and all others, to wean
yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have
imbibed with respect to them, and as Job proposed to his
friends, 'put your soul in their soul's stead;' thus shall
your hearts b