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 they are the gift of God? that they are
not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country
when I reflect 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 which can take sides 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 into 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, his condition
mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for
a total emancipation.

* * * * *

=_John Jay, 1745-1829._= (Manual, pp. 484, 486.)

From the "Address from the Convention." December 23, 1776.

=_65._= AN APPEAL TO ARMS.

Rouse, brave citizens! Do your duty like men; and be persuaded that
Divine Providence will not permit this western world to be involved in
the horrors of slavery. Consider that, from the earliest ages of the
world, religion, liberty, and reason have been bending their course
towards the setting sun. The holy Gospels are yet to be preached to
these western regions; and we have the highest reason to believe that
the Almighty will not suffer slavery and the gospel to go hand in hand.
It cannot, it will not be.

But if there be any among us dead to all sense of honor and love
of their country; if deaf to all the calls of liberty, virtue, and
religion; if forgetful of the magnanimity of their ancestors, and the
happiness of their children; if neither the examples nor the success of
other nations, the dictates of reason and of nature, or the great duties
they owe to their God, themselves, and their posterity have any effect
upon them; if neither the injuries they have received, the prize they
are contending for, the future blessings or curses of their children,
the applause or the reproach of all