by free men, and prevents manufacturers from
settling amongst us."

Resolutions to the same effect were adopted in Surrey county, Caroline
county; and at a meeting in Fairfax county, over which George Washington
presided, resolutions of like import were adopted.

At a very full meeting of delegates from the different counties of the
Colony and Dominion of Virginia, at Williamsburg, on the 1st day of
August, 1774, it was

"_Resolved_, that the abolition of domestic slavery is the greatest
object of desire in these colonies, where it was improperly introduced
in their infant state."

This is the language of the good and wise men of the Old Dominion in
1774; "the _abolition_ of domestic slavery was the greatest object of
their desire." Not merely to limit it, to prevent its extension, but
wholly to overthrow it. What would be said if a body of men, equally
wise, good, and patriotic, should _now_ meet in the Old Dominion, and
attempt to pass such resolutions? They would be scourged, driven by
violence from the State, and might be considered fortunate should they
escape with their lives. At a meeting in New Bern, North Carolina,
August, 1774, numerously attended by the most distinguished men of that
region, it was resolved that they would not import any slave or slaves,
or purchase any slave or slaves imported or brought into that province
by others from any part of the world. Such was the sentiment of North
Carolina in 1774, as to the evil and great wrong of slavery.

The Continental Congress, in October, 1774, resolved that they would
neither import, nor purchase any slave imported, after December of the
same year; they agreed and resolved that they would have no trade,
commerce, dealings, or intercourse whatsoever, with any colony or
province in North America which should not accede to, or should violate,
this resolve, but would hold them as unworthy the rights of freemen and
inimical to the liberties of this country.

But what is now the attitude of slaveholders? They will hold no
intercourse, they will have no dealings, with any person or State that
does not approve of slavery, and yield to its intolerant and despotic
demands; if any man, not thus approving and yielding, chances to travel
through the slave States, and there to express his sentiments, he is
subjected to the degradation and cruelty of the lash, and is driven from
the State.

October 21, 1774, the Continental Congress, in an address to the people