ag, he
swore to support the Constitution, were illustrious men, whose lives
and recorded words now rise in judgment. There was John Adams, the
Vice-President, great vindicator and final negotiator of our national
independence, whose soul, flaming with Freedom, broke forth in the early
declaration, that "consenting to Slavery is a sacrilegious breach of
trust," and whose immitigable hostility to this wrong is immortal in his
descendants. There was also a companion in arms and attached friend,
of beautiful genius, the yet youthful and "incomparable" Hamilton,--fit
companion in early glories and fame with that darling of English
history, Sir Philip Sidney, to whom the latter epithet has been
reserved,--who, as member of the Abolition Society of New York, had
recently united in a solemn petition for those who, though "free by the
laws of God; are held in Slavery by the laws of this State." There, too,
was a noble spirit, of spotless virtue, the ornament of human nature,
who, like the sun, ever held an unerring course,--John Jay. Filling the
important post of Secretary for Foreign Affairs under the Confederation,
he found time to organize the "Society for Promoting the Manumission
of Slaves" in New York, and to act as its President, until, by the
nomination of Washington, he became Chief Justice of the United States.
In his sight Slavery was an "iniquity," "a sin of crimson dye," against
which ministers of the Gospel should testify, and which the Government
should seek in every way to abolish. "Till America comes into this
measure," he wrote, "her prayers to Heaven for liberty will be impious.
This is a strong expression, but it is just. Were I in your legislature,
I would prepare a bill for the purpose with great care, and I would
never cease moving it till it became a law or I ceased to be a member."
Such words as these, fitly coming from our leaders, belong to the true
glories of the country:

"While we such precedents can boast at home,
Keep thy Fabricius and thy Cato, Rome!"

They stood not alone. The convictions and earnest aspirations of the
country were with them. At the North these were broad and general. At
the South they found fervid utterance from slaveholders. By early
and precocious efforts for "total emancipation," the author of
the Declaration of Independence placed himself foremost among the
Abolitionists of the land. In language now familiar to all, and
which can never die, he perpetually denounc