d by slaves._

No particular measures on this subject are represented as being
adopted by any of the societies.

XIV. _To distribute the address to the free people of color from the
convention of 1796._

New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Alexandria
societies,--done.

_Choptank society._ Not received till late by this society.

_Virginia society._ Done in part.

From Rhode-Island, Connecticut, Washington, Wilmington, Delaware,
Chester-town, Winchester, and Kentucky societies--no information.

XV. _To send copies of the constitutions of the respective societies._

_Connecticut._ Sent.

_New-York._ Sent the original in 1796, and the revised one in 1797.

_New-Jersey._ Sent in 1796.

_Pennsylvania._ ditto.

_Wilmington._ ditto.

_Maryland._ ditto.

_Alexandria._ Sent in 1797.

_Virginia._ Sent in 1796.

Rhode-Island, Washington, Delaware, Chester-town, Choptank,
Winchester, and Kentucky societies sent none.[2]

A PLAN FOR THE GENERAL EMANCIPATION OF SLAVES.

_"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; among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights, governments
were instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed."_ (Declaration of Independence.)

These self-evident truths, thus solemnly promulgated, and always
admitted in theory; at least in relation to ourselves; are well-known
to be partially denied or disregarded, in most sections of the union,
in relation to the descendents of the African race. That a nation
professing the justice of its laws, should contain a population,
amounting to nearly one-seventh of the whole, who know little of the
operation of those laws, except as instruments of oppression, is one
of those political phenomena, which prove how little the patriot's
boast, or the creator's declamation is guided by the light of truth.

It must be admitted that it would neither be politic nor safe, for the
present system of slavery in the United Sates to be long continued,
without providing some wise and certain means of eventual
emancipation.

Slavery with its present degrading characteristics, is a state of
actual hostility between master and slave, in which "a revolution of
the wheel of fortune, in exchange of situation, is among possible
events; and this may become