rably numerous; the covert manner of doing which
is generally such as to elude detection. It is suggested whether
Legislative enactments requiring that persons so situated, should be
required to be registered every time they change masters would not
obviate in some measure this evil--humane persons could then trace
individuals so circumstanced, and bring offenders to justice:--all
which is respectfully submitted.

Some of your Committee have been the unwilling witnesses of gangs of
men, women and children, being driven off in chains from some of the
above places to be sold like cattle. The shrieks and groans of the
wretched victims, would have melted any heart but that of a Slave
Trader, steeled by avarice or petrified by cruelty: and as if in utter
defiance of the laws of God and man:--the Sabbath is the day generally
chosen for receiving and sending off the unfortunate objects of their
cupidity and so blunted has public opinion become from the long
existence of this unhallowed traffic, that individuals in the city of
Alexandria, publicly advertise their having prepared their prisons and
furnished themselves with every accommodation for selling men, women,
and innocent children, to any purchaser.

The number transported by sea from the single port of Baltimore by a
noted trader of that place is believed to exceed several hundreds per
annum. How long, may we ask, is our land to be polluted with such
abominations? Is there no fear of the awful vengeance of him who has
declared, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bonds
of wickedness, and that ye let the oppressed go free, and that ye
break every yoke?" If cruelty to the Israelites, (and their acts of
oppression was mildness, in comparison with ours,) what may we not
expect, we who have received the blessings of divine revelation, who
proclaim the goodness of God, in having freed us from the political
bondage of Great Britain.

Respectfully submitted, on behalf of the Committee,

--THOMAS SHIPLEY, _Chairman_.[4]

TO THE AMERICAN CONVENTION, &c.

The Committee appointed at the last Convention to procure information
of the cultivation of Sugar, Cotton, &c. by free labor, &c.

Respectfully Report--That they have given some attention to the
subject of their appointment, but have not been as successful as could
have been desired. They have been enabled to procure some general
information, relative to the production of sugar