rights. Your memorialists therefore,
feeling in common with many thousands of their fellow citizens,
unwilling to sanction so great an evil, and desirous to do all that is
in their power towards its removal, beg leave, earnestly, yet
respectfully, to urge the consideration of this subject, on the
attention of congress.

Your memorialists are aware that difficulties are found in the way of
an immediate emancipation of those slaves now existing; arising out of
a supposed right of property in those who hold them; as well as from a
disqualification for self-government on the part of the slaves
themselves, but which would be entirely obviated by an enactment
providing that from and after a given date all persons born within the
district, shall be free at a given age. By the enactment of such a law
the wishes of a very large proportion of the individuals represented
by your honourable body, it is believed would be met; and that so much
at least, ought to be done by the national legislature, seems to be
demanded not only by the claims of humanity and justice, but also by
those of patriotism and consistency. Amongst the first acts of the
congress of this Union, was one to abolish the African slave trade;
and our whole existence as a nation is based on the principle that
"all men are created equal;" and shall the congress of these states at
the present day, hesitate to declare, that henceforth and forever, the
child that is born within the limits of its special legislation, shall
breathe an atmosphere of liberty?

Under a full conviction that the true interest of the nation requires
the interposition of congress in this important matter; and with a
full and entire reliance on the wisdom of your honorable body; your
memorialists decline any argument to prove the justice or
reasonableness of the prayer, or to show the obligation that lies upon
the legislature of this happy country, to interpose its authority in
behalf of the offspring of these subjects of oppression, and thus
remove the odium which attaches to the American name by the existence
of slavery in the national domain.

Your memorialists would also intreat your attention to the necessity
of passing laws for the prevention of kidnapping, and the scenes of
cruelty connected with the slave trade in the District of Columbia,
until its final abolition.

Many of the African race, purchased for a distant market, are
concentrated here, where the sounds of the clanking fett