would also be an effectual security
against revolt. If the severity of their treatment were lessened, and
the hope of freedom for them or their posterity were held forth as the
reward of good behaviour, the slaves would be bound by personal
interest to be civil, orderly, and industrious. It has been argued,
that they are not qualified to enjoy the blessings of freedom, even
under a gradual emancipation: but are they not rational creatures, and
why will not the same method which have civilized others, in the
course of time also civilize them? A principal mean of effecting this
purpose, would be to instruct them in the duties and obligations of
religion, morality, and social justice. We find that the cultivated
inhabitants of different countries and even the individuals of the
same country, have very different ideas on these subjects. Is it
therefore to be wondered at that the poor illiterate blacks, who are
so little instructed in the principles of Christianity, and strangers
to the refined sentiments which result from education; is it, we ask,
to be wondered at, that they are susceptible of error and delusion?

Fellow citizens of the southern states! we invite your calm and
dispassionate attention to the subject; and, with the aid of that
Being to whom we must look for instruction in this, as in all our
other undertakings, we firmly trust that you will be enabled to devise
such measures as may terminate in your own peace, and security, and
the benefit of that unfortunate race whose miseries excite our
sympathy, and the improvement of whose situation is the object of our
anxious solicitude and care.

Another subject that required general attention, is the inhuman crime
of kidnapping, which, in some parts of our country, has recently
increased to an alarming degree. The friends of liberty view with
horror the perpetuation of this abominable practice, and the holders
of slaves have no security for them, as property, during its
continuance. There is therefore a common interest in the removal of
the grievance; and we confidently look for the assistance of the
humane of all descriptions in detecting and bringing to punishment,
these shameless violations of the rights of their fellow-men.

It is also a lamentable fact, that notwithstanding the general
repugnance of all well disposed citizens to any further importation of
Africans into this country, or concern in the infamous commerce in the
persons of our fellow creatures,