DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS.
We believe that all men are born free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We believe Slavery is an infraction of these rights, a violation of the principles of christianity, and under all circumstances sinful.
We believe that Slavery is a great national evil, political as well as moral, opposed to the genius of a republican government, highly dangerous to the peace and permanency of the Union, and if persisted in, destined to bring upon us the severest judgments of Heaven.
We believe the immediate abolition of slavery would be safe and wise, and that it is the duty of every friend of humanity to use all fair and just means for its accomplishment.
We believe we have a right to express and publish our opinions respecting the customs and institutions of the people of this and every other country; and if we think them in any degree immoral, unequal, or oppressive, we are under the highest obligations, in the exercise of all honest and lawful means, to change them.
We believe that Slavery in the several states can be lawfully abolished only by the legislatures of the states in which it prevails, and that the exercise of any other than moral means to induce such abolition, is unconstitutional.
We believe that Congress has a right to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the Territories, and to prohibit the slave trade between the states, and that the exercise of this right is required by the divine law, and by the interests of our country.
We believe that no class of men can rightfully be denied, on account of their color, the enjoyment of equal rights with others, in the protection, immunities and administration of the government under which they live.