Signed by
Anna Maria Bedford (Duchess of Bedford).
Olivia Cecilia Cowley (Countess Cowley).
Constance Grosvenor (Countess Grosvenor).
Harriet Sutherland (Duchess of Sutherland).
Elizabeth Argyll (Duchess of Argyll).
Elizabeth Fortescue (Countess Fortescue).
Emily Shaftesbury (Countess of Shaftesbury).
Mary Ruthven (Baroness Ruthven).
M. A. Milman (Wife of the Dean of St. Paul’s).
R. Buxton (Daughter of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton).
Caroline Amelia Owen (Wife of Professor Owen).
Mrs. Charles Windham.
C. A. Hatherton (Baroness Hatherton).
Elizabeth Ducie (Countess Dowager of Ducie).
Cecilia Parke (Wife of Baron Parke).
Mary Ann Challis (Wife of the Lord Mayor of London).
E. Gordon (Duchess Dowager of Gordon).
Anna M. L. Melville (Daughter of Earl Leven and Melville).
Georgiana Ebrington (Lady Ebrington).
A. Hill (Viscountess Hill).
Mrs. Gobat (Wife of Bishop Gobat of Jerusalem).
E. Palmerston (Viscountess Palmerston).
and others.
A REPLY, Etc.
Sisters,
More than eight years ago, you sent to us in America a document with the above heading. It is as follows:—
“A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common cause, urge us, at the present moment, to address you on the subject of that system of Negro Slavery which still prevails so extensively, and, even under kindly disposed masters, with such frightful results, in many of the vast regions of the Western world.
“We will not dwell on the ordinary topics,—on the progress of civilization, on the advance of freedom everywhere, on the rights and requirements of the nineteenth century; but we appeal to you very seriously to reflect and to ask counsel of God how far such a state of things is in accordance with His Holy Word, the inalienable rights of immortal souls, and the pure and merciful spirit of the Christian religion. We do not shut our eyes to the difficulties, nay, the dangers, that might beset the immediate abolition of that long-established system. We see and admit the necessity of preparation for so great an event; but, in speaking of indispensable preliminaries, we cannot be silent on those laws of your country which, in direct contravention of God’s own law, ‘instituted in the time of man’s innocency,’ deny in effect to the Slave the sanctity of marriage, with all its joys, rights, and obligations; which separate, at the will of the master, the wife from the husband and the children from the parents. Nor can we be silent on that awful system which either by statute or by custom interdicts to any race of man or any portion of the human family education in the truths of the Gospel and the ordinances of Christianity. A remedy applied to these two evils alone would commence the amelioration of their sad condition. We appeal to you, then, as sisters, as wives, and as mothers, to raise your voices to your fellow-citizens, and your prayers to God, for the removal of this affliction and disgrace from the Christian world.
“We do not say these things in a spirit of self-complacency, as though our nation were free from the guilt it perceives in others.