As the result of much reading and research, and at the expenditure of no inconsiderable amount of time, labor and money, we now proceed to make known the anti-slavery sentiments of those noble abolitionists, the Fathers of the Republic, whose liberal measures of public policy have been so criminally perverted by the treacherous advocates of slavery.
Let us listen, in the first place, to the voice of him who was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” to
THE VOICE OF WASHINGTON.
In a letter to John F. Mercer, dated September 9th, 1786, General Washington says:—
“I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery, in this country, may be abolished by law.”
In a letter to Robert Morris, dated Mount Vernon, April 12, 1786, he says:—
“I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it. But there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by legislative authority; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting.”
He says, in a letter:—
“To the Marquis de Lafayette—April 5th, 1783:—
The scheme, my dear Marquis, which you propose as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people in this country from the state of bondage in which they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work; but will defer going into a detail of the business till I have the pleasure of seeing you.”