“Slavery is inconsistent with the genius of republicanism, and has a tendency to destroy those principles on which it is supported, as it lessens the sense of the equal rights of mankind, and habituates us to tyranny and oppression.”
THE VOICE OF VIRGINIA.
After introducing the unreserved and immortal testimony of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and the other great men of the Old Dominion, against the institution of slavery, it may to some, seem quite superfluous to back the cause of Freedom by arguments from other Virginia abolitionists; but this State, notwithstanding all her more modern manners and inhumanity, has been so prolific of just views and noble sentiments, that we deem it eminently fit and proper to blazon many of them to the world as the redeeming features of her history. An Abolition Society was formed in this State in 1791. In a memorial which the members of this Society presented to Congress, they pronounced slavery “not only an odious degradation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most essential rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant to the precepts of the Gospel.” A Bill of Rights, unanimously agreed upon by the Virginia Convention of June 12, 1776, holds—
“That all men are, by nature, equally free and independent;
That Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the People, Nation, or Community;
That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people in assembly ought to be free;
That all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property, for public uses, without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not in like manner assented, for the public good;
That the freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of Liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments;
That no free Government or the blessing of Liberty can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”
The “Virginia Society for the Abolition of Slavery,” organized in 1791, addressed Congress in these words:—