Respectfully Sheweth,
That it has long been a source of deep regret to a large portion of the citizens of the United States, as well as to the friends of human rights and liberty throughout the world, that domestic Slavery, with all its odious features, continues to be tolerated by the national government in the small territory over which the Constitution invests it with exclusive jurisdiction. Your Memorialists are convinced, that a strong simultaneous effort of those who hold this sentiment in different sections of our country, would imperiously engage the attention of Congress to this interesting subject; especially if that effort were sanctioned and directed by the authority of the different state legislatures. Impressed with this belief, we earnestly solicit your honourable body to use such means as your wisdom and the spirit of our admirable constitution will sanction, in order to remove this national reproach, and vindicate the purity and vigour of our republican institutions from the reproaches of their enemies.
We are only known to foreign states as one great nation, of which the Federal Government is the organ and representative; every state comprising the Union and all its inhabitants, are compelled to endure the opprobium, however they may abhor, the guilt of holding their fellow men in bondage. To permit the existence of slavery within the very sound of the voice of the orator and statesman, while he is pleading the cause of Liberty, or uttering his boast of American Independence upon the floor of Congress, is a flagrant inconsistency, which, in the view of foreign nations, attaches equally to Massachusetts and Virginia! We entreat you, therefore, by your regard for justice and the rights of man—by your religion, and the welfare of our common country—by your respect for yourselves and for the honour of your constituents, not to suffer the present session to elapse, without a recorded vote, which shall be your witness to posterity, that, if the exclusive territory of the national government remains to be polluted by the footsteps of a slave, it is because your exertions in the cause of liberty have been unavailing.
Respectfully, but most earnestly, do your memorialists request your honourable body, seriously to consider this subject; and if it shall appear to you advisable, let your senators be requested, to bring the subject into the view of the Congress of the United States, enforced with the commanding weight of your recommendation to an early and profound enquiry into the expediency of the measure.
W. Rawle, President.[24]
The following is a Circular, prepared and issued by the Acting Committee of the Convention, and selected and ordered to be placed upon the Minutes of the Convention:
Respected Friend,
In inviting our fellow citizens to join in the great cause of justice, and humanity, it seems almost unnecessary to dwell upon the reasons which should influence their cordial co-operation. It would be an insult to their feelings and understanding, to suppose them unmindful of the rights of their fellow men, or indifferent to the honour of their country; yet it may be well to direct their attention to some of the calamities inseparably connected with slavery, and to strive to awaken the exertions requisite to effect its abolition.