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. UTILITY OF THESE SENTIMENTS. These are our sentiments. We regret to say they are not collectively the sentiments of our countrymen. It is for our zeal in propagating them, that we have been assailed with unmeasured abuse and lawless violence. We think it of high importance to our country and the world that they should be received by all the people. What the effect of their general reception in the free states would be, is very apparent. _We should abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia._ There Congress has exclusive jurisdiction on all subjects whatsoever, including of course the subject of Slavery.—This is admitted by Martin Van Buren, Henry Clay, and an overwhelming majority of the present Congress. The Abolitionists are to a man in favor of the exercise of this right. If, therefore, the free states were _thoroughly_ abolitionized, their Senators and Representatives, who yet compose a majority in Congress, would at once bow to the supremacy of their constituents, and abolish Slavery. _We should prohibit the inter state Slave-Trade._ This trade has recently been carried on to a greater extent than ever was the foreign slave trade; it being estimated that not less than 120,000 slaves were exported from Virginia alone, within little more than a year, and removed for the most part to the southwestern states. Four of these states are said by their own papers, to have received within the same period, about 250,000 slaves from the old states. How many tender ties have in one short year been broken by this detestable business! How much bodily suffering has been endured! How much guilt has been contracted! This cruel and wicked traffic is at the foundation of a system of breeding slaves for market, which is prosecuted on a large scale, corrupting all concerned, by its licentiousness and barbarity. Congress has a right to prohibit and suppress this trade, under that article of the Constitution which empowers Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and between the several states. Were a majority of the citizens of the free states decided Abolitionists, this right could be exercised. We should insist upon it. Why then do not they, who profess to regard the _slave trade_ as the worst feature of Slavery, join with us against it?