Produced by Bryan Ness, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain works at the University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) [Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook.] Anti-Slavery Opinions BEFORE THE YEAR 1800 READ BEFORE THE CINCINNATI LITERARY CLUB, NOVEMBER 16, 1872 BY WILLIAM FREDERICK POOLE Librarian of the Public Library of Cincinnati TO WHICH IS APPENDED A FAC SIMILE REPRINT OF DR. GEORGE BUCHANAN'S ORATION ON THE MORAL AND POLITICAL EVIL OF SLAVERY, DELIVERED AT A PUBLIC MEETING OF THE MARYLAND SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, BALTIMORE, JULY 4, 1791 CINCINNATI ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 1873 ANTI-SLAVERY OPINIONS Before 1800. I purpose this evening to call the attention of the Club to the state of anti-slavery opinions in this country just prior to the year 1800. In this examination I shall make use of a very rare pamphlet in the library of General Washington, which seems to have escaped the notice of writers on this subject; and shall preface my remarks on the main topic of discussion with a brief description of the Washington collection. In the library of the Boston Athenaeum, the visitor sees, as he enters, a somewhat elaborately-constructed book-case, with glass front, filled with old books. This is the library of George Washington, which came into possession of the Athenaeum in 1849. It was purchased that year from the heirs of Judge Bushrod Washington--the favorite nephew to whom the General left all his books and manuscripts--by Mr. Henry Stevens, of London, with the intention of placing it in the British Museum. Before the books were shipped, they were bought by Mr. George Livermore and a few other literary and public-spirited gentlemen of Boston, and presented to the Athenaeum. Mr. Livermore, as discretionary executor of the estate of Thomas Dowse, the "literary leather-dresser" of Cambridge, added to the gift one thousand dollars, for the purpose of printing a description and catalogue of the collection, which has not yet been done. The collection numbers about twelve hundred titles, of which four hundred and fifty are bound volumes, and seven hundred and fifty are pamphlets and unbound serials. Some books of the original library of General Washington still remain at Mt. Vernon, and are, or were a few years since, shown to visitors, with other curiosities.