If the hand of prosecution is now raised against you, for relieving your fellow mortals from the distresses of unlawful slavery, and restoring them to liberty, it is to be hoped it will not be of long duration; the principles of your institutions will be daily made more known, and others will begin to think as you do; they will find upon reflection, that they have no just power or authority to hold men in slavery, and seeing that your actions are charitable and disinterested, will cordially inlist under your banners, and aid your benevolent exertions. Already have you reason to suppose, that your good examples have been influential; you humbly began with a few, and you now see your numbers hourly encreasing. It may be the effusions of a youthful fancy, solicitous of aggrandizing your merit, but I fear not to say, that the operations of similar institutions will date one of the most splendid aeras of American greatness. Go on then, my friends, pursue the dictates of an unsullied conscience, and cease not until you have finished your work--but let prudence guide you in all your undertakings, and let not an enthusiastic heat predominate over reason. Your cause is a just one, consistent with law and equity, and must finally be advocated by all men of Humanity and Religion. * * * * * "_For, 'tis Liberty alone which gives the flower of fleeting life its lustre and perfume, And we are weeds without it._" TASK. FOOTNOTES: [36] _A whip with nine tails._ [37] Massachusetts. [38] This was thrown out as a conjecture of what possibly might happen, and the insurrections in St. Domingo tend to prove the danger, to be more considerable than has generally been supposed, and sufficient to alarm the inhabitants of these States. FINIS. [Transcriber's Notes: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. The transcriber noted the following issues and made changes as indicated to the text to correct obvious errors: 1. p. 15, "tendto" --> "tend to" 2. p. 18, "partiotism" --> "patriotism" 3. p. 30, Footnote #9, "Litterature" --> "Litterature" 4. p. 33, Footnote #10, Elliot's Debates, Va. p. 452: (page number is indecipherable, possibly 452.) 5. p. 37, Footnote #11, "contray" --> "contrary" 6. p. 40, Footnote #12, April 23, 178?, (year is indecipherable) 7. p. 41, Both "Ralph Sandiford" and "Ralph Sandyford" appear in main text and Footnote #13 8. p. 76, Both "Adam Fonerdon" and "Adam Fonerden" appear in main text and Footnote #21 9. p. 99, "terrestial" --> "terrestrial" 10. p. 18, "peceably" --> "peaceably" Also, many occurrences of mismatched single and double quotes remain as published. End of Transcriber's Notes]