The LITERATURE of the land, such as then existed, agreed with the Nation, the Church, and the College. Franklin, in the last literary labor of his life,[144]--Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia,"--Barlow, in his heroic verse,--Rush, in a work which inspired the praise of Clarkson,[145]--the ingenious author of the "Algerine Captive," the earliest American novel, and, though now but little known, one of the earliest American books republished in London,--were all moved by the contemplation of Slavery. "If our fellow-citizens in the Southern States are deaf to the pleadings of Nature," exclaims the last earnestly, "I will conjure them, for the sake of consistency, to cease to deprive their fellow-creatures of freedom, which their writers, their orators, representatives, senators, and even their Constitutions of Government, have declared to be the unalienable birthright of man."[146] A female writer and poet, earliest in our country among the graceful throng, Sarah Wentworth Morton, at the very period of the National Convention, admired by the polite society in which she lived, poured forth her sympathies also. The generous labors of John Jay in behalf of the crushed African inspired her muse; and in another poem, commemorating a slave who fell while vindicating his freedom, she rendered a truthful homage to his inalienable rights, in words which I now quote as testimony of the times:-- "Does not the voice of Reason cry, 'Claim the first right that Nature gave, From the red scourge of bondage fly, Nor deign to live a burdened slave'?"[147] [144] Speech of Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim in the Divan of Algiers against granting the Petition of the Sect called Erika, or Purists, for the Abolition of Piracy and Slavery: Works, ed. Sparks, Vol. II. pp. 517-521. [145] An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements on the Slavery of the Negroes. Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, Vol. I. p. 152. [146] Algerine Captive, Vol. I. p. 213. [147] The African Chief: My Mind and its Thoughts, p. 201. Such, Sir, at the adoption of the Constitution and the first organization of the National Government, was the outspoken, unequivocal heart of the country. Slavery was abhorred. Like the slave-trade, it was regarded as transitory; and by many it was supposed that they would disappear together. As the oracles grew mute at the coming of Christ, and a voice was heard, crying to mariners at sea, "Great Pan is dead!" so at this time Slavery became dumb, and its death seemed to be near. Voices of Freedom filled the air. The patriot, the Christian, the scholar, the writer, the poet, vied in loyalty to this cause. All were Abolitionists.