_The AntiSlavery Sentiments of the Founders of the Republic._--A plain recital of facts will show the urgency of this question. At the period of the Declaration of Independence there were upwards of half a million colored persons held as slaves in the United States. These unhappy people were originally stolen from Africa, or were the children of those stolen, and, though distributed through the whole country, were to be found mostly in the Southern States. But the spirit of Freedom was then abroad in the land. The fathers of the Republic, leaders in the War of Independence, were struck with the impious inconsistency of an appeal for their own liberties, while holding fellow-men in bondage. Out of ample illustrations, I select one which specially reveals this conviction, and possesses a local interest in this community. It is a deed of manumission, made after our struggles had begun, and preserved in the Probate Records of the County of Suffolk.[1] Here it is. "Know all men by these presents, that I, JONATHAN JACKSON, of Newburyport, in the County of Essex, gentleman, _in consideration of the impropriety I feel, and have long felt, in holding any person in constant bondage, more especially at a time when my country is so warmly contending for the liberty every man ought to enjoy_, and having sometime since promised my negro man, POMP, that I would give him his freedom, and in further consideration of five shillings paid me by said POMP, I do hereby liberate, manumit, and set him free; and I do hereby remise and release unto said POMP all demands of whatever nature I have against POMP. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 19th of June, 1776. "JONATHAN JACKSON. [Seal.] "_Witness_, MARY COBURN, "WILLIAM NOYES." [1] Printed, since this Address, in the History of Newton, by Francis Jackson, (Boston, 1854,) p. 336. The same conviction animated the hearts of the people, whether at the North or South. In a town-meeting at Danbury, Connecticut, held on the 12th of December, 1774, the following declaration was made. "It is with singular pleasure we note the second article of the Association, in which it is agreed to import no more negro slaves,--as we cannot but think it a palpable absurdity so loudly to complain of attempts to enslave _us_, while we are actually enslaving _others_."[2] The South responded in similar strain. At a meeting in Darien, Georgia, January 12th, 1775, the following important resolution speaks, in tones worthy of freemen, the sentiments of the time.