"There is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it (Slavery); but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is, by the legislative authority; and this, _as far as my suffrage will go, will not be wanting_."--_Letter to Robert Morris._ JOHN ADAMS.--"Great is truth--great is liberty--great is humanity; and they must and will prevail." THOMAS JEFFERSON.--"The rightful _power_ of all legislation is to declare and enforce _only_ our NATURAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES, and _take none of them from us_. No man has a natural right to _commit aggressions on the equal rights of another_, and this is ALL from which the law ought to _restrain him_. Every man is under a natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society, and this is all the law should enforce upon him. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions."--"The idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society, _we give up any natural right_." "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. * * And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the others, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the love of country of the other. For, if a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for another. * * And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God; that they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; and that his justice cannot sleep forever. * * When the measure of the slaves' tears shall be full; when their tears shall have involved heaven itself in darkness; doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to things of the world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality."--_Notes on Virginia._ JAMES MADISON.--"It seemed now to be pretty well understood, that the real difference of interests lay, not between the large and small, but between the Northern and Southern States. The institution of slavery, and its consequences, formed the line of discrimination."--_Speech in the Convention for the formation of the Federal Constitution._ JAMES MONROE.--"We have found that this evil (slavery) has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union; and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed."--_Speech in the Virginia Convention._