Another consideration may be added to the foregoing. The extensive unsettled coast of this Territory, and its vicinity to the West India Islands, render the evasion of the existing laws against the slave trade easy--whereas, if it were settled by a free yeomanry, it would form an effectual barrier to such illicit trade, and a strong protection to the slave holding states against the invasion of a foreign enemy. Our most respectful request is, that Congress will be pleased to prohibit, by law, the further introduction of slaves into the Territory of Florida. WM. RAWLE, _President_.[12] Edwin P. Atlee, _Secretary_, _Philadelphia, Oct. 1827._ TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED. The memorial of the American Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and improving the condition of the African Race, RESPECTFULLY REPRESENTS, That your memorialists being citizens of this free republic, and feeling in a high degree thankful for the favours and protection of its benign government, are solicitous, in common with all the advocates of true liberty, that its benefits should be extended to the whole human family--that all mankind might be permitted to enjoy peaceably, the full fruition of national rights, and the great blessings of heaven, while here on earth, the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Your memorialists, without presuming to question the dignity, superior wisdom, and qualifications of your honourable body, would ask leave most respectfully to urge, as a sentiment, every day gaining a wider spread, and a deeper root, in the best feelings of freemen, that slavery is alike derogatory to the present enlightened condition of man, and a solecism in the institutions of our country: without, in any degree, wishing to appeal to the prejudices, either sectarian or geographical, of any portion of your honourable body, your memorialists cannot consent to withhold themselves from the influence of the irresistible current, manifest in the march of mind, towards perfection, and are therefore free to acknowledge, that they cannot, as consistent republicans, omit to raise their voices, in a respectful petition to their government on behalf of the sufferings, the privations, and the unmerited degradation of their fellow-men the colored people of America. That the several states in this confederation, are, to a certain constitutional extent, sovereign and independent, is readily admitted; but that their independence is qualified by the federal constitution, is equally certain. No state, has a right to injure or destroy the fair fame of the republic: and no state has a right, unnecessarily to jeopardize the peace of prosperity of any other state. And that all the states, and all the people of each and every state in the union, are indissolubly bound to submit to the majority, is a fundamental principle of the union.