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 ADDRESS 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, 
 
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 C AI, i. ED QUAKERS, 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA. \EW JEJtSEY. DELAWARE, &r. 
 
 OITIZEKS OF THS T7NXTSS STATES. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 JOSEPH Sc WILI.rAM KITE, PRLVTEI;i 
 
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 18 3 7. 
 

 ADDRESS 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 iaeltstous ^octetp of J^rCeutJS, 
 
 COMMONLY 
 
 CALLED QUAKERS, 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE, &;c 
 
 CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 JOSEPH & WILLIAM KITE, PRINTERS. 
 
 1 8 37. 
 
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 At a Yearly Meeting of Friends held in Philadelphia, by adjournments from 
 the nth of the Fourth month, to2\st of the same, inclusive, 1837. 
 
 The suffering condition of our fellow men, descendants of the African 
 race, who are subjected to tiic rigours of unconditional slavery, having long 
 engaged the sympathy and commiseration of this meeting, the subject was 
 referred at our last annual assembly, to the serious attention of the Meeting for 
 Sufferings. An address to the citizens of the United States, prepared by that 
 meeting, was now introduced by the reading of their minutes, bringing into 
 view the injustice of slavery, the enormities which it authorises by the traffic 
 in the persons of men, extensively prosecuted within the United Slates, and 
 the degradation of morals unavoidably attendant on such an unrighteous 
 system, wherever it is tolerated ; and inviting our fellow-citizens to a calm 
 and dispassionate examination oftliis momentous subject, with a sincere 
 desire to act in conformity with the principles of universal righteousness, in 
 according to that people the enjoyment of their natural and religious rights ; 
 — as likewise tlic numerous and complicated injuries inflicted on the aborigi- 
 nes of our country, and the duty incumbent upon us of endeavouring to 
 extend to the feeble remnant of tliese once numerous tribes, the benefits 
 of civilized life and religious instruction : — which address being read and 
 deliberately considered, was approved ; and that meeting was directed to 
 procure the printing of such number as they may judge needful for general 
 distribution. 
 
 Extracted from the MinutSs, 
 
 «.•"* William Evans, Clerk. 
 
 // 
 
 fA 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 To THE Citizens of the Unitkd States. 
 
 Our minds have been seriously impressed with consid- 
 erations relative to the present condition and future pros- 
 pects of our country. In venturing to address our fellow- 
 citizens on subjects of vital importance to the community, 
 we trust we shall not be suspected of acting from party or 
 political motives, or of desiring to excite a feeling of an- 
 tipathy towards any class of our fellow men. Our object 
 is the promotion of the general good and the performance 
 of our religious duty. Our principles are well known to 
 be pacific, consistent, as we firmly believe, with the doc- 
 trines of the gospel, which breathes " Glory to God in the 
 highest, peace on earth, and good will to men." It has 
 frequently been our concern to counsel our members to 
 abstain as much as possible from engagements, either alone 
 or in connexion with others, which lead to strife and con- 
 tention ; and to preserve towards all men a demeanor 
 conformable to our religious profession. As we cannot 
 resort to violence ourselves to obtain or secure our most 
 dear and unquestionable rights, so we cannot countenance 
 riotous or tumultuous proceedings in others, for the attain- 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 ment of any object, however just or desirable ; yet we hold 
 it to be a civil and religious right to raise our voice against 
 injustice and oppression, whether extended to ourselves or 
 to others. That national as well as individual transgres- 
 sions are sooner or later visited by Divine judgments, is 
 fully attested by the sacred records. And believing as we 
 do, that injustice and oppression are practised by many in 
 this land, we are induced to open our mouths for tVie dumb, 
 and to plead the cause of those who have neither the means 
 nor the power to plead for themselves. 
 
 In the early settlement of this country, the practice of 
 importing and holding African slaves was incautiously in- 
 troduced, and some of our predecessors in religious pro- 
 fession, as well as others, fell into it ; but its utter repug- 
 nance to the precepts of the gospel, and the natural rights 
 of man, was soon perceived, and long before the close of 
 the last century, an union of sentiment and practice on 
 this subject was effected throughout the society. Having, 
 upon religious grounds, cleared ourselves of holding our 
 fellow men in slavery, we have believed it to be our duty 
 from that period to bear our testimony against it, without 
 being swayed by considerations of interest or policy. As 
 our opinions and principles in relation to the rights of this 
 people are not new, so they are unchanged, being found- 
 ed, as we believe, on a basis which is fixed and immuta- 
 ble. 
 
 When we reflect that there are now within the United 
 States, upwards of two millions of human beings detained 
 in slavery ; who are held as goods and chattels, the pro- 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 perty of other human beings, having similar passions with 
 themselves ; that they are liable to be sold and transferred 
 from hand to hand, like the beasts that perish ; that more 
 than thirty thousand are annually sold and removed from 
 the land of their birth to regions further south and west, 
 and this not in families, but in companies composed chiefly 
 of youths from twelve to twenty-five years of age, the 
 nearest connexions of lite being thus frequently torn asun- 
 der ; that the District of Columbia, under the exclusive 
 legislation of Congress, is one of the scenes of this dis- 
 graceful commerce ; that the jails of the metropoUs are 
 used to confine the victims of this traffic, who are thus 
 incarcerated, not because of their crimes, but because of 
 the crimes of others, their slavery being the consequence 
 of injuries inflicted by the hand of violence on them- 
 selves or on their ancestors ; when we further reflect, that in 
 several, if not in most of the slave-holding states, the slaves 
 are systematically excluded from the means of improving 
 their minds — that in some, even teaching them to read is 
 treated as a crime ; and that all these things are found 
 among a people loudly proclaiming the freedom and equal- 
 ity of their laws — a people professing the benign religion 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who came to made 
 an end of sin, to finish transgression, and in the room there- 
 of to bring in everlasting righteousness; who has taught 
 us that he regards the injuries done to the least of 
 his children as done to himself; and has commanded 
 us to love one another, and to do to all men as we 
 would that they should do unto us — well may we in- 
 quire. Shall not the Lord visit for these things 1 Shall not 
 his soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 We earnestly solicit the attention of our fellow-citizens 
 to this momentous subject. These people are our fellow 
 creatures ; and their condition among us demands our se- 
 rious consideration. We know not the time when those 
 scales, in which mountains are weighed, may turn. The 
 parent of mankind is gracious. His care is over the small- 
 est of his creatures ; and a multitude of men escape not 
 his notice. And though many of them are trodden down 
 and despised, yet he remembers them. He sees their 
 affliction, and looks on the increasing exaltation of the op- 
 pressor. He turns the channels of power, humbles the 
 most haughty people, and give deliverance to the oppress- 
 ed, at such periods as are consistent with his infinite wis- 
 dom and justice. If we disregard the claims of mercy 
 and justice in the season of prosperity, and employ our 
 superior advantages of knowledge and power, not for the 
 glory of the Giver and the good of men, but to degrade 
 and depress a large part of his rational creation, below 
 the station for which they were designed, it may be " by 
 terrible things in righteousness that he will answer us" in 
 this matter. 
 
 If we look back to the period when the people of these 
 United States assumed their station among the nations of the 
 earth, and advert to the principles then solemnly proclaim- 
 ed in the face of the world, we find them totally irrecon- 
 cilable with the maintenance of slavery. Liberty was then 
 declared to be an inalienable right, conferred by the Crea- 
 tor himself. No intimation is given, that personal freedom 
 is the boon of society, the creature of law, to be granted or 
 withheld at the caprice of the wealthy and powerful. No 
 
( ^ ) 
 
 exception is made ; and, indeed, none could be made, on 
 account of colour or previous condition, without rendering 
 the whole passage absurd. This avowal was made by 
 those who resided where slavery was most predominant, 
 as well as where it was least. It is remarkable that at the 
 period in question, slavery was tolerated in every State of 
 the Union, and yet the delegates in Congress assembled, 
 ventured to sweep away its foundation at a stroke. In 
 some of the States these principles were soon after carried 
 into effect, by the immediate extinction of slavery, and in 
 others, provision was made for its eventual abolition. As 
 these doctrines have not been disavowed by the authority 
 of any section of our country, we believe that consistency^ 
 even looking no higher, requires that slavery should cease 
 from every part of our government. 
 
 By a series of legislative enactments. Congress haff 
 expressed its abhorrence of the African slave trade. In 
 1820 this traffic was denounced as piratical, and the 
 punishment of death was prescribed for any person within 
 our jurisdiction, who should be found engaged in it. Yet 
 a traffic partaking of the character of this, and combining 
 many of its atrocities, is prosecuted in the interior of our 
 own country. If the foreign slave trade was prohibited, 
 because of its iniquity, surely the domestic trade ought 
 not to be tolerated. If the reduction of the unoffending 
 natives of Africa into servitude, or the act of conveying 
 them in that character across the Atlantic, is a crime to 
 be punished with death, the detention of them, or their 
 descendants, in slavery, and the traffic in their pcrsonsf 
 within the United States, cannot be innocent : and the 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 continuance of the practice demands our serious conside- 
 ration. 
 
 It must be admitted, as a fact, which we can neither 
 disguise nor conceal, that slavery, wherever it prevails, 
 exercises an influence unfavourable to religion and morals, 
 both among masters and slaves. With regard to the 
 latter, it is, perhaps, universally admitted. Degrade the 
 human character and intellect as we will, there is still an 
 inextinguishable sense of the injustice of slavery. Hence, 
 discontent and frequent irritation are its inseparable 
 attendants. The obsequiousness required to the com- 
 mands, however unjust or capricious, of those who control 
 them, renders the maintenance of independent virtue 
 almost, if not altogether, impossible. In all communities, 
 the virtue of the people depends very much on the educa- 
 tion of the young ; but what education can the slave 
 possibly bestow on his offspring, even supposing him 
 capable of it, where parents and children are under the 
 absolute domination of others, who consider their own 
 interest promoted by the debasement and ignorance of 
 their slaves? It is not probable that much sense of justice 
 and of the rights of property, can be maintained amongst 
 a people who see their own earnings appropriated without 
 their consent to the accommodation of others. A scrupu- 
 lous regard to the sanctity of the marriage covenant 
 cannot be expected, where the connexion is liable to be 
 broken at any time, as the interest, will, or wants of the 
 master may suggest. 
 
 That the system is deleterious to the masters as well as 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 the slaves, is equally true. The possession of irresponsible 
 power, and the consequent temptations to its abuse, have 
 a strong tendency to injure the moral feelings of its 
 possessor. Whatever degree of humanity may be mingled 
 with its exercise, it is obvious that the condition to which 
 it applies could not possibly exist, if the injunction of our 
 blessed Redeemer were duly regarded ; " All things 
 whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." 
 Let it be remembered, that every departure from sound 
 Christian principle, impairs our sensibility to right and 
 wrong, and prepares the way for other and more glaring 
 deviations. And as the sense of religious obligation 
 declines among any people, the standard of morals will 
 unavoidably sink. The exclusion of the slaves from the 
 opportunity of enlarging and improving their minds, by 
 learning to read the Holy Scriptures, must exert an 
 unhappy influence upon the masters. How can they 
 entertain a high sense of religious obligation, and pursue 
 with assiduity the improvement of their own minds in 
 piety and virtue, while they are carefully excluding their 
 humble dependants from this invaluable advantage 1 How 
 can they hft up their hands in prayer to the God and 
 Father of mercies for his blessing on themselves and their 
 olTspring, and for the extension of the Redeemer's king- 
 dom on earth, while they endeavour thus to debar a part 
 of his creatures, equally with themselves the objects of his 
 redeeming love, from those means of attaining a know- 
 ledge of the doctrines and principles of the Christian 
 
 religion 1 
 
 2 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 Light is spreading among the nations of Christendom 
 on the subject of human rights, and most of them have 
 adopted measures to extirpate the slave trade. Some 
 important movements have recently been made towards 
 the extinction of slavery in a number of the West Indian 
 islands, so that we may now reasonably conclude, that at 
 no distant day the islands in the American Archipelago 
 will be chiefly cultivated by freemen. This must increase 
 the odium as well as the difficulty of maintaining the insti- 
 tution of slavery here. It is not to be supposed that those 
 who have cleared their hands of the practice, and who 
 hail with satisfaction the light that is opening on the sub- 
 ject, will again consent to return to so iniquitous a system, 
 or cease to support the principles which they have adopted 
 from a conviction of their conformity to reason and truth. 
 If then a portion of our citizens tenaciously adhere to a 
 system thus abhorrent to the feelings of others, and to the 
 principles which all have concurred to applaud, bickerings 
 and jealousies can scarcely fail to arise and seriously 
 disturb the harmony of our necessary intercourse. Indeed, 
 it requires but little attention to the events of the day to 
 perceive, that the existence of slavery is now exerting an 
 influence highly prejudicial to the peace of our country. 
 The responsibility of contributing, as citizens of our com- 
 mon government, to support this unrighteous institution, 
 and thus degrading the atHicted descendants of Africa, 
 nearly to a level with the brute creation, is felt by many 
 conscientious Christians to be serious and weighty ; hence, 
 they cannot but desire that the subject may increasingly 
 engage the solemn deliberation of their fellow-citizens, 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 more particularly of those who, from the possession of 
 power or influence, may be enabled to promote their 
 liberation. 
 
 To behold this portentous cloud spreading and thicken- 
 ing with the progress of time, and every effort to dissipate it 
 strenuously resisted, fills our minds with gloomy fore- 
 bodings for ourselves and for our country, and more 
 particularly for those immediately implicated in the evil 
 of slavery. We are not about to dictate in what manner 
 slavery shall be finally extinguished, but we believe it is 
 obligatory on those who hold their fellow men in bondage, 
 to enter into a solemn examination of the subject. When 
 they have been aroused by the appearance of danger, to 
 enter into a close inspection of the nature and consequen- 
 ces of slavery, their voices have been as loud, and their 
 declarations as forcible in reprobation of the practice, as 
 those of any people among us. The testimony of one of 
 their own statesmen was then felt and acknowledged. " I 
 tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just ; 
 that his justice cannot sleep forever ; that, considering 
 numbers, nature and natural means only, a change of 
 circumstances is among possible events ; that it may 
 become probable by supernatural interference. The 
 Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in 
 such a contest." Under such circumstances, we have 
 seen a disposition to clear themselves of the evil as a 
 means of escaping its consequence. A practice, which, 
 in the moment of danger, appears unjust and iniquitous, 
 must be equally so when that danger is withdrawn from 
 the view. To arrive at a correct conclusion on this 
 
 tore 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 awfully momentous subject, it is necessary that the 
 demands of interest and the clamours of passion should be 
 silenced, and a sincere desire cultivated to pursue such 
 course as may be consistent with the Divine will and the 
 promotion of universal righteousness. With such desires 
 steadily maintained, we firmly believe that the light of 
 truth, the Spirit of our blessed Redeemer, which can 
 neither deceive nor be deceived, would manifest the 
 necessity and the mode of breaking the yoke and letting 
 the oppressed go free. Whatever prejudice may assert, 
 or sophistry attempt to establish, the inconsistency of 
 slavery with universal righteousness, is too obvious to 
 every enlightened mind to admit of dispute. And to 
 suppose that the wickedness and cupidity of man are 
 capable of introducing an evil into civil society, which the 
 light of the gospel and the labours of the devoted followers 
 of Christ are incompetent to remedy, is to distrust the 
 power and the moral government of our gracious Creator. 
 If with an eye to the teachings and leadings of the Spirit 
 of truth, we pursue the course which our duty as men 
 and Christians requires, we may rely on the wisdom and 
 goodness of God, who governs all consequences, to 
 reward our endeavours and bless the work of our hands. 
 
 We would also invite the attention of our fellow-citizens 
 to the condition of those descendants of the African race 
 who are free. It is sorrowfully true, that in many parts 
 of our country they are subject to unjust and oppressive 
 restrictions, which are not applied to persons of our own 
 colour ; and that their personal freedom is liable to be 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 wrested from them by the operation of unequal laws. In 
 nearly every part of the United States, they are the objects 
 of cruel prejudice, which tends to produce that very 
 degradation, which it assumes as its justification. That 
 the benefits of education are rendered more difficult of 
 access to them than to the youths of our own complexion, 
 is well known. We apprehend that not only our religious 
 duty, but our interest, as we value the peace and good of 
 civil society, requires that we should manifest our gratitude, 
 for our own superior advantages, by labouring to promote 
 the improvement of this part of the human family ; that 
 we should cultivate feelings of true Christian benevolence 
 towards them, and prepare them, as far as example 
 and assistance can effect it, for civil and religious useful- 
 ness. 
 
 There is yet another class of our fellow men whose 
 multiplied wrongs have excited our tender commiseration. 
 We allude to the aborigines of our country, — once the 
 undisputed proprietors of this extensive continent, but many 
 of them now driven from the homes of their fathers, in 
 defiance of the claims of justice, and the faith of treaties, 
 to seek a precarious subsistence in distant and uncultivated 
 regions. If we advert to the condition of these people 
 when our ancestors first settled among them, the kindness 
 manifested by many of those, then numerous and powerful 
 tribes, towards their feeble visiters, and the various com- 
 plicated acts of injustice since meted to them, we must 
 acknowledge that a heavy load of guilt rests on our 
 country. We earnestly desire that the people of the 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 United States, the present occupants of land from which 
 the Indians have been expelled, by means abhorrent to 
 justice and humanity, may duly consider the debt which 
 our ancestors and ourselves have incurred, and extend 
 to them, in their wilderness abode, the aids of science and 
 the benefits of literary and religious instruction. The 
 feeble remnant still remaining on this side of the Mississippi, 
 are no less the proper objects of our care and benevolence. 
 We believe it to be our religious duty to discountenance 
 the attempts of avaricious men to dislodge them, either 
 by violence or fraud, from the remaining scanty pittance 
 of their once ample possessions ; and that it is obligatory 
 upon us to endeavour to improve their condition by 
 instruction in the arts of civilized life, and to inculcate on 
 their minds the excellency and importance of the gospel 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 Finally, it is our sincere desire and prayer, tiiat it may 
 please the Sovereign Ruler of nations, to influence the 
 hearts of those who are placed in authority to seek for 
 his counsel, and incline the inhabitants of these United 
 States to feelings of tenderness for the oppressed, that 
 there may be a hearty co-operation between the people 
 and our rulers, in according to all, without distinction of 
 nation or colour, the free enjoyment of their civil and 
 religious rights. Thus we may hope to experience the 
 fulfilment of the evangelical prophecy, " I will make thine 
 oflicers, peace, and thine exactors, righteousness ; violence 
 shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruc- 
 tion within thy borders ;" and that the Most High will 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 still extend to our country the blessings of harmony and 
 peace, and make us a light to the surrounding nations. 
 
 Signed in and on behalf of a Meeting of the Repre- 
 sentatives of the Religious Society of Friends, 
 commonly called Quakers, in Pennsylvania, 
 New Jersey, &c., held in Philadelphia, the 14th 
 of the Fourth Month, 1837. 
 
 JONATHAN EVANS, Clerk. 
 
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