We at the North are responsible for Slavery everywhere within the jurisdiction of Congress, and it is here that we should exert ourselves, according to the principles of Washington, to abolish it by legislative action.

We should join with Washington in his exclamation to Lafayette, on learning that this philanthropic Frenchman had purchased an estate in Cayenne, with the view of emancipating the slaves on it: "Would to God a like spirit might diffuse…

It is a task worthy of a soul so elevated, so pure, and so disinterested, to begin the revolution in Virginia, to prepare the way for the emancipation of the negroes.

I replied, that the Virginians were in an error,--that, evidently, sooner or later, the negroes would obtain their liberty everywhere.

It is, then, for the interest of your countrymen to prepare the way to such a revolution, by endeavoring to reconcile the restitution of the rights of the blacks with the interest of the whites.

The means necessary to be taken to this effect can only be the work of a SOCIETY; and it is worthy the Saviour of America to put himself at their head, and to open the door of liberty to three hundred thousand unhappy beings of his own…

The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so conspicuous upon all occasions, that I never wonder at any fresh proofs of it; but your late purchase of an estate in the Colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves on…

Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country!

It is a vindication of Equal Rights in Common Schools.

Since this legislation, Equal Rights have prevailed in the Common Schools of Massachusetts, and nobody would go back to the earlier system.

Can any discrimination on account of race or color be made among children entitled to the benefit of our Common Schools under the Constitution and Laws of Massachusetts?

This little child asks at your hands her personal rights.

It is in your power to make it subside forever.

But I cannot forget that the principles of morals and of natural justice lie at the foundation of all jurisprudence.

Of Equality I shall speak, not only as a sentiment, but as a principle embodied in the Constitution of Massachusetts, and obligatory upon court and citizen.

It will be my duty to show that this principle, after finding its way into our State Constitution, was recognized in legislation and judicial decisions.

In the course of this discussion I shall exhibit the true idea of our Common Schools, and the fallacy of the pretension that any exclusion or discrimination founded on race or color can be consistent with Equal Rights.

According to the Constitution of Massachusetts, all men, without distinction of race or color, are equal before the law.

The equality of men will not be directly denied on this occasion; and yet it is so often assailed of late, that I shall not seem to occupy your time superfluously, I trust, while endeavoring to show what is understood by this term, when…

Here we learn that God is no respecter of persons,--that he is the Father of all,--and that we are all his children, and brethren to each other.

Every infant of royal blood, every noble, every vassal, is a present example, that, whatever may be the injunctions of religion or the sentiment of the heart, men under these institutions are not born equal.

But the Bill of Rights did not declare, nor did the genius of Somers or Maynard conceive the political axiom, that all men are born equal.

This remarkable production, where science, religion, and government are discussed with revolutionary freedom, contains an article on Equality, first published in 1755.

Here we find the boldest expression of this sentiment down to that time.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.