[Letter to] My very dear brother [manuscript]

The undersigned, after mature deliberation, feel themselves constrained by a sense of duty to God and
man, to make the following expression of opinion. We believe

1. That Slavery in our land is a great and threatening evil.

2. That it is a great and crying national sin.

3. That every man whether he live at the North, South, East or West, is personally responsible, and
has personal duties to discharge in respect to it.

4. That every man, who adopts opinions or pursues practices, which adopted and pursued by all others,
would go to perpetuate this sin, does thereby become personally guilty in respect to it.

5. We believe that slavery, like other sins, ought to be remedied as soon as the nature of the case ad-
mits ; and further, that the nature of the case admits the possibility and therefore imposes the obligation of
Immediate Emancipation.

6. That such emancipation is both the duty and the interest of the master.

7. That although the people of the non-slaveholding States have not the right of physical or legal in-
terposition in the case, they have the right, and that it is their solemn duty to do what they can by ' light
and love' to enlighten the public mind, arouse the public conscience, and change and elevate the tone of
public sentiment on the subject, in every section of the land.

A.n& finally, we believe that the grand obstacle, to the abolition of this sin, lies in the vnll of the slave-
holder— that this will being changed, there would of necessity be a change in the various laws and other
obstacles which have grown out of it ; and that this will is to be changed, (1), by the power of public senti-
ment among non-slaveholders, and (2), by means of kind, candid, and thorough discussion with slaveholders
themselves.

In respect to the scheme of Colonization, which at the North professes to be a scheme of g. dual and
ultimate, though 'incidental'' emancipation, we feel constrained to say — '

1. That whatever its merits are, it can never be an adequate remedy for slavery ; and

2. That whatever of good it may have done, the time has now come when the friends of G J and man
ought to take a higher stand, and adopt and act on principles which lay the axe directly at the root of the
tree. ^^"T^J . . Cl