370
BETTLE'S NOTICES OF
rightfully expect to see a cordial and active support
of all measures calculated to relieve the miseries of
mankind.
Under this view of the character of the founders of our
State, avc might AArith safety anticipate that humane sym¬
pathy, that poArerful and impressive precept, and that
prompt and active exertion in relation to the oppressed
sons of Africa, which it is the object of the present sketch
briefly to delineate; and Ave propose iioav to consider the
exertions of Pennsylvanians previously to the year 1770,
and to make her subsequent history, from that time to the
present, the subject of another memoir.
It is not necessary in this State to urge arguments to
sIioav the total hostility of slavery to Christianity, reason,
and the unalienable rights of mankind; but it behooves
every Pennsylvanian to speak forth his honest abhor¬
rence boldly, and his manly indignation loudly, into
those ears which are professedly open, but it is feared
virtually and practically shut, to the appeals for liberty,
right, and justice, of a large portion of the inhabitants of
a country whose Constitution is founded upon the prin¬
ciple that liberty and the pursuit of happiness are un¬
alienable rights Avhich Ave receive from God, and of which
no earthly poAver can ever rightfully dispossess us : and
avc trust it Avill be shown that, as Pennsylvania early
stood forth as an advocate of this deeply-injured class of
humanity, so will she now, from the known opinions of
her citizens, from her local situation, and from her moral
influence in our confederacy, be compelled to take a
decided and prominent attitude, and to proclaim and sup-
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