October 20, 1774, the Continental Congress passed the following:  “We, for ourselves and the inhabitants of the several colonies whom we represent, firmly agree and associate under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of our country, as follows: 

“2d Article.  We will neither import nor purchase any slaves imported after the first day of December next, after which time we will wholly discontinue the slave trade, and we will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it.”

The Continental Congress, in 1775, setting forth the causes and the necessity for taking up arms, say:  “If it were possible for men who exercise their reason to believe that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and unbounded power over others,” &c.

In 1776, Dr. Hopkins, then at the head of New England divines, in “An Address to the owners of negro slaves in the American colonies,” says:  “The conviction of the unjustifiableness of this practice (slavery) has been increasing, and greatly spreading of late, and many who have had slaves, have found themselves so unable to justify their own conduct in holding them in bondage, as to be induced to set them at liberty. * * * * Slavery is, in every instance, wrong, unrighteous, and oppressive—­a very great and crying sin—­there being nothing of the kind equal to it on the face of the earth.”

The same year the American Congress issued a solemn MANIFESTO to the world.  These were its first words:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Once, these were words of power; now, “a rhetorical flourish.”

The celebrated Patrick Henry of Virginia, in a letter, of Jan. 18, 1773, to Robert Pleasants, afterwards president of the Virginia Abolition Society, says:  “Believe me, I shall honor the Quakers for their noble efforts to abolish slavery.  It is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion to show that it is at variance with that law that warrants slavery.  I exhort you to persevere in so worthy a resolution.”

In 1779, the Continental Congress ordered a pamphlet to be published, entitled, “Observations on the American Revolution,” from which the following is an extract:  “The great principle (of government) is and ever will remain in force, that men are by nature free; and so long as we have any idea of divine justice, we must associate that of human freedom.  It is conceded on all hands, that the right to be free CAN NEVER BE ALIENATED.”