Excerpt from Slavery in the United States: Its Evils, Alleviations, and Remedies There are other facts of still greater significance, because they indi cate that, throughout the country, there is a prevailing and powerful tendency of feeling and opinion towards emancipation. We doubt if its extent is at all appreciated. We are not conscious of the forward movement, because, like ships sailing on parallel lines, all move together. At successive periods between the years 1780 and 1804, seven States passed laws for the abolition of slavery, thus antici pating, by many years, and at quite as great relative sacrifices, the similar action of the English Parliament in regard to the West Indies. From the Northwestern Territory, and at a time when no additions of territory beyond this were looked for by any one, it was excluded by the organic law under which the States formed out of this region came into the Union; and it should not be for gotten that this law received, with one exception, the unanimous vote of the Continental Congress by which it was enacted. Into a large part of the recently acquired territory it is not, and is not likely to be, admitted. And all this has happened, not accidentally, but as the result of settled and well-considered convictions. In the mban time, the foreign slave trade has been abolished; in several of the remaining Slave States strenuous efforts have been made to prepare the way for emancipation throughout the South, the question of eman cipation is brought into perpetual discussion; the extension of slavery has been limited and at the present time, the legislatures of various States, both north and south, show a disposition to promote the colonization of free blacks, or of those who may be libe'ated for that purpose. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.