ow in force; and of such as have been
repealed. Convinced that an historical review of the various acts and
provisions of the Legislatures of the several states, relating to
slavery, from the periods of their respective settlements to the
present time, by tracing the progress of the system of African slavery
in this country, and its successive changes in the different
governments of the Union, would throw much light on the objects of our
enquiry and attention, and enable us to determine, how far the cause of
justice and humanity has advanced among us, and how soon we may
reasonably expect to see it triumphant;--we recommend to you, to take
such measures as you may think most conducive to that purpose, for
procuring materials for the work now proposed, and assisting its
publication; and to communicate, to the ensuing Convention, what
progress you shall have made toward perfecting the plan here offered
for your consideration and care.

Believing that an acquaintance with the names of the officers of the
several Abolition Societies, would facilitate that friendly
correspondence which ought always to be preserved between our various
associations, we request that you would send, to the next, and to
every future, Convention, an accurate list of all the officers of your
Society, for the time being, with the number of members of which it
consists. And it would assist that Convention in ascertaining the
existing state of slavery in the United States, if you were to forward
to them an exact account of the persons who have been liberated by the
agency of your Society, and of those who may be considered as signal
instances of the relief that you have afforded; and, also, a statement
of the number of free blacks in your state, their property,
employments, and moral conduct.

As a knowledge of what has been done, and of that success which has
attended the efforts of humanity, will cherish the hope of benevolence,
and stimulate to further exertion, we trust that you will be of opinion
with us, that it would be highly useful to procure correct reports of
all such trials, and decisions of courts of judicature, respecting
slavery, a knowledge of which may be subservient to the cause of
abolition, and to transmit them to the next, or to any future,
Convention.

It cannot have escaped your observation, how many persons there are who
continue the hateful practice of enslaving their fellow men, and who
acquiesce in the sophistry of the a