that the consequence
of the annexation would be the advancement of that which is sin in
the sight of God, namely, slavery. I say, further, that the means
were appropriate, because it is Congress who must decide on the
question; and therefore it is proper that they should petition
Congress, if they wish to prevent the annexation. And I say, in the
third place, that the end was virtuous, pure, and of the most
exalted character, namely, to prevent the perpetuation and spread of
slavery throughout America. I say, moreover, that I subscribe, in my
own person, to every word the petition contains. I do believe
slavery to be a sin before God; and that is the reason, and the only
insurmountable reason, why we should refuse to annex Texas to this
Union."

On the 28th July, 1838, to an invitation from the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society to attend their celebration of the anniversary of
the day upon which slavery was abolished in the colonial possessions of
Great Britain, Mr. Adams responded:

"It would give me pleasure to comply with this invitation; but my
health is not very firm. My voice has been affected by the intense
heat of the season; and a multiplicity of applications, from
societies political and literary, to attend and address their
meetings, have imposed upon me the necessity of pleading the
privilege of my years, and declining them all.

"I rejoice that the defence of the cause of human freedom is falling
into younger and more vigorous hands. That, in three-score years
from the day of the Declaration of Independence, its self-evident
truths should be yet struggling for existence against the degeneracy
of an age pampered with prosperity, and languishing into servitude,
is a melancholy truth, from which I should in vain attempt to shut
my eyes. But the summons has gone forth. The youthful champions of
the rights of human nature have buckled and are buckling on their
armor; and the scourging overseer, and the lynching lawyer, and the
servile sophist, and the faithless scribe, and the priestly
parasite, will vanish before them like Satan touched by the spear of
Ithuriel. I live in the faith and hope of the progressive
advancement of Christian liberty, and expect to abide by the same in
death. You have a glorious though arduous career before you; and it
is among the consolations of my la