hey give the lie to their own professions. No
one forfeits his or her character or standing in society by being
engaged in holding, buying or selling a slave; the details of which, in
all their horror, can scarcely be told.

Although the holding of slaves is confined to fifteen of the thirty-one
States, yet we hold that the non-slave-holding States are equally guilty
with the slave-holding. If any proof is needed on this point, it will be
found in the passage of the inhuman Fugitive Slave Law, by Congress; a
law which could never have been enacted without the votes of a portion
of the representatives from the free States, and which is now being
enforced, in many of the States, with the utmost alacrity. It was the
passing of this law that exiled us from our native land, and it has
driven thousands of our brothers and sisters from the free States, and
compelled them to seek a refuge in the British possessions in North
America. The Fugitive Slave Law has converted the entire country, North
and South, into one vast hunting-ground. We would respectfully ask you
to expostulate with the Americans, and let them know that you regard
their treatment of the coloured people of that country as a violation of
every principle of human brotherhood, of natural right, of justice, of
humanity, of Christianity, of love to God and love to man.

It is needless that we should remind you that the religious sects of
America, with but few exceptions, are connected with the sin of
slavery--the churches North as well as South. We would have you tell the
professed Christians of that land, that if they would be respected by
you, they must separate themselves from the unholy alliance with men who
are daily committing deeds which, if done in England, would cause the
perpetrator to be sent to a felon's doom; that they must refuse the
right hand of Christian fellowship, whether individually or
collectively, to those implicated, in any way, in the guilt of slavery.

We do not ask for a forcible interference on your part, but only that
you will use all lawful and peaceful means to restore to this much
injured race their God-given rights. The moral and religious sentiment
of mankind must be arrayed against slave-holding, to make it infamous,
ere we can hope to see it abolished. We would ask you to set them the
example, by excluding from your pulpits, and from religious communion,
the slave-holding and pro-slavery ministers who may happen to visit this
co