Quote#Freedom
Our people had been so long accustomed to the practice and…
Quote byJohn Jay · 1745–1829
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to the President of the English Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves (June 1788)..
English (original)
Our people had been so long accustomed to the practice and convenience of having slaves, that very few among them even doubted the propriety and rectitude of it. Some liberal and conscientious men had indeed, by their conduct and writings, drawn the lawfulness of slavery into question.
— John Jay
More from John Jay
The Americans are the first people whom heaven has favoured with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing forms of government under which they should live.
We perceive that a great breach has been made in the moral and physical systems by the introduction of moral and physical evil; how or why, we know not; so, however, it is, and it certainly seems proper that this breach should be closed …
Slaves, though held by the laws of men, are free by the laws of God.
No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent.
Among the strange things of this world, nothing seems more strange than that men pursuing happiness should knowingly quit the right and take a wrong road, and frequently do what their judgments neither approve nor prefer.
Man, in his present state, appears to be a degraded creature; his best gold is mixed with dross, and his best motives are very far from being pure and free from earth and impurity.