Nor were writers wanting, who, influenced by considerations on the war,
and the independence resulting from it, made their works subservient to
the same benevolent end. A work, entitled _A Serious Address to the
Rulers of America on the Inconsistency of their Conduct respecting
Slavery, forming a Contrast between the Encroachments of England on
American Liberty and American Injustice in tolerating Slavery_; which
appeared in 1783, was particularly instrumental in producing this
effect. This excited a more than usual attention to the case of these
oppressed people, and where most of all it could be useful; for the
author compared in two opposite columns the animated speeches and
resolutions of the members of congress in behalf of their own liberty
with their conduct in continuing slavery to others. Hence the
legislature began to feel the inconsistency of the practice; and so far
had the sense of this inconsistency spread there, that when the
delegates met from each state to consider of a federal union, there was
a desire that the abolition of the Slave Trade should be one of the
articles in it. This was, however, opposed by the delegates from North
and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia, the five states
which had the greatest concern in slaves.
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