DONE in convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eightyseven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto ubscribed our names.

G. WASHINGTON, President, And Deputy from Virginia. New Hampshire, John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman. Massachusetts, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King. Connecticut, W. S. Johnson, Roger Sherman. New York, Alexander Hamilton.

New Jersey, W. Livingston, David Bearley, W. Patterson, Jonathan Dayton.

Pennsylvania, B. Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Gouv. Morris.

Delaware, George Read, Gunning Bedford, junior, John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Brooks.

Maryland, James M. Henry, Dan. of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll.

Virginia, John Blair, James Madison, junior.

North Carolina, William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Hugh Williamson.

South Carolina, J. Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinkney, Charles Pinkney, Pierce Butler.

Georgia, William Few, Abraham Baldwin.

Attest.-William Jackson, Secretary.

No. VIII.

An address to the public from the Pennsylvanian society for promoting the abolition of slavery and the relief of free Negroes, unlawfully held in bondage, &c.

IT is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of hu manity, that, in prosecuting the design of our association, our endeavours have proved successful, far beyond our most sanguine expectations.

Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing on our labours, we have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan,

and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasures of beneficence.

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.

The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains that bind his body do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart. Accustomed to move like a mere machine by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and friendless perhaps worn out by extreme labour, pain, and dis

ease.

Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society.

Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national police; but as far as we can contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities.

To instruct, to advise, to qualify those who have been restored to freedom for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life: these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of those our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures.

A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution without considerable pecuniary resources, beyond the present ordinary funds of the society. We hope much from the generosity of enlightened and benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations or subscriptions for this purpose, which may be made to our treasurer, James Starr, or to James Pemberton, chairman of our committee of correspondence.

Signed by order of the society,

Philadelphia, Nov. 9, 1789.

B. FRANKLIN, President,

PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE

FREE BLACKS.

THE business relative to Free Blacks shall be transacted by a committee of twenty-four persons, annually elected by ballot, at the meeting of this society, in the month called April; and in order to perform the different services with expedition, regularity, and energy, this committee shall resolve itself into the following sub-committees, viz. :

I.

A committee of inspection, who shall superintend the morals, general conduct, and ordinary situation of the free Negroes, and afford them advice and instruction, protection from wrongs, and other friendly offices.

II.

A committee of guardians, who shall place out children and young people with suitable persons, that they may (during a moderate time of apprenticeship or servitude) learn some trade or other business of subsistence. The committee may effect this partly by a persuasive influence on parents and the persons concerned; and partly by co-operating with the laws, which are, or may be enacted for this or similar purposes in forming contracts on these occasions, the committee shall secure to the society, as far as may be practicable, the right of guardianship over the persons so bound.

III.

A committee of education, who shall superintend the school-instruction of the children and youth of the free blacks they may either influence them to attend regularly the schools already established in this city, or form others with this view; they shall in either case provide, that the pupils may receive such learning as is necessary for their future situation in life; and especially a deep impression of the most important and generally-acknowledged moral and religious principles. They shall also procure and preserve a regular record of the marriages, births, and manumissions of all free blacks.

IV.

A committee of employ, who shall endeavour to procure constant employment for those free negroes who are able to work, as the want of this would occasion poverty, idleness

and many vicious habits. This committee will by sedulous inquiry be able to find common labour for a great number ; they will also provide for such as indicate proper talents, which may be done by prevailing upon them to bind themselves for such a term of years as shall compensate their masters for the expence and trouble of instruction and maintenance. The committee may attempt the institution of some useful and simple manufactures, which require but little skill, and also may assist, in commencing business, such as appear qualified for it.

Whenever the committee of inspection shall find persons of any particular description requiring attention, they shall immediately direct them to the committee, of whose care they are the proper objects.

In matters of a mixed nature, the committee shall confer, and, if necessary, act in concert. Affairs of great importance shall be referred to the whole committee.

The expence incurred by the prosecution of this plan shall be defrayed by a fund, to be formed by donations, or subscriptions, for these particular purposes, and to be kept separate from the other funds of this society.

The committee shall make a report of their proceedings, and of the state of their stock to the society, at their quarterly meetings, and in the months called April and October.

Philadelphia, 26th Oct. 1789.

No. IX.

SELECT BAGATELLES.

No. 1.

THE WHISTLE,

A true Story.-Written to his Nephew.

WHEN I was a child, at seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pockets with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children; and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered him all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the

family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth. This put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and they laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation, and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.

This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Don't give too much for the whistle; and so I saved my money.

As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle.

When I saw any one too ambitious of court favours, sacrificing his time in attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it, I have said to myself, This man gives too much for his whistle.

When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by that neglect, He pays indeed, says I, too much for his whistle.

If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, Poor man, says I, you do indeed pay too much for your whistle.

When I meet a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal sensations, Mistaken man, says I, you are providing pain for yourself instead of pleasure; you give too much for your whistle.

If I see one fond of fine clothes, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in prison, Alas! says I, he has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.

When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured brute of a husband, What a pity it is, says I, that she has paid so much for a whistle.

In short, I conceived that great part of the miseries of mankind were brought upon them by the false estimates they had made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.