STATE PA PERS. 
ing slavery. What remains for 
you to do, in order to avoid all 
the misfortunes which are inse- 
tei concomitants of idleness ? 
othing, ut to devote your- 
selves to the culture of the rich 
productions of the colony you in- 
habit! Many of you have been to 
France; they will tell you, that 
the people are there constantly 
oecupied at useful labours, and 
agriculture in particular IJmitate 
that active people, who adopts you 
‘as brethren, and you will establish, 
by that means, a trade of exchange 
-with them, which will cement 
-and strengthen your brotherly re- 
lations. 
Instruction isas useful to you as 
labour; by it you will transmit 
your rights to your children; by 
it you will learn how to fulfil the 
duty of good citizens: finally, by 
instruction you will attain that de- 
gree of morality, which distin- 
guishes the civilized from the sa- 
vage man, the honest from the per- 
verse Citizen. 
The government will omit no- 
thing to attain an object so inte- 
resting, and so worthy of its soli- 
citude. Public schools will be 
established throughout all the co- 
lonies ; your children shall there 
“receive instruction ; imbibe a taste 
for labour and morals, which are 
to accomplish their full generation. 
The republic will extend farther 
her cares for your children, for she 
“wishes that a certain number of 
those who shall have produced a 
‘greater disposition and zeal for in- 
structon be sent to Fraace, with 
the consent of their parents, there 
to study-in a more perfect degree 
those sciences or arts, to which 
they may have shewn a more de- 
cided inclination. 
[237 
The same resources are likewise 
offered to the children of the 
whites, and of the coloured peo- 
ple; for the primary schools, which 
will be established, will be open- 
to all individuals, born in the co- 
lonies,of whatever colour they may, 
be. ALL MEN ARE EQUAL IN 
RIGHTS. 
To you, Citizens, whom a bar- 
barous custom had made formerly 
proprietors of slaves, we shall ob 
serve, that in consequence only of 
the most strange subversion of what 
is know under the name of justice 
and humanity, the most sacred 
rights of man had been forsaken 
in the former order of things, 
which allowed them to be reduced 
‘to the most insufferable and abje& 
slavery ; we shall tell you that a 
state so contrary to nature, though 
apparently favourable to your in- 
terests, was of too violent a nature 
to last long. How could the mas- 
ter shake off the thought of the 
dangers with which he wasinces- 
santly threatened? Does not the 
experience \of ages and nations, 
transmitted by history, inform us, 
that tyranny has always fallen a 
victim to its own crimes? Une 
doubtedly, six hundred thousand 
slaves, unjustly and cruelly tortured 
in almost every instance of their 
lives, could not afford a great dee 
gree of security to the small num- 
ber of their masters. They were 
most assuredly disturbed by the 
most cruel enormities. 
Instead of the violent state in 
which lingered the late proprietors 
of slaves, liberty and equality, 
which flow from the constitution, 
offer to them nothing but true en- 
joyments and perfect security to 
their lives and fortunes. 
In addressing those formerly dis- 
tinguished 
