2, Benjamin Franklin [178 
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 com- 
mon standard of the human species. The galling 
chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellec- 
tual 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 
labor, age, and disease. 
Under such circumstances, freedom may often 
prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to 
society. 
Attention to emancipated black people, it is there- 
fore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national 
policy; but, as far as we 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 enjoy- 
ment 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 
BA