promoted the cause for which they had been so laudably undertaken.  Of the great increase of friendly disposition towards the African cause in this very year, we have this remarkable proof:  that when the Quakers, living in East and West Jersey, wished to petition the legislature to obtain an act of assembly for the more equitable manumission of slaves in that province, so many others of different persuasions joined them, that the petition was signed by upwards of three thousand persons.

[Footnote B:  Dr. Rush has been better known since for his other literary works, such as his Medical Dissertations, his Treatises on the Discipline of Schools, Criminal Law, &c.]

But in the next year, or in the year 1774[A], the increased good-will towards the Africans became so apparent, but more particularly in Pennsylvania, where the Quakers were more numerous than in any other state, that they, who considered themselves more immediately as the friends of these injured people, thought it right to avail themselves of it:  and accordingly James Pemberton, one of the most conspicuous of the Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Dr. Rush, one of the most conspicuous of those belonging to the various other religious communities in that province, undertook, in conjunction with others, the important task of bringing those into a society who were friendly to this cause.  In this undertaking they succeeded.  And hence arose that union of the Quakers with others, to which I have been directing the attention of the reader, and by which the third class of forerunners and coadjutors becomes now complete.  This society, which was confined to Pennsylvania, was the first ever formed in America, in which there was an union of persons of different religious denominations in behalf of the African race.

[Footnote A:  In this year, Elhanan Winchester, a supporter of the doctrine of universal redemption, turned the attention of many of his hearers to this subject, both by private interference, and by preaching expressly upon it.]

But this society had scarcely begun to act, when the war broke out between England and America, which had the effect of checking its operations.  This was considered as a severe blow upon it.  But as those things which appear most to our disadvantage, turn out often the most to our benefit, so the war, by giving birth to the independence of America, was ultimately favourable to its progress.  For as this contrast had produced during its continuance, so it left, when it was over, a general enthusiasm for liberty.  Many talked of little else but of the freedom they had gained.  These were naturally led to the consideration of those among them who were groaning in bondage.  They began to feel for their hard case.  They began to think that they should not deserve the new blessing which they had acquired if they denied it to others.  Thus the discussions, which originated in this contest, became the occasion of turning the attention of many, who might not otherwise have thought of it, towards the miserable condition of the slaves.