I Am Not A Virginian,

I Am Not A Virginian, I Am An American.

I Shall Act As I Think My Duty Requires.

I Believe A Time Will Come When An Opportunity Will Be Offered To Abolish This Lamentable Evil. Everything We Do Is To Improve It, If It Happens In Our Day; If Not, Let Us Transmit To Our Descendants, Together With Our Slaves, A Pity For Their Unhappy Lot And An Abhorrence Of Slavery.

Have We The Means Of Resisting Disciplined Armies, When Our Only Defense, The Militia, Is Put In The Hands Of Congress? Of What Service Would Militia Be To You When, Most Probably, You Will Not Have A Single Musket In The State? For, As Arms Are To Be Provided By Congress, They May Or May Not Provide Them.

Are We At Last Brought To Such Humiliating And Debasing Degradation That We Cannot Be Trusted With Arms For Our Defense? Where Is The Difference Between Having Our Arms In Possession And Under Our Direction, And Having Them Under The Management Of Congress? If Our Defense Be The Real Object Of Having Those Arms, In Whose Hands Can They Be Trusted With More Propriety, Or Equal Safety To Us, As In Our Own Hands?