That the emancipation of the slaves of the West Indies, while it was an act of undoubted justice to that oppressed people, has operated most favorably in furthering the triumphs of the gospel, by removing one prolific source of unmerited suspicion of religious teachers, and thus opening a door to their more extensive labors and usefulness--by furnishing a greater portion of time for the service of the negro, and thus preventing the continuance of unavoidable Sabbath desecrations, in labor and neglect of the means of grace--and in its operation as a stimulus to proprietors and other influential gentlemen, to encourage religious education, and the wide dissemination of the Scriptures, as an incentive to industry and good order.
2.

That while the above statements are true with reference to all the islands, even where the system of apprenticeship prevails, they are especially applicable to Antigua, where the results of the great measure, of entire freedom, so humanely and judiciously granted by the legislature, cannot be contemplated without the most devout thanks givings to Almighty God.
3.

That we regard with much gratification, the great diminution among all classes in these islands, of the most unchristian prejudice of color the total absence of it in the government and ordinances of the churches of God, with which we are connected, and the prospect of its complete removal, by the abolition of slavery, by the increased diffusion of general knowledge, and of that religion which teaches to "honor _all_ men," and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
4.

That we cannot but contemplate with much humiliation and distress, the existence, among professing Christians in America, of this partial, unseemly, and unchristian system of _caste_, so distinctly prohibited in the word of God, and so utterly irreconcileable with Christian charity.
5.

That regarding slavery as a most unjustifiable infringement of the rational and inalienable rights of men, and in its moral consequences, (from our own personal observation as well as other sources,) as one of the greatest curses with which the great Governor of the nations ever suffered this world to be blighted: we cannot but deeply regret the connection which so intimately exists between the various churches of Christ in the United States of America, and this unchristian system.