Note 20 — Before 1800.

M. Brissot, writing in September, 1788, speaks of the Delaware Society as then existing. Warner Mifflin was its most enterprising member. M. Brissot says of him: "One of the ardent petitioners to Congress in this cause was the respectable Warner Mifflin. His zeal was rewarded with atrocious calumnies, which he always answered with mildness, forgiveness, and argument"—p. 300. A petition which Mr. Mifflin made to Congress in November, 1792, for the abolition of slavery, was, by vote of the House, returned to him by the clerk. Annals of Congress, iii, p. 71. On March 23, 1790, the following resolution on the subject of emancipation, after discussion in committee of the whole House, was adopted: "That Congress have no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them in any of the states, it remaining with the several States alone to provide any regulations therein which humanity and true policy may require." Annals, i. p. 1523.