the state.



To the honorable the Council of Safety of the State of
Pennsylvania.

At a meeting of a reputable number of the inhabitants of the city of
Philadelphia, impressed with a proper sense of the justice of the
cause which this continent is engaged in, and animated with a
generous fervor for supporting the same, it was resolved, that the
following be laid before the board of safety:

"We profess liberality of sentiment to all men; with this distinction
only, that those who do not deserve it would become wise and seek to
deserve it. We hold the pure doctrines of universal liberty of
conscience, and conceive it our duty to endeavor to secure that
sacred right to others, as well as to defend it for ourselves; for we
undertake not to judge of the religious rectitude of tenets, but
leave the whole matter to Him who made us.

"We persecute no man, neither will we abet in the persecution of any
man for religion's sake; our common relation to others being that of
fellow-citizens and fellow-subjects of one single community; and in
this line of connection we hold out the right hand of fellowship to
all men. But we should conceive ourselves to be unworthy members of
the free and independent States of America, were we unconcernedly to
see or to suffer any treasonable wound, public or private, directly
or indirectly, to be given against the peace and safety of the same.
We inquire not into the rank of the offenders, nor into their