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deserve the respect as well as sympathy of every Christian and enlightened heart?—and he possessed it, and I am pleased to record that many were the testimonials he received from such. Among the many that might be inserted in this biography of him, I will take the liberty of asserting, that the success attending his efforts to obtain the freedom of his family, in Europe and the United States, is unmistakable proof of a deep and abiding sympathy in his favor.
In closing this brief history of Mr. Gloucester, I must not permit to escape the notice of an instance of deep concern felt for him by a lady of Philadelphia, a member of the Society of Friends, and which, if duly considered, will go very far to show that his labors were not only approved, but a decided mark was made on the public mind, through the course pursued by him in his instructions to his people. The letter herein inserted is from Mrs. Grace Douglass, the wife of Mr. Robert Douglass, one of the original founders of the Church so frequently alluded to in this history. The letter was written to Rev. John Gloucester when in Europe.
Dear Friend: Being in meeting this morning, I felt a little exercised that I might be useful in promoting the glory of our Master and the good of my fellow-creatures. The professing part of your congregation in particular, seemed to be upon my mind, and Oh, thought I, if they would be persuaded to try a little of my experience it might do them good in a temporal way, as I do not feel qualified in spiritual things. It has been said by our enemies among the whites, that it is doing us harm to set us free: we cannot, say they, maintain ourselves decently and respectably Some of them must manage for us. To prove which, they bid us look around and see the many poor distressed objects of our color with which this city abounds, where we have every encouragement to do well for ourselves overlooking the manner in which most of us have been brought up. Very many, in great families where they live on the best, dress in the
