The New Hampshire Gazette

From the Federal Orrery.
The humble petition of
THE AMERICAN CAPTIVES,
in SLAVERY, at ALGIERS, to the ministers of
the gospel, of every denomination,
throughout America.
Reverend and respected!
On Thursday, the 19th day of February,
1795, you are enjoined by the President
of the United States of America, to appear in
the various temples of that God, who heareth
the groaning of the prisoner, and, in mercy, re-
membereth those, who are appointed to die.
Nor, are we to assemble alone:for, on this,
the high day of continental thanksgiving, all
the religious societies and denominations,
throughout the union, and all persons whomso-
ever, within the limits of the confederated states,
are to enter the courts of JEHOVAH, with
their several pastors, and gratefully to render
unfeigned thanks, to the Ruler of nations, for
the manifold and signal mercies, which distin-
guish your lot as a people; in a more particu-
lar manner, commemorating your exemption
from foreign war; being greatly thankful for
the preservation of peace at home and abroad;
and fervently beseeching the kind Author of all
these blessings, graciously to prolong them to
you, and finally to render the United States of
America, more and more, an asylum for the
unfortunate of every clime under heaven.
Reverend and respected!
Most fervent are our daily prayers, breathed
in the sincerity of woes unspeakable-most ar-
dent are the embittered aspirations of our afflict-
ed spirits, that thus it may be, indeed, and in
truth. Although we are prisoners in a foreign
land; although we are far, very far from our
native homes; although our harps are hung
upon the weeping willows of slavery;-never-
theless, America is still preferred above our
chiefest joy; and the last wish of our departing
souls shall be, her peace, her prosperity, her li-
berty, forever! On this day, the day of festi-
vity and gladness, remember us, your unfortu-
nate brethren: late members of the family of
freedom, now doomed to perpetual confine-
ment.-Pray, earnestly pray, that our grievous
calamities may have a gracious end. Suppli-
cate the Father of mercies, for the most wretch-
ed of his offspring.--Beseech the God of all
consolation to comfort us, by the hope of final
restoration. Implore the Jesus, whom you
worship, to open the house of the prison. En-
treat the CHRIST, whom you adore, to let the
miserable captive go free.
Reverend and respected!
It is not your prayers alone, although of much
avail, which we beg, on the bended knee of
sufferance, galled by the corroding fetters of sla-
very. We conjure you, by the bowels of the
mercies of the Almighty; we ask you in the
name of your Father in heaven, to have com-
passion upon our miseries; to wipe away the
crystallized tear of despondence; to hush the
heart-felt sigh of distress; and, by every possible
exertion of god-like CHARITY, to restore us
to our wives, our children, to our friends, to
our country, to our God and to yours!
Is it possible, that a stimulus can be wanting?
Forbid it, the holy example of a dying, bleed-
ing, crucified Saviour! Forbid it, the precepts
of a risen, ascended, glorified IMMANUEL!
Do unto us in fetters, in bonds, in dungeons, in
peril of the pestilence, as ye yourselves would
wish to be done unto. Lift up your voices, like
a trumpet; cry aloud, in the cause of humani-
ty, benevolence, philanthropy! Eloquence can
never be directed to a nobler purpose; religion
never employed in a more glorious cause; char-
ity never meditate a more exalted flight.-O,
that a live coal from the burning altar of celes-
tial beneficence might warm the heart of the
sacred order, impassion the feelings of the at-
tentive hearer!
Gentlemen of the clergy in New-Hampshire
Rhode-Island, Massachusetts, New-York, Penn-
sylvania and Virginia!
Your most zealous exertions, your unremit-
ting assiduities, are pathetically invoked! Those
states, in which you minister unto the churches
of God, gave us birth. We are, as aliens from
the commonwealth of America. We are tran-
gers to the temples of our God. The strong
arm of infidelity hath bound us with two chains;
--the iron of slavery, and the sword of death,
are entering our very souls. Arise, ye ministers
of the Most High! Christians of every denom-
ination, awake unto charity! Let a brief, set-
ting forth our hapless situation, be published
throughout the continent! Be it read, in every
house of worship, on Sunday the 8th of Febru-
ary! Command a preparatory discourse to be
delivered, on Sunday the 15th of February, in
all churches whithersoever this petition or the
brief may come :-and on THURSDAY, the
19th of February, complete the god-like work.
It is a day, which assembles a continent to
thanksgiving! It is a day, which calls an em-
pire to praise. God grant that this may be the
day, which emancipates the forlorn captive;
and may the best blessings of those, who are
ready to perish, be your abiding portion forever.
Thus prays a small remnant, who are still alive!
-Thus pray your fellow-citizens, chained to
the galleys of the impostor Mahomet!
Signed for and in behalf of his fellow
sufferers,
by RICHARD O'BRIEN
in the 10th year of his captivity.