I have concluded, after consultation with my friends and earnestly seeking counsel of God, to remain at Alton, and here to insist on protection in the exercise of my rights.

I most earnestly advise you, again and again, love, honor, and obey your parents. Friends like them, you need not expect to find in this world.

I have been beset night and day at Alton. And now, if I leave here and go elsewhere, violence may overtake me in my retreat, and I have no more claim upon the protection of any other community than I have upon this.

It is not possible that one man can convert another into a piece of property, thus at once annihilating all his personal rights, without the most flagrant injustice and usurpation.

I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery, and by the blessing of God, I will never go back.

If the civil authorities refuse to protect me, I must look to God, and if I die, I have determined to make my grave in Alton.