Consists of a seven-page manuscript speech addressed to the commune of Charolles, France, by Jean-Philippe Saclier, a lawyer in the Parliament of Burgundy, in which he argues for the abolition of slavery. In the rest of the speech, Saclier welcomes the fall of Maximilien Robespierre and the establishment of a new republican government; urges for citizens to exercise new rights they gained during the French Revolution; and extols the value of freedom of the press.