Chapter 2

Another favorite scheme is to elevate to all the offices of importance men who have never enjoyed the public confidence. The language of these revolutionists is, respecting the men in power in Connecticut, "We will not have these men to rule over us"--We will fill their places with men of our choice--the creatures of our hands, and who will be subservient to our views. But, my countrymen, before you join in this project, pause and enquire, who are these men who thus assert their claim to rule over you? Who are these men who place themselves in the corners of the streets and cry "Oh, that we were made judges in the land?" It is no part of the writer's design to hunt vice from its guilty retreat, to expose before an insulted people, the horrid features which distinguish certain individuals who challenge popular applause, or to attach private character, but justice demands that men who boldly claim to be the rulers of the free and happy state of Connecticut, should be known. The men who are to stand in the places of our Trumbulls and our Ellsworths should not shrink from public investigation. To those who respect the authority of God it is a matter of no small moment that those who rule over men should be just, ruling in the fear of God nor will men, accustomed to revere this solemn declaration, lend their aid to elevate men of vicious and corrupt lives, without some dismay.

It is not enough to tell us that men will be selected of more virtue and talents than those now in power--such a pretence is vain--no man in his senses will regard it--no man makes such a pretence but for wicked purpose. If we are directed to turn our eyes to those who for years past have been held up in the unsuccessful nominations, and are told that these are to be substituted for the men who now guide our Councils, what are we to expect? An appeal may be made to every man not bewildered in this new and destructive madness--he may be asked who among these men stand-forth with fair claims to public confidence? Where among them, can be found the polished scholar--the able civilian, the enlightened judge? Do we see in a single individual an assemblage of talents united with virtue sufficient to qualify him for the seat of justice? If there are such men they have hitherto hid their talents I the earth. It will not here be forgotten that the attempt is, to reject men long known and respected, and to fill their places with those who are without a witness in their favor.

A still more mischievous and alarming project is, that of making a new Constitution for Connecticut. This project originates entirely in a spirit of Jacobinism--it is a new theme on which to descant to effect a revolution in Connecticut. The object is, by false assertions, to induce a belief that no Constitution exists and that tyranny prevails. This party always address the passions and never the understanding.--Review their measures for a few years, and you will distinctly perceive their motives and aims.

To create disaffection and hatred towards those who formerly administered the general Government, it was boldly asserted that the treasury had been plundered. Even the illustrious Saviour of his Country was accused of embezzling public money, and his followers could not expect a less happy fate. Men of the most unsuspected integrity, were openly attacked by anonymous publications, or dispoiled of their good name by secret insinuations. These calumnies were kept in circulation by their authors till impudence itself was abashed, and the object in view obtained--not a tittle of proof was ever adduced, and investigation always shewed that the charges were not only false, but entirely groundless.

For the same unworthy purpose it was asserted in every circle of opposition that salaries were too high, and the incomes of office enormous. Every tavern resounded with this grievance. At length the principal authors of this clamor got into place, and the clamor was hushed. Yes, men who urged the people of Connecticut almost to rebellion on this account, stept into the places and, without a blush, took more from the people than their predecessors. Look at Mr. Babcock's paper in 1799 and 1800, and see its columns filled with railing against high salaries--Look at it since Abraham Bishop takes 3000 dollars a year, and Alexander Wolcott more than four, and find, if you can, a complaint on this subject. Such meanness, such baseness, such hypocrisy in office seekers, exhibit in strong colors the depravity of human nature and teach us what dependence may justly be placed on pretensions and professions.

To inflame the passions and to create animosity, various subjects have been successively seized upon, and pressed into the service of the revolutionists--Every quarrel however trivial is noticed--every seed of discord however small is nourished to disseminate murmurs and to further the great object.-Various classes of the community are told, with apparent anxiety for their welfare, that they are oppressed, and that a new order of things must arise, or that they will be enslaved. New subjects are started as old ones cease to operate, and thus all that ingenuity and art, industry and perseverance, can devise or effect is accomplished. Thus, that numerous and respectably body of Christians called Episcopalians have been told, and repeatedly told, that the more numerous denomination were seeking to deprive them of their just and equal rights, and to subject them to the tyranny of an overbearing majority--These tales were reiterated till their authors found them useless from their folly and falsehood. At another time the Baptists are addressed by a set of men who denied the reality of any religion and the most earnest yearnings for their welfare. They tyranny of the Legislature was painted in horrid colors, and they were exhorted to lend their aid to vindicate the cause of the oppressed. Those who conscientiously believe that no taxes ought to be paid for the support of religion, and those who wish that religion might no more infest the residence of men, were addressed with considerations adapted to their respective cases. At one time men destitute of property are seduced by the alluring doctrine of universal suffrage--then the farmer is told that taxes are too high on land, and, with the same breath, the mechanic is sagely informed, that the poll tax should be repealed, and the burden fall back on the land holder.

Festivals under the pretence of honoring the election of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr, and of extolling the wisdom of the purchase of Louisiana, but with a real design to blazen the fame of those who assume the character of friends of the people that they may the more readily destroy the most free and equitable Government in the world, are continually holden, and the discontented, the factious, the ambitious and the corrupt, are collected and flattered with declamations in the various shapes of prayers, sermons and orations. Thus a people enjoying the height of political prosperity are cajoled into a belief that men without virtue, without the restraints of the gospel, without a particle of real regard for their fellow men, are their best friends, and are anxiously laboring to promote their good. Let such remember, that when the Ethiopian shall change his skin, when the Leopard shall change his spots, and when bitter fountains shall send forth sweet water, then will those who flatter the people with their tongues, and deceive them with their lips seek their happiness. Such are some of the measures resorted to by those who have sworn in their wrath that Connecticut shall be revolutionized. Finding all these ineffectual, and that the good sence and virtue of Connecticut has hitherto opposed an inseparable barrier to all their plans, they now exclaim Connecticut has no Constitution. Such a gross absurdity could never have been promulgated till the mind was in some degree prepared, by being accustomed to misrepresentation. This was well known to Mr. Bishop, who has for years been in the habit of disregarding moral obligation. In the year 1789 this Orator pronounced several inflammatory invectives against the Constitution of the United States, to which he was a bitter enemy till he obtained an office under it worth three thousand dollars a year. At that time his language was, The Constitution of Connecticut is the best in the world--it has grown up with the people, and is fitted to their condition.--Now this consistent man who is endeavoring to gull the people that he may successfully tyrannize over them, avows that they are without a Constitution.

My fellow citizens, examine this head of clamor with candor, read the solemn declaration of Washington in the title page, attend to the following remarks, and then tell me if you do not perceive in this project, with the manner in which it is supported and attempted to be accomplished, enough of the revolutionary spirit of France, to excite the indignation of every real friend to the peace and happiness of Connecticut.

1. If there be no Constitution in Connecticut then your Huntingtons, your Trumbulls, your Shermans, your Wolcotts and your Davenports, with many other worthies, who were your defence in war, and your ornament in peace, and who are now sleeping with their fathers, were wicked usurpers --they ruled their fellow citizens without authority--they were TYRANTS. Let Judd and Bishop approach the sepulchures of these venerable men--let them lift the covering from these venerable ashes and in the face of heaven pronounce them TYRANTS!! Could you see them approach their dust with such language on their tongues, you would see them retreat with horrible confusion from these relicks of departed worth.

2. The present rulers are acting also without authority, and their laws are void--then you are already in the midst of anarchy and wild misrule --then has no man a title to an inch of land, and you are ready for an equal of division of property--all protection of life and liberty is at an end, and the will of a mob is now to prevail.

3. If indeed there is no Constitution, then the oath which has been administered in your freemen's meetings for twenty years, by which each man has sworn "to be true and faithful to the Constitution" of the state, is worse than impious profanation of the name of God--then your judges, magistrates and jurors have stripped men of their property, condemned some to Newgate and others to the Post, the Pillory and the Gallows without a warrant, and are therefore murderers.--O thou God of order in this our condition!!! But,

4. We have a Constitution--a free and happy Constitution. It was to our fathers like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land--it has enabled them to transmit to us a fair and glorious inheritance--if we suffer revolutionists to rob us of this birth right "then we are bastards and not sons."

It is a fact as well authenticated as the settlement of the state, that a Constitution was formed by the people of the then colony of Connecticut, before the Charter of King Charles. This Charter was a guarantee of that Constitution. Trumbull's history of Connecticut gives us this Constitution and its origin. On our separation from Great- Britain, the people, thro' their representatives, made the following declaration on this subject:

"An Act containing an Abstract and Declaration of the Rights and Privileges of the People of this State, and securing the same. THE People of this State, being by the Providence of God, free and independent, have the sole and exclusive Right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and having from their Ancestors derived a free and excellent Constitution of Government whereby the Legislature depends on the free and annual Election of the People, they have the best Security for the Preservation of their civil and religious Rights and Liberties. And forasmuch as the free Fruition of such Liberties and Privileges as Humanity, Civility and Christianity call for, as is due to every Man in his Place and Proportion, without Impeachment and Infringement, hath ever been, and wilt be the Tranquility and Stability of Churches and Commonwealths; and the Denial thereof, the Disturbance, if not the Ruin of both.

PAR. I. BE it enacted and declared by the Governor, and Council and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled: That the ancient Form of Civil Government, contained in the Charter from Charles the Second, King of England, and adopted by the People of this State, shall be and remain the Civil Constitution of this State under the sole authority of the People thereof, independent of any King or Prince whatever. And that this Republic is, and shall forever be and remain, a free, sovereign and independent Sate, by the Name of the STATE of CONNECTICUT.

2. And be it further enacted and declared, That no Man's Land shall be taken away: No Man's Honor or good Name shall be stained: No Man's Person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered, nor any Ways punished: No Man shall be deprived of his Wife or Children; No Man's Goods or Estate shall be taken away from him nor any Ways indamaged under the Color of Law, or Countenance of Authority; unless clearly warranted by the Laws of this State.

3. That all the Free Inhabitants of this or any other of the United States of America, and Foreigners in Amity with this State, shall enjoy the same justice and Law within this State, which is general for the State in all Cases proper for the Cognizance of the Civil Authority and Court of Judicature within the same, and that without Partiality or Delay.

4. And that no Man's Person shall be restrained, or imprisoned, by any Authority whatsoever, before the Law hat sentenced him thereunto, if he can and will give sufficient Security, Bail, or Mainprize for his Appearance and good Behaviour in the mean Time, unless it be for Capital Crimes, Contempt in open Court, or in such Cases wherein some express Law doth allow of, or order the same."

These proceedings have been regarded as the ark of our political safety by the great and the good of all parties, who have gone before us. Never till this year have we heard, or even suspected that our state was governed by lawless mobs. Now, as a means to effect a revolution, for the first time, have a few designing men endeavored to excite alarm-- they have indeed excited alarm--sober men of their own party are alarmed--honest men, who are not misguided, see the whole extent of this project and they will frown it into contempt.

5. Mr. Edwards, as chairman of a body of men whom he calls a State Committee, on the 30th of July, without consulting even his brethren of the Committee, ordered delegates to meet at New-Haven on the 5th Wednesday of August. In those towns where enough could not be assembled to elect a member, the person written to, was authorized to attend and take a seat. In some towns the proposition was rejected even by Republicans. The delegates thus chosen, with all who united with their opinions, and chose to attend, met at the time and place appointed--shut their doors against every eye and ear--sat one day, formed an address, ordered ten thousand copies printed and dissolved. This address we have seen. It deserves some notice:

The first thing that attracts our attention is, that William Judd, Esq. of Farmington, is appointed chairman. This was an admirable provision --such a meeting should certainly have such a head. A man with the habit of devoting his feeble talents to intrigue, and who is noticeable only for an ostentatious parade, would preside in such an assembly with peculiar grace. His acquaintance could not but approve of this exhibition of the power of inflammable air and be pleased with its effects [on] an exhausted receiver. The meeting thus organized proceeded to stile this Convention as follows: "AT a meeting of Delegates from ninety-seven towns of the state of Connecticut, convened at New-Haven on the 29th of August, 1804." Delegates--Delegates do they stile themselves? The people would be obliged to this Convention to disclose their authority. Who commissioned these gentlemen for this important labor of providing them with a Constitution? The truth is not a man in that Convention was chosen by a majority of the people of [their] town--in many instances with less than a quarter part, and in general with less than a tenth----yet they call themselves Delegates. Thus [the] Convention with Major Judd in the chair, precede their address [with] a grosly deceptive declaration---a declaration notoriously false and [impu]dent. They then declare it as their unanimous opinion, "that the people of this state are at present without a Constitution of civil Government." This was to have been expected. Mr. Edwards ordered them to meet for that purpose, and shall they not obey their master? Bishop and Wolcott have repeatedly directed them to make this declaration, and Major Judd knows it to be true. Can any man doubt either the truth of this remark or the sincerity with which it is uttered? Is it not clear that this whole proceeding originates in a pure unmixed affection for the people and a sacred regard to truth? My fellow citizens, look at the whole course of the lives of Judd, (I place him first on the list because he was chairman) of Bishop and of Wolcott, and say if they have not ever been under the influence of the most disinterested virtue and the most exalted patriotism? Look also at these Delegates from ninety- seven towns, and say if they can have any other object in view but the dignity, happiness and glory of their country? Individuals can only vouch for individuals. The writer can vouch for about thirty with Major Judd at their head.

If any reader shall think that the subject is treated with too much levity, he should reflect that we are now animadverting on this Convention in their appointment of chairman, their stiling themselves Delegates from ninety-seven towns, and their declaration that we have no Constitution. On these subjects it is scarcely possible to be serious.

The address proceeds to declare how many of the confederated states have made for themselves Constitutions. We ask, which of them is more prosperous than Connecticut? In which of them are the great interests of Society better secured? In New-York a Convention was called about three years since to amend their Constitution. In Pennsylvania they have had two Constitutions and they are now on the eve of a civil war. Duane the great moving spring of all Jacobin societies, a vile outcast from Europe, reigns with uncontroled sway in every measure, and every man of virtue is denounced.

In Georgia they have had two Constitutions, and in Vermont two, and who dare pronounce their political situation equal to that of Connecticut. The people of France have had six Constitutions within fifteen years, and where are those Constitutions? In the grave of anarchy and despotism with millions of deluded inhabitants who have been sacrificed by the Robespieres and the Bishops of that suffering nation. To that suffering nation turn your eyes and reflect that the mighty mass of woe under which they have groaned, was produced by an ambition, fierce, cruel and destructive as hell, and that an ambition alike terrible reigns every where.

Read this address attentively, and you will be struck with the idea that no grievance is mentioned----not a single evil is pointed out---indeed the Convention declare that they must be "excused a detail of the numerous wrongs which have arrived to us under this Government"----these are their words---they are excused indeed---yes, they are excused from not polluting their address with falsehoods in this particular---full well they knew that no such wrongs existed----full well they anticipated that a certain detection would follow any such attempt at imposition. The leaders in this Convention knew full well that there is intelligence enough in Connecticut to meet them on any complaint, and to shew that it is groundless. They, therefore, prudently decline to be explicit, and yielding to us that the Government is now well administered, they shew a great anxiety for the safety of the "next generation." What an astonishing display of philanthropy!! Bishop and Wolcott are not at ease in their hearts while there is a prospect that even the generations which succeed us, will experience a woe!!

After many remarks directed to the passions, without proposing in specific terms a single provision of their newly projected Constitution, without laying their finger upon a single grievance, without urging a single argument tending to shew that a Constitution does not exist, the address unmakes itself---it unmasks the Convention---it unmasks these patriotic Delegates, and discovers the true cause of this Jacobinic meeting. Towards the close of it, speaking of the people, it says, "By their votes will be known their decision. If a Constitution appears desirable, they will vote for men who are in favor of it." Here the Convention speak which all may understand---but lest they had not made themselves sufficiently intelligible, they add, "We ask men of all parties to attend punctually at proxies and to continue a contest of votes till the great question whether this state shall have a Constitution be settled finally and forever." Now, the plain English of these sentences is this "We who are here assembled in Convention wish the people of Connecticut to vote for such men, in future, for office, as are in favor of a new Constitution---we have already declared that we are in favor of such a Constitution---pray therefore vote for us and continue" the context "till we succeed and then"---yes---my fellow- citizens, and then, what will they do? Why laugh at your folly---take all the offices and leave you to take care of yourselves. IF such would not be their conduct then the sun will no more rise in the east.

Gentlemen of the convention pray cease your pretensions to promotion till the people discover your merit. If you are honest, great and wise you will certainly be noticed and promoted--if you are pygmy politicians, the mushroom growth of an hour, dressed only with the little brief authority of self created delegates to a self created convention to aggrandise yourselves, then probably you will live with little further notice, and it will only be said hereafter of you that you belonged to an assembly convened at New-Haven on the 29th of August 1804, which sprang up in a day, chose major Judd chairman; and like "Jonah's Gourd withered in a day."

In this convention the question was much discussed whether the address should be made to the people or to the constituted authority of our State, the legislature. Some honest republicans insisted that it was proper to apply to the Legislature, but this was opposed by the young lawyers and the leaders of the party universally--full well they knew that such a measure would not answer their purpose--Mobs never talk of any authority except that of the sovereign people--To the sovereign people they go, and to the sovereign people they appeal till a sovereign people are cruelly insulted, cajoled and enslaved. Marat, Robespierre and Bonaparte told the sovereign people that they were all in all till they had robbed them of their dearest interests, and enchained them in despotism, and they now mock them with such declarations as these,* "The perfectability of human nature, the worst disease of man"-"the caprice of elections must be destroyed"-"the people cannot govern themselves"