Count the Cost: An Address to the People of Connecticut, On Sundry Political Subjects, and Particularly on the Proposition for a New ConstitutionDaggett, David
History
Count the Cost: An Address to the People of Connecticut, On Sundry Political Subjects, and Particularly on the Proposition for a New Constitution
Daggett, David
Connecticut -- Politics and government -- 1775-1865; Constitutional law -- Connecticut
In return for these losses what good is to acrue to the people? Will you
hazard these evils without a fair and reasonable expectation of some
solid benefits? Is it then unreasonable to enquire what good is to be
obtained? Do the characters of these men elevate your hopes? You know
many of them in private life--do they there abound in good works? Shall
they be heard and regarded when they demand of you to displace your
faithful and approved rulers, and commit to them your all? Modest men
will wait your notice and rise at your request. Shall the impudent,
banish them from your affections and usurp their places in your hearts?
Let it again be asked what good will result to Connecticut by a new
Constitution, by the prevalence of revolutionary principles? France,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy and Holland, have seen revolution
after revolution, one new Constitution after another, and liberty has a
thousand times been immovably established. Altars have been demolished
--Temples polluted, Kings, Queens, Nobles and Priests murdered in the
cause of liberty--millions have perished--religion banished, and the
worship of God prohibited--projectors have exhausted their ingenuity
--the treasures of wealth have been wasted and the peace of the world
sacrificed! What is the result? An accumulation of misery which baffles
all description. Not an individual is more happy or more virtuous. Not a
nation more prosperous--not a tittle added to human felicity. Ye
reformers, look at France--behold the crimes which have risen up to
demand the vengeance of God--see the woes which you have brought on the
race of man, and tremble lest your works should follow you?
If this picture is too glaring, look at our sister states in which
revolutions have been effected, and shew us the benefit. A noisy or
seditious individual has obtained a lucrative office--an ambitious
leader is in the char of state satiating his pride, or like Abraham
Bishop gratifying his passion for ignoble pelf, upon his thousands.--He
drives his carriage by his industrious neighbor who has toiled for him
at an election, cracks his whip, and laughs at the folly of his dupe,
and will laugh till he may need his services again, and then he will
again cringe and bow and flatter and gull. But is the mechanic, the
farmer, the merchant profited? Is society enriched, or the public good
promoted?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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