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