To those, who with the writer, believe that ignorance is the parent of vice, and that the civilized is preferable to the savage state, our situation, in the above particulars, demands the gratitude of every heart.
David Daggett
The Public Record
David Daggett was a U.S. senator, mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, Judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, and a founder of the Yale Law School. He helped block plans for the first college for African Americans in the United States and presided over the conviction of a woman running a boarding school for African Americans in violation of Connecticut's recently passed Black Law. He judged African Americans not to be citizens and supported their colonization to Africa.
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Our constitution and government are perfectly free, and our laws are mild, equitable and just.
Those who seek to revolutionize the State declare this to be the nature of our government with few exceptions.--Such testimony cannot be doubted--it is the testimony of a man against himself.
Ask your neighbour to point you to the evils under which he labours--ask him to name the man who is oppressed except by his vices or his follies, and if he be honest, he will tell you that there is no such man--if he be dishonest, his…
They see every man indulged in worshiping God as he pleases, and they see many indulged in neglecting his worship entirely--They see men every where enjoying the liberty of doing what is right--and such liberty they rightly decide is the…
Some of our citizens, in the height of political prosperity, are seeking to destroy an order of things which has prevailed an hundred and fifty years, and throw themselves into the arms of projectors and reformers.
My fellow citizens, shall any considerable portion of the people of Connecticut subject themselves to the reproach which rested on an ancient people?
The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib, but my people do not know, Israel doth not consider.
No prudent farmer ever pulled up a hill of corn, which was flourishing, to see if there was not a worm at the root.
The language of those who favor the measure is, that religion will take care of itself--that no external aid is necessary--that all legislative interference is impious.
Many, and it is believed by far the greater part, of those who make these declarations, intend to throw down all the barriers which christianity has erected against vice.
On the other hand a great majority of the people and the Legislature, insist that every man in the community who is able, should contribute, in some way, towards the support of the institutions of religion.
There is a class of men, very respectable for the sobriety of their habits, and their peaceful deportment, who always refuse to be taxed for military defence.
No one doubts that in their opposition, they are conscientious, and yet few doubt the propriety of enforcing such taxes.
The principle now advocated is interwoven with all our laws and habits --it has existed from the first settlement of the State--it has produced much good--it ought not therefore to be abandoned without the utmost deliberation.
The clamor against this principle, is the clamor of those who wish to see the State revolutionized--it is the clamor of those turbulent spirits which delight in confusion and which pull down and destroy with a dexterity which they never…
The candidate when elected becomes the creature of the district and not the ruler of a State--He is and must be devoted to the interest of that portion of the community which has elected him, and their views and schemes must be patronized…
If talents and worth are of consideration, surely they should be at the command of the public.
It is of no moment where a man dwells, but it is of immense importance that he be a wise man rather than a fool--a man of integrity rather than a knave.
Experience, the only save and unerring guide, is altogether in favor of elections at large rather than by Districts.
For more than a century we have preserved an unexampled prosperity.--shall we hazard our interests on the speculations of zealous partizans who are constantly bewildering themselves and their followers in new schemes?
What then is the true meaning of the maxim, that representation and taxation are inseparable?
This State and the other States understood this maxim precisely as now explained, in their opposition to Great-Britain.--We complained that the colonies should not be taxed because they were not represented in parliament.
In this view of the subject the maxim is wise and just.
No one pleads for such a privilege, but there are many who insist that the man without a cent of property shall have the same direction in the choice of those who are charged with the interests of the community, as he who is worth…
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