If talents and worth are of consideration, surely they should be at the command of the public.
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.
gutenberg.org
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…
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 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.
No one doubts that in their opposition, they are conscientious, and yet few doubt the propriety of enforcing such taxes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib, but my people do not know, Israel doth not consider.
My fellow citizens, shall any considerable portion of the people of Connecticut subject themselves to the reproach which rested on an ancient people?
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.
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…
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…
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.
Our constitution and government are perfectly free, and our laws are mild, equitable and just.
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.
By the liberality of the benevolent private libraries are every where found which, with the other sources of information, evince the superiority of our condition to that of any other people, in the means of gaining valuable knowledge.
Religious instruction is also brought almost to every man's door, so that none can justly complain that they are denied the means of growing wiser and better.
In various places also flourishing academies are supported, in which the higher branches of science are taught, and our College is at once our ornament and our pride.
Such are the excellent provisions of our laws, and the virtuous habits of our citizens, that schools of instruction in all useful knowledge are to be found in every place where they are needed.
Our natural advantages do not indeed promise such an accumulation of wealth as might satisfy that avarice which like the horse leach is constantly crying give--give--they are such however as will in ordinary cases, ensure to industry an…
He will use no weapon but truth and truth will be regarded by all except those who love darkness rather than light.
An attempt is now making in this State to change the vital principles of our government, to remove from office all our present rulers, and to introduce a new order of things.
Politicians like David Daggett
