Again, it is insisted by those who oppose universal suffrage, and the reader is desired to notice the remark with attention, that no community can be safe unless the power of elections resides principally with the great body of the…

Landholders have an enduring interest in the welfare of the community.

They are lords of their own soil, and of course, to a certain degree, independent--they therefore will resist tyranny--they will equally oppose anarchy because they are aware that in any storm which may arise they must abide its fury.

It is nothing less than an effort to rest from the farmers of Connecticut that controul over the elections which is their only fortress of safety.

Let men who wish to protect their invaluable rights ponder on these things, and let them at the same time, remember that no nation in which universal suffrage hath been allowed, hath remained free and happy.

A candid observer must reply, they are men in whose hands power has been wisely placed by the people, and who have never abused that power, men of unquestionable talents and of spotless fame.

Among them there is one who was side by side with your beloved Washington during the revolutionary war, who has repeatedly been elected your first magistrate, and, against whom, the tongue of slander never moved but in the hard service of…

There is another, who, for more than twenty years has been employed in the first offices in the gift of his country, and whose probity and talents are second to those of none of his contemporaries.

Against these men the cry is raised--not the cry of the oppressed, for God knows no man in Connecticut is oppressed, but the cry of those who pant for office, and who can rise only on the ruins of others.

Is not a wise and faithful execution of the laws the chief object of every good Government?

Without this, liberty can exist only in name--The name indeed may be blasphemously uttered, but the substance is gone with the liberty of all who have relied on professions.

Are they not filled with men of incorruptible integrity?

Yet the stripling of yesterday--the bold projector--the unprincipled ad ambitious, with a host of deceived followers, with matchless effrontery, arraign the conduct of these magistrates and loudly demand that they be driven from their…

Another favorite scheme is to elevate to all the offices of importance men who have never enjoyed the public confidence.

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?

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…

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?

Do we see in a single individual an assemblage of talents united with virtue sufficient to qualify him for the seat of justice?

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.