Count The Cost | Page 2

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.
Our constitution and government are perfectly free, and our laws are mild, equitable and just. To the truth of this position there is the most ample and unequivocal proof.
1. 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 silence will be proof in point.
2. Strangers who reside here a sufficient time to learn our laws, universally concur in their declarations on this subject. They will ask, with surprize, why the people of Connecticut should complain? 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 perfection of freedom.
3. The experience of a century and a half, affords irresistible proof on this subject. During this long period convulsions have shaken many parts of the earth, and there has been a mighty waste of human happiness. Empires and Kingdoms have been prostrated, and the sword hath been devouring without cessation. This state too hath been threatened-- clouds have gathered and portended a dreadful desolation, but we have been defended, protected and saved. No essential changes in our government have ever taken place--formed by men who knew the important difference between liberty and licentiousness, it has been our shield-- our strong tower--our secure fortress.--To the calls of our country we have ever been obedient--No state hath more cheerfully met danger--no state hath more readily or effectually resisted foreign aggression. Washington while living was a witness to this fact, and tho' dead he yet speaketh. While plots, insurrections and rebellions have distressed many states and nations, Connecticut hath enjoyed an internal peace and tranquility, which forcibly demonstrates the wisdom and equity of her Government.--Such a Government, administered by men of virtue and talents, has produced the most benign effects, and our prosperity is calculated to excite the warmest expressions of gratitude rather than the murmurs of disaffection.
4. Our Treasury exhibits the truth of these remarks. It is clear from the statement in the Appendix, to which every reader will advert with pleasure, that the people of Connecticut annually receive thirty seven thousand four hundred and fifty-five dollars and seventy six cents more from the Treasury than they pay into it by taxes and duties.--At the close of the late war such had been our exertions, we were encumbered with a debt of nearly two millions of dollars. Now that debt is paid and we have nearly that sum in advance. Where is the state which can justly boast of greater prosperity?
Notwithstanding this enviable situation a clamour is excited, the people are agitated, and discord, with its train of evils, is prevailing. 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. Is there nothing unaccountable in such conduct? Is there nothing calculated to excite indignation? 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."
Secondly. Let us examine some of the plans and projects proposed for our adoption and estimate the probably cost attending them.�C Here we must speak with less certainty--What the present condition of Connecticut is we know--respecting its future destiny we can only judge by arguing from cause to effect. Why a man who regards the happiness of his fellow men, should attempt a change here, is too wonderful for an ordinary capacity. No prudent farmer ever pulled up a hill of corn, which was flourishing, to see if there was not a worm at the root.
One of these projects is the repeal of all laws for the support of religious institutions. 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