(Concluded from our last.)
To the Massachusetts Convention.
Gentlemen,
To tell us that we ought to look beyond local interests. and judge for
the good of the empire, is sapping the foundation of a free state. The
first principle of a just government is. that it shall operate
equally. The report of the convention is extremely unequal. It takes a
larger share of power from some. and from others, a larger share of
wealth. The Massachusetts will be obliged to pay near three times
their present proportion towards continental charges. The proportion
is now ascertained by the quantity of landed property, then it will be
by the number of persons. After taking the whole of our standing
revenue, by impost and excise, we must still be held to pay a sixth
part of the remaining debt. It is evidently a contrivance to help the
other states at our expense. Let us then be upon our guard, and do no
more than the present confederation obliges. While we make that our
beacon we are safe. It was framed by men of extensive knowledge and
enlarged ability, at a time when some of the framers of the new plan
were hiding in the forests to secure their precious persons. It was
framed by men, who were always in favour of a limitted government. and
whose endeavors Heaven has crowned with success. It was framed by men.
whose idols were not power and high life, but industry and
constitutional liberty, and who are now in opposition to this new
scheme of oppression. Let us then cherish the old confederation like
the apple of our eye. Let us confirm it by such limitted powers to
Congress, and such an enlarged intercourse, founded on commerce and
mutual want, with the other states, that our union shall outlast time
itself. It is easier to prevent an evil than to cure it. We ought
therefore to be cautious of innovations. The intrigues of interested
politicians will be used to seduce even the elect. If the vote passes
in favour of the plan, the constitutional liberty of our country is
gone forever. If the plan should be rejected. we always have it in our
power, by a fair vote of the people at large, to extend the authority
of Congress. This ought to have been the mode pursued. But our
antagonists were afraid to risk it. They knew that the plan would not
bear examining. Hence we have seen them insulting all who were in
opposition to it, and answering arguments only with abuse. They have
threatened and they have insulted the body of the people. But I may
venture to appeal to any man of unbiassed judgment, whether his
feelings tell him, that there is any danger at all in rejecting the
plan. I ask not the palsied or the jaundiced. nor men troubled with
bilious or nervous affections, for they can see danger in every thing.
But I apply to men who have no personal expectations from a change.
and to men in full health. The answer of all such men will be. that
never was a better time for deliberation. Let us then, while we have
it in our power. secure the happiness and freedom of the present and
future ages. To accept of the report of the convention, under the idea
that we can alter it when we please, will be sporting with
fire-brands[,] arrows and death. It is a system which must have an
army to support it, and there can be no redress but by a civil war.
If. as the federalists say, there is a necessity of our receiving it.
for heaven's sake let our liberties go without our making a formal
surrender. Let us at least have the satisfaction of protesting against
it. that our own hearts may not reproach us for the meanness of
deserting our dearest interests.
Our present system is attended with the inestimable advantage of
preventing unnecessary wars. Foreign influence is assuredly smaller in
our publick councils, in proportion as the members are subject to be
recalled. At present, their right to sit continues no longer than
their endeavors to secure the publick interest. It is therefore not an
object for any foreign power to give a large price for the friendship
of a delegate in Congress. If we adopt the new system, every member
will depend upon thirty thousand people mostly scattered over a large
extent of country, for his election. Their distance from the seat of
government will make it extremely difficult for the electors to get
information of his conduct. If he is faithful to his constituents, his
conduct will be misrepresented, in order to defeat his influence at
home. Of this we have a recent instance, in the treatment of the
dissenting members of the late federal convention. Their fidelity to
their constituents was their whole fault. We may reasonably expect
similar conduct to be adopted, when we shall have rendered the
friendship of the members valuable to foreign powers, by giving them a
secure seat in Congress. We shall too have all the intrigues. cabals
and bribery praictised, which are usual at elections in Great-Britain.
We shall see and lament the want of publick virtue; and we shall see
ourselves bought at a publick market, in order to be sold again to the
highest bidder. We must be involved in all the quarrels of European
powers. and oppressed with expense, merely for the sake of being like
the nations round about us. Let us then. with the spirit of freemen.
reject the offered system, and treat as it deserves the proposition of
men who have departed from their commission; and let us deliver to the
rising generation the liberty purchased with our blood.
Agrippa.
