vile insinuations and falsehoods being spread among the people,
in regard to their rulers, in order to prepare their minds for the
reception of that form of government which the Federal Convention may
propose, sentiments the very reverse ought to be propagated. The people
ought to be inspired with the highest confidence in those who preside over
the affairs of the state. It ought to be implanted in their minds, that
their rulers are men fit to conduct every plan which might be proposed, to
promote the general welfare of the people; and this with truth may be
asserted. But Numa has no more intention of preparing the minds of the
people for the government which the Federal Convention may propose, than
Queen Catharine has of abdicating the throne of Russia.
The people of Massachusetts ought to be cautioned, above everything, to be
on their guard with respect to the conduct of Political Jesuits. They have
generally been the curse of almost every country that has cherished; they
have often been the promoters of revolution and bloodshed. A set of
infernal fiends, let loose from the dreary mansions of Beelzebub, cannot
be more detrimental to the place and happiness of society, than a band of
Political Jesuits.
Citizens of Massachusetts! those men who now preside over you are, and
ever have been, the patrons of freedom and independence! men whose
exertions have been unceasing to promote and secure to you the blessings
of a free government; whose grand stimulus to act is the advancement of
your welfare and happiness!--men whose conduct is not stinted by the narrow
concerns of self, and who, "when their country calls, can yield their
treasure up, and know no wish beyond the publick good." Such are the men
who now wield the affairs of state, and whose deeds will, when those of
that vile clan of calumniators who exist in this state are rotting in the
tomb of oblivion, conspicuously adorn the brightest pages of the American
revolution.
Numa(5) and his band, the calumniators of true worth, may bustle away for
a while; but they will ere long be obliged to retire from the bright
flashes of patriotism and merit; and, after finding their endeavours
fruitless, to sully The Character of the Brightest Luminary that ever
Adorned the Hemisphere of Massachusetts,(6) and many other illustrious
patriots, who compose the present administration, they will retire to
gnash their teeth in anguish and disappointment, in the caverns of
obscurity--
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