have procured from us.
This advance we designed to realize, but our expectation has been
disappointed. The produce of the country is in general down to the old
price, and bids fair to fall much lower. It is time for those who till the
earth in the sweat of their brow to enquire the cause. And we shall find
it neither in the merchant or farmer, but in a bad system of policy and
government, or rather in having no system at all. When we call ourselves
an independent nation it is false, we are neither a nation, nor are we
independent. Like thirteen contentious neighbors we devour and take every
advantage of each other, and are without that system of policy which gives
safety and strength, and constitutes a national structure. Once we were
dependent only on Great Britain, now we are dependent on every petty state
in the world and on every custom house officer of foreign ports. If the
injured apply for redress to the assemblies of the several states, it is
in vain, for they are not, and cannot be known abroad. If they apply to
Congress, it is also vain, for however wise and good that body may be,
they have not power to vindicate either themselves or their subjects.

Do not my countrymen fall into a passion on hearing these truths, nor
think your treatment unexampled. From the beginning it hath been the case
that people without policy will find enough to take advantage of their
weakness, and you are not the first who have been devoured by their wiser
neighbours, but perhaps it is not too late for a remedy, we ought at least
to make a trial, and if we still die shall have this consolation in our
last hours, that we tried to live.

I can foresee that several classes of men will try to alarm your fears,
and however selfish their motives, we may expect that liberty, the
encroachments of power, and the inestimable privileges of dear posterity
will with them be fruitful topicks of argument. As holy scripture is used
in the exorcisms of Romish priests to expel imaginary demons; so the most
sacred words will be conjured together to oppose evils which have no
existence in the new constitution, and which no man dare attempt to carry
into execution, among a people of so free a spirit as the Americans. The
first to oppose a federal government will be the old friends Great
Britain, who in their hearts cursed the prosperity of your arms, and have
ever since delighted in the perplexity of your councils. Many of these men
are still among us,