al safety; this
then is a moment to you the most important--and that in various points--to
your reputation as members of a great nation--to your immediate safety, and
to that of your posterity. In your private concerns and affairs of life
you deliberate with caution, and act with prudence; your public concerns
require a caution and prudence, in a ratio suited to the difference and
dignity of the subject. The disposal of your reputation, and of your lives
and property, is more momentous than a contract for a farm, or the sale of
a bale of goods; in the former, if you are negligent or inactive, the
ambitious and despotic will entrap you in their toils, and bind you with
the cord of power from which you, and your posterity may never be freed;
and if the possibility should exist, it carries along with it consequences
that will make your community totter to its center: in the latter, it is
the mere loss of a little property, which more circumspection or assiduity
may repair.

Without directly engaging as an advocate for this new form of national
government, or as an opponent--let me conjure you to consider this a very
important crisis of your safety and character. You have already, in common
with the rest of your countrymen, the citizens of the other states, given
to the world astonishing evidence of your greatness--you have fought under
peculiar circumstances, and were successful against a powerful nation on a
speculative question, you have established an original compact between you
and your governors, a fact heretofore unknown in the formation of the
governments of the world; your experience has informed you, that there are
defects in the federal system, and, to the astonishment of mankind, your
legislatures have concerted measures for an alteration, with as much ease
as an individual would make a disposition of his ordinary domestic
affairs: this alteration now lies before you, for your consideration; but
beware how you determine--do not, because you admit that something must be
done, adopt anything--teach the members of that convention that ye are
capable of a supervision of their conduct. The same medium that gave you
this system, if it is erroneous, while the door is now open, can make
amendments, or give you another, if it is required. Your fate, and that of
your posterity, depends on your present conduct; do not give the latter
reason to curse you, nor yourselves cause of reprehension; as individuals
you are ambitiou