In this convention the question was much discussed whether the address should be made to the people or to the constituted authority of our State, the legislature.  Some honest republicans insisted that it was proper to apply to the Legislature, but this was opposed by the young lawyers and the leaders of the party universally—­full well they knew that such a measure would not answer their purpose—­Mobs never talk of any authority except that of the sovereign people—­To the sovereign people they go, and to the sovereign people they appeal till a sovereign people are cruelly insulted, cajoled and enslaved.  Marat, Robespierre and Bonaparte told the sovereign people that they were all in all till they had robbed them of their dearest interests, and enchained them in despotism, and they now mock them with such declarations as these,* “The perfectability of human nature, the worst disease of man"-"the caprice of elections must be destroyed"-"the people cannot govern themselves”

Having examined some of the plans or projects proposed for our adoption, we will now estimate the probably cost attending them.  It is to be recollected that the proposition is to change the vital principles of our government—­to displace our present rulers and to fill their places with men who never enjoyed the public confidence.  To determine whether these objects are worth accomplishing, it is necessary to count the cost.

1.  One part of this cost will be an increase of the violence of parties.  Men who regard their property, their liberty and their lives, will not yield them a willing sacrifice to the demands of the ambitious and unprincipled—­men who faced danger and braved death during a seven years war—­men whose veins are warm with the blood of their venerable ancestors who planted this happy state, and defended it amidst innumerable hardships and calamities—­men who deem their birthright sacred—­their own freedom valuable, and their children dear as their own blood, will not calmly, nor cowardly suffer those who have no claims but their impudence, to storm their fortress and to capture them.  They will defend it in all lawful ways.-Bishop and Wolcott, and a thousand other mercenary hirelings may attempt to subdue or terrify them—­a proud and haughty leader who under the guise of patriotism, is attempting to undermine the happiness of the best regulated and freest State in the Union, with a thousand sycophants, conspiring to bring us under the yoke of Virginia, may exhaust their ingenuity and malice, still Connecticut will remain unshaken.  She will never crouch like Isachar to chains and fetters while any portion of the noble spirit of her ancestors who transmitted this fair inheritance at a mighty expense, remains to impel them to noble exertions.—­It is ardently to be wished that the passions of those who seek to overturn the venerable institutions of Connecticut, my subside, and that a spirit of reconciliation and moderation may succeed to that madness which threatens