The diffusion of knowledge is greater than in any other part of the globe of equal dimensions.  Such are the excellent provisions of our laws, and the virtuous habits of our citizens, that schools of instruction in all useful knowledge are to be found in every place where they are needed.  There is no village in this State which will not attest to this fact.  In various places also flourishing academies are supported, in which the higher branches of science are taught, and our College is at once our ornament and our pride.  Religious instruction is also brought almost to every man’s door, so that none can justly complain that they are denied the means of growing wiser and better.  By the liberality of the benevolent private libraries are every where found which, with the other sources of information, evince the superiority of our condition to that of any other people, in the means of gaining valuable knowledge.  To those, who with the writer, believe that ignorance is the parent of vice, and that the civilized is preferable to the savage state, our situation, in the above particulars, demands the gratitude of every heart.

Our constitution and government are perfectly free, and our laws are mild, equitable and just.  To the truth of this position there is the most ample and unequivocal proof.

1.  Those who seek to revolutionize the State declare this to be the nature of our government with few exceptions.—­Such testimony cannot be doubted—­it is the testimony of a man against himself.  Ask your neighbour to point you to the evils under which he labours—­ask him to name the man who is oppressed except by his vices or his follies, and if he be honest, he will tell you that there is no such man—­if he be dishonest, his silence will be proof in point.

2.  Strangers who reside here a sufficient time to learn our laws, universally concur in their declarations on this subject.  They will ask, with surprize, why the people of Connecticut should complain?  They see every man indulged in worshiping God as he pleases, and they see many indulged in neglecting his worship entirely—­They see men every where enjoying the liberty of doing what is right—­and such liberty they rightly decide is the perfection of freedom.

3.  The experience of a century and a half, affords irresistible proof on this subject.  During this long period convulsions have shaken many parts of the earth, and there has been a mighty waste of human happiness.  Empires and Kingdoms have been prostrated, and the sword hath been devouring without cessation.  This state too hath been threatened—­ clouds have gathered and portended a dreadful desolation, but we have been defended, protected and saved.  No essential changes in our government have ever taken place—­formed by men who knew the important difference between liberty and licentiousness, it has been our shield—­ our strong tower—­our secure fortress.—­To the calls of our country we have ever been obedient—­No state hath