ven
to call a convention. If they should neglect, are we to lend our
assistance to compel them by arms, and thus to kindle a civil war without
any provocation on their part? Virginia has put off their convention till
May, and appears to have no disposition to receive the new plan without
amendments. Pennsylvania does not seem to be disposed to receive it as it
is. The same objections are made in all the states, that the civil
government which they have adopted and which secures their rights will be
subverted. All the defenders of this system undertake to prove that the
rights of the states and of the citizens are kept safe. The opposers of it
agree that they will receive the least burdensome system which shall
defend those rights.

Both parties therefore found their arguments on the idea that these rights
ought to be held sacred. With this disposition is it not in every man's
mind better to recommit it to a new convention, or to Congress, which is a
regular convention for the purpose, and to instruct our delegates to
confine the system to the general purposes of the union, than the
endeavour to force it through in its present form, and with so many
opposers as it must have in every state on the continent? The case is not
of such pressing necessity as some have represented. Europe is engaged,
and we are tranquil. Never therefore was an happier time for deliberation.
The supporters of the measure are by no means afraid of insurrections
taking place, but they are afraid that the present government will prove
superiour to their assaults.

AGRIPPA.

Agrippa, IV.

The Massachusetts Gazette, (Number 388)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1787.

TO THE PEOPLE.

Having considered some of the principal advantages of the happy form of
government under which it is our peculiar good fortune to live, we find by
experience, that it is the best calculated of any form hitherto invented,
to secure to us the rights of our persons and of our property, and that
the general circumstances of the people shew an advanced state of
improvement never before known. We have found the shock given by the war,
in a great measure obliterated, and the public debt contracted at that
time to be considerably reduced in the nominal sum. The Congress lands are
full adequate to the redemption of the principal of their debt, and are
selling and populating very fast. The lands of this state, at the west,
are, at the moderate price of eighteen pence an acre,