ral government, had not have
declared, that he would sooner have lost his head, and the amazing fund of
federal wisdom it contains, before he would have been guilty of so horrid
an act.
Look around you, inhabitants of America! and see of what characters the
anti-federal junto are composed.--Are any of them men of that class, who,
in the late war, made bare their arms and girded on the helmet in your
defence?--few, very few indeed, of the antifederalists, are men of this
character. But who are they that are supporters of that grand republican
fabrick, the Federal Constitution?--Are they not the men who were among the
first to assert the rights of freemen, and put a check to the invasions of
tyranny? Are they not, many of them, men who have fought and bled under
the banners of liberty?--Most certainly this is the case.--Will you then,
countrymen and fellow-citizens, give heed to these infamous, anti-federal
slanderers, who, in censuring the proposed plan of federal government,
have dared, basely dared to treat even the characters of a Washington and
a Franklin with reproach?--Surely you will not. Your good sense and
discernment will lead you to treat with abhorrence and contempt every
artifice which is put in practice to sap the confidence you have in men
who are the boast of their country, and an honour to human nature. You
certainly cannot harbour an idea so derogatory to reason and the nature of
things, as that men, who, for eight years, have fought and struggled, to
obtain and secure to you freedom and independence, should now be engaged
in a design to subvert your liberties and reduce you to a state of
servitude. Reason revolts at the thought, ... and none but the infamous
incendiary, or the unprincipled monster, would insinuate a thing so vile.
CASSIUS.
Cassius, VIII.
The Massachusetts Gazette, (Number 391)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1787.
For the Massachusetts Gazette.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF THIS STATE:
In some former publications, I have confined myself chiefly to pointing
out the views of the opposers to the plan of federal government; the
reason why I did not enter particularly into the merits of the new
constitution is, that I conceived if it was candidly read, and properly
attended to, that alone would be sufficient to recommend it to the
acceptance of every rational and thinking mind that was interested in the
happiness of the United States of America. Some babblers of the opposition
junto
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