HISTORY OF VERMONT. 435 



mortifying, and degrading. Let it be rcmemr 

 beied, the Amtrican people are not corrupted, 

 emaciated, or enervated ; and whensoever the 

 state of their country shall require it, they are 

 capable of all the vigor, energy, hardihood, and 

 virtue, that appeared in their fathers at any for- 

 njer period. 



Ye people of the United States of America, 

 behold here the precarious foundation upon 

 "which ye hold your liberties. They rest not 

 upon things written upon paper, nor upon the 

 virtues, the vices, or the designs of other men, 

 but they depend ujxin yourselves ; upon your 

 maintaining j^our property, your knowledge, 

 and your virtue. Nature and society have join- 

 ed to produce, and to establish freedom in A- 

 inerica. You are now in the full possession of 

 all your natural and civil rights ; under no re- 

 straints in acquiring knowledge, property, or 

 the higheiit honors of your country ; in the most 

 rapid state of improvement, and population ; 

 with perfect freedom to make further improve- 

 ments in your own condition. In this state of 

 society, every thing is adapted to promote the 

 prosperity, the importance, and the improvement 

 of the body of the people. But nothing is so 

 established among men, but that it may change 

 and vary. If yovi should lose that spiiit of in- 

 dustry, of economy, of knowledge, and of vir- 

 tue, which led you to independence and to em- 

 pire, then, but not until then, will } ou lose your 

 freedom : Preserve yourviitues, and your free- 

 dom will fee perpetvial ! 



