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knew they bad no power to make it so ; that our choice 

 of them ha«1 been for no' such purpose, and at a time 

 when we could have no such purpose in contemplation. 

 Harl an unalterable form of jroverument been meditat- 

 ed, perhaps we should have chosen a different set of 

 people. There was no rause then for the people to rise 

 in rebellion. But to what danorerous lengths will this 

 arcrument lead ? Did the acquiescence of the colr>nies 

 under the various acts of power exercised by Great 

 Britain in our infant state, confirm these acts, and so 

 far invest them with the authority of the people as to 

 render them unalterable, and our present resistance 

 wrong ? On every unauthoritative exercise of power 

 by the legislature, must the people rise in rebellion, or 

 their silence be construed into a surrender of that power 

 to them ? If so, how many rebellions should we have 

 had already? One certainly for every session of assem- 

 bly. The other states in the union have been of opin- 

 ion, that to render a form of government unalterable by 

 ordinary acts of asseml)ly, the people riujst delegate per- 

 sons with s[)ecial powers. Thoy have accordingly 

 chosen special conventions to form and fix tlieir govern- 

 ments. The individuals then who maintain the contra- 

 ry opinion in this coimtry, should have the modesty to 

 suppose it f)ossible that they may be wrong, and the 

 rest of America right. But if there be only a [)Ossibility 

 of their beinjj wronof, if only a pbuisible doubt remains 

 of the validity of the ordinance of government, is it not 

 better to remove that doubt, by placing it on a bottom 

 which none will dispute ? If they be right we shall only 

 have the tmnecessary trouble of meeting once in con- 

 vention. If they be wrong, they expose us to tlie hazard 

 of having no fundamental rights at all. True it is, this 

 is no time for deliberating on forms of government. 

 While an enemy is within our bowels, the first object is 

 to expel him. But when this shall be done, when peace 

 sliall be established, and leisure given us for entrench- 

 ing within good forms, the rights for which we have 

 bled, let no man be founri indolent enough to decline a 

 little more trouble for placing them beyond the reach of 



