But if you agree to previous
amendments, you will have union, firm, solid, permanent. I cannot
conclude without saying, that I shall have nothing to do with it, if
subsequent amendments be determined upon. Oppressions will be carried on
as radically by the majority when adjustments and accommodations will
be held up. I say, I conceive it my duty, if this government be adopted
before it is amended, to go home. I shall act as I think my duty
requires. Every other gentleman will do the same. Previous amendments,
in my opinion, are necessary to procure peace and tranquility. I fear,
if they be not agreed to, every movement and operation of government
will cease, and how long that baneful thing, _civil discord_, will stay
from this country, God only knows. When men are free from restraint,
how long will you suspend their fury? The interval between this and
bloodshed is but a moment. The licentious and wicked of the community
will seize with avidity every thing you hold. In this unhappy situation,
what is to be done? It surpasses my stock of wisdom to determine. If you
will, in the language of freemen, stipulate that there are rights which
no man under heaven can take from you, you shall have me going along
with you; but not otherwise.
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