To the People of the State of New York: AFTER an
unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting
federal government, you are called upon to
deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The
subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the
existence of the UNION, the safety and
welfare of the parts of which it is
composed, the
fate of an
empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been
frequently remarked that it seems to have been
reserved to the people of this country, by their
conduct and
example, to
decide the important question, whether societies of men are really
capable or not of establishing good
government from
reflection and
choice, or whether they are
forever destined to
depend for their
political constitutions on
accident and
force. If there be any truth in the , the
crisis at which we have arrived may with
propriety be regarded as the
era in which that
decision is to be made; and a wrong
election of the part we shall act may, in this view,
deserve to be
considered as the
general misfortune of mankind.