The first thing that attracts our attention is, that William Judd, Esq.
of Farmington, is appointed chairman. This was an admirable provision
--such a meeting should certainly have such a head. A man with the habit
of devoting his feeble talents to intrigue, and who is noticeable only
for an ostentatious parade, would preside in such an assembly with
peculiar grace. His acquaintance could not but approve of this
exhibition of the power of inflammable air and be pleased with its
effects [on] an exhausted receiver. The meeting thus organized proceeded
to stile this Convention as follows: "AT a meeting of Delegates from
ninety-seven towns of the state of Connecticut, convened at New-Haven on
the 29th of August, 1804." Delegates--Delegates do they stile themselves?
The people would be obliged to this Convention to disclose their
authority. Who commissioned these gentlemen for this important labor of
providing them with a Constitution? The truth is not a man in that
Convention was chosen by a majority of the people of [their] town--in
many instances with less than a quarter part, and in general with less
than a tenth----yet they call themselves Delegates. Thus [the]
Convention with Major Judd in the chair, precede their address [with] a
grosly deceptive declaration---a declaration notoriously false and
[impu]dent. They then declare it as their unanimous opinion, "that the
people of this state are at present without a Constitution of civil
Government." This was to have been expected. Mr. Edwards ordered them to
meet for that purpose, and shall they not obey their master? Bishop and
Wolcott have repeatedly directed them to make this declaration, and
Major Judd knows it to be true. Can any man doubt either the truth of
this remark or the sincerity with which it is uttered? Is it not clear
that this whole proceeding originates in a pure unmixed affection for
the people and a sacred regard to truth? My fellow citizens, look at the
whole course of the lives of Judd, (I place him first on the list