My fellow citizens human nature is the same here as in France--Then
before you give ear to the songs of enchantment Count the Cost--Before
you sell your birthright for a mess of pottage Count the Cost. Before
you consent to yield up the institutions of your wise and pious
ancestors, Count the Cost--Before you admit universal suffrage Count the
Cost--Before you submit to the mischievous doctrine of district
elections, Count the Cost.--Before you reject from office the men whom
your hearts approve, Count the Cost, the great cost of weak and wicked
rulers.--Before you consent to be governed by men whose impudence, and
vice constitute many of their claims to promotion, Count the Cost. This
evil you can prevent by attending with punctuality on our elections. The
freemen of Connecticut are mighty when they arise in their strength. No
freeman can justify absence except from necessity.--That people who will
not faithfully attend upon the Choice of their rulers, cannot expect to
retain their freedom.--Trust not to a majority--say not that things will
go well without me--Such language is unbecoming freemen--Despair not of
a majority--if you will not "go with the multitude to do evil," go
against them to do good. Before you neglect an election Count the Cost
--If the loss of your Vote should prove the loss of an election of a
single man, then will you not have Counted the Cost.

My fellow citizens--WE have a government which has protected us a
Century and an half--we have enjoyed unexampled prosperity.--WE may
transmit a glorious inheritance to posterity.--The writer has children
dear to him as his own blood--these children are to him a sacred
deposit--He can, with confidence, commit their political interests to
such a government as Connecticut has enjoyed.--He is persuaded that if
they feel the iron hand of despotism, it will not be from such a
government, and such rulers as we now possess--Before he yields his own,
and their dear, and inestimable rights to the wild projects of the