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,