Ye votaries of religion, consider how necessary civil order is for the promotion of piety and every moral virtue? Ye teachers of whatever name, discharge conscientiously the sacred federal duty you owe to God and your country? let there not be one evil spirit of discord among you, who are the messengers of peace: exert all the influence of your office and characters for the good of a people that must be dear to you. Ye good of all denominations reflect, that the common interest of religion, and the honest predelection you have for your particular modes of worship, both require the independency, safety, and general welfare of your country–shudder at the impieties and outrages on humanity committed by monsters in human form in the scenes of general anarchy. Ye friends of peace, who more peculiarly detest violence and bloodshed, reflect how necessary public tranquility is to you! how precarious your situation would be in that dreadful tumult, when the sword is the last arbiter of right, of property and life! rejoice in the security of a peaceful constitution. Ye proprietors of land, do you wish to reap wheat you have sown, and to gather the fruit of your trees; remember that a firm constitution is the only effectual deed–if this is broke, foreign and domestic armies may change into a dreary waste the land that now flows with milk and honey–nay many of you may be forced to toil in your own fields as indigent laborers for an insolent landlord, who gained by his sword or infamous arts of party your fair patrimony, and the inheritance of your children–alas! the furrows you have so often moistened with your sweat, may be steeped with the vital blood of your valiant sons. Ye fair cities and towns reared as it were by a creative power in a country that was two centuries ago a howling wilderness! Ye seats of industry, plenty and elegance! embrace with rapture a federal government; it is your only fortification–without it, you are not only an easy prey to every powerful invader, but may be sacked and burnt by rude and desperate bandit ties of American name. Ye men of wealth! without the public protection you may be reduced to beggary. Ye poor with honest industry! under the security of just and wise laws you may become rich, at least you will obtain the real comforts of life. Ye men of distinguished virtues and abilities, whom Heaven has made the natural guardians of your fellow citizens! exult in a constitution, by which superior merit alone will procure the sublime glory and happiness of making millions blessed, of exerting that patriotic affection which is the first in exalted minds. Ye wise and good Americans in general, triumph in a constitution, that permits you, poor or rich, to entrust your dearest concerns with men of your own choice; men whose power ceases with your confidence–use this noble liberty with judgment, integrity, with a federal generosity that becomes freemen and brothers united in life and death. Ye mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of America! dear names to every manly heart–your influence in every civilized society is like the vernal sun, and the gentle rains of May. Your prudence, frugality and taste are of peculiar importance in the present exigency–your hearts are naturally federal, prone to friendship, pity, love, and generosity; exert all your federal influence with husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, as your happiness is wrapped in theirs, as you cannot live without them, and they would die for you.
Ye parents, bequeath to your beloved children a federal constitution as the best inheritance–Ye hoary sires, who wish to descend in peace the vale of life, with the assistance and filial comfort of your dearest connexions, how bitter would civil broils be to you; how painful to be driven from your house and separated from your family! but what grief would bend your grey heads, if your sons should fall by fraternal wounds–You who are surrounded with a blooming offspring, regard it with awful tenderness as a pledge of fidelity to your country: The innocent at the mother's breast; he that fondly strives to call you father; and the daughter whose youthful charms may in public disorders prove her ruin, tenderly implore you to be federal–
3Hear then ye people of the United States! reason dictates, every feeling of the heart entreats, and Heaven commands, be federal and happy for ever.
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