Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/317

DELAWARE COUNTY. 293 seek to cliange their peaceful and happy and prosperous insti- tutionS; the fruit of the toil and blood of our Revolutionary fathers^ for a government resting upon such a basis and pro- ducing such fruits. Justice is the emblem of their govern- ment, and her light is truth. ^'To the tenants who disapprove of this disguised and armed force, and have refused to give their aid or countenance to its organization and action, — and they are believed to constitute a numerous and influential body of men, — the present presents a peculiarly appropriate occasion to mark more distinctly their separation from proceedings which cannot fail to be fatal to a good cause, and to prejudice good men. If they feel that the tenures by which they hold their farms are onerous ; not in accordance with the genius of our institutions, or the spirit of our people ; and that they ought to be changed to freeholds ; let them see, and feel also, that the natural sympathies of the great body of our freeholders must be with them in these im- pressions, and that the sure way to avert these sympathies is to attempt to accomplish a worthy end by unworthy means. Let them remember that their present tenures have resulted from voluntary contracts, freely entered into between them- selves, or their worthy ancestors, and the landlords from whom they hold; and that the readiest, if not the only way, to make the change they desire, is by a contract equally voluntary between themselves and those same landlords. Let them be assured that, if they fulfil their contracts hitherto, and offer terms of commutation of their titles, which are just, and which appear to be so to fair and impartial minds, an enlightened public opinion will bring about the acceptance of such terms by the landlords. To the proprietors of these leasehold estates, the landlords of these tenants, the present crisis should not be without its lessons of wisdom. Indefensible as have been the attempts to repudiate their solemn contracts, and to wrest from them by 25*