Swiss Federal Diet

“ The Diet has no desire to oppress any member of the Confederacy, or to annihilate the cantonal independence, or violently to destroy the existing Federal Pact, or to create a unitary Republic, or, in general, to endanger your liberties, privileges, and religion. On the contrary, it will in all fidelity seek to afford to all the cantons alike, that protection and security to which they are entitled, and have a right to expect from confederates. ”

“ It depends upon you to avert such a disastrous catastrophe. And we hope, that you will be guided by such counsels, as are in accordance with the duties you owe to the Confederation, as are necessary to the peace and order of the whole country, and to your own cantons. Let us be one common brotherhood, united in one common bond of alliance. ”

“ Confederates! You apprehend dangers to threaten the rights and liberties, as well as the faith and Church which have come down to you from a long line of ancestry. Hut we give you hereby the most solemn assurances, that there exists not on our part the remotest intention of exposing those your precious privileges to the least danger or jeopardy. How, indeed, were it possible to suppose, that the Federal Executive could be moved to the commission of any wrong against confederates ”