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In stature and make-up Isaac closely resembled that interesting personality, Washington Irving's "John Bull".

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The year 1794 was remarkable for the treaty with Great Britain, the beginning of our Navy under the new Constitution, Wayne's defeat of the Indians on the Ohio, the invention of the cotton gin, and the Whiskey Rebellion. It has been said that the Federal Excise tax, which instigated the "Whiskey Rebellion" and particularly the subsequent successful dispatch of American troops to support it with their bayonets, was a deliberate attempt on the part of Alexander Hamilton to try-out or test the strength of his Federalist Party in the matter of the future policy of our government. But to the two young lads of twelve and ten, Isaac's sons Joseph and Nathan, it was a glorious spectacle of drums and music, prancing horses and gay uniforms, as their father, Regimental Surgeon of the 4th New Jersey Infantry, rode off in that crisp autumn morning to help quell the Western Insurrection. This force of militia, joining similar Regiments from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, was put under the command of General "Light Horse Harry" Lee of Virginia, whose son, another General Lee, sixty-seven years later was to lead a great American army in gray. The New Jersey troops avoided Philadelphia, where an epidemic of yellow fever -- The great epidemic of 1793 in which the mythical Evangeline and Gabriel, the exiled Acadians of Longfellow's poem, met at the deathbed had been raging. Crossing the Delaware above Trenton, they headed for those rough and muddy roads through the beautiful mountains and fair valleys of Pennsylvania. The roads which the insurgent mountaineers could not readily transport their crops by wagon unless converted into alcohol or whisky nevertheless carried these regiments and their cumbersome baggage trains. There were many who prophesied that this, the first venture into armed enforcement of the newly semi-centralized government, was doomed to failure. For there were not more than four regiments in the entire Federal Army at the time, and none of these were available for services in the field. And so important was this question considered by President Washington himself, that he left the seat of government in Philadelphia, and with Hamilton, accompanied this militia force along part of the three-weeks' march to Western Pennsylvania. At Carlisle, even then an old military station, the Militia of New Jersey, some 2100 men under Governor Howell, were reviewed by the Commander. At Bedford, formerly Fort Bedford, and the meeting of several old Indian trails -- 200 miles west of Philadelphia the troops rested for 4 days. This was a historic spot. Thirty-six years before Brigadier John Forbes had made it his rendezvous for the attack on the French at Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, and by the old Log fort had passed in review the troops of the Scots Highlanders, the Royal American Regiment and the Provincial Regiment under Colonel Washington.

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Isaac had arrived with his troops on the nineteenth of October, 1794, and the "Army of the Constitution" as it was called was soon reinforced by the other contingents from Virginia and Maryland, which had marched up from Cumberland, Maryland. In all there were fifteen thousand troops in the "Army of the Constitution" and completely uniformed and equipped, the entire body was reviewed in fitting ceremony by its Commander-in-Chief, General Washington. It has been said this was the largest number of soldiers he had ever commanded in the field. The four-day rest at Bedford was well-earned, and did much to carry the battalions through the following days of mud, wet clothes, and discomfort occasioned by heavy rains as they crossed the mountains. After a three weeks encampment below Pittsburgh, the mission having been completed successfully, they resumed their return march home.

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The officers and the men could not but have been struck with the great differences which existed between the people on the Atlantic seaboard and those beyond the Allegheny mountains. The latter were the rough, hardy, backwoods men "Whiskey men" they were called living for the most part in their crude dwellings amidst meagre clearings in a wealth of primeval forests. No doubt these "westerners" regarded their fellow-citizens on the tidewater as effete. On the other hand, Philadelphia at that time was the social and financial center of the eastern coast, and many of its successful merchants and their wives had gradually set up an excellent imitation of life in the gay European cities. Philadelphia at this period presented a social life which it had never before had, or which it has been said the country has not witnessed since. No doubt a great influx of persons from England and France to that city after the Revolutions had set the pace for a social life eagerly followed by the wealthier merchants of that town. Although many of the smaller towns along the Atlantic may have attempted to copy the magnificence of Philadelphia, they were never able to quite reach that distinction. Garden parties, salons, coaches drawn by four horses, and liveried servants, drew many to that little London. Very few of the country gentry were able or willing to participate in this great orgy of splendor. But New York, New England, Maryland and Virginia, as well as New Jersey, nevertheless, all contributed to this great American salon. And it has been written "perfectly known in the society of the metropolis, (Philadelphia), though residing generally on their domains in New Jersey....were....the Daytons and Ogdens".

In a few years, however, Thomas Jefferson, fresh from the influence of the French Revolution, was in a measure to democratize even the sea-board region of the American states.

See Appendix 58

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Chapter V. NATHAN AND GEOGRAPHY

"Westward the course of empire takes its way."

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Isaac, sunburned and hardened by his bivouacs in the bloodless, though arduous duties of the "Western Campaign", returned in good time to take up again his civilian practice, inspect his farms and mills, greet his numerous friends, and prepare for Christmas at his home. His family consisted of himself, now thirty-six, and his good wife Amy, two years his junior, Nancy fifteen, Joseph twelve, Nathan Morse, age ten, the sixth generation in this narrative, Margaret four, and Elizabeth one. They had lost one daughter in infancy but in another few years were to become parents of their seventh and last child -- a daughter named Joan. a daughter named Joan. Isaac's home was

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a large two story yellow-stuccoed dwelling surrounded by flowers and plants, and covered with wisteria, on a plot of ground almost an acre in extent at the southwest corner of East Jersey and Bridge Streets. Attached was his office, and in the rear yard was a stable where he kept his three or four horses, and his gig or sulky and chaise, and over which Harry, his negro servant, shared quarters with the fodder for the animals. In the spacious yard near the detached servants' quarters was a laundry, summer kitchen, well house and pens for poultry and fowl; several fruit trees, grapevines, and a garden. In all it was a most comfortable menage, and Isaac and Amy when he was not joggin' about the not too easy roads -- were quite contented and happy. And but a few doors away was Abraham Terrell's Tavern, where, companionship and a glass of grog were always available. Three of the children were in school and both boys at the "Elizabethtowne Academy" where Aaron Ogden and Jonathan Dayton, connection and kin, were two of the eight trustees, and where David Young, fresh from Yale, was Headmaster. Joseph, whose middle name was Dayton, the name of a Long Island family from which his mother was a descendant--was to spend his free afternoons at Morse's Creek, which he loved so dearly and which one day he was to inherit, and in due time pass on to his own offspring. Nathan, on the other hand, devoted much of his spare time to more urban recreations, and Elizabethtowne in accordance with the French influence then prevailing in the colony, had its dancing schools, balls and French lessons. But most of all Nathan loved to pore over his geography and dream upon the future of this great "western country" beyond the frontier.

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At Christmas dinner the home was decorated with holly and mistletoe brought in by Harry from "Morse's Mills." In the same

* See Appendix 59

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