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1787.

CHAP. II. obtain, I might be authorized to hazard an 1783 opinion, I should attribute them to all the three causes which you have suggested. In Massachussetts particularly, I believe there are a few real grievances; and also some wicked agents or emissaries who have been busy in magnifying the positive evils, and fomenting causeless jealousies and disturbances. But it rather appears to me, that there is a licentious spirit prevailing among many of the people; a levelling principle; a desire of change; and a wish to annihilate all debts public and private." "It is indeed a fact," said general Knox after returning from a visit to the eastern country, "that high taxes are the ostensible cause of the commotion, but that they are the real cause is as far remote from truth, as light is from darkness. The people who are the insurgents have never paid any, or but very little taxes. But they see the weakness of government. They feel at once their own poverty compared with the opulent, and their own force; and they are determined to make use of the latter in order

to remedy the former. Their creed is, that the property of the United States has been pro, tected from confiscation by the joint exertions of all, and therefore ought to be common to all. And he that attempts opposition to this creed is an enemy to equity and justice, and ought to be swept from the face of the earth.”

The force of this party throughout New England was computed by general Knox at twelve or fifteen thousand men. "They were chiefly," he said, "of the young and active part of the community, who

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1787.

were more easily collected than kept together. CHAP. II. Desperate and unprincipled, they would probably 1783 commit overt acts of treason which would compel them, for their own safety, to embody and submit to discipline. Thus would there be a formidable rebellion against reason, the principle of all government, and the very name of liberty. This dreadful situation," he added, "has alarmed every man of principle and property in New England. They start as from a dream, and ask... what has been the cause of our delusion? what is to afford us security against the violence of lawless men? our government must be braced, changed, or altered, to secure our lives and our property. We imagined that the mildness of the government, and the virtue of the people were so correspondent, that we were not as other nations, requiring brutal force to support the laws. But we find that we are men, actual men, possessing all the turbulent passions belonging to that animal; and that we must have a government proper and adequate for him. Men of reflection and principle are determined to endeavour to establish a govern. ment which shall have the power to protect them in their lawful pursuits, and which will be efficient in cases of internal commotions, or foreign invasions. They mean that liberty shall be the basis, a liberty resulting from the equal and firm administration of the laws."

"I

Deeply affected by these commotions, general Washington continued his anxious inquiries respecting the course they threatened to take. feel my dear general Knox," said he in answer

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CHAP. II. to the letter from which the foregoing extracts 1783 are taken, infinitely more than I can express to 1787. you, for the disorders which have arisen in these states. Good God! who besides a tory could have foreseen, or a Briton have predicted them? I do assure you that even at this moment, when I reflect upon the present aspect of our affairs, it seems to me like the visions of a dream. My mind can scarcely realize it as a thing in actual existence...so strange, so wonderful does it appear to me. In this, as in most other matters, we are too slow. When this spirit first dawned, it might probably have been easily checked; but it is scarcely within the reach of human ken, at this moment, to say when, where, or how it will terminate. There are combustibles in every state, to which a spark might set fire.

"In bewailing, which I have often done with the keenest sorrow, the death of our much lamented friend general Greene,* I have accompanied my regrets of late with a query, whether he would not have preferred such an exit to the scenes which it is more than probable, many of his compatriots may live to bemoan”

Ostensibly on account of the danger which threatened the frontiers, but really, it would seem, with a view to the situation of Massachussetts, congress had agreed to augment the military establishment to a legionary corps of two thousand and forty men and had detached the secretary of war, general Knox, to the eastward, with direc

* This valuable officer died in Georgia in the year 1786.

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tions to concert measures with the government CHAP. II. of the state for the safety of the arsenal at Spring- 1783 field. So inauspicious was the aspect of affairs, 1787. that fears were seriously entertained that the torch of civil discord, about to be lighted up in Massachussetts, would communicate its flame to all New England, and perhaps spread the conflagration throughout the union. Colonel Lee, a highly respectable member of congress, who had performed a distinguished part in the war of the revolution, drew the following picture of the condition of the eastern country at that time. "General Knox has just returned, and his report, grounded on his own knowledge, is replete with melancholy information. A majority of the people of Massachussetts are in opposition to the governSome of the leaders avow the subversion of it to be their object, together with the abolition of debts, the division of property, and a reunion with Great Britain. In all the eastern states, the same temper prevails more or less, and will certainly break forth whenever the opportune moment may arrive. The malcontents are in close connexion with Vermont, and that district, it is believed, is in negotiation with the government of Canada. In one word, my dear general, we are all in dire apprehension that a beginning of anarchy with all its calamities is made, and we have no means to stop the dreadful work. Knowing your unbounded influence, and believing that your appearance among the seditious might bring them back to peace and reconciliation, individuals suggest the propriety of an invitation to you from

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CHAP. II. Congress to pay us a visit. This is only a surmise, 1783 and I take the liberty to mention it to you, that, should the conjuncture of affairs induce congress to make this request, you may have some previous time for reflection on it."

1787.

"The picture which you have exhibited," replied the general, "and the accounts which are published of the commotions and temper of numerous bodies in the eastern country, present a state of things equally to be lamented and deprecated. They exhibit a melancholy verification of what our transatlantic foes have predicted; and of another thing perhaps which is still more to be regretted, and is yet more unaccountable...that mankind when left to themselves are unfit for their own government. I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds which have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country. In a word, I am lost in amazement when I behold what intrigue, the interested views of desperate characters, ignorance and jealousy of the minor part, are capable of effecting as a scourge on the major part of our fellow citizens of the union; for it is hardly to be supposed that the great body of the people, though they will not act, can be so short sighted or enveloped in darkness, as not to see rays of a distant sun through all this mist of intoxication and folly.

"You talk, my good sir, of employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachussetts. I know not where that influence is to be found; nor if attainable, that it would be a proper remedy for these disorders. Influence is not government.