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DEBATES

IN THE

CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION,

FROM

FEBRUARY 19TH, TILL APRIL 25TH, 1787.

DEBATES

IN THE

CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION,

FROM FEBRUARY 19TH TILL APRIL 25TH, 1787.

IN CONGRESS, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1787.*

Mr. PINCKNEY, in support of his motion entered on the Journal, for stopping the enlistment of troops, argued that he had reason to suppose the insurrection in Massachusetts, the real, though not ostensible object of this measure, to be already crushed; that the requisition of five hundred thousand dollars for supporting the troops had been complied with by one State only, viz. Virginia, and that but in part; that it would be absurd to proceed in the raising of men who could neither be paid, clothed nor fed, and that such a folly was the more to be shunned, as the consequences could not be foreseen, of embodying and arming men under circumstances which would be more likely to render them the terror than the support of the Government. We had, he observed, been so lucky in one instance-meaning the disbanding of the army on the peace-as to get rid of an armed force without satisfying their just claims; but that it would not be prudent to hazard the repetition of the experiment.

Mr. KING made a moving appeal to the feelings of

* From 1783 till this period Mr. Madison was not a member.

Congress, reminding them that the real object in voting the troops was, to countenance the exertions of the Government of Massachusetts; that the silent co-operation of these military preparations under the orders of Congress had had a great and double effect, in animating the Government and awing the insurgents; that he hoped the late success of the former had given a deadly blow to the disturbances, yet that it would be premature, whilst a doubt could exist as to the critical fact, to withdraw the co-operating influence of the Federal measures. He particularly and pathetically entreated Congress to consider that it was in agitation, and probably would be determined by the Legislature of Massachusetts, not only to bring to due punishment the more active and leading offenders, but to disarm and disfranchize, for a limited time, the great body of them; that for the policy of this measure he would not undertake to vouch, being sensible that there were great and illustrious examples against it; that his confidence, however, in the prudence of that Government, would not permit him to call their determinations into question; that what the effect of these rigors might be it was impossible to foresee. He dwelt much on the sympathy which they probably would excite in behalf of the stigmatized party; scarce a man was without a father, a brother, a friend, in the mass of the people; adding that, as a precaution against contingencies, it was the purpose of the State to raise and station a small military force in the most suspected districts, and that forty thousand pounds, to be drawn from their impost on trade, had been appropriated accordingly;

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