meditated an attack on the Spanish settlements on that river; to which they were instigated or encouraged by M. Genet, the French minister. They were even more unreasonable in their complaints, and more precipitate in their movements than the people of Maine, at a very recent period. They resolved on the enterprise, and made preparations to conduct it, without consulting the federal executive; thus hazarding the peace of the United States for their own peculiar interest. Efforts had long been previously but unsuccessfully made to form a treaty with Spain, respecting the bounds between her territory on the Mississippi and the United States. In 1794, Mr. Pinckney, then resident minister at the British Court, was sent to Madrid, and in a few months agreed on a treaty with the Spanish government, which was accepted and exchanged in 1795, by which the controversy was happily adjusted, and the free navigation of the Mississippi was secured to the citizens of the United States.

The dangers, which then threatened the United States, both from England and France, neither of which discovered a friendly, or conciliating spirit towards this country, had induced the President to recommend measures for defence, should the exigency unfortunately occur to make such preparation proper. During the first session of the third Congress, and in April, May, and June, 1794, several acts were passed for this purpose. The depredations on commerce were so great, that an embargo was laid in April, for the term of thirty days; and at the expiration of that period, for thirty days more. And before Congress adjourned, which was in June, a law was passed authorizing the President to impose and revoke embargoes, during the recess of the federal legislature, and to extend only fifteen days after the beginning of the next session. An Act of Congress was passed at this session, for raising seven hundred and sixty officers and privates, for artillery and engineer corps, should the executive please to adopt such a measure. And the President was also authorized to call on the Governors of the several States for the militia, if circumstances should render it necessary for the defence of the country, to the number of eighty thousand in the whole. But it was provided, that each State executive or authority should appoint the officers of the militia. Authority was likewise given the President to repair and erect fortifications at various points on the Atlantic seaboard, from Portland to Savannah, and sixteen places were named for that purpose. He was further empowered to build or

purchase ten vessels of war for defence. An augmentation of duties on some imported goods was laid at this session; and an excise on pleasure carriages; on the retail of wine and foreign distilled spirits; and on sales at auction. By this Congress also, an act was passed in June, declaring it to be a crime against the United States, with heavy penalties annexed, for any citizen to accept and exercise a commission to serve a foreign Prince or State, in war, by land or sea; or for any person, within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States, to enlist or enter himself, or to hire or retain another person to enlist and enter himself in the service of any foreign Prince or State; or to convey him beyond the limits of the United States, so to enlist and enter on board any vessel of war, privateer, &c. The fitting out of vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, or giving commissions to persons to command them, which were intended to commit depredations, on other nations or subjects thereof, were also constituted crimes or high misdemeanors. While the bill for this purpose was before Congress, it met with warm and powerful opposition from those who were friendly to the French nation, and wished to unite the destiny of the United States and France in the great cause of liberty, and who had disapproved of the neutral policy of the President. In several stages of the passage of the bill, the number in the Senate against was the same as that for it, and was decided by the vote of the Vice President, who is allowed to give a vote only when the Senate is divided on any question. The bill was at last passed by his casting vote; and, but for a singular circumstance, the vote would have been against it by a majority of one.*

Before M. Genet, the French minister, was recalled, besides other highly improper acts, as interfering with the measures of the President, directing the arming of vessels in the ports of the United States, and giving commissions to persons to command them, to capture British vessels; he projected an attack on the Spanish territory and settlements on the Mississippi, and instigated a number of the citizens of the Union to engage in the enterprise without any authority from the federal government, and at the direct hazard of a war with Spain. He sent agents to the new State of

* Mr. Gallatin was then a Senator from Pennsylvania. But his seat was declared vacant a very short time before the vote on the bill; it having been objected and proved that he had not been a citizen of that State for the number of years required by the Constitution.

Kentucky, with directions to raise men to go against New Orleans, and other places in possession of Spain, whose title to the river and country adjacent was then undisturbed. The people of Kentucky readily promised to engage in this unlawful expedition; and the Governor of the State, with most of the public men, encouraged the hostile project. They presented a petition to the President, and requested aid from the regular army; and when this was declined, they complained of him as unfriendly to the liberties of the people, and insisted that the federal government ought to dispossess the Spanish by force, and demand the free navigation of the Mississippi by the citizens of the United States. They had caught the disorderly spirit of the French minister, from his agents, sent among them; and seemed resolved to involve the country in war with Spain, by invading her rightful territories. The cares and anxiety of the President were much increased by this strange conduct; but his united firmness and prudence put a stop to the projected enterprise, and averted a war with the Spanish nation.

The opposition to the act of Congress, for an excise or duty on distilleries and on spirits distilled in the United States, had now been manifested in the northwestern counties of Pennsylvania, for two years; and notwithstanding the proclamation of the President, and other measures, short of military force, which had been adopted, to warn the people against all further attempts or threats to prevent the execution of the law, the conduct of the discontented became more and more violent, accompanied by resolutions publicly made, that the excise should not be collected, and that they would oppose all efforts on the part of the federal government, to carry the law into operation. The President issued a second proclamation, to prevent, if possible, the further disorderly acts of the discontented, and to leave no suitable measure untried on his part, to preserve the peace of the community. But in his firm resolution to sustain the law and to support the authority of the government, he did not waver or hesitate. As authorized by an act of Congress, agreeable to a clause in the Constitution to call out the militia to execute the laws of the Union, he made requisition for twelve thousand men, and soon after for fifteen thousand, on the Governors of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, to be in readiness for marching at his command, to quell any insurrectionary force which might appear to oppose the due operation of

the laws.* Still, a preliminary measure of a pacific character was adopted, which was the appointment of commissioners, to be joined by such others as should be selected by the Governor of Pennsylvania; who should proceed to the discontented counties, offer pardon for past disorders, and confer with a committee from the disaffected citizens, for the purpose of terminating the opposition, which had disgraced the character of the nation, and threatened to destroy entirely the authority of the general government.

The second session of the third Congress was began and holden at Philadelphia in November, 1794, the time fixed by law before the adjournment in June of that year. The speech of the President to Congress on this occasion, referred particularly to the insurrection in Pennsylvania, and to executive measures for suppressing it. The constitution makes the President of the United States Commander in Chief of the militia when called into the service of the Union; and in this capacity, he had visited the places of general rendezvous, to obtain full and correct information, that his future movements with the militia might be the most proper and efficient. While he found among some of the people a spirit inimical to all law and order, he was gratified, he said, to observe the alacrity and promptitude with which the citizens generally came forward to assert the dignity of. the laws; thereby furnishing an additional proof that they understood the true principles of government and liberty, and were convinced of their inseparable union. But let the people, he added, "persevere in their patriotic vigilance over that precious depository of American happiness, the Constitution of the United States. And when, in the calm moments of reflection, they shall have retraced the origin and progress of the insurrection, let them determine whether it has not been fomented by combinations of men, who, careless of consequences, and disregarding the unerring truth, that those who arouse cannot always stay a civil convulsion; have disseminated, from an ignorance or per

This act of Congress for calling out the militia to execute the laws of the Union, &c. provided that the President might employ the militia of other States, if the militia of the State wherein the combination and opposition existed, should refuse, or be found insufficient. It also provided as a preliminary to a call for the militia in such cases, that an associate justice, or a judge of the district court, should certify, that there was an opposition to the due execution of law, which could not be suppressed without employing the militia. The President was duly certified, that such was then the fact; and it was also represented to him that the aid of militia from neighboring States would be necessary. The expense of suppressing this insurrection was $1,100,000.

version of facts, suspicions and jealousies, and unfounded accusations of the whole government."

This systematic and determined opposition to law, in a large portion of the citizens, was a matter of deep regret to the friends of a republican government. It was evidence of very crude and erroneous notions of civil liberty, which, if not corrected, would soon produce a state of complete anarchy. Surely it needed but little reflection, to have convinced even the common class of people, that the public debt, necessarily incurred in the war of the Revolution, must be paid, and the expenses of government promptly provided for. The defensive war, on the western frontiers, against the Indian tribes, who were destroying the peaceable citizens in that section of the country, was also justified by considerations of humanity, as well as from a regard to future national prosperity; and the measure required a large increase of taxes or revenue. But the people were persuaded into the belief, that the excise originated in views, similar to taxes imposed on them by the British parliament, in 1775: that it was an oppressive and needless burthen, which, as freemen, they ought not to bear. So liable are the people to err; especially under new burthens, and when party politicians are busy in the work of misrepresenting the views of rulers, and in exciting the passions of the uninformed.

The conduct of the President, on this occasion, as well as that still more embarrassing one, presented by the treatment received from England and France, was a model for all rulers and statesmen, who are chiefly desirous of the welfare of their country. His energy and firmness of character were sufficient for the crisis, in both cases; while his prudent and conciliating course satisfied the impartial and reasonable, among both foreign and domestic aggressors. In his hands, the honor and respectability of the nation were perfectly safe; nor was its welfare less secure, guarded by his wisdom and moderation. He was resolved to support the dignity of government, and to maintain the constitutional liberties of the people. Clamours and censures, from temporary excitement, or from mistaken views. of his upright and patriotic purposes, did not move him; he sought chiefly the true and permanent prosperity of the Union, and yet he was not indifferent to the approbation of the intelligent and virtuous portion of the community.*

The sound views of the President, on this occasion, are concisely expressed in a letter to one of his particular friends. "The real people, suddenly as