the Jacobin affiliation being removed, every one expected the fuperftructure to fall to the ground.

But as Fauchet, the fucceffor of Genet, trod exactly in his fteps, though with a little more caution, the Democratic Clubs made not the leaft hesitation in transferring their obedience from one Minister to the other. Indeed, all the difciples of the new-light philofophy are made of the fame commodious kind of ftuff. All that they do is, to ask who directs the ftorm of anarchy, and they inftantly become his ardent admirers, if not his tools. In this refpect, no fet of beings, I cannot call them men, ever approached fo near to the herd of Paris, as did the Democrats of America. One day faw the faction of Briffot exalted to the fkies, and the very next faw the fame compliments, the very fame turgid effufions of patriotic admiration, heaped on their murderers. From the firft affembling of the States General to this very hour, every leader, while he continued fuch, has been the god of those wretches who nowadays ftyle themselves patriots. I have feen a bundle of Gazettes published all by the fame man, wherein Mirabeau, Fayette, Briffot, Danton, Robefpierre, and Barras, are all panegyrized and execrated in due fucceffion; nor do I yet defpair of living to fee Bonaparté added to the lift. The verfatile mob of Paris, who first canonized Mirabeau and Voltaire, and afterwards fcattered their remains to the winds; and who, after having given Marat's ugly carcass a place in their temple of Fame, and his name to a city, dug him up, put his afhes into a jordan, by way of urn, and then threw them into the common fewer; this verfatile, fiupid, and venal mob, does not furpafs in either quality, the democratic news printers in the United States of America *.

The

*I am aware that the Americans will recriminate here, and infit that this defcription applies, with equal aptnefs, to the English

The unremitted exertions of fo many turbulent men as were enrolled in the Democratic Societies, could not fail to throw the whole country into a ferment. They did not, however, fucceed in producing an open revolt till the fummer of 1794, when the people in the Western Counties of Pennfylvania were encouraged by them to refift, by force of arms, the law for collecting an excife on home-diftilled fpirits *.

The

news-printers. Granted, with all my heart! Not only to fome, but nearly all. There is one PERRY, who publishes in London a paper called the Morning Chronicle, who is many degrees lower than Brown or Duane.

Nor are other admirers of the French regicides and ufurpers lefs verfatile or less base in England than in America. The roughheaded wretches, who now gaze with ecftacy on the picture of the murderer of the Alexandrians, would, were he hurled from his throne, join in rejoicing at his fall, in execrating his memory, and in extolling his fucceffor, provided that fucceffor were a republican, an infidel, and a fworn enemy of their country. With hame be it spoken, men of this difpofition are not few in number, and are too often found in places where one might expect to meet with fincerity, religion, and loyalty.

*To convince any candid man, that the Western Infurgents were connected with the Democratic Societies, and were, by those Societies, encouraged to take up arms against the Government, there needs nothing more than the following extract from the proceedings of the mother club:

"At a Meeting of the Democratic Society of Pennsylvania, held at Philadelphia, on the 8th day of May, in the year 1794, and of American Independence the nineteenth;

"Refolved, as the opinion of this Society, That the infant manufactories of this country require the foftering care of Government; and that those articles of domeftic manufacture which are proposed, in a Report to the House of Reprefentatives of the Unite! States, to be excifed, cannot bear the burden; and that fuch a tax will tend to the ruin of many individuals and the impoverishing of the country.

"Refolved, as the opinion of this Society, That taxation by excife has ever been justly abhorred by freemen; that it is a fyftem attended with numerous vexations, opens the door to manifold frauds, and is most expenfive in its collection. It is also highly bjectionable, by the number of officers it renders neceffary, ever

13

ready

The difcontents with respect to this law were, indeed, of fome ftanding. The law was paffed in 1790, and several petitions and remonftrances had been preferred against it during the years 1792 and 1793. Congrefs was compelled to begin a fyftem of direct taxation, the commerce having already been overcharged, without producing a revenue fufficient to defray the expenfes of Government, and the intereft of the national debt. The excife was far from being oppreffive in itself, or injurious in its tendency; but it was odious, and it had been rendered fo by thofe very perfons by whom it was impofed. The artful mifrepresentations, which the leading Whigs made ufe of to alienate the affections of the Americans from their fovereign, were now brought into opération against themfelves. Seventeen years had not effaced from the memory of the people thofe inflammatory harangues that were made againft a three-penny duty upon tea; and if thefe verbal effufions of fedition had been forgotten, there unfortunately existed printed documents for the complainants to refer to. One of their remonftrances contained this remarkable paffage: If, in our opinion of the nature and confequences of fuch a fyftem, we have erred, the error has been taught us by a Congress of the United States, of which GEORGE WASHINGTON was a 'member, and which has not been exceeded in wifdom, virtue, or patriotifm, by any political 'body fince known to the Union. In the addrefs

ready to join in a firm phalanx to fupport Government even in unwarrantable measures.

"Refolved, That we cheerfully concur in the fentiments expreffed by our fellow-citizens at a general meeting this evening; and will join in any conftitutional measures to prevent the final adoption of the fyftem of excife now contemplated by Congrefs.

68 By order of the Society,

"J. SMITH, Prefident pro tem.

"G. BOOTH, Secretary."

' tranfmitted

6

'tranfmitted by Congrefs to the inhal itants of Canada, in the month of October, 1774, it is emphatically declared, "You are fubjected to the impo'fition of EXCISES, the horror of all free States; thus wrefting your property from you, by the most odious of taxes, and laying open to infolent tax-gatherers houses, scenes of domeftic peace and comfort, and ⚫ called the caftles of English fubjects, in the books of their law".

Thus (exclaimed an old Tory, at the time when this remonftrance was prefented), thus has WASHINGTON lived to fee the very words which he employed to urge the Canadians to rebel against their and his fovereign, made ufe of to ftir up rebellion against himself. "Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and "hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falfe"hood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is "fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief "fhall return upon his own head, and his violent "dealing fhall come down upon his own pate."

If the old man remembered fo much of Holy Writ, of which I much doubt, this denunciation of the Pfalmift must have occurred to him on the breaking out of the Western Insurrection. I well remember hearing him deliver to Congrefs, the fpeech in which he detailed the rife, progrefs, and termination of the revolt*. Shame feemed to have no fmall share in his feelings; and when he came to name the particular counties that had revolted, which, unfortunately, were thofe of WASHINGTON and FAYETTE, he faltered, and trembled like a criminal reading his confeffion. What a train of ideas must thofe names, pronounced on fuch an occafion, have excited in the minds of his hearers! At that moment what would he not have given to wipe away the remembrance of his deeds?

But though the western difcontents certainly owed their rife to thofe principles, which were inculcated during the rebellion against the mother-country, they probably never would have produced an open infurrection, had it not been for the encouragement the malcontents received from the Democratic Societies. By means of this affiliation, they conveyed their pretended grievances to every corner of the Union, whence they inftantly received affurances of aid and fupport from the clubs; and thus prompted,. they at laft, after two years spent in refolves, remonftrances, and threats, took up arms against the Government, following, in all things, the precepts and example of those who had first taught them the holy right of infurrection *.

*For an account of the progrefs and termination of the Infurrection, fee WESTERN INSURRECTION, vol. i.

Mr. Jay's miffion to England has been purposely omitted in this Summary, as it is fully treated of in the fubfequent facts, particularly the Proceedings relative to the British Treaty, vol. ii. p. 233; and in a Little Plain English, vol. ii. p. 281,

ADDRESSES