State debts, and of the Excise Act; and who were disposed to restrain the authority of the executive within very narrow limits. It was also well known that he retained strong prejudices against the British government, founded in its former arbitrary conduct towards the colonies; while all his sympathies were enlisted in behalf of regenerated France. And it was apprehended that this would produce an evil political influence; especially as disputes had even then arisen between the United States and each of those great foreign nations; when harmony among the members of the administration was most important.

The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Hamilton, differed in opinion, on many political measures, almost entirely from the Secretary of State. He was, indeed, the projector of the leading measures designed to establish public credit on a firm foundation, and to provide effectually for the payment of the public debt, and to call forth the resources of the country for these important objects. He had also proposed an augmentation of duties on imported articles, when it was found that those before laid were inadequate. And he recommended the system of excise, or a tax on distilled spirits within the United States; which was particularly unpopular in the States where they were manufactured. On the other subject, which was the occasion of discordant opinions among politicians of that period, Mr. Hamilton entertained different views from Mr. Jefferson. He considered it important to the commercial, and, therefore, to the general prosperity of the United States, to maintain friendly relations with Great Britain; and he was unwilling to sacrifice either the peace or the interests of the nation, to his sympathies in favor of the patriots of France.

Few, perhaps, doubted the patriotism of either of these distinguished political characters. They had each rendered important service to the country, in the contest for liberty and independence; and, it was believed, that each was anxious to secure the welfare, and to promote the prosperity of the United States. The just and principal distinction to be made between them, probably, was, that the Secretary of State appeared more ready to consult and to

* In a report on foreign commerce, made in 1791, by request of President Washington, Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, advised to a more extensive trade with France, and to an increase of imposts on all British goods and products. And this report, no doubt, led to the regulations of Mr. Madison, in 1794, proposing such restrictions on the trade with England, as amounted almost to a prohibition of commercial intercourse with that nation,

take advantage of popular opinion and feeling, and to court the people, by the declaration of sentiments of regard for their rights and liberty; while the Secretary of the Treas ury manifested a disposition to adopt such measures as he believed for the true honor, and the permanent welfare of the nation. And, in this feature of his public character, he strongly resembled the illustrious patriot, then at the head of the nation.

A strong opposition to the plan of raising a revenue from spirits distilled in the United States was manifested, soon after the law was first passed. During the year 1792 the opposition appeared to gather strength and to be more determined. Several meetings were held in the interior counties of Pennsylvania, at which resolutions were adopted, and sentiments expressed, alike dishonorable to the character of good citizens, and alarming to the government. The officers appointed to collect the duties were threatened, and deterred through fear of personal injury from discharging their public duties. And a large portion of the citizens, in the western parts of that State, appeared resolute in opposing the execution of the law, at every hazard. Their passions were highly excited by the clamours of individuals, who represented the law as arbitrary and oppressive, and even unconstitutional, and therefore not to be endured by a free people. Some of the members of Congress had predicted such complaints and such opposition, which seemed, however undesignedly, to excite or to increase them. But the support of public credit required a large revenue-and while every article imported, which could justly be considered a luxury, was highly taxed, it was found necessary also to resort to a tax, or excise, on spirits distilled in the country. And on none could the duty be more justly imposed, than on distilled liquors, altogether unnecessary for the support and comfort of the people. Had it been laid on bread or on grain, there might have been some reason for complaint and opposition. Even a direct tax on lands or houses, would probably have been reprobated, except in some extraordinary exigency. In the present case, the excise law had this justification, that the revenue from imposts was not adequate to the public expenditures for the support of govern ment, and the payment of instalments and interest on the public debt as ordered by Congress; particularly for that year, as the war in defence of the frontier settlements had added greatly to the national expenses. It is the more remarkable, that such complaints were made against the measures of the federal government, by the citizens of Penn

sylvania, as the troops were employed to protect the inhabitants in the north western parts of that State, as well as those settled in the territory beyond.

Desirous of using all proper means for checking this spirit of insubordination, and of preventing, if possible, its breaking forth into forcible opposition to the laws of the land, the President issued a proclamation exhorting the people to desist from all illegal acts and meetings, and calling on the good citizens to discountenance all violence and disorder: but his wise counsel and warning did not produce the effect intended, and which had been expected. The President had previously (May, 1792) been authorized by Congress to call out the militia to assist in executing the excise laws, if he should consider it proper-and the Governor of Pennsylvania had requested a similar measure. But the President had hopes that wise counsels would prevail over excited passions, and he was reluctant in employing the military to support the laws, till no other alternative remained.

During the year 1792, General Washington intimated to some of his most confidential friends, that he was desirous of retiring to private life, and proposed to decline a re-election as chief magistrate of the Union. His advanced age, and increasing infirmities had added strength to his inclination to seek repose from all public business. But he was persuaded to relinquish his personal wishes in this respect, and was a second time chosen President of the United States, by the unanimous vote of all the electors.* Some strictures had been made on his political opinions and measures; as the Indian war on the western frontiers, the funding system and the excise law; and yet he had only approved these measures previously adopted or sanctioned by Congress. But the confidence of the great body of the people, in his patriotism and wisdom, was not at all shaken by any act of his administration. Those engaged in the business of distilled spirits complained of the laws laying duties on them, and of the President for attempts to support these laws. But it was well understood by most of the citizens that these complaints were uttered only by those interested in that traffic. The Secretary of the Treasury who had proposed the law, was severely censured, as if he were disposed rather to tax and oppress the people, than to guard

* John Adams was alse re-elected Vice President by a plurality of votes. But Gov. Clinton of New York received several votes, which were given by those who were originally opposed to the Constitution, and who disapproved of some of the leading measures of the federal government.

their rights, or to lay light burdens on them; but the character of the President was too pure and lofty to be assailed by prejudice or party spirit. And yet strange to relate, soon after this period, such was the malignity, or the envy, or the ambition of a very few men, that Washington was insidiously censured, as wanting in republican sentiments, or in firmness sufficient to oppose the plans of the Secretary of finance.

When General Washington appeared in the Senate chamber to take the oath of office,* required by the Constitution, on the fourth of March, 1793, he observed, "I am again. called upon, by the voice of my country, to execute the functions of its chief magistrate. When the occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high sense I entertain of this distinguished honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by the people of the United States. Previous to the execution of any official act of the President, the Constitution requires an oath of office. This oath I am now about to take, and in your presence, that if it shall be found, during my administration of the government, I have in any instance violated, willingly or knowingly, the injunctions thereof, I may, besides incurring constitutional punishment, be subject to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony."

The office of the President for the first four years, imposed many arduous duties, and no little care and anxiety, in giving a proper direction to the measures and policy of the new government; but the satisfaction of having performed this patriotic service was a sufficient reward for such a man as George Washington. The period, however, had arrived, or was approaching, when the misrepresentations of party was such, as induced many in the country, more or less publicly, to censure the official conduct of that illustrious patriot; and thus to give great disquiet to one who deserved nothing but gratitude and confidence, and who had as keen sensibility of personal honor and reputation, as of moral rectitude, in his public duties. And what greatly imbittered the cup, now given him to drink, was a belief that one of the principal officers in his political family, was not displeased with, but probably encouraged, those unjust and cruel aspersions. Thus, with party disputes,

The oath was administered by William Cushing, of Massachusetts, an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was then in Philadelphia, Chief Justice Jay not being present. John Langdon of New Hampshire, was then President pro tem. of the Senate, and many members of Congress, which closed on the third of March, 1793, were also present.

among citizens of the United States, and hostile aggressions or threats from two great foreign nations, occasions occurred for the exercise of all his firmness and decision, in a wise and patriotic administration of the government.

Hostilities with the Indian tribes on and northwest of the Ohio river, were, indeed, happily suspended in 1793; those tribes nearest to the settlements by the citizens of the United States having entered into friendly and amicable treaties with the national rulers. But the spirit of insuborordination, and of opposition to the excise laws continued in the interior of Pennsylvania, with unabated indiscretion, and some acts of violence, which required both prudence and energy in the chief magistrate; and the conduct both of Great Britain and France, towards the United States, was in several instances such as to demand the utmost caution and wisdom, as well as a correct knowledge of European politics, at that most interesting period.

The government of England was watching to take advantage of any error in our commercial system, for the benefit of that nation, and was disposed to assert all those principles of monopoly and exclusion, which it had long previously maintained in Europe. And in France a political revolution, commencing in 1789-90, with some favorable auspices, as if liberty was the sole object, and thus securing the sympathies of the republican citizens of the United States, was now raging with great violence, attended by various acts of oppression, injustice, and personal cruelty, so as to unsettle the foundation of society and good government; and this dangerous spirit of misrule, this rage for innovation, had an influence with the leaders of that nation, in their conduct towards all other governments. They insisted on the favor and aid of the United States, in the contest in which they were engaged with other European nations. They pleaded their own assistance, formerly granted to America, in the war for liberty and independence against England; and declared that the American citizens were bound to make common cause with France, then engaged in war with the despots of Europe, as they said all the monarchs in that quarter of the world ought to be considered. Had there been but one voice in the United States, both of the people and of their legislators, and that voice in harmony with the chief magistrate of the Union, dictated alike by patriotism, intelligence, and sound discretion, far less would have been apprehended, and far less the real danger to the liberties and peace of the country.

France and England had long been rival kingdoms, and