fays, that "no money fhall be drawn from the Treafury, but in confequence of appropriations made by "law." There exifted a ftatute, authorizing the Prefident to call out the militia, in case of an infurrection; but, by an overfight in framing the law, he had no power to take money from the Treasury to fupport them." The monies drawn from the Trea"fury on that occafion (the Western Expedition), "were paid out of a fund appropriated for other and "diftinct purposes; they were not drawn, agreeable "to the conftitution, in confequence of any appropriation made by law. It might be a defect in the law, authorizing the expenfe, not to have pro"vided the means; but that defect fhould have "been remedied by the only competent authority, "by convening Congress *." This omiffion in the law fhows the mafterly ftyle in which our statutes are fometimes compofed. 66 If the bombardment of a British fleet, or the difembarkation of a French army, had not left one moment to spare, ingulfing neceffity would juftly have fuperfeded all forms, and vindicated the irregular abftraction of a million of dollars. Yet even in that cafe, the President, at the next meeting of Congress, ought to have explained and apologized for the meafure. But no fuch imminent danger had a being. There was ample time to have affembled Congrefs. Ne ville the Inspector's house was burnt on the 17th of July, 1794. The firft proclamation by the Prefident was iffued on the 7th of Auguft, and the second on the 25th of September following. It was not till after the latter date that the militia were ordered to march. The seven weeks intervening between the two proclamations allowed full time for affembling the Legislature. Of this Mr. Adams hath afforded an inftance, in the first feffion of the fifth Congress. Inftead of this legal and practicable measure, the Prefident, Washington, walked ftraight through the Constitution, through the privileges of the Legislature, and the duties of his own refpective office. If Congress had been previously called, the very report of their affembling would have ftruck a mortal damp into this thoughtless rabble, who had neither plans, leaders, nor refources. The folemnity of the ftep was fure of making a confiderable impreffion. Time would have been gained alfo for more accurate information; and as the fifteen thoufand militia, who did march over the mountains, never faw an enemy, it is to be fuppofed that five thousand could have done the bufinefs equally well. But Mr. Hamilton had many good reafons for not withing to call Congrefs. The found policy of the excife law would have met with a fevere difcuf fion. The expenfe and danger of a civil war muft have rendered excife completely odious. Every lenient measure was fure to have been tried before a fingle regiment would be ordered to march, and the fequel fhows that they must have been fuccessful.The fober and fubftantial mafs of the western citizens, though averfe to excife, were yet firm on the fide of Government. In the profpect of an agree ment, Hamilton faw nothing but the reprobation of his measures, and the fracture of his importance. The parties in Congrefs are nicely poifed; but every legiflative affembly has a number of doubtful members; and the natural averfion to civil bloodshed held out an irrefiftible caufe, or a folid pretence, for univerfally deferting the fix per cent. ftandard. In this cafe, the latter could not, probably, have mustered one third of the members, and minorities are always dangerous to a political party. The republicans abhor the ex-fecretary with a cordiality of hatred equal to his own. They confider him as a fecond Pando ra's ra's box, from whose transcendent capacities for mischief have exclufively and collectively fprung the whole political misfortunes of America. The utmost force of the party was certain, therefore, to have been levelled perfonally at him, and his vulnerable fides offered an ample verge for the quivers of invective. Hence he fhunned a previous meeting of Congrefs, where it was more than an equal chance that he fhould find not protection and triumph, but reproach and defeat. This feems to be the only rational key to his conduct in hazarding a civil war, and a rape upon the Treafury, without confulting the Legiflature. But The infignificance of their conduct when they did meet, showed that the victory of Mr. Hamilton was as complete in Philadelphia as at Pittsburg. On the 19th of November, 1794, the Prefident addreffed the two Houses *. He began, as usual, with a reference to divine goodness, and to the riches, power, and happiness, for which America feems deftined. A pompous and exaggerated sketch was then given of the infurrection. Certain felf-created focieties were referred to, as having affumed the tone of condemnation towards the measures of Government. the Prefident forgot to mention, and much less to apologize for, the felf-created power of taking a million of dollars from the public Treasury. When he related the outrages committed upon officers of Government, he overlooked the provocations by which they had been excited, the numerous inftances of mifmanagement on the part of the Secretary of the Treasury, by which they had been foftered, and the thoufand-fold enormities of the Federal army, and of that Secretary under which they had been overwhelmed. There is a French fable of a gardener, and * See this Speech, vol. ii. p. 157. a hare, a hare, that fometimes came through the hedge and cropt his cabbages. He reprefented the cafe to a gentleman, who, next day, with a pack of hounds, entered the garden in chase of her. The dogs did more mifchief in five minutes, than the hare could have done in seven years; and, after all, pufs got away. This is a concife and impartial picture of the Federal army, with one fmall diftinction, that the gardener was a fool, and the Secretary a knave. Never think that you understand the ftory of this infurrcetion, till you read Findley and Brackenridge, Mr. Brackenridge writes with more cafe and vivacity than Mr. Findley. His perfpicuity, his fimplicity, his picturefque minuteness, conduct his reader into the scene of action. You fee, hear, and feel, just as the author actually did; and this itself is a talent of high excellence. Amidft much entertainment, candour will forgive the ferious or affected vanity that fometimes peeps through the curtain of his mind. These two writers have been neglected. An estimate of the fales may induce a belief that they have never been perused by more than two or three thousand American Citizens, that is to fay, by perhaps a two-hundredth part of the community at large. Without fuch a perufal, however, it is impoffible to comprehend the nature and effects of the weftern riots. The declamation that fills the Federal gazettes and pamphlets cannot afford a juft or luminous conception of this all-important fubject; which is, therefore, grofsly and almoft univerfally mifunderstood. Next to the compofition of a good book by yourself, one of the beft fervices to the public is the recommending of another which has been overlooked. After thus explaining where a proper account of the infurrection may be found, we go back to the Prefident, his Congrefs, and his fpeech. "It has 4 "been - "been a fpectacle," fays he, "displaying to the "highest advantage, the value of republican go"vernment, to behold the moft and the leaft weal thy of our citizens, standing in the ranks as pri"vate foldiers, pre-eminently distinguished by being "the army of the conftitution." He ought to have faid, of monarchical government, for every part of the bufinefs bore the stamp of defpotifm. In the first place, the four counties were outlawed on the fingle notification of Judge Wilfon. That any fingle man should have been intrufted with fo vast a difcretionary power, was inconfiftent with republican freedom. General Washington fent Commiffioners to treat with the infurgents; but if Hamilton had been Prefident, he would immediately have marched against them, and the four counties must have been covered with blood and afhes, by the official temerity of one man, and the ferocious impetuofity of another. This is but a poor fpecimen of republican government and yet it might take place. Again, the army was raised on principles purely monarchical. The Prefident acted folely on the authority of a law invefting him, during the recefs of Congrefs, with unlimited power; a law that may one day overturn the Conftitution. Let us explain it by the following fuppofition: the prefent Congrefs will cease to exist on the 3d of March, 1799. On the 4th, Mr. Adams may get a certificate from fome confidential Judge, that Virginia or Tenneffee is in a ftate of rebellion. Whether the ftory be true or falfe, refts entirely within his breaft. He directly calls out the militia; and as this infurrection is ten times more dangerous than that of Braddock's field, he requires an hundred and fifty thousand men. He fets out at their head, parades four or eight hundred miles, renews the horrors of the western expedition, and, till the first Monday of December thereafter, he and |