bdued. A sour and malignant temper displayed
itself, which indicated, but too plainly, that the disposition to
resist had only sunk under the pressure of the great military force
brought into the country, but would rise again should that force be
withdrawn. It was, therefore, thought adviseable to station for the
winter, a detachment to be commanded by Major General Morgan, in the
centre of the disaffected country.

Thus, without shedding a drop of blood, did the prudent vigour of the
executive terminate an insurrection, which, at one time, threatened to
shake the government of the United States to its foundation. That so
perverse a spirit should have been excited in the bosom of prosperity,
without the pressure of a single grievance, is among those political
phenomena which occur not unfrequently in the course of human affairs,
and which the statesman can never safely disregard. When real ills are
felt, there is something positive and perceptible to which the
judgment may be directed, the actual extent of which may be
ascertained, and the cause of which may be discerned. But when the
mind, inflamed by supposititious dangers, gives a full loose to the
imagination, and fastens upon some object with which to disturb
itself, the belief that the danger exists seems to become a matter of
faith, with which reason combats in vain. Under a government emanating
entirely from the people, and with an administration whose sole object
was their happiness, the public mind was violently agitated with
apprehensions of a powerful and secret combination against liberty,
which was to discover itself by the total overthrow of the republican
system. That those who were charged with these designs were as
destitute of the means, as of the will to effect them, did not shake
the firm belief of their existence. Disregarding the apparent
partiality of the administration for France, so far as that partiality
was compatible with an honest neutrality, the zealots of the day
ascribed its incessant labours for the preservation of peace, to a
temper hostile to the French republic; and, while themselves loudly
imprecating the vengeance of heaven and earth on one of the
belligerents, and openly rejoicing in the victories of the other;
while impetuously rushing into a war with Britain, and pressing
measures which would render accommodation impracticable; they
attributed a system calculated to check them in this furious career,
not to that genuine America