r barrels of his best old rye.

This moderation was no augury of permanent quiet. Brackenridge, who was
a keen observer of men, says of the temper of the western population at
this period: "I had seen the spirit which prevailed at the Stamp Act,
and at the commencement of the revolution from the government of Great
Britain, but it was by no means so general and so vigorous amongst the
common people as the spirit which now existed in the country." Nor did
the armed bands all return peaceably to their homes. The house of the
collector for Fayette and Washington counties was burned, and warnings
were given to those who were disposed to submit to the law. The
disaffected were called "Tom the tinker" men, from the signature affixed
to the threatening notices. From a passage in one of Gallatin's letters
it appears that there was a person of that name, a New England man, who
had been concerned in Shays's insurrection. Liberty poles, with the
device, "An equal tax and no excise law," were raised, and the trees
placarded with the old revolutionary motto, "United we stand, divided we
fall," with a divided snake as an emblem. Mr. Gallatin's neighborhood
was not represented at Braddock's Field, and not more than a dozen were
present from the entire county. But now the flame spread there also, and
liberty poles were raised. Mr. Gallatin himself, inquiring as to their
significance and expressing to the men engaged the hope that they would
not behave like a mob, was asked, in return, if he was not aware of the
Westmoreland resolution that any one calling the people a mob should be
tarred and feathered,--an amusing example of that mob logic which
proves the affirmative of the proposition it denies.

Mr. Gallatin did not attend the meeting at Braddock's Field. Somewhat
isolated at his residence at the southerly border of the county, engaged
in the care of his long neglected farm, and in the full enjoyment of
release from the bustle and excitement of public life, he had paid
little attention to passing events. He was preparing definitively to
abandon political pursuits and to follow some kind of mercantile
business, or take up some land speculation and study law in his
intervals of leisure. It was not a year since he had given hostages to
fortune. He was now in the full tide of domestic happiness, which was
always to him the dearest and most coveted. He might well have hesitated
before again engaging upon the dangerous and uncertain task