at Baltimore he wrote a brief letter to Gouverneur Morris,
assuring him of his undiminished personal friendship, notwithstanding
his recall. At Mount Vernon he wrote another, in which Washington
evinced his consciousness that vigilant eyes were upon all his public
movements, and not with friendly intent. "The affairs of this country,"
he said to Morris ironically, "can not go wrong; there are so many
watchful guardians of them, and such infallible guides, that no one is
at a loss for a director at every turn."

Washington did not return to Philadelphia quite as early as he had
anticipated, owing to an injury to his back, received while using
exertions to prevent himself and horse being precipitated among the
rocks at the Falls of the Potomac, at Georgetown, whither he went on a
Sunday morning to view the canal and locks at that place, in which he
felt a deep interest. He was back, however, early in July, and was soon
informed of popular movements in western Pennsylvania and in Kentucky,
which presented the serious question whether the government had
sufficient strength to execute its own laws.

The movement in Kentucky was the result, in a great degree, of Genet's
machinations, and the influence of the Democratic societies. It is true,
there had been dissatisfaction among the people there for several years,
because the Spanish government kept the Mississippi closed against
American commerce. Now, that dissatisfaction assumed the form of menace.
During the recent session of Congress, the people of that region sent a
remonstrance to the supreme legislature respecting the navigation of the
Mississippi. It was intemperate and indecorous in language. It charged
the government with being under the influence of a local policy, which
had prevented its making a single real effort for the security of the
commercial advantages which the people of the West demanded, and cast
aspersions upon the several departments of government. They also
intimated that they would leave the Union if their grievances were not
speedily redressed, and the "great territorial right" of the free
navigation of the Mississippi secured to them.

This remonstrance was referred to a committee by the senate, who
reported, that such rights to the navigation of the great river as were
sought by the western people were well asserted in the negotiations then
going on at Madrid; and on the recommendation of the committee, the
senate resolved that the president s