convinced that a want of this has not been among the most inconsiderable causes.

"You will perceive, my dear sir, this letter is hastily written, and with a confidential freedom, not as to a mem-1 ber of Congress, whose feelings may be sore at the prevailing clamor; but as to a friend, who is in a situation to remedy public disorders,—who wishes for nothing so much as truth, and who is desirous for information, even from those less capable of judging than himself. I have not even time to correct and copy, and only enough to add, that I am, very truly and affectionately, dear sir," &c.

It will be observed that Hamilton proposed that the convention, to carry into effect his views, should meet within two months, "authorized to conclude finally on a general confederation." There is little doubt, had Congress avowed their inability to carry on the war advantageously without such a measure, appealing to the people of the United States to exert their sovereignty in the organization of a new vigorous government, the appeal would have been successful.

What the benefits of such a result, then accomplished, might have been to this country, a retrospect of the thirty years that followed would amply show.

The conclusion of a peace within a few months, Hamilton anticipated as a certain consequence. Released from the pressure of war, with a small national debtwith burdens so light as not to be felt,-with no motives to fetter industry in its competition with the European world, their new institutions, during a profound peace, under the guidance of the men who had won their liberty, conformed to their new condition, and consolidated by a happy harmony, before the revolution of France shook the world with the evil influences of its mad philosophy,become too formidable to be lightly insulted or injured by

belligerent nations,—in a firm neutrality gaining power and respect to their expanding empire,-their honor saved and morals elevated, these were some of the blessings which the people of the United States would have derived from this early organization of an efficient government. Hamilton was indeed before the times in which he lived, and the people, to promote whose welfare his life was devoted, were doomed to suffer long and much more before his counsels were adopted. When the power of the Union was least, the jealousy of it was greatest; and it was objected to Hamilton then, as it has been since, that he regarded with too little confidence a system merely federative and advisory, and that he would have resorted to violent measures to supply the remedy. A careful examination of his progressive opinions and acts will show that nothing could be more untrue. An attempt the most false and flagrant had been made on this ground to excite distrust towards him. It was detected, defied and exposed, in lofty terms of conscious purity. The maligner, as has been shown, was the partisan of Gates, and a scoffer at Washington.*

The proceedings of the recent convention at Boston were submitted by Governor Clinton to the legislature of New York. "Our embarrassments in the prosecution of the war," he declared, "are chiefly to be attributed to a defect of power in those who ought to exercise a supreme jurisdiction; for while Congress only recommend, and the different States deliberate upon the propriety of the recommendation, we cannot expect a union of force or council." He wished a completion of the articles of confederation. Schuyler, as chairman of the committee of the Senate, to whom these proceedings were referred, re ported an answer, which was accepted by the legislature *Dr. Gordon.-Appendix, F.

on the ninth of September. "We perceive," it stated, "the defects in the present system, and the necessity of a supreme and coercive power in the government of these States, and are persuaded that, unless Congress are authorized to direct uncontrollably the operations of war, and enabled to enforce a compliance with their requisitions, the common force can never be properly united.”

Want of power in the government was the great defect, and Schuyler wrote to Hamilton the next day: "Some here are for appointing a Dictator, with a Vice Dictator in each State, invested with all the powers conferred formerly by the Roman people on theirs.” “I made great interest to be left out of the delegation, and obtained it, though with much difficulty; General McDougall is appointed in my stead."

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A few days after Schuyler again wrote to him: "A spirit favorable to the common cause has pervaded almost both Houses. They begin to talk of a Dictator and Vice Dictators, as if it was a thing that was already determined on. To the convention to be held at Hartford, I believe I shall be sent, with instructions to propose that a Dictator should be appointed." "This mad project," as Hamilton pronounced it, met his instant reprobation. He discouraged it in the most earnest manner. Governor Clinton also opposed it. The project was abandoned. The resolutions of the assembly were not concurred in, but a joint resolution, proposed in the Senate, passed, of abundant force. The delegates were authorized "to propose and agree in the convention to all such measures as shall appear calculated to give a vigor to the governing powers, equal to the present crisis." Schuyler, Hobert and Benson, were appointed commissioners to Hartford.

The legislature did not stop here. In lieu of the appointment of Dictators, a violent substitute was proposed.

The delegates to the convention were instructed "to propose and agree, that Congress during the present war, or until a perpetual confederation shall be completed, should be explicitly authorized and empowered to exercise every power which they may deem necessary for the effectual prosecution of the war," and, that whenever it shall appear to them, that any State is deficient in its contributions, they should "direct the commander-in-chief without delay to march the army, or such part of it as may be requisite, into such State, and, by military force, compel it to furnish its deficiency." The only proviso was, that this grant of unlimited power should be concurred in by the four Eastern States. This resolution passed by an unanimous vote of the legislature, the last day of its session.

Her

New York was now suffering in every nerve. seaport still in possession of the enemy, her supplies exhausted by the demands of the army, her northern frontier again desolated by incursions from Canada.

Rash as this proposal was, it was only to carry into effect upon a more extended scale a recent precedent of an important State. A few months previous, martial law was proclaimed in Pennsylvania, to enable the State officers to procure supplies for the army, and to expel strangers from Philadelphia.

The time was fruitful in harsh and lax expedients. Madison, recently elected to Congress by Virginia, proposed,* that the requisite supplies for the army, having been proportioned as accurately as practicable, “be impressed with vigor and impartiality, and paid for in certificates not transferable, redeemable at some period subsequent to the war, and bearing an intermediate interest." The advantages promised were-an anticipation "of the

* Madison to Jones, 1780. Madison's Debates, i. 55.

future revenues of peace," the "compelling the people to lend the public their commodities, and that it would be a permanent resource by which the war might be supported as long as the earth should yield its increase." It was to be a permanent system of impress-of forced loanswhich, as a temporary and occasional resort, Hamilton had recently condemned, as "violent, unequal, oppressive, and odious."

VOL. II.-8