committee of safety to obtain a decision to the same
effect. In that committee, the question whether they would submit
peaceably to the execution of the law, retaining expressly the
privilege of using all constitutional means to effect its repeal, was
debated with great zeal. The less violent party carried it by a small
majority; but, not thinking themselves authorized to decide for their
constituents on so momentous a question, they afterwards resolved that
it should be referred to the people.

This reference resulted in demonstrating that, though many were
disposed to demean themselves peaceably, yet a vast mass of opposition
remained, determined to obstruct the re-establishment of civil
authority.

From some causes, among which was disaffection to the particular
service, the prospect of bringing the quota of troops required from
Pennsylvania into the field, was at first unpromising. But the
assembly, which had been summoned by the governor to meet on the first
of September, expressed in strong terms its abhorrence of this daring
attempt to resist the laws, and to subvert the government of the
country; and a degree of ardour and unanimity was displayed by the
people of other states, which exceeded the hopes of the most sanguine
friends of the administration. Some feeble attempts were indeed made
to produce a disobedience to the requisition of the President, by
declaring that the people would never be made the instruments of the
secretary of the treasury to shed the blood of their fellow citizens;
that the representatives of the people ought to be assembled before a
civil war was commenced; and by avowing the extravagant opinion that
the President could not lawfully call forth the militia of any other
state, until actual experiment had ascertained the insufficiency of
that of Pennsylvania. But these insidious suggestions were silenced by
the general sense of the nation, which loudly and strongly proclaimed
that the government and laws must be supported. The officers displayed
an unexampled activity; and intelligence from every quarter gave full
assurance that, with respect to both numbers and time, the
requisitions of the President would be punctually observed.

The governor of Pennsylvania compensated for the defects in the
militia law of that state by his personal exertions. From some
inadvertence, as was said, on the part of the brigade inspectors, the
militia could not be drafted, and consequently the quota of