ated societies, and the policy
observed towards foreign nations, the speech of the President was
treated with marked respect; and the several subjects which it
recommended, engaged the immediate attention of congress. A bill was
passed authorizing the President to station a detachment of militia in
the four western counties of Pennsylvania; provision was made to
compensate those whose property had been destroyed by the insurgents,
should those who had committed the injury be unable to repair it: and
an appropriation exceeding one million one hundred thousand dollars
was made to defray the expenses occasioned by the insurrection.

Many of the difficulties which had occurred in drawing out the militia
were removed, and a bill was introduced to give greater energy to the
militia system generally; but this subject possessed so many intrinsic
difficulties, that the session passed away without effecting any thing
respecting it.

A bill for the gradual redemption of the national debt was more
successful. The President had repeatedly and earnestly recommended to
the legislature the adoption of measures which might effect this
favourite object; but, although that party which had been reproached
with a desire to accumulate debt as a means of subverting the
republican system had uniformly manifested a disposition to carry this
recommendation into effect, their desire had hitherto been opposed by
obstacles they were unable to surmount. Professions of an anxious
solicitude to discharge the national engagements, without providing
the means of actual payment, might gratify those who consider words as
things, but would be justly estimated by men, who, neither condemning
indiscriminately, nor approving blindly, all the measures of
government, expect that, in point of fact, it shall be rightly and
honestly administered. On the friends of the administration,
therefore, it was incumbent to provide real, substantial funds, which
should attest the sincerity of their professions. This provision could
not be made without difficulty. The duty on imported articles, and on
tonnage, though rapidly augmenting, could not, immediately, be
rendered sufficiently productive to meet, alone, the various
exigencies of the treasury, and yield a surplus for the secure
establishment of a permanent fund to redeem the principal of the debt.
Additional sources of revenue must therefore be explored, or the idea
of reducing the debt be abandoned. New taxes are t