uld do, was to pray for the restoration of
their monarch. 'Then,' says a by-stander, 'the best thing we could do,
I suppose, would be to pray for the establishment of a monarch in the
United States.' 'Qur people,' says Harper, 'are not yet ripe for it, but
it is the best thing we can come to, and we shall come to it.' Something
like this was said in presence of Findlay. He now denies it in the
public papers, though it can be proved by several members.

December the 27th. Tench Coxe tells me, that a little before Hamilton
went out of office, or just as he was going out, taking with him his
last conversation, and among other things, on the subject of their
differences, 'For my part,' says he, 'I avow myself a monarchist; I have
no objection to a trial being made of this thing of a republic, but,'
&c.

January the 5th, 1798. I receive a very remarkable fact indeed, in
our history, from Baldwin and Skinner. Before the establishment of our
present government, a very extensive combination had taken place in New
York and the eastern States, among that description of people who were
partly monarchical in principle, or frightened with Shays's rebellion
and the impotence of the old Congress. Delegates in different places had
actually had consultations on the subject of seizing on the powers of
a government, and establishing them by force; had corresponded with
one another, and had sent a deputy to General Washington to solicit his
co-operation. He refused to join them. The new convention was in the
mean time proposed by Virginia and appointed. These people believed it
impossible the States should ever agree on a government, as this must
include the impost and all the other powers which the States had, a
thousand times, refused to the general authority. They therefore let the
proposed convention go on, not doubting its failure, and confiding
that on its failure would be a still more favorable moment for their
enterprise. They therefore wished it to fail, and especially, when
Hamilton, their leader, brought forward his plan of government, failed
entirely in carrying it, and retired in disgust from the convention.
His associates then took every method to prevent any form of government
being agreed to. But the well-intentioned never ceased trying, first one
thing, then another, till they could get something agreed to. The final
passage and adoption of the constitution completely defeated the
views of the combination, and saved u