bellion was set on foot, which, for a time, interrupted the sessions
of the courts. An Indian war, attended by the usual barbarities, raged
along the northern frontier. Foreign states declined to negotiate with a
government which could not enforce its decrees within its own borders.
England haughtily refused to withdraw her troops from our soil; Spain
closed the Mississippi to the commerce and encroached upon the territory
of the Confederation. Every consideration of safety and advantage
demanded a government with strength enough to secure quiet at home and
respect abroad. It is not to be denied that many thoughtful and
experienced men were discouraged by the failure of the Confederation,
and thought that nothing but a monarchy could accomplish the desired
purpose.

There were also certain social elements tending in the same direction,
and these were strongest in the city of New York, where Jefferson first
observed them. That city had been the centre of the largest and most
powerful Tory community in the Colonies. The gentry were nearly all
Tories, and, during the long occupation of the town, the tradespeople,
thriving upon British patronage, had become attached to the British
cause. There, and, indeed, in all the cities, there were aristocratic
circles. Jefferson was of course introduced into them. In these circles
were the persons who gave dinners, and at whose tables he heard the
opinions expressed which astonished and alarmed him.

What is described as polite society has never been much felt in American
politics; it was not more influential then. Besides, in many cases,
these opinions were more likely to have been the expression of
affectation than of settled conviction. Nothing is more common than a
certain insincerity which leads men to profess and seemingly believe
sentiments which they do not and cannot act upon. The stout squire who
prides himself upon his obstinacy, and whose pretty daughter manages him
as easily as she manages her poodle, is a favorite character in English
comedy. Every one knows some truculent gentleman who loudly proclaims
that one half of mankind are knaves and the other half would be if they
dared, but who would go mad with despair if he really believed the
atrocious principles he loves to announce. Jefferson was not so
constituted as to make the proper allowance for this kind of
insincerity. Though undemonstrative, he was thoroughly in earnest. In
fact, he was something of a precisian i