gress. In a letter
to the secretary of state, written at Fort Cumberland on the sixteenth
of October, he said, "My mind is so perfectly convinced, that if these
self-created societies can not be discontinued they will destroy the
government of this country, that I have asked myself, while I have been
revolving on the expense and inconvenience of drawing so many men from
their families and occupations as I have seen on their march, where
would be the impropriety of glancing at them in my speech, by some such
idea as the following: 'That, however distressing this expedition will
have proved to individuals, and expensive to the country, the pleasing
spirit which it has drawn forth in support of law and government will
immortalize the American character, and is a happy presage that future
attempts, of a certain description of people, to disturb the public
tranquillity will prove equally abortive.'"

Mr. Randolph, though a democrat, was favorable to some such expression
of sentiment regarding these societies. In a letter, to which the
president's was a response, he had intimated the propriety of taking
advantage of the prevailing reprobation of the insurrection, to put down
those societies. "They may now, I believe, be crushed," he said. "The
prospect ought not to be lost." Washington did allude to them in his
annual message, as we shall observe presently.

CHAPTER XXVII.

MEETING OF CONGRESS--WASHINGTON'S MESSAGE--HIS VIEWS OF THE WHISKEY
INSURRECTION--DENUNCIATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES--DEBATES IN
CONGRESS ON THE SUBJECT--WEAKNESS OF THE OPPOSITION--JEFFERSON'S
ANGRY LETTER TO MADISON--DECLINE OF THE DEMOCRATIC
SOCIETIES--WAYNE'S SUCCESS--END OF THE INDIAN WAR--HAMILTON AND KNOX
RETIRE FROM OFFICE--CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THEM AND
WASHINGTON--THEIR SUCCESSORS--CLOSE OF THE THIRD CONGRESS--A
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY PROPOSED--WASHINGTON'S VIEWS--HIS DISPOSITION OF
NAVIGATION COMPANIES' SHARES.

The members of Congress came tardily to the federal capital in the
autumn of 1794; and it was not until the nineteenth of November, sixteen
days after the time appointed for the commencement of the session, that
they were ready to listen to the president's sixth annual message. As he
had intimated to Mr. Jay that he should, Washington, in that message,
dwelt at considerable length on the subject of the late insurrection,
taking a complete outline survey of all the facts and circumstance