whose first impressions were not in its favor, but who were not
inclined to yield absolutely to those impressions."

As we have observed, Washington, for a specific purpose, withheld his
signature in ratification of the treaty. The vote of the senate
recommending its ratification, with the stipulation that one article
should be added, suspending so much of another as seemed requisite, and
requesting the president to open without delay further negotiation on
that head, presented serious questions to his mind. He had no precedent
for his guide. Could the senate be considered to have ratified the
treaty before the insertion of the new article? Was the act complete and
final, so as to make it unnecessary to refer it back to that body? Could
the president affix his official seal to an act before it should be
complete? These were important questions, and demanded serious
reflection.

The opponents of the treaty, aware of the cause of the delay in its
ratification, resolved to endeavor to intimidate the president and
prevent his signing it. The most violent demonstrations, by word and
deed, were made against it. On the fourth of July, a great mob assembled
in Philadelphia, and paraded the streets with effigies of Jay and the
ratifying senators. That of Jay bore a pair of scales: one was labelled
"_American Liberty and Independence_;" and the other, which greatly
preponderated, "_British Gold_." From the mouth of the figure proceeded
the words, "_Come up to my price, and I will sell you my country_." The
effigies were committed to the flames amid the most frightful yells and
groans.

Public meetings were assembled all over the country to make formal
protests against the treaty. They were called ostensibly to "deliberate
upon it," but they were frequently tumultuous, and always declamatory. A
large meeting was held in Boston on the tenth of July. The chief actors
there denounced the treaty as not containing one single article
honorable or beneficial to the United States. It was disapproved of by
unanimous vote, and a committee of fifteen, appointed to state
objections, in an address to the president, reported no less than
twenty. They were adopted by the meeting without debate, and were sent
to the president accompanied by a letter from the selectmen of Boston.
Only a few of the stable inhabitants of Boston appear to have been
concerned in this matter, and the wealthy merchants and some other rich
men who attended the meetin