y speeches on either side were made, and the debate
did not terminate until the twenty-fourth of the month.

During this debate, the eloquent Fisher Ames was a member of the house,
but was compelled by ill health to be silent. It was a great trial for
the patriot, for he saw the need of soldiers for the contest. He had
been, from the beginning, a warm friend of the government; and now, at
what he deemed a crisis, he wished to lift up his voice in defence of
its measures. To a friend in Springfield he wrote on the ninth of March,
saying:--

"I sit now in the house; and, that I may not lose my temper and my
spirits, I shut my ears against the sophisms and rant against the
treaty, and divert my attention by writing to you.

"Never was there a time when I so much desired the full use of my
faculties, and it is the very moment when I am prohibited even
attention. To be silent, neutral, useless, is a situation not to be
envied. I almost wish ***** was here, and I at home, sorting squash
and pumpkin seeds for planting.

"It is a new post for me to be in. I am not a sentry, not in the
ranks, not in the staff. I am thrown into the wagon as part of the
baggage. I am like an old gun that is spiked or the trunnions
knocked off, and yet am carted off, not for the worth of the old
iron, but to balk the enemy of a trophy. My political life is
ended, and I am the survivor of myself, or rather the troubled
ghost of a politician, that am condemned to haunt the field of
battle where I fell. Whether the government will long outlive me is
doubtful. I know it is sick, and, many of the physicians say, of a
mortal disease. A crisis now exists, the most serious I ever
witnessed, and the more dangerous because it is not dreaded. Yet, I
confess, if we should navigate the federal ship through this
strait, and get out again into the open sea, we shall have a right
to consider the chance of our government as mended. We shall have a
lease for years--say four or five; not a freehold--certainly not a
fee simple.

"How will the Yankees feel and act when the day of trial comes? It
is not, I fear, many weeks off. Will they let the casuists quibble
away the very words, and adulterate the generous spirit of the
constitution? When a measure passes by the proper authorities,
shall it be stopped by force? Sophist