ion of federal power.

[Footnote 36: This sentiment was far from being avowed by
any correspondent of General Washington, but is stated in
the private letters to him, to have been taken up by some.]

[Footnote 37: In a subsequent part of the same letter, this
gentleman draws the outlines of a constitution such as he
would wish. It is essentially the same with that which was
recommended by the convention.]

The ultimate decision of the states on this interesting proposition
seems to have been in no inconsiderable degree influenced by the
commotions which about that time agitated all New England, and
particularly Massachusetts.

[Sidenote: Insurrection in Massachusetts.]

Those causes of discontent which existed, after the restoration of
peace, in every part of the union, were particularly operative in New
England. The great exertions which had been made by those states in
the course of the war, had accumulated a mass of debt, the taxes for
the payment of which were the more burdensome, because their fisheries
had become unproductive. The restlessness produced by the uneasy
situation of individuals, connected with lax notions concerning public
and private faith, and erroneous opinions which confound liberty with
an exemption from legal control, produced a state of things which
alarmed all reflecting men, and demonstrated to many the indispensable
necessity of clothing government with powers sufficiently ample for
the protection of the rights of the peaceable and quiet, from the
invasions of the licentious and turbulent part of the community.

This disorderly spirit was cherished by unlicensed conventions, which,
after voting their own constitutionality, and assuming the name of the
people, arrayed themselves against the legislature, and detailed at
great length the grievances by which they alleged themselves to be
oppressed. Its hostility was principally directed against the
compensation promised to the officers of the army, against taxes, and
against the administration of justice: and the circulation of a
depreciated currency was required, as a relief from the pressure of
public and private burdens which had become, it was alleged, too heavy
to be borne. Against lawyers and courts, the strongest resentments
were manifested; and to such a dangerous extent were these
dispositions indulged, that, in many instances, tumultuous assemblages
of people arrested the course of law, and res