trained the judges from
proceeding in the execution of their duty. The ordinary recourse to
the power of the country was found an insufficient protection, and the
appeals made to reason were attended with no beneficial effect. The
forbearance of the government was attributed to timidity rather than
to moderation, and the spirit of insurrection appeared to be organized
into a regular system for the suppression of courts.

In the bosom of Washington, these tumults excited attention and alarm.
"For God's sake tell me," said he in a letter to Colonel Humphries,
"what is the cause of all these commotions? Do they proceed from
licentiousness, British influence disseminated by the tories, or real
grievances which admit of redress? if the latter, why was redress
delayed until the public mind had become so much agitated? if the
former, why are not the powers of government tried at once? It is as
well to be without, as not to exercise them. Commotions of this sort,
like snow-balls, gather strength as they roll, if there is no
opposition in the way to divide and crumble them."

"As to your question, my dear general," said Colonel Humphries in
reply, "respecting the cause and origin of these commotions, I hardly
find myself in condition to give a certain answer. If from all the
information I have been able to obtain, I might be authorized to
hazard an opinion, I should attribute them to all the three causes
which you have suggested. In Massachusetts particularly, I believe
there are a few real grievances; and also some wicked agents or
emissaries who have been busy in magnifying the positive evils, and
fomenting causeless jealousies and disturbances. But it rather appears
to me, that there is a licentious spirit prevailing among many of the
people; a levelling principle; a desire of change; and a wish to
annihilate all debts, public and private." "It is indeed a fact," said
General Knox, after returning from a visit to the eastern country,
"that high taxes are the ostensible cause of the commotion, but that
they are the real cause, is as far remote from truth, as light is from
darkness. The people who are the insurgents have never paid any, or
but very little taxes. But they see the weakness of government. They
feel at once their own poverty compared with the opulent, and their
own force; and they are determined to make use of the latter, in order
to remedy the former. Their creed is, that the property of the United
States has be