cesses they
were required to suppress; and those who had not embarked in the
criminal enterprise, found themselves totally unable to maintain the
sovereignty of the laws.

With a laudable solicitude to avoid extremities, the government still
sought for means to recall these misguided people to a sense of duty,
without the employment of a military force. To obtain this desirable
object, the following system was digested and pursued:

Prosecutions were instituted against delinquents in those cases in
which it was believed that they could be maintained. The spirits
distilled in the non-complying counties were intercepted on their way
to market, and seized by the officers of the revenue; and the agents
for the army were directed to purchase only those spirits on which the
duty had been paid. By thus acting on the interests of the distillers,
the hope was indulged that they might be induced to comply with the
law. Could they have obeyed their wishes, these measures would have
produced the desired effect; but they were no longer masters of their
own conduct. Impelled by a furious multitude, they found it much more
dangerous to obey the laws than to resist them. The efficacy of this
system too was diminished by a circumstance, which induced the
necessity of a second application to the legislature. The act had not
been extended to the territory north-west of the Ohio, in which great
part of the army lay; and the distillers eluded the vigilance of the
government by introducing their spirits into that territory.

While from causes which were incessant and active in their operation,
some of which seem too strongly fixed in the human mind ever to be
removed, a broad foundation was thus laid for those party struggles
whose fury is generally proportioned to the magnitude of the objects
to be attained, and to the means which may be employed in attaining
them, the external affairs of the United States sustained no material
change.

Of the good understanding which was preserved with France, a fresh
proof had been recently given by the employment of Mr. Ternan, a
person peculiarly acceptable to the American government, to succeed
the Count de Moustiers, as minister plenipotentiary of his Most
Christian Majesty; and in turn, Mr. Gouverneur Morris, who was
understood to have rendered himself agreeable to the French
government, was appointed to represent the United States at the court
of Versailles.

In addition to these interchanges