imagination a deep, dark, and dreary chaos, impossible to be reduced to order, unless the mind of the architect be clear and capacious, and his power commensurate to the object. It is with the intention of letting a little sunshine into the business that the present arrangement is proposed." The tonnage duty was another subject considered. Even then the spirit that never tired nor yielded in favor of France, till the conclusion of the war in 1815, was clearly apparent.

Under the auspicious influence of the federal government, a mutual confidence was strengthened among the citizens of the commonwealth and of the United States. The common employments and arts of life were encouraged; commercial enterprises increased; the credit of government was restored by wise and efficient provisions in the finances of the country, the regulation of foreign commerce, and the uniform collection of a revenue. The nation made rapid advancements, from a state of embarrassment and imbecility, to wealth, power, and respectability.

The beneficial work begun by the Congress of 1789 was resumed by the Congress of 1790. On the 4th of August, of this year, Congress agreed to assume nearly twenty-two millions of dollars of the debts of the states, which sum was apportioned among the several states according to the expenses which each had incurred during the late war. Of the debt of Massachusetts, between five and six millions of dollars were assumed by the general government, the remainder of the debt amounting to eleven and a half millions more was borne by the state. This assumption of the state debt did not wholly relieve the people, and the burdens which remained were a cause of loud and frequent complaint. Public embarrassments, however, did not check private enterprise. The whole state was alive to the mak

ing of internal improvements. Public roads were repaired, turnpikes were projected, and in 1793 the Middlesex Canal was constructed. Attention was given also to the revision of the state laws; the criminal code was ameliorated by the influence of Governor Hancock, and confinement at hard labor, as a punishment, was substituted for the disgraceful public whipping and cropping for theft. A workhouse was established on Castle Island, in Boston Harbor; and a few years later, the state prison was built at Charlestown. The Sunday law was likewise revised. Provisions were made by the state for promoting public education, and academies were established in very many localities. Before the close of the century nearly every town had provided for the proper training of its youth of both sexes. also, the first Sunday schools in Massachusetts were established.

About this time,

In October, 1793, Governor Hancock died, and his funeral was conducted with great ceremony. The judges of the Supreme Judicial Court had, up to this time, worn robes of scarlet, faced with black velvet in winter, and black silk gowns in summer. On this occasion they appeared in the latter; but for some reason they wore neither robes nor gowns afterwards. Samuel Adams, the lieutenant governor of the state, now assumed the functions of the executive office, and in the following year was chosen governor. Of Mr. Adams's character, nothing could be said that has not already been said by abler pens. A man whose "pen, tongue, activity were exerted for his country, without fee or reward" for fifty years, could never be forgotten by his posterity.

Mr. Adams was a democrat; and, being one of the ablest advocates of state rights, was not, at first, an ardent admirer

of the federal constitution. But, nevertheless, he did not hesitate to acknowledge his fealty to the laws of the land. "I shall be called upon," he said, on taking the oath of lieutenant governor, "to make a declaration- and I shall do it most cheerfully that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is, and of right ought to be, a free, sovereign, and independent state. I shall be called upon to make another declaration, with the same solemnity-to support the Constitution of the United States. I see no inconsistency in this; for it must be intended that these constitutions should mutually aid and support each other."1

In these years-1789 to 1793 - the French had made such progress in their revolution as to have established their National Assembly, and the "great nation" had already become the terror of Europe. The tree of liberty was to be planted throughout the earth. The progress of French principles was very grateful to the opposition in the United States; nor to them only. Many of the federal party were rejoiced to see the coming freedom of a people who had so essentially aided in securing that of their own country; and in the course of the year 1792 it was thought that a public expression of joy ought to be made by the Americans. Hence, in Massachusetts and elsewhere, civic feasts were undertaken, some of them of the most ludicrous character. These affairs were carried to such a height of extravagance, that those who were the most active in them were also the most willing to repent of their folly.

The conduct of "citizen Genet," the first minister from the French republic, was very remarkable. His employers assumed that the United States were to engage in the French revolution, and authorized him to commission privateers and

1 Bradford, iii. 29, 46.

:

to raise, in this country, forces to attack British and Spanish possessions on this side of the water. He undertook to execute these plans entirely independent of the government of the United States; and such was his audaciousness, that he neglected even to present his credentials to the government to which he was sent. Although his reception in this country was not unlike that usually extended to a victorious chief, he at length found that he could not carry on his manœuvres as independently as he had wished. He was told that the government was determined to adhere to the strictest neutrality; to which Genet had no objection, provided he could carry on the war himself. When told that, unless he should restrain his belligerent operations, he would be resisted by force, he threatened to appeal from the presi dent to the people! The controversies thus occasioned by the conduct of Genet were exceedingly embarrassing to the president, and gave rise to dissensions in the cabinet. Genet was recalled, and a few weeks later the French republic fell; and thus the whole affair gradually slipped away into silence.1

In the spring of 1794, John Jay, a man of the most disinterested patriotism, and then Chief Justice of the United States, was sent as envoy extraordinary to the court of St. James, for the purpose of negotiating with the English government relative to their recent depredations upon the commerce of the United States. This mission was an unexpected blow to the French party, who, as soon as they could rally, attacked not only the mission, but the administration also. In November a treaty was signed with Great Britain,

Sparks's Washington, x. 387, seq. Hildreth's U. S., iv. 434-441. After his recall Genet married a daughter of Governor Clinton, of New York, and passed the remainder of his life in this country.

and in the following March it arrived in the United States. As soon as it was made public, the whole country was inflamed. Not only the opposition, but a large portion of those who had supported the administration, were against the ratification. The former attacked the president in the most abusive manner; and addresses were sent in from nearly all the seaports, and from many interior towns, inveighing against the treaty. In Boston only one man raised his voice in favor of it; and at a town meeting, held on the 10th of July, a loud remonstrance was uttered against it. The Chamber of Commerce took a more liberal view, and sent an address to the president unanimously approving the treaty. Washington's reply to the selectmen of Boston plainly shows the serenity of a great and good mind, under as trying circumstances as could ever occur to any man.

"In every act of my administration," he wrote, "I have sought the happiness of my fellow-citizens. My system, for the attainment of this object, has been, to overlook all personal, local, and partial considerations; to contemplate the United States as one great whole; to confide that sudden impressions, when erroneous, would yield to candid reflection, and to consult only the permanent and substantial interests of our country. Nor have I departed from this line of conduct on the occasion which has produced the resolutions. contained in your letter.

"Without a predilection for my own judgment, I have weighed with attention every argument which has at any time been brought into view. But the constitution is the guide which I never can abandon. It has assigned to the president the power of making treaties, with the advice and consent of the Senate. It was doubtless supposed that these two branches would combine, without passion, and with the