101 The Crisis (1786)
TO HENRY LEE
The picture which you have exhibited and the accounts which are published of the commotions and temper of numerous bodies in the eastern states are equally to be lamented and deprecated. They exhibit a melancholy proof of what our transatlantic foe has predicted and of another thing perhaps, which is still more to be regretted and is yet more unaccountable: that mankind when left to themselves are unfit for their own government. I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country. In a word I am lost in amazement when I behold what intrigue, the interested views of desperate characters, ignorance, and jealousy of the minor part are capable of effecting as a scourge on the major part of our fellow citizens of the Union. For it is hardly to be supposed that the great body of the people though they will not act, can be so shortsighted or enveloped in darkness as not to see rays of a distant sun through all this mist of intoxication and folly.
You talk, my good Sir, of employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachusetts. I know not where that influence is to be found or if attainable, that it would be a proper remedy for the disorders. Influence is no government. Let us have one by which our lives, liberties, and properties will be secured or let us know the worst at once. Under these impressions my humble opinion is that there is a call for decision. Know precisely what the insurgents aim at. If they have real grievances, redress them if possible or acknowledge the justice of them and your inability to do it in the present moment. If they have not, employ the force of government against them at once. If this is inadequate, all will be convinced that the superstructure is bad or wants support. To be more exposed in the eyes of the world and more contemptible than we already are, is hardly possible. To delay one or the other of these is to exasperate on the one hand or to give confidence on the other and will add to their numbers. For like snowballs, such bodies increase by every movement unless there is something in the way to obstruct and crumble them before the weight is too great and irresistible. These are my sentiments. Precedents are dangerous things. Let the reins of government then be braced and held with a steady hand and every violation of the constitution be reprehended. If defective let it be amended, but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has an existence.
With respect to the navigation of the Mississippi, you already know my sentiments thereon. They have been uniformly the same and as I have observed to you in a former letter are controverted by one consideration only of weight. And that is the operation which the conclusion of it may have on the minds of the western settlers who will not consider the subject in a relative point of view or on a comprehensive scale, and may be influenced by the demagogues of the country to acts of extravagance and desperation under a popular declamation that their interests are sacrificed. But in all matters of great national moment, the only true line of conduct in my opinion is dispassionately to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the measure proposed and decide from the balance. The lesser evil, where there is a choice of them, should always yield to the greater. What benefits more than we now enjoy are to be obtained by such a treaty as you have delineated with Spain, I am not enough of a commercial man to give any opinion on.
TO JAMES MADISON
I thank you for the communications in your letter of the 1st instant [of this month]. The decision of the House on the question respecting a paper emission [printing money] is portentous I hope of an auspicious session. It certainly may be classed with the important questions of the present day and merited the serious attention of the Assembly. Fain would I hope that the great and most important of all subjects, the federal government, may be considered with that calm and deliberate attention which the magnitude of it so critically and loudly calls for at this critical moment. Let prejudices, unreasonable jealousies, and local interests yield to reason and liberality. Let us look to our national character and to things beyond the present moment. No morn ever dawned more favorably than ours did and no day was ever more clouded than the present. Wisdom and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm. Virginia has now an opportunity to set the latter and has enough of the former I hope to take the lead in promoting this great and arduous work. Without an alteration in our political creed, the superstructure we have been seven years in raising at the expense of so much treasure and blood must fall. We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion.
By a letter which I have received from General Knox who had just returned from Massachusetts where he had been sent by Congress consequent of the commotions in that State, is replete with melancholy accounts of the temper and designs of a considerable part of that people. Among other things he says: “Their creed is that the property of the United States has been protected from the confiscation of Britain by the joint exertions of all and therefore ought to be the common property of all. And he that attempts opposition to this creed is an enemy to equity and justice and ought to be swept from off the face of the earth.” Again: “They are determined to annihilate all debts public and private and have agrarian laws which are easily effected by the means of unfunded paper money, which shall be a tender in all cases whatever.” He adds: “The number of these people amount in Massachusetts to about one fifth part of several populous counties and to them may be collected people of similar sentiments from the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire so as to constitute a body of about twelve or fifteen thousand desperate and unprincipled men. They are chiefly of the young and active part of the community.”
How melancholy is the reflection that in so short a space we should have made such large strides towards fulfilling the predictions of our transatlantic foes! “Leave them to themselves and their government will soon dissolve.” Will not the wise and good strive hard to avert this evil? Or will their supineness suffer ignorance and the arts of self-interested, designing, disaffected, and desperate characters to involve this great country in wretchedness and contempt? What stronger evidence can be given of the want of energy in our government than these disorders? If there is not power in it to check them, what security has a man for life, liberty, or property? To you I am sure I need not add aught on this subject. The consequences of a lax or inefficient government are too obvious to be dwelt upon. Thirteen sovereignties pulling against each other and all tugging at the federal head will soon bring ruin on the whole. Whereas a liberal and energetic constitution, well guarded and closely watched to prevent encroachments, might restore us to that degree of respectability and consequences to which we had a fair claim and the brightest prospect of attaining.
Source: George Washington, Writings (edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford, 1891), XI, 76-82. https://archive.org/details/toldcontemporari03hartrich/page/188/mode/2up
