The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-07-11

constitution of the federal govern
ment adequate to the exigencies of the
Union"
Hamilton held with Washington for
a national government.
Congress Indifferent.
He had been born, and bred as a lad
in the West Indies, and had never
received the local pride of any colony
state into his blood. He had served
with the army, too. in close intimacy
with Washington, and, though twenty
five years his captains junior, had
seen as clearly as he saw the deep
hazards of nations birth.
The congress was Indifferent, if not
hostile, to the measures which the adj
dress proposed; and the states would
have acted on the call as slackly as be-
fore, had not the winter brought with
it something like a threat of social
revolution, and fairly startled them
out of their negligent humor.
The Rebellion of Shays.
The central counties of Massachu-
sets broke into violent rebellion, I'M
der one Shays, veteran of the Revolu-
tion-not to reform the government,
but to rid themselves of it altogether;
to shut the courts and escape the pay
ment of debts and taxes.
The insurgents worked their will for
weeks together; drove out the officers
of the law, burned and plundered at
pleasure through whole districts, liv-
ing upon the land like hostile army,
and were brought to a reckoning at
last only when a force thousands
strong had been levied against them
States Sympathize With Shays.
The contagion spread to Vermont
and New Hampshire; and, even when
the outbreak had been crushed, the
states concerned were irresolute in
the punishment of the leaders.
Rhode Island declared her sympathy
with the insurgents; Vermont offered
them asylum; Massachusetts brought
the leaders to trial and convic-
ton, only to pardon and set them free
again.
Congress dared do no more than
make covert preparation to check a
general rising.
Washington's Indignant Protest.
You talk, my good SIR wrote
Washington to Henry Lee in congress,
"of employing influences to appease
the present tumults in Massachusetts.
know not where that influence is to
be found, or, if attained, that it would
be proper remedy for the disor-
ders. Influence is no government. Let
us have one by which our lives, liber-
ties and properties will be secured, or
let us know the worst at once"
1t was an object-lesson for the whole
country; the dullest and the most
lethargic knew now what slack gov
eminent and financial disorder would
produce.
The states one and all-save Rhode
acknowledgements them of the con-
vention called to meet in Philadelphia
on the second Monday in May, 1887.
and delegates were appointed.
Even congress took the lesson to
heart, and gave its sanction to the
conference.
The legislature of Virginia put
Washington's name at the head of its
own list of delegates, and after his
name the names of Patrick Henry,
Edmund Randolph, John Blair, James
Madison, George Mason, and George
Wythe-the leading names of the
state, no man could doubt.
But Washington hesitated. He had
already declined to meet the Society
of the Cincinnati in Philadelphia about
the same time, he said, and thought it
would be disrespectful to that body, to
whom he owed much. ito be there on
any other occasion"
He even limited doubt whether the
convention was constitutional, its
avowed purposes being what they
were until congress tardily sanction.
ed it.
Why Washington Hesitated.
His real reasons his intimate friends
must have OWNED from the first. They
knew him better in such matters than
he knew himself. He not only loved
his retirement; he deemed himself a
soldier and man Of action, and no
statesman
The floor of assemblies had never
seemed to him his principal sphere of
duty.
He had thought of staying away
from the house of burgesses on priv.
ate business 20 years ago, when he
knew that the stamp act was to be de.
bated. But it was not for the floor OF
the approaching convention that his
friends wanted him; they told him
from the first he must preside.
He was known to be in favor of Civ.
ing the Confederation powers that
would make it real government, and
he thought that enough; but they
wanted the whole country to see him
pledged to the actual work, and, when
they had persuaded him to attend,
knew that they had at any rate won
the confidence of the people in their
patriotic purpose.