The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-07-18

authority. The act bore nowhere so
hard upon the people as in the vast
far counties of Pennsylvania and Vlr-
ginia, beyond the mountains-and
there the very allegiance of the peo-
ple had been but the other day DOUBT
full, as Washington very well knew.
How were they to get their corn to
market over the long roads If they
were not to be permitted to reduce us
bulk and increase it's value by turn
ing it into whisky? The tax seemed
to them intolerable, and the remedy
plain. They would not pay it. They
had not been punctilious to obey the
laws of the states; they would not be-
gin obedience now by submitting 10
the worst laws of the United States.
At first they only amused them
selves by tarring and feathering an ex-
ciseman here and there; but resist
ance could not stop with that in the
face of a government bent upon hav'
ing it's own way. Opposition organized
itself and spread, till the writs OF
federal courts had been defied by vlo-
lent mobs and the western counties
of Pennsylvania were fairly quick with
incipient instruction.
For two years Washington watched
the slow gathering of the storm, warn
ing those who resisted, keeping con-
gress abreast of him in preparation
for action when the right time should
come, letting all the country know
what was afoot and prepare its mind
for what was to come. It must have
won him to a stern humor to learn
that seven thousand armed men had
gathered In mass-meeting on Brad
docks fiefd to defy him. At last he
summoned an army of militia out or
the states, sent it straight to the law
less counties, going with it himself till
he learned there would be no serious
resistance-ard taught the country
what was back of federal law. Hamil-
ton had had his way, the country its
lesson.
Jefferson's Sheer.
"The servile copyist of Mr.. Pitt
thought he must have his alarms, his
Instructions and plots against the
constitution" sneered Jefferson. 1t
aroused the favorite purposes OF
strengthening government and increas-
ing the public debt; and therefore an
instruction was, announced and pro-
claimed and armed against and
marched against, but could never be
found And all this under the sane
ton of a name which has done too
much good not to be sufficient to Gov
er harm ALSO"
"The powers of the executive OF
this country are more definite and bet
ter understood, perhaps. than those
of any other country" Washington
had said, land my aim has been, and
will continue to be, neither to stretch
nor to relax from them in any in
stance whatever, unless compelled to
it by imperious circumstances" and
that was what he meant the country
to know, whether the laws purpose
was good or bad.
Wrath Over English Treaty.
The next year the people knew what
Mr.. Jay had done. He reached New
York May %, 1876; and the treaty
he brought with him was laid before
the senate on the 8th of June. On
the I'd of July the country knew what
he had agreed to and the senate had
ratified. There was an instant out
burst of wrath. 1t swept from one
end of the country to the other.
The treaty yielded so much, gained
so little, that to accept it seemed q
veritable humiliation. The northwest
ern posts were, indeed, to be given up
at last; the boundaries between Eng
lish and American territory were to
be determined by commissioners; I'M
restricted commerce with England
herself, and a free direct trade with
her East Indian possessions, were con-
coded; but not word was said about
the impressment Of American seamen;
American claims for damages for I'M
coveted trade with the West Indian
referred to a commission, along with
American debts to Englishmen; the
coveted trade with the West Indies
islands was secured only to vessels
of seventy tons and under, and at the
cost of renouncing the right to ex-
port sugar, molasses, coffee, cocoa, or
cotton to Europe.
Washington agreed with the senate
that ratifcations OF the treaty ought
not to be exchanged without a modif1-
cation of the clauses respecting tie
West Indian trace, and October had
come before new and better terms
could be agreed upon; but he had no
doubt that the treaty as whole ought
to be accepted. The opposition party
in congress had refused to vote money
for an efficient navy and so had made
1t impossible to check British agrees
sions; they must now accept this un-
palatable treaty as better at any rate
than war.
Storm RACES FIerceIy.
1t was hard to stand steady in the
storm. The country took fire as it
had done at the passage of the Stamp
Act Harder things had never been
said of king and parliament than were
now said of Washington and his ad-
visers. Many stout champions stood
to his defence-none stouter or more
formidable than Hamilton, no longer q