were transmilled for sale to New York, Philadelphia, and Ballimore, and disposed of to monicd men, on such advantageous terms as induced them to make large purchases. And thus was absorbed a very large portion of the capital of these three cities.

These bills were forwarded through trusty persons in Boston, and the proceeds being placed to their credit, added immensely to the command the Boston banks had acquired, by the extent of the smuggling trade, over those in the middle and southern states.

Let us here make a solemn pause. Let us strip these facts of the thin veil thrown over them. Let us consider them in all their nakedness, in all their deformity.

My heart sickens at the investigation. I turn with disgust, with horror, with affright. Boston, the cradle of the revolution, which claims so high a degree of pre-eminence for her morality and religion, after having failed in her endeavors to prevent the success of the loans, draws away the specie from the middle and southern states, to bankrupt the government, regardless of the universal ruin in which it would involve indiscriminately, friends of war-friends of peace-federalists-democrats-young and old-men, women, and children! And, to add a deeper dye to the transaction, the specie is transmitted to Canada, and enables the enemy to despatch his red allies to swim in blood on the defenceless frontiers of their own country! This is

June 21, 1782. "Whereas some of the inhabitants of the United States, prompted either by a sordid attachment to gain, or by a secret conspiracy with the enemies of their country, are wickedly engaged in carrying on an illicit traffic with their enemies, whereby a market is provided for British merchandizes, THE CIRCULATING SPECIE IS EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED STATES, the payment of taxes rendered more difficult and burdensome to the people at large, and great discouragement occasioned to honest and lawful com

merce:

"Resolved, that it be and hereby is recommended to the legislatures of the several states, to adopt the most efficacious measures for suppressing all traffic and illicit intercourse between their respective citizens and the enemy.

"Resolved, that the legislatures, or in their recess, the executives of the sev eral states, be earnestly requested to impress, by every means in their power, on their respective citizens at large, the baneful consequences apprehended by congress from a CONTINUANCE OF THIS ILLICIT AND INFAMOUS TRAFFIC, and the necessity of their co-operating with the public measures by sucia united, patriotic, and vigilant exertions, as will detect and bring to legal punish ment those who shall in any manner have been concerned therein. Idem, page

301

* Mr. Lowell has attempted to deny the existence of this arrangement. But it stands on too strong ground to admit of being disproved. That these bills to an immoderate amount, were transmitted from Quebec; that they were drawn for the support of the armies employed in hostilities against this country; that they were paid for in specie, devoted to the support of those armies; are facts too stubborn to be set aside. I hereby publicly dare him or any other person in the union to disprove any of them. They are abundantly sufficient to establish the iniquity of the case.

the work of faction, the heaviest scourge that ever issued from Pandora's box!

The consequences of these vile operations are still severely felt. Many estimable individuals have been absolutely ruined. Bank paper became an object of brokerage, and was sold at various rates from three to ten per cent. discount. A general stagnation was produced. The loss fell most heavily on the poor, as is usual in all such cases. The rich were enabled to make most extravagant profits; and many of them were literally preying upon the middle and poorer classes of society.The entire profits of business were swallowed up by the extravagant discounts paid on bank paper, a case hitherto unknown in this part of the country. And thus, in a season of distress and difficulty, the embarrassments of the citizens were doubled or trebled. And what is the most daring and profligate part of the business, the men who

"Have played these pranks before high heaven,”

were impudent enough to charge the whole of the distress to the account of the administration!

"The offence is rank-it smells to heaven."

To render the affair more shocking, more gross, more hideous, those who perpetrated this wickedness, hypocritically refused to rejoice in the victories of their country-as “unbecoming a moral and religious people!!!"

There is no country in the world, but the United States, wherein such a crime could be perpetrated with impunity. Even by our mildest of all mild constitutions, it is treason.

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in le* vying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, GIV"ING THEM AID AND COMFORT."

If supplying an enemy with specie to enable him to carry on the war against their native country, be not giving him "aid and comfort," and that of the most substantial kind, I know not what are" aid and comfort."

Every man concerned in the business of furnishing these aids to the enemy, is ipso facto a traitor-his life has been forfeited. That he has not expiated his crime by paying the forfeit, he owes to the ill-requited lenity of an insulted government. Every person who knew of the commission of the crime, and did not reveal it, was guilty of misprision of treason.

Compare this offence with the rebellion in Massachusetts under Shays; with the whiskey insurrection, in the neighborhood of Pittsburg; or with that of the poor, deluded, ignorant Fries! You may as well compare the Andes to Mount Pleasant!

.

This crime in England would subject the perpetrator either to be hung and gibbetted, or to be hung, drawn, and quartered. In the former case, his carcase would be exposed to be devoured by obscene birds of prey. In the latter, his head would be elevated as an ornament on the tower of London, to deter other traitors from the perpetration of similar crimes.

Let us once more, though the sight turn us aghast, examiné this hideous scene-which sinks the perpetrators and connivers into the lowest abyss of infamy.

Men, in the "moral and religious" town of Boston, aré

obliged to lend their money to their own government by stealth. But in the face of day, within the knowledge of a whole community, they send specie to the common enemy to support him against their own country! Can human nature sink lower?They are "too moral and too religious" to rejoice at the victories of their fellow-citizens—but they are neither “too moral nor too religious" to aid the enemy to victory! An age of penitence in sackcloth and ashes would not efface this foul blot from the escutcheon of Boston.

It is hardly possible to add a shade to the enormity of this crime. But one circumstance greatly enhances its atrocity.It was perpetrated while negociations for peace were pending, the success whereof it had so direct a tendency to defeat, by placing the British in a situation to rise in their demands; although the guilty persons professed to belong to the "peace party.”

CHAPTER LIV.

Subject continued. Brief statement of facts.

THE immense magnitude of the subject of the conspiracy, stated in the preceding chapters, induces me to dwell a little longer on it. And as I may have been led astray by the infatuation and delusion which is felt by almost every man who forms an hypothesis, I shall therefore state anew the naked facts of the case, unaccompanied by my comments. Let the reader duly weigh the evidence, and acquit or condemn the accused town, as he may judge proper.

I. Engagements were entered into in Boston by individuals, pledging themselves not to subscribe to the government loans.

II. When some of them afterwards did subscribe, they found it necessary to do it "secretly," to avoid the odium and the persecution excited against all who lent their money to the gov ernment.

III. The utmost influence of that powerful instrument, the press, and likewise of the pulpit, was employed to discourage and denounce subscribers to the loans. They were proscribed as infamous," in the public papers most extensively pat ronised; and declared, in those papers, and from the pulpit to be absolute "murderers."

IV. During the winter, when the roads were in wretched order, and when carriage was of course from 20 to 30 per cent. dearer than the common freight, the Boston banks made immoderate, continued, oppressive, unprecedented, and hostile drafts for specie on the New York banks.

V. At this period the former banks had in their vaults an unparalleled quantity of specie-one hundred and fifty per cent. more than their notes in circulation.

VI. These drafts were continued through the spring and summer, and obliged the banks in the middle and southern states so far to curtail their accommodations, as to bring the commercial world to the verge of bankruptcy. Large and ruinous bankruptcies did take place: twenty and upwards occurred in New York in one day.

VII. These drafts were carried to such a great extent, that on the 26th of August the banks in Baltimore-on the 29th those in Philadelphia-and on the 31st those in New York, were reduced to the painful necessity of suspending the payment of specie.

VIII. Contemporaneously with these immoderate drafts, a very large amount of bills drawn by the government of Lower Canada, were, through the medium of agents in Boston, distributed in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

IX. These bills prodigiously increased the balances against the southern banks, and the power of drawing possessed by those in Boston,

X. The specie received for these bills from New York was for warded to the agents of the government of Canada.

XI. When subscriptions for loans were opened, large quantities of public stock were sent from Boston to the markets in New York, and Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and sold at redu ced rates, to tempt the monied people to invest their money therein, and thus to impede the success of the pending loans.

I submit all these strong facts to the reader. Let him examine them and decide for himself. If he be an upright, candid, honorable man-if he have a spark of public spirit in his composition-if he have not renounced all pretensions to the name of a Washingtonian-he will pronounce sentence of infamy against this transaction, all its agents, its emissaries, its accomplices, and against all who connived at it. If this be "feder alism of the Boston stamp," I trust the high-minded and honest federalists of the middle and southern states, will renounce the odious connexion, and disclaim all participation in such nefarious, such treasonable practices.

Mr. Oakley, a member of the house of representatives of the United States, in a violent and declamatory speech, alledged the strongest charges of gross mismanagement and incapacity against the administration, for disadvantageous contracts made for some of the loans, whereby millions of dollars were lost to the nation. All these losses and disadvantages are fairly chargeable to this conspiracy.

A few ambitious demagogues in Boston have been the guide of federalists throughout the union. They have led them a devious course from the paths prescribed by Washington. They have allured them to the brink of insurrection, rebellion, civil war, and horrible devastation, which are all synonimous with a dissolution of the union. Whether the latter will have magnanimity and fortitude enough to regain the honorable paths from which they have been seduced, remains to be seen. Their contemporaneous fame-their character with posterity-their peace, their happiness, their prosperity-the fate of their wives and children—the destiny of their country-the question whether we shall be united as a band of brothers, or involved in civil war, with its train of horrors-are all at stake. The stake is immense. Pray heaven they may form a just and enlight> ed decision.

CHAPTER LV.

Massachusetts compared with Tennessee. The blind leading the blind. Profits of trade fifty per cent.! Road to Ruin.

Never did faction more completely degrade and sink a people, than she has done in Massachusetts. That once high-minded state was attacked by the British with a small force. They were allowed, without an effort, to dismember it. They estab