States who accepted that report-deserved well, not ill, of their country.

But to proceed to facts. The number of federalists (or of persons composing the majority, for there were among them a few of the "flying squad,") in both Houses, in the session of 1814, when the Convention was formed, may be taken at an average of three hundred-varying but not materially from time to time. The members of the Convention were elected from the people at large from the different sections of the country in Massachusetts and Maine, two only being Members of the Legislature.

At the time of passing the resolve and appointing the members of the Convention, it was uncertain and impossible to be known whether any other State would concur in the measure. Application was publicly made to each of the New England States, after the passing of the resolve, and not before, through the same organ-its Executive. Those of New Hampshire and Vermont did not convene their respective Legislatures in season to come into the plan of a Convention. Now the readiest mode of ascertaining whether it was practicable for the majority of a legislative body, (organized and doing business with open doors, according to the forms of our State Constitution) to enact a combination, of the kind, and for the purposes imagined, and under the circumstances just hinted, will be for any person acquainted with legislative proceedings, to bring his own mind to a clear and satisfactory conception of any mode of effecting it. It must I think baffle the attempt of the most vigorous fancy however versed in the beau ideal of plot making. He will first determine whether the entire majority shall be presumed privy to the project, or only the few leading and knowing ones. To begin with the first. A secret, (for secrecy is implied in the proposition, and was indispensable) must have been imparted to three hundred persons, more or less," and by the by must have been kept by them to this hour. And what was the nature of the secret? Why, only that this confidential party should by a solemn act, confer an authority upon certain agents in express words: with a secret understanding that the authority should be violated, and that their commission should be executed in a manner diametrically opposite to the terms of the pre

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scribed power. These legislators must have understood and intended that instructions to devise means for the defence of the country should be perverted to inventions for betraying it;— that instead of taking counsel together for the preservation of the Union according to the letter of the resolve, they should convene with a latent purpose of laboring for its dissolution. Thus their Commissioners appointed for the ostensible object of united defence, would become Commissioners of a separate peace "in disguise,”—and their faithfulness to their employers would be manifested only by their perfidy to their country. It would seem to require a drill, of unprecedented industry and severity to ring this "host" under the discipline of a corps of Illuminati, in the very few days which elapsed between the beginning of the session and the day on which the Convention project was adopted. To reconcile this body of substantial Christian Yeomanry to hold their oaths of office in contempt:To habituate them all to keep their tongues as with a bridle, except only when they spoke to deny the truth and to repel suspicion ;-To listen without horror to the unblushing denials, and to witness the affected vehemence and indignation of others in spurning the imputations of their opponents ;-Much address would also be requisite to initiate the new comers from the country, and to prevent those who had leave of absence from telling tales. And there would seem to be need not only of address but of necromancy, to be sure that the choice of agents by ballot from all quarters, would fall upon persons who should be prepared to disobey their instructions and to execute the unknown and incommunicable intention of their employers,

All these difficulties would be multiplied and reiterated in the legislative bodies of such other States as should agree to send deputies to the Convention. The Governors of those States could not collect from the circular letter of our Governor, the real intent of the Convention. Is it then credible that Governor Strong would have ventured to hold with the other Governors, one language "official, and another confidential," by letter, without knowing his men. Or, are they also to be considered as conspirators, ab initio? If yea, when, where, and by what means was the understanding among them originated. If nay, how were they qualified to give to their several Legisla

tures, the proper impulses? Recollect that to make sure work, all these preliminaries must have been adjusted within a very few days; all before the appointment of the delegates from Massachusetts and Maine. The electors in the Legislature of Massachusetts must also have either known their men, or have been willing to commit themselves and their machinations to the discretion of strangers. There must have been an intelligence between them, otherwise the delegates could not discern by the resolve or their credentials, what was expected of them. And this mysterious intelligence between the electors and the elected-between the different Governors-between those Gov. ernors and their Legislatures-and between those Legislatures severally and their delegates; must (for any thing that has hitherto appeared, or which can be conceived possible ;) have been carried on by the "Prince of the power of the Air," and he must have made good speed with his despatches.

But these are not the only obstacles which must have existed in the way of "the combination." The legislative faction unless besotted would look to the issue. Whatever it was intended the Convention should do, could have been only recommendatory, and in the form of a report. Suppose matters brought to this point; the Convention agreed; and all the glowing ingredients of faction thrown into that caldron, to be melted and cast into a brazen image of sedition, and brought home and placed before our General Court. In what mode was it to be disposed of? How were they to set about the work of a disruption of the States, or a separate peace, or a Northern Confederacy?— The report would be made to the whole Legislature, foes as well as friends. Now then, if not before, the plot must be discovered, previous to consummation and nothing gained by concealment thus far. The Legislature would be near the ordinary termination of its Winter session, and not far from the end of its political existence. To adjust any proposed substitute for the National Government would require some little time even for the wisest statesman. The Union could not be dissolved by "Presto begone!" nor a northern constellation created by "let there be light." It would have been madness indeed to scuttle the ship and quit the wreck, without getting ready a boat or a raft.

After a report of the Convention in favor of a revolution, the opposition could not advance an inch, without Legislative aidand every act of legislation in furtherance of it would be a public act of usurpation. It is therefore inevitable that the makers of the Convention-the sober, solid, cautious, and unaspiring yeomanry of Massachusetts must have prepared to convert themselves into a "Rump Parliament," and to arrange a new order of things without any constitutional power, after the plan of disunion should be promulgated, upon the faith that the Legislatures of other States, not then in session, or the people of those States, would uphold their project. Otherwise they must have gone home to their constituents, leaving behind the abortion and taking with them the disgrace.

To those gross outrages upon probability and reason inseparable from the affirmative of the proposition at the head of this letter, I add another. Every plan of opposition to the Constitution or laws must have consisted of many particulars. It was to embrace States, and to expose persons. That the plan with its necessary details and ramifications was digested by the Legislature into form, to be presented to the Convention, is a notion too extravagant to have been yet hinted by the most prejudiced enthusiast. It was then to be fashioned in the Convention. A case is thus presented of intelligent men giving authority to others, to make a plot in their behalf. A plot perhaps pregnant with tremendous consequences to their country and themselves. Nor was it possible to ascertain beforehand to whom this trust of confidence, of fortune, life and character was to be confided. The Conventiclers were to be elected by ballot-some from other States. And in the election of these last Massachusetts could have no agency. In reference therefore to Massachusetts, the plot was to be made not even by immediate proxy-but by agents, strangers themselves and ehosen by persons also strangers. Be it then agreed, that great and wise, and even good men, have sometimes conspired to effect revolutions. They nevertheless manufacture their own plots, or know their accomplices and what is intended to be done. They do not put out treason and conspiracy to be made for them by the job. But such was the predisposition of a majority of both branches of our Legislature to sedition, that they

must have been reckless of what form it might assume, or of the hands that were to mould it. The power of ratification was indeed reserved to the Legislature; but individuals, after giving the power, must have incurred the risk of such ratification in spite of their own opposition—" ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute." I ask with confidence if the history of man can produce a parallelism to such a case? Did ever a set of men give a "carte blanche" to involve themselves in the entanglement of the pains and penalties, and casualties of a criminal conspiracy, without knowing to whom such authority would be filled out and executed!!!

There is indeed something so unnatural and revolting to common sense, antecedently to all reasoning upon the subject, in the idea of comprehending the majority of the Legislature in any secret conspiracy, that the most prejudiced persons pressed by these suggestions are compelled to abandon it, and fasten the imputation upon the "knowing ones," "the leaders,” the "Boston stamp," &c. But this will rather aggravate than lighten the mass of the objections. For although it would be easier in the first instance for a few to agree upon a scheme, and to keep their own counsels, than for many-yet the objection arising from the danger of discovery applies in a great degree to every supposable number of confederates in a plan of this nature; and all the other objections apply in the same degree to the supposition now assumed, with the addition of one that would seem to be insuperable. This cabal of leading men must have taken upon themselves not only to deceive their antagonists in the Legislature, but the bulk of their own party. They could have calculated upon no certain support even from friends after the mask should be lifted, but must have incurred the hazard that when the report of the Convention should be made, and their party thus, for the first time, apprized of their treasonable intrigue, (besides encountering all the other impediments) they would be disavowed and deserted, and left in “a hole by themselves."

But there is no end to the tissue of idle conjectures which can be woven by ardent imaginations. And yet one sentence should suffice to dissipate them all—No act of disunion is feasible by a State Legislature without a previous authorization