Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
strongly suspected to be iu coutemplation." While the monarchy is
the refuge and prayer of the tory wherever found, communism in
some form is the untutored aim of democratic mobs.
Congress in 1786 heard of the doings of the Massachusetts insur-
gents, and was asked by the Governor of Massachusetts to loan
sixty field-pieces ; but that body refused the request. The majority
felt that Congress had no right to send arms or move to subdue a
rebellion in any State. The spirit of 1776 was the pulsation of a
democratic sentiment ; the spirit of 1786 was a contention about con-
stitutional forms.
"We are certainly in a delicate situation," George Washington
wrote to John Jay in the spring of 1786, "but my fear is that the
people are not sufficiently misled to retract from error. To be plain,
I think there is more wickedness than ignorance mixed iu our
counsels. Under this impression 1 scarcely know what opinion to
entertain of a general convention."
The development of this feeling in Washington's mind was gradual,
but the condition of unhappy Massachusetts soon determined his
course, and the statesmanship at the Ijottom of it was finally elab-
orated by Hamilton, Jay, and Madison in "The Federalist," where
the Shays rebellion figures as the most conspicuous argument against
the shambling league of sovereign States. One of the strongest
papers, contributed by Alexander Hamilton to the " Federalist,"
turned upon this very tendenc}^ among neighboring States to distress-
ing contentions. " To look for a continuation of harmony between
a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same
neighborhood," said Mr. Hamilton, "would be to disregard the uni-
form course of human events." He goes on to dispute that com-
mercial interests will not prevent rivalry, and adds: "Perhaps,
however, a reference tending to illustrate the general principle may
with propriety be made to a case which has lately happened among
ourselves. If Shays had not been a desperate debtor, it is much to
be doubted whether Massachusetts would have been plunged into a