these things are working on the public mind. They are getting back to the point where they were when the X. Y. Z. story was played off on them. A wonderful & rapid change is taking place in Pennsylvania, Jersey, & N York. Congress is daily plied with petitions against the alien & sedition laws & standing armies. Several parts of this State are so violent that we fear an insurrection. This will be brought about by some if they can. It is the only thing we have to fear. The appearance of an attack of force against the government would check the present current of the middle States, and rally them around the government; whereas, if suffered to go on, it will pass on to a reformation of abuses. The materials now bearing on the public mind will infallibly restore it to it's republican soundness in the course of the present summer, if the knolege of facts can only be disseminated among the people. Under separate cover you will receive some pamphlets written by George Nicholas on the acts of the last session. These I wish you to distribute, not to sound men who have no occasion for them, but to such as have been misled, are candid & will be open to the conviction of truth, and are of influence among their neighbors. It is the sick who need medicine, & not the well. not let my name appear in the matter. Perhaps I shall forward you some other things to be distributed in the same way. Let me now trouble you with a small private matter. Mr. Clarke was tolerably punctual in his remittances as long as he continued in business. But when he quitted he had near £100.

Do

of mine for nails actually sold, in his hands. For so I had a right to consider it as I charged only ready money prices, & such was the condition settled between us. This money has now been a twelvemonth in his hands, and the intermediate applications ineffectual. In truth I am not able to carry on my manufactory but on ready sales. I have no money capital to enable me to make great advances & long winded debts. If you could mention the matter to mr. Clarke in any way that would best suit the footing on which you stand with him, & be the means of my receiving it immediately on my return home (about the 10th of March) it would be a very sensible relief to me. And indeed if he does not pay it soon I must use effectual means to obtain it, such delays being incompatible with the course or the necessities of my manufactory. Present me respectfully to mrs. Stuart, and accept assurances of the sincere esteem of, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant.

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.

J. MSS.

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 14, 99.

DEAR SIR,-I wrote you a petition on the 29th of Jan. I know the extent of this trespass on your tranquillity, and how indiscreet it would have been under any other circumstances. But the fate of this country, whether it shall be irretrievably plunged into a form of government rejected by the makers of the constitution, or shall get back to the true principles of that instrument, depends on the turn which things.

may take within a short period of time ensuing the present moment. The violations of the constitution, propensities to war, to expense, & to a particular foreign connection, which we have lately seen, are becoming evident to the people, and are dispelling that mist which X. Y. Z. had spread before their eyes. This State is coming forward with a boldness not yet seen. Even the German counties of York & Lancaster, hitherto the most devoted, have come about, and by petitions with 4,000 signers remonstrate against the Alien & Sedition laws, standing armies, & discretionary powers in the President. New York & Jersey are also getting into great agitation. In this State, we fear that the ill designing may produce insurrection. Nothing could be so fatal. Anything like force would check the progress of the public opinion & rally them round the government. This is not the kind of opposition the American people will permit. But keep away all show of force, and they will bear down the evil propensities of the government, by the constitutional means of election & petition. If we can keep quiet, therefore, the tide now turning will take a steady & proper direction. Even in N Hampshire there are strong symptoms of a rising inquietude. In this state of things, my dear Sir, it is more in your power than any other man's in the US, to give the coup de grace to the ruinous principles and practices we have seen. In hopes you have consented to it, I shall furnish to you some additional matter which has arisen since my last.

I enclose you a part of a speech of mr. Gallatin on

the naval bill. The views he takes of our finances, & of the policy of our undertaking to establish a great navy, may furnish some hints. I am told something on the same subject from mr. J. Nicholas will appear in the Richmond & Fredksbg papers. I mention the real author, that you may respect it duly, for I presume it will be anonymous. The residue of Gallatin's speech shall follow when published. A recent fact, proving the anxiety of France for a reconciliation with us, is the following. You know that one of the armed vessels which we took from her was refitted by us, sent to cruise on them, recaptured, & carried into Guadaloupe under the name of the Retaliation. On the arrival there of Desfourneaux, the new commissioner, he sent Victor Hughes home in irons; called up our captn: told him that he found he had a regular commission as an officer of the U S; that his vessel was then lying in harbor; that he should inquire into no fact preceding his own arrival (by this he avoided noticing that the vessel was really French property) and that therefore, himself & crew were free to depart with their vessel; that as to the differences between France & the U S, commissioners were coming out to settle them, & in the meantime, no injury should be done on their part. The captain insisted on being a prisoner; the other disclaimed; & so he arrived here with vessel & crew the day before yesterday. Within an hour after this was known to the Senate, they passed a retaliation bill, of which I enclose you a copy. This was the more remarkable, as the bill was founded expressly on the Arret of

Oct 29, which had been communicated by the President as soon as received, and he remarked, "that it could not be too soon communicated to the two Houses & the public." Yet he almost in the same instant received, through the same channel, mr. King, information that the Arret was suspended, & tho' he knew we were making it the foundation of a retaliation bill, he has never yet communicated it. But the Senate knew the fact informally from the Secy of state, & knowing it, passed the bill.

The President has appointed, & the Senate approved Rufus King, to enter into a treaty of commerce with the Russians, at London, & Wm Smith, (Phocion) Envoy Extray & M. P., to go to Constantinople to make one with the Turks. So that as soon as there is a coalition of Turks, Russians & English, against France, we seize that moment to countenance it as openly as we dare, by treaties, which we never had with them before. All this helps to fill up the measure of provocation towards France, and to get from them a declaration of war, which we are afraid to be the first in making. It is certain the French have behaved atrociously towards neutral nations, & us particularly; and tho' we might be disposed not to charge them with all the enormities committed in their name in the West Indies, yet they are 'to be blamed for not doing more to prevent them. A just and rational censure ought to be expressed on them, while we disapprove the constant billingsgate poured on them officially. It is at the same time true, that their enemies set the first example of violating neu