Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/51

Rh been a friend to adequate powers in congress, without which it is evident to me we shall never establish a national character. . . . We are either a united people under one head and for federal purposes, or we are thirteen independent sovereignties, eternally counteracting each other."  In another letter, to John Jay, he uses still more emphatic language: "I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation without lodging somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the state governments extends over the several states. . . . Retired as I am from the world, I frankly acknowledge I can not feel myself an unconcerned spectator. Yet, having happily assisted in bringing the ship into port, and having been fairly discharged, it is not my business to embark again on the sea of troubles."

Meantime the insurrection in Massachusetts, commonly known as "Shays's rebellion," added greatly to his anxiety and even anguish of mind. In a letter to Madison of November 6, 1786, he exclaimed: "No morn ever dawned more favorably than ours did, and no day was ever more clouded than the present. . . . We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion." Soon afterward he poured out the bitterness of his soul to his old aide-de-camp, Gen. Humphreys, in still stronger terms: "What, gracious God! is man, that there should be such inconsistency and perfidiousness in his