2787. EXCISE LAW, Riots and.—
With
respect to the transactions against the excise
law, it appears to me that you are all swept
away in the torrent of governmental opinions,
or that we do not know what these transactions
have been. We know of none which,
according to the definitions of the law, have
been anything more than riotous. There was
indeed a meeting to consult about a separation.
But to consult on a question does not
amount to a determination of that question
in the affirmative, still less to the acting on
such a determination; but we shall see, I
suppose, what the court lawyers, and courtly
judges and would-be ambassadors will make
of it.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 111.
Ford ed., vi, 517.
(M.
Dec. 1794)
