9025. WASHINGTON (George), Opposition to administration.—[continued].
The President said Governor
Lee had that day informed him of the general
discontent prevailing in Virginia, of which
he never had had any conception, much less
sound information; that it appeared to him
very alarming. * * * I confirmed him in
the fact of the great discontents in the South;
that they were grounded on seeing that their
judgments and interests were sacrificed to those
of the Eastern States on every occasion, and
their belief that it was the effect of a corrupt
squadron of voters in Congress, at the command
of the Treasury; and they see that if the votes
of those members who had an interest distinct
from, and contrary to the general interest of
their constituents, had been withdrawn, as in
decency and honesty they should have been, the
laws would have been the reverse of what they
are on all the great questions. I instanced the
new Assumption carried in the House of Representatives
by the Speaker's vote. On this
subject he made no reply.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 130.
Ford ed., i, 215.
(Feb. 7, 1793)
