Besides, in times of commotion, some men will gain confidence and importance who merit neither; and who, like political mountebanks, are less solicitous about the health of the credulous crowd, than about making the most of their nostrums and prescriptions.
"What I most fear is, that the better kind of people (by which I mean the people who are orderly and industrious, who are content with their situations, and not uneasy in their circumstances) will be led by the insecurity of property, the loss of confidence in their rulers, and the want of public faith and rectitude, to consider the charms of liberty as imaginary and delusive.

A state of uncertainty and fluctuation must disgust and alarm such men, and prepare their minds for almost any change that may promise them quiet and security." To this interesting letter, General Washington made the following reply: "Your sentiments that our affairs are drawing rapidly to a crisis, accord with my own.

What the event will be is also beyond the reach of my foresight.

We have errors to correct; we have probably had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation.
Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of coercive power.

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.