There are combustibles in every state, to which a spark might set fire.
"In bewailing, which I have often done with the keenest sorrow, the death of our much lamented friend General Greene,[38] I have accompanied my regrets of late with a query, whether he would not have preferred such an exit to the scenes which it is more than probable, many of his compatriots may live to bemoan." [Footnote 38: This valuable officer died in Georgia in the year 1786.] Ostensibly, on account of the danger which threatened the frontiers, but, really, with a view to the situation of Massachusetts, congress had agreed to augment the military establishment to a legionary corps of two thousand and forty men, and had detached the secretary of war, General Knox, to that state, with directions to concert measures with its government for the safety of the arsenal at Springfield.

So inauspicious was the aspect of affairs, as to inspire serious fears that the torch of civil discord, about to be lighted up in Massachusetts, would communicate its flame to all New England, and perhaps to the union.

Colonel Lee, a member of congress, drew the following picture of the condition of the eastern country at that time.

"General Knox has just returned, and his report, grounded on his own knowledge, is replete with melancholy information.

A majority of the people of Massachusetts are in opposition to the government.