To avoid this, was the duty of government." In answer to these applications, Lincoln exhorted those towns who sincerely wished to put an end to the rebellion without the effusion of blood, "to recall their men now in arms, and to aid in apprehending all abettors of those who should persist in their treason, and all who should yield them any comfort or supplies." The army of government continued to brave the rigours of the climate, and to press the insurgents without intermission.

At length, with the loss of a few killed, and several prisoners, the rebels were dispersed, their leaders driven out of the state, and this formidable and wicked rebellion was quelled.
The same love of country which had supported the officers and soldiers of the late army through a perilous war, still glowed in their bosoms; and the patriot veterans of the revolution, uninfected by the wide spreading contagion of the times, arranged themselves almost universally under the banners of the constitution and of the laws.
This circumstance lessened the prejudices which had been excited against them as creditors of the public, and diminished the odium which, in the eastern states, especially, had been directed against the order of the Cincinnati.

But the most important effect of this unprovoked rebellion was, a deep conviction of the necessity of enlarging the powers of the general government; and the consequent direction of the public mind towards the convention which was to assemble at Philadelphia.
In producing this effect, a resolution of congress had also considerable influence.

New York had given her final _veto_ to the impost system, and in doing so, had virtually decreed the dissolution of the existing government.

The confederation was apparently expiring from mere debility.