Appearances were such as to justify apprehensions, that the judiciary would be found unable to punish the violators of the laws; and the means of obtaining aid from the executive had not been furnished by the legislature.

This state of things was the more embarrassing, because the prejudices which had been widely disseminated, and the misconceptions of the act which had been extensively diffused, authorized some fears respecting the support which the law, while yet in the infancy of its operation, would receive from the people.

These considerations, added to that repugnance which was felt by the government to the employment of harsh means, induced a forbearance to notice further these riotous proceedings, until the measure, by being carried into full effect in other parts of the union, should be better understood; and until congress should assemble, and modify the system in such a manner as to remove any real objections to it, the existence of which might be suggested by experience.

Accordingly, in the legislature which convened in October, 1791, this subject was taken up in pursuance of the recommendation of the President, and an amendatory act was passed in May, 1792, in which the whole system was revised, and great pains were taken to alter such parts of it as could be deemed exceptionable.
This conciliatory measure did not produce the desired effect.

No abatement took place in the violence and outrage with which the resistance to the law was conducted.