He did not believe that any revolutionary proceedings had yet been taken, or that the convention was an illegal body, but he was determined to separate the wheat from the chaff, and disengage the moderate and the law-abiding from the disorderly.

By the light of his own experience he had learned wisdom.

He also had drawn a lesson from the French Revolution, and knew the uncontrollable nature of large popular assemblages.

The news from Philadelphia, the seat of government, was of a kind to increase his alarm.

Washington was not the man to overlook such an insult to authority as the resistance to the marshal and inspector; nor was it probable that Hamilton would let pass such an occasion for showing the strength and vigor of the government.
Before the meeting at Braddock's Field, the secretary's plans for a suppression of the insurrection were matured.