His  letter  proceeds — "  I  expected  to  have  seen  some  justifica-
tion of  arming  one  part  of  society  against  another — of  declar-
ing a  civil  war  the  moment  before  the  meeting  of  that  body
which  has  the  sole  right  of  declaring  war."  This  passage  it  is
impossible  to  consider  without  wonder.  Here  is  a  man  of  great
reputation  for  talents  and  learning,  of  ripe  experience,  of  long
acquaintance  with  state  affairs,  who  had  been  Governor  of  Vir-
ginia at  a  time  when  that  station  was  supposed  to  require  public
spirit  and  abilities,  had  been  member  of  the  Revolutionary  Con-
gress, Envoy  to  France,  and  chief  of  a  Cabinet  over  which
Washington  presided,  and  of  which  Hamilton  was  a  member,
gravely  writing  nonsense,  which,  would  disgrace  the  quibble  of
a  county  court  attorney.  He  not  only  calls  the  employment  of
military  force,  in  obedience  to  an  act  of  Congress,  and  to  the  Presi-
dent's oath  of  office,  for  the  purpose  of  executing  a  constitutional
law  and  preventing  the  dissoluton  of  the  Union — "  the  arming  of
one  part  of  society  against  another,"  but  accuses  the  President  of
having  declared  a  civil  war,  and  of  having  thereby  illegally  forestall-
ed Congress  which  had  alone  the  right  of  making  that  declaration.
