TO GEN! LINCOLN.

John Lowell to General Lincoln.

BOSTON, NOV 28th 1782.

MY DEAR SIR, — Your two last letters came to Boston while I was absent on a journey to the Eastward, from whence I return'd last week, or I should have noticed them sooner. Col. Hatch had laid before the General Assembly an extract of your letter, before the one you enclos'd me came to hand. I cannot find that the Governor ever communicated it; neither the Speaker, nor any one else that I can find, recollects it; & from the difficulty which the opposers of the continental tax made on account of the sum paid Col. Hatch, I venture to conclude the Gov! never sent your letter to the House; but all difficulties have been removed, & the matter will be settled by M Lovell & Col. Hatch. The Officers who came with a memorial for the army were not pleas'd with the reception they met with here. They not only requested a compromise of the half pay, but a settlement of their wages for the year 1781, & of the parts of rations, &c., due before. Both have been rejected: the former, under pretence that Congress might not approve the measure; & the latter, from the doubtful expressions of some resolves of C. which renders it uncertain whether such settlement is to be made by the states. If the rejection of the compromise had been from the principle avow'd, it might have been well; but I am fully confident three-fourths of the persons who voted for its being postpon'd till the sense of C. could be known were fully determined never to come into the measure, & that they & their constituents are opposed to it in every shape. It is possible a different compensation might be obtain'd if much pains are taken; but one to arise from a calculation of the value of half pay for life, presupposing that due, & amounting nearly equal to the přduct of such calculation, I suspect will never obtain here. I feel myself much reliev'd from the effect of your last journey to Camp; you are at the Head of the War Department, yet, while the Officers see you are interested to do them justice, & are labouring their just rights with Congress, your mediation has a fair chance for success. I am pleas'd to find C. have adopted the spirit of your plan, & hope the affair will end well. I know the oeconomical reduction is just & necessary, yet I cannot wonder at nor blame the anxiety of the army on the subject. To retire when the several states view them as a useless burthen, while C. have doubted so far of their claim as not to make provision to answer it, & while many of the states by solemn acts protest against it, appear'd to me on reflection to be submitting themselves to great inconvenience & hazard. This subject naturally revives in my mind the ideas suggested by a letter with which you honor'd me on the subject of the Continental constitution & general taxes. The constitution of the American U. S. & that of the U. P. appear to me reduceable to none of the general divisions which writers on Government have made. They are call'd independent, yet united, two ideas that appear to me inconsistent with each other. Two states may be independent of each other & allied, but how they can be independent & united I cannot

see.

This inconsistency I suspect is not barely in the words or name, but in the thing itself; & that all the difficulties about general taxes on the one hand, & requisitions of C. for money, to be complied with by the states, on the other, arise from this source. If we were in any sense one Government with one Legislative & one Executive, there would be no difficulty in laying general taxes. If we were Independent States allied, & either of the allies refused to comply with the terms of the alliance, the others might seek new allies, or take their measures to compel a performance or act in the Legislature as such a refusal would render proper. As it is, I confess, tho' I agree with you that general taxes will not probably take place, & if they did would operate very partially, & be submitted to with more or less cheerfullness as they affected the states more or less beneficially, yet I cannot see any dawn through the clouds that obscure the other course. The states will not comply unless they please, & their pleasure is the result of popular interested debates, in which if the people most influential have corrupt designs they will always fail of success, but if they are ever so honest will frequently fail, because their influence will be oppos'd by Ignorance & Wickedness, the former a very obstinate foe, & the latter a very artful one. If the requisitions are not complied with, where lies the remedy? Coercion I think you give up, & indeed it must fail, for most frequently the delinquents would be the most powerful party, & besides the contests would be perpetual. A new convention to settle a Constitution is a measure proposed. I have with you great doubts of its efficacy. The business of Government making, however easy it may be esteem'd, or however plausible it may appear, I have long been of opinion is rarely if ever accomplish'd by consultation. Governments make themselves, or grow up out of the ground; that is, out of the habits, the wants, the wishes of the people; & if all the wise men of the East & of the South were to meet in the Ceuter & form a system that other people would admire & lavishly extol, I suspect it would turn out like Shakespear's "baseless fabrick of a vision." What then is to be done? Blunder on - mend where we can, bear where we cannot lose on this side, gain on that, & leave to time, accident, or artifice the formation of a better plan. I have ventur'd a set of thoughtsmine often are of sudden growth— these are so. I must once for all beg you to permit me to write in dishabille; if it is not a mark of so much respect as I owe, it is of my friendship & confidence. I wish the Gen! Court could know by some explicit declaration of C. what they ought to do as to pay, &c., of the army previous to 1782. I wish we may be exempt from taking up the matter.

I am with much Cordiality your friend & serv!

J. LOWELL.

Legal Opinion of Judge Lowell for Gov Bowdoin.

The only clause in the Constitution wh respects the authority of the Gov! over the Militia is the 7th Article of the 1st Sect. 2 Chap.: the Gov! by this article has a right for the safety of the Commonwealth as its defence to assemble in martial array & put in warlike posture the