It was indeed "by the bye," and without any purpose of taking advantage of it in order to weaken his policy or to exalt his merit, that he pointed out the obstacles scattered along his path. As exempt from vanity as from indecision, he took pains to surmount, but not to display them. At the time when the ascendency of the democratic party seem to be assured, when the federalists themselves were wavering, when severe measures proposed in Congress against England were about, perhaps, to render war inevitable, Washington suddenly announced to the Senate, by a message, that he had just nominated one of the principal leaders of the federal party, Mr. Jay, Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of London, in order to attempt to reconcile the differences between the two nations by the peaceful instrument of negotiation. The Senate immediately confirmed his choice. The indignation of the opposition was at its height. They desired war, and especially, by means of war, a change of policy. The simple continuance of the present state of affairs promised to lead to that result. In so excited a state of feeling, in the midst of the increasing irritation, a rumor from Europe, a new insult to the American flag, the slightest circumstance, might cause hostilities to break out. {145} Washington, by his sudden resolution, gave a new turn to events. The negotiations might be successful; they made it the duty of the government to await the result. If they failed, he remained in a position to make war himself, and to control it, without his policy's receiving a death-blow. In order to give to his negotiations the authority of a strong and well-established power, at the same time that he was baffling the hopes of his enemies as to matters abroad, Washington resolved to repress their efforts at home. The resistance of some counties in Pennsylvania to the tax on distilled spirits had become an open rebellion. He announced, by a proclamation, his firm purpose of enforcing the execution of the laws; assembled the militia of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania itself; formed them into an army; went in person to the places of rendezvous, with a determination to take the command himself if the contest became serious; and did not return to Philadelphia till he had learned, with certainty, that the insurgents would not venture to sustain it. {146} They dispersed, in point of fact, on the approach of the army, a detachment of which took up winter quarters in the disaffected country.