[339] Erskine to Canning, Jan. 1, 1809 (No. 1); MSS. British Archives. [340] Erskine to Canning, Jan. 1, 1809 (No. 2); MSS. British Archives. [341] Erskine to Canning, Jan. 3, 1809; MSS. British Archives. [342] Turreau to Champagny, Jan. 15, 1809; Archives des Aff. Étr. MSS. [343] Turreau to Champagny, Jan. 15, 1809; Archives des Aff. Étr. MSS. [344] Annals of Congress, 1808-1809, p. 259. [345] Rose to Pickering, Aug. 4, 1808; New England Federalism, p. 372. [346] Cunningham Letters, p. 56. [347] H. G. Otis to Quincy, Dec. 15, 1808; Quincy’s Life of Quincy, p. 164. [348] Constitution of the United States, Art. I. sect. 10. [349] Gore to Pickering, Dec. 20, 1808; New England Federalism, p. 375. [350] Pickering to Hillhouse, Dec. 16, 1814; New England Federalism, p. 414. [351] Pickering to C. Gore, Jan. 8, 1809; New England Federalism, p. 376. [352] Adams’s Gallatin, p. 384. CHAPTER XVIII. Among the Federalists were still a few moderate men who hoped that Jefferson might not be wholly sold to France, and who were inclined to ask for some new policy of peace or war before throwing aside the old one. Pickering’s contempt for such allies echoed the old feuds of New England, and revived the root-and-branch politics of the Puritans: “Some _cautious_ men here of the Federal party discovered an inclination to wait patiently till the first of June the promised repeal of the embargo. God forbid that such timid counsels should reach the Massachusetts legislature, or a single member of it! A million of such men would not save the nation. Defeat the accursed measure now, and you not only restore commerce, agriculture, and all sorts of business to activity, but you save the country from a British war. The power of the present miserable rulers--I mean their power to do material mischief--will then be annihilated.”[353] Pickering’s instructions were exactly followed; his temper infused itself through every New England town. Once more, a popular delusion approaching frenzy,--a temporary insanity like the witchcraft and Quaker mania,--took possession of the mind of Massachusetts, and broke into acute expression. Not for a full century had the old Puritan prejudice shown itself in a form so unreasoning and unreasonable; but although nearly one half the people held aloof and wondered at the madness of their own society, the whole history of Massachusetts, a succession of half-forgotten disputes and rebellions, seemed to concentrate itself for the last time in a burst of expiring passions, mingled with hatred of Virginia and loathing for Jefferson, until the rest of America, perplexed at paroxysms so eccentric, wondered whether the spirit of Massachusetts liberty could ever have been sane. For the moment Timothy Pickering was its genius.