[231] Luetscher, in his _Early Political Machinery in the United States_, p. 33, asserts that not more than twenty-four separate organizations of this character were formed within the two years which followed their first appearance. These were fairly well distributed throughout the Union. One was in Maine, one in Massachusetts (Boston), three in Vermont, two in New York, one in New Jersey, five in Pennsylvania, one in Delaware, one in Maryland, two in Virginia, one in North Carolina, four in South Carolina, and two in Kentucky. [232] McMaster, _A History of the People of the United States_, vol. ii, pp. 175 _et seq._ [233] Hazen, _Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution_, pp. 189 _et seq._ [234] Robinson, _Jeffersonian Democracy in New England_, p. 10, for significant comments upon the effect of the establishment of the Democratic Societies on general political interest. The vote was appreciably increased and elections were more hotly contested on account of the emergence of the Clubs. _Cf._ also _New England Magazine_, January, 1890, p. 488. [235] Morse, _The Federalist Party in Massachusetts_, p. 75; _Wolcott Papers_, vol. vii, 5, letter of Jedediah Morse to Oliver Wolcott. The _Independent Chronicle_ of Jan. 16, 1794, contains the Rules and Regulations and the Declaration of this Society. [236] _Massachusetts Mercury_, Nov. 29, 1793. _Cf._ _Works of Fisher Ames_, vol. ii, pp. 146 _et seq._ [237] Jedediah Morse did not fail to observe the appearance of the Boston organization nor to divine its character and general scope of action. In a letter to Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, and Morse’s intimate friend, a letter written close to the date of the organization of the Constitutional Club, Morse wrote optimistically but seriously of the situation: “Charlestown, Dec. 16th, 1793