of calling it was deemed irregular, and some objected to it, because it was not so constituted as to give authority to the plan which should be devised. But the great mass of opposition originated in a devotion to state sovereignty, and in hostility to any considerable augmentation of federal power. [Footnote 36: This sentiment was far from being avowed by any correspondent of General Washington, but is stated in the private letters to him, to have been taken up by some.] [Footnote 37: In a subsequent part of the same letter, this gentleman draws the outlines of a constitution such as he would wish. It is essentially the same with that which was recommended by the convention.] The ultimate decision of the states on this interesting proposition seems to have been in no inconsiderable degree influenced by the commotions which about that time agitated all New England, and particularly Massachusetts. [Sidenote: Insurrection in Massachusetts.] Those causes of discontent which existed, after the restoration of peace, in every part of the union, were particularly operative in New England. The great exertions which had been made by those states in the course of the war, had accumulated a mass of debt, the taxes for the payment of which were the more burdensome, because their fisheries had become unproductive. The restlessness produced by the uneasy situation of individuals, connected with lax notions concerning public and private faith, and erroneous opinions which confound liberty with an exemption from legal control, produced a state of things which alarmed all reflecting men, and demonstrated to many the indispensable necessity of clothing government with powers sufficiently ample for the protection of the rights of the peaceable and quiet, from the invasions of the licentious and turbulent part of the community.