Genet’s mischief, however, did not end with him.  He had sown the seeds of many troubles, and among others the idea of societies on the model of the famous Jacobin Club of Paris.  That American citizens should have so little self-respect as to borrow the political jargon and ape the political manners of Paris was sad enough.  To put on red caps, drink confusion to tyrants, sing Ca ira, and call each other “citizen,” was foolish to the verge of idiocy, but it was at least harmless.  When, however, they began to form “democratic societies” on the model of the Jacobins, for the defense of liberty against a government which the people themselves had made, they ceased to be fatuous and became mischievous.  These societies, senseless imitations of French examples, and having no real cause to defend liberty, became simply party organizations, with a strong tendency to foster license and disorder.  Washington regarded them with unmixed disgust, for he attributed to them the agitation and discontent of the settlers beyond the mountains, which threatened to embroil us with Spain, and he believed also that the much more serious matter of the whiskey rebellion was their doing.  After having exhausted every reasonable means of concession and compromise, and having concentrated the best public opinion of the country behind him, he resolved to put down this “rebellion” with a strong hand, and he wrote to Henry Lee, just as he was preparing to take the last step:  “It is with equal pride and satisfaction I add that, as far as my information extends, this insurrection is viewed with universal indignation and abhorrence, except by those who have never missed an opportunity, by side-blows or otherwise, to attack the general government; and even among these there is not a spirit hardy enough yet openly to justify the daring infractions of law and order; but by palliatives they are attempting to suspend all proceedings against the insurgents, until Congress shall have decided on the case, thereby intending to gain time, and, if possible, to make the evil more extensive, more formidable, and, of course, more difficult to counteract and subdue.

“I consider this insurrection as the first formidable fruit of the democratic societies, brought forth, I believe, too prematurely for their own views, which may contribute to the annihilation of them.”

The insurrection vanished on the advance of the forces of the United States.  It had been formidable enough to alarm all conservative people, and its inglorious end left the opposition, which had given it a certain encouragement, much discredited.  This matter being settled, Washington determined to strike next at what he considered the chief sources of the evil, the clubs, which, to use his own words, “were instituted for the express purpose of poisoning the minds of the people of this country, and making them discontented with the government.”  Accordingly, in his speech to the next Congress he denounced the democratic societies.  After tracing the course of the whiskey rebellion, he said:—­