[33] An error, originating in mistake, is often pursued thro obstinacy and pride; and sometimes a familiarity with falsehood, makes it appear like truth.
[34] New York.
[35] Some have suspected from these sentiments, that I favor the insurrection in Massachusetts. If it is necessary to be more explicit than I have been in the declaration, "I reprobate, &c." I must add, that in governments like ours, derived from the people, I believe there is no possible situation in which violent opposition to laws can be justified; because it can never be necessary. General evils will always be legally redressed, and partial evils must be borne, if the majority require it. A tender law, which interferes with past contracts, is perhaps the wickedest act that a Legislature can be guilty of; and yet I think the people in Rhode Island have done right, in not opposing their's, in a violent manner.
[36] Pensylvania.
[37] This assertion may seem to be contradicted by the opposition of Connecticut to the half pay act; but that opposition did not even threaten violence or arms: It was conducted in a peaceable manner; and I do not know that the State has furnished an instance of a tumultuous interruption of law.
[38] These remarks are not applicable to the mercantile part of the people, who, since the revolution, have been distinguished by their punctuality.
[39] Published in Rhode Island, shortly after the preceding letter.
[41] See the records of this State, where rum is called strong water. This was soon after the first distilling of spirits, and rum was not then named. It seems, however, that our pious ancestors had a taste for it, which their posterity have carefully improved.
[42] I would just mention to my fair readers, whom I love and esteem, that feathers and other frippery of the head, are disreputable in Europe.