Not rising in his mind to the height of a national idea, and especially averse from it when embodied in the repulsive form of religious uniformity, he did not shrink from a contest which he had not provoked, but had done his utmost to avert.

But even then he did not anticipate civil war.

The enrolling of the Waartgelders was an armed protest, a symbol of legal conviction rather than a serious effort to resist the general government.

And this is the chief justification of his course from a political point of view.

It was ridiculous to suppose that with a few hundred soldiers hastily enlisted--and there were less than 1800 Waartgelders levied throughout the Provinces and under the orders of civil magistrates--a serious contest was intended against a splendidly disciplined army of veteran troops, commanded by the first general of the age.
From a legal point of view Barneveld considered his position impregnable.
The controversy is curious, especially for Americans, and for all who are interested in the analysis of federal institutions and of republican principles, whether aristocratic or democratic.