THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION
Mr. Gallatin was now out of public life. For eighteen months since he
came up to the legislature with his friends of the Pittsburgh
convention, he had not returned to Fayette. His private concerns were
suffering in his absence. Neither his barn, his meadow, nor his house
was finished at the close of 1793. In May, 1794, he took his wife to his
country home. Their hopes of a summer of recreation and domestic comfort
in the wild beauties of the Monongahela were not to be realized. Before
the end of June the peaceful country was in a state of mad agitation.
The seeds of political discontent, sown at Pittsburgh in 1792, had
ripened to an abundant harvest. An act passed by Congress June 5, 1794,
giving to the state courts concurrent jurisdiction in excise cases,
removed the grievance of which Gallatin complained, the dragging of
accused persons to Philadelphia for trial, but was not construed to be
retroactive in its operation. The marshal, accordingly, found it to be
his duty to serve the writs of May 31 against those who had fallen under
their penalties. These writs were returnable in Philadelphia. They were
served without trouble in Fayette County. Not so in Allegheny. Here on
July 15, 1794, the marshal had completed his service, when, while still
in the execution of his office, and in company with the inspector, he
was followed and fired upon. The next day a body of men went to the
house of the marshal and demanded that he should deliver up his
commission. They were fired upon and dispersed, six were wounded, and
the leader killed. A general rising followed. The marshal's house,
though defended by Major Kirkpatrick, with a squad from the Pittsburgh
garrison, was set on fire, with the adjacent buildings, and burned. On
July 18 the insurgents sent a deputation of two or three to Pittsburgh,
to require of the marshal a surrender of the processes in his
possession, and of the inspector the resignation of his office. These
demands were, of course, rejected; but the officers, alarmed for their
personal safety, left the town, and, descending the Ohio by boat to
Marietta, proceeded by a circuitous route to Philadelphia, and made
their report to the United States authorities.
This was the outbreak of the Western or Whiskey Insurrection. The
excitement spread rapidly through the western counties. Fayette County
was not exempt from it. The collector's house was broken into, and his
commission taken from him by armed men; the sheriff refused to serve the
writs against the rioters of the spring. Since these disturbances there
had been no trouble in this county. But the malcontents elsewhere rose
in arms, riots ensued, and the safety of the whole community was
compromised. The news reaching Fayette, the distillers held a meeting at
Uniontown, the county seat, on July 20. Both Gallatin and Smilie were
present, and by their advice it was agreed to submit to the laws. The
neighboring counties were less fortunate. On July 21 the Washington
County committee was summoned to meet at Mingo Creek Meeting-house. On
the 23d there was a large assemblage of people, including a number of
those who had been concerned in burning the house of the Pittsburgh
inspector. James Marshall, the same who opposed the ratification of the
federal Constitution, David Bradford, the "empty drum," and Judge
Brackenridge of Pittsburgh, attended this meeting. Bradford, the most
unscrupulous of the leaders, sought to shirk his responsibility, but was
intimidated by threats, and thereafter did not dare to turn back.
Brackenridge was present to counsel the insurgents to moderation. In
spite of his efforts the meeting ended in an invitation, which the
officers had not the boldness to sign, to the townships of the four
western counties of Pennsylvania and the adjoining counties of Virginia
to send representatives to a general meeting on August 14, at
Parkinson's Ferry on the Monongahela, in Washington County. Bradford,
determined to aggravate the disturbance, stopped the mail at Greensburg,
on the road between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and robbed it of the
Washington and Pittsburgh letters, some of which he published, to the
alarm of their authors.
On July 28 a circular signed by Bradford, Marshall, and others was sent
out from Cannonsburg to the militia of the county, whom it summoned for
personal service, and likewise called for volunteers to rendezvous the
following Wednesday, July 30, at their respective places of meeting,
thence to march to Braddock's Field, on the Monongahela, the usual
rendezvous of the militia, about eight miles south of Pittsburgh, by two
o'clock of Friday, August 1. It closed in these words, "Here is an
expedition proposed in which you will have an opportunity for displaying
your military talents and of rendering service to your country." Nothing
less was contemplated by the more extreme of these men than an attack
upon Fort Pitt and the sack of Pittsburgh. Thoroughly aroused at last,
the moderate men of Washington determined to breast the storm. A meeting
was held; James Ross of the United States Senate made an earnest appeal,
and was supported by Scott of the House of Representatives and Stokely
of the Senate of Pennsylvania. Marshall and Bradford yielded, and
consented to countermand the order of rendezvous. But the excited
population poured into the town from all quarters, and Bradford, who
found that he had gone too far to retreat, again took the lead of the
movement, already beyond restraint.
There are accounts of this formidable insurrection by H. H. Brackenridge
and William Findley, eye-witnesses. These supply abundant details.
Findley says that he knew that the movement would not stop at the limit
apparently set for it. "The opposing one law would lead to oppose
another; they would finally oppose all, and demand a new modeling of the
Constitution, and there would be a revolution." There was great alarm in
Pittsburgh. A meeting was held there Thursday evening, July 31, at which
a message from the Washington County insurgents was read, violent
resolutions adopted, and the 9th of August appointed as the day for a
town meeting for election of delegates to a general convention of the
counties at Parkinson's Ferry; Judge Brackenridge of Pittsburgh, a man
of education, influence, and infinite jest and humor, was present at
this meeting. Of Scotch-Irish birth himself, his sympathies of race were
with his countrymen, but in political sentiments he was not in harmony
with their leaders. They were nearly all Republicans, while he had sided
with the Federalists in the convention which adopted the new
Constitution of the United States. He was a man of peace, and of too
much sagacity not to foresee the inevitable ruin upon which they were
rushing. At Mingo Creek he had thwarted the plans of immediate
revolution. The evident policy of moderate men was to prevent any
violence before the convention at Parkinson's Ferry should meet, and to
bend all their energies to control the deliberations of that body. The
people of Pittsburgh were intensely excited by the armed gathering
almost at their doors.
Brackenridge felt that the only safe issue from the situation was to
take part in and shape the action of that gathering. Under his lead a
committee from the Pittsburgh meeting, followed by a large body of the
citizens, went out to the rendezvous. Here they found a motley
assemblage, arrayed in the picturesque campaign costume which the
mountaineers wore when they equipped themselves to meet the
Indians,--yellow hunting-shirts, handkerchiefs tied about their heads,
and rifles on the shoulder; the militia were on foot, and the light
horse of the counties were in military dress. Conspicuous about the
field, "haughty and pompous," as Gallatin described him in the
legislature, was David Bradford, who had assumed the office of
major-general. Brackenridge draws a lifelike picture of him as, mounted
on a superb horse in splendid trappings, arrayed in full uniform, with
plume floating in the air and sword drawn, he rode over the ground, gave
orders to the military, and harangued the multitude. On the historic
ground where Washington plucked his first military laurels were gathered
about seven thousand men, of whom two thousand militia were armed and
accoutred as for a campaign,--a formidable and remarkable assemblage,
when it is considered that the entire male population of sixteen years
of age and upwards of the four counties did not exceed sixteen
thousand, and was scattered over a wide and unsettled country. This is
Brackenridge's estimate of the numbers. Later, Gallatin, on comparison
of the best attainable information, estimated the whole body at from
fifteen hundred to two thousand men. Whatever violence Bradford may have
intended, none was accomplished. That he read aloud the Pittsburgh
letters, taken from the mail, shows his purpose to inflame the people to
vindictive violence. He was accused by contemporary authorities of
imitation of the methods of the French Jacobins, which were fresh
examples of revolutionary vigor. But the mass was not persuaded. After
desultory conversation and discussion, the angry turn of which was at
times threatening to the moderate leaders, the meeting broke up on
August 2; about one third dispersed for their homes, and the remainder,
marching to Pittsburgh, paraded through the streets, and finally
crossing the river in their turn scattered. They did no damage to the
town beyond the burning of a farm belonging to Major Kirkpatrick of the
garrison. The taverns were all closed, but the citizens brought whiskey
to their doors. Judge Brackenridge reports that his sacrifice to peace
on this occasion cost him four barrels of his best old rye.
This moderation was no augury of permanent quiet. Brackenridge, who was
a keen observer of men, says of the temper of the western population at
this period: "I had seen the spirit which prevailed at the Stamp Act,
and at the commencement of the revolution from the government of Great
Britain, but it was by no means so general and so vigorous amongst the
common people as the spirit which now existed in the country." Nor did
the armed bands all return peaceably to their homes. The house of the
collector for Fayette and Washington counties was burned, and warnings
were given to those who were disposed to submit to the law. The
disaffected were called "Tom the tinker" men, from the signature affixed
to the threatening notices. From a passage in one of Gallatin's letters
it appears that there was a person of that name, a New England man, who
had been concerned in Shays's insurrection. Liberty poles, with the
device, "An equal tax and no excise law," were raised, and the trees
placarded with the old revolutionary motto, "United we stand, divided we
fall," with a divided snake as an emblem. Mr. Gallatin's neighborhood
was not represented at Braddock's Field, and not more than a dozen were
present from the entire county. But now the flame spread there also, and
liberty poles were raised. Mr. Gallatin himself, inquiring as to their
significance and expressing to the men engaged the hope that they would
not behave like a mob, was asked, in return, if he was not aware of the
Westmoreland resolution that any one calling the people a mob should be
tarred and feathered,--an amusing example of that mob logic which
proves the affirmative of the proposition it denies.
Mr. Gallatin did not attend the meeting at Braddock's Field. Somewhat
isolated at his residence at the southerly border of the county, engaged
in the care of his long neglected farm, and in the full enjoyment of
release from the bustle and excitement of public life, he had paid
little attention to passing events. He was preparing definitively to
abandon political pursuits and to follow some kind of mercantile
business, or take up some land speculation and study law in his
intervals of leisure. It was not a year since he had given hostages to
fortune. He was now in the full tide of domestic happiness, which was
always to him the dearest and most coveted. He might well have hesitated
before again engaging upon the dangerous and uncertain task of
controlling an excited and aggrieved population. But he did not
hesitate.
The people among whom he had made his home, and whose confidence had
never failed him, were his people. By them he would stand in their
extremity, and if hurt or ruin befell them, it should not be for want of
the interposition of his counsel. He knew his powers, and he determined
to bring them into full play. He knew the danger also, but it only
nerved him to confront and master it. He knew his duty, and did not
swerve one hair from the line it prompted. In no part of his long,
varied, and useful political life does he appear to better advantage
than in this exciting episode of the Whiskey Insurrection. His
self-possession, his cool judgment, swayed neither by timidity nor
rashness, never for a moment failed him. Here he displayed that
remarkable combination of persuasion and control,--the indispensable
equipment of a political chief,--which, in later days, gave him the
leadership of the Republican party. With intuitive perception of the
political situation he saw that the only path to safety, beset with
difficulty and danger though it were, was through the convention at
Parkinson's Ferry. He did not believe that any revolutionary proceedings
had yet been taken, or that the convention was an illegal body, but he
was determined to separate the wheat from the chaff, and disengage the
moderate and the law-abiding from the disorderly. By the light of his
own experience he had learned wisdom. He also had drawn a lesson from
the French Revolution, and knew the uncontrollable nature of large
popular assemblages. The news from Philadelphia, the seat of government,
was of a kind to increase his alarm. Washington was not the man to
overlook such an insult to authority as the resistance to the marshal
and inspector; nor was it probable that Hamilton would let pass such an
occasion for showing the strength and vigor of the government.
Before the meeting at Braddock's Field, the secretary's plans for a
suppression of the insurrection were matured. On August 2 he laid
before the President an estimate of the probable armed force of the
insurgents, and of that with which he proposed to reduce them to
submission. When the question of the use of force came before the
cabinet, Edmund Randolph, who was secretary of state, opposed it in a
written opinion, one phrase of which deserves repetition:--
"It is a fact well known that the parties in the United States are
highly inflamed against each other, and that there is but one
character which keeps both in awe. As soon as the sword shall be
drawn, who shall be able to retain them."
Mifflin, the governor of Pennsylvania, deprecated immediate resort to
force; the venerable Chief Justice McKean suggested the sending of
commissioners on the part of the federal and state governments.
Washington, with perfect judgment, combined these plans, and happily
allied conciliation with force. A proclamation was issued on August 7
summoning all persons involved in the disturbance to lay down their arms
and repair to their homes by September 1. Requisitions were made upon
the governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey for
fifteen thousand men in all, and a joint commission of five was
raised,--three of whom on the part of the United States were appointed
by the President, and two on the part of the State of Pennsylvania. This
news was soon known at Pittsburgh, and rapidly spread through the
adjacent country; and it was clear that in the proceedings to be taken
at Parkinson's Ferry the question of resistance or submission must be
definitively settled. On August 14, 1794, the convention assembled; two
hundred and twenty-six delegates in all, of whom ninety-three were from
Washington, forty-nine from Westmoreland, forty-three from Allegheny,
thirty-three from Fayette, two from Bedford, five from Ohio County in
Virginia, with spectators to about the same number.
Parkinson's Ferry, later called Williamsport, and now Monongahela City,
is on the left bank of the Monongahela, about half way between
Pittsburgh and Red Stone Old Fort or Brownsville. Brackenridge pictures
the scene with his usual local color: "Our hall was a grove, and we
might well be called 'the Mountain' (an allusion to the radical left of
the French convention), for we were on a very lofty ground overlooking
the river. We had a gallery of lying timber and stumps, and there were
more people collected there than there was of the committee." In full
view of the meeting stood a liberty pole, raised in the morning by the
men who signed the Braddock's Field circular order, and it bore the
significant motto, "Liberty and no excise and no asylum for cowards."
Among the delegates, or the committee, to use their own term, were
Bradford, Marshall, Brackenridge, Findley, and Gallatin. Before the
meeting was organized, Marshall came to Gallatin and showed him the
resolutions which he intended to move, intimating at the same time that
he wished Mr. Gallatin to act as secretary. Mr. Gallatin told him that
he highly disapproved the resolutions, and had come to oppose both him
and Bradford, and therefore did not wish to serve. Marshall seemed to
waver; but soon the people met, and Edward Cook of Fayette, who had
presided at Braddock's Field, was chosen chairman, with Gallatin for
secretary. Bradford opened the proceedings with a summary sketch of the
action previously taken, declared the purpose of the committee to be to
determine on a course of action, and his own views to be the appointment
of committees to raise money, purchase arms, enlist volunteers, or draft
the militia: in a word, though he did not use it, to levy war.
At this point in the proceedings the arrival of the commissioners from
the President was announced, but the progress of the meeting was not
interrupted. The commissioners were at a house near the meeting, but
there were serious objections against holding a conference at this
place.
Marshall then moved his resolutions. The first, declaratory of the
grievance of carrying citizens great distances for trial, was
unanimously agreed to. The second called for a committee of public
safety "to call forth the resources of the western country to repel any
hostile attempts that may be made against the rights of the citizens, or
of the body of the people." Had this resolution been adopted, the people
were definitively committed to overt rebellion. This brought Mr.
Gallatin at once to his feet. He denied that any hostile attempts
against the rights of the people were threatened, and drew an adroit
distinction between the regular army, which had not been called out, and
the militia, who were a part of the people themselves; and to gain time
he moved a reference of the resolutions to a committee who should be
instructed to wait the action of the government. In the course of his
speech Gallatin denied the assertion that resistance to the excise law
was legal, or that coercion by the government was necessarily hostile.
He was neither supported by his own friends nor opposed by those of
Bradford. He stood alone.
But Marshall withdrew his resolution, and a committee of sixty was
appointed, with power to summon the people. The only other objectionable
resolution was that which pledged the people to the support of the laws,
except the excise law and the taking of citizens out of their counties
for trial,--an exception which Gallatin succeeded in having stricken
out. He then urged the adoption of the resolution, without the
exception, as necessary "to the establishment of the laws and the
conservation of the peace," and here he was supported by Brackenridge.
The entire resolutions were finally referred to a committee of
four,--Gallatin, Bradford, Husbands, and Brackenridge. The meeting then
adjourned. The next morning a standing committee of sixty was chosen,
one from each township. From these a committee of twelve was selected
to confer with the government commissioners. Upon this committee were
Cook, the chairman, Bradford, Marshall, Gallatin, Brackenridge, and
Edgar. The meeting then adjourned.
Upon this representative body there seems to have been no outside
pressure. The proclamation of the President, which arrived while it was
in session, showed the determination, while the appointment of the
commission showed the moderation, of the government. Gallatin availed of
each circumstance with consummate adroitness, pointing out to the
desperate the folly of resistance, and to the moderate an issue for
honorable retreat.
Meanwhile, the commissioners reached Pittsburgh, where on August 20 the
committee of conference was received by them, and an informal
understanding arrived at, which was put in writing. The laws were to be
enforced with as little inconvenience to the people as possible. All
criminal suits for indictable offenses were to be dropped, but civil
suits were to take their course. Notice was given that a definitive
submission must be made by September 1 following. On the 22d the
conference committee answered that they must consult with the committee
of sixty. Thursday the 28th was appointed for a meeting at Red Stone Old
Fort, the very spot where the original resolutions of opposition were
passed in 1791. In the report drawn up every member of the twelve,
except Bradford, favored submission.
The hour was critical, the deliberations were in the open air, and under
the eyes of a threatening party of seventy riflemen accidentally present
from Washington County across the stream. Bradford, who instinctively
felt that he had placed himself beyond the pale of pardon, and to whom
there was no alternative to revolution but flight, pressed an instant
decision and rejection of the written terms of the commissioners. In the
presence of personal danger, the conferrees only dared to move that part
of their report which advised acceptance of the proffered terms. The
question of submission they left untouched. An adjournment was obtained.
The next day, to quote the words of Brackenridge, "the committee having
convened, Gallatin addressed the chair in a speech of some hours. It was
a piece of perfect eloquence, and was heard with attention and without
disturbance." Never was there a more striking instance of intellectual
control over a popular assemblage. He saved the western counties of
Pennsylvania from anarchy and civil war. He was followed by
Brackenridge, who, warned by the example of his companion, or encouraged
by the quiet of the assemblage, supported him with vigor. Bradford, on
the other hand, faced the issue with directness and savage vehemence. He
repelled the idea of submission, and insisted upon an independent
government and a declaration of war. Edgar of Washington rejoined in
support of the report. Gallatin now demanded a vote, but the twelve
conferrees alone supported him. He then proposed an informal vote, but
without result. Finally a secret ballot was proposed by a member. A hat
was passed, and when the slips of paper were taken out, there were
thirty-four yeas and twenty-three nays. The report was declared to be
adopted, and amid the scowls of the armed witnesses the meeting
adjourned; not, however, before a new committee of conference had been
appointed. On this new committee not one of the old leaders was named.
They evidently knew the folly of further delay, or of attempting to
secure better terms. As his final act Colonel Cook, the chairman of the
standing committee of sixty, indorsed the resolution adopted. It
declared it to be "to the interest of the people of the country to
accede to the proposals made by the commissioners on the part of the
United States." This was duly forwarded, with request for a further
conference. The commissioners consented, but declined to postpone the
time of taking the sense of the people beyond September 11.
William Findley said of the famous and critical debate at Red Stone: "I
had never heard speeches that I more ardently desired to see in print
than those delivered on this occasion. They would not only be valuable
on account of the oratory and information displayed in all the three,
and especially in Gallatin's, who opened the way, but they would also
have been the best history of the spirit and the mistakes which then
actuated men's minds." Findley, in his allotment of the honors of the
day, considers that "the verbal alterations made by Gallatin saved the
question." Brackenridge thought that his own seeming to coincide with
Bradford prevented the declaration of war; and he has been credited with
having saved the western counties from the horrors of civil war,
Pittsburgh from destruction, and the Federal Union from imminent danger.
Historians have agreed in according to Gallatin the honor of this field
day. It was left to John C. Hamilton, half a century later, to charge a
want of courage upon Gallatin,--a baseless charge.[3] Not Malesherbes,
the noble advocate defending the accused monarch before the angry French
convention, with the certainty of the guillotine as the reward of his
generosity, is more worthy of admiration than Gallatin boldly pleading
the cause of order within rifle range of an excited band of lawless
frontiersmen. If, as he confessed later, in his part in the Pittsburgh
resolutions he was guilty of "a political sin," he nobly atoned for it
under circumstances that would have tried the courage of men bred to
danger and to arms. Sin it was, and its consequences were not yet summed
up. For although the back of the insurrection was broken at Red Stone
Old Fort, there was much yet to be done before submission could be
completed.
Bradford attempted to sign, but found that his course at Red Stone Old
Fort had placed him outside the amnesty. Well might the moderate men say
in their familiar manner of Scripture allusion, "Dagon is fallen." He
fled down the Ohio and Mississippi to Louisiana, then foreign soil. The
commissioners waited at Pittsburgh for the signatures of adhesion on
September 10, which was the last day allowed by the terms of amnesty.
They required that meetings should be held on this day in the several
townships; the presiding officers to report the result to commissioner
Ross at Uniontown the 16th of the same month, on which day he would set
out for Philadelphia. The time was inadequate, but there was no help.
Gallatin hastened the submission of Fayette, and a meeting of committees
from the several townships met at the county seat, Uniontown, on
September 10, 1794, when a declaration drawn by Mr. Gallatin was
unanimously adopted. A passage in this admirable paper shows the
comparative order which prevailed in Fayette County during this period
of trouble. It is an appeal to the people of the neighboring counties,
who, under the influence of their passions and resentment, might blame
those of Fayette for their moderation.
"The only reflection we mean to suggest to them is the
disinterestedness of our conduct upon this occasion. The indictable
offences to be buried in oblivion were committed amongst them, and
almost every civil suit that has been instituted under the revenue
law, in the federal court, was commenced against citizens of this
county. By the terms proposed, the criminal prosecutions are to be
dropped, but no condition could be obtained for the civil suits. We
have been instrumental in obtaining an amnesty, from which those
alone who had a share in the riots derive a benefit, and the other
inhabitants of the western country have gained nothing for
themselves."
This declaration was forwarded on September 17 to Governor Mifflin, with
reasons for the delay, and advice that signatures were fast being
obtained, not only in the neighboring counties, but even in Fayette,
where this formality had not been thought necessary. It closes with a
forcible appeal to delay the sending of troops until every conciliatory
measure should have proved abortive.
But the commissioners, unfortunately, were not favorably impressed with
the reception they met with or the scenes they witnessed on their
western mission. They had heard of Bradford's threat to establish an
independent government west of the mountains, and they had seen a
liberty pole raised upon which the people with the greatest difficulty
had been dissuaded from hoisting a flag with six stripes--emblematic of
the six counties represented in the committee. The flag was made, but
set aside for the fifteen stripes with reluctance. This is Findley's
recollection, but Brackenridge says that it was a flag of seven stars
for the four western counties, Bedford, and the two counties of
Virginia. This, he adds, was the first and only manifestation among any
class of a desire to separate from the Union. But here his memory
failed him.
Hamilton had long been impatient. Again, as in old days, he presented
his arguments directly to the people. Under the heading, "Tully to the
people of the United States," he printed a letter on August 26, of which
the following is a passage:--
"Your representatives in Congress, pursuant to the commission
derived from you, and with a full knowledge of the public
exigencies, have laid an excise. At three succeeding sessions they
have revised that act ... and _you_ have actually paid more than a
million of dollars on account of it. But the four western counties
of Pennsylvania undertake to rejudge and reverse your decrees.
_You_ have said, 'The Congress _shall have power_ to lay
_excises_.' They say, 'The Congress shall _not have_ this power;'
or, what is equivalent, they shall not exercise it, for a _power_
that may not be exercised is a nullity. Your representatives have
said, and four times repeated it, 'An excise on distilled spirits
_shall_ be collected;' they say, 'It _shall not_ be collected. We
will punish, expel, and banish the officers who shall attempt the
collection.'"
The peace commissioners returned to Philadelphia and made their report
on September 24. The next day, September 25, Washington issued a
proclamation calling out the troops. In it he again warned the
insurgents. The militia, already armed, accoutred, and equipped, and
awaiting marching orders, moved at once. Governor Mifflin at first
hesitated about his power to call out the militia, but when the
President's requisition was made, he summoned the legislature in special
session, and obtained from it a hearty support, with authority to accept
volunteers and offer a bounty. Thus fortified, he made a tour through
the lower counties of the State, and by his extraordinary popular
eloquence soon filled up the ranks. The old soldier led his troops in
person. Those of New Jersey were commanded by their governor, Richard
Howell of Revolutionary fame. These formed the right wing and marched to
rendezvous at Bedford to cross the mountains by the northern and
Pennsylvania route. The left wing, composed of the Virginia troops,
under the veteran Morgan, and those of Maryland, under Samuel Smith, a
brigadier-general in the army of the Revolution, assembled at Cumberland
to cross the mountains by Braddock's Road. The chief command was
confided to Governor Henry Lee of Virginia. Washington accompanied the
army as far as Bedford. Hamilton continued with it to Pittsburgh, which
was reached in the last days of October and the first of November, after
a wearisome march across the mountains in heavy weather. Arrived in the
western counties, the army found no opposition.
Meanwhile, on October 2, the standing committee met again at Parkinson's
Ferry, and unanimously adopted resolutions declaring the general
submission, and explaining the reasons why signatures to the amnesty had
not been general. Findley and Redick were appointed to take these
resolutions to the President, and to urge him to stop the march of the
troops. They met the left wing at Carlisle. Washington received them
courteously, but did not consent to countermand the march. They hurried
back for more unequivocal assurances, which they hoped to be able to
carry to meet Washington on his way to review the right wing. On October
14, the day of the autumn elections, general submissions were
universally signed, and finally, on October 24, a third and last meeting
was held at Parkinson's Ferry, at which a thousand people attended,
when, with James Edgar, chairman, and Albert Gallatin, secretary, it was
resolved, first, that the civil authority was fully competent to punish
both past and future breaches of the law; secondly, that surrender
should be made of all persons charged with offenses, in default of which
the committee would aid in bringing them to justice; thirdly, that
offices of inspection might be opened, and that the distillers were
willing and ready to enter their stills.
These resolutions were published in the "Pittsburgh Gazette." Findley
carried them to Bedford, but before he reached the army the President
had returned to Philadelphia. The march of the army was not stopped. The
two wings made a junction at Uniontown. Companies of horse were
scattered through the country. New submissions were made, and the oath
of allegiance, required by General Lee, was generally taken.
Hamilton now investigated the whole matter of the insurrection, and it
was charged against him, and the charge is supported by Findley, with
names of persons, that he spared no effort to secure evidence to bring
Gallatin within the pale of an indictment. Of course he failed in this
purpose, if indeed it were ever seriously entertained. But the belief
that Gallatin was the arch-fiend, who instigated the Whiskey
Insurrection, had already become a settled article in the Federalist
creed, and for a quarter of a century, long after the Federalist party
had become a tradition of the past, the Genevan was held up to scorn and
hatred, as an incarnation of deviltry--an enemy of mankind.
On the 8th of November, Hamilton, who remained with the army, wrote to
the President that General Lee had concluded to take hold of all who are
worth the trouble by the military arm, and then to deliver them over to
the disposition of the judiciary. In the mean time, he adds, "all
possible means are using to obtain evidence, and accomplices will be
turned against the others."
The night of November 13, 1794, was appointed for the arrests; a
dreadful night Findley describes it to have been. The night was frosty;
at eight o'clock the horse sallied forth, and before daylight arrested
in their beds about two hundred men. The New Jersey horse made the
seizures in the Mingo Creek settlement, the hot-bed of the insurrection
and the scene of the early excesses. The prisoners were taken to
Pittsburgh, and thence, mounted on horses, and guarded by the
Philadelphia Gentlemen Corps, to the capital. Their entrance into
Cannonsburg is graphically described by Dr. Carnahan, president of
Princeton College, in his account of the insurrection.
"The contrast between the Philadelphia horsemen and the prisoners
was the most striking that can be imagined. The Philadelphians were
some of the most wealthy and respectable men of that city. Their
uniform was blue, of the finest broadcloth. Their horses were large
and beautiful, all of a bay color, so nearly alike that it seemed
that every two of them would make a good span of coach horses.
Their trappings were superb. Their bridles, stirrups, and
martingales glittered with silver. Their swords, which were drawn,
and held elevated in the right hand, gleamed in the rays of the
setting sun. The prisoners were also mounted on horses of all
shapes, sizes, and colors; some large, some small, some long tails,
some short, some fat, some lean, some every color and form that can
be named. Some had saddles, some blankets, some bridles, some
halters, some with stirrups, some with none. The riders also were
various and grotesque in their appearance. Some were old, some
young, some hale, respectable looking men; others were pale,
meagre, and shabbily dressed. Some had great coats,--others had
blankets on their shoulders. The countenance of some was downcast,
melancholy, dejected; that of others, stern, indignant, manifesting
that they thought themselves undeserving such treatment. Two
Philadelphia horsemen rode in front and then two prisoners, and two
horsemen and two prisoners, actually throughout a line extending
perhaps half a mile.... If these men had been the ones chiefly
guilty of the disturbance, it would have been no more than they
deserved. But the guilty had signed the amnesty, or had left the
county before the army approached."
Dallas, the secretary of state, Gallatin's friend, was one of this
troop. Gallatin saw him soon after his return. In a letter to his wife
of December 3, Gallatin relates the experience of the trooper who had
little stomach for the work he had to do.
"I saw Dallas yesterday. Poor fellow had a most disagreeable
campaign of it. He says the spirits, I call it the madness, of the
Philadelphia Gentlemen's Corps was beyond conception before the
arrival of the President. He saw a list (handed about through the
army by officers, nay, by a general officer) of the names of those
persons who were to be destroyed at all events, and you may easily
guess my own was one of the most conspicuous. Being one day at
table with sundry officers, and having expressed his opinion that,
if the army were going only to support the civil authority, and not
to do any military execution, one of them (Dallas did not tell me
his name, but I am told it was one Ross of Lancaster, aide-de-camp
to Mifflin) half drew a dagger he wore instead of a sword, and
swore any man who uttered such sentiments ought to be dagged. The
President, however, on his arrival, and afterwards Hamilton, took
uncommon pains to change the sentiments, and at last it became
fashionable to adopt, or at least to express, sentiments similar to
those inculcated by them."
Randolph was, perhaps, not far out of the way in his fear of a civil war
should blood be drawn, and in his conviction that the influence of
Washington was the only sedative for the fevered political pulse. On
November 17 general orders were issued for the return of the army, a
detachment of twenty-five hundred men only remaining in the West, under
command of General Morgan. There were no further disturbances. The army
expenses gave a circulating medium, and the farmers, having now the
means to pay their taxes, made no further complaints of the excise law.
The total expense of the insurrection to the government was $800,000.
Mr. Gallatin returned with his wife from his western home early in
November. He had been again chosen at the October elections to represent
Fayette in the Pennsylvania Assembly. Moreover, at the same time, he was
elected to represent the congressional district of Washington and
Allegheny in the House of Representatives of the United States. Of four
candidates Gallatin led the poll. Judge Brackenridge was next in order.
No better proof is needed of the firm hold Gallatin had in the esteem
and affection of the people. No doubt, either, that they understood his
principles, and relied upon his sincere attachment to the country he had
made his home.
When he appeared to take his seat in the Assembly he found that his
election was contested. A petition was presented from thirty-four
persons calling themselves peaceable citizens of Washington County,
which stated that their votes had not been cast, because of the
disturbed condition of the country, and requested the Assembly to
declare the district to have been in a state of insurrection at the time
of the election, and to vacate the same. Mr. Gallatin knew the person
who procured the signatures, and also that the business originated in
the army. It was couched in terms insulting to all the members elect
from that district. After a protracted debate the election was declared
void on January 9, 1795. It was during this debate that Mr. Gallatin
made the celebrated speech called "The speech on the western elections,"
in which occurs the confession already alluded to. Speaking of the
Pittsburgh resolutions of 1792, he said:--
"I might say that those resolutions did not originate at
Pittsburgh, as they were almost a transcript of the resolutions
adopted at Washington the preceding year; and I might even add that
they were not introduced by me at the meeting. But I wish not to
exculpate myself where I feel I have been to blame. The sentiments
thus expressed were not illegal or criminal; yet I will freely
acknowledge that they were violent, intemperate, and reprehensible.
For, by attempting to render the office contemptible, they tended
to diminish that respect for the execution of the laws which is
essential to the maintenance of a free government; but whilst I
feel regret at the remembrance, though no hesitation in this open
confession of that _my only political sin_, let me add that the
blame ought to fall where it is deserved."
This was the first speech of Gallatin that appeared in print--simple,
lucid, convincing. The result of the new Assembly election would
naturally determine the right of the representatives of the contested
district to their seats in Congress. Word had gone forth from the
Treasury Department that Gallatin must not take his seat in Congress,
and the whippers-in took heed of the desire of their chief. A line of
instruction to Badollet, who lived at Greensburg in Washington County,
across the river from Gallatin's residence, determined the matter.
Gallatin warned him against the attempt that would be made to disaffect
that district because none of the representatives whose seats had been
vacated were residents of it. "Fall not into the snare," he wrote; "take
up nobody from your own district; reëlect unanimously the same members,
whether they be your favorites or not. It is necessary for the sake of
our general character." Here is an instance of that true political
instinct which made of him "the ideal party leader." His advice was
followed, and all the members were reëlected but one, who declined. Mr.
Gallatin returned to his seat in the Assembly on February 14, and
retained it until March 12, when he asked and obtained leave of absence.
He does not appear to have taken further part in the session. The
subjects, personal to himself, which occupied his attention during the
summer will be touched upon elsewhere.
The pitiful business of the trial of the western prisoners needs only
brief mention. In May Gallatin was summoned before the grand jury as a
witness on the part of the government. The inquiry was finished May 12,
and twenty-two bills were found for treason. Against Fayette two bills
were found; one for misdemeanor in raising the liberty pole in
Uniontown. The petit jury was composed of twelve men from each of the
counties of Fayette, Washington, Allegheny, and Northumberland, but none
from Westmoreland. One man, a German from Westmoreland, who was
concerned in a riot in Fayette, was found guilty and condemned to death.
Mr. Gallatin, at the request of the jury, drew a petition to the
President, who granted a pardon. Washington extended mercy to the only
other offender who incurred the same penalty.
To the close of this national episode, which, in its various phases of
incident and character, is of dramatic interest, Gallatin, through good
repute and ill repute, stood manfully by his constituents and friends.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: Hamilton's _History of the Republic_, vi. 96.]