THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA--A GLANCE AT ITS
PROGRESS--WASHINGTON'S PROCLAMATION--HIS OPINION OF THE INFLUENCE OF
THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES--A MILITARY FORCE CALLED OUT--THEIR
LEADERS--PEACE COMMISSIONERS AND THE RESULT OF THEIR
MISSION--WASHINGTON JOINS THE MILITARY AT CARLISLE--THE VETERAN
MORGAN IN THE FIELD--HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH WASHINGTON--INSURGENTS
ALARMED--WASHINGTON AT FORT CUMBERLAND AND BEDFORD--LEE THE
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY--WASHINGTON RETURNS TO
PHILADELPHIA--MARCH OF THE ARMY OVER THE MOUNTAINS--THE INSURRECTION
QUELLED WITHOUT BLOODSHED.
While the inhabitants of Kentucky were talking of insurrection, those of
some of the western counties of Pennsylvania actually lifted the arm of
defiance against the general government. In August, 1794, acts were
committed in opposition to the ministers of the law, which called for
the interference of the powers of the federal executive, and the episode
in our history known as "The Whiskey Insurrection" was inaugurated.
Properly to understand its character, we must take a brief glance at its
antecedents. Some of these have already been alluded to in our
consideration of the revenue system of the new government.
Among other taxes recommended by Secretary Hamilton for the support of
the government, and authorized by a bill reported in the house of
representatives in January, 1791, was one upon domestic distilled
spirits and distilleries. As whiskey was almost entirely a luxury, and
not a necessity, it seemed a just subject for levying a duty upon. And
the College of Physicians of Philadelphia advocated it as desirable both
to the morals and bodily health of the people. The bill was passed and
received Washington's signature. It imposed a tax of from nine to
twenty-six cents a gallon upon spirits distilled from grain.
Regulations for the collection of these duties were made and officers
appointed to collect them. Opposition to the law manifested itself in
various parts of the Union immediately after its passage, but nowhere so
prominently as in Pennsylvania. In July, 1791, a public meeting on the
subject was held at Red Stone (Brownsville), when it was arranged that
county committees should be convened at the different shire towns of
Alleghany, Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. In August, at
a meeting of another committee already alluded to,[66] one of the
resolutions adopted, as we have seen, declared, after condemning the
law, that whosoever should accept office under it should be considered
an enemy to his country, should be treated with contempt, and all
intercourse with him be dissolved. These resolutions were published in a
Pittsburgh paper and produced a feverish excitement.
Early in September another meeting was held in Pittsburgh. Twelve
delegates were present, and many complaints against the government, in
connection with the excise law, were recited. They adopted a
representation to Congress, and a remonstrance to the legislature of
Pennsylvania, against the excise on whiskey. Not long after this, a
collector of the revenue for two of the counties before-named was
seized, tarred and feathered, and deprived of his horse, by some armed
men in disguise. The perpetrators were known, however, and processes
were issued against them from the district court of Pennsylvania; but
the public feeling was so strongly against the law, west of the
Alleghany mountains, that, as a marshal to whom the writ was committed
for execution said, "any attempt to serve it would have occasioned the
most violent opposition from a greater portion of the inhabitants;" and
he declared that if he had attempted it, he believed he would not have
returned alive.
The resistance to law now assumed most alarming aspects. The meetings,
said Secretary Hamilton in a report upon the subject, "composed of very
influential persons, and conducted without moderation and prudence,
were justly chargeable with the excesses which have from time to time
been committed, serving to give consistency to an opposition, which had
at length matured to a point that threatened the foundations of the
government and the Union, unless speedily and effectually subdued."
The working of the federal government was then merely experimental, and
those who had charge of the complicated and precious machine, and
regarded it as the very ark of freedom, used its powers with wise
caution. Therefore, while occasional outrages in connection with the
excise laws were perpetrated, it was thought best to let coercive
measures against the law-breakers remain untried, until at the next
session of Congress some modifications of the law might be made to allay
excitement.
In May, 1792, an act of Congress became a law which materially modified
the provisions of the excise act. The duty on whiskey and stills was so
reduced as to silence all complaints on that head. All serious
objections to the old law were considered, and the act was so amended as
to promise peace; but there were men of influence who would not accept
these concessions, and they kept up the opposition excitement. The
well-disposed citizens were intimidated by the violent ones of the
opposition. In August, 1792, a meeting of the malcontents was held at
Pittsburgh, at which resolutions were passed no less objectionable than
those adopted the year before. After denouncing the tax on spirituous
liquors, they concluded by declaring that they considered it their duty
to "persist in remonstrances to Congress and every other legal measure
that might obstruct the operations of the law." Almost daily outrages
were committed, and three or four counties of western Pennsylvania
assumed many of the features of openly rebellious communities. It was
then that Washington, under the advice of Hamilton and others, issued
his proclamation of September the sixteenth, 1792, warning all persons
to desist from such unlawful combinations, _et cetera_.[67] Some legal
steps were taken against the malcontents, but these and the proclamation
were of little effect toward subduing the rebellious and quieting the
excitement. The officers of the law were still defied, denounced,
insulted, and abused.
At the next session of Congress (1792-'93) inefficient efforts were made
to amend the excise laws. The forbearance of the federal government was
construed by the ringleaders of the opposition as weakness, and they
became more bold. Distillers who were willing to comply with the law
were abused. Finally, the Congress passed an act, which became a law in
1794, calculated to strengthen the executive arm in enforcing obedience.
This law made the opposition still more earnest and bold; and few men in
the district of country where they exercised a sort of reign of terror
dared openly to dissent from their views. So general was the combined
influence of actual disaffection upon one portion of the community, and
dread of the violence of the turbulent, among the others, that out of
the family connection of General Neville, inspector of revenues, the
employées of the government, and two others, there were none in
Pittsburgh who dared to condemn these lawless proceedings, for fear of
personal harm. Mails were robbed; Neville's house was twice attacked and
finally burned by an armed party of lawless men; and preparations were
made to seize Fort Fayette, in that region. Among the leaders of the
insurgents was one Bradford, who, by common consent, appears to have
assumed the position of commander-in-chief. At this time the
insurrectionary spirit had spread into adjoining counties of Maryland
and Virginia, and Bradford and his associate leaders issued a call for
the assembling of the militia on Braddock's field, on the first of
August, with arms and accoutrements, and provisions for four days.
Within three days seven thousand men were assembled, some of them out of
curiosity, but a greater part with the determination to follow, in
resistance to the federal and state governments, wherever Bradford and
others might lead.
It was Bradford's design to seize Fort Pitt and its arms and ammunition;
but he found most of the militia officers unwilling to co-operate in
such an overt act of treason. But they readily consented to the
perpetration of outrages against excise officers, and the whole country
in that region was governed, for the moment, by the combined powers of
mobocracy and military despotism.
When intelligence of these proceedings reached the president, he called
his cabinet into council. All regarded the movement as a critical one
for the republic. The example of the insurgents in Pennsylvania might
become infectious; for the Democratic societies, spread all over the
land, while they professed to oppose and deprecate violence, openly
denounced the excise laws, and, no doubt, secretly fomented rebellion
against the federal government. It was agreed in the cabinet council
that forbearance must now end, and the effective power of the executive
be put forth to suppress the rising rebellion. Accordingly, on the
seventh of August, Washington issued a proclamation warning the
insurgents to disperse, and declaring, that if tranquillity should not
be restored in the disturbed counties before the first of September, an
armed force would be employed to compel submission to the laws.[68] At
the same time the president made a requisition on the governors of New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, for militia sufficient to
compose an army of twelve thousand men.
To the chief magistrate of the latter state, his friend and
companion-in-arms, General Henry Lee, Washington wrote privately, from
Germantown, on the twenty-sixth of August, and said, "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 and
otherwise, to attack the general government.... 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.
"That these societies were instituted by the artful and designing
members (many of their body, I have no doubt, mean well, but know little
of the real plan), primarily to sow among the people the seeds of
jealousy and distrust of the government, by destroying all confidence in
the administration of it, and that their doctrines have been budding and
blowing ever since, is not new to any one who is acquainted with the
character of their leaders and has been attentive to their manoeuvres.
I early gave it as my opinion, to the confidential characters around me,
that if these societies were not counteracted (not by prosecutions, the
ready way to make them grow stronger), or did not fall into disesteem
from the knowledge of their origin, and the views with which they had
been instituted by their father, Genet, for purposes well known to the
government, they would shake the government to its foundation. Time and
circumstances have confirmed me in this opinion, and I deeply regret the
probable consequences; not as they will effect me personally--for I have
not long to act on this theatre, and sure I am that not a man amongst
them can be more anxious to put me aside than I am to sink into the
profoundest retirement--but because I see, under a display of popular
and fascinating disguises, the most diabolical attempts to destroy the
best fabric of human government and happiness that has ever been
presented for the acceptance of mankind."
Washington's proclamation had very little effect in suppressing the
lawless acts of the insurgents, and on the twenty-fifth of September
he issued a second proclamation, in which he vividly described the
perverse spirit in which the lenient propositions of the government had
been met, and declared his determination to reduce the refractory and
lawless men to obedience.[69]
The president now determined to act with vigor against the insurgents.
He appointed Governor Lee, of Virginia, the commander-in-chief. General
Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, was appointed his second in command. Governor
Howell, of New Jersey, the third; and General Daniel Morgan, the veteran
leader of the riflemen in the War for Independence, the fourth. General
Hand, of Pennsylvania, was appointed adjutant-general.
From the best information that the president could obtain, it was
supposed that there were in the rebellious counties about sixteen
thousand men capable of bearing arms, and that at least seven thousand
of them might be brought into the field. It was therefore resolved to
employ a sufficient force at once to put down all opposition. The number
of militia first called for was twelve thousand; it was subsequently
increased to fifteen thousand. The place of rendezvous appointed for the
New Jersey troops under Howell, and the Pennsylvanians under Mifflin,
was Bedford, in Pennsylvania. Those from Virginia and Maryland--the
former under General Morgan, and the latter under General Smith, the
hero of Fort Mifflin in 1777, and now the Baltimore member of
Congress--assembled at Cumberland, on the Potomac. The latter formed the
left wing of the gathering army, and were directed to march across the
mountains by Braddock's road. Those under Mifflin and Howell composed
the right wing, and were ordered to cross the mountains by the more
northern route, over which Forbes and his army crossed in 1758.
These martial preparations were made after every peaceful effort had
been exhausted. As we have observed, the president had issued two
proclamations before ordering the militia into the field. He had also,
at the time of issuing the first proclamation, appointed three federal
commissioners--Senator Ross, Mr. Bradford, the attorney-general, and
Yates, a judge of the supreme court of Pennsylvania--to visit the
insurgent counties, with discretionary powers to arrange, if possible,
prior to the fourteenth of September, an effectual submission to the
laws, offering lenient terms to the offenders. These were joined by
Chief-Justice M'Kean and General Irvine, commissioners appointed by the
state of Pennsylvania. At the same time, Governor Mifflin issued two
proclamations--one calling the Pennsylvania legislature together; the
other requiring submission on the part of the rioters, and announcing
his determination to obey the president's call for militia.
These commissioners had crossed the mountains together, and at
Parkinson's ferry they found representatives from almost every town of
four insurgent counties, two hundred in number, assembled in convention,
having Judge Cook, of Fayette county, for their president, and Albert
Gallatin, afterward a distinguished officer of the federal government,
for their secretary. The business was in charge of a vigilance committee
of sixty. Near the place of meeting, which was upon a commanding
eminence under the shade of trees, stood a liberty-pole, bearing a
placard with the words, "Liberty and no excise! No asylum for cowards
and traitors!"
The vigilance committee appointed a sub-committee of fifteen to confer
with the state and federal commissioners. On that committee were,
Bradford, the chief leader of the insurgents, Gallatin, Cook, Marshall,
and Brackenridge, the latter a young and ambitious lawyer of Pittsburgh.
All of these, except Bradford, perceiving the dangers with which they
were surrounded, were favorable to submission. Bradford's voice was for
war, and the organization of a separate and independent state west of
the mountains. This committee declared the propositions of the
commissioners to be reasonable, and to the town organizations the whole
matter of submission was referred. These generally refused compliance.
The federal commissioners returned to Philadelphia and reported the
virtual failure of their mission. Then it was that the president issued
his proclamation of the twenty-fifth of September, and prepared to use
coercive measures.
Washington determined to lead the army in person against the insurgents,
if it should appear to be expedient. He accordingly left Philadelphia at
the beginning of October, accompanied by the secretary of war, whose
department was left in charge of Hamilton, the secretary of the
treasury. Just before he left, the president received a letter from the
venerable Morgan, written at Winchester on the twenty-fourth of
September. "I am sorry to understand," wrote the brave old rifleman,
"the difficulty experienced in the state of Pennsylvania to raise the
quota of men to suppress that horrid insurrection on their frontiers.[70]
The state of Virginia seems to be unanimous and determined to suppress
it; and it is my opinion that we shall, in a very few days, have men
enough to do that business. For my part, I wish I was at Morgantown at
this time with two thousand men, which would be as many as I could ask,
with what would join me at this place, to bring these people to
order.... I wish an accommodation may not be patched up with these
rioters, under an apprehension of not getting troops to suppress them.
Virginia could, and would, furnish an army sufficient for that
purpose.... I don't wish to spill the blood of a citizen; but I wish to
march against these people, to show them our determination to bring them
to order, and to support the laws. I took the liberty to write you this,
lest your intelligence might not be so good, or that this might throw
some light, or be of some service."
This letter, from his old companion-in-arms, was only one of many of
similar tone that Washington received at that time. Coming from such an
esteemed veteran (with whom was the president's favorite nephew,
Lawrence Lewis, as aid-de-camp), it was peculiarly grateful to
Washington, and he responded in earnest tone, from Carlisle, on the
eighth of October. "Although I regret the occasion," he said, "which has
called you into the field, I rejoice to hear you are there, and because
it is probable I may meet you at Fort Cumberland, whither I shall
proceed as soon as I see the troops at this rendezvous in condition to
advance. At that place, or at Bedford, my ulterior resolution must be
taken, either to advance with the troops into the insurgent counties of
this state, or to return to Philadelphia, for the purpose of meeting
Congress, the third of next month. Imperious circumstances alone can
justify my absence from the seat of government whilst Congress is in
session; but if these, from the disposition of the people in the
refractory counties and the state of the information I expect to receive
at the advanced posts, should appear to exist, the lesser must yield to
the greater duties of my office, and I shall cross the mountains with
the troops; if not, I shall place the command of the combined troops
under the orders of Governor Lee, of Virginia, and repair to the seat of
government."
In a private letter to Randolph, the secretary of state, on the
following day, the president said, "The insurgents are alarmed, but not
yet brought to their proper senses. Every means is devised by themselves
and their associates to induce a belief that there is no necessity for
troops crossing the mountains; although we have information, at the same
time, that part of the people there are obliged to embody themselves to
repel the insults of another part."
The Pennsylvania troops moved forward from Carlisle on the tenth of
October, and Washington proceeded to Fort Cumberland, the place of
rendezvous for the Maryland and Virginia troops, where he arrived on the
sixteenth. Quite a large number were already there, and fifteen hundred
more from Virginia were near at hand. There Washington received such
information as convinced him that the spirits of the insurgents were
broken, and that the greatest alarm prevailed in their ranks. He
hastened on to Bedford, thirty miles distant, and there this
intelligence was confirmed. Satisfied that his presence would be no
longer needed with the army, he arranged a plan of operations against
the insurgents, and prepared to return to Philadelphia; "but not," he
said in a letter to Randolph, "because the impertinence of Mr. Bache
[editor of the "General Advertiser," the opposition paper] or his
correspondent has undertaken to pronounce that I can not
constitutionally command the army whilst Congress are in session."
The command of the army was left with Governor Lee. On the twentieth of
October he received from Washington his instructions, drawn by Hamilton,
with a letter from the president's own hand, in which he said, "I can
not take my departure without conveying to you, through the army under
your command, the very high sense I entertain of the enlightened and
patriotic zeal for the constitution and the laws, which has led them
cheerfully to quit their families, homes, and the comforts of private
life, to undertake, and thus far to perform, a long and fatiguing march,
and to encounter and endure the hardships and privations of a military
life.... No citizens of the United States can ever be engaged in a
service more important to their country. It is nothing less than to
consolidate and to preserve the blessings of that Revolution which, at
much expense of blood and treasure, constituted us a free and
independent nation. It is to give the world an illustrious example, of
the utmost consequence to the cause of mankind." Then cautioning the
troops against committing the least infraction of the laws, or trenching
upon the functions of the civil authorities, he thanked them for the
readiness with which they had seconded him "in the most delicate and
momentous duty the chief magistrate of a free people can have to
perform."
Hamilton remained with the army as the president's civil representative;
also the secretary of war; and Washington hastened back to Philadelphia,
where he arrived on the twenty-sixth of October. The troops crossed the
Alleghany mountains in a heavy rain, marching sometimes in mud up to
their knees. The two wings formed a junction at Uniontown; and as they
advanced into the insurgent country, all signs of rebellion disappeared.
The leaders fled, and all upon whom rested the eye of suspicion quailed
in its glance and hastened to make excuses. Early in November, Lee
issued a proclamation, confirming an amnesty that had been offered to
those entitled to it, and calling upon all of the inhabitants to take
the oath of allegiance to the United States. Many arrests were soon
afterward made. A large number were dismissed at once because of a want
of evidence against them; others were bound over to keep the peace; and
a few were sent to Philadelphia for trial.[71] Two only were convicted of
capital offences--one of arson, the other of robbing the mails--and
these, because of palliating circumstances, were finally pardoned by the
president. Most of the troops were speedily withdrawn from the
disaffected counties and dismissed; but a body of twenty-five hundred,
under General Morgan, remained encamped in the district through the
winter.
Thus terminated a rebellion, that at one time threatened the very
existence of the Union, without the shedding of a drop of blood. This
result was owing chiefly to the wisdom, prudence, energy, and personal
popularity of Washington; and that which appeared so ominous of evil was
overruled for the production of good. The government was amazingly
strengthened by the event. The federal authority was fully vindicated;
and the general rally in its support when the chief sounded his
bugle-call, even of those who had hitherto leaned toward the opposition,
was a significant omen of future stability and power. Every honest man
expressed his reprobation of the violent resistance to law; and the
democratic societies, the chief fomenters of the insurrection, showed
symptoms of a desire to be less conspicuous. Hamilton, who had always
distrusted the strength of the government in such an emergency, was now
perfectly convinced of its inherent power; and both he and Washington
regarded the affair as a fortunate circumstance for the nation.
In relation to this event and its effects, Washington, in a letter to
Mr. Jay, written soon after his return to Philadelphia from the
different rendezvous of the troops, said that the subject would be
represented differently according to the wishes of some and the
prejudices of others, who might exhibit it as an evidence of what had
been predicted, namely, that the people of the new republic were unable
to govern themselves. "Under this view of the subject," he said, "I am
happy in giving it to you as the general opinion that this event having
happened at the time it did was fortunate, although it will be attended
with considerable expense.
"That the self-created societies," he continued, "which have spread
themselves over this country have been laboring incessantly to sow the
seeds of distrust, jealousy, and of course discontent, thereby hoping to
effect some revolution in the government, is not unknown to you. That
they have been the fomenters of the western disturbances, admits of no
doubt in the mind of any one who will examine their conduct; but,
fortunately, they precipitated a crisis for which they were not
prepared, and thereby have unfolded views which will, I trust,
effectuate their annihilation sooner than it might otherwise have
happened; at the same time, that it has afforded an occasion for the
people of this country to show their abhorrence of the result, and their
attachment to the constitution and the laws; for I believe that five
times the number of militia that was required would have come forward,
if it had been necessary, in support of them.
"The spirit which blazed out on this occasion, as soon as the object was
fully understood and the lenient measures of the government were made
known to the people, deserves to be communicated. There are instances of
general officers going at the head of a single troop, and of light
companies; of field-officers, when they came to the places of
rendezvous, and found no command for them in that grade, turning into
the ranks, and proceeding as private soldiers, under their own captains;
and of numbers, possessing the first fortunes in the country, standing
in the ranks of private men, and marching day by day with their
knapsacks and haversacks at their backs, sleeping on straw with a single
blanket in a soldier's tent, during the frosty nights which we have had,
by way of example to others. Nay, more; many young Quakers of the first
families, character, and property, not discouraged by the elders, have
turned into the ranks and are marching with the troops.
"These things have terrified the insurgents, who had no conception
that such a spirit prevailed; but, while the thunder only rumbled at a
distance, were boasting of their strength, and wishing for and
threatening the militia by turns, intimating that the arms they should
take from them would soon become a magazine in their hands. Their
language is much changed indeed, but their principles want correction.
"I shall be more prolix in my speech to Congress on the commencement and
progress of this insurrection than is usual in such an instrument, or
than I should have been on any other occasion; but as numbers at home
and abroad will hear of the insurrection, and will read the speech, that
may know nothing of the documents to which it might refer, I conceived
it would be better to encounter the charge of prolixity by giving a
cursory detail of facts, that would show the prominent features of the
thing, than to let it go naked into the world, to be dressed up
according to the fancy or inclination of the readers, or the policy of
our enemies."[72]
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Page 216
[67] See page 216.
[68] The following is a copy of the proclamation. Its preamble contains
such a complete summary of the causes which called forth the
proclamation, that we give the document entire:--
"Whereas, combinations to defeat the execution of the laws laying
duties upon spirits distilled within the United States, and upon
stills, have, from the time of the commencement of those laws,
existed in some of the western parts of Pennsylvania: and whereas,
the said combinations, proceeding in a manner subversive equally of
the just authority of government and of the rights of individuals,
have hitherto effected their dangerous and criminal purpose by the
influence of certain irregular meetings, whose proceedings have
tended to encourage and uphold the spirit of opposition by
misrepresentations of the laws calculated to render them odious; by
endeavors to deter those who might be so disposed from accepting
offices under them through fear of public resentments and of injury
to person and property, and to compel those who had accepted such
offices by actual violence to surrender or forbear the execution of
them; by circulating vindictive measures against all who should
otherwise, directly or indirectly, aid in the execution of the said
laws, or who, yielding to the dictates of conscience and to a sense
of obligation, should themselves comply therewith; by actually
injuring and destroying the property of persons who were understood
to have so complied; by inflicting cruel, humiliating punishments
upon private citizens, for no other cause than that of appearing to
be the friends of the laws; by interrupting the public officers on
the highways, abusing, assaulting, and otherwise ill-treating them;
by going to their houses in the night, gaining admittance by force,
taking away their papers, and committing other outrages; employing
for these unwarrantable purposes the agency of armed banditti,
disguised in such a manner as for the most part to escape
discovery: and whereas, the endeavors of the legislature to obviate
objections to the said laws, by lowering the duties and by other
alterations conducive to the convenience of those whom they
immediately affected (though they have given satisfaction in other
quarters), and the endeavors of the executive officers to
conciliate a compliance with the laws, by expostulation, by
forbearance, and even by recommendations founded on the suggestion
of local considerations, have been disappointed of their effect by
the machinations of persons whose industry to excite resistance has
increased with the appearance of a disposition among the people to
relax in their opposition and to acquiesce in the laws; insomuch
that many persons in the said western parts of Pennsylvania have at
length been hardy enough to perpetrate acts which I am advised
amount to treason, being overt acts of levying war against the
United States; the said persons having, on the sixteenth and
seventeenth of July last, proceeded in arms (on the second day
amounting to several hundred) to the house of John Neville,
inspector of the revenues for the fourth survey of the districts of
Pennsylvania--having repeatedly attacked the said house with the
persons therein, wounding some of them; having seized David Lenox,
marshal of the district of Pennsylvania, who previously thereto had
been fired upon while in the execution of his duty by a party of
men, detaining him for some time prisoner, till for the
preservation of his life and obtaining of his liberty he found it
necessary to enter into stipulations to forbear the execution of
certain official duties, touching processes issuing out of the
court of the United States; and having finally obliged the said
inspector of the revenue and the marshal, from considerations of
personal safety, to fly from this part of the country, in order, by
a circuitous route, to proceed to the seat of government, avowing
as the motives of these outrageous proceedings an intention to
prevent by force of arms the execution of the said laws, to oblige
the said inspector of the revenues to renounce his office, to
withstand by open violence the lawful authority of the government
of the United States, and to compel thereby an alteration in the
measures of the legislature, and a repeal of the laws aforesaid:
and whereas, by a law of the United States entitled, 'An act to
provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions,' it is enacted,
'that whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed, or
the execution thereof obstructed, in any state, by combinations too
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial
proceedings, or by the power vested in the marshals by that act,
the same being notified by an associate justice or the district
judges, it shall be lawful for the president of the United States
to call forth the militia of said state to suppress such
combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. And if the
militia of a state, where such combinations may happen, shall
refuse or shall be insufficient to suppress the same, it shall be
lawful for the president, if the legislature of the United States
shall not be in session, to call forth and employ such numbers of
the militia of any other state or states most convenient thereto as
may be necessary; and the use of the militia so to be called forth
may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days
after the commencement of the ensuing session; _Provided always_,
that whenever it may be necessary in the judgment of the president
to use the military force hereby directed to be called forth, the
president shall forthwith, and previous thereto, by proclamation,
command such insurgents to disperse, and retire peaceably to their
respective abodes within a limited time:' and whereas, James
Wilson, an associate justice, on the fourth instant, by writing
under his hand, did, from evidence which had been laid before him,
notify to me that 'in the counties of Washington and Alleghany, in
Pennsylvania, the laws of the United States are opposed, and the
execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be
suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by
the powers vested in the marshal of that district:'
"And whereas, it is in my judgment necessary, under the
circumstances of the case, to take measures for calling forth the
militia in order to suppress the combination aforesaid, and to
cause the laws to be duly executed; and I have accordingly
determined so to do, feeling the deepest regret for the occasion,
but withal the most solemn conviction that the essential interests
of the Union demand it, that the very existence of government and
the fundamental principles of social order are materially involved
in the issue, and that the patriotism and firmness of all good
citizens are seriously called upon as occasion may require, to aid
in the effectual suppression of so fatal a spirit:
"Wherefore, and in pursuance of the provision above recited, I,
George Washington, president of the United States, do hereby
command all persons, being insurgents as aforesaid, and all others
whom it may concern, on or before the first day of September next,
to disperse and return peaceably to their respective abodes. And I
do moreover warn all persons whomsoever against aiding, abetting,
or comforting, the perpetrators of the aforesaid treasonable acts;
and do require all officers, and other citizens, according to their
respective duties and the law of the land, to exert their utmost
endeavors to prevent and suppress such dangerous proceedings.
"In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States
of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the seventh day of
August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four, and of the
independence of the United States of America the nineteenth.
GEORGE WASHINGTON"
[69] The following is a copy of the second proclamation:--
"Whereas, from a hope that the combination against the constitution
and laws of the United States, in certain of the western counties
of Pennsylvania, would yield to time and reflection, I thought it
sufficient, in the first instance, rather to _take measures_ for
calling forth the militia than immediately to embody them; but the
moment is now come when the overtures of forgiveness, with no other
condition than a submission to law, have been only partially
accepted; when every form of conciliation not inconsistent with the
being of government has been adopted without effect; when the
well-disposed in those counties are unable by their influence and
example to reclaim the wicked from their fury, and are compelled to
associate in their own defence; when the proffered lenity has been
perversely misinterpreted into an apprehension that the citizens
will march with reluctance; when the opportunity of examining the
serious consequences of a treasonable opposition has been employed
in propagating principles of anarchy, endeavoring through
emissaries to alienate the friends of order from its support, and
inviting its enemies to perpetrate similar acts of insurrection;
when it is manifest that violence would continue to be exercised
upon every attempt to enforce the laws; when, therefore, government
is set at defiance, the contest being whether a small portion of
the United States shall dictate to the whole Union, and, at the
expense of those who desire peace, indulge a desperate ambition:
"Now, therefore, I, George Washington, president of the United
States, in obedience to that high and irresistible duty consigned
to me by the constitution 'to take care that the laws be faithfully
executed,' deploring that the American name should be sullied by
the outrages of citizens on their own government, commiserating
such as remain obstinate from delusion, but resolved, in perfect
reliance on that gracious Providence which so signally displays its
goodness toward this country, to reduce the refractory to a due
subordination to the laws, do hereby declare and make known, with a
satisfaction which can be equalled only by the merits of the
militia summoned into service from the states of New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, that I have received
intelligence of their patriotic alacrity in obeying the call of the
present, though painful, yet commanding necessity; that a force,
which according to every reasonable expectation is adequate to the
exigency, is already in motion to the scene of disaffection; that
those who shall have confided or shall confide in the protection of
government shall meet full succor under the standard and from the
arms of the United States; that those who, having offended against
the laws, have since entitled themselves to indemnity, will be
treated with the most liberal good faith, if they shall not have
forfeited their claim by any subsequent conduct, and that
instructions are given accordingly.
"And I do moreover exhort all individuals, officers, and bodies of
men, to contemplate with abhorrence the measures leading, directly
or indirectly, to those crimes which produce this resort to
military coercion; to check, in their respective spheres, the
efforts of misguided or designing men to substitute their
misrepresentation in the place of truth, and their discontents in
the place of stable government; and to call to mind, that as the
people of the United States have been permitted, under the Divine
favor, in perfect freedom, after solemn deliberation, and in an
enlightened age, to elect their own government, so will their
gratitude for this inestimable blessing be best distinguished by
firm exertion to maintain the constitution and the laws.
"And, lastly, I again warn all persons whomsoever and wheresoever,
not to abet, aid or comfort the insurgents aforesaid, as they will
answer the contrary at their peril; and I do also require all
officers and other citizens, as far as may be in their power, to
bring under the cognizance of the laws all offenders in the
premises.
"In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States
of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the twenty-fifth
day of September, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four, and
of the independence of the United States of America the nineteenth.
GEORGE WASHINGTON."
[70] When the use of military force was first suggested, Randolph, the
secretary of state, expressed his fears that such a measure would bring
on a general collision that might destroy the Union. Governor Mifflin
partook of this fear. "The Pennsylvanians," says Hildreth, "at first,
were rather backward, and a draft ordered by Mifflin seemed likely--by
reason, it was said, of defects in the militia laws--to prove a failure.
But the legislature, on coming together, having first denounced the
insurgents in strong terms, to save the delays attendant on drafting,
authorized the government to accept volunteers, to whom a bounty was
offered. As if to make up for his former hesitation, and with a military
sensibility to the disgrace of failing to meet the requisition, Mifflin,
in a tour through the lower counties, as in several cases during the
Revolutionary struggle, by the influence of his extraordinary popular
eloquence, soon caused the ranks to be filled up. As a further stimulus,
subscriptions were opened to support the wives and children of the
volunteers during their absence,"--_History of the United States_,
second series, i, 570.
[71] Among these was Herman Husbands, then a very old man, who had
figured conspicuously in the revolutionary movement in North Carolina,
previous to the War for Independence, known as _the Regulator war_. He
was arrested on suspicion of being an active fomenter of the
insurrection. This, however, seems not to have been the case, "I know
that his sentiments were always in favor of the excise law," wrote a
friend of Husbands to the president, "and that he did all that he could
to prevent the people of the western counties from opposing the
execution of the law; and I know he is a good friend of liberty and his
country." Husbands was released, at about the first of January, 1795.
[72] Washington was so impressed with the sense of danger to be
apprehended by the Democratic Societies, that he contemplated making
them a topic in his forthcoming annual message to Congress. In a letter
to the secretary of state, written at Fort Cumberland on the sixteenth
of October, he said, "My mind is so perfectly convinced, that if these
self-created societies can not be discontinued they will destroy the
government of this country, that I have asked myself, while I have been
revolving on the expense and inconvenience of drawing so many men from
their families and occupations as I have seen on their march, where
would be the impropriety of glancing at them in my speech, by some such
idea as the following: 'That, however distressing this expedition will
have proved to individuals, and expensive to the country, the pleasing
spirit which it has drawn forth in support of law and government will
immortalize the American character, and is a happy presage that future
attempts, of a certain description of people, to disturb the public
tranquillity will prove equally abortive.'"
Mr. Randolph, though a democrat, was favorable to some such expression
of sentiment regarding these societies. In a letter, to which the
president's was a response, he had intimated the propriety of taking
advantage of the prevailing reprobation of the insurrection, to put down
those societies. "They may now, I believe, be crushed," he said. "The
prospect ought not to be lost." Washington did allude to them in his
annual message, as we shall observe presently.