II. FROM THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION TO THE

SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

THE WHISKY INSURRECTION, 1794-FRIES'S INSURRECTION, 1799-BURR'S CONSPIRACY, 1805-THE EMBARGO TROUBLES, 1808.

The Congress lost no time in providing the means for carrying into effect the more important features of the Constitution. Its first session was opened on the 4th day of March, 1789, and almost immediately a bill was introduced, which became a law September 29, 1789, to recognize the military establishment of October 3, 1787, and to authorize the President to call into the service from time to time such part of the militia as he may judge necessary for the purpose of pro

Congress raises an army,

1789.

tecting the frontier from Indian incursions." At the third session authority was given to raise another regiment of infantry and further empowering the President in his judgment to employ "levies" in addition to the militia. The Second Congress was disposed to still greater liberality. The two regiments of infantry and the battalion of artillery were increased to full strength and three additional regiments of infantry authorized for three years, while the President was empowered to call into the service, for the protection of the frontier, such number of cavalry as in his judgment might be necessary. At the same time a bill was introduced, which became a law May 2, 1792, under the title of "An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;" in other words, to provide for carrying into execution the fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution. The first three sections of this act, which is the basis of all subsequent legislation in this direction, read thus:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the United States shall be invaded, or be in imminent danger of invasion from any foreign nation or Indian tribe, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth such number of the militia of the State or States most convenient to the place of danger or scene of action as he may judge necessary to repel such invasion, and to issue his orders for that purpose to such officer or officers of the militia as he shall think proper; and in c1 Stat. L., 242. d1 Stat. L., 264,

a1 Stat. L., 95.

b1 Stat. L., 222.

case of an insurrection in any State against the government thereof, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, on application of the legislature of such State, or of the executive (when the legislature can not be convened) to call forth such number of the militia of any other State or States as may be applied for, or as he may judge sufficient to suppress such insurrection.

SEC. 2. And be it further 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 powers vested in the marshals by this act, the same being notified to the President of the United States by an associate justice or the district judge, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia of such 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 be insufficient to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the President, if the legislature of the United States be not 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 militia so to be called forth may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days after the commencement of the ensuing session.

SEC. 3. Provided always, and be it further enacted, 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.

Six days later a uniform system for the government of the militia was established under the title of "An act more effectually to provide for the national defense by establishing an uniform militia throughout the United States," a and this act, with very few changes and those of little importance, is substantially the law under which the militia exists to the present day. It carried out as nearly as possible the views of the makers of the Constitution and embodied all the features already so clearly expressed by Mr. Madison. It fixed the organization, the armament, and the rules of discipline, but left the arrangement of each State into brigades and regiments and companies, and the appointment of their officers, to the several legislatures. The organization, if primitive and in many respects for many years obsolete, was sufficient for the purpose and has met the demands of a century with reasonable satisfaction. It fought two wars, provided the nucleus for the organization of the vast armies that fought out the great rebellion, and only disappeared with the incoming of the "volunteer.”

Scarcely had these laws been enacted and the people brought to a comprehension of the existence of a Federal Government when an event occurred that brought them suddenly and unexpectedly into action. In the four counties of Pennsylvania west of the Allegheny Mountains a lawless spirit had prevailed for the half whisky insurrection, century preceding the Revolution. These counties had been settled by people of Scottish descent, mainly farmers, men of great energy and decision, and always restive under

The 1794.

a 1 Stat. L., 271.

S. Doc. 209- -3

the restraints of law and order. To these the close of the war had added many desperate characters, mere squatters, ready to engage in lawless enterprises at the instigation of popular leaders. The farmers, having no near market for their produce, had always been used to converting much of their grain into whisky, which had a ready sale at from fifty cents to a dollar a gallon, so that the still was the necessary appendage of every farm. Excise laws are always unpopular. Among these people, whose hatred to such laws was hereditary, their enforcement in colonial days had been always difficult; frequently impossible. Such was the state of the public mind when in March, 1791, Congress passed an excise law, and for the following two years every attempt to collect these taxes was stoutly resisted, until the number and brutality of assaults on the collectors, frequently accompanied by riots, participated in by whole communities, amounted to a practical insurrection. In the vicinity of Pittsburg buildings were burned, the mails intercepted and robbed, Federal officers tarred and feathered. In many of these outrages the local militia participated, and their officers were among the most obstinate in their resistance to the laws. The summer of 1794 witnessed an alarming increase of this lawlessness, which at last compelled the courts to confess their inability to induce the slightest respect to their mandates or to enforce a single one of their judgments. The office of collector for western Pennsylvania had been accepted by Gen. John Neville, a gentleman known far and wide for his benevolence, and who in years of scarcity had thrown open his granaries to his poor neighbors, and in other respects had endeared himself to the people. On the 16th of July a mob of 500 or more attacked Neville's house, wounded its defenders, and burned it to the ground. On the 1st of August 7,000 of the malcontents assembled on Braddock's field, armed and provisioned, and marched into Pittsburg, intending to capture Fort Pitt, but became frightened and dispersed. The rebellion rapidly gathered force, until all law was disregarded and all order at an end. Governor Mifflin refusing to call out the militia of the State in response to the calls of the courts, the latter had no recourse but an appeal to the Federal Government. This took the form of a letter from the United States judge for the district, an associate justice of the Supreme Court, intended to so make a case under the Constitution as to authorize the Executive to call out the military force.

PHILADELPHIA, August 4, 1794.

SIR: From the evidence which has been laid before me, I hereby notify to you that in the counties of Washington and Allegheny, in Pennsylvania, 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.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration and respect,

Your most obedient and humble servant,

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

JAMES WILSON.

Even with this certificate before him the President was for a time uncertain how to act. It is related that Governor Mifflin's position was sustained by the Secretary of State, but that it was opposed by Hamilton, Bradford, the Attorney-General, and the Secretary of War. Be that as it may, a proclamation of the President appeared three days later, in which the insurgents were called upon to cease their resistance to the laws and to retire peaceably to their respective abodes on or before the 1st day of September, 1794. Failing this he avowed his. determination to call forth the militia to suppress all unlawful combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The following is the text of the proclamation:

PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, combinations to defeat the execution of the laws levying duties upon spirits distilled in the United States and upon the 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 obnoxious; by endeavors to deter those who might be so disposed from accepting offices under them, through fear of public resentment and 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 menaces against all those 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 and humiliating punishment upon private citizens for no other cause than that of appearing to be the friends of the laws; by intercepting the public officers on the highways, abusing, assaulting, or otherwise illtreating them; by going to their houses in the night, gaining admittance by force, taking away their papers, and committing other outrages; employing for their 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 affect (though they have given satisfaction in other quarters), and the endeavors of the executive officers to conciliate a compliance with the laws, by explanations, by forbearance, and even by particular accommodations 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 every 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 16th and 17th of July last, proceeded in arms (on the second day amounting to several hundreds) to the house of John Neville, inspector of the revenue for the fourth survey of the district of Pennsylvania, having repeatedly attacked the said house, with the persons therein, wounding some of them; having seized David Lennox, marshal of the district of Pennsylvania, who previous thereto had been fired upon, while in the execution of his duty, by a party of armed men, detaining him for some time prisoner, till, for

the preservation of his life and the 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 a court of the United States, and having finally obliged the said inspector of the revenue and the said marshal, from considerations of personal safety, to fly from that part of the country in order, by a circuitous route, to proceed to the seat of government; avowing as the motive 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 revenue to renounce his said office, to withstand by open violence the lawful authority of the Government of the United States, and to compel thereby an alteration of 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 powers vested in the marshals by that act, the same being notified by an associate justice or the district judge, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia of such 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 be insufficient to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the President, if the legislature of the United States be not in session, to call forth and employ such numbers of the militia of any 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 4th 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 Allegheny in Pennsylvania, 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 combinations aforesaid and to cause the laws to be duly executed, and I have accordingly determined to do so, 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 proviso 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 1st day of September next, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes. And I do more

over warn all persons whomsoever against aiding, abetting, or comforting the perpetrators of the aforesaid treasonable acts. And I do require all officers and other citizens, according to their respective duties and the laws of the land, to exert their utmost endeavors to prevent and suppress such dangerous proceedings.