VII. CHAPTER Hamilton, Knox, and Bradford advised that the militia be called out at once. But upon a suggestion to Gov. 1794. ernor Mifflin to that effect, he expressed apprehensions that a resort to force might inflame and augment the existing opposition, and, by connecting with it other causes of complaint, might produce such an excitement as to make it necessary to call in aid from the neighboring states a step by which jealousy and discontent would be still further aggravated. He even questioned whether the militia would "pay a passive obedience to the mandates of the government." He doubted also his own authority to make a call; for, whatever might be the case with the federal judiciary, it did not yet appear that the ordinary course of the state law was not able to punish the rioters and to maintain order. He was therefore disposed to be content for the present with a circular letter already dispatched to the state officers of the western counties, expressive of his indignation at the recent occurrences, and requiring the exertion of their utmost authority to suppress the tumults and to punish the of fenders. Mifflin's refusal removed all pretense for alleging that opportunity had not been afforded to the State of Pennsylvania to vindicate the authority of the laws by her own means. As the case seemed to require immediate interference, Washington resolved to take the responsibility on himself, and to act with vigor. A certificate was obtained, as the statute required, from a judge of the Supreme Court, that in the counties of Washington and Allegany the execution of the laws of the United States was obstructed by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedAug. 7. ings. A proclamation was put forth requiring these opposers of the laws to desist, and a requisition was issued VII. to the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, CHAPTER and Virginia for a body of 13,000 men, raised afterward to 15,000. The insurgent counties could bring into the 1794. field about 16,000 fighting men. It was judged expedient to send a force such as would quite discourage any resistance. This calling out the militia was not entirely approved by Randolph, the secretary of state. He seemed to apprehend, with Mifflin, that an attempt to enforce the authority of government might lead to a general convulsion; and he appeared to be greatly impressed by a letter of Brackenridge's to a friend in Philadelphia, communicated to the cabinet, in which the writer maintained the ability of the western counties to defend themselves, suggesting the indisposition of the midland counties to allow the march of troops for the West, the possibility of application to Great Britain for aid, and even of a march on Philadelphia. The movement of the troops was fixed for the first of September. Meanwhile, three commissioners, appointed by the president, Senator Ross, Bradford, the attorney general, and Yates, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, were dispatched to the insurgent counties, with discretionary authority to arrange, if possible, any time prior to the 14th of September, an effectual submission to the laws. Chief Justice M'Kean and General Irving were appointed commissioners on the part of the state. Simultaneously with this appointment, Mifflin issued two proclamations, one calling the Legislature together, the other requiring the rioters to submit, and announcing his determination to obey the president's call for militia. The two boards of commissioners crossed the mountains together, and, on arriving in the disturbed district, Aug. 14. CHAPTER found the convention, called by the meeting at Mingo VII. Creek, already in session at Parkinson's Ferry. It con1794. sisted of upward of two hundred delegates, including two from that part of Bedford county west of the mountains, and three from Ohio county, in Virginia. Almost all the townships of the four western counties were fully repre sented. Cook was chairman, and Gallatin secretary. The delegates were convened on an eminence, under the shade of trees, surrounded by a collection of spectators, some of them armed. Near by stood a liberty-pole, with the motto, "Liberty, and no excise! No asylum for cowards and traitors!" A series of resolutions was offered by Marshall, of which the first, against taking citizens out of the vicin ity for trial, passed without objection. The second resolution proposed the appointment of a committee of public safety, empowered "to call forth the resources of the Western country to repel any hostile attempts against the citizens." After a speech, in which he denied any danger of hostilities, the only danger being that of legal coercion, Gallatin proposed to refer this resolution to a select committee. But, though there were many persons present whose chief object, like Gallatin's, it was to extricate the people from the disastrous consequences of a violent opposition to the laws, which they themselves had done much to stimulate, no one dared to second the motion. Marshall, however, already began to waver; and he presently offered to withdraw the proposition, provided a committee of sixty was appointed, with power to call another meeting. This was readily agreed to, as was also the appointment of a sub-committee of fifteen, to confer with the federal and state commissioners. For the purpose of being remodeled, the resolutions were referred to a committee, consisting of Bradford, Gallatin, VII. Brackenridge, and Herman Husbands, then a very old CHAPTER man, a leader formerly among the North Carolina Regulators. The determination expressed in one of these 1794. resolutions, not to submit to the excise, was struck out on Gallatin's motion. But neither he nor any body else went so far as to advocate obedience to it. A promise to submit to the state laws was, however, inserted. This business being disposed of, the exercise of some address secured a dissolution of the meeting, the assembly of the committee of sixty being fixed for the 2d of September. A few days after, as had been arranged, the committee of fifteen met the commissioners at Pittsburg. Among Aug. 21. the members of this committee were Bradford, Marshall, Cook, Gallatin, and Brackenridge, the whole, except Bradford, being inclined to an accommodation. A candidate for Congress for the Pittsburg district, in his anxiety to secure votes, Brackenridge had hitherto gone so far as to make the insurgents believe he was on their side. But he was well aware of the folly and hopelessness of their cause, and at bottom not less anxious than Gallatin to escape out of the present dilemma. In a book which he afterward published, he excused the part he had taken as necessary to protect himself against the violence of the insurgents. The demands of the commissioners were exceedingly moderate. They required from the committee of sixty an explicit declaration of their determination to submit to the laws, and a recommendation to the citizens at large to submit also, and to abstain from all opposition, direct or indirect, and especially from violence or threats against the excise officers or the complying distillers. Primary meetings were required to be held to test the sense of the citizens in these particulars. Should satisfactory assurances be given on or before the fourteenth of September, the commissioners promised a suspension till VII. CHAPTER the next July of all prosecutions for offenses prior in date to this arrangement; and in case the law, during that 1794. interval, should be generally complied with, in good faith, a final pardon, and oblivion of all such offenses. The committee of fifteen pronounced these terms reasonable; and, to give more time to carry out the ar rangement, they agreed to anticipate by four days the calling together of the committee of sixty. Meanwhile a report spread that the conferees had been bribed; indeed, that charge was made in express terms in a letter of Tom the Tinker to the Pittsburg Gazette, which the printer, as was the case with other communications of that anonymous personage, did not dare to omit to publish. While the members of the committee of sixty were collecting at Brownsville, the place appointed for the meeting, an armed party of horse and foot entered the town with drums beating. The friends of submission were so intimidated that, but for Gallatin, they would have abandoned all thoughts of urging an accommodation. Bradford insisted on taking the question at once; but, by the exercise of some address, the matter was postponed till the next day, and meanwhile the armed party were persuaded to return to their homes. Gallatin opened the business the next morning in a speech, in which the motives to submission were judiciously urged. He was followed by Brackenridge, who now came out strongly on the same side. Bradford, in an extravagant harangue, urged continued resistance, and the organization of an independent state. Not daring to expose themselves by an open vote, the friends of submission had prevailed that the decision should be by secret ballot. They were thus enabled to carry, by a very lean majority, a resolution that it would be for the interest of the people to accede to the terms offered by |