West of the Alleghenies uprising by settlers who opposed the excise tax of 1791. The settlers regarded the tax as discriminatory and rioted against the tax collectors. Washington personally took command of the 12,000+ militiamen who put down the rebellion. This was the first and only time in United States history that a sitting president dressed-up in uniform to command troops in battle
A PROCLAMATION
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 resentment 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 circulation 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 punishments 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, and
otherwise ill treating them; by going into 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 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 past 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 Lenox, 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 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 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 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 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, when 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 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 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 Allegany, 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 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 occasions may
require, to aid in the effectual suppression of so fatal a spirit;
Therefore, 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 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
laws 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.
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