Opposition to the Excise Law.

his conduct throughout the trying scenes he had experienced.

The insurgents, on the 18th, sent a deputation of two of their number (one a justice of the peace) to Pittsburg, to require of the marshal a surrender of the processes in his possession, intimating that his compliance would satisfy the people, and add to his safety; and also to demand of General Neville, in peremptory terms, the resignation of his office, threatening, in case of refusal, to attack the place and take him by force-demands which both these officers did not hesitate to reject, as alike incompatible with their honor and their duty.

As it was well ascertained that no protection was to be expected from the magistrates or inhabitants of Pittsburg, it became necessary to the safety both of the inspector and marshal to quit that place; and as it was known that all the usual routes to Philadelphia were beset by the insurgents, they concluded to descend the Ohio, and proceed by a circuitous route to the Seat of Government-which they began to put in execution on the night of the 19th of July.

BEDFORD, October 20, 1794.

SIR: I have it in special instruction from the President of the United States, now at this place, to convey to you, on his behalf, the following instructions for the general direction of your conduct in the command of the militia army with which you are charged:

The objects for which the militia have been called forth are

some of the western counties of Pennsylvania in
1. To suppress the combinations which exist in
opposition to the laws laying duties upon spirits
distilled within the United States, and upon stills.
2. To cause the laws to be executed.
These objects are to be effected in two ways-
1. By military force;

2. By judiciary process, and other civil pro-
ceedings.

The objects of the military force are two-fold1. To overcome any opposition which may exist;

2. To countenance and support the civil offiInformation has also been received of a meeting cers in the means of executing the laws. of a considerable number of persons at a place With a view to the first of these two objects, called Mingo-creek Meeting-house, in the county you will proceed as speedily as may be with the of Washington, to consult about the further mea-army under your command into the insurgent sures which it might be advisable to pursue; that, counties to attack, and as far as shall be in your at this meeting, a motion was made to approve power subdue, all persons whom you may find in and agree to support the proceedings which had arms in opposition to the laws above-mentioned. taken place until the excise law was repealed, and You will march your army in two columns from an act of oblivion passed. But, that, instead of the places where they are now assembled by the this, it had been agreed that the four western coun- most convenient routes, having regard to the naties of Pennsylvania and the neighboring coun- ture of the roads, the convenience of supply, and ties of Virginia should be invited to meet in a the facility of co-operation and union; and bearconvention of delegates on the 14th of the presenting in mind that you ought to act till the contrary month, at Parkinson's on Mingo creek, in the county of Washington, to take into consideration the situation of the Western country, and concert such measures as should appear suited to the oc

casion.

It appears, moreover, that on the 25th of July last the mail of the United States, on the road from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, was stopped by two armed men who cut it open and took out all the letters, except those contained in one packet. These armed men, from all the circumstances which occurred, were manifestly acting on the part of the insurgents.

The declared object of the foregoing proceedings is to obstruct the execution and compel a repeal of the laws laying duties on spirits distilled within the United States, and upon stills. There is just cause to believe that this is connected with an indisposition, too general in that quarter, to share in the common burdens of the community, and with a wish among some persons of influence to embarrass the Government. It is affirmed by well-informed persons to be a fact of notoriety, that the revenue laws of the State itself have always been either resisted or very defectively complied with in the same quarter.

With the most perfect respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and humble servant, ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

The PRESIDENT of the United States.

shall be fully developed, on the general principle of having to contend with the whole force of the counties of Fayette, Westmoreland, Washington, and Allegany, and of that part of Bedford which lies west of the town of Bedford: and that you are to put as little as possible to hazard. The approximation therefore of your columns is to be sought, and the subdivision of them, so as to place the parts out of mutual supporting distance, to be avoided as far as local circumstances will permit. Parkinson's Ferry appears to be a proper point towards which to direct the march of the columns for the purpose of ulterior measures.

When arrived within the insurgent country, if an armed opposition appear, it may be proper to publish a proclamatiom, inviting all good citizensfriends of the Constitution and laws-to join the standard of the United States. If no armed opposition exist, it may still be proper to publish a proclamation, exhorting to a peaceable and dutiful demeanor, and giving assurances of performing with good faith and liberality whatsoever may have been promised by the Commissioners to those who have complied with the conditions prescribed by them, and who have not forfeited their title by subsequent misconduct.

Of those persons in arms, if any, whom you may make prisoners, leaders, including all persons in command, are to be delivered up to the civil magistrate; the rest to be disarmed, admonished, and

Opposition to the Excise Law.

With a view to the second point, namely, "the countenance and support of the civil officers in the means of executing the laws," you will make such dispositions as shall appear proper to countenance and protect, and, if necessary, and required by them, to support and aid the civil officers in the execution of their respective duties; for bring-per for the army to retire, (an event which you ing offenders and delinquents to justice; for seizing the stills of delinquent distillers, as far as the same shall be deemed eligible by the supervisor of the revenue, or chief officer of inspection; and also for conveying to places of safe custody such persons as may be apprehended and not admitted to bail.

Washington's Farewell Address.

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS: The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the Executive Government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.

welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, I beg you, at the same time, to do me the jus- though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If tice to be assured, that this resolution has not benefits have resulted to our country from these been taken without a strict regard to all the con- services, let it always be remembered to your siderations appertaining to the relation which praise, and as an instructive example in our anbinds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, nals, that under circumstances in which the pasin withdrawing the tender of service which si- sions, agitated in every direction, were liable to lence, in my situation, might imply, I am influ- mislead-amidst appearances sometimes dubious, enced by no diminution of zeal for your future vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for situations in which, not unfrequently, want of your past kindness; but am supported by a full success has countenanced the spirit of criticismconviction that the step is compatible with both. the constancy of your support was the essential The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto prop of the efforts and a guaranty of the plans by in, the office to which your suffrages have twice which they were effected. Profoundly pene called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of incli-trated with this idea I shall carry it with me to nation to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon

the idea.

my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing Vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence, that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn con

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that in the present circumstances of our country you will not disapprove my determina-templations, and to recommend to your frequent tion to retire.

review, some sentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the Government, the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience, in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every and every day, the increasing weight of years ad-ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of monishes me more and more, that the shade of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm, the attachretirement is as necessary to me as it will be ment.

Washington's Farewell Address.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence-the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness-that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a righ to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more Immediately to your interest. Here, every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of the whole.

already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions, to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connexion with any foreign Power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries, not tied together by the same GoFernment; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues, would stimalate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of govern ment, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is, that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its bands.

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common Government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise, and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefitting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its In contemplating the causes which may disparticular navigation invigorated; and while it turb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious contributes in different ways to nourish and in- concern, that any ground should have been for crease the general mass of the national naviga- nished for characterizing parties by geographical tion, it looks forward to the protection of a mari-discriminations-Northern and Southern-Atlan time strength to which itself is unequally adapted. tic and Western; whence designing men may The East, in a like intercourse with the West, endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real dif

Washington's Farewell Address.

However combinations or associations of the

Towards the preservation of your Government, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discounand the permanency of your present happy state, tenance irregular opposition to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which habit are at least as necessary to fix the true chayou may be invited, remember that time and

ference of local interests and views. One of the fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, expedients of party to acquire influence, within to give it an artificial and extraordinary forceparticular districts, is to misrepresent the opin- to put in the place of the delegated will of the ions and aims of other districts. You cannot nation, the will of a party, often a small but artshield yourselves too much against the jealousies ful and enterprising minority of the community; and heart-burnings which spring from these mis- and, according to the alternate triumphs of differrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each ent parties, to make the public administration the other those who ought to be bound together by mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous profraternal affection. The inhabitants of our west- jects of faction, rather than the organ of consistern country have lately had a useful lesson on ent and wholesome plans digested by common this head: they have seen, in the negotiation by councils, and modified by mutual interests. the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in above description may now and then answer poputhe universal satisfaction at that event through-lar ends, they are likely, in the course of time and out the United States, a decisive proof how un- things, to become potent engines, by which cunfounded were the suspicions propagated among ning, ambitious, and unprincipled men, will be them of a policy in the General Government, and enabled to subvert the power of the people, and in the Atlantic States, unfriendly to their inte- to usurp for themselves the reins of government; rest in regard to the Mississippi: they have been destroying afterwards the very engines which witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that have lifted them to unjust dominion. with Great Britain and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirm ing their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren, and connect them with aliens? To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts, can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all aliiances in all times have experienced. Sen-racter of governments as of other human institusible of this momentous truth, you have improved which to test the real tendency of the existing tions-that experience is the surest standard by upon your first essay, by the adoption of a consti- constitution of a country-that facility in changes tution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the effica- upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, cious management of your common concerns. exposes to perpetual change, from the endless This government, the offspring of our own choice, variety of hypothesis and opinion; and rememuninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full in-ber, especially, that for the efficient management vestigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amend ment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But, the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government, pre-supposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of

of

your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty, is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed little else than a name, where the government is and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popu