Albert Gallatin
swerve one hair from the line it prompted. In no part of his long,
varied, and useful political life does he appear to better advantage
than in this exciting episode of the Whiskey Insurrection. His
self-possession, his cool judgment, swayed neither by timidity nor
rashness, never for a moment failed him. Here he displayed that
remarkable combination of persuasion and control,--the indispensable
equipment of a political chief,--which, in later days, gave him the
leadership of the Republican party. With intuitive perception of the
political situation he saw that the only path to safety, beset with
difficulty and danger though it were, was through the convention at
Parkinson's Ferry. He did not believe that any revolutionary proceedings
had yet been taken, or that the convention was an illegal body, but he
was determined to separate the wheat from the chaff, and disengage the
moderate and the law-abiding from the disorderly. By the light of his
own experience he had learned wisdom. He also had drawn a lesson from
the French Revolution, and knew the uncontrollable nature of large
popular assemblages. The news from Philadelphia, the seat of government,
was of a kind to increase his alarm. Washington was not the man to
overlook such an insult to authority as the resistance to the marshal
and inspector; nor was it probable that Hamilton would let pass such an
occasion for showing the strength and vigor of the government.
Before the meeting at Braddock's Field, the secretary's plans for a
suppression of the insurrection were matured. On August 2 he laid
before the President an estimate of the probable armed force of the
insurgents, and of that with which he proposed to reduce them to
submission. When the question of the use of force came before the
cabinet, Edmund Randolph, who was secretary of state, opposed it in a
written opinion, one phrase of which deserves repetition:--
"It is a fact well known that the parties in the United States are
highly inflamed against each other, and that there is but one
character which keeps both in awe. As soon as the sword shall be
drawn, who shall be able to retain them."
Mifflin, the governor of Pennsylvania, deprecated immediate resort to
force; the venerable Chief Justice McKean suggested the sending of
commissioners on the part of the federal and state governments.
Washington, with perfect judgment, combined these plans, and happily
allied conciliation with force. A proclamation was issued on August 7
summoning all persons involved in the disturbance to lay down their arms
and repair to their homes by September 1. Requisitions were made upon
the governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey for
fifteen thousand men in all, and a joint commission of five was
raised,--three of whom on the part of the United States were appointed
by the President, and two on the part of the State of Pennsylvania. This
news was soon known at Pittsburgh, and rapidly spread through the
adjacent country; and it was clear that in the proceedings to be taken
at Parkinson's Ferry the question of resistance or submission must be
definitively settled. On August 14, 1794, the convention assembled; two
hundred and twenty-six delegates in all, of whom ninety-three were from
Washington, forty-nine from Westmoreland, forty-three from Allegheny,
thirty-three from Fayette, two from Bedford, five from Ohio County in
Virginia, with spectators to about the same number.
Parkinson's Ferry, later called Williamsport, and now Monongahela City,
is on the left bank of the Monongahela, about half way between
Pittsburgh and Red Stone Old Fort or Brownsville. Brackenridge pictures
the scene with his usual local color: "Our hall was a grove, and we
might well be called 'the Mountain' (an allusion to the radical left of
the French convention), for we were on a very lofty ground overlooking
the river. We had a gallery of lying timber and stumps, and there were
more people collected there than there was of the committee." In full
view of the meeting stood a liberty pole, raised in the morning by the
men who signed the Braddock's Field circular order, and it bore the
significant motto, "Liberty and no excise and no asylum for cowards."
Among the delegates, or the committee, to use their own term, were
Bradford, Marshall, Brackenridge, Findley, and Gallatin. Before the
meeting was organized, Marshall came to Gallatin and showed him the
resolutions which he intended to move, intimating at the same time that
he wished Mr. Gallatin to act as secretary. Mr. Gallatin told him that
he highly disapproved the resolutions, and had come to oppose both him
and Bradford, and therefore did not wish to serve. Marshall seemed to
waver; but soon the people met, and Edward Cook of Fayette, who had
presided at Braddock's Field, was chosen chairman, with Gallatin for
secretary. Bradford opened the proceedings with a summary sketch of the
action previously taken, declared the purpose of the committee to be to
determine on a course of action, and his own views to be the appointment
of committees to raise money, purchase arms, enlist volunteers, or draft
the militia: in a word, though he did not use it, to levy war.
At this point in the proceedings the arrival of the commissioners from
the President was announced, but the progress of the meeting was not
interrupted. The commissioners were at a house near the meeting, but
there were serious objections against holding a conference at this
place.
Marshall then moved his resolutions. The first, declaratory of the
grievance of carrying citizens great distances for trial, was
unanimously agreed to. The second called for a committee of public
safety "to call forth the resources of the western country to repel any
hostile attempts that may be made against the rights of the citizens, or
of the body of the people." Had this resolution been adopted, the people
were definitively committed to overt rebellion. This brought Mr.
Gallatin at once to his feet. He denied that any hostile attempts
against the rights of the people were threatened, and drew an adroit
distinction between the regular army, which had not been called out, and
the militia, who were a part of the people themselves; and to gain time
he moved a reference of the resolutions to a committee who should be
instructed to wait the action of the government. In the course of his
speech Gallatin denied the assertion that resistance to the excise law
was legal, or that coercion by the government was necessarily hostile.
He was neither supported by his own friends nor opposed by those of
Bradford. He stood alone.
But Marshall withdrew his resolution, and a committee of sixty was
appointed, with power to summon the people. The only other objectionable
resolution was that which pledged the people to the support of the laws,
except the excise law and the taking of citizens out of their counties
for trial,--an exception which Gallatin succeeded in having stricken
out. He then urged the adoption of the resolution, without the
exception, as necessary "to the establishment of the laws and the
conservation of the peace," and here he was supported by Brackenridge.
The entire resolutions were finally referred to a committee of
four,--Gallatin, Bradford, Husbands, and Brackenridge. The meeting then
adjourned. The next morning a standing committee of sixty was chosen,
one from each township. From these a committee of twelve was selected
to confer with the government commissioners. Upon this committee were
Cook, the chairman, Bradford, Marshall, Gallatin, Brackenridge, and
Edgar. The meeting then adjourned.
Upon this representative body there seems to have been no outside
pressure. The proclamation of the President, which arrived while it was
in session, showed the determination, while the appointment of the
commission showed the moderation, of the government. Gallatin availed of
each circumstance with consummate adroitness, pointing out to the
desperate the folly of resistance, and to the moderate an issue for
honorable retreat.
Meanwhile, the commissioners reached Pittsburgh, where on August 20 the
committee of conference was received by them, and an informal
understanding arrived at, which was put in writing. The laws were to be
enforced with as little inconvenience to the people as possible. All
criminal suits for indictable offenses were to be dropped, but civil
suits were to take their course. Notice was given that a definitive
submission must be made by September 1 following. On the 22d the
conference committee answered that they must consult with the committee
of sixty. Thursday the 28th was appointed for a meeting at Red Stone Old
Fort, the very spot where the original resolutions of opposition were
passed in 1791. In the report drawn up every member of the twelve,
except Bradford, favored submission.
The hour was critical, the deliberations were in the open air, and under
the eyes of a threatening party of seventy riflemen accidentally present
from Washington County across the stream. Bradford, who instinctively
felt that he had placed himself beyond the pale of pardon, and to whom
there was no alternative to revolution but flight, pressed an instant
decision and rejection of the written terms of the commissioners. In the
presence of personal danger, the conferrees only dared to move that part
of their report which advised acceptance of the proffered terms. The
question of submission they left untouched. An adjournment was obtained.
The next day, to quote the words of Brackenridge, "the committee having
convened, Gallatin addressed the chair in a speech of some hours. It was
a piece of perfect eloquence, and was heard with attention and without
disturbance." Never was there a more striking instance of intellectual
control over a popular assemblage. He saved the western counties of
Pennsylvania from anarchy and civil war. He was followed by
Brackenridge, who, warned by the example of his companion, or encouraged
by the quiet of the assemblage, supported him with vigor. Bradford, on
the other hand, faced the issue with directness and savage vehemence. He
repelled the idea of submission, and insisted upon an independent
government and a declaration of war. Edgar of Washington rejoined in
support of the report. Gallatin now demanded a vote, but the twelve
conferrees alone supported him. He then proposed an informal vote, but
without result. Finally a secret ballot was proposed by a member. A hat
was passed, and when the slips of paper were taken out, there were
thirty-four yeas and twenty-three nays. The report was declared to be
adopted, and amid the scowls of the armed witnesses the meeting
adjourned; not, however, before a new committee of conference had been
appointed. On this new committee not one of the old leaders was named.
They evidently knew the folly of further delay, or of attempting to
secure better terms. As his final act Colonel Cook, the chairman of the
standing committee of sixty, indorsed the resolution adopted. It
declared it to be "to the interest of the people of the country to
accede to the proposals made by the commissioners on the part of the
United States." This was duly forwarded, with request for a further
conference. The commissioners consented, but declined to postpone the
time of taking the sense of the people beyond September 11.
William Findley said of the famous and critical debate at Red Stone: "I
had never heard speeches that I more ardently desired to see in print
than those delivered on this occasion. They would not only be valuable
on account of the oratory and information displayed in all the three,
and especially in Gallatin's, who opened the way, but they would also
have been the best history of the spirit and the mistakes which then