VII. sumed name of Tom the Tinker, had been deeply con- CHAPTER cerned in stirring up previous outrages against officers who attempted to enforce the law, and distillers who were 1794. disposed to submit to it. On the approach of this force, Neville escaped from the house, leaving his kinsman, Major Fitzpatrick, with the soldiers, to make such defense or capitulation as might seem expedient. The assailants had appointed a committee of three as directors of the enterprise, and they had chosen as commander one M'Farlane, formerly a lieutenant in the Continental service. The surrender of Neville was demanded, and, on information that he was gone, the admission of six men to search the house for the papers connected with his office. This being refused, a flag was sent for the women to leave the house, soon after which an attack was commenced. M'Farlane was killed and several other of the assailants were wounded; but they succeeded in setting fire to the out-houses, and, as the flames threatened to spread, the garrison, three of whom had been wounded, found themselves obliged to surrender. The men were dismissed without injury, but all the buildings were burned to the ground. The marshal and the inspector's son, who came up just after the surrender, were made prisoners. The marshal was subjected to a good deal of abuse, and was only dismissed after a promise, extorted by threats of instant death, and guaranteed by young Neville, not to attempt to serve any more processes west of the mountains. The next day a message was sent to Pittsburg, where the July 18 inspector and the marshal had taken refuge, requiring the one to resign his office, and the other to give up the warrants in his possession. This they refused to do. The means of protection at Pittsburg were small; and as the roads eastward would most likely be guarded, as CHAPTER the only means of escape, they embarked on the Ohio, VII. descended as far as Marietta, and thence set out by land 1794. for Philadelphia, the greater part of the way through a wilderness. The next decided step seems to have been a public July 23. meeting, held at Mingo Creek meeting-house, in the neighborhood of which most of the late rioters resided. Bradford and Marshall were both present; also Brackenridge, a lawyer of Pittsburg, a leading member of the Democratic club of that town, and who attended, according to his own account, by special invitation. Bradford was for making common cause with the rioters. Brackenridge suggested that, however justifiable in itself, their conduct was nevertheless illegal, and that it was bad policy to draw into the same position those who might otherwise act as mediators. It was finally agreed to call a convention of delegates from all the townships west of the mountains, and from the adjoining counties of Maryland and Virginia, to meet in three weeks at Parkinson's Ferry, on the Monongahela. July 26. Two or three days after this preliminary meeting, anxious to ascertain how the late proceedings had been represented, Bradford caused the mail from Pittsburg to Philadelphia to be intercepted. Letters were found in it, from young Neville and others, giving accounts, by no means satisfactory to the parties concerned, of the burning of the inspector's house, and of the late meeting at Mingo Creek. Without waiting for the proposed convention, a circular, signed by Bradford, Marshall, July 28. and four or five others, was forthwith addressed to the officers of the militia of the western counties, stating that, by the interception of the mail, important secrets had been discovered, which made necessary an expression of sentiment, not by words, but by actions. The officers VII. were therefore called upon to muster as many volun- CHAPTER teers as they could, to assemble on the first of August at the usual place of rendezvous, at Braddock's Field, on 1794. the Monongahela, with arms and accouterments, and provisions for four days. Meanwhile, the mail, with its contents, except the intercepted letters, was sent back to Pittsburg, and the July 31. citizens of that town, to pacify the excitement, went through the form of expelling the obnoxious letter-writers. The summons to the militia, though it had only three days to circulate, and that among a population scattered over a wide extent of country, drew together not less than seven thousand armed men. Many afterward al- Aug. 1. leged that they went out of curiosity, and others, that their sole intention was to prevent mischief; and this was certainly the case with some who were present, among whom was Ross, the United States senator. But the very fact of this prompt obedience to their orders. could not but inspire the leaders with a high idea of their power and influence, while it tended also to increase the mischief, by giving the impression to the public at large of a general unanimity of sentiment. Colonel Cook, one of the judges of Fayette county, a member of the first popular convention held in Pennsylvania at the commencement of the Revolution, distinguished for his opposition to the excise, having repeatedly presided at the public meetings called to protest against it, was chosen president of this armed assembly. Albert Gallatin, the late rejected senator, was appointed secretary. Bradford, to whom every body cringed, assumed the character of major general, and reviewed the troops. A committee, to whom matters of business were referred, resolved that two more citizens of Pittsburg should be expelled. The troops then marched into the town, and CHAPTER after receiving refreshments, which the terrified inhabitVII. ants hastened to furnish, the greater part marched out 1794. again. The more orderly dispersed; but several parties kept together, one of which destroyed a barn belonging to Major Fitzpatrick, and another attempted, but without success, to burn his house in Pittsburg. It was Bradford's design, in calling this armed body together, to get possession of Fort Pitt, and the arms and ammunition deposited in it; but, finding most of the principal militia officers unwilling to co-operate, that design was abandoned. Immediately after this armed assembly, the remaining excise officers were expelled even from those districts in which the opposition had hitherto been less violent. Many outrages were committed, some of the officers being cruelly treated, and their houses burned. The same spirit began to spread into the bordering counties of Virginia, and, as the day for the meeting at Parkinson's Ferry approached, things assumed a very threatening aspect. However opposition to the excise law might have been countenanced by the great body of the population, including the principal political leaders, the measures of actual resistance to it had been chiefly in the hands of a few violent and reckless individuals, who, sometimes by outrages and sometimes by threats, had kept in awe not only the excise officers, but such of the distillers also as were disposed to submit to the payment of the tax. This reign of terror was now extended and completely established. No one dared utter a word against the recent proceedings for fear of banishment, personal violence, or the destruction of his property. News of the burning of Neville's house, of the meeting at Mingo Creek, and of the robbery of the mail soon July 31. reached Philadelphia. In the eyes of the president and his cabinet, these incidents assumed a very serious char VII. acter. With the arrival of news of the great triumphs CHAPTER achieved by the French arms, and of the subsidence of internal revolt under the terrible discipline of the Reign 1794. of Terror, the Democratic societies, recovering from the temporary check growing out of the conduct of Genet and the disasters of the French republic, had become more vigorous and violent than ever, and very unsparing in their attacks upon the policy of the federal administration. The Charleston society, on their own application, and on motion of the celebrated Collot d'Herbois, had been recognized by the Jacobin Club of Paris as an affiliated branch. The Democratic society of Washington county, one of those involved in the present disturbances, had recently passed strong resolutions, copied from those of Kentucky, on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi. The French agents were still active in Kentucky, and a secret understanding was suspected between all these parties. The Democratic society of Philadelphia hastened indeed to pass resolutions, in which, after execrating the excise law, they declared, however, their disapproval of violent resistance. But no great faith was placed in their sincerity, or in the concurrence of the affiliated branches. In a cotemporary letter to Governor Lee, of Virginia, Washington speaks of the leaders of these societies-the great body of the members knowing little of the real plan-as artful and designing men, whose great object was, under a display of popular and fascinating guises, to destroy all confidence in the administration, and likely, if not counteracted and their real character exposed, to shake the government to its very foundation. In the present inflammatory state of the public mind, the resistance to the laws in Western Pennsylvania, if not immediately checked, might find many imitators. |