History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 68

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 68

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221

free colored in Washington County ...

855

1840, in Cross Creek, a female slave,d and over 45

in Cecil, a female slave, and over 45.

in Western District of Pennsylvania, total.

= in Eastern District of Pennsylvania, total.

free colored in Washington County ...

1113

When slavery and servitude had ceased to exist under the law in Pennsylvania, many of her people turned their attention to its extermination in other States, and there were not a few in Washington County who were always ready to aid the slave in his escape from his Southern master. In spite of the terrors of the Fugitive Slave law, there were bold men who did not hesitate to become station-agents of the Underground Railway, which had several routes across this county.

The roadway of this corporation was not always the same, though the stations and agents were always to be found. The fugitives from Virginia, below us on the south, seldom came down the Monongahela River, perhaps because that was a route which they would be expected to follow, but almost always traveled with guides across the country, along unfrequented ridges and valleys, until brought to a friendly station.

It is too soon to make known the names of persons who assumed the responsibility of caring for and aid- ing these fugitives on their way. They might be sub- jected to the reflections of those who think that a law, however wrong, should be obeyed until repealed, But whatever view be held as to this, no one would im- pute much wrong to the colored man who became the conductor of his brethren from slavery to freedom. And this enables the writer to close the subject with one incident, illustrating the method of running the Underground Railway.

In 1856 about a half-dozen sturdy fellows escaped

1 " Under the law of March 29, 1788, registries of children liable to servitude continued in Fayette for more than half a century, and three hundred and fifty-four such registries were made in the county during the period from Feb. 5, 1789, to Jan. 12, 1839, after which latter date none have been found in the records."-History of Fayette County, by Major Franklin Ellis, 1882.

2 I. Col. Records, 564.

3 This slave woman was Hannah Kelly, the grandmother of Charles C. Kelly, at this date the Republican candidate for the office of jury commissioner for Washington County. She was brought from Africa when about three years old, sold in Virginia from the ship, afterwards bought by one John Elliott, a merchant of Pittsburgh, and by his ad- ministrators sold to Mr. John Gardner. Mr. Gardner died in 1820, and the woman remained with the family till the death of Mrs. Gardner, in 1820. She herself died, Jan. 31, 1863, from a burning received on the first of that month. She was thought to be one hundred and ten years old at her death. Communicated by Mr. James Simpson, of Cross Creek township.

= in Smith, a female, and over 45.

262

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

from their owner, living near Clarksburg, Va. They were under the guidance of an experienced conductor, who knew to whom to bring them. Arriving at Waynesburg, they were delivered over to a colored barber there, who fed them at a spring in a deep thicket across the creek, then brought them to a dry- house and stowed them away among the lumber. The owner was heard to be approaching, when for greater safety they were started to Rogersville. While the transfer was being made the owner arrived at Waynesburg with his posse, and began to search the town. The barber was out on the streets. Being the regularly commissioned conductor from that place, under the circumstances it was best he should easily be found. The owner met him, and charged him with a knowledge of his property. The barber trembled, but while the owner threatened, then coaxed, then scolded, he parleyed and joked and denied to gain time for the fugitives. At length the owner pulled out a roll of money and offered him three hundred dollars per head to disclose where the slaves were. A gen- tleman, then a student at Waynesburg College, who, unobserved himself, saw and heard this offer from within the door of the Hamilton House hotel, held his breath till he heard the rejection of it, accompanied by this remark, "No, sir; if I knowed where your slaves are, all the money in the South wouldn't git me to tell." That barber was Ermin Cain, the pres- ent janitor of our court-house.

The slaves were not found. Shipped from Rogers- ville to West Alexander, thence to West Middletown, for a time they were kept in that neighborhood until the owner's watch for them along the Ohio was ended. Then one night they were cautiously guided towards Washington, and at a blacksmith-shop in Canton township put into the hands of Samuel W. Dorsey, a colored barber at Washington, now deceased, who well knew how to get them into Canada, and that soon.

Let it be made known here now that among gen- tlemen of good position who were always ready to aid fugitives from slavery were many connected with the political party alleged to be in sympathy with the "institution," and whose uncompromising advo- cacy of their political principles was abundantly sufficient to conceal a most active employment as the humble and unpaid agents of the Underground Rail- way.

CHAPTER XX.

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION.

IN 1794, and a few preceding years (but principally from 1791 to the year first named), there occurred in the valley of the Monongahela and region contiguous to it a series of unlawful and violent acts, to which,

collectively, was applied the term "The Whiskey Insurrection," a term which in that application has continued in use for seven-eighths of a century. These illegal and insurrectionary acts were done in the four (then) southwestern counties of Pennsylvania,- Washington, Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Fayette, -but of these four Washington was the chief actor, "the home of the Insurrection." It was in this county that the insurgent spirit first showed itself. Here it lived longest, and in this county more es- pecially than in either of the three others it was vio- lent and reckless during its continuance. The insur- rectionary outbreak embraced an armed resistance on several occasions to the execution of certain State and national laws imposing an excise tax on distilled spirits and stills used for the manufacture of such spirits, a measure which was generally and peculiarly obnoxious to the people of these counties, particu- larly because they regarded it as calculated to bear with especial and discriminating severity on the industries of this section as compared with other parts of the country.

The first excise tax imposed in the province of Pennsylvania was that authorized in an act of Assem- bly passed March 16, 1684, entitled " Bill of Aid and Assistance of the Government."1 As it was found to be objectionable to the sense of the people, that part of the bill relating to the collection of excise duties was repealed soon afterwards, and no similar legisla- tion was had for more than half a century. In 1738 the Provincial Assembly passed " An act for laying an excise on wine, rum, brandy, and other spirits,"? but this, like its predecessor of 1684, was received with such unmistakable disfavor that it remained in force only a few months from the commencement of its operation. Again, in May, 1744, the Assembly re- newed the measure, "for the purpose of providing money without a general tax, not only to purchase arms and ammunition for defense, but to answer such demands as might be made upon the inhabitants of the province by his Majesty for distressing the public enemy in America."" This enactment remained in operation but a short time. Another excise law was passed in 1756, but failed of execution; then for nearly sixteen years the people of Pennsylvania were undisturbed by governmental attempts to collect im- post duties on spirits.

In 1772 the subject came again before the Assem- bly, and as a measure of revenue a new act was passed,4 levying a duty on domestic and foreign dis- tilled spirits. At first this law was not executed in reference to domestic liquors, nor was there any ener- getic attempt made for that purpose, particularly in the old counties of the province ; but after Pennsyl- vania became a State, and her necessities were greatly increased by the Revolutionary war, then in progress,

1 Votes of Assembly, i. 29.

3 Ibid., 299.

2 Dallas, i. 293.

4 Ibid., 634.

263

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION.

the law was re-enacted and put in execution,1 and a very considerable revenue obtained in that way, the measure being at that time the less obnoxious because patriotic men were opposed to the consumption of grain in distillation at a time when every bushel was needed for the subsistence of the troops in the field fighting for liberty.2 A large part of the proceeds collected at that time was appropriated to the "de- preciation fund," created in this State (as in others, in pursuance of a resolution passed by Congress in 1780) for the purpose of giving to officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army an additional compensa- tion, a measure which was manifestly just and neces- sary, because the value of their pay had been greatly lessened by the depreciation of the Continental cur- rency.

After the close of the Revolution, laws imposing excise duties on distilled spirits remained on the Pennsylvania statute-books until 1791, but they were not generally enforced, and were exceedingly unpop- ular, especially in the western and southwestern por- tions of the State. During the period mentioned (some seven or eight years prior to their repeal in 1791), though the excise laws of the State were by no means generally enforced, the collection of the rev- enue tax on spirits was several times attempted, but never successfully executed in the southwestern coun- ties. Such an attempt was made in Washington, Fayette, and Westmoreland Counties in the years 1785 and 1786, by an excise collector named William Graham, whose ill success in the attempt in Wash- ington County is thus narrated by Judge Veech :

"In 1785 they [the Executive Council] sent out as collector for the three counties a broken-down Phila- delphia Market Street tavern-keeper by the name of Graham. He collected some in Fayette without any obstacle. He then went to Westmoreland and got a little there, but in the darkness of the night, at his hotel, he was called to the door of his room by a man in disguise who told him he was Beelzebub, and had called for him to hand him over for torment to a legion

of devils who were in waiting without." He saw his danger and escaped, but was afraid to stay longer, and " fled with all convenient speed into what he was told was the more sober and submissive county of Wash- ington, then covering all west of the Monongahela. There he fared worse than at Greensburg." How badly the collector fared in Washington County is shown in a letter written by Dorsey Pentecost3 to the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, as follows :

".WASHINGTON COUNTY, 16th April, 1786.

" GENTLEMEN :

" About ten days ago a Mr. Graham, Excise officer for the three western Counties, was in the exercise of his office in this County, seized by a number of People and Treated in the following manner, viz. : His Pis- tols, which he carried before him, taken and broke to pieces in his presence, his Commission and all his papers relating to his Office tore and thrown in the mud, and he forced or made to stamp on them, and Imprecate curses on himself, the Commission, and the Authority that gave it to him; they then cut off one- half his hair, cued the other half on one side of his Head, cut off the Cock of his Hat, and made him wear it in a form to render his Cue the most Conspicuous ; this with many other marks of Ignominy they Im- pos'd on him, and to which he was obliged to submit ; and in the above plight they marched him amidst a Crowd from the frontiers of this County to Westmore- land County, calling at all the Still Houses in their way, where they were Treated Gratis, and expos'd him to every Insult and mockery that their Invention could contrive. They set him at Liberty at the en- trance of Westmoreland, but with Threats of utter Desolution should he dare to return to our County.

"This Bandittie I am told denounces distruction, vengeance against all manner of People who dare to oppose or even ganesay this their unparrelled beha- vior, and that they will support every person con- cerned against every opposition. I suppose they depend on their numbers, for I am told the Combi- nation is large.

"I have thought it my duty as a good citizen to give your Honorable Board information of this match- less and daring Insult offered to Government, and the necessity there is for a speedy and Exemplary pun- ishing being inflicted on these atrocious offenders, for if this piece of conduct is lightly looked over, no Civil officer will be safe in the Exercise of his duty, though some Gentlemen with whom I have conversed think it would be best, and wish a mild prosecution : for my part, I am of a different opinion, for it cer- tainly is the most audacious and accomplished piece of outragious and unprovoked Insult that was ever offered to a Government and the Liberties of a free People, and what in my opinion greatly agrivates their Guilt is that it was not done in a Gust of Passion, but cooly, deliberately, and Prosecuted from

1 In 1779 the Assembly enacted a law to prevent the distillation of all kinds of grain or meal, but in the October following the law was re- pealed so far as to permit the distillation of rye and barley.

2 Findley, in his history of the Western Insurrection, says, "In the time of the Revolutionary war, when neither foreign rum nor molasses could be imported, the demand for domestic distilled spirits for the army and for general consumption became exceeding great, and the manufacturing of it became so profitable that not only the rye, but a great quantity of wheat was consumed by distillation. In many parts of the country you could scarcely get out of sight of the smoke of a still-house. The citizens became alarmed lest the army should suffer for want of bread for the troops, and forage for the horses./ The clergy from the pulpits, and in some instances by judicial warnings of Presby- teries, inveighed against this alarming destruction of bread from the army and the poor, and against the still-houses, as the general nurseries of intoxication and licentiousness. There was no law then in force to prevent distillers from selling in small quantities, consequently those who loved to get drunk at a small expense resorted to the stills. The manners of our youth were much endangered by the number of the stills, and by associating with such as usually resorted to these recep- tacles of vice. The army soon felt the effects of this waste of grain to an alarming degree."

$ Pa. Archives, x. 757.

264

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

day to day, and there appears such a desolute and refractory spirit to pervade a Certain class of People here, particularly those concerned in the above Job, that demands the attention of Government, and the most severe punishment.

"I am not able to give the names of all concerned, nor. have I had an opportunity of making particular enquiry, but have received the foregoing information from different people on whom I can rely, neither do I think they have as many friends as they suppose, or would wish to make the public believe. I have it not in my Power at this time to be as full and ex- plicit as I could wish on this subject, as I have but Just time to hurry up this scrawl while the carrier is waiting."

This was the first actual violence committed in re- sistance to the execution of the excise laws in Western Pennsylvania. It occurred on the 7th of April, 1786, at a place near Cross Creek village. Graham made no further attempt to enforce collections, or to remain in Washington County ; but prosecutions for riot were instituted against twelve persons charged with being concerned in the affair, and they were in due time found guilty and fined; but their fines were after- wards remitted. One of them was afterwards elected to Congress, and three times re-elected, serving in all eight years.

With regard to Graham and his appointment as excise collector, Findley says, "A person of more fair character and greater discretion would have been necessary for the successful discharge of that trust, but such did not apply." But Findley almost invari- ably defended, or at least apologized for, the acts of the insurgents and censured those engaged in attempts to execute the law. Judge Veech says of him (Find- ley), "He was an ultra partisan of the Republican or Anti-Federal school. He was considered one of the leaders of the opposition to Washington's administra- tion, and being charged with instigating the Whiskey Insurrection, wrote his book to defend himself and abuse Hamilton. .. . In Garland's ' Life of John Ran- dolph' he is said to have been habitually intemperate while in Congress, a statement which has some sup- port from tradition."

After Graham's maltreatment and expulsion from the country, the office of collector was accepted by a Mr. Craig, who made some attempt to execute the duties, but, as is said by Brackenridge, “ with no result but that of becoming infamous with the populace.1

Another attempt was made by a person of the name of Hunter, who made seizures in Pittsburgh in 1790, and instituted seventy suits against delinquent distil- lers; in these cases the suits were set aside for irregu- larity, and Hunter soon after left the country and resigned his commission." No further attempts at col- lection were made by officers in this district under the State law during its continuance. A bill for its re- peal was introduced in 1790, and during its pendency in the Assembly a numerously signed petition of in- habitants of Westmoreland County was presented praying for the repeal of the excise law. The memo- rial and petition set forth : 2

" That this is the only law passed since our Revo- lution that has been treated with general disapproba- tion, and reflected upon with universal abhorrence and detestation; and such has been the resentment of many of our fellow-citizens, which we are sorry to have occasion to confess that they have upon several occasions proceeded to unwarrantable lengths in op- posing its operations.

" We do not deny that we are as strongly rooted in the habits, and as much addicted to the use of spirituous liquors as our brethren in the eastern part of the State; having emigrated from among them, we cannot be condemned for carrying their customs along with us. But independent of habit, we find that the moderate use of spirits is essentially necessary in sev- eral branches of our agriculture. In this new coun- try laborers are exceedingly scarce, and their hire exceedingly high, and we find that liquor proves a necessary means of engaging their service and secur- ing their continuance through the several important seasons of the year when the pressing calls of labour must be attended to, let the conditions be what they may. For these reasons we have found it absolutely necessary to introduce a numer of small distilleries into our settlements ; and in every circle of twenty or thirty neighbours, one of these are generally erected, merely for the accommodation of such neighbour- hood, and without any commercial views whatever. The proprietor thereof receives the grain (rye only) from the people, and returns the stipulated quantity of liquor, after retaining the toll agreed upon. In this manner we are supplied with this necessary ar- ticle, much upon the same conditions that our mills furnish us with flour; and why we should be made subject to a duty for drinking our grain more than eating it, seems a matter of astonishment to every re- flecting mind.

" Thèse distilleries, small and insignificant as they are, have always been classed among the first objects of taxation, and have been highly estimated in the valuation of property. This, we conceive, might fully suffice, without extending revenue to the mean and humble manufacture produced by them. With as much propriety, a duty might be laid on the rye we

1 " Afterwards a man of the name of Craig accepted of the office of excise for the western counties. His son, who acted as his deputy, I was acquainted with ; he behaved himself well and appeared to be success- ful, but his father getting into some quarrels, near the place of his resi- dence, complaints went against him, and he was removed. ... There were no riots but those against Graham ; but as all those who held the office received some money, for which it was believed they never ac- counted (probably they did not receive more than was a competent com- pensation), those that paid at first, seeing others escape with impunity, refused to comply. They all knew that in the old counties it was gen- erally paid only on foreign liquors."-Findley.

2 Penn. Archives, 1790, pp. 670, 671.

265

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION.

feed to our horses, the bread we eat ourselves, or any other article manufactured from the products of our own farms.

"Our remote situation from the channels of com- merce has long ago prohibited the use of all imported liquors amongst us, and as we are aiming at independ- ence in our manner of living, we have neither the abilities nor inclination to aspire to their use. We freely resign them to our eastern neighbours whom Providence has placed under the meridian rays of commercial affluence, and whose local situation con- fer on them many enjoyments which nature has de- nied to us; and whilst they are revelling in the lux- uries of the most bountiful foreign climes, we are perfectly content with the humble produce of our own farms, and it is our only wish to be permitted to enjoy them in freedom."

The repealing act1 was passed, and approved Sept. 21, 1781; but in the mean time Congress had passed the national excise law, which brought about the in- surrection in the western counties of Pennsylvania.

Upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution, it became necessary to provide ways and means to sup- port the government, to pay just and pressing Revo- lutionary claims, and sustain the army, which was still necessary for the protection of the frontier against Indian attack. "The duties on goods imported were very far from adequate to the wants of the new gov- ernment. Taxes were laid on articles supposed to be the least necessary, and, among other things, on dis- tilled liquors, or on the stills with which they were manufactured." At the suggestion of Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, a bill was framed, among the provisions of which was the impo- sition of an excise duty of four pence per gallon on all distilled spirits. This hill was passed by Congress, March 3, 1791, against the strong opposition of many members, including all those from the western coun- ties of Pennsylvania.2

It was argued that the law of 1791 bore more heavily and unjustly on the interests of the region west of the Alleghenies than on those of any other part of the Union. Here a principal product of the farmers was rye. For this there was little home de- mand, and it could not be transported across the mountains at a profit, except in the form of whiskey. " A horse could carry but four bushels, but he could take the product of twenty-four bushels in the shape of alcohol. Whiskey, therefore, was the most import- ant item of remittance to pay for their salt, sugar, ' and iron."" As a result of these peculiar circum- stances, there was in this section a greater number of stills and a larger amount of whiskey manufactured than in any other region of the same population in any part of the country. "There were very few or no large manufactories where grain was bought and cash paid. There was not capital in the country for that purpose. In some neighborhoods every fifth or sixth farmer was a distiller, who during the winter season manufactured his own grain and that of his neighbors into a portable and salable article." And thus the people thought "they foresaw that what little money was brought into the country by the sale of whiskey would be carried away in the form of excise duties." 4

In these western counties a large proportion of the inhabitants were Scotch-Irish, or of that descent, a people whose earlier home, or that of their fathers, had been beyond the sea, in a land where whiskey was the national beverage, and where excise laws and excise officers were regarded as the most odious of all the measures and minions of tyranny.5 "They also remembered that resistance to the Stamp Act and duty on tea at the commencement of the Revolution began by the destruction of the tea and a refusal to

1 " An Act to repeal so much of every act or acts of Assembly of this State as relates to the collection of excise duties," provided, " Section 1. . . . That so much of every act or acts of Assembly as authorize the collection of any duty or duties upon wine, rum, brandy, or other spirit- uous liquors shall be, and the same are, hereby repealed.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 68

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216