History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 69

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 69

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"Section 2. Provided always, . . . That nothing herein contained sball be deemed or construed to prevent the recovery of all such duties upon the said articles as are now due to the Commonwealth, nor to release or take away any forfeiture or penalty which any person or persons may have incurred by reason of the said acts of Assembly ; but that all prose- cutions commenced, or which may be commenced in consequence there- of, may be prosecuted to as full effect as if such acts or parts thereof had not been repealed."

2 The House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, too, recorded its pro- test against the national excise law. On June 22, 1791, it was by that body

" Resolved, That any proceeding on the part of the United States tend- ing to the collection of revenue by means of excise established on prin- ciples subversive of peace, liberty, and the rights of the citizens ought to attract the attention of this House.

" Resolved, That no public urgency within the knowledge or contem- plation of this House can in their opinion warrant the adoption of any species of taxation which shall violate those rights which are the basis of our government, and which would exhibit the singular spectacle of a nation resolutely oppressing the oppressed of others in order to enslave itself."

8 " As late as the year of the insurrection, freight in wagons to Phila- delphia cost from five to ten dollars per hundred pounds. Salt sold at five dollars a bushel, while iron and steel cost from fifteen to twenty cents per pound. In that fertile region grain was abundantly produced, but there was no market, while farmers east of the mountains were growing rich by means of the general war in Europe. Trade down the Ohio, despite its danger, had then no outlet, the lower Mississippi being in possession of the Spanish. The freight on a barrel of flour to Phila- delphia was as much as it would bring in that market. 'Wheat,' says the Rev. Dr. Carnahan, ' was so plentiful and of so little value that it was a common practice to grind that of the best quality and feed it to the cattle ; while rye, corn, and barley would bring no price as food for man or beast.' The only way left for the inhabitants to obtain a little money to purchase salt, iron, and other articles necessary in carrying on their farming operations was by distilling their grain and reducing it to a more portable form, and sending the whiskey over the mountains or down the Ohio to Kentucky, then rapidly filling up and affording a market for that article."-Papers Relating to the Whiskey Insurrection, Pa. Archives, vol. iv., 6.

4 Address of Rev. Dr. Carnahan.

5 " To resist or elude the excise is one of the hereditary prerogatives of an Irishman, be he Protestant or Catholic. To kill an exciseman has been reckoned among them an ample expiation for a multitude of sins. By every uative of the Emerald Isle it is regarded as the most humiliat- ing badge of subjection which England has ever imposed; and if the parents have nothing else to transmit to their posterity, they bequeath to them unto the third and fourth generations a hatred of excise laws, and of all who make or enforce them. Nor was it much better in Scot- land."

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use the royal stamps; that the design was not to break allegiance to the British throne, but to force a repeal of these odious laws. They were, almost to a man, enemies to the British government, and had contri- buted their full proportion in service in establishing the independence of America. To them no other tax of equal amount would have been half so odious." It can scarcely be wondered at then that among a people holding such opinions the measure was re- garded as a most unjust and oppressive one, nor that the more hot-headed and turbulent ones freely and fiercely announced their determination to oppose its execution even to the extremity of armed resistance to the government.

This rebellious sentiment was so wide-spread, so unmistakable in its character, and indicated by such open threats of violence to any officers who might be hardy enough to attempt the collection of the excise duty, that it became difficult to find any proper person willing to take the risk of accepting the office of chief inspector of the Western District. The position was finally accepted by Gen. John Neville,1 of Allegheny County, a man who above nearly all others was, on account of his great personal popularity and unques- tioned honesty and patriotism, the proper man for the place. But the confidence and respect of his fellow- citizens proved insufficient to screen him from their insults and violence when against these was weighed the fact that he had accepted an office the duties of which obliged him to attempt the execution of a law which they detested.

The popular excitement increased rapidly, the spirit of resistance became more determined, and soon found expression in a public act which may be said to have marked the commencement of the famous " Whiskey Insurrection." This was a preliminary meeting held at Redstone Old Fort (Brownsville), on the 27th of July, 1791, composed of people opposed to the exe- cution of the law. At this meeting it was concerted that county committees should be formed in each of the four counties of Washington, Fayette, Westmore- land, and Allegheny, to meet at the respective county- seats and take measures looking to a common end,- successful resistance to the operation of the law. These committees were formed accordingly, and the

1 " In order to allay opposition as far as possible," says Judge Wilke- son, "Gen. John Neville, a man of the most deserved popularity, was appointed to the inspector hip for Western Pennsylvania. He accepted the appointment from a sense of duty to his country. He was one of the few men of great wealth who had put his all at hazard for independence. At his own expense he raised and equipped a company of soldiers, marched them to Boston, and placed them, with his son, under the command of General Washington. Besides Gen. Neville's claims as a soldier and a patriot, he had contributed greatly to relieve the sufferings of the settlers in his vicinity. He divided his last loaf with the needy; and in a sea- son of more than ordinary scarcity, as soon as his wheat was sufficiently matured to be converted into food, he opened his fields to those who were suffering with hunger. Il any man could have executed this odious law, Gen. Neville was that man. He entered upon the duties of his office and appointed his deputies from among the most popular citizens. The first attempts, however, to enforce the law were resisted."

temper and ideas of the men composing them may be judged from the proceedings had at a meeting of the Washington County Committee, held at the county-seat on the 23d of August, on which occasion resolutions were passed to the effect that any person who had accepted or might accept an office under Congress in order to carry the excise law into effect should be considered inimical to the interests of the country, and recommending to the people of their county to treat every person who had accepted, or might thereafter accept, any such office with contempt, and absolutely to refuse all kind of communication or intercourse with him, and to withhold from him all aid, support, or comfort. The Secretary of the Treasury (Alexander Hamilton) mentioned that among those present at this meeting at Washington were the following-named persons, all public officers of Pennsylvania, viz .: James Marshel, register and recorder of Washington County ; David Bradford, deputy attorney-general of Pennsylvania ; Henry Tay- lor and James Edgar, associates justices of Wash- ington County ; Thomas Crooks, William Parker, Eli Jenkins, and Thomas Sedgwick, justices of the peace ; and Peter Kidd, major of Washington County militia. The resolutions passed at this meeting were printed in the Pittsburgh Gazette, the proprietor of which paper would doubtless have feared the consequences of a refusal to publish them if he had been so dis- posed.

Each of the four county committees deputed three of its members to meet at Pittsburgh on the first Tues- day of September following, for the purpose of ex- pressing the sense of the people of the four counties in an address to Congress "upon the subject of the excise law, and other grievances." The meeting of delegates was held at Pittsburgh, as appointed, on the 7th of September, 1791, on which occasion (according to the minutes of the meeting) "the following gentle- men appeared from the counties of Washington, West- moreland, Fayette, and Allegheny, to take into con- sideration an act of Congress laying duties upon spirits distilled within the United States, passed the 3d of March, 1791 :

"For Westmoreland County: Nehemiah Stokely and John Young, Esqs.

" For Washington County : Col. James Marshall, Rev. David Phillips, and David Bradford, Esq.

"For Fayette County : Edward Cook, Nathaniel Bradley [Breading], and John Oliphant, Esqs.

" For Allegheny County : Col. Thomas Morton, John Woods, Esq., and William Plumer, Esq.

" Edward Cook, Esq., was voted in the chair, and John Young appointed secretary."

The meeting then proceeded to pass a series of resolutions, censuring the legislation of the late Con- gress, especially the obnoxious excise law, which they characterized as "a base offspring of the funding system, . . . being attended with infringements on liberty, partial in its operations, attended with great

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expense in the collection, and liable to much abuse," and declaring that " it is insulting to the feelings of the people to have their vessels marked, houses painted and ransacked, to be subject to informers, gaining by the occasional delinquency of others. It is a bad pre- cedent, tending to introduce the excise laws of Great Britain, and of countrys where the liberty, property, and even the morals of the people are sported with, to gratify particular men in their ambitious and inter- ested measures." The meeting also adopted a remon- strance to " be presented to the Legislature of Penn- sylvania," and further " Resolved, That the foregoing representations [the series of resolutions adopted] be presented to the Legislature of the United States." An address was also adopted, which, together with the proceedings of the day, was ordered to be printed in the Pittsburgh Gazette, and the meeting then adjourned.

In reference to this meeting at Pittsburgh, and others of similar character, Mr. Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, said that, being " composed of very influential individuals, and conducted without mod- eration or prudence," they were justly chargeable with the excesses which were afterwards committed, serving to give consistency to an opposition which at length matured to a degree that threatened the foun- dations of the government.

On the 6th of September, the day before the meet- ing of the committees' delegates at Pittsburgh, the opposition to the law broke out in an act of open vio- lence, said to have been the first of the kind com- mitted in the western counties since the outrage on Graham, five years before. At a place near Pigeon Creek, in Washington County, a party of men, armed and disguised, waylaid Robert Johnson (collector of revenue for Allegheny and Washington), cut off his hair, stripped him of his clothing, tarred and feath- ered him, and took away his horse, " obliging him to travel on foot a considerable distance in that mortify- ing and painful situation." He was also compelled to resign his commission and to publish the fact in the Pittsburgh Gazette, which he did as follows: "Finding the opposition to the revenue laws more violent than I expected, regretting the mischief that has been done, and may from the continuance of measures [continue to be done] ; seeing the opposi- tion changed from a disguised rabble to a respectable party, I think it my duty, and do resign my com- mission. Robert Jobnson." It was stated that the commission itself was surrendered by Johnson to Da- vid Hamilton. The case was brought before the Dis- trict Court, out of which processes issued against John Robertson, John Hamilton, and Thomas McComb, three of the persons concerned in the outrage. The serving of these processes was confided by the then marshal, Clement Biddle, to his deputy, Joseph Fox, who in the month of October went into Allegheny County for the purpose of serving them ; but he was terrified by the "appearances and circumstances which he observed in the course of his journey," and

therefore, instead of serving them himself, sent them forward under cover by a private messenger.1 The marshal (Mr. Biddle), in his report of this transaction to the district attorney, said, "I am sorry to add that he [the deputy, Fox] found the people in general in the western part of the State, particularly beyond the Allegheny Mountains, in such a ferment on ac- count of the act of Congress for laying a duty on distilled spirits, and so much opposed to the execu- tion of said act, and from a variety of threats to him- self personally (although he took the utmost precau- tions to conceal his errand), that he was not only convinced of the impossibility of serving the process, but that any attempt to effect it would have occa- sioned the most violent opposition from the greater part of the inhabitants, and he declares that if he had attempted it he believes he would not have returned alive. I spared no expense or pains to have the pro- cess of the court executed, and have not the least doubt that my deputy would have accomplished it if it could have been done."

In Fayette County the collector of revenue, Benja- min Wells, was subjected to ill treatment on account of his official position. That Mr. Wells was pecu- liarly unpopular among the people of his district ap- pears from the letters of Judge Alexander Addison,2 and from other sources, and he was afterwards several times maltreated, and his house sacked and burned. These acts were done in 1793 and 1794, but the first instance of abuse to him appears to have occurred in the fall of 1791, as the Secretary of the Treasury in his report to the President, after narrating the cir- cumstances of the attack on Robert Johnson, in Washington County, on the 6th of September, con- tinues : "Mr. Johnson was not the only officer who, about the same period, experienced outrage. Mr. Wells, collector of the revenue for Westmoreland and Fayette, was also ill treated at Greensburg and Union- town. Nor were the outrages perpetrated confined to the officers, they extended to private citizens who only dared to show their respect for the laws of their country."3

1 The messenger sent by Fox was John Conner, a simple-minded old man, a cattle-drover, who was wholly ignorant of the dangerous charac- ter of his errand. He was seized, whipped, tarred and feathered, and left in the woods in a pitiable condition. The Secretary of the Treasury said that John Hamilton (colonel of the Mingo Creek battalion) was one of the party who committed this outrage.

2 Judge Addison, in a letter addressed to Governor Mifflin (Pa. Ar- chives, 2d Series, vol. iv., p. 62), said, " Benjamin Wells, so far as I have ever heard him spoken of, is a contemptible and unworthy man, whom, I believe, the people of this country would never wish to see in any office or trust with an object of any importance." But it should be remarked in this connection that the judge's opinion, as above expressed, may have been strongly biased by his own well-known personal dislike to Wells. In a communication by Alexander Hamilton to President Washington, the former related that on one occasion when Judge Addison was stop- ping, during a term of court, at a public-house in Uniontown, " Wells went to the same tavern, but was informed by the tavern-keeper and his wife that he could not be received there, assigning for reason that Judge Addison had declared that if they took him in again he would leave the house."-Pa. Archives, 2d Series, vol. iv., p. 292.

3 Pa. Archives, 2d Series, vol. iv. p. 88.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Another outrage was committed in Washington County, in the month of October of the same year, on the person of Robert Wilson, who was not an ex- cise officer, but "a young schoolmaster who was look- ing for employment, and carried with him very reputable testimonials of his character."1 It was supposed that he was a little disordered in his intel- lect, and having, unfortunately for himself, made some inquiries concerning stills and distilleries, and acted in a mysterious manner otherwise, he was sus- pected of being in the service of the government. On this account he "was pursued by a party of men in disguise, taken out of his bed, carried about five miles back to a smith's shop, stripped of his clothes, which were afterwards burnt, and having been inhu- manly burnt in several places with a heated iron, was tarred and feathered, and about daylight dismissed, naked, wounded, and in a very pitiable and suffering condition. These particulars were communicated in a letter from the inspector of the revenue of the 17th of November, who declared that he had then himself seen the unfortunate maniac, the abuse of whom, as he expressed it, exceeded description, and was suffi- cient to make human nature shudder. . . . The symptoms of insanity were during the whole time of inflicting the punishment apparent, the unhappy sufferer displaying the heroic fortitude of a man who conceived himself to be a martyr to the discharge of some important duty."2 For participation in this outrage Col. Samuel Wilson, Samuel Johnson, James Wright, William Tucker, and John Moffit were in- dicted at the December Sessions, 1791; but before the offenders were taken upon the process of the court,8 the victim, Wilson (probably through fear of further outrage), left that part of the country,4 and at the June Sessions, 1792, the indicted persons were dis- charged.

Not long afterwards a person of the name of Rose- berry underwent the humiliating punishment of tarring and feathering, with some aggravations, for having in conversation hazarded the very natural but unpalatable remark that the inhabitants of Washington County could not reasonably expect protection from a government whose laws they so actively opposed.

The demonstrations above mentioned comprise all of the more notable acts of violence which were done in these counties by the opponents of the law during the first year of its existence. On the 8th of May, 1792, Congress passed an act making certain changes

in the excise law, among these being a reduction of about one-fourth in the duty on whiskey, and giving the distiller the alternative of paying a monthly in- stead of a yearly rate, according to the capacity of his still, with liberty to take a license for the precise term which he should intend to work it, and to renew that license for a further term or terms.5 This pro- vision was regarded as peculiarly favorable to the western section of the State, where very few of the distillers wished to prosecute their business during the summer. "The effect has in a great measure," said Hamilton, in 1794, "corresponded with the views of the Legislature. Opposition has subsided in sev- eral districts where it before prevailed,6 and it was natural to entertain, and not easy to abandon, a hope that the same thing would, by degrees, have taken place in the four western counties of the State."

But this hope was not realized. The modifications made in the law, favorable as they had been thought to be to the western counties, did not produce acqui- escence and submission among the people of this sec- tion. On the 21st and 22d days of August next fol- lowing the passage of the modified law there was held at Pittsburgh "a Meeting of sundry Inhabitants of the Western Counties of Pennsylvania," the pro- ceedings of which plainly indicated that the feeling of opposition had not been lessened, but rather inten- sified. At that meeting there were present the fol- lowing-named delegates from the western counties, viz .: John Canon, William Wallace, Shesbazer Bent- ley, Benjamin Parkison, John Huey, John Badollet, John Hamilton, Neal Gillespie, David Bradford, Rev. David Phillips, Matthew Jamison, James Marshel, James Robinson, James Stewart, Robert McClure, Peter Lyle, Alexander Long, Samuel Wilson, Edward Cook, Albert Gallatin, John Smilie, Bazil Bowel, Thomas Gaddis, and John McClellan.

The meeting was organized by the choice of Col. John Canon, of Washington County, as chairman, and Albert Gallatin as clerk. The subject of the ex- cise law was then " taken under consideration and freely debated ; a committee of five members was ap- pointed to prepare a draft of Resolutions expressing the sense of the Meeting on the subject of said Law ;" and on the second day the resolutions were reported, debated, and adopted unanimously. After a preamble

I Letter of James Brison, of Allegheny, to Governor Mifflin, dated Nov. 9, 1792 .- Pa. Archives, 2d Series, vol. iv. pp. 44, 45.

2 Report of the Secretary of the Treasury ; Pa. Archives, 2d Series, vol. iv. p. 88.

3 Pa. Archives, Brison's letter, before quoted.

4 " The audacity of the perpetrators of these excesses was so great that an armed banditti ventured to seize and carry off two persons who were witnesses against the rioters in the case of Wilson, in order to prevent their giving testimony of the riot to a court then sitting or about to sit."- Alexander Hamilton to President Washington ; Pa. Arch., iv., p. 89.

5 " The act of May, 1792," says Judge Veech, "made some slight but immaterial changes in the law of 1791. It lowered the rates a little and allowed distillers to take and pay for monthly instead of yearly licenses, but raised the penalty for non-entry from $100 to $250. It also required offices of inspection and entry to be opened and maintained in each county, and that entries therein of stills, etc., should be made yearly in June, and only then. Without much time to think about it, many dis- tillers complied with this requirement, whenever they had opportunity by the establishment of offices. Others hesitated until too late, and in the most deeply disaffected parts of the country many were deterred from compliance."

6 Opposition to the law of 1791 was violent, not only in the "four western counties" of Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Alle- gheny, but also in several other counties of the State, notably Chester, Bedford, Bucks, and Northumberland.

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denouncing the excise law as unjust in itself, oppres- sive upon the poor, and tending to bring immediate distress and ruin on the western country, and declar- ing it to be their duty to persist in remonstrances to Congress, and every other legal measure to obstruct the operation of the law, the resolutions proceeded, first, to appoint a committee to prepare and cause to be presented to Congress an address stating objec- tions to the law, and praying for its repeal ; secondly, to appoint committees of correspondence for Wash- ington, Fayette, and Allegheny, charged with the duty of corresponding together, and with such com- mittee as should be appointed for the same purpose in Westmoreland, or with any committees of a simi- lar nature from other parts of the Union. The com- mittees appointed for this purpose for the three coun- ties named were composed of the following-named persons, viz. : William Wallace, John Hamilton, Shes- bazer Bentley, Isaac Weaver, Benjamin Parkinson, David Redick, Thomas Stokely, Stephen Gapen, Jo- seph Vanmeter, Alexander Long, William Whiteside, James Long, Benjamin Patterson, Samuel Johnston, William Plummer, Matthew Jameson, Thomas Gad- dis, Andrew Rabb, John Oliphant, Robert McClure, and James Stewart.

The final declaration of the meeting was to the effect that, " Whereas, Some men may be found amongst us so far lost to every sense of virtue and feeling for the distresses of this country as to accept offices for the collection of the duty ; Resolved, There- fore, that in future we will consider such persons as unworthy of our friendship; have no intercourse or dealings with them ; withdraw from them every assist- ance, and withhold all the comforts of life which depend upon those duties that as men and fellow-citizens we owe to each other ; and upon all occasions treat them with that contempt they deserve ; and that it be and it is hereby most earnestly recommended to the people at large to fol- low the same line of conduct towards them."

It is difficult to understand how men of character and good standing, such as were a majority of those composing the Pittsburgh meeting, could have given their assent to the passage of these extreme resolu- tions. They were aimed in a general way (as appears on their face) at all who might be even remotely con- cerned on the side of the government in the collection of the revenue, but in particular, and more than all, at Gen. John Neville, against whom no charge could be brought, except that he had dared to accept in- spectorship of the Western Revenue District.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 69

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