Part 2 (1/2)

The seat of government was changed from New York to Philadelphia in 1790, and the first Congress a.s.sembled there in the early days of December for its final session. Philadelphia was in glee over the transfer of the departments. The convention which framed the new state Const.i.tution met here in the fall, and the legislature was also holding its sessions. The atmosphere was political. The national and local representatives met each other at all times and in all places, and the public affairs were the chief topic in and out of doors. In this busy whirl Gallatin made many friends, but Philadelphia was no more to his taste as a residence than Boston. He was disgusted with the ostentatious display of wealth, the result not of industry but of speculation, and not in the hands of the most deserving members of the community. Later he became more reconciled to the tone of Pennsylvania society, comparing it with that of New York; he was especially pleased with its democratic spirit, and the absence of _family influence_. ”In Pennsylvania,” he says, ”not only we have neither Livingstons, nor Rensselaers, but from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the banks of the Ohio I do not know a single family that has any extensive influence. An equal distribution of property has rendered every individual independent, and there is amongst us true and real equality. In a word, as I am lazy, I like a country where living is cheap; and as I am poor, I like a country where no person is very rich.”

Hamilton's excise bill was a bone of contention in the national and state legislatures throughout the winter. Direct taxation upon anything was unpopular, that on distilled spirits the most distasteful to Pennsylvania, where whiskey stills were numerous in the Alleghanies. To the bill introduced into Congress a reply was immediately made January 14, 1791, by the Pennsylvania a.s.sembly in a series of resolutions which are supposed to have been drafted by Mr. Gallatin, and to have been the first legislative paper from his pen. They distinctly charged that the obnoxious bill was ”subversive of the peace, liberty, and rights of the citizen.”

Tax by excise has always been offensive to the American people, as it was to their ancestors across the sea. It was characterized by the first Continental Congress of 1774 as ”the horror of all free States.”

Notwithstanding their warmth, these resolutions pa.s.sed the a.s.sembly by a vote of 40 to 16. The course of this excitement must be followed; as it swept Mr. Gallatin in its mad current, and but for his self-control, courage, and adroitness would have wrecked him on the breakers at the outset of his political voyage. The excise law pa.s.sed Congress on March 3, 1791. On June 22 the state legislature, by a vote of 36 to 11, requested their senators and representatives in Congress to oppose every part of the bill which ”shall militate against the rights and liberties of the people.”

The western counties of Pennsylvania--Westmoreland, Fayette, Was.h.i.+ngton, and Allegheny--lie around the head-waters of the Ohio in a radius of more than a hundred miles. At this time they contained a population of about seventy thousand souls. Pittsburgh, the seat of justice, had about twelve hundred inhabitants. The Alleghany Mountains separate this wild region from the eastern section of the State. There were few roads of any kind, and these lay through woods. The mountain pa.s.ses could be traveled only on foot or horseback. The only trade with the East was by pack-horses, while communication with the South was cut off by hostile Indian tribes who held the banks of the Ohio. This isolation from the older, denser, and more civilized settlements bred in the people a spirit of self-reliance and independence. They were in great part Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, a religious and warlike race to whom the hatred of an exciseman was a tradition of their forefathers. Having no market for their grain, they were compelled to preserve it by converting it into whiskey. The still was the necessary appendage of every farm.

The tax was light, but payable in money, of which there was little or none. Its imposition, therefore, coupled with the declaration of its oppressive nature by the Pennsylvania legislature, excited a spirit of determined opposition near akin to revolution.

Unpopular in all the western part of the State, Hamilton's bill was especially odious to the people of Was.h.i.+ngton County. The first meeting in opposition to it was held at Red Stone Old Fort or Brownsville, the site of one of those ancient remains of the mound-builders which abound in the western valleys. It was easily reached by Braddock's Road, the chief highway of the country. Here gathered on July 27, 1791, a number of persons opposed to the law, when it was agreed that county committees should be convened in the four counties at the respective seats of justice. Brackenridge, in his ”Incidents of the Western Insurrection,”

says that Albert Gallatin was clerk of the meeting. One of these committees met in the town of Was.h.i.+ngton on August 23, when violent resolutions were adopted. Gallatin, engaged at Philadelphia, was not present at this a.s.semblage, three of whose members were deputed to meet delegates from the counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, and Allegheny, at Pittsburgh, on the first Tuesday in September following, to agree upon an address to the legislature on the subject of excise and other grievances. At the Pittsburgh meeting eleven delegates appeared for the four counties. The resolutions adopted by them, general in character, read more like a declaration of grievances as a basis for revolution than a pet.i.tion for special redress. No wonder that the secretary of the treasury stigmatized them as ”intemperate.” They charge that in the laws of the late Congress hasty strides had been made to all that was unjust and oppressive. They complain of the increase in the salaries of officials, of the unreasonable interest of the national debt, of the non-discrimination between original holders and transferees of the public securities, of the National Bank as a base offspring of the funding system; finally, in detail, of the excise law of March 3, 1791.

At this meeting James Marshall and David Bradford represented Was.h.i.+ngton County.

In August government offices of inspection were opened. The spirit of resistance was now fully aroused, and in the early days of September the collectors for Was.h.i.+ngton, Westmoreland, and Fayette were treated with violence. Unwilling to proceed to excessive measures, and no doubt swayed by the att.i.tude of the Pennsylvania legislature, Congress in October referred the law back to Hamilton for revision. He reported an amended act on March 6, 1792, which was immediately pa.s.sed, and became a law March 8. It was to take effect on the last day of June succeeding.

By it the rate of duty was reduced, a privilege of time as to the running of licenses of stills granted, and the tax ordered only for such time as they were actually used.

But these modifications did not satisfy the malcontents of the four western counties, and they met again on August 21, 1792, at Pittsburgh.

Of this second Pittsburgh meeting Albert Gallatin was chosen secretary.

Badollet went up with Gallatin. John Smilie, James Marshall, and James Bradford of Was.h.i.+ngton County were present. Bradford, Marshall, Gallatin, and others were appointed to draw up a remonstrance to Congress. In order to carry out with regularity and concert the measures agreed upon, a committee of correspondence was appointed, and the meeting closed with the adoption of the violent resolutions pa.s.sed at the Was.h.i.+ngton meeting of 1791:--

”Whereas, some men may be found among 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, therefore, that in future we will consider such persons as unworthy of our friends.h.i.+p; have no intercourse or dealings with them; withdraw from them every a.s.sistance, 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 follow the same line of conduct towards them.”

If such an excommunication were to be meted out to an offending neighbor, what measure would the excise man receive if he came from abroad on his unwelcome errand?

These resolutions were signed by Mr. Gallatin as clerk, and made public through the press. Resolutions of this character, if not criminal, reach the utmost limit of indiscretion, and political indiscretion is quite as dangerous as crime. The pet.i.tion to Congress, subscribed by the inhabitants of western Pennsylvania, was drawn by Gallatin; while explicit in terms, it was moderate in tone. It represented the unequal operation of the act. ”A duty laid on the common drink of a nation, instead of taxing the citizens in proportion to their property, falls as heavy on the poorest cla.s.s as on the rich;” and it ingeniously pointed out that the distance of the inhabitants of the western counties from market prevented their bringing the produce of their lands to sale, either in grain or meal. ”We are therefore distillers through necessity, not choice; that we may comprehend the greatest value in the smallest size and weight.”

Hamilton, indignant, reported the proceedings to the President on September 9, 1792, and demanded instant punishment. Was.h.i.+ngton, who was at Mount Vernon, was unwilling to go to extremes, but consented to issue a proclamation, which, drafted by Hamilton, and countersigned by Jefferson, was published September 15, 1792. It earnestly admonished all persons to desist from unlawful combinations to obstruct the operations of the laws, and charged all courts, magistrates, and officers with their enforcement. There was no mistaking Hamilton's intention to enforce the law. Prosecutions in the Circuit Court, held at Yorktown in October, were ordered against the Pittsburgh offenders, but no proof could be had to sustain an indictment.

The President's proclamation startled the western people, and some uneasiness was felt as to how such of their representatives as had taken part in the Pittsburgh meeting would be received when they should go up to the legislature in the winter. Bradford and Smilie accompanied Gallatin; Smilie to take his seat in the state Senate, and Bradford to represent Was.h.i.+ngton County in the House, where he ”cut a poor figure.”

Gallatin despised him, and characterized him as a ”tenth-rate lawyer and an empty drum.” Gallatin found, however, that although the Pittsburgh meeting had hurt the general interest of his party throughout the State, and ”rather defeated” the repeal of the excise law, his eastern friends did not turn the cold shoulder to him. He said to every one whom he knew that the resolutions were perhaps too violent and undoubtedly highly impolitic, but, in his opinion, contained nothing illegal.

Meanwhile federal officers proceeded to enforce the law in Was.h.i.+ngton County. A riot ensued, and the office was forcibly closed. Bills were found against two of the offenders in the federal court, and warrants to arrest and bring them to Philadelphia for trial were issued. Gallatin believed the men innocent, and did not hesitate to advise Badollet to keep them out of the way when the marshal should go to serve the writs, but deprecated any insult to the officer. He thought ”the precedent a very dangerous one to drag people such a distance in order to be tried on governmental prosecutions.” Here the matter rested for a season.

At this session of the legislature Gallatin introduced a new system of county taxation, proposed a clause providing for ”trustees yearly elected, one to each towns.h.i.+p, without whose consent no tax is to be raised, nor any above one per cent. on the value of lands,” which he hoped would ”tend to crush the aristocracy of every town in the State.”

Also he proposed a plan to establish a school and library in each county, with a sufficient immediate sum in money, and a yearly allowance for a teacher in the English language.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The drafting of this letter was, notwithstanding his protest, intrusted to John Jay, one of the strongest of the Federal leaders, and a warm supporter of the Const.i.tution as it stood.]

CHAPTER III

UNITED STATES SENATE