XXXIX.

CHAP. a monarchy. His party thought it expedient to repudiate the name, Anti-Federalists, and assume that of REPUBLI 1793. CAN, at the same time proclaiming they were the only true friends of the people. An incessant warfare commenced against the policy of the government, accompanied with scurrilous abuse of the President.

1789.

The assumption of the State debts; the national bank; the manner of raising the revenue; the funding system, by which provision was made to pay the interest on the national debt, were, in the eyes of the opposition, so many cunningly-devised plans to create friends among the rich, and in the end subvert the liberties of the country.

The public interest demanded it, and after much solicitation from the leading members of the government, Washington consented to serve for a second term. He was unanimously chosen. Adams was re-elected VicePresident; he receiving seventy-seven electoral votes, and George Clinton, of New York, fifty.

Two months and a half after the first inauguration of Washington as President, a bloody revolution broke out in France. The people of the United States looked with much interest upon the French people struggling for liberty. But it was soon evident that the state of the nation's morals, political as well as private, forbade the success of the French republic. The remembrance of the alliance with France, by which they had received aid in the time of need, elicited the sympathy of the American people. The republican party wished to form an alliance with the new Republic, while Washington, and the majority of his cabinet, as well as the more judicious statesmen, were in favor of neutrality. The unheard-of cruelties, which, in the name of liberty, had been practised in France for a year or two, had cooled the zeal of many. One party had succeeded by guillotining the leaders of its rival; the amiable Louis, who had aided the Americans

NEUTRALITY PROCLAIMED-CITIZEN GENET.

539

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in their struggle for liberty, had been murdered by his CHAP subjects; and Lafayette was forced to flee. Strange that such "excesses and horrible butcheries" found apologists 1793. in the United States. April.

While the public mind was thus divided, came Edmond Charles Genet or "Citizen Genet" as he was styled, as minister of the French Republic. He brought the intelligence that France had declared war against England. Now the opposition, urged on by their hatred to the latter power, wished to enter into an alliance with France, and thus involve the country in war.

But Washington and his cabinet, in spite of these clamors, promptly proclaimed neutrality as the policy of the United States, and also warned the people not to commit acts inconsistent with the proclamation of neutrality, nor with the strictest impartiality towards the belligerents. The wisdom of the Government saved the country from a multitude of evils.

Genet took advantage of the sympathy manifested for France by a portion of the American people, and began to fit out privateers against English commerce. This was an insult to the dignity of the government, and a violation of the proclaimed neutrality. But the partisans of France were determined that the country should be committed to an alliance with the great sister Republic in the old world.

About this time numerous societies, modelled after the famous Jacobin clubs in Paris, began to be formed in various parts of the Union. The more ultra assumed the title of Democratic, while others preferred to call themselves Democratic Republican. They made strenuous efforts to influence the public mind in favor of French politics, and drive the governinent from its determination not to interfere in the quarrels of Europe. The President and his policy were assailed in terms of unmeasured abuse. The principal organ of this abuse was the Gazette news

XXXIX.

CHAP. paper, edited by Philip Freneau, who at this time was employed by Jefferson as translating clerk.

1793.

1794.

The Republican newspapers continued to accuse the President and his cabinet of being enemies of France, the only friend of the United States, and of being friends of England, the bitter enemy of American liberties.

Genet mistook the clamors of a few for the sentiments of the majority of the people. He now had the audacity to authorize the French consuls in the ports of the United States to receive and sell prizes taken from the English, with whom we were at peace. He had also other projects in view, one to raise men in the Carolinas and Georgia and wrest Florida from Spain, another to raise men in Kentucky and make an attack on Louisiana.

In his correspondence with the government he became more and more insolent, imputed improper motives to its members, till finally the President transmitted his letters to Gouverneur Morris, American minister at Paris, with directions to lay them before the Executive Council-and request his recall.

When Genet received the information of this pro cedure he was thunderstruck. He charged Jefferson with insincerity, as "having an official language and a language confidential."

Though sympathizing with France in her struggles for liberty, but not in her atrocious excesses, the great majority of the people, when informed of the true state of the case, began to hold meetings and express their approbation of the measures adopted by the President, to prevent his country from being embroiled in European quarrels.

In due time Morris presented the request that Genet should be recalled; but another change had occurred in France. The management of affairs had passed into the hands of the Jacobins; the Reign of Terror had commenced. Genet was unceremoniously recalled. and Mr

FIRST SETTLERS OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA.

Fauchet appointed in his place.

541

Genet did not return CHAP,

home, but became a citizen of the United States.

XXXIX

to

1784.

Through much toil and danger had the fertile valleys From of the Monongahela and its tributaries been settled. The 1768 pioneers were principally Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, "from eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia. Their trials were as great as those of the early colonists. At first their families lived in blockhouses or forts, through fear of the Indians, while they, as they cleared the forest or tilled the soil, were always armed; they even carried their rifles in their hands when on the Sabbath they assembled in the grove, or the rude log church, to hear the Gospel. The untrodden mountains lay between them and the settlements on the Atlantic slope. Across these mountains the only road was a bridle-path; the only conveyance a packhorse. Iron and salt could only be obtained as these pack-horses carried them across the mountains. Salt was worth eight dollars a bushel; and often twenty bushels of wheat were given in exchange for one of salt. Their fertile fields produced an abundance of grain, especially wheat, from which they distilled the famed Monongahela whiskey, while their orchards were laden with apples and peaches from which they made brandies. To find a market for these, almost their only product, they must take a long and dangerous journey in flat-boats down the Ohio and the Mississippi to New Orleans, and thence by ship to the eastern markets.

The tax levied upon the manufacture of domestic spirits was opposed by many. It was no doubt looked upon as unequal, as it was appropriated to the support of the Federal government, while the tax itself fell upon only a small portion of the community. But nowhere was it so persistently resisted as by these settlers of the four western counties of Pennsylvania. They rose in open rebellion; not only refused to pay the tax, but drove off the officers appointed to collect it. This opposition was

XXXIX.

CHAP not confined to obscure persons, but some of the most influential encouraged the multitude to resist the law; but 1794. their ministers, to a man, exerted all their influence in favor of obedience. The more violent leaders openly boasted they would not only resist the law, but separate from Pennsylvania, and form a new State. They professed to have very little regard for the Federal government, and took encouragement from the same party that sustained Genet. To discover those who sent information of their high-handed measures to the government, these rebels robbed the mail; they scoffed at the proclamation of the Governor of the State and also at that of the President. Ang. Thus matters continued for nearly two years. It shows the excitement which prevailed, that at one time with only three days' notice, there assembled on Braddock's Field nearly seven thousand armed men. They had for their motto "Liberty and no excise." The assemblage passed many resolutions, indicating an intention to resort to further acts of violence.

1.

This meeting was presided over by Colonel Edward Cook, one of the judges of Fayette county, who had taken an active part in resisting the enforcement of the law. Its secretary was Albert Gallatin, from the same county, a native of Switzerland, who had been in the country but a few years; a young man of superior education; an ardent sympathizer with the French school of politics; a violent opposer of the excise law. He had risen rapidly in popular favor, had been a member of the Legislature of the State, and also of a Convention to amend its Constitution.

Governor Mifflin wished to try the effect of a circular addressed to the insurgents, before calling out the militia. The circular was unheeded. The President issued a proclamation ordering the rebels to desist from their illegal proceedings; at the same time he called out the militia, who responded promptly to the call.

The leaders soon found that, after all, the Federal