The Mint.

rector employed an occasional workman to assist in that part of the operation.

As it is the practice, in all the Mints of Europe, for the owners of bullion to have it refined to the legal standard at their own expense, your committee are of opinion that a reasonable sum from every deposite should be retained by the Treasurer of the Mint as a compensation for refining and melting. This will appear the more reasonable when it is known that the bullion already lodged in the Mint has cost the United States at least £500 for refining.

Your committee further find that the standard fineness of silver directed by law, in the opinion of the officers of the Mint, contains too great an alloy, and will expose the coin to wear black, and, therefore, that the alloy should be reduced.

The English standard of silver coin is 11 ounces 2 penny weights of pure silver in the pound Troy. Spanish coins ought to contain 10 ounces 15 penny weights.

French crowns, of the late Government, 10 ounces 17 penny weights.

A mean of both is 10 ounces 16 pennyweights. One-tenth part alloy, which is the standard of the present Government of France, established as a mean between both, leaves 10 ounces 16 pennyweights.

But the standard of the United States is 10 ounces 14 penny weights, and 19.104 parts. This extreme fractional part of our standard for silver produces great inconvenience, without any advantage, that your committee could discover; and they are, therefore, of the opinion that the mean of 10 ounces 16 pennyweights should be adopted. It has also appeared to your committee that the price of copper is very fluctuating, and may so increase, as, in some degree, it has done since the law for ascertaining the weight of cents, that, when coined and issued, coppersmiths may work them up to considerable advantage. To prevent this growing evil provision should be made, by law, in time to check it. Great complaints are made throughout the United States of the difficulty of obtaining cents when coined. The practice, hitherto, in pursuance of the requisition of the law, has been for the Treasurer of the Mint to pay them over to the Treasurer of the United States, who distributes them among the Banks in this city. This will produce a supply, in time, for the States in the neighborhood of the Mint, but will not give satisfaction to the distant parts of the Union, who pay their equal share of the expense.

Your committee, therefore, are of opinion that it would be a valuable improvement to make provision, by law, for a more general distribution of the cents as they are coined.

5. The Stock of Metal,

Now on hand, uncoined, amounts to upwards of fifteen tons of copper, most of which requires refining, and the whole melting into ingots, preparative to rolling. There also yet remains about 35,507 ounces of silver bullion deposited for coining, which must also go through the hands of the

Refiner and Melter before it can be coined; and large quantities are ready to be brought when the Mint is ready for the receipt of it.

6. The produce of the Works when complete. The rolling machines, for large coin, will roll from twelve to fifteen thousand ounces per day; that for small coin, about half that quantity.

The drawing machine, for strips, can execute, daily, the produce of one rolling machine.

The three cutting presses will each cut from fifteen to eighteen thousand planchettes per day, and the milling machine will also pass them through at the same time, when worked by horses; but, in the present state, will mill about ten thousand.

The three coining presses, when complete, will strike from eight to twelve thousand of the smaller kinds of coin per day; so that, on an average, ten thousand cents, equal to one hundred dollars, may be coined in a day by each press, if all are worked.

7. The Accounts of the Mint.

These are kept by the Treasurer, according to the directions, and in the manner pointed out by the Secretary of the Treasury, and appear to your committee to be fully checked, for the security of the public, against every avenue of deception.

All moneys appropriated for the use of the Mint, and advanced by the Treasury of the United States, are granted in the name of the Treasurer of the Mint, on warrants from the President of the United States on the Secretary of the Treasury, and from him in favor of the Treasurer of the Mint, and are deposited in the Bank of the United States, to the credit of the Treasurer of the Mint, in a separate account.

He receives all claims upon the Mint, in the
first instance, and gives them his approbation be-
fore they can pass. These are under the heads of
Salaries to officers and clerks.
Wages of laborers.

Incidental and contingent expenses.
Copper purchased for coinage.

The account is then presented to the Director, who examines the same, and issues his warrant on the Treasurer of the Mint for payment. These accounts are rendered quarterly by the Treasurer to the Treasury, where they are subject to their final decision, as well respecting the ordinary expenses of the Mint, as the accounts of bullion and coinage.

The bullion is received by the Treasurer of the Mint, in the first instance, who gives receipts therefor, dated and numbered, progressively, distinguishing, by a different series, those given for silver from those for gold.

These receipts are entered in a register containing two accounts, one for each of the precious metals.

All bullion is inspected by the Assayer, and a few grains of every parcel given him to be assayed, and his certificate of the pure gold or silver in each deposite is returned, to be entered in the register; the Treasurer then computes the

Proclamation by the President.

value of the deposite in coin of the United States, and one-tenth part of pure copper, being equal to which is entered in the register. ten ounces sixteen pennyweights of pure silver in

The bullion is then delivered to the Chief Coin-one pound Troy. er, on the warrant of the Director, to the Treasurer of the Mint, who takes his receipt thereon. When coined, the Chief Coiner pays them over, on a like warrant, to the Treasurer of the Mint, and he again to the Treasurer of the United States, on a warrant from the Secretary of the Treasury.

By this system, established by the Treasury Department, all bullion is to be lodged in the vaults of the Mint, and secured under two locks, the keys of which are kept by the Treasurer and Assayer.

When bullion is in the custody of the Chief Coiner, it is to be constantly subject to the inspection of the Assayer, he being responsible for the standard purity of the respective coins; and, when the bullion is not in use, it is to be kept under two locks, the keys of which are to be kept by the Assayer and Chief Coiner.

From every mass of coins the Treasurer takes three pieces, in the presence of the Assayer, which are secured by him under cover, with seal of the Assayer thereon, for the purpose mentioned in the law.

All coins made on account of individuals are paid by the Treasurer, on the warrant of the Di

rector.

5. Resolved, That the President of the United States be authorized to reduce the weight of the copper coin at his discretion: Provided, Such reduction shall not exceed two pennyweights in each cent, and in proportion in each half cent, of which he shall give notice, by proclamation, and report the same to the next session of Congress. .6. Resolved. That the Treasurer of the United States be authorized, by law, to distribute, at the public expense, all cents received from the Treasurer of the Mint, by sending them to some one Bank in each State, where any are established, and, where not, to the principal Collector of such State, in proportion to the number of inhabitants of the State, to be by them paid out, for cash, to any person requesting the same, in sums not less than ten dollars value.

7. Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, enabling the Director and Treasurer of the Mint to give a preference to bullion brought to the Mint, already of or above the standard of the United States, so as not to be prevented coining and issuing the same, although bullion below the standard, and not yet refined, may have been deposited for coinage before it; any thing in any law heretofore passed to the contrary notwithstanding.

In addition to these checks, all receipts of bullion and delivery of coins are entered into a regu- BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF lar set of books, kept for that purpose.

All the forms of the documents requisite for common use are printed, bound, and issued under indented checks, for the greater public security. Your committee having thus given a concise state of the Mint, beg leave to recommend the following resolutions:

1. Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for the appointment of a Refiner and Melter in the Mint of the United States, whose duty it shall be to take charge of all copper, and silver, and gold bullion, delivered out by the Treasurer of the Mint, after it has been assayed, and reduce it into bars or ingots for the rolling mills, and then to deliver them to the Coiner or Treasurer, as the Director shall judge expedient, and to do and perform all other duties belonging to the office of Refiner and Melter, or which shall be ordered by the Director of the Mint.

2. Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, authorizing the Treasurer of the Mint to retain two cents per ounce from every deposite of silver bullion below standard, and four cents per ounce for every deposite of gold bullion below the standard, unless the same shall require the operation of the test, then six cents as a compensation for refining and melting the same.

AMERICA,

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas I have received information that certain persons in violation of the laws have presumed, under color of a foreign authority, to enlist citizens of the United States and others within the State of Kentucky, and have there assembled an armed force for the purpose of invading and plundering the Territories of a nation at peace with the said United States: And whereas such unwarrantable measures, being contrary to the laws of nations and to the duties incumbent on every citizen of the United States, tend to disturb the tranquility of the same, and to involve them in the calamities of war: And whereas it is the duty of the Executive to take care that such criminal proceedings should be suppressed, the offenders brought to justice, and all good citizens cautioned against measures likely to prove so pernicious to their country and themselves, should they be seduced into similar infractions of the laws.

I have, therefore, thought proper to issue this Proclamation hereby solemnly warning every person not authorized by the laws, against enlisting any citizen or citizens of the United States, or levying troops, or assembling any persons within 3. Resolved, That the gross bullion brought for the United States for the purposes aforesaid, or deposite and coinage to the Mint, shall not be re-proceeding in any manner to the execution thereof, ceived in smaller quantities than two hundred ounces of silver and twenty ounces of gold.

4. Resolved, That the standard for silver coin, as now established by law, be altered, and made to consist of nine equal ten parts of pure silve

as they will answer the same at their peril; and I do also admonish and require all citizens to refrain from enlisting, enrolling, or assembling themselves for such unlawful purposes, and from being n any wise concerned, aiding, or abetting therein,

i

Proclamation by the President.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the twenty-fourth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighteenth.

G. WASHINGTON. By the President: EDM. RANDOLPH.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA,

A PROCLAMATION.

as they tender their own welfare, inasmuch as all duties and by other alterations conducive to the lawful means will be strictly put in execution convenience of those whom they immediately for securing obedience to the laws, and for punish-affect, (though they have given satisfaction in ing such dangerous and daring violations thereof; other quarters,) and the endeavors of the execuAnd I do moreover charge and require all Courts, tive officers to conciliate a compliance with the magistrates, and other officers, whom it may con- laws, by explanations, by forbearance, and even by cern, according to their respective duties, to exert particular accommodations, founded on the sugthe powers in them severally vested to prevent and gestions of local considerations, have been disapsuppress all such unlawful assemblages and pro- pointed of their effect by the machinations of perceedings, and to bring to condign punishment those sons whose industry to excite resistance has inwho may have been guilty thereof, as they regard creased with every appearance of a disposition the due authority of Government, and the peace among the people to relax in their opposition and and welfare of the United States. to acquiesce in the laws, insomuch that many persons in the said Western parts of Pennsylvania have at length been hardy enough to perpetrate acts which I am advised amount to treason, being overt acts of levying war against the United States; the said persons having on the sixteenth and seventeenth of July last past proceeded in arms (on the second day, amounting to several hundreds) to the house of John Neville, inspector of the revenue for the fourth survey of the district of Pennsylvania, having repeatedly attacked the said house with the persons therein, wounding some of them; having seized David Lenox, marshal of the district of Pennsylvania, who, previous thereto, had been fired upon while in the Whereas combinations to defeat the execution execution of his duty, by a party of armed men, of the laws laying duties upon spirits distilled detaining him for some time prisoner, till, for the within the United States, and upon stills, have preservation of his life and the obtaining of his from the time of the commencement of those laws liberty, he found it necessary to enter into stipuexisted in some of the Western parts of Pennsyl- lations to forbear the execution of certain offvania: And whereas the said combinations, pro- cial duties touching processes issuing out of a ceeding in a manner subversive equally of the Court of the United States; and having finally just authority of Government and of the rights of obliged the said inspector of the revenue, and the individuals, have hitherto effected their dangerous said marshal, from considerations of personal safeand criminal purpose; by the influence of certainty, to fly from that part of the country, in order, by irregular meetings whose proceedings have tended to encourage and uphold the spirit of opposition; by misrepresentations of the laws calculated to render them odious; by endeavors to deter those who might be so disposed from accepting offices under them, through fear of public resentment and of injury to person and property, and to compel those who had accepted such offices, by actual violence to surrender or forbear the execution of them; by circulating vindictive menaces against all those who should otherwise directly or indirectly aid in the execution of the said laws, or who, yielding to the dictates of conscience, and to a sense of obligation, should themselves comply therewith; by actually injuring and destroying the property of persons who were understood to have so complied; by inflicting cruel and humiliating punishments upon private citizens, for no other cause than that of appearing to be the friends of the laws; by intercepting the public officers on the highways, abusing, assaulting, and otherwise ill treating them; by going to their houses in the night, gaining admittance by force, taking away their papers, and committing other outrages; employing for these unwarrantable purposes the agency of armed banditti disguised in such manner as for the most part to escape discovery: And whereas the endeavors of the Legislature to obviate objections to the said laws, by lowering the

a circuitous route, to proceed to the seat of Government; avowing as the motives of these outrageous proceedings an intention to prevent by force of arms the execution of the said laws, to oblige the said inspector of the revenue to renounce his said office, to withstand by open violence the lawful authority of Government of the United States, and to compel thereby an alteration in the measures of the Legislature and a repeal of the laws aforesaid.

And whereas, by a law of the United States, entitled "An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions," it is enacted "that whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed or the execution thereof obstructed in any State by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by that act, the same being notified by an Associate Justice or District Judge, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia of such State to suppress such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. And if the militia of a State where such conbinations may happen shall refuse, or be insuthcient to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the President, if the Legislature of the United States shall not be in session, to call forth and em

Proclamation by the President.

ploy such numbers of the militia of any other State or States, most convenient thereto, as may be necessary; and the use of the militia so to be called forth may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days after the commencement of the ensuing session: Provided, always, That whenever it may be necessary, in the judgment of the President, to use the military force hereby directed to be called forth, the President shall forthwith, and previous thereto, by proclamation, command such insurgents to disperse and re-effect; when the well-disposed in those counties are tire peaceably to their respective abodes within a limited time."

States, in certain of the Western counties of Pennsylvania, would yield to time and reflection, I thought it sufficient, in the first instance, rather to take measures for calling forth the militia than immediately to embody them; but the moment is now come, when the overtures of forgiveness, with no other condition than a submission to law, have been only partially accepted; when every form of conciliation not inconsistent with the being of Government has been adopted, without

unable by their influence and example to reclaim the wicked from their fury, and are compelled to And whereas James Wilson, an Associate Jus- associate in their own defence; when the proffered tice, on the fourth instant, by writing under his lenity has been perversely misinterpreted into an hand, did, from evidence which had been laid be-apprehension that the citizens will march with fore him, notify to me that "in the counties of reluctance; when the opportunity of examining Washington and Alleghany, in Pennsylvania, laws the serious consequences of a treasonable opposiof the United States are opposed, and the execution has been employed in propagating principles tion thereof obstructed by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshal of that district."

And whereas it is, in my judgment, necessary, under the circumstances of the case, to take measures for calling forth the militia, in order to suppress the combinations aforesaid, and to cause the laws to be duly executed, and I have accordingly determined to do so, feeling the deepest regret for the occasion, but withal the most solemn conviction that the essential interests of the Union demand it-that the very existence of Government, and the fundamental principles of social order, are materially involved in the issue, and that the patriotism and firmness of all good citizens are seriously called upon, as occasion may require, to aid in the effectual suppression of so fatal a spirit. Wherefore, and in pursuance of the proviso above recited, I, GEORGE WASHINGTON, President of the United States, do hereby command all persons, being insurgents as aforesaid, and all others whom it may concern, on or before the first day of September next, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes. And I do moreover warn all persons whomsoever against aiding, abetting, or comforting the perpetrators of the aforesaid treasonable acts; and do require all officers and other citizens, according to their respective duties and the laws of the land, to exert their utmost endeavors to prevent and suppress such dangerous proceedings.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the seventh day of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninetyfour, and of the Independence of the United States of America the nineteenth.

G. WASHINGTON. By the President: EDM. RANDOLPH.

of anarchy, endeavoring through emissaries to alienate the friends of order from its support, and inviting enemies to perpetrate similar acts of insurrection; when it is manifest that violence would continue to be exercised, upon every attempt to enforce the laws; when, therefore, Government is set at defiance, the contest being whether a small portion of the United States shall dictate to the whole Union, and, at the expense of those who desire peace, indulge a desperate ambition:

Now, therefore, I, GEORGE WASHINGTON, President of the United States, in obedience to that high and irresistible duty, consigned to me by the Constitution, "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed"-deploring that the American name should be sullied by the outrages of citizens on their own Government; commiserating such as remain obstinate from delusion; but resolved, in perfect reliance on that gracious Providence which so signally displays its goodness towards this country, to reduce the refractory to a due subordination to the law-do hereby declare and make known, that, with a satisfaction which can be equalled only by the merits of the militia summoned into service from the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, I have received intelligence of their patriotic alacrity, in obeying the call of the present, though painful, yet commanding necessity; that a force, which, according to every reasonable expectation, is adequate to the exigency, is already in motion to the scene of disaffection; that those who have confided, or shall confide in the protection of Government, shall meet full succor under the standard and from the arms of the United States; that those who having offended against the laws have since entitled themselves to indemnity, will be treated with the most liberal good faith, if they shall not have forfeited their claim by any subsequent conduct, and that instructions are given accordingly. And I do, moreover, exhort all individuals, offi

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF cers, and bodies of men, to contemplate with ab

AMERICA,

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, from a hope that the combinations against the Constitution and laws of the United

horrence the measures leading directly or indirectly to those crimes, which produce this resort to military coercion; to check, in their respective spheres, the efforts of misguided or designing men

Proclamation by the President.