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 He calls on the militias of other states to help put down the uprising in Western Pennsylvania that continued despite conciliatory efforts by the government. Washington assures the nation that “a small proportion of the United States shall [not] dictate to the whole union, and at the expense of those, who desire peace, indulge a desperate ambition.”
“Whereas from a hope, that the combinations against the constitution and laws of the United 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 affect; …when the opportunity of examining the serious consequences of a treasonable opposition has been employed in propagating principles 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 proportion 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…obeying the call of the present…that a force…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 succour 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 I do moreover exhort all individuals, officers, and bodies of men, to contemplate with abhorrence 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 to substitute their misrepresentation in the place of truth and their discontents in the place of stable government ;–and to call to mind that as the people of the United States have been permitted under the Divine favour in perfect freedom, after solemn deliberation, and in an enlightened age, to elect their own government ; so well [sic] their gratitude for this inestimable blessing be best distinguished by firm exertions to maintain the constitution and the laws…”
October 9, 1794. The Norwich Packet. Norwich, Conn.: John Trumbull.
Inventory# 20650.06 $3,500
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