The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-28

larger issue than that between
 vets and drys. They have thrown down the gauntlet to all law under the government of the United States. They defy our constitution and our laws as did their ancestors, the outlaws of the whisky rebellion of Washingtons time. Washington, in that emergency, took personal charge of seeing that the law was respected as supreme and was government, if necessary, to make 1t SO. His example is a sound one to follow in the whisky rebellion of to- day. y."-Governor Pinchot
 HARRISBURG, Pa, Oct. 27.-The center of resistance to the fed eral excise taxe in 1794 were the four counties tf Washington, Alle- gheny, Fayette and Westmoreland, in Pennsylvania. Pittsburg was the largest communiey in this territory. Here a small garrison of federal troops was stationed to guard against Indian uprisings, but the le- zion of the United States, as the regular army was then known, con sisted of about $500 men. Even in those days the army was toe large for some vociferous members of Con- gress, who professed to see in this force the beginnings of military
 
 men could be spared to garrison Fort Fayette and it's military stores at Pittsburg, and this small fierce would have been helpless against rioters away from the cannon and bastions of the fort.
 This left the prominent and intelli- gent men of the territory as po- tential bu1wark of law and order and against reasonable talk and act Pt1t 11nhIip ontpion seems have been so violent In the four cCun- ties that the prominent citizens felt that their greatest contribution to peace would be to fall in with the opponents of the tax and by counsel and example keep the mob from fol- lowing inflammatory leaders. Such, at any rate, Is the defense that ap- pears in biographical and autobio- graphical apologia published after the insurrection.
 Contemporary accounts of the re- bellion have little good to say about ern Pennsylvania. They are de- scribed as linen of broken fortune" some tf them former keepers of pub lie houses, who were not above seek ing and accepting bribes. "The domi- ciliary visits. the arbitrary seizures and other despotic acts, rendered them practically odious," says one account.
 How odious the revenue agents were to the settlers and distillers was shown by some inflammatory resolutions adopted a a meeting at Washington, Pa, in 17s1, and reaf- firmed at another gathering at Pitts burg a year later.
 "Whereas, some men may be found among us' says this document, which Hamilton denounced as treason, "so far lost to every sense of virtue and feeling for the distress of this coun- try as to accept offices for the col lection of the duty;
 "Resolved, Therefore, that in the future we will consider such persons unworthy of our friendship, have no intercourse or dealings with them, 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 that they deserve"
 Albert .Gallatin, senator from Pennsylvania and later Secretary of the Treasury. was clerk of the meet ing which adopted these resolutions. It has been shown, however, that Hamilton and the excise tax he took no part in the insurrection and did not favor the ferocious tenor of the resolutions.
 o O O
 Leading Up to the Rebellion.
 The chief leader of the rebellion appears to have been one David Bradford, a circuit lawyer Of ready wit in appealing to the feelings and actions of mobs. As might be ex- pected, the determination of the dis tillers to withhold the comforts of life" from the revenue agents took the form of making life as uncom- fortable and unpopular as possible. Tar and feathers were used, with the result that arrivals and departures or excise agents became almost simul- taneous There appeared handb1lls and communications signed Tom the Tinker" which were addressed to federal agents and distillers who paid the excise tax and threatened | them in the best Ku Klux klan man ner Masked gangs of whisky boys carried out these threats.
 The difficulty in enforcing the ex- else law lay in the fact that the near est federal court for the trial of of lenders was in Philadelphia, which meant that prisoners andw illnesses had to be brought long distances. In the early summer of 17s4 united States marshals appeared in Pltts- burg with 50 warrants and, after a l few anxious moments Of gun play, fled east for their lives. In the meantime new federal col lector appeared on the scene, General Neville, a Pittsburg resident and a member of the state legislature He appears to have been of higher station in life than his predecessors. July Is, 1794, his home was attacked by an armed mob, but Neville put up spirited defense, with the result that the raiders retreated, leaving one killed and six wounded. Shortly after the mob returned in greater numbers. Neville fled. and his would-be attack CTS were dispersed by officers from Fort Fayette.
 By this time Bradford and his cofn- panion leaders were involved so strongly in forcible opposition to the federal laws that they could not have withdrawn had they wished. The next incident was the holding up of the United States mails between Pitts burg and Philadelphia by band of armed men led by Bradford's cousin A number of letters were seized and printed that caused considerable em- barrassment to their Pittsburg auth ors, for 1t turned out that while feigning support to the excise re- sisters they had been writing to mem bers of the federal government urg- ing relief from the state of lawless- ness. In other words the moderates. instead of openly opposing the course of the rebels, vocally had supported the movement and under cover sought to render it harmless
 The publication of these letters aroused further the frenzy of the farmer -distillers against Pittsburg residents. Already they had threat ened dire fate for the officers of the slender little garrison who had as sisted Neville to escape from the mob. Accordingly, Bradford and his as sociates, so strong were they in the local government, issued call to the militia leaders of the four counties to assemble with their men and four days, rations at Braddock's Field, a