t, Ellsworth, Foster, Frelinghuysen, Hawkins,
Izard, King, Livermore, Mitchell, Morris, Potts, Strong, Vining; 14.]

CHAPTER IV

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION

Mr. Gallatin was now out of public life. For eighteen months since he
came up to the legislature with his friends of the Pittsburgh
convention, he had not returned to Fayette. His private concerns were
suffering in his absence. Neither his barn, his meadow, nor his house
was finished at the close of 1793. In May, 1794, he took his wife to his
country home. Their hopes of a summer of recreation and domestic comfort
in the wild beauties of the Monongahela were not to be realized. Before
the end of June the peaceful country was in a state of mad agitation.

The seeds of political discontent, sown at Pittsburgh in 1792, had
ripened to an abundant harvest. An act passed by Congress June 5, 1794,
giving to the state courts concurrent jurisdiction in excise cases,
removed the grievance of which Gallatin complained, the dragging of
accused persons to Philadelphia for trial, but was not construed to be
retroactive in its operation. The marshal, accordingly, found it to be
his duty to serve the writs of May 31 against those who had fallen under
their penalties. These writs were returnable in Philadelphia. They were
served without trouble in Fayette County. Not so in Allegheny. Here on
July 15, 1794, the marshal had completed his service, when, while still
in the execution of his office, and in company with the inspector, he
was followed and fired upon. The next day a body of men went to the
house of the marshal and demanded that he should deliver up his
commission. They were fired upon and dispersed, six were wounded, and
the leader killed. A general rising followed. The marshal's house,
though defended by Major Kirkpatrick, with a squad from the Pittsburgh
garrison, was set on fire, with the adjacent buildings, and burned. On
July 18 the insurgents sent a deputation of two or three to Pittsburgh,
to require of the marshal a surrender of the processes in his
possession, and of the inspector the resignation of his office. These
demands were, of course, rejected; but the officers, alarmed for their
personal safety, left the town, and, descending the Ohio by boat to
Marietta, proceeded by a circuitous route to Philadelphia, and made
their report to the United States authorities.

This was the outbreak of the Western or Whiskey Insurrection. The
excitement spread rapid