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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. XII (1790-1794)
TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XII (1790-1794) [1891]Edition used:The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. XII (1790-1794).
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- The Writings of George Washington.
- 1790.
- Speech to Congress.
- Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
- Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
- 1791.
- To Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Northwestern Territory. [private.]
- To Beverley Randolph, Governor of Virginia.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To Edward Rutledge.
- Address of the President of the United States to Cornplanter, Halftown, and Great-tree, Chiefs of the Seneca Nation of Indians.
- To Timothy Pickering.
- To William Deakins, Jr. and Benjamin Stoddert.
- To John Armstrong.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To David Humphreys.
- To M. Lafayette. 1
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Alexander Hamilton.
- To the Secretaries of the Departments of State, Treasury, and War.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Messrs. Johnson, Stuart, and Carroll. 1
- To James Seagrove.
- To Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Edward Rutledge.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. [private.]
- To Catharine Macaulay Graham.
- To David Humphreys.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To M. Lafayette.
- To Thomas Johnson.
- To M. De La Luzerne. 2
- To M. Lafayette.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To George Clinton, Governor of New York.
- To Edmund Randolph, Attorney-general.
- Communication of Sentiments to Benjamin Hawkins. 1
- To Robert Lewis.
- Speech to Both Houses of Congress October 25th, 1791.
- To Harriot Washington. 2
- To David Stuart.
- To M. Lafayette.
- To the Commissioners For the Federal District.
- 1792.
- To Gouverneur Morris. 1 [private.]
- To Charles Pinckney, Governor of South Carolina. [private.]
- To H. D. Gough.
- To Reuben Slaughter.
- To David Stuart.
- To John Armstrong. [private.]
- To Charles Pinckney, Governor of South Carolina. [private.]
- To Major-general Arthur St. Clair.
- To John Carroll. 2
- To the Earl of Buchan.
- To Thomas Paine.
- To Charles Carter.
- To James Madison.
- To Gouverneur Morris. [private.]
- To James Anderson.
- To Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia. [private.]
- To John Francis Mercer.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. [private and Confidential.]
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. [private.]
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. [private.]
- To Edmund Randolph, Attorney-general. [private.]
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To John Francis Mercer.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
- To Mrs. Betty Lewis.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. [private.]
- To Gouverneur Morris. [private.]
- To David Stuart.
- Speech to Both Houses of Congress, November 6th, 1792.
- To Benjamin Stoddert.
- To the Commissioners of the Federal District.
- To the Commissioners of the Federal District. [private.]
- To Robert Lewis.
- Agricultural Correspondence.
- Letters to Anthony Whiting, 1792. 1
- 1793.
- To Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia.
- To Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
- To George Augustine Washington.
- To the Commissioners of the Federal District. [private.]
- To the Marchioness De Lafayette.
- To Frances Washington. 2
- To Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox.
- To David Stuart.
- To Burwell Bassett.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Frances Washington.
- To the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of War and the Attorney-general of the United States. [circular.]
- To David Humphreys.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To the Secretaries and Attorney-general. [circular.]
- Proclamation of Neutrality.
- To the Earl of Buchan.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. [private.]
- To Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia. [private.]
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To M. Ternant.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Frances Washington.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War. [private.]
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Burges Ball.
- To William Tilghman.
- To Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia. [private.]
- To the Justices of the Supreme Court.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To the Heads of Departments and the Attorney-general.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Hiland Crow.
- To Burges Ball.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. 1
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Henry Knox, Secretary of War. [private.]
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Edmund Pendleton.
- To Tobias Lear.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- To Thomas Sim Lee, Governor of Maryland.
- To James Madison.
- To Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia. [private.]
- To Edmund Randolph, Attorney-general.
- To Richard Henry Lee.
- To Francis Willis.
- To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
- Speech to Both Houses of Congress, December 3d, 1793.
- Message to Both Houses of Congress; Respecting the French Minister Genet, and the Relations With France, December 5, 1793.
- To Arthur Young.
- Message to Both Houses of Congress; Relative to Transactions With Spain, December 16th, 1793.
- To Edmund Randolph. [private.]
- To William White. 1 [private.]
- Letters to Anthony Whiting, 1793. 1
- Letters to William Pearce, 2 1793.
- 1794.
- To Thomas Jefferson.
- To John Adams.
- Message to Both Houses of Congress, 20 January 1794.
- To Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. [confidential.]
- To Thomas Johnson.
- To George Clinton, Governor of New York. [private.]
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To James Mchenry. [private.]
- To James Monroe. 1
- To Richard Henry Lee.
- To Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State.
- To John Fitzgerald.
- To John Jay. [secret and Confidential.]
- To Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State.
- To Tobias Lear.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. [private.]
- To Robert Lewis.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To Gouverneur Morris. [private]
- To Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State. [private.]
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. [private.]
- To Sir John Sinclair.
- Proclamation Warning the Insurgents In the Western Parts of Pennsylvania to Desist From Their Opposition to the Laws.
- To Burges Ball.
- To Charles M. Thruston. [private.]
- To Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia. [private.]
- To John Jay.
- To David Stuart.
- To Burges Ball.
- Proclamation Concerning the Western Insurrection.
- To Major-general Daniel Morgan. 1
- To Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State. 2 [private.]
- To Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State. [private.]
- To Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State. [private.]
- To Henry Lee, Commander-in-chief of the Militia Army.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
- To John Jay. [private.]
- To John Adams.
- Speech to Both Houses of Congress, November 19, 1794.
- To Alexander Spotswood.
- To Tobias Lear. 1
- To John Jay. [private.]
TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Mount Vernon, 7 September, 1792. Sir,
The last post brought me your letter of the 1st instant, with the enclosures respecting the disorderly conduct of the inhabitants of the western survey of the district of Pennsylvania, in opposing the execution of what is called the excise law; and of the insults which have been offered by some of them to the officers, who have been appointed to collect the duties on distilled spirits agreeably thereto.
Such conduct in any of the citizens of the United States, under any circumstances that can well be conceived, would be exceedingly reprehensible; but, when it comes from a part of the community for whose protection the money arising from the tax was principally designed, it is truly unaccountable, and the spirit of it much to be regretted.
The preliminary steps taken by you in ordering the supervisor of the district to repair to the survey, where these disorders prevail, with a view to ascertain in person “the true state of the survey; to collect evidences respecting the violences that have been committed, in order to a prosecution of the offenders; to ascertain the particulars as to the meeting which appears to have been held at Pittsburg; to encourage the perseverance of the officers in their duty, and the well-disposed inhabitants in discountenancing such violent proceedings,” are prudent and proper, and I earnestly wish they may have the desired effect. But if, notwithstanding, opposition is still given to the due execution of the law, I have no hesitation in declaring, if the evidence of it is clear and unequivocal, that I shall, however reluctantly I exercise them, exert all the legal powers with which the executive is invested to check so daring and unwarrantable a spirit. It is my duty to see the laws executed. To permit them to be trampled upon with impunity would be repugnant to it; nor can the government longer remain a passive spectator of the contempt, with which they are treated. Forbearance, under a hope that the inhabitants of that survey would recover from the delirium and folly into which they were plunged, seems to have had no other effect than to increase the disorder.
If it shall be the attorney-general’s opinion, under a full consideration of the case (adverting, as I presume he will, as well to the laws and constitution of Pennsylvania, as to those of the United States), that the meeting, which appears to have been held at Pittsburg, was illegal, and the members of it indictable, and it shall further appear to you from such information as you may be able to obtain from a comparative view of all circumstances, that it would be proper to bring the matter before the circuit court to be holden at Yorktown in October next, you have all the sanction and authority I can give to do it. I am, Sir, &c.
He had already been informed of similar conduct in North Carolina.
The last phrases are not expressed in the terms used in Hamilton’s letter.
Writing again on the 9th, Hamilton suggested the issue of a proclamation by the President “adverting in general terms to the irregular proceedings, and manifesting an intention to put the laws in force against offenders.” In this he was supported by Knox and Randolph, and, in conjunction with the latter, prepared the draft of a proposed proclamation. In sending it to Washington he thought that it was unnecessary to have it countersigned by the Secretary of State, as that officer was at Monticello and delay was dangerous. As will be seen, the President was of another mind.
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