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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

207: PROCLAMATION - George Washington, George Washington: A Collection [1988]

Edition used:

George Washington: A Collection, compiled and edited by W.B. Allen (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1988).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


207

PROCLAMATION

City of Philadelphia, March 24, 1794

Warning on enlisting troops in the United StatesWhereas 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 tranquillity 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 the United States for the purposes aforesaid, or proceeding in any manner to the execution thereof, as they will answer for 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 in anywise concerned, aiding, or abetting therein, as they tender their own welfare, inasmuch as all lawful means will be strictly put in execution for securing obedience to the laws and for punishing such dangerous and daring violations thereof.

And I do moreover charge and require all courts, magistrates, and other officers whom it may concern, according to their respective duties, to exert the powers in them severally vested to prevent and suppress all such unlawful assemblages and proceedings, and to bring to condign punishment those who may have been guilty thereof, as they regard the due authority of Government and the peace and welfare of the United States.

[*]Having put a formal end to the troublesome career of Citizen-Genet (French Ambassador to the United States, 1793) with his Jamuary 20, 1794, message to Congress announcing Genet’s recall, Washington hoped to be free of concerns about foreigners raising armies within the United States to fight in international crusades. Nevertheless, not all of Genet’s machinations faded so quickly into the background as he did. A “commission” which Genet had granted the aging General George Rogers Clark had produced efforts to raise an army in Kentucky in the winter and spring of 1793–4. The purpose of the army was to invade the dominions of Spain (Britain’s ally) at the base of the Mississippi. A sympathetic Kentucky governor, Isaac Shelby, along with two Frenchmen, Auguste Lachaise and Charles Delpeau, designed to ochestrate the expedition, lending credibility to Administration fears of unwated foreign entanglements at a time when war fever against Britain was already running high. This proclamation was the first in a series of moves through 1794 intended to reduce the likelihood of general war.