Evidence 1: “Resolved, That the said law is deservedly obnoxious to the feelings and interests of the people in general, as being attended with infringements on liberty. . . . It is a bad precedent tending to introduce the excise laws of Great Britain and of countries where the liberty, property, and even the morals of the people are sported with, to gratify particular men in their ambitious and interested measures.”—Document 7.1: Resolution to the Pennsylvania Legislature

Evidence 2: “Resolved, That the town committee shall exist as a committee of information and correspondence, as an organ of our sentiments until our next town meeting. And that whereas, a general meeting of delegates from the townships of the country, on the west of the mountains, will be held at Parkinson’s Ferry, on the Monongahela, on the 14th of August next.”—Document 7.2: The Pittsburgh Resolution

Evidence 3: “Not long after a person of the name of Roseberry underwent the humiliating punishment of tarring and feathering with some aggravations for having in conversation hazarded the very natural and just but unpalatable remark that the inhabitants of that county could not reasonably expect protection from a government whose laws they so strenuously opposed. . . . Designs of personal violence against the inspector of revenue himself, to force him to a resignation, were repeatedly attempted to be put in execution by armed parties.”—Document 7.4: Alexander Hamilton, Letter to George Washington

Evidence 4: “You well know the general tendency of insurrections to increase the momentum of power. You will recollect the particular effect of what happened some years ago in Massachusetts. Precisely the same calamity was to be dreaded on a larger scale in this case. There were enough, as you may well suppose, ready to give the same turn to the crisis, and to propagate the same impressions from it.”—Document 7.5: James Madison, Letter to James Monroe

Evidence 1: “Also, that, whereas it is a part of the message from the gentlemen of Washington, that a great body of the people of the country will meet to-morrow at Braddock’s Field, in order to carry into effect measures that may seem to them advisable with respect to the excise law, and the advocates of it.”—Document 7.2: The Pittsburgh Resolution

Evidence 2: “And whereas, it is, in my judgment, necessary under the circumstances of the case to take measures for calling forth the militia in order to suppress the combinations aforesaid, and to cause the laws to be duly executed, and I have accordingly determined so to do, feeling the deepest regret for the occasion, but withal the most solemn conviction that the essential interest of the Union demand it, that the very existence of the government and the fundamental principles of social order are materially involved in the issue, and that the patriotism and firmness of all good citizens are seriously called upon as occasion may require, to aid in the suppression of so fatal a spirit.”—Document 7.3: George Washington, Proclamation against the Rebels

Evidence 3: “The audacity of the perpetrators of these excesses was so great that an armed banditti ventured to seize and carry off two persons who were witnesses against the rioters in the case of Wilson in order to prevent their giving testimony of the riot to a court then sitting or about to sit. Designs of personal violence against the inspector of the revenue himself, to force him a resignation, were repeatedly attempted to be put in execution by armed parties, but, by different circumstances, were frustrated.”—Document 7.4: Alexander Hamilton, Letter to George Washington

Evidence 4: “It must be seen that no two principles can be either more indefensible in reason, or more dangerous in practice, that that—1. Arbitrary denunciations may punish what the law permits, and what the Legislature has no right by law to prohibit; and that, 2. The Government may stifle all censure whatever on its misdoings; for if it be itself the Judge, it will never allow any censures to be just; and if it can suppress censures flowing from one lawful source, it may those flowing from any other.”—Document 7.5: James Madison, Letter to James Monroe

Evidence 1: “Resolved, also, That we shall be watchful among ourselves of all characters that, by word or act, may be unfriendly to the common cause; and, when discovered, will not suffer them to live amongst us, but they shall instantly depart the town.”—Document 7.2: The Pittsburgh Resolution

Evidence 2: “Provided, always, That whenever it may be necessary, in the judgment of the President, to use the Militia force hereby directed to be called forth, the President shall forthwith, and previous thereto, by Proclamation, command such insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within the limited time.”—Document 7.3: George Washington, Proclamation against the Rebels

Evidence 3: “It happened most auspiciously, however, that, with a spirit truly Republican, the people every where, and of every description, condemned the resistance to the will of the majority, and obeyed with alacrity the call to vindicate the authority of the laws. You will see, in the answer of the House of Representatives to the President’s speech, that the most was made of this circumstance, as an antidote to the poisonous influence to which Republicanism was exposed.”—Document 7.5: James Madison, Letter to James Monroe

Evidence 4: “The elections for the House of Representatives are over in New England and Pennsylvania. In Massachusetts, they have been contested so generally as to rouse the people compleatly from their lethargy, though not sufficiently to eradicate the errors which have prevailed there. The principal members have been all severely pushed; several changes have taken place, rather for the better, and not one for the worse.”—Document 7.5: James Madison, Letter to James Monroe