A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT by no means ended with the formation of
parties and votes at the polls. The Assembly of Virginia condemned the
assumption of the state debts. North Carolina denounced assumption and the
excise law. In Maryland a resolution declaring assumption dangerous to the
rights of the states was lost by the casting vote of the Speaker. The
right of Congress to tax pleasure carriages was tested in the Supreme
Court, which declared the tax constitutional. When that court decided
(1793) that a citizen of one state might sue another state, Virginia,
Connecticut, and Massachusetts called for a constitutional amendment to
prevent this, and the Eleventh Amendment was proposed by Congress (1794)
and declared in force in 1798. The tax on whisky caused an insurrection in
Pennsylvania.
THE WHISKY INSURRECTION.--The farmers around Pittsburg were largely
engaged in distilling whisky, refused to pay the tax, and drove off the
collectors. Congress thereupon (1794) enacted a law to enforce the
collection, but when the marshal arrested some of the offenders, the
people rose, drove him away, and by force of arms prevented the execution
of the law. Washington then called for troops from Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and these marching across the state by a
mere show of force brought the people to obedience. Leaders of the
insurrection were arrested, tried, and convicted of treason, but were
pardoned by Washington. [9]
THE INDIAN WAR.--Still farther west, meantime, a great battle had been
fought with the Indians. The succession of boats loaded with emigrants
floating down the Ohio, and the arrivals of settlers north of the river at
Marietta, Gallipolis, and Cincinnati, had greatly excited the Indians. The
coming of the whites meant the destruction of game and of fur-bearing
animals, and the pushing westward of the Indians. This the red men
determined to resist, and did so by attacking boats and killing emigrants,
and in January, 1790, they marched down on the settlement called Big
Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept it from the face of the earth.
Washington sent fifteen hundred troops from Kentucky and Pennsylvania
against the Indians in the autumn of 1790. Led by Colonel Harmar, the
troops burned some Indian supplies and villages, but accomplished nothing
save to enrage the Indians yet more. Washington thereupon put General St.
Clair in command, and in the autumn of 1791 St. Clair set off to build a
chain of forts from Cincinnati to Lake Michigan; but the Indians surprised
him and cut his army to pieces.
[Illustration: TERRITORY CEDED BY THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE.]
Anthony Wayne was next placed in command, and two years were spent in
careful preparation before he began his march across what is now the state
of Ohio. At the Falls of the Maumee (August, 1794) he met and beat the
Indians so soundly that a year later, by the treaty of Greenville, a
lasting peace was made with the ten great nations of the Northwest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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