Bradford attempted to sign, but found that his course at Red Stone Old
Fort had placed him outside the amnesty. Well might the moderate men say
in their familiar manner of Scripture allusion, "Dagon is fallen." He
fled down the Ohio and Mississippi to Louisiana, then foreign soil. The
commissioners waited at Pittsburgh for the signatures of adhesion on
September 10, which was the last day allowed by the terms of amnesty.
They required that meetings should be held on this day in the several
townships; the presiding officers to report the result to commissioner
Ross at Uniontown the 16th of the same month, on which day he would set
out for Philadelphia. The time was inadequate, but there was no help.
Gallatin hastened the submission of Fayette, and a meeting of committees
from the several townships met at the county seat, Uniontown, on
September 10, 1794, when a declaration drawn by Mr. Gallatin was
unanimously adopted. A passage in this admirable paper shows the
comparative order which prevailed in Fayette County during this period
of trouble. It is an appeal to the people of the neighboring counties,
who, under the influence of their passions and resentment, might blame
those of Fayette for their moderation.
"The only reflection we mean to suggest to them is the
disinterestedness of our conduct upon this occasion. The indictable
offences to be buried in oblivion were committed amongst them, and
almost every civil suit that has been instituted under the revenue
law, in the federal court, was commenced against citizens of this
county. By the terms proposed, the criminal prosecutions are to be
dropped, but no condition could be obtained for the civil suits. We
have been instrumental in obtaining an amnesty, from which those
alone who had a share in the riots derive a benefit, and the other
inhabitants of the western country have gained nothing for
themselves."
This declaration was forwarded on September 17 to Governor Mifflin, with
reasons for the delay, and advice that signatures were fast being
obtained, not only in the neighboring counties, but even in Fayette,
where this formality had not been thought necessary. It closes with a
forcible appeal to delay the sending of troops until every conciliatory
measure should have proved abortive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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