From the time of this meeting, and the vote of 34 to 23 at Redstone Old
Fort, the situation entirely changed and a new class of difficulties and
dangers arose; it was no longer the insurgents who were alarming, but
the government. As Bradford on one side was formally giving in his
submission, and, on finding that his speech at Redstone had put him
outside the amnesty, made a rapid and narrow escape down the Ohio to
Louisiana, on the other side an army of fifteen thousand men was
approaching, and the conditions of proffered amnesty could not be
fulfilled for lack of time. Before the terms were fixed between the
committee of twelve and the government commissioners, three days had
passed; to print and prepare the forms of submission to be signed by the
people took two days more. The 4th September arrived before these
preliminaries were completed; the 11th September was the day on which
the people were to sign. No extension of time was possible. In
consequence there was only a partial adhesion to the amnesty, and among
those excluded were large numbers of persons who refused or neglected to
sign on the ground that they had been in no way concerned in the
insurrection and needed no pardon.
Gallatin was active in procuring the adhesion of the citizens of
Fayette, and the address he then drafted for a meeting on September 10
of the township committees of that county is to be found in his printed
works.[26] There, indeed, the danger was slight, because of all the
western counties Fayette had been the least disturbed; yet there, too,
numbers were technically at the mercy of the army and the law. Mr.
Gallatin was, therefore, of opinion that as the rebellion was completely
broken, and the submissions made on the 11th September, if not
universal, were so general and had been followed by such prostration
among the violent party as to preclude the chance of resistance, a
further advance of the army was inadvisable. He drafted a letter on the
part of the Fayette townships committee to the governor, on the 17th
September, representing this view of the case.[27] The President,
however, acting on the report of the government commissioners, decided
otherwise, and the order for marching was issued on the 25th September.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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