with the expectations of your friends. It is there represented as being voluminous, and in a variety of respects interesting. Be so good as to send me a copy. I wrote to you lately a confidential letter, under cover to the President; my dispatches to Mr. Randolph, were under the same cover. I presumed that, if the vessel should be examined by some rude privateer, more respect would be paid to a letter directed to the President, than to others.

Nothing very important has since occurred; things are in a train that looks promising; but the issue is of course uncertain. The resolutions from Kentucky and North Carolina are here, and make disagreeable impressions. Incivilities as often produce resentment as injuries do.

Affairs in Europe wear a serious aspect. The French continue successful, and the English decided. It is thought the Dutch will resign to their fate without very strenuous opposition. Geneva is undergoing another revolution. News of Robespierre's violent death has arrived, and gains credit. If true, the importance of it to France or the allies cannot yet be calculated. Events have hitherto been more common than influential. Yours sincerely.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Aug. 16, 1794.

SIR:

It appears probable that advantages will result from giving to the citizens at large information on the subject of the disturbances which exist in the western part of Pennsylvania.

With this view, if no objection to the measure should occur to you, I would cause a publication to be made of the report. which I had the honor to address to you, dated the 5th instant. With the most perfect respect, &c.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 18, 1794.

The Secretary of the Treasury submits to the President the draft of a letter on the subject of the proscribed privateers. Would it not be advisable to communicate the matter to the French Minister, and to request his co-operation in causing our ports to be no longer affronted by those vessels ?

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

August 21, 1794.

The Secretary of the Treasury presents his respects to the President. The letter written to the President on the 16th, respecting the publication of the report of the 5th, was written at the Secretary of State's office, where Mr. H. expected a copy of it had been taken previous to its delivery. But when Mr. H. sent to inquire for a copy, in order to the publication of it, he found none had been taken; which, it being then too late to ob tain a copy in time from the President, left him the dilemma, either of suffering the report to go out without the letters, or to draft one as a substitute for that which had been sent. The latter appeared to him to be most likely to be agreeable to the President, and he drew one accordingly, a copy of which appears in Dunlap's paper of to-day, corresponding with the inclosed original, which the President will find perfectly the same in substance with the former.

Another circumstance may require explanation. The letters follow, instead of preceding the report. This happened from the report having been immediately sent, to promote dispatch, and the President's answer not having been received till the day following, so that it went to the printer too late for insertion in the first instance without too great a derangement of his types.

SIR:

WASHINGTON TO HAMILTON.

GERMANTOWN, August 21, 1794.

To your note of this date, in behalf of the Department of War, asking my opinion or direction respecting the advisableness of sending, in the existing circumstances of the western counties of Pennsylvania, two months' pay to the army under the immediate orders of General Wayne, I answer, that under my present impressions the measure had better be delayed, at least until the commissioners, who were sent into those counties, make their report. It certainly would, from all the information that has been received from that quarter, be too hazardous to send a sum of money by the way of Pittsburgh, through counties that are in open rebellion; and besides, the circuitousness of the route through what is called the Wilderness, and the length of time required to send it by a messenger that way, there would be, in my opinion, no small risk in the attempt. But as I shall be in the city to-morrow, I will converse with you on the subject. I am, &c.

HAMILTON TO CRAIG.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Aug. 25, 1794.

SIR:

Your letter of the 17th instant to the Secretary of War has been received and duly attended to.

The suggestions respecting additional measures of defence have been considered; but the danger of the means falling into the hands of the insurgents appears at present an objection.

It is hoped that every thing at Pittsburgh, or which shall come there, not necessary to the post itself, has been forwarded down the river, and will continue to be so, as long and as fast as

it can be done with safety. The friends of government at Pittsburgh ought to rally their confidence, and if necessary, manifest it by acts. They cannot surely doubt the power of the United States to uphold the authority of the laws; and they may be assured, that the necessity of doing it, towards preserving the very existence of government, so directly attacked, will dictate and produce a most vigorous and persevering effort, in which the known good sense and love of order of the quiet body of the people, and all the information hitherto received of their sentiments and feelings with regard to the present emergency, authorize a full expectation of their hearty co-operation.

SIR:

SECRETARY OF STATE TO MIFFLIN.

Draft by Hamilton.

PHILADELPHIA, August 30th, 1794.

I am directed by the President to acknowledge the receipt on the 17th of your excellency's letter, dated the 12th instant.

The President feels with you the force of the motives which render undesirable an extension of correspondence on the subject in question. But the case being truly one of great importanc and delicacy, these motives must yield in a degree to the propriety and utility of giving precision to every part of the transaction, and guarding effectually against ultimate misapprehension.

To this end it is deemed advisable, in the first place, to state some facts, which either do not appear, or are conceived not to have assumed an accurate shape in your excellency's letter. They are these:

1. You were informed at the conference that all the information which had been received had been laid before an associate justice, in order that he might consider and determine whether such a case as is contemplated by the second section of the act,

which provides for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions, had occurred; that is, whether combinations existed too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshal by that act; in which case the President is authorized to call forth the militia to suppress the combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

2. The idea of a preliminary proceeding by you was pointed to an eventual co-operation with the Executive of the United States, in such plan as, upon mature deliberation, should be deemed advisable, in conformity with the laws of the Union. The inquiry was particularly directed towards the possibility of some previous accessory step in relation to the militia, to expedite the calling them forth if an acceleration should be judged expedient and proper, and if any delay on the score of evidence should attend the notification from a judge, which the laws make the condition of the power of the President to require the aid of the militia, and turned more especially upon the point whether the law of Pennsylvania, of the 22d September, 1783, was or was not still in force. The question emphatically was: Has the Executive of Pennsylvania power to put the militia in motion, previous to a requisition from the President, under the laws of the Union, if it shall be thought advisable so to do? Indeed, it seems to be admitted by one part of your letter, that the preliminary measure contemplated did turn on this question, and with a particular eye to the authority and existence of the act just mentioned.

3. The information contained in the papers, read at the conference, besides the violence offered to the marshal, while in company with the inspector of the revenue, established that the marshal had been afterwards made prisoner by the insurgents, put in jeopardy of his life, had been obliged to obtain safety and liberty by a promise, guaranteed by Colonel Presby Neville, that he would serve no other process on the west side of the Allegany mountains; that, in addition to this, a deputation of the insurgents had gone to Pittsburgh, to demand of the marshal a surrender of the processes in his possession, under the intimation that