From Alexander Hamilton to Rufus King, [22 September 1794]
To Rufus King
[Philadelphia, September 22, 1794]
I thank you My Dr. Sir for your letter of the .1 A few days previously I wrote you pretty fully.2 I hope my letter got to hand.
The inclosed paper gives you the substance of our European intelligence under the Philadelphia head.
The Returns from the Western Counties of this state are just come to hand. They shew a valuable division, ranging on the side of the laws the most influential men & a respectable body of others3—but leaving a great number still uncomplying and violent so as to afford no assurance of submission to the laws without the application of Force. It will give you pleasure to learn that there is every prospect of our being able to apply this effectually & of the issue being favourable to the authority of the laws. It will occasion a large bill of Costs, but what is that compared with the object?
Adiu Affecty Yrs
A Hamilton
Rufus King Esqr
ALS, New-York Historical Society, New York City.
1. Space left blank in MS. Letter not found.
3. On September 17, 1794, Albert Gallatin wrote from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to Governor Thomas Mifflin: “A very favorable & decisive change has taken place since, & has, indeed, been the result of the event of that day. The general disposition now seems to be to submit, & a great many are now signing the proposals of the Commissioners, not only in the neighboring Counties, but even in this, where we had not thought it necessary. We have, therefore, thought the moment was come for the people to act with more vigour and to show something more than mere passive obedience to the laws, & we have, in consequence, (by the Resolutions of this day, herein inclosed, & which, we hope, will be attended with salutary effects,) recommended associations for the purpose of preserving order and of supporting the civil authority, as whatever heat existed in this County, was chiefly owing to what had passed in the neighbouring Counties” (, 317).
The resolutions to which Gallatin was referring were adopted at a meeting in Uniontown on September 17, 1794, and are printed in , 319–20.