952 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



MesS:ig; from general Wash'inglon to 

 Congress. 



May 21, l79i. 



Gentlemen of the senate; and of 

 the house of representatives, 



I Lay before you certain infor- 

 mation, whereby it would ap- 

 pear, that some encroachment was 

 about to he made on our territory, 

 by an officer and party ©f British 

 troops. Proceeding upon a suppo- 

 sition of the authenticity of this in- 

 formation, although of a private na- 

 ture, I have caused the representa- 

 tion to be made to the British mi- 

 nister, a copy of which accompanies 

 this message. 



Itcannot be necessary tocommcnt 

 .upon the very serious nature of such 

 an encroachment, nor to urge that 

 this new state of things suggest s the 

 propriety of placing the United 

 States in a posture of eifcGtual pre- 

 paration for an event, which, not- 

 withstanding the endeavours making 

 to avert it, may, by circumstar.ccs 

 beyond ourcontroul, be forced upon 



us. 



G. Washington. 



Prnclamatlon pulUskeil by authority ^ 

 at Nt'it/ 7'ork, by the president of 

 the Uihtid States of America, S(fpi. 

 29, 179i. 



VyHEREAS, from? hope that 

 * * the combination against the 

 constitution and laws of the United 

 Statts, in certain of the western 

 counties of Petmsylvania, would 

 yield to time and leflection, I thought 

 it sufficient, in the first instance, ra- 

 ther to take measures for calling 



forth the militia than in:'.mcdiately, 

 to embody them ; but the moment 

 is now dome, when the overtures 

 of forgiveness, with no other con- 

 dition tha,n a submission to law, 

 have been only partially accepted ; 

 when every form of conciliation, no(t 

 inconsistent with the being of g<jr- 

 vernment, hap been adopted with- 

 out effect ; when the well-disposed 

 in thos2 counties are unable by 

 their influence and example to rey 

 cla'm the wicked from their fury, 

 and are compelled to associate in 

 their ov/n defence ; when the prof- 

 fered lenity has been perversely 

 misinterpreted into an apprehen- 

 sion that the citizens will march 

 with reluctance : when the oppor- 

 tunity of examining the serious con- 

 sequences of a treasonable opposi- 

 tion has been employed in propa- 

 gating principles of anarchy, en- 

 deavouring through emissaries to a- 

 licnate the friends of order from its 

 support, and inviting enemies to 

 perpetrate similar acts of insurrec- 

 tion ; when it is manifest, that vio- 

 lence would be continued to be 

 -exercised upon every .attempt to en- 

 force the law : when, therefor^, 

 government is set at deiiance, the 

 cor.test being whether a small pov- 

 tion of the United States shall dic- 

 tate to the whole union, and a', the 

 cxpcnce of those who desire peace, 

 indulge a desperate ambition. Now 

 therefore, X, George Washington, 

 president of the United States, in 

 obedience to that high and irre- 

 sistible duty, ccnsit-ned to ir.e by 

 the constitution, " to take care that 

 ihe laws be faithfi^lly executed ;" 

 deploring that the American name 

 should be sullied by the outrages of. 

 citizens on their own government; 

 commiserating such as remain obsti- 

 nate 



