President George Washington Urgently Seeks Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson to Make Official His First Ever Proclamation Testing Federal Authority in the United States

Only the 7th proclamation issued in US history by any President

 

Washington’s motivation, as related to Jefferson: “to discharge what I conceive to be a duty—and none, in my opinion, is more important, than to carry the Laws of the United States into effect…”

Alexander Hamilton proposed an excise tax on domestically produced whiskey as part of his comprehensive financial program in his “Report Relative to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit,” which he completed on January 9, 1790, and submitted to Congress. Its purpose was to generate revenue for payment of the debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. In March 1791 Congress responded by passing “An Act repealing…the duties heretofore laid upon Distilled Spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead; and also upon Spirits distilled within the United States…” Congress modified this original statute with “An Act concerning the Duties on Spirits distilled within the United States,” which was approved on May 8, 1792. The so-called “whiskey tax” imposed by these laws was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. Opposition to this tax was particularly strong in the frontier regions of all the states south of New York, and in western Pennsylvania it was often violent. As of August 1792, the federal government had failed to collect any taxes from that area.

Hamilton took the matter up with the President. On September 1, 1792, he wrote Washington, “I have the honor to inclose sundry papers which have been handed to me by the Commissioner of the Revenue, respecting the state of the Excise Law in the western survey of the District of Pennsylvania…Such persevering and violent opposition to the Law gives the business a still more serious aspect than it has hitherto worn, and seems to call for vigorous & decisive measures on the part of the Government. My present clear conviction is, that it is indispensable…to exert the full force of the Law against the Offenders…& if the processes of the Courts are resisted…to employ those means, which in the last resort are put in the power of the Executive. If this is not done, the spirit of disobedience will naturally extend and the authority of the Government will be prostrate.”

Washington received the letter and agreed with Hamilton’s line of reasoning. He felt the need to take action and exercise federal power and authority. He wrote Hamilton on September 7 setting forth his considered position, and stressing that he would use all the power he had to make sure the laws were executed. “The last Post brought me your letter…respecting the disorderly conduct of the Inhabitants of the Western Survey of the District of Pennsylvania, in opposing the execution of what is called the Excise Law; & of the insults which have been offered by some of them to the Officers who have been appointed to collect the duties on distilled spirits agreeably thereto…Such conduct in any of the Citizens of the United States, under any circumstances that can well be conceived, would be exceedingly reprehensible…But if, notwithstanding, opposition is still given to the due execution of the Law, I have no hesitation in declaring, if the evidence of it is clear & unequivocal, that I shall, however reluctantly I exercise them, exert all the legal powers with which the Executive is invested, to check so daring & unwarrantable a spirit. It is my duty to see the Laws executed: to permit them to be trampled upon with impunity would be repugnant to it; nor can the Government longer remain a passive spectator of the contempt with which they are treated. Forbearance, under a hope that the Inhabitants of that Survey would recover from the delirium & folly into which they were plunged, seems to have had no other effect than to increase the disorder.”

The Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, was consulted, and on September 8 he recommended issuing a Presidential Proclamation to exert the authority of the federal government and urge compliance with the whiskey tax. On September 11, Hamilton took matters in hand and sent Washington a draft proclamation, which was received by the President at Mount Vernon on the morning of September 15. Washington approved the text immediately, and was anxious to issue the proclamation and vindicate federal executive authority. But there was a procedural roadblock. In his previous proclamations, a precedent had been set that the Secretary of State must certify the President’s signature with his own. So to issue the proclamation, Washington needed Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was then at Monticello.

That same day, September 15, Washington sent his tenant William Gray to deliver a letter to Jefferson. In a very rare Autograph Memorandum Signed of Washington also written on the 15th, Washington urgently instructed Gray to find Jefferson, and gave him directions for doing so: “Memorandum for Mr. Wm. Gray at Colchester: Enquire the way to Normand’s Ford off Rappahannock River, thence to Charlottesville. But before you get to that place, your business is to deliver and bring an answer from the Secretary of State—Mr Jefferson—you will enquire for his Seat of Monticello. Delay no time you can avoid, in bringing back his answer—and in order to obtain it, you must if he is not at Home, go to him. Get a certificate from Mr. Jefferson of the distance you ride, by which you will be paid. Be here if possible by, or before, Friday Noon, ensuing the date of this.” One can feel the urgency of the moment in this memorandum. Riding with speed, Gray found Jefferson, obtained his signature, and got it back to the President, perhaps by nightfall on the 15th.

Washington’s letter to Jefferson, carried by Gray with this memorandum, affirmed Washington’s intention to act on his responsibilities, and stated: “This letter goes Express, to obtain the signature of the Secretary of State to the enclosed Proclamation…If good is to result from the Proclamation, no time is to be lost in issuing of it; as the opposition, to what is called the Excise Law, in the Western Survey of the District of Pennsylvania, is become too open, violent & serious to be longer winked at by Government, without prostrating it’s authority, and involving the Executive in censurable inattention to the outrages which are threatened. I have no doubt but that the measure I am about to take, will be severely criticized; but I shall disregard any animadversions upon my conduct when I am called upon by the nature of my office, to discharge what I conceive to be a duty—and none, in my opinion, is more important, than to carry the Laws of the United States into effect…”

This is the proclamation issued by President Washington on September 15, 1792. It is only the seventh presidential proclamation ever issued and the first relating to upholding federal authority:

“By the President of the United States. A Proclamation: Whereas certain violent and unwarrantable proceedings have lately taken place, tending to obstruct the operation of the laws of the United States for raising a revenue upon Spirits distilled within the same, enacted pursuant to express authority delegated in the Constitution of the United States; which proceedings are subversive of good order, contrary to the duty that every Citizen owes to his Country and to the laws, and of a nature dangerous to the very being of Government: And…whereas it is the particular duty of the Executive ‘to take care that the laws be faithfully executed,’ and not only that duty, but the permanent interests and happiness of the people require, that every legal and necessary step should be pursued as well to prevent such violent and unwarrantable proceedings, as to bring to justice the infractors of the laws and secure obedience thereto.

“Now therefore I George Washington, President of the United States, do by these presents most earnestly admonish and exhort all persons whom it may concern, to refrain and desist from all unlawful combinations and proceedings whatsoever, having for object or tending to obstruct the operation of the laws aforesaid; inasmuch as all lawful ways and means will be strictly put in execution, for bringing to justice the infractors thereof and securing obedience thereto. And I do moreover charge and require all Courts, Magistrates and Officers whom it may concern, according to the duties of their several Offices, to exert the powers in them respectively vested by law for the purposes aforesaid, hereby also enjoining and requiring all persons whomsoever, as they tender the welfare of their Country, the just and due authority of Government and the preservation of the public peace, to be aiding and assisting therein, according to law. In Testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done this fifteenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety two, and of the independence of the United States the seventeenth.” It is signed “Geo. Washington” and countersigned “By the President. Th. Jefferson.”

This memorandum is the only letter relating to a proclamation of President George Washington that we have ever had, or can recall seeing. It is as important as it is rare. The Whiskey Rebellion was, states the Library of Congress website, the “first test of federal authority in the United States.” Washington had been president for only three years when he had to decide how to face it. His decision would set a precedent. As we see here, he consulted with the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton; the Attorney General, Edmund Randolph; and the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. This must have been one of the first, if not the first, issue where he brought in so many of his senior Cabinet members. Then Washington decided, and this proclamation was the result.