"Here [Philadelphia]," wrote Jefferson, "the unmonied farmer ... his cattle & corps [sic] are no more thought of than if they did not feed us. Script & stock are food & raiment here.... The credit & fate of the nation seem to hang on the desperate throws & plunges of gambling scoundrels."[225] But Jefferson comforted himself with the prophecy that "this nefarious business" would finally "tumble its authors headlong from their heights."[226]
The National law taxing whiskey particularly aroused the wrath of the multitude. Here it was at last!—a direct tax laid upon the universal drink of the people, as the razor-edged Pennsylvania resolutions declared.[227] Here it was, just as the patriotic foes of the abominable National Constitution had predicted when fighting the ratification of that "oppressive" instrument. Here was the exciseman at every man's door, just as Henry and Mason and Grayson had foretold—and few were the doors in the back counties of the States behind which the owner's private still was not simmering.[228] And why was this tribute exacted? To provide funds required by the corrupt Assumption and Funding laws, asserted the agitators.
Again it was the National Government that was to blame; in laying the whiskey tax it had invaded the rights of the States, hotly declared the Republicans. "All that powerful party," Marshall bears witness, "which attached itself to the local [State] rather than to the general [National] government ... considered ... a tax by Congress on any domestic manufacture as the intrusion of a foreign power into their particular concerns which excited serious apprehensions for state importance and for liberty."[229] The tariff did not affect most people, especially those in the back country, because they used few or no imported articles; but the whiskey tax did reach them, directly and personally.[230]
Should such a despotic law be obeyed? Never! It was oppressive! It was wicked! Above all, it was "unconstitutional"! But what to do! The agencies of the detested and detestable National Government were at work! To arms, then! That was the only thing left to outraged freemen about to be ravaged of their liberty![231] Thus came the physical defiance of the law in Pennsylvania; Washington's third proclamation[232] demanding obedience to the National statutes after his earnest pleas[233] to the disaffected to observe the laws; the march of the troops accompanied by Hamilton[234] against the insurgents; the forcible suppression of this first armed assault on the laws of the United States in which men had been killed, houses burned, mails pillaged—all in the name of the Constitution,[235] which the Republicans now claimed as their peculiar property.[236]
Foremost in the fight for the whiskey insurgents were the democratic societies, which, as has been seen, were the offspring of the French Jacobin Clubs. Washington finally became certain that these organizations had inspired this uprising against National law and authority. While the Whiskey Rebellion was economic in its origin, yet it was sustained by the spirit which the French Revolution had kindled in the popular heart. Indeed, when the troops sent to put down the insurrection reached Harrisburg, they found the French flag flying over the courthouse.[237]
Marshall's old comrade in the Revolution, close personal friend, and business partner,[238] Henry Lee, was now Governor of Virginia. He stood militantly with Washington and it was due to Lee's efforts that the Virginia militia responded to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion. He was made Commander-in-Chief of all the forces that actually took the field.[239] To Lee, therefore, Washington wrote with unrestrained pen.
"I consider," said the President, "this insurrection as the first formidable fruit of the Democratic Societies ... instituted by ... artful and designing members [of Congress] ... to sow the seeds of jealousy and distrust among the people of the government.... I see, under a display of popular and fascinating guises, the most diabolical attempts to destroy ... the government."[240] He declared: "That they have been the fomenters of the western disturbances admits of no doubt."[241]
Never was that emphatic man more decided than now; he was sure, he said, that, unless lawlessness were overcome, republican government was at an end, "and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected hereafter."[242] If "the daring and factious spirit" is not crushed, "adieu to all government in this country, except mob and club government."[243]
Such were Washington's positive and settled opinions, and they were adopted and maintained by Marshall, his faithful supporter.
And not only by argument and speech did Marshall uphold the measures of Washington's Administration. In 1793 he had been commissioned as Brigadier-General of Militia, and when the President's requisition came for Virginia troops to enforce the National revenue law against those who were violently resisting the execution of it, he was placed in command of one of the detachments to be raised for that purpose.[244] Although it is not established that his brigade was ordered to Pennsylvania, the probabilities are that it was and that Marshall, in command of it, was on the scene of the first armed opposition to the National Government. And it is certain that Marshall was busy and effective in the work of raising and properly equipping the troops for duty. He suggested practical plans for expediting the muster and for economizing the expenditure of the public money, and his judgment was highly valued.[245]