I am happy to add, the dispute, which originated by a mistake, between Huntingdon and Mifflin counties, is happily closed in the most amicable manner, without any prosecution in Mifflin.
I am, sir, your most obedient,
John Clark, Dy. St. Attorney.
To Thomas Smith, Esq., President of the Court of Mifflin county.
The following is another account of the affair, and evidently written by a friend of the offending judge:—
Carlisle, September 21.
At a period when the general voice of the people proclaims the excellence of the Federal Government, and the State of Pennsylvania in particular is anticipating every blessing from a Constitution so conformable to it, an alarming sedition, together with a most daring turbulent temper, has unhappily manifested itself in the county of Mifflin.
The Governor has lately appointed Samuel Bryson, Esquire, second Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of that county. This gentleman, having been Lieutenant of the county of Mifflin, had excited the determined enmity of two men who were ambitious of being colonels of militia, and against the commissioning of whom (as unfit persons) Mr. Bryson, as County Lieutenant, had made representations. Enraged at the promotion of Judge Bryson, and unhappily yielding to the impulse of the most unjustifiable passions, one William Wilson, brother to the sheriff of Mifflin county, and one David Walker, levied a considerable force, and marched at the head of about forty armed men, with a fife playing, to Lewistown, with the avowed determination to seize upon the person of Judge Bryson whilst on the bench, drag him from thence, oblige him to resign his commission, and compel him to march many miles along the rugged Narrows of Juniata River.
Secresy marked this unexampled treasonable riot. It was not known at Lewistown until about an hour before the insurgents appeared. Justice Stuart, who had been lately commissioned, and who is a very worthy man, had been imprisoned in the morning by four men who belonged to the party of the rioters. They attempted to make him engage his word that he would not give information; but he refused. Ignorant of the private movers of this daring and turbulent procedure, it was agreed by Judges Brown and Armstrong, and other gentlemen, to request the sheriff of the county and Judge Beale, who were presumed to have influence over them, together with the prothonotary of the county, to represent the illegality and imprudence of their conduct, and prevail on them if possible, to return. No advantage has been derived from this step. Mr. Edmiston, the prothonotary, was insulted; the sheriff was taken into a mock imprisonment; and Judge Beale soon after adopted a part which evinced that little real exertion could have been expected from him in quieting this disturbance.
The court was sitting when this armed force, levying war against the State, with a fife playing, marched resolutely forward. At this juncture Judge Bryson asked Judge Beale if it was not likely they would stop; to which the other replied that they never would whilst such a rascal sat upon the bench.