on,
chief burgess of Pittsburg, a peaceable law-abiding man, who had never
taken any share in the agitation against the excise. Brigadier-General
White appears to have been chiefly responsible for the brutal treatment
of the captives. When one of them, a veteran of the Revolution, lagged
behind, owing to physical infirmity, White ordered him fastened to a
horse's tail, and dragged along. The cruel command was not obeyed. On the
following day, of about three hundred prisoners, all but ten were
discharged, there being no evidence against the others. Of eighteen
alleged offenders who were sent to Philadelphia, and marched through the
streets, with the label "Insurgent" on their hats, but two were found
guilty of crime. One was convicted of arson, another of robbing the
United States mail, when the mail was intercepted with a view of
capturing letters from the Federal officers in the western counties to
the authorities at the capital. In both instances President Washington
granted first a reprieve, then a pardon.

Alexander Hamilton held an inquisitorial investigation to ascertain
whether a blow had been meditated at the republic, and its form of
government, under the guise of opposition to the revenue. He was
evidently satisfied that there was no deeper plot than appeared on the
surface, and that, apart from their whiskey-stills, the hearts of the
West Pennsylvanians beat true to the Union.

Independence Vindicated.

CHAPTER XXII.

Arrogance of France--Americans and Louis XVI--Genet Defies Washington--
The People Support the President--War With the Indians--Defeat of St.
Clair--Indians State Their Case--General Wayne Defeats the Savages--Jay's
Treaty--Retirement of Washington--His Character--His Military Genius--
Washington as a Statesman--His Views on Slavery--His Figure in History.

The American nation had yet to win something besides independence,
something without which independence would be a burden and a mockery--the
respect of other nations; and in dealings between nations fear and
respect are closely akin. The English still occupied posts within
territory claimed by the United States, the Indians denied the right of
the Americans to lands beyond the Ohio, and republican France, having
beheaded her king, regarded the United States as a vassal on account of
the debt of gratitude which America owed to that king. War with England
had given place to jealous and intolerant rivalry, and friendship with