Punishing the Whiskey Rebels.

Secretary Hamilton informs Governor Lee of Maryland of the disappearance of the Whiskey Rebellion in that state. Writes that President Washington saw with great satisfaction the "excellent disposition" of the citizens and the "laudable vigour" of the military. Apparently there was a "speedy termination" of the event. Writes, "Though severity towards offenders is to be avoided... impunity in such cases is apt to produce too much promptitude in setting the laws at defiance." According to Hamilton, past "repeated instances of such impunity in Pennsylvania are perhaps the principal cause of the misfortune... the disturbers of the peace familiarly appeal to the past experience of unpunished offences as an encouragement to the perpretation of new ones.