Source 1

Letter from George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 1792

Annotation: During the Whiskey Rebellion, the government is under the new US Constitution which gives the executive branch the power to execute the laws. George Washington is telling Alexander Hamilton his intent on using this power during the Whiskey Rebellion

“I have no hesitation in declaring, if the evidence of it is clear and unequivocal (with no doubt), that I shall, however reluctantly (hesitant) I exercise them, exert (use) all the legal powers with which the Executive is invested, to check(to keep in check= to stop) so daring and unwarrantable(unwanted) a spirit(of the rebellion). It is my duty to see the Laws executed: to permit them to be trampled(crashed) upon with impunity (without punishment)would be repugnant (unexceptable) to it; nor can the Government longer remain a passive spectator of the contempt (lack of respect)with which they are treated.”