The malcontents held a great mass meeting on Braddock's Field, denounced the law and declared that they would not obey it.

Washington issued a proclamation calling upon the people to resume their peaceable life.
He called also on the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia for troops, which they furnished.

His right-hand lieutenant was Alexander Hamilton, who felt quite as keenly as he did himself the importance of putting down such an insurrection.
Washington knew that if any body of the people were allowed unpunished to rise and disobey any law which pinched or irritated them, all law and order would very soon go by the board.

His action was one of the great examples in government which he set the people of the United States.

He showed that we must never parley or haggle with sedition, treason, or lawlessness, but must strike a blow that cannot be parried, and at once.