William Findley
Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Near the western end of Latrobe was the log house of this antifederalist Congressman, who lived modestly alongside his constituents. A shaper of public opinion in western Pennsylvania, he sympathized with the Whiskey Rebellion but, as tempers mounted in late 1794, he worked to defuse violence. Findley's book on the Rebellion, written in 1796, rebutted Treasury Secretary Hamilton's analysis of its origins.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Near the western edge of Latrobe stood the modest log house of William Findley, an antifederalist congressman who lived plainly among the western Pennsylvania farmers he represented. A powerful shaper of frontier opinion, he sympathized with the grievances behind the Whiskey Rebellion yet worked to head off bloodshed as tempers boiled over in late 1794. His 1796 account of the uprising directly challenged Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's version of what had caused it.
Why it matters
Findley embodied the democratic, anti-elite politics of the frontier, and his defense of his neighbors against Hamilton marks one of the earliest struggles over how the nation's story would be told.
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Related people
- · William Findley
- · Alexander Hamilton
Related events
- · Whiskey Rebellion, 1794
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Arthur St. Clair
Unity Township, PA · est. 1946
In a quiet hollow south of this spot stood the final home of Arthur St. Clair, a Scottish-born soldier who gave much of his life to the young United States. He fought as a general in the Continental Army, served in the Continental Congress, and became the first governor of the vast Northwest Territory that would one day form the heart of the Midwest. He died in relative obscurity, and his grave lies at Greensburg.
Hannastown
Hempfield Township, PA · est. 1946
Just east of here stood Hannastown, established in 1773 as the seat of Westmoreland County and the first county seat west of the Allegheny Mountains. Its citizens gathered in 1775 to adopt a bold declaration backing the Revolutionary cause, an early frontier voice for independence. In 1782, near the end of the war, a raiding party burned the town, and it never fully recovered.
Arthur St. Clair (1737-1818)
Greensburg, PA · est. 1995
Born in Thurso, Scotland, Arthur St. Clair rose to Major General in the Continental Army during the Revolution and served as President of the Continental Congress in 1787. He was later appointed the first Governor of the Northwest Territory, the vast lands between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers being opened to American settlement. A longtime Westmoreland County figure, he spent his last years on Chestnut Ridge and is buried just east of this marker.
Westmoreland County
Greensburg, PA · est. 1981
Carved from Bedford County in 1773, Westmoreland was for a time the sprawling frontier of southwestern Pennsylvania and the first place English law reached beyond the Allegheny Mountains. At its early seat of Hanna's Town, backcountry settlers gathered in 1775 to adopt the "Hanna's Town Resolves," a defiant pledge of resistance drafted as revolution stirred in the colonies. Greensburg later rose as the county seat, incorporated in 1799 as the region settled into peacetime governance.