Whiskey Rebellion

The Whiskey Rebellion was a rural uprising in the western counties of Pennsylvania in 1794 in response to a United States federal government imposed excise tax placed on liquor. The rebellion had to be put down by force, as George Washington became the only U.S. President to command troops in the field. It demonstrated that the federal government was willing to enforce laws by force. The unpopularity of this tax contributed to the resignation of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who later formed the Republican Party which proved to be the downfall of the Federalist Party.

Background

After the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the federal government assumed the debts that the states incurred during the American Revolution. In an effort to reduce the national debt, Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, proposed a bill to tax distilled spirits. The bill was passed into law in 1791. The tax was not well received by farmers and distillers in the western frontier counties, primarily in Pennsylvania. Due to the difficulty of shipping grain to market, the western farmers became economically dependent on fermenting and distilling their grains in order to preserve it's lifespan. These frontier counties also operated largely on the barter system, which made it difficult for them to pay cash taxes. Believing that the federal government was acting against their interests, the frontiersmen refused to pay the tax.

The tax resulted in both violent and non-violent responses to it. In September 1791, sixteen men in Washington County tarred and feathered a tax collector named Robert Johnson. Johnson was able to identify some of the men who assaulted him and warrants were issued for their arrests. Realizing the danger of the situation, head excise officer John Neville, a veteran of the American Revolution, used a proxy to serve the warrants. The proxy was assaulted by a mob and the warrants were never served. Meetings were held to fight the tax with non-violent means by representatives from Pennsylvania's western counties of Washington, Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Fayette. The petitioned Congress, charging that the excise was a selective tax unfairly targeting western Pennsylvanian distillers. Politicians in the east feared this violent resistance to pay the law signified a move toward frontier independence, of which there had been several occurrences in the 1780's.

A group of western Pennsylvanians known as the Mingo Creek Association became the driving force behind the rebellion. Their members rose through the ranks of the local authorized militias and used their power to obstruct tax collectors and protect residents from debt lawsuits. In 1792, Neville rented a house from an army officer named William Faulkner in Washington County. Faulkner was threatened by the Association, and during a convention in Pittsburgh issued a series of radical demands including support for actions against anyone aiding federal officials. Shortly afterward, a group ransacked Faulkner's house and he decided to not allow Neville to use it as his base of operations. Neville became convinced of the need for a military presence to enforce the law.

Tensions escalated throughout 1793 and early 1794 with harrassment extending not only to federal officials but to residents who had registered their stills with the government. The rebellion was further fueled by someone writing under the psuedonym "Tom the Tinkerer". Tom became the invisible leader of the movement, inspiring gangs of rebels to call them selves "Tom the Tinker's Men" and carrying out his written threats. In May of 1794, liberty poles began to appear across the Pennsylvania countryside -- clearly echoing the symbology of the liberty trees of New England prior to the American Revolution.

Bibliography

• Hogeland, William. The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the frontier rebels who challenged America's newfound sovereignty. Scribner, 2006.
• Slaughter, Thomas P. The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier epilogue to the American Revolution. Oxford University Press, 1986.