the end of the american revolutionary war brought an end of nearly 10 years of conflict
yet the newly fledged nation still had many flaws this was expressed by the first constitution
and the effects spelled out from it yet things are not known to be broken and less tested
and two major events occurred that test the new nation in both laws
governance and unity last week we talked about one such event
shae's rebellion and in today's episode we'll be talking about the second event the whiskey
rebellion
the new federal government began operating in 1789 following the ratification of the united states
constitution the previous federal government under the articles of confederation had been
unable to levy taxes so it had borrowed money to meet expenses and fund the revolutionary war
they ended up matching around 54 million dollars in debt from this and the individual
state governments also amassed an additional 25 million combined from the war and other expenses
alexander hamilton the secretary of the treasury proposed to combine the two debts into one and
have the federal government pay off both debts this was implemented in mid-1790 but
the issue now was how do we pay for it since the previous federal government was unable to
levy taxes on the general populace they instead had to impose some pretty high import duties
import dues are essentially taxes on imported material this was their main source of
revenue however they were raised as high as they physically could be so an alternative was needed
taxes as a whole were pretty unpopular with the public but hamilton figured that imposing
a attacks on distilled beverages would be the least political detrimental of any of them to
be implemented labeling it as a luxury tax and he managed to get support from individuals that
wanted a so-called syntax on alcohol in an effort to raise awareness of its detrimental effects
while this wasn't a tax just on whiskey whiskey was by far the most popular distilled beverage
in the country so it got to be known simply as the whiskey act this act would go into effect
in march of 1791 with its first collection due on november of the same year this tax was immediately
unpopular with people along the frontier and the more rural parts in the western end of most states
whiskey was a popular drink and farmers often supplement their incomes by operating small home
stills farmers living west of the appalachian mountains distilled their excess grain into
whiskey which it was easier and more profitable to transport over the mountains than the straight
grain a whiskey tax would make western farmers less competitive with eastern green producers too
who had the ability to operate much larger stills additionally cash was also in short supply in the
frontier so whiskey often served as an exchange good for poorer folks who were paid in whiskey the
excise was essentially an income tax that wealthier easterners did not have to pay
it was further worsened that you either had to pay a flat fee or a price per gallon for a whiskey
for the larger distilleries that could operate year round the flat fee was much cheaper as they
lose less money per gallon that they made for the smaller farmers though both were a massive burden
as normally they are too poor to pay a flat fee and the price per gallon could be upwards of 30
percent of what they would be able to sell it for on the regular market there are other
aspects of the law that also cause concern as the law required all stills to be registered
and those cited for failure to pay the tax had to appear in distant federal court rather than
the local courts and the only federal courthouse was in philadelphia sometimes hundreds of miles
away from the individual's homes other grievances for many of those on the frontier only worsened
approval of the federal government the northwest native war was going poorly for the us at the time
with them suffering heavy losses all throughout 1791 the spanish who owned much of the land to the
west of the frontier had forbade those to use the mississippi river to transport goods which heavily
limited trading and economic opportunities and the added whisky tax just added more attention
opposition to the tax was immediate and they originally pushed forward to not to pass
and then when that failed they went to the local communities to have it repealed within the region
opposition to the tax was particularly prevalent in four southwestern counties those being already
fayat washington and westmoreland a meeting was held by a handful of individuals at pittsburgh
in september of 1791 and they brought together a list of complaints that was then sent to the
pennsylvanian state legislator and the u.s house of representatives as a result of these petitions
the law was modified slightly reducing the cost per gallon by one percent and granting
western pennsylvania a u.s state representative but it did little to quiet people's protests
tax collectors to the region started to be physically harmed with many of them tarred
and feathered the federal government grew more and more concerned as this progressed and alexander
hamilton wanted to raise federal troops to put down their resistance but he was stopped at every
turn in august of 1792 a second convention was held in pittsburgh to discuss resistance to the
whiskey tax this medium was more radical than the first convention as a group known as the
mingo creek association dominated the convention and issued various demands they put in place a
motion to start a revolution if need be and they also warned that anyone known to be eating or
supporting the collection of the whiskey tax would be harmed in september of 1792 a tax collector
by the name of george claimer was sent to the era to investigate just how bad it actually was
his claims that we have were a bit exaggerated and he only made the situation more tense after trying
to bully local authorities but they had a big impact on the federal response hamilton drafted a
presidential proclamation denouncing resistance to the excise laws george washington himself signed
the proclamation and it was published and printed in many newspapers but little came of it the
resistance came to a climax in 1794 as in may of that year federal district attorney william rawley
issued subpoenas for more than 60 distillers in pennsylvania who had not yet paid the excise tax
under the law currently in effect distillers who received these writs would need to travel
to philadelphia to appear in federal court for farmers on the western frontier such a journey was
expensive time consuming and pretty much beyond their means this did get changed the following
month to allow the trials to take place in local courts but the u.s marshal sent out to issue these
rights a man by the name of david lanex was already well on his way to deliver these writs
lenex delivered most of these writs without incident on july the 15th he was joined on
his rounds by general neville a well-off politician and landowner in the region
that evening shots were fired at the two and they both retreated to naval's estates lenox went on
to report the incident to officials in pittsburgh instead of staying but in the morning at least 30
mingo creek militiamen surrounded navel's home at bower hill demanding that he hand over linox
instead of simply saying that he was present neville pulled the classic and shot one of the
rebels instead which ended up killing him the two slides changed gunfire for a bit but the rebels
were treated gathering reinforcements for the following day when they returned the next day
their force had swelled to roughly 600 men under the overall command of major james macfarlane a
veteran of the revolution novell himself was also reinforced this by a dozen regulars of the us army
lenox had returned with them as well but was captured among with a few others before the
fighting erupted after around an hour of gunfire the house flew a white flag and mcfarland called
for a ceasefire as he approached however he was shot from the house and killed
and in retaliation the rebels set fire to the house and the men in sight surrendered mcfarland
was given a hero's funeral on july the 18th and his murder further radicalized the countryside
and the calls for violence were getting louder and louder leaders of the movement such as individuals
like david bradford emerged and they started to raid wealthy land owners and u.s federal property
they attacked a mail carrier on july the 26th as it left pittsburgh aiming to find which
citizens rode in opposition of their movement he called for a military assembly at braddock
fields just a few miles away from pittsburgh for august the 1st at this assembly around 7
000 men showed up many simply poor individuals who had nothing to gain or lose from the whiskey tax
many were calling to march onto pittsburgh loot what they could then burn the whole
town to the ground while others wanted to attack a nearby fort others still wanted
to proclaim independence from the u.s and join together with the spanish or british
bradford himself and a number of his followers wanted to bring the guillotine to america and he
modeled himself off of ropes pierre wanting to bring the reign of terror to america
just don't tell him what happened to roach pierre and we don't want to crush his dreams
the situation was settled by help from the local citizens who expelled three who had written
in opposition to their cause the group still marched through pittsburgh angrily
and they burnt the barns of some well-off landowners but caused no further damage
president washington had asked his officials what the best course of action was in terms of
dealing with the unrest and all but one official said that military suppression was the only way
so on september the 25th of 1794 washington issued a proclamation summoning the new jersey
pennsylvanian maryland and virginian militias into service and warned that anyone who aided
the insurgents did so at their own peril he also informed the rebels that an army was approaching
the militia force comprised of around 13 000 men which was rather large for the time yet
few were volunteers to the militia so a draft was used to fill out the ranks
draft evasion was unsurprisingly widespread and conscription efforts often resulted in
protests and riots even in eastern parts of the states three counties in eastern virginia
were the scenes of armed draft resistance resulting in dozens of casualties in maryland
the governor sent 800 men to quash an anti-draft riot in hagerstown arresting 150 in the process
liberty polls were raised in various places as the militia was recruited and men were sent to
arrest suspected polarizers and tear them down resulting in a myriad of civilian casualties
washington marched with the men from september the 30th to october the 9th where figuring that they'd
face little resistance command was shifted over to virginian governor harry lighthorse
lee a national hero of the revolution the insurrection collapsed as the federal army
marched west into western pennsylvania some of the most predominant leaders of the insurrection
such as david bradford fled westward to safety while most others were acquitted
due to mistaken identity unreliable testimony and a lack of witnesses only two men were convicted of
treason by the official government but both would be pardoned by washington even though local courts
would arrest another few dozen but for various other charges in the rebellion while violent
opposition to the whiskey attacks ended political opposition to the attacks continued opponents of
eternal taxes rallied around the can see of thomas jefferson and helped him defeat john adams in the
presidential election by 1802 congress repealed the distilled spirits excise tax
and all other internal federal taxes it wouldn't be until the war of 1812 that the government would
rely solely on import terrorists for revenue which quickly grew the nation's expanding foreign trade
i hope you enjoyed the brief look into one of the largely forgotten rebellions
in the united states history if there's a topic that you'd like me to cover in the future
say so down in the comments below if you like to assist the channel in growing then consider
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