President George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion

President George Washington faced a major internal crisis during his second term: an armed insurrection by rural farmers in Western Pennsylvania. The rebels' objective was not the overthrow of the fledgling United States government, but the abolition of a new excise proposed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to pay the country's war debts from the recent revolution.
The insurgents saw parallels in their situation to that of the Colonies' fight for independence 10 year earlier. The Revolutionary War had been waged largely as a reaction against perceived unfair taxation, taxation ostensibly levied to pay the Crown's costs for the French and Indian War. The Distilled Spirits Tax of 1791 was immensely unpopular with the aforementioned farmers, who found distilled spirits cheap to produce and much easier to transport to eastern markets than grain. To them, the newly-enacted tax was a direct attack on their livelihood.
At first, many farmers simply refused to pay. As the situation escalated, local tax collectors were frequently threatened and assaulted, as were those who assisted or sympathized with them. A few officials were even tarred and feathered. In September of 1792, Washington issued an official proclamation stating that interference with the duties of tax collectors would not be tolerated. The president's warning did little, if anything, to diffuse the situation. In the summer of 1794, rioters torched the homes of two tax collectors -John Neville and Benjamin Wells, and on the first occasion, traded gunfire which resulted in the death of one of the rebellion's ringleaders.
Washington wanted to avoid further bloodshed, but after attempts to parlay with the insurgents deteriorated, he called out nearly 13,000 militia members from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland, who assembled near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The president rode with the troops as they crossed the Allegheny Mountains, after which he relinquished command to Virginia Governor Henry Lee, a veteran general of the Revolutionary War. Also accompanying the soldiers was Alexander Hamilton (Hoover). This show of force was sufficient to prompt the rebels to disperse without a battle. In the aftermath of the rebellion, two of its leaders were convicted of treason, but subsequently pardoned by the president.
The resolution of the crisis was seen as a victory for both President Washington and Secretary Hamilton. The United States Government had been tested and had passed. Not everyone was pleased with the handling of the situation, however, and those individuals mostly blamed Hamilton. Among Hamilton's detractors was Thomas Jefferson, who had recently served as Washington's Secretary of State, and had long been at odds with the treasury secretary. Jefferson and Hamilton's other political opponents saw the action as heavy-handed. In 1802, during Jefferson's presidency, The Distilled Spirits Tax was repealed. Hamilton was killed in a duel with Jefferson's vice president, Aaron Burr, two years later.

© February 27, 2013 by Allan M. Heller

2Published online at www.helium.com.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/georgewashington

George Washington

http://www.ushistory.org/brandywine/special/art08.htm

Alexander Hamilton

http://www.myrevolutionarywar.com

American Revolutionary War

http://www.pbs.org/thewarthatmadeamerica/timeline.html

The War That Made America

http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_virginia/col2-content/main-content-list/title_lee_henry.html

Virginia Governor Henry Lee

http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/whisky_rebellion.shtml

The Whiskey Rebellion

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/thomasjefferson

Thomas Jefferson

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande17.html

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's Duel

Photo: Famous whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania.

            by New York Public Library Digital Gallery 

            Public Domain.

Whiskey Rebellion.jpg