Role Of George Washington In The Taxation Of Whiskey In Pennsylvania

Meaning when a tax is placed on a certain item, whiskey, in this demand model the producer, the farmers, would pay most of the tax. At the time the federal government saw whiskey as a luxury and so placed the tax on the distillers, raising the price of production in return decreasing the amount produced. They saw they could pay off their debt, by taxing the whiskey, and the producers of whiskey would pay for the debt for them. Therefore, the National debt incurred during the Revolutionary war and, the supply and the demand of whiskey are related. It was shown that only the distillers who produced less would pay more because of the tradeoff of equity end efficiency, meaning that because of the debt from the war, the government needed a way to pay for the debt and taxed whiskey. Concluding that the supply and demand elasticities of whiskey are completely due to the taxation put on the whiskey to pay for the

Slaughter divides The Whiskey Rebellion into three principal sections entitled Context, Chronology, and Consequence. The first section begins with a comprehensive assessment of the anti-excise tradition which follows late seventeenth-century British philosophy and traces its progression from Walpole's excise battle in 1733, through the Stamp Act crisis of 1764 and on through the Anti-Federalist account of the tax provisions of the Constitution of 1787. In the second section, Slaughter details the debate over the excise, its implementation and the outbreak of both peaceful and violent opposition to it; opposition that occurred not only in Pennsylvania but along the entire frontier. In his final section, and with a trace of personal bias, Slaughter describes the outbreak of violence in the summer of 1794 for which he holds John Neville largely accountable. Slaughter continues in the final section with Hamilton and Washington deciding to make an example of western Pennsylvania despite the fact that the excise had gone uncollected all along the frontier, and the Watermelon Army fiasco which the Federalists

Towards the end of the 16th century, the United States government experienced continuous changes in laws(taxes) and several problems(battling and removal of Indians) associated with westward expansion. Conflict was created in response to the rising taxes issued by the government on goods such as whiskey. Most affected by the heavy taxation were the creators and distributors of whiskey - the average poor white farmer. An incident that occurred in 1794 involving enraged farmers in western Pennsylvania, threatened the tax collectors lives as well as the authority of the government. This incident came to be known as the Whiskey Rebellion.

What is the first thing someone would think about when whiskey is mentioned? A fun Saturday night out? Maybe, but it they probably did not think about the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791. This Rebellion was resisted by farmers who were accustomed to distilling their excess corn to make alcohol in four small counties in both Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania. This Rebellion was met full force with troops set by George Washington. This event was a prime example of the battle between State’s Rights versus Federal Authority as illustrated in the book, Founding Brothers written by Joseph J. Ellis. Even today, the battle continues between the States and the Federal Government regarding the issue of legal marijuana. This issue started 2012 when the

The Whiskey Rebellion was a revolt of settlers in western Pennsylvania in 1794 against a federal excise tax on whiskey then, suppressed by militia called out by President George Washington to establish the authority of the federal government. The main cause of the Whiskey Rebellion was because of the placement of the tax on the domestic goods, This is known to be the first tax placed on a domestic goods in the new world. Due to the rebellion many outcomes became, two of the main outcomes were the power demonstration and the lost in federalist support. First, the government was able to demonstrate the power showing the people that they had the power to stop the rebellions and any action of the rebellions, with the people noticing that the government can withhold the rebellions they are least likely to revolt again. Also, with George Washington sending in the militia the federalist who does not believe in the ideas of why he sent in the militia, there was a massive lost of federalist

When George Washington became the first president of the United States in 1789 the young republic faced many pressing issues. The state needed to build a sound economy, create a stable polotical system and preserve national independence. .

As the Revolutionary War ended, the United States faced a completely new set of challenges. Now the United States had to shift focus from gaining independence from England to gaining their own financial security. The newly formed country had to figure out a way to pay for the war debt incurred by the colonies. In order to do this, the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, convinced congress and the president that a tax on whiskey would be able to provide the revenue needed to repay the debts. However, the tax on whiskey was met with heavy resistance. To Hamilton, the tax was only “a few dollars a year for the average small distillery” but for the Frontiersmen it was an attack on their way of life. The resistance to the tax, the

In 1791, under the advisement of Alexander Hamilton, congress passed the whiskey tax. This tax, put a twenty-five percent tax on whiskey. Hamilton created this tax in hopes of the federal government gaining more money to help pay of the nation’s debt. However, in doing so, this angered many people, especially farmers in western Pennsylvania, because they distilled the extra grain they had to make whiskey and sell it to make extra income. These small operations in western Pennsylvania rebelled by erecting liberty poles and taring and feathering tax collectors. George Washington, who was president during this time, saw the outburst and decided to take action against the angered farmers. Washington gathered about 13,000 men from the militia to put an end to this rebellion. In doing so, Washington showed that the government help the power over the citizens. In The Whiskey Rebellion, by Thomas Slaughter, he describes different consequences that arise from the whiskey tax. Slaughter presents three main points, which include conflicts between the east and west, two political systems that begin to develop, and the actual rebellion.

Shortly after Alexander Hamilton created the tax on whiskey which was used to pay off the Revolutionary war debt, some farmers started to cause issue in the wilderness. After the tax was passed a group of farmers went out in the woods they captured a tax collector they , stripped him naked, shaved off his hair, poured hot tar all over his body, covered the tax collector in feathers, and finally strapped him to a tree in the middle of the night which caused the rebellion to start. According to “American History: The Whiskey Rebellion: From the August 2014 Issue”,”A group of armed men accosted whiskey tax collector Robert Johnson in a lonely stretch of forest in western Pennsylvania in 1793. They pulled Johnson off his horse and ordered him to strip, cut off his hair, poured hot tar on his body and dumped chicken feathers over the tar.” Then shortly after the tarring, more farmers were joining the Whiskey Rebellion against the whiskey tax.

George Washington’s tactics and skills when it came to the Continental army and war were very helpful in the many battles that he led. In Trenton, Washington planned a sneak attack on the British, in which they had to cross the Delaware River on. Because of Washington’s quick thinking and great army skills allowed the Continental Army to succeed in surrounding all the Hessians in Trenton in an orchard, leaving them with

Imagine being an active participant in the American Revolution in the late 1700s. Not only that, imagine being on the side fighting for your freedom. The war ends, you're in the clear for a leisurely life of freely doing what you please, and you're happy. You're also a farmer that happens to be located in Pennsylvania. Before you know it, Congress comes to the decision to pass a tax on the production and distribution of whiskey, one of your main crops. What? Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute, did you not just fight a whole war against the taxes being imposed on you? A war for your rights? This can't be right, it just cannot be. Ah, but it is all too true. In the 1790s, a tax was passed that raised the price on distributing whiskey. This

The Whiskey Rebellion occurred soon after an excise tax was placed on Whiskey. Many people living in Western Pennsylvania and Maryland produced Whiskey from their homes, which they then sold or used as a form of currency. A fairly large group of men protested in an extremely violent way. The men attacked a tax collector, formed mobs, attacked arsenals, and “raised liberty poles” (Document A). Rumors about rebels negotiating with England and Spain frightened the federal government, as stated in Document A. As a response to this destructive behavior, President Washington led an army of 12,950 militiamen to suppress the rebellion. It is evident that George Washington’s response to the Whiskey Rebellion showed that the Constitution had fixed the

The Whiskey Excise Tax hit rural farmers especially hard, and they started crying foul almost immediately after passage. It was criticized for being an “unreasonable economic hardship and as an ominous intrusion by central authorities into local affairs” (Gould, 1996, 405). These “westerners” felt as if they were being unjustly victimized by this tax. Most farmers during this period in American history worked extremely hard just to make ends meet, so operating a whiskey distillery offered them a source of extra income. In the minds of these western farmers this tax left them at a competitive disadvantage with eastern farmers. Western small-time farmers generally had small whiskey distillers. These frontier distillers could not run as efficiently as the larger distillers in the east, so their tax burden was much greater. For this reason many of the western farmers felt that Secretary Hamilton had set up a system that was giving tax-breaks to the larger eastern-based distillers. This sentiment is often echoed in today’s world- that the federal government promotes “big business” (Holt, 2004, 30). The cause of much of this rile and frustration, however, stems from the age-old

Federalist’s views on economy were based off internal and foreign connections. Internally, Hamilton’s economic plan included three main parts- paying off all war debts, raising government taxes, and creating a national bank. This plan would result in the nation’s debt, which was a result of the Revolution, being paid in full by the wealthier states paying states debts for the poorer states. This was not accepted because the richer southern states disagreed to pay for the poorer northern states. Another plan by Hamilton was to tax farmer who made alcohol, resulting in funds to pay off the nations debt. Most of these farming citizens where part of the opposing Republican Party who strongly disagreed with the new tax causing the Whiskey Rebellion. Internationally, Hamilton wanted a strong economic relationship with Great Britain. He developed the Jay Treaty that insured a diplomatic agreement from peaceful trading with Britain. The Jay Treaty included decisions of debt payments, country boundaries, and Britain occupation of forts in newly independent America. Hamilton believed in a strong central economy that was aided by foreign affairs and national strength.

Superficially, it may have been deemed an act of censorship to the Constitution’s critics; however, the tax on whiskey initially implemented helped create a better America by reducing the national debt to concentrate money into the securing of the nation’s individual liberties. A new, national militia helped secure the individual’s liberty, preventing other countries from controlling the United States, especially under the proclaimed tyrannical rule of Britain. The so-called censorship of the Whiskey Rebellion helped other individuals claim their liberty after the civil unrest caused by the uprising.