The Justification Of The Whiskey Rebellion

The American Revolution was an important sequence of events over a period of time that has affected early American society up to today’s modern society. It all started with the Revolutionary War, which led to the Declaration of Independence from Britain, and in turn created a reason for America to write the Constitution and develop their own government. Ideas of equality became a major point of the Revolution, and although it wasn’t very quick to happen, ideas eventually spread throughout the colonies, giving the equality that poor to middle classes, African American slaves, and women deserved.

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.

The American Revolution started when Britain started to tax the colonists without their consent. The stamp acts started a chain reaction of discontent. The colonists realized they were being treated unfairly and unequal to the citizens in Britain. Around this time when the Americans were facing discontent, many Enlightenment ideas were spreading. The colonists took many ideas like John Locke’s into mind when they planned their revolts. They were fighting for natural rights of

After the war, America was a chaotic place. Although there was the Article of Confederation, America’s system of government was incomplete. A lot of problems existed and people were revolting. Of all those revolts, two were significant, the Shay’s Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion. The Shay’s Rebellion happened in 1786, when there was an economy crisis and the local courts started to shut down the farms. The Whiskey Rebellion happened in 1791, when the government imposed taxes on the whiskey. Although both of the revolts were crashed down, they changed the government. After the Whiskey and the Shay’s Rebellion, people promoted a stronger federal government, precedent of obeying the law was set and it had shown that the executive would act to execute the law.

Many people have the misconception that the American Revolution occurred because British colonists did not want to be British citizens any longer. This may have been the case for a select few, but many British colonists desired to maintain their status as British colonists and citizens. The foremost reason that the colonists began protests, boycotts, and petitions against the British was because they believed their innate rights as British citizens were being violated. The American Revolution occurred due to a chain of events and a complex set of intertwined reasons.

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.

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

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

Although not widely known, Shays’s Rebellion greatly impacted the debate on sovereignty and led many to conclude that the only possible solution was the centralization of power in a national authority. Historian John Garraty notes, “The lessons became plain: Liberty must not become an excuse for license; and therefore greater authority must be vested in the central government.”[1] While this effect was not the “rebels’” intended goal, Shays’s Rebellion helped shape the construction of the U.S. Constitution and the American political thought that has since followed. An analysis of both the causes and effects of Shays’s Rebellion highlights its contribution to the

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

During this time, settlers and lower class farmers relied heavily on whiskey and other spirits for non-drinking related tasks, so when Hamilton initiated his whiskey tax in order to repay a portion of public debt, this necessity the farmers was made increasingly hard to obtain and much more expensive. This increase in price severely damaged and slowed the way of life for the backcountry farmers of Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas, so much so that those most greatly affected by the tax rebelled and attacked tax collectors and government officials. These actions led Washington and Hamilton to promptly put down the rebellion using federal forces. While the rebellion was drastically unsuccessful and the whiskey tax remained for the duration of the Federalist leadership, the rebellion did leave a lasting mark on United States history because it showed the government that the people were not hesitant to resist actions that people did not approve

The Whiskey Rebellion marked a shift in American politics toward what is experienced in the United States today. Rather than every conflict resulting in bloodshed, many conflicts are handled politically through elections, much like how the opposition to the distilled spirit tax effectively won with the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, as he repealed the excise tax. Though it was not a perfect exercise in learning from past mistakes, The Whiskey Rebellion saw a sizeable shift in how the United States handled conflict in government and politics, evidenced in its own events and further by the conclusion of the election of 1800, when the country saw its first peaceful shift of power from the Federalist Party to the Republican Party with Thomas Jefferson’s victory. The shift from constant violence and rebellion to peaceful resolution of conflicts is what makes the Whiskey Rebellion and its conclusion important, especially in the context of the violence of the preceding American

The federal government met with the rebel leaders to avoid confrontation. The rebels unlawfully impeded the government’s right to levy excise taxes. If the government ignored the rebels, they would be forfeiting the Constitution to impose taxes and to make laws in general. The Whiskey rebels did not only act in opposition to the whiskey tax, “some of them were planning an insurgency against the government itself” (“Whiskey Rebellion” par.2). Neville Craig who resided in west Pennsylvania supported the government and claimed that he had “a strong suspicion that some at least of the leaders were not influenced by a mere desire to get rid of whiskey, some of them were perhaps secretly hostile to the existing form of government” (“Whiskey Rebellion” par.2). The people who supported the military believed that some of the rebels were conversing with Spain and Britain to have them join them after being separated from the Union. It was important for the government to take action to assert their authority and to stop the violence. Hamilton warned that, “a sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy, of a free government” (“Whiskey Rebellion” par.3). The militia had to be called out in order to have the laws

The Whiskey rebellion was all about protesting the 1791 federal excise tax. The tax created a burden on the small distilleries mainly run by farmers. This tax was very unpopular and it only took 3 years before the tax led to violence. In 1794 violence broke out in Western Pennsylvania and it was up to the President to do something about it. The farmers not only sold the wisky but often used it as money to not only support their families but help to run their family farms. The trouble began when the farmers and distillery owners began to terrorize and attack the tax collectors and their families. They did not want to pay the tax and had no intention of doing so. Washington as President felt like he had to take action to get them

The whiskey rebellion was a citizen revolt against a 1791 tax on whiskey. The reaction to the 1794 uprising in Pennsylvania demonstrated the determination of the US to enforce Federal laws. The militias of several states, under the personal command of President George Washington, were used to end the insurrection. was intended to generate revenue for the war debt incurred during the Revolutionary War The tax applied to all distilled spirits, but American whiskey was by far the country's most popular distilled beverage in the 18th century, so the excise became widely known as a "whiskey tax". Farmers of the western frontier were accustomed to distilling their surplus rye, barley, wheat, corn, or fermented grain mixtures into whiskey. These farmers