Whiskey Rebellion Proclamation Essay

In October of 1794, in response to a popular uprising against the federal government, President Washington sent an army of nearly 13,000 men across the Allegheny Mountains into the frontier regions of Western Pennsylvania. This event marked the greatest internal crisis of Washington's administration and was probably the most divisive event that occurred in the United States prior to the Civil War. The significance of this event has often been overlooked and forgotten in popular historical accounts. Thomas Slaughter's thirteen-chapter chronicle of

The workers fired warning shots and they shouted for the Pinkertons to go back, or they'll not answer for their lives. When the first Pinkerton walked into Homestead, a worker shot him in the thigh (American Heritage p. 17). " When the Pinkertons marched from the barges to the rink, they were shamefully abused"(Illustrated American p. 2). A Homestead Mob burned the barges all the way down to the water line. Hugh O' Donnell made no attempt to stop the violence after many Pinkertons and eight workers were dead. The town begged for news of the workers and their conditions. Hugh O' Donnell insisted to let the Pinkertons surrender safely if they left Homestead. The Pinkertons surrendered and

The years of 1763-1765 were truly defining moments for colonist of the colonies, soon to become the United States of America. ‘’War! War! This is the only way!” American Colonist shouted,as they took to the streets proclaiming defiance of British rule. “We as a people shall fight for our freedom and have victory.No more shall we continue to let others control our countries and give our money to a monarch who has no concern for our right’s, dedication that was put forth to help fight and respect us as loyal subjects.We must fight for our freedom!” When American colonist waged war it proved to be the only way for the colonies to become free from Britian. In turn, the colonist were justified in breaking away from England because of: The

Imagine everything that is said is heard in a British accent. It sounds funny now, but that's how it could have been if the colonists had never declared their independence from England. That isn't what happened though. Grievances were made, events came to pass, and the Declaration of Independence was written. Taking a look at the documents from that time, as well as treatment of other colonies by the British one can see that the colonists were completely justified in declaring their independence from England.

One domestic issue was the southern states were refusing to pay the national debt. The Virginia State Legislature wrote a letter to Congress in hopes of not have to pay the debt. They did this because they had already paid off most of their debt while the northern states paid almost nothing. The southern states thought it was unconstitutional because it was not a job of the government to pay off debt. (Doc. 1) This was the view of the southern states towards the debt. This letters written by the Virginia State Legislature showed strict construction. This was a showing early issue between northern and southern states. The Whiskey Rebellion was a riot that farmers were rebelling against the government. The Whiskey farmers were angry that they were taxed for their whiskey. They thought that the government was targeting them so they refused to pay. President Washington then wrote to the insurgents a proclamation that was announced in 1794. Washington wrote that he will use force if it is necessary, if they do not stop.(Doc. 6) This was written in Washington's view of the issue. This was the first time and only time a president lead an army in battle. This was Washington doing his job as the president in the executive branch. The executive branch was the president and people to implement laws, which was what Washington was doing. This was showing Washington’s power because he passed 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.

In 1791 farmers tarred a tax collector and threatened to burn down houses.The Whiskey rebellion is what Alexander Hamilton called these events, it was farmers mostly in Pennsylvania rebelling against a whiskey tax. It was 1791, farmers rebelled against a whiskey tax, which later Washington led his army to stop, allowing him to empower his newly formed government.

The first thing that started the events leading up to the war was the attainment of William Pitt to power in England in April 1804. It marked the beginning of a new and uncompromising British attitude toward neutrals that soon led to a crisis in Anglo-American relations. Next, Pitt took office and this caused the British to send naval officers to America. Then, in the spring of 1805, a British court declared illegal the lucrative American practice of converting goods from the French West Indies into “neutral” goods by taking them o U.S ports before shipping them to France. Soon after, British warships called the Cambrian and the Leander boldly took up regular station at New York. There they took up a dozen or more American ships waiting within sight of the port to be searched. This such action angered many Americans and when word of this reached the West, Kentuckians joined the outcry.

The Declaration of Independence, completed and signed in July of 1776, marked the official separation between the 13 colonies and Great Britain. An armed struggle between the colonies and Britain had begun just over a year before, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The formal declaration of independence established the new American revolutionary government and officially declared war against Great Britain. The primary purpose of the declaration was to assist the Second Continental Congress in obtaining aid from foreign countries. The document also clearly outlines the history of abuses the colonists had suffered under British rule since the end of the French

     The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 helped bring about the demise of the aristocratic Federalist Government in favor of the democratic Republican Government, concerned with the needs of all of its citizens.

There are people today who think that the United States of America’s boundary was created by fate; however, much complexity was involved in the gaining of our country’s boundaries. Manifest Destiny comes from the desire that Americans had to expand their borders. Americans wanted a distinct expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The term “Manifest Destiny” originated when John L. Sullivan published an article on the annexation of Texas. O’Sullivan believed that the expansion of the United States would be beneficial and better our nation. The American settlers became very determined to expand their civilization across North America. The Second Great Awakening, the belief that God would bless the growth of the country, created another reason for Americans to want to expand. “The Democratic Review asserted that God had preordained expansion across the continent” (Greenberg, 15). Manifest Destiny has played a very important role in our country’s past, its present, and it will have a significant role on its future. “Without Manifest Destiny, the territorial expansion of the United States from a strip of Atlantic coast colonies to a continental empire in less than a -century would have been, literally, unthinkable” (Greenberg 2). If our country continues to expand its perimeter, the concept of Manifest Destiny will always play a role in history.

5. After initial battle, the British burned a small amount of arms they found, and since the fire got a little out of control, minutemen nearby thought the town was being burned and went down and attacked the British there.

On June 21st of 1788 the United States of America was an optimistic place to live. The newly formed country had officially ratified their Constitution on this date, and within a year George Washington would become its first President. These events signified an unofficial end to the American Revolution, which had its start in part, because Americans had rejected the notion of taxation without representation. This modern form of government, however, did, have some problems it needed to deal with. Unable to levy taxes in previous years the federal government had found itself deep in debt. This federal debt also included all the states debt as well (Chernow, 2004, 297). The government desperately needed to find a source of revenue to pay off

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, issued the first, or preliminary, Emancipation Proclamation. In this document he warned that unless the states of the Confederacy returned to the Union by January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves to be “forever free.” During the Civil War, he was fighting to save the Union and trying not to free the slaves. Lincoln was quoted to say, “I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” The Emancipation Proclamation illustrated this view.

Manifest Destiny, one of the most influential ideologies in American history, was used as the basis to justify almost-continuous conflict from the early- to the late-19th century (Greenberg 3). This conflict included the relentless displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral lands, a war of aggression against Mexico in 1846, and attacks on countries such as Canada, Cuba, and even Central America, by filibusters and military action to gain overseas colonies (Greenberg 10, 25, and 26). While Manifest Destiny first arose as a dominant ideology during the early nineteenth-century, the concept of American exceptionalism, the heart of this ideology, was older than the nation itself. This concept was taken by white Americans as proof that they, and their nation, were unique and marked by God for a special destiny (Greenberg, 5). It would be several decades before the advantages of American settlement would be presented to the world. One advantage being the Louisiana Purchase, which was the expansion westward.