DOCUMENT PROJECT 7

The Whiskey Rebellion

In 1791 Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, sought a way to reduce the national debt, and he convinced Congress to pass the first internal revenue tax in the form of an excise tax on distilled spirits. This direct tax angered many Americans, especially farmers who turned their excess grain into whiskey, a lucrative and easily transported product. Their resentment increased because of provisions that taxed smaller producers at almost twice the rate as large producers and required that all stills be federally registered.

Farmers in western Pennsylvania were particularly resistant to the new tax. Many refused to pay the tax, and towns sent petitions to state and federal officials asking that the tax be repealed (Document 7.1). When this did not work, angry farmers resorted to violence. By the summer of 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion, as it became known, reached crisis state. Tax collectors were tarred and feathered, groups of farmers burned the homes of tax officials in western counties, and armed rebels attacked neighbors who supported the whiskey tax. Sympathetic residents in towns like Pittsburgh offered their support as farmers prepared for an armed confrontation (Document 7.2).

Washington and his cabinet feared that the revolt would become another Shays’s Rebellion, and Hamilton described the rebels accordingly (Document 7.4). When the “whiskey rebels” refused to negotiate with government representatives, Washington placed the militias of four states under federal control (Document 7.3). When this force of 13,000 men arrived in Pennsylvania, however, most of the rebels had dispersed. The leaders were arrested and tried for treason, but only two leaders were convicted. Washington eventually pardoned all those involved in the revolt.

The Whiskey Rebellion was Washington’s most serious domestic crisis and a test of the federal government’s powers under the Constitution. Washington successfully defeated the rebels, but many Americans were outraged that force had been used against their fellow citizens. In response, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, dissatisfied with this and other Federalist policies, formed the Democratic-Republican political party (Document 7.5).