The Whiskey Rebellion Tests the Government's Right to Tax

Michael Streich

First Published in Decoded Past in 2012

In the summer 1794 the new American nation was tested when farmers in western Pennsylvania resorted to armed insurrection, prompting a speedy and decisive military response by President George Washington. The rebellion stemmed from an unpopular direct excise tax levied on whiskey by the Congress in 1790. The issue of “no taxation without representation” was part of a national mindset dating back to the causes of the American Revolution.

 

In 1794, as in the coming decades of an expanding nation, angry citizens revived the pre-revolutionary liberty poles, drawing inspiration from past motives associated with arbitrary and unfair taxes imposed by an authority that appeared remote and authoritarian.

 

The Whiskey Tax Rebellion in the Historical Record

 

Although Congress actually lowered the tax placed on whiskey in early 1792, farmers in western Pennsylvania were still angry, refusing to pay the tax and intimidating federal agents sent from Philadelphia to diffuse the situation and collect the tax. Whiskey production was directly linked to surplus grain and was easier to transport to markets using the river systems. The issue was not the production of whiskey as much as the federal tax placed on the commodity. George Washington himself built a whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon, producing several grades of the iconic Frontier liquid.

 

Following the intimidation of tax collectors and federal marshals, Congress submitted a Proclamation calling upon the Pennsylvania insurgents to disband and submit to federal authority. It should be noted that frontier farm families had opposed the new Constitution, fearful that the central government would usurp powers at the expense of the states.

 

The rebellion grew among the western counties and garnered sympathy in Maryland where farmers were also converting grain to whiskey. Washington secured a statement from the new Supreme Court granting him the power to deal with the rebellious farmers directly.

 

The Commander-in-Chief called upon the governors to turn out their militias and, joining the troops at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, led the troops along side Alexander Hamilton. It was the one instance angry farmers in Pennsylvania and Maryland compared the President to King George of England.

 

The Resolution Defends the Sovereignty of the Central Government

 

Washington’s army, comprised of 13,000 militia men, came from New Jersey, Virginia, and - reluctantly,  from eastern Pennsylvania under the conflicted command of Pennsylvania Governor Mifflin. Although President Washington shortly returned to Philadelphia to preside over the next session of Congress, the militia army moved into the insurgent counties and arrested several leaders that were subsequently marched to Philadelphia for trial.

 

These were the first federal “treason trials.” Far more than refusing to pay the tax, the farmers had taken up arms against the lawful agents of a Constitutional government. Several of their number had disrupted and stolen the mails. The conviction of two particularly vocal leaders, which carried a sentence of death by hanging, were eventually pardoned by President Washington.

 

The entire event involved the Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, citizens on both sides of the issue, the militia, and a host of reporters who sent human interest stories back to readers in the east. The rebellion had all of the components of a uniquely American experience and one that strengthened the central government, the power of the President, and demonstrated the power of everyday citizens.

 

The Motives of Governmental Taxation Schemes

 

The earlier taxation motive associated with the American Revolution involved the British Parliaments efforts to recoup monies spent on protecting the American colonies first from the French and later from the on-going threats of Native American attacks. Taxes like the hated Stamp Act tax dramatically altered colonial loyalties to the Crown. The tax issue and East India tea led to the colorful Boston Tea Party, a name adopted by twenty-first century conservative Republicans seeking to identify with their colonial forefathers concerned with unbridled government spending and the levying of highly unpopular taxes.

 

The great tax debate helped define a moment in history that radically changed Americans’ perception of the role of government. When President Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives failed to produce a robust and growing economy, a new recession resulted in 1937-1938. Roosevelt rejected the “balanced budget” notion being explored by Congress and instead embarked upon a plan to tax wealthier Americans at a higher rate as well as increasing taxes on corporate earnings not redistributed to shareholders.

 

Taxes are traditionally raised to pay for government debt or to permit the government to spend on services and what contemporary Americans call entitlement programs. The 1790 excise tax on whiskey was to pay for the consolidated debt incurred not only by the government under the Articles of Confederation, but the war debts incurred by individual states.

 

The Contemporary Tax Mindset in America

 

Emotions over a “tax and spend” Congress have been enough to elect popular Presidents like Ronald Reagan but in 1992 the same emotions vilified President George H.W. Bush because he had said four years earlier, “Read my lips; no new taxes,” and then allowed new taxes. “No Taxation without Representation” has become a phrase every student in American History can readily understand and identify with. They may not understand the complexities of government debt or the spending mechanisms, but they understand what the Pennsylvania farmers knew and what human beings have known since the first civilizations began: avoid the tax collector and treat him as a pariah within the community.

 

References:

 

Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, The American Constitution: Its Origins & Development (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1976).

Page Smith, The Shaping of America: A People’s History of the Young Republic (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1980).

(Copyright of this article is owned by Michael Streich; reprints of any type require written permission)