What was whiskey tax

The Whiskey Rebellion National Park Service archived page External Albert Gallatin, not a name commonly known today but well known in the Jeffersonian era, was a notable statesman, diplomat, financier, historian, ethnologist, industrialist and farmer. This Friendship Hill National Historic Site provides insight into Albert Gallatin's role in the whiskey rebellion as well as other events during his lifetime.

This page from the Bedford County, Pennsylvania Visitors Bureau provides a brief history and the text of President Washington's address to General Henry Lee, the commander and chief of the militia army.

Department of the Treasury presents an account of the this rebellion from the time of the distilled spirits tax in The site also provides links to other sites with information and a short bibliography for further reading. Search the Library's Catalog Additional works on this topic in the Library of Congress may be identified by searching the Library of Congress Online Catalog under appropriate Library of Congress subject headings.

Whiskey Rebellion, Pa. Pennsylvania --HistorySources. Pennsylvania--Politics and government Chapter X pages - Accessed February 3, Back to text The Whiskey Rebellion. Friendship Hill National Historic Site. National Parks Service, U. Department of the Interior. Back to text Alfred Creigh. History of Washington County. External , Appendix, Chapter IV, p Accessed from HathiTrust on February 3, Department of the Treasury. Back to text Militia Act of External George Washington's Mount Vernon.

Back to text. Subjects: American History , Business and Management. Back to top. Hosted by Springshare. The Whiskey Rebellion was a response to the excise tax proposed by Alexander Hamilton, who was Washington's Secretary of the Treasury in Friendship Hill was the home of Albert Gallatin, who represented Fayette County to the state assembly created in Pennsylvania during the Whiskey Rebellion. This historic house is owned by the National Park Service.

In January , President George Washington 's Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed a seemingly innocuous excise tax "upon spirits distilled within the United States, and for appropriating the same. By , the Whiskey Rebellion threatened the stability of the nascent United States and forced President Washington to personally lead the United States militia westward to stop the rebels.

By the United States suffered from significant debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. Secretary Hamilton, a Federalist supporting increased federal authority, intended to use the excise tax to lessen this financial burden. When news of the tax spread to Western Pennsylvania, individuals immediately voiced their displeasure by refusing to pay the tax. Residents viewed this tax as yet another instance of unfair policies dictated by the eastern elite that negatively affected American citizens on the frontier.

Western farmers felt the tax was an abuse of federal authority wrongly targeting a demographic that relied on crops such as corn, rye, and grain to earn a profit.

The Whiskey Rebellion is considered one of the first major tests of the authority of the newly formed U. During the American Revolution , individual states incurred significant debt. In Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton pushed for the federal government to take over that debt. He also suggested an excise tax on whiskey to prevent further financial difficulty. In Washington journeyed through Virginia and Pennsylvania to speak with citizens about their views.

Local government officials met the idea of a whiskey tax with enthusiasm, and Washington took this assurance back to Congress, which passed the bill. But protests against the new tax began immediately, arguing that the tax was unfair to small producers. Under the new law, large producers paid the tax annually at a rate of six cents per gallon, and the more they produced, the further the tax breaks. Small producers, however, were stuck with paying nine cents per gallon in taxes.

Farmers took further issue because only cash would be accepted for tax payment. The law was immediately a failure, since refusals to pay the taxes were as common as intimidation against officials hired to collect them. Excise officers sent to collect the tax were met with defiance and threats of violence. Some producers refused to pay the tax. Perhaps inevitably, violence broke out. On September 11, , excise officer Robert Johnson was riding through his collection route in western Pennsylvania when he was surrounded by 11 men dressed as women.

The mob stripped him naked and then tarred and feathered him before stealing his horse and abandoning him in the forest. Johnson recognized two men in the mob. He made a complaint and warrants were issued for their arrest. A cattle drover named John Connor was sent with the warrants, and he suffered the same fate as Johnson.

He was tied to a tree in the woods for five hours before being found. In response, Johnson resigned his post, fearing further violence. Incidents escalated over the next few years. In , the home of Pennsylvania excise officer Benjamin Wells was broken into twice. The second incident involved six men in disguises who attacked Wells while he was at home. While in the assembly, however, Gallatin spoke out against an open, violent break with the National government, and he also served on the member committee that met with President Washington's three commissioners in an attempt to end to the crisis peacefully.

Gallatin 's name appeared on a list of rebel leaders, but he was never arrested for his role in the Whiskey Rebellion. Elected to Congress after the rebellion, Gallatin worked for a more exact accounting of the Federal government's finances, leading President Thomas Jefferson to appoint him Secretary of the Treasury, a post he also held under President James Madison. In , Gallatin oversaw the ending of all direct, internal Federal taxes, including the distilled spirits tax.

During the War of , however, the rising costs of fighting Great Britain forced Gallatin to seek and win Congressional approval of new Federal excise taxes on carriages, sugar refining, and distilled spirits in In , Gallatin left the Department of the Treasury and helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of He later served as ambassador to France and to Great Britain.

Gallatin later wrote that his participation in the Whiskey Rebellion was his "only political sin. In the end, the Whiskey Rebellion served as one of the first tests of the new Constitution and the Federal government's authority. It was also the greatest domestic crisis of President Washington's administration. The successful suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion helped to confirm the supremacy of Federal law in the early United States and the right of Congress to levy and collect taxes on a nation-wide basis.

Historical markers throughout southwestern Pennsylvania identify sites, homes and other buildings associated with the Whiskey Rebellion. For example, historical markers note important meeting sites of whiskey rebels at Braddock's Field, as well as Bonnet Tavern and Mingo Creek Church, both of which still stand today. Markers also note the location of a Miller family farmstead and the home of rebel leader David Bradford, both of which are now museums and open to the public.

Rebels burned both houses in In addition, several sites associated with President George Washington's march west from Carlisle are marked as well, including the still-standing Espy House, his headquarters in Bedford, Pennsylvania.

Leland D. Jerry A. Marie B. Thomas P. Raymond Walter, Jr. The act is officially titled "An Act repealing, after the last day of June next, the duties heretofore laid upon Distilled Spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead; and also upon Spirits distilled within the United States, and for appropriating the same.

The proclamation was published in Claypoole's Daily Advertiser on August 11, Associate Supreme Court Justice James Wilson authorized the use of the militia when he ruled on August 4, , that the evidence presented to him showed a rebellion was underway in western Pennsylvania that could not be suppressed by normal judicial proceedings or by the area's U.