University:
Arizona State University
Course:
HST 200 | Historical Themes
Academic year:

2024
Views:

185

Pages:

2
Author:

Thuyoul US

Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790-1820 REBELLION WHISKEY The American people were split by the conflicts in France and the Caribbean, but in 1794, a significant internal test of the new national government was the whiskey tax, which was a critical component of Hamilton's financial plan. Congress had approved a 7.5 cent levy on alcohol and rum per gallon in 1791. While the majority of residents paid without incident, the Whiskey Rebellion, a rebellion that took place in four counties in western Pennsylvania, caused unrest. For financial reasons, farmers in Pennsylvania's western counties turned their grain into whiskey. In the absence of suitable transportation options, such as highways, these farmers converted their large grain yield into whiskey and gin, which could be transported more affordably. Some residents of western Pennsylvania (and elsewhere) saw the new tax as another evidence that the new national government supported the commercial classes on the eastern seaboard at the expense of farmers in the West, since these farmers relied on the sale of whiskey. Conversely, proponents of the levy contended that it contributed to economic stabilization and that consumer's, not farmer's and distillers, would bear the brunt of its costs. Nonetheless, irate individuals rose out against the federal authorities in charge of executing the federal excise legislation during the spring and summer of 1794. Similar to the Sons of Liberty before to the American Revolution, the whiskey rebels opposed laws they believed to be unjust by using force and threats. They intimidated affluent individuals, seized government mail, and tarred and feathered federal officials. Their proposal to establish a separate western commonwealth was a clear indication of how unhappy they were, and they even started talks with officials of the British and Spanish governments in an attempt to get their support for breaking away from the US. The rebels spread the notion of secession by speaking with their neighbors in South Carolina and Kentucky's wilderness. The Democratic Republican Party was allied with the whiskey rebels due to their emphasis on individual liberties. They interpreted the levy as a component of a wider scheme by the Federalists to undermine their republican liberties and, in the most extreme case, establish a monarchy in the United States. The federal government reduced the levy, but things became worse when agents attempted to subpoena the distillers who refused to cooperate. In response, Washington raised a militia consisting of thirteen thousand men, recruited from other states, with the aim of quelling the uprising. This army sent a message to the nations of the United States and Europe, who were watching in hope that the new republic would fail, that the federal government would stop at nothing to keep the United States afloat.