The Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion
September 24th, 2009
Today - September 24th - marks the day in 1794 when President Washington ordered the militia out to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion.
The Whiskey Insurrection was a popular uprising that had its beginnings in 1791 and culminated in an insurrection in 1794 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Monongahela Valley. During George Washington’s presidency, the government decided to tax whiskey in order to pay off the national debt. This infuriated the citizenry and led to the Whiskey Rebellion.
The militia force of 12,950 men was organized, roughly the size of the entire army in the Revolutionary War. Under the personal command of Washington, Hamilton, and General Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, the army assembled in Harrisburg and marched to Bedford, Pennsylvania the site of Washington’s headquarters, then on to western Pennsylvania (to what is now Monongahela) in October of 1794.
According to Jefferson, the rebels “could never be found,” but the militia expended considerable effort rounding up 20 prisoners, clearly demonstrating Federalist authority in the national government. The men were imprisoned, where one died, while two were convicted of treason and sentenced to death by hanging. Washington, however, pardoned them on the grounds that one was a “simpleton,” and the other, “insane.”
This marked the first time under the new United States Constitution that the federal government used military force to exert authority over the nation’s citizens. It was also one of only two times that a sitting President personally commanded the military in the field; the other was after President James Madison fled the British occupation of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812.
http://www.newmajority.com/the-whiskey-rebellion
Well, how time flies, it has been 215 years already. What are your thoughts on the Whiskey Rebellion?
Hmm, this is a familiar topic.
I posted a while back about the Whiskey Rebellion,
here --> http://www.dailypaul.com/node/95273
It led to a pretty decent discussion. As far as I'm concerned, it ( the Whiskey Rebellion) was simply a sign of things to come, and if the populace of the day wasn't able to control the federal government then when it was in it's infancy I really have no idea how they'd expect to control it ever.
Anyway, thanks for reviving the topic.
I took part in it in my past life
On August 1, 1794, there occurred in this country the "Whiskey Rebellion," which offers a few lessons on taxation (especially of the "sin tax" variety), political deal making, George Washington and the advancement of civilization.
The chain of events that led to the Whiskey Rebellion began when Alexander Hamilton put together an agreement between the states and the federal government that said the feds would assume all the debts incurred by the states after the Revolutionary War. In return the states agreed that the nation's capital city would be moved south from Philadelphia to a piece of backwoods, mosquito-infested swampland located on the banks of the Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland.
It is not true, as has been supposed, that the location was chosen because it was close to George Washington's home and therefore would make it easier for him to commute (there was no White House at the time). Actually, the location was chosen as a sop to the southern states that would only agree to Hamilton's deal if the capital was moved South (it was a prestige thing). But the city did later take Washington's name, going down in history as Washington, District of Columbia.
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/fall96/whiskey.html
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"How can we justify to the unemployed and underemployed in the United States the incredible cost of maintaining a global empire?" - Dr. Ron Paul
Madison and Jefferson
Madison and Jefferson engineered the compromise with Hamilton to put the Capital nearer to the South, in exchange for assumption. Please note that assumption was the first break between Madison and Hamilton, Madison did not yet know Hamilton's future plans, including the bank.
Putting the capital in a remote swamp was a great idea, Madison did not want the capital in the middle of the financial centers as this would be ripe for corruption. We are all the better for it today, had the capital been placed in NYC or Philly, the amount of corruption would have been gigantic compared to what we ended up with.
I also think that all the Hamilton bashing is not productive. Hamilton did a lot of good things that people here seem to forget, including:
* engineering the winning electoral vote for Jefferson in the election of 1800
* writing 51 of the Federalist Papers.
* wrote many patriot pamplets and letters during the Revolutionary War.
* was George Washington's aide-to-camp in the war.
* personally led battle troops against British entrenchments at the the Battle of Yorktown.
* helped organize the Annapolis Convention and Constitutional Convention.
* got the Constitution ratified in New York.
Most people who study the law know about Hamilton from the Federalist Papers. Hamilton's banking policies are a footnote in history, and are really George Washington's banking policies, as Washington signed off on all of them. So if you are going to Hamilton bash, then put your money where your mouth is, and started to George Washington bash.
If the courts today followed the principles of the Federalist Papers, a small limited government, we would have a govenrment about 1% of the size of what we have because the Federalist Papers are ignored.
A vote for Ron Paul is a vote for James Madison.
The tax was engineered by Hamilton to impose Federal taxation
on the citizens, taxes that in turn would pay the interest owed to gov't bondholders ensconced in the financial center of the day, NYC.
Hamilton is the great-granddaddy of Paulson, Geithner, Bernanke, et. al. It all started with him, corporate fascism. The true axis of evil, government and finance.
Having Hamilton by his side during his presidency is the only real criticism I can lodge against George Washington.
I find it ironic, however, that this man, Geo. Washington, who almost single-handedly started the French & Indian war in the same area, which sowed the seeds of the end of British Colonialism in the States, came back over four decades later to put his foot down on liberty.
I read that Hamilton was very dissapointed in Washington's pardoning of those convicted to hang.
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"The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of the ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it."
- Robert E. Lee, 1866
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RON PAUL 2012
The Feds Always Screwed Western Pennsylvania
The area north and west of Pittsburgh was known as the Depreciation Lands. The money used to pay Revolutionary War soldiers depreciated and became worthless, so Congress set up a plan to pay them with frontier land.
Folks were required to get a certificate then go west, make an improvement on the land then return to Philadelphia to file the claim. Regular folks who had traveled the three hundred miles or so to start a farm could hardly be expected to then travel back and file as this could take weeks or months depending on conditions and the farm would be in ruins by the time they returned.
So folks like Robert Morris bought up the depreciation certificates at pennies on the dollar and sent agents west who found land with existing improvements built by the real settlers. These agents then returned to Philadelphia and filed claims on the land.
One of the original settlers in our area, John Harbison, had to pay for his land three times over because people (including Morris) kept ripping him off and fudging the books.
There's a spot along the Allegheny River in Armstrong County where I hang out which was once owned by Benjamin Franklin. He never visited the parcel as it was an investment only which was purchased by an agent.
The difficulty of travel from eastern Pennsylvania back to the populated areas in the East also fueled the Whiskey Rebellion. Farmers could not afford to transport cart loads of corn across the entire state but they could distill whiskey and transport that. This undercut the Philadelphia distillers so they used their political contacts to crush the farmers' whiskey trade through taxation.
Same thing they do to the little guy today.
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The citizenry side
Gov. taxing to pay the debt makes it sound like it was a gov. for gov.
Detective Krum Investigates:
http://victory1project.wordpress.com/
http://v1-p.com/
Detective Krum Investigates:
http://victory1project.wordpress.com/
1794
The beginnings of big government.
No, the beginning of
No, the beginning of liberty, because the people fought back, and public opinion forced pardons.
A vote for Ron Paul is a vote for James Madison.