Whiskey Rebellion

The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, is a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791, during the presidency of George Washington.

Farmers who sell their grain in the form of whiskey have to pay a new tax, which they strongly resent.

The tax is a part of treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's program to pay off the national debt.On the western frontier, protesters use violence and intimidation to prevent federal officials from collecting the tax.

Resistance comes to a climax in July 1794, when a U.S. marshal arrives in western Pennsylvania to serve writs to distillers who have not paid the excise.

The alarm is raised, and more than 500 armed men attack the fortified home of tax inspector General John Neville.

Washington responds by sending peace commissioners to western Pennsylvania to negotiate with the rebels, while at the same time calling on governors to send a militia force to suppress the violence.

With 15,000 militia provided by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Washington rides at the head of an army to suppress the insurgency.

The rebels all go home before the arrival of the army, and there is no confrontation.

About 20 men are arrested, but all are later acquitted or pardoned.

The issue fuels support for the new opposition Democratic Republican Party, which repeals the tax when it comes to power in Washington in 1801.The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrates that the new national government has the willingness and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws.

The whiskey excise remains difficult to collect, however.

The events contribute to the formation of political parties in the United States, a process already underway.

The whiskey tax is repealed after Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party, which opposes Hamilton's Federalist Party, comes to power in 1800.

No related events match the current filters.