The Whiskey Rebellion

2104 Words5 Pages

The words whiskey and rebellion both have the ability to entice a gambit of emotions, and in 1794 they did. Like most great uprisings the Whiskey Rebellion was preceded by the rich exploiting or taxing those who were already taxed out. Our country is infamous for its rebellion against taxes; one could argue that rebelling against a ruling class is the core foundation of our great country’s history and make-up. My goal is to explore why this rebellion deserves the place in history that it hold, whether it was successful or not, but most importantly what did our nation’s leaders learn from this event?
Before I divulge into the really interesting things I want to establish some vital and basic facts about this event. In 1794 the backcountry community of Mingo Creek, Pennsylvania would erupt into violence and resistance to tax collectors. Four years prior to this there was a tax placed on all whiskey stills, which negatively affected farmers in that area. Since most farmers depended on the profit from there stills, being able to move the product was vital to their income, and having a tax that imposed on that greatly hindered this operation. Ultimately this tax would make life harder for most farm families’ conditions in Mingo Creek were already rough, but burdening the already down trot masses with a tax on one of its most viable means of income was a less than popular idea. Like most rebellions or uprisings there is a leader of both the oppressed and the oppressor. In our case the oppressors were two of our most revered Founding Fathers: Pres. George Washington and the then Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton. In order to support campaigns targeted towards defeating hostile Indians in the western territories Hamilton recomme...

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...fersonian Republican Party, they were the opposition throughout this episode. Opposition or not the Washington administration got results. National authority had been asserted and ratified by the nation’s people. State governments after this point would be more accepting and willing to enforce federal laws. This is a vital feature of our government today, to surrender individuality for the greater good of the nation is what the states that made up our country had to learn to do. With this rebellion brought the opportunity for them to do so, we would now be united by more than our independence but also by the need to maintain a civilized and strong government. By doing so the nation would also insure its newly attained independence. We would not be conquered during a time of inner anxiety nor would we surrender ourselves in doubt of our own government’s capability.

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855 Words | 2 Pages
In Woody Holton's Forced Founders, that most revered segment of the revolutionary generation, the elitist gentry class of Virginia, comes across very much as a group of self-serving reactionaries, rather then the idealized revolutionaries of the great patriotic myth of popular history. He sets about disassembling a central portion of the myth created by earlier generations of Consensus historians, by asserting that rather then gallantly leading the charge for independence, Virginia's elitist gentry resorted to independence as their last and only means of saving their elite ruling status, their economic futures, and even their very lives many feared. While this is very much an example of revisionist history, Holton has not so much rewritten history, as he has provided the back story of the complexity and diversity of the Virginia colony on the eve of the American Revolution. For while the book's title may insinuate otherwise, lowly groups like slaves and Indians discussed here are afforded only the status of “founders” by pressing those traditionally thought of in this role to take the plunge for independence. Still the papers and correspondence of the iconic figureheads of the revolutionary generation like Washington, Jefferson, and Madison make up the bulk of primary sources.
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1427 Words | 3 Pages
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The Whiskey Rebellion by William Hogeland
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1679 Words | 4 Pages
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1111 Words | 3 Pages
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The Whiskey Rebellion

Woody Holton Forced Founders Summary

Book Review: Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis

Compare And Contrast The Patriots And The Loyalists

The Argument that the US Constitution Favors the Elite

Causes Of American Rebellion in 1776