Definition
Congress passed Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey in March 1791 to help pay the national debt. Western farmers distilled their grain into whiskey because it was cheaper to haul over the mountains, so the tax hit them hardest, and they had to pay it in scarce cash. In July 1794, rebels near Pittsburgh burned the house of John Neville, the federal tax inspector, and in August thousands of armed men gathered outside the town. Washington called up nearly thirteen thousand militia from four states and rode west with them, and the rebels scattered before the army arrived.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The rebellion was the first major test of the new federal government's power to enforce its laws. Unlike Shays's Rebellion in 1786–1787, when Congress could not pay for an army, the government under the Constitution called out militia from four states and enforced its tax, and questions often ask students to compare the two. Washington pardoned the two men convicted of treason, but he blamed what he called "self-created societies," the Democratic-Republican clubs, while many western farmers resented the march and turned toward Jefferson's party. Once in power, Jefferson's Republicans repealed the whiskey tax in 1802.
Connections
- Shays's Rebellion: the 1786–1787 revolt that the Confederation government could not put down
- Funding at par: the debt that the excise tax helped pay
- Federalism: showed the national government enforcing its law directly on citizens