Overview of the Whiskey Rebellion Essay - 1077 Words

Imagine being an active participant in the American Revolution in the late 1700s. Not only that, imagine being on the side fighting for your freedom. The war ends, youre in the clear for a leisurely life of freely doing what you please, and youre happy. Youre also a farmer that happens to be located in Pennsylvania. Before you know it, Congress comes to the decision to pass a tax on the production and distribution of whiskey, one of your main crops. What? Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute, did you not just fight a whole war against the taxes being imposed on you? A war for your rights? This cant be right, it just cannot be. Ah, but it is all too true. In the 1790s, a tax was passed that raised the price on distributing whiskey. This†¦show more content†¦Hamilton was able to persuade Congress into passing a twenty-five percent tax increase on such products. This did not go over all too well in the west, especially concerning small farmers in Pennsylvania. At the time, farmers p rocessed their corn and grain into whiskey, since it was less complicated to transport their crops in liquid form rather than in bulk. Whiskey was also used as barter at this time. In retaliation to this tariff, farmers took it upon themselves to harass the federal tax collectors, and showed their hostility and disdain by stopping judicial proceedings. In response to this, Congress attempted to lift the most severe proclamations of the levy, but this was to no avail in the farmers eyes. Since a majority of the farmers used the barter system, they simply could not come up with the money necessary to pay the tax. Their vexation mostly stemmed from their belief that the unresponsive government lacked to understand the hardships they faced since the government quite clearly did not grasp the concept of a deficiency of affluence (Encyclopedia of American History: Revolution and New Nation, 1761 to 1812). Throughout 1771 to 1773, the farmers resistance was noticeable although not yet nota ble until 1774, where they then decided to handle the complication themselves. Later on, in the summer of 1774 (July to be exact), AlexanderShow MoreRelatedThe Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution by Thomas P. Slaugther1010 Words   |  5 PagesProfessor Thomas Slaughter has provided a most thorough overview of the Whiskey Rebellion, which he asserts had by the time this book was conceived nearly two centuries after the episode transpired, had become a largely forgotten chapter of our nations history since the time of the Civil War. He cites as direct evidence of this fact the almost complete absence of any mention of the event in many contemporary textbooks of the conservative era of the 1980s, which this reviewer can attest to as wellRead MorePower Of The New Nation1853 Words   |  8 Pageswith John Jay and Gouverneur Morris. 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