Alexander Hamilton, Part II
Brian Trumbore
President/Editor, StocksandNews.com

As the nation's first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton insisted that the U.S. assume full responsibility for its Revolutionary War debts as well as those incurred by the states. One of the first steps in his program of fiscal responsibility, though, proved to be most controversial, a 1791 excise tax on distilled whiskey. You have to appreciate the America of this time. You had the established urban areas along the sea coasts and inland waterways, farming in the middle, and then a wild frontier generally running along the Appalachian and Allegheny Mountain chains. The excise tax on whiskey aroused anger in the cash-poor backcountry.

You see, the frontiersmen grew corn as the main staple but it was difficult to transport to market. When it was distilled and turned into whiskey, though, the whiskey was easily movable and treated as currency and the chief source of income for these folks. One gallon jugs of moonshine, for example, fetched a quarter in every store on the slopes of the Alleghenies. And let's be honest; the main reason why the frontiersmen made whiskey was because they liked to drink it, as best captured in the 20th century moonshiner's song "Copper Kettle."

My Daddy, he made whiskey,
My granddaddy made it too.
We ain't paid no whiskey tax
Since 1792

[Richard Brookhiser]

Alexander Hamilton didn't have much sympathy for those complaining about the excise tax. If they didn't like it, they should drink less, he told them. But Hamilton taxed the large distillers at a lower rate, further infuriating the smaller, seasonal ones who either absorbed the added costs or charged their customers more, most of whom in turn were small farmers and rural laborers like themselves.

From Georgia to Pennsylvania, protests erupted and many of the settlers refused to pay the tax; along with blowing up the stills of those who could afford to cooperate with the federal government, robbing the mails, assaulting the tax collectors (a few were tarred and feathered), and threatening insurrection.

By 1794, President George Washington's non-violent, pacifist approach to the budding crisis having failed to elicit more cooperation, it was generally agreed in the capital of Philadelphia that things were getting a bit out of hand, particularly in western Pennsylvania. That July, when a federal marshal appeared in Pittsburgh with a list of delinquent distillers, a gun battle erupted and at least two were killed. [There are various accounts as to casualties throughout the entire rebellion. Suffice it to say, they were minimal.]

Two of the leaders of the frontiersmen appointed a committee of public safety and brought together the militia of four counties in the Pittsburgh area. But back in Philadelphia, coercion by law was still preferable to coercion by arms. Alexander Hamilton, though, always believed that society was "inherently chaotic and in need of a strong figure to keep them all in awe." He was spoiling for a fight.

Congress had been granted the power to 'provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union,' specifically, Congress authorized the President to call out state militia. Hamilton took to the newspapers, writing under the name "Tully."

"(The) question?is plainly this - Shall the majority govern or be governed? Shall the nation rule or be ruled? Shall the general will prevail, or the will of a faction? Shall there be government or no government?The instruments by which (government) must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government, there is an end to liberty!" [Richard Brookhiser]

President Washington met with his cabinet and Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Mifflin. Mifflin and Secretary of State Edmund Randolph argued against force, while Hamilton and others voted for. It was thus up to Washington and he quickly made up his mind. He ordered the formation of an army.

The situation was worsening in western Pennsylvania as 5-7,000 frontiersmen massed at Braddock Field, threatening an assault on nearby Pittsburgh. [Frankly, it was a lot of drunken talk, as more than one historian has observed.] But on September 9, President George Washington, dressed in full army regalia, reviewed a force of 13,000 militia from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey at Carlisle. At this moment, Washington thus became the only president to lead an army in the field. Alexander Hamilton was by his side.

Washington stayed with the troops until they reached Bradford, at which point, having bestowed his personal prestige to the effort, he returned to Philadelphia to conduct other business. Hamilton remained with the army, now under the control of General Henry Lee (father of Robert E.).

Well, talk about anti-climactic, as the federal army approached the frontiersmen, the rebels simply melted away. Thomas Jefferson called it "The Rebellion that could never be found." But the show of force was nonetheless of historical importance in establishing obedience to federal law.

Now there are varying accounts of what happened next, but at least 20 insurgents were eventually rounded up and paraded down the streets of Philadelphia to set an example. [Some say the prisoners were merely humiliated.] Two were then found guilty of treason, but President Washington pardoned them on the grounds that one was a "simpleton" and the other "insane." And this, folks, was the first constitutional use of a pardon. Hamilton, in Federalist 74, had argued: "A well-timed offer of pardon to insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth."

But what the Whiskey Rebellion really meant in the years after was that any grievance brought against the federal government needed to have the backing of the entire state, and so this principle evolved into the doctrine of states rights vs. federal authority. Back in the 1790s, hostility between the western territories and the elite along the seaboard only grew. It's not a stretch to see this as the beginning of the process leading up to the Civil War.

Of course smaller rebellions over whiskey in the Appalachian region continued for about another 150 years until the formation of NASCAR!

Sources:

Michael Beschloss, general editor: "American Heritage: The Presidents"
Paul S. Boyer, editor: "The Oxford Companion to United States History"
Richard Brookhiser: "Alexander Hamilton: American"
Paul Johnson: "A History of the American People"
Samuel Eliot Morison, Henry Steele Commager and William E. Leuchtenburg: "The Growth of the American Republic"
George Brown Tindall and David Shi: "America: A Narrative History"
Jules Witcover: "A History of the Democrats"
Howard Zinn: "A People's History of the United States: 1492- present"

Brian Trumbore