Evening star., 1934-08-26
Where no years ago. embattled
farmers rose in wrath against the
governments liquor tax it is now
proposed to restore the old house
where the first shots were fired
BY WILLIAM A. WHITE.


Mountains, headed for Western
Pennsylvania-Pittsburg to be
exact-to queu an incipient
rebellion.
Illicit distillers-the moonshineTs Of the Co
lonial days-were up in arms against whisky
tax the Federal Government was seeking to
impose.
The residents of the district were virtually
sleeping on their arms" Pittsburgh was
threatened with destruction and the infant
United States, just out Of the War OF Inde-
pendence with England, threatened with
o civil war.
But today the scene has changed. The vast
territory where the rebellion" fared so briefly
is making whisky again-with federal sanction
and paying taxes for doing so.
And Col Charles c. McGovern, county COM
missioner of Allegheny County, which is Pitts
burgh, and which embraces virtually all that
territory In which the rebellion centered, Is
proposing shrine to the rebellion.
An old stone manse in South Park the home
of William Miller a frontiersman on whose
property was fred the first shot Of the rebellion
the shot which heard in Washington,
lncidentally-would become the shrine Of the
rebellion, according to the county officials plans.
He would restore it to its original state, even
TO the furniture, if that is possible.
At THE beginning of the last decade Of the
eighteenth century the residents of the
western frontier were for the most part farmers.
They virtually lived on the product Of their
farm labors and bartered grain for other neces-
sities.
The farmer who did not diStin his own
whisky was rare-and everybody drank It, in
cluding the ministers, who were not averSe to
o nip" when they called upon their parish
toner's. In fact, in those days it was virtually
an insult to the host to refuse to drink his
liquor.
The market of barter for the westerners
was Philadelphia. The only method Of travel
was afoot or horseback Consequently farmer
seeking to barter his grain must send it over
the mountains to Philadelphia by pack horse
and the average horse could pack only about
hve bushels Of grain, hardly enough to war
rant sending it.
But the farmers soon found that by distill-
Ing their rye-rye was the principal product
of the farms-they could send about five times
as much to the bartering market. and find
more ready sale for the product in addition to
greater value.
1t was natural, therefore, that the farmers
should turn their attention to distilling, and
stills set up throughout the district,
about one to every five or six farms.
Alexander Hamilton. one Of the brain
trusterS" OF President WaSh1ngtonS admlnlS-
tration, the leader in a movement to raise
taxes. The infant United States could not
survive without money, and in the search for
revenue the "excise tax" whisky was de-
cided upon as one of the most certain methods
of raising money, because whisky was being
distilled throughout the Is Colonies.
The law that was passed providing for the
"excise tax" said it must be paid in currency
Of the country-money. And there was the
nlb for the vesfary1 frontiersmenI
They did not know the looks of money. They