Whiskey Rebellion The Whiskey Rebellion , or Whiskey Insurrection , was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 , during the presidency of George Washington . Farmers who used their leftover grain and corn in the form of whiskey as a medium of exchange were forced to pay a new tax . The tax was a part of treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton ' s program to increase central government power , in particular to fund his policy of assuming the war debt of those states which had failed to pay . The farmers who resisted , many war veterans , contended that they were fighting for the principles of the American Revolution , in particular against taxation without local representation , while the Federal government maintained the taxes were the legal expression of the taxation powers of Congress . Throughout counties in Western Pennsylvania , protesters used violence and intimidation to prevent federal officials from collecting the tax . Resistance came to a climax in July 1794 , when a U . S . marshal arrived in western Pennsylvania to serve writs to distillers who had not paid the excise . The alarm was raised , and more than 500 armed men attacked the fortified home of tax inspector General John Neville . Washington responded by sending peace commissioners to western Pennsylvania to negotiate with the rebels , while at the same time calling on governors to send a militia force to enforce the tax . With 13 , 000 militia provided by the governors of Virginia , Maryland , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania , Washington rode at the head of an army to suppress the insurgency . The rebels all went home before the arrival of the army , and there was no confrontation . About 20 men were arrested , but all were later acquitted or pardoned . The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the willingness and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws . The whiskey excise remained difficult to collect , however . The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States , a process already underway . The whiskey tax was repealed after Thomas Jefferson ' s Republican Party , which opposed Hamilton ' s Federalist Party , came to power in 1801 . Whiskey tax . A new U . S . federal government began operating in 1789 , following the ratification of the United States Constitution . The previous government under the Articles of Confederation had been unable to levy taxes ; it had borrowed money to meet expenses , accumulating $ 54 million in debt . The states had amassed an additional $ 25 million in debt . Alexander Hamilton , the first Secretary of the Treasury , sought to use this debt to create a financial system that would promote American prosperity and national unity . In his " Report on Public Credit " , he urged Congress to consolidate the state and national debts into a single debt that would be funded by the federal government . Congress approved these measures in June and July 1790 . A source of government revenue was needed to pay the respectable amount due of the previous bond holders to whom the debt was owed . By December 1790 , Hamilton believed import duties , which were the government ' s primary source of revenue , had been raised as high as was feasible . He therefore promoted passage of an excise tax on domestically produced distilled spirits . This was to be the first tax levied by the national government on a domestic product . Although taxes were politically unpopular , Hamilton believed that the whiskey excise was a luxury tax that would be the least objectionable tax the government could levy . In this , he had the support of some social reformers , who hoped a " sin tax " would raise public awareness about the harmful effects of alcohol . The whiskey excise act , sometimes known as the " Whiskey Act " , became law in March 1791 . George Washington defined the revenue districts , appointed the revenue supervisors and inspectors , and set their pay in November 1791 . Western grievances . The whiskey excise was immediately controversial , with many people on the frontier arguing the tax unfairly targeted westerners . Whiskey was a popular drink , and farmers often supplemented their incomes by operating small still s . Farmers living west of the Appalachian Mountains distilled their excess grain into whiskey , which was easier and more profitable to transport over the mountains than the more cumbersome grain . A whiskey tax would make western farmers less competitive with eastern grain producers . Additionally , cash was always in short supply on the frontier , so whiskey often served as a medium of exchange . For poorer people who were paid in whiskey , the excise was essentially an income tax that wealthier easterners did not pay . The main objection to the whiskey tax was that it was taxation without ( local ) representation , exactly what they ' d just fought the Revolutionary War to stop . Many tax resisters were veterans . In the Western view , they were fighting for freedom , resisting the newly emerging central state . Furthermore , why should they pay other people ' s debts ? Some states had repaid their war debt . The Federalists were buying support from indebted states with their policy of assumption . Small farmers also protested that Hamilton ' s excise effectively gave unfair tax breaks to large distillers , most of whom were based in the east . There were two methods of paying the whiskey excise : paying a flat fee or paying by the gallon . Large distillers produced whiskey in volume and could afford the flat fee . The more efficient they became , the less tax per gallon they would pay ( as low as 6 cents according to Hamilton ) . Western farmers who owned small stills did not usually operate them year - round at full capacity , so they ended up paying a higher tax per gallon ( 9 cents ) , which made them less competitive . Small distillers believed Hamilton deliberately designed the tax to ruin them and promote big business , a view endorsed by some historians . However , historian Thomas Slaughter argued that a " conspiracy of this sort is difficult to document " . Whether by design or not , large distillers recognized the advantage the excise gave them , and they supported the tax . In addition to the whiskey tax , westerners had a number of other grievances with the national government . Chief among these was the perception that the government was not adequately protecting the western frontier : the Northwest Indian War was going badly for the United States , with major losses in 1791 . Furthermore , westerners were prohibited by Spain ( which then owned Louisiana ) from using the Mississippi River for commercial navigation . Until these issues were addressed , westerners felt the government was ignoring their security and economic welfare . Adding the whiskey excise to these existing grievances only increased tensions on the frontier . Resistance . Many residents of the western frontier petitioned against passage of the whiskey excise . When that failed , some western Pennsylvanians organized extralegal conventions to advocate repeal of the law . Opposition to the tax was particularly prevalent in four southwestern counties : Allegheny , Fayette , Washington , and Westmoreland . A preliminary meeting held on July 27 , 1791 , at Redstone Old Fort in Fayette County , called for the selection of delegates to a more formal assembly , which convened in Pittsburgh in early September 1791 . The Pittsburgh convention was dominated by moderates such as Hugh Henry Brackenridge , who hoped to prevent the outbreak of violence . The convention sent a petition for redress of grievances to the Pennsylvania Assembly and the U . S House of Representatives , both located in Philadelphia . As a result of this and other petitions , the excise law was modified in May 1792 . Changes included a 1 - cent reduction in the tax that was advocated by William Findley , a congressman from western Pennsylvania , but the new excise law was still unsatisfactory to many westerners . Appeals to nonviolent resistance were unsuccessful . On September 11 , 1791 , a recently appointed tax collector named Robert Johnson was tarred and feathered by a disguised gang in Washington County . A man sent by officials to serve court warrants to Johnson ' s attackers was whipped , tarred , and feathered . Because of these and other violent attacks , the tax went uncollected in 1791 and early 1792 . The attackers modeled their actions on the protests of the American Revolution . Supporters of the excise argued there was a difference between taxation without representation in colonial America , and a tax laid by the elected representatives of the American people . Although older accounts of the Whiskey Rebellion portrayed it as being confined to western Pennsylvania , there was opposition to the whiskey tax in the western counties of every other state in Appalachia ( Maryland , Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina , and Georgia ) . The whiskey tax went uncollected throughout the frontier state of Kentucky , where no one could be convinced to enforce the law or prosecute evaders . In 1792 , Hamilton advocated military action to suppress violent resistance in western North Carolina , but Attorney General Edmund Randolph argued there was insufficient evidence to legally justify such a reaction . In August 1792 , a second convention was held in Pittsburgh to discuss resistance to the whiskey tax . This meeting was more radical than the first convention ; moderates such as Brackenridge and Findley were not in attendance . One moderate who did attend — to his later regret — was Albert Gallatin , a future secretary of the treasury . A militant group known as the Mingo Creek Association dominated the convention and issued radical demands . As some of them had done in the American Revolution , they raised liberty pole s , formed committees of correspondence , and took control of the local militia . They created an extralegal court and discouraged lawsuits for debt collection and foreclosures . Hamilton regarded the second Pittsburgh convention as a serious threat to the operation of the laws of the federal government . In September 1792 , he sent Pennsylvania tax official George Clymer to western Pennsylvania to investigate . Clymer ' s clumsy attempt at traveling in disguise , and his efforts to intimidate local officials , only increased tensions . His somewhat exaggerated report would greatly influence the decisions made by the Washington administration . Washington and Hamilton viewed resistance to federal laws in Pennsylvania as particularly embarrassing , since the national capital was then located in the same state . On his own initiative , Hamilton drafted a presidential proclamation denouncing resistance to the excise laws and submitted it to Attorney General Randolph , who toned down some of the language . Washington signed the proclamation on September 15 , 1792 . It was published as a broadside and printed in many newspapers . The federal tax inspector for western Pennsylvania , General John Neville , was determined to enforce the excise law . Neville , a prominent politician and wealthy planter , was also a large - scale distiller . He had initially opposed the whiskey tax , but subsequently changed his mind , a reversal that angered some western Pennsylvanians . In August 1792 , Neville rented a room in Pittsburgh for his tax office , but the landlord turned him out after being threatened with violence by the Mingo Creek Association . From this point on , tax collectors were not the only people targeted in Pennsylvania : those who cooperated with federal tax officials also faced harassment . Anonymous notes and newspaper articles signed by " Tom the Tinker " threatened those who complied with the whiskey tax . Those who failed to heed the warnings might have their barns burned or their stills destroyed . Resistance to the excise tax continued through 1793 in the frontier counties of Appalachia . Opposition remained especially strident in western Pennsylvania . In June , Neville was burned in effigy by a crowd of about 100 people in Washington County . On the night of November 22 , 1793 , men broke into the home of tax collector Benjamin Wells in Fayette County . Wells was , like Neville , one of the wealthier men in the region . At gunpoint , the intruders forced Wells to surrender his commission . President Washington offered a reward for the arrest of the assailants , to no avail . Insurrection . The resistance came to a climax in 1794 . In May of that year , federal district attorney William Rawle issued subpoenas for more than 60 distillers in Pennsylvania who had not paid the excise tax . Under the law then in effect , distillers who received these writs would be obligated to travel to Philadelphia to appear in federal court . For farmers on the western frontier , such a journey was expensive , time - consuming , and beyond their means . At the urging of William Findley , Congress modified this law on June 5 , 1794 , allowing excise trials to be held in local state courts . But by that time , U . S . marshal David Lenox had already been sent to serve the writs summoning delinquent distillers to Philadelphia . Attorney General William Bradford later maintained that the writs were meant to compel compliance with the law , and that the government did not actually intend to hold trials in Philadelphia . The timing of these events would later prove to be controversial . In his book on the insurrection , Findley — a bitter political foe of Hamilton — maintained that the treasury secretary had deliberately provoked the uprising by issuing the subpoenas just before the law was made less onerous . In 1963 , historian Jacob Cooke , an editor of Hamilton ' s papers , regarded this charge as " preposterous " , calling it a " " that overstated Hamilton ' s control of the federal government . In 1986 , historian Thomas Slaughter argued that the outbreak of the insurrection at this moment was due to " a string of ironic coincidences " , although " the question about motives must always remain " . In 2006 , William Hogeland argues Hamilton , Bradford , and Rawle intentionally pursued a course of action that would provoke " the kind of violence that would justify federal military suppression " . According to Hogeland , Hamilton had been working towards this moment since the Newburgh Crisis in 1783 , where he conceived of using military force to crush popular resistance to direct taxation , for the purpose of promoting national unity and enriching the creditor class at the expense of common taxpayers . The historian S . E . Morison believed Hamilton , in general , wished to enforce the excise law " more as a measure of social discipline than as a source of revenue . . . " Battle of Bower Hill . Federal Marshal Lenox delivered most of the writs without incident . On July 15 , he was joined on his rounds by General Neville , who had offered to act as his guide in Allegheny County . That evening , warning shots were fired at the men at the Miller farm , about south of Pittsburgh . Neville returned home , while Lenox retreated to Pittsburgh . On July 16 , at least 30 Mingo Creek militiamen surrounded Neville ' s fortified home , Bower Hill . They demanded the surrender of the federal marshal , whom they believed to be inside . Neville responded by firing a gunshot that mortally wounded Oliver Miller , one of the " rebels " . The rebels opened fire , but were unable to dislodge Neville . The rebels retreated to nearby Couch ' s Fort to gather reinforcements . The next day , July 17 , the rebels returned to Bower Hill . Their force had swelled to nearly 600 men , now commanded by Major James McFarlane , a veteran of the Revolutionary War . Neville had also received reinforcements : ten U . S . Army soldiers from Pittsburgh under the command of Major Abraham Kirkpatrick , a brother - in - law of Neville ' s wife . Before the rebel force arrived , Kirkpatrick had Neville leave the house and hide in a nearby ravine . David Lenox and General Neville ' s son , Presley Neville , also returned to the area , though they could not get into the house and were captured by the rebels . Following some fruitless negotiations , the women and children were allowed to leave the house , and then both sides began firing . After about an hour , McFarlane called a cease fire ; according to some , a white flag had been waved in the house . As McFarlane stepped into the open , a shot rang out from the house , and he fell , mortally wounded . The enraged rebels then set fire to the house , and Kirkpatrick surrendered . The number of casualties at Bower Hill is unclear ; McFarlane and one or two other militiamen were killed ; one U . S . soldier may have died from wounds received in the fight . The rebels sent the U . S . soldiers away . Kirkpatrick , Lenox , and Presley Neville were kept as prisoners , but they later escaped . March on Pittsburgh . McFarlane was given a hero ' s funeral on July 18 . His " murder " , as the rebels saw it , further radicalized the countryside . Moderates such as Brackenridge were hard - pressed to restrain the populace . Radical leaders such as David Bradford emerged , urging violent resistance . On July 26 , a group headed by Bradford robbed the U . S . mail as it left Pittsburgh , hoping to discover who in that town opposed them . Finding several letters that condemned the rebels , Bradford and his band called for a military assembly to meet at Braddock ' s Field , about east of Pittsburgh . On August 1 , about 7 , 000 people gathered at Braddock ' s Field . This would prove to be the largest gathering of protesters . The crowd consisted primarily of poor people who owned no land . Most did not own whiskey stills . The furor over the whiskey excise had unleashed anger about other economic grievances . By this time , the victims of violence were often wealthy property owners who had no connection to the whiskey tax . Some of the most radical protesters wanted to march on Pittsburgh , which they called " Sodom " , loot the homes of the wealthy , and then burn the town to the ground . Others wanted to attack Fort Fayette . There was praise for the French Revolution , and of bringing the guillotine to America . David Bradford , it was said , was comparing himself to Robespierre , a leader of the French Reign of Terror . At Braddock ' s Field , there was talk of declaring independence from the United States , and of joining with Spain or Great Britain . Radicals flew a specially designed flag that proclaimed their independence . The flag had six stripes , one for each county represented at the gathering : five Pennsylvania counties ( Allegheny , Bedford , Fayette , Washington , and Westmoreland ) and one Virginia county ( Ohio County ) . Pittsburgh citizens helped defuse the threat by banishing three men whose intercepted letters had given offense to the rebels , and by sending a delegation to Braddock ' s Field that expressed support for the gathering . Brackenridge prevailed upon the crowd to limit the protest to a defiant march through the town . In Pittsburgh , only the barns of Major Kirkpatrick were torched . On August 14 , a convention of delegates from the six counties was held at Parkison ' s Ferry , present - day Monongahela . The convention adopted resolutions , which were drafted by Brackenridge , Gallatin , David Bradford , and an eccentric preacher named Herman Husband , a delegate from Bedford County . Husband , a well - known local figure , was a radical champion of democracy who had taken part in the Regulator movement in North Carolina 25 years earlier . The Parkison ' s Ferry convention also appointed a committee to meet with the peace commissioners who had been sent west by President Washington . Federal response . President Washington , confronted with what appeared to be an armed insurrection in western Pennsylvania , proceeded cautiously . Although determined to maintain government authority , he did not want to alienate public opinion . He asked his cabinet for written opinions about how to deal with the crisis . The cabinet recommended the use of force , except for Secretary of State Edmund Randolph , who urged reconciliation . Washington did both : he sent commissioners to meet with the rebels while raising a militia army . Washington privately doubted the commissioners could accomplish anything , and believed a military expedition would be needed to suppress further violence . For this reason , historians have sometimes charged that the peace commission was sent only for the sake of appearances , and that the use of force was never in doubt . Historians Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick argued that the military expedition was " itself a part of the reconciliation process " , since a show of overwhelming force would make further violence less likely . Meanwhile , Hamilton began publishing essays under the name of " Tully " in Philadelphia newspapers , denouncing mob violence in western Pennsylvania and advocating military action . Washington and Hamilton believed the Democratic - Republican Societies , which had been formed throughout the country , were the source of civic unrest . " Historians are not yet agreed on the exact role of the societies " in the Whiskey Rebellion , wrote historian Mark Spencer in 2003 , " but there was a degree of overlap between society membership and the Whiskey Rebels " . Before troops could be raised , the Militia Act of 1792 required a justice of the United States Supreme Court to certify that law enforcement was beyond the control of local authorities . On August 4 , 1794 , Justice James Wilson delivered his opinion that western Pennsylvania was in a state of rebellion . On August 7 , Washington issued a presidential proclamation announcing , with " the deepest regret " , that the militia would be called out to suppress the rebellion . He commanded insurgents in western Pennsylvania to disperse by September 1 . Negotiations . In early August 1794 , Washington dispatched three commissioners , all of them Pennsylvanians , to the west : Attorney General William Bradford , Justice Jasper Yeates of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court , and Senator James Ross . Beginning on August 21 , the commissioners met with a committee of westerners that included Brackenridge and Gallatin . The government commissioners told the committee that it must unanimously agree to renounce violence and submit to U . S . laws , and that a popular referendum must be held to determine if the local people supported the decision . Those who agreed to these terms would be given amnesty from further prosecution . The committee , divided between radicals and moderates , narrowly passed a resolution agreeing to submit to the government ' s terms . The popular referendum , which was held on September 11 , also produced mixed results . Some townships overwhelmingly supported submitting to U . S . law , but opposition to the government remained strong in areas where poor and landless people predominated . The final report of the commissioners recommended the use of the military to enforce the laws . The trend was towards submission , however , and westerners dispatched two representatives , William Findley and David Redick , to meet with Washington and to halt the progress of the oncoming army . Washington and Hamilton declined , arguing that violence would likely reemerge if the army turned back . Militia expedition . Militia was called up from New Jersey , Maryland , Virginia , and eastern Pennsylvania . The federalized militia force of 12 , 950 men was a large army by American standards of the time : the army that had been with Washington during the Revolutionary War had often been smaller . Because relatively few men volunteered for militia service , a draft was used to fill out the ranks . Draft evasion was widespread , and conscription efforts resulted in protests and riots , even in eastern areas . Three counties in eastern Virginia were the scenes of armed draft resistance . In Maryland , Governor Thomas Sim Lee sent 800 men to quash an antidraft riot in Hagerstown ; about 150 people were arrested . Liberty pole s were raised in various places as the militia was recruited , worrying federal officials . A liberty pole was raised in Carlisle , Pennsylvania , on September 11 , 1794 . When the federalized militia arrived in that town later that month , suspected pole - raisers were rounded up . Two civilians were killed in these operations . On September 29 , an unarmed boy was shot by an officer whose pistol accidentally fired . Two days later , a man was stabbed to death by a soldier while resisting arrest . President Washington ordered the arrest of the two soldiers and had them turned over to civilian authorities . A state judge determined the deaths had been accidental , and the soldiers were released . In October , 1794 , Washington traveled west to review the progress of the military expedition . According to historian Joseph Ellis , this would be " the first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field " . Jonathan Forman , who led the Third Infantry Regiment of New Jersey troops against the Whiskey Rebellion , wrote about his encounter with Washington : " October 3d Marched early in the morning for Harrisburgh , where we arrived about 12 O ' clock . About 1 O ' Clock recd . information of the Presidents approach on which , I had the regiment paraded , timely for his reception , & considerably to my satisfaction . Being afterwards invited to his quarters he made enquiry into the circumstances of the man [ an incident between a militia man and an old soldier mentioned earlier in the journal ] & seemed satisfied with the information . " Washington met with the western representatives in Bedford , Pennsylvania , on October 9 before going to Fort Cumberland in Maryland to review the southern wing of the army . Convinced the federalized militia would meet little resistance , he placed the army under the command of the governor of Virginia , Henry " Lighthorse Harry " Lee , a hero of the Revolutionary War . Washington returned to Philadelphia ; Hamilton remained with the army as civilian adviser . The insurrection collapsed as the army marched into western Pennsylvania in October 1794 . Some of the most prominent leaders of the insurrection , like David Bradford , fled westward to safety . After an investigation , federal government officials arrested about 20 people and brought them back to Philadelphia for trial . Eventually , a federal grand jury indicted 24 men for high treason . Most of the accused had eluded capture , so only ten men stood trial for treason in federal court . Of these , only Philip Vigol ( later changed to Wigal ) and John Mitchell were convicted . Vigol had beaten up a tax collector and burned his house ; Mitchell was a simpleton who had been convinced by David Bradford to rob the U . S . mail . Both men were sentenced to death by hanging , but they were pardoned by President Washington . Pennsylvania state courts were more successful in prosecuting lawbreakers , securing numerous convictions for assault and rioting . Legacy . The Washington administration ' s suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion met with widespread popular approval . The episode demonstrated the new national government had the willingness and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws . It was therefore viewed by the Washington administration as a success , a view that has generally been endorsed by historians . The Washington administration and its supporters usually did not mention , however , that the whiskey excise remained difficult to collect , and that many westerners continued to refuse to pay the tax . The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States , a process already underway . The whiskey tax was repealed after Thomas Jefferson ' s Republican Party , which opposed the Federalist Party of Hamilton and Washington , came to power in 1801 . The Rebellion raised the question of what kinds of protests were permissible under the new Constitution . Legal historian Christian G . Fritz argued , even after ratification of the Constitution , there was not yet a consensus about sovereignty in the United States . Federalists believed the government was sovereign because it had been established by the people , so radical protest actions , which were permissible during the American Revolution , were no longer legitimate . But the Whiskey Rebels and their defenders believed the Revolution had established the people as a " collective sovereign " , and the people had the collective right to change or challenge the government through extraconstitutional means . Historian Steven Boyd argued that the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion prompted anti - Federalist westerners to finally accept the Constitution , and to seek change by voting for Republicans rather than resisting the government . Federalists , for their part , came to accept that the people could play a greater role in governance . Although Federalists would attempt to restrict speech critical of the government with the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 , after the Whiskey Rebellion , says Boyd , Federalists no longer challenged the freedom of assembly and the right to petition . In popular culture . Soon after the Whiskey Rebellion , actress - playwright Susanna Rowson wrote a stage musical about the insurrection entitled " The Volunteers " , with music by composer Alexander Reinagle . The play is now lost , but the songs survive , and suggest that Rowson ' s interpretation was pro - Federalist . The musical celebrated the militiamen who put down the rebellion , the " volunteers " of the title , as American heroes . President Washington and Martha Washington attended a performance of the play in Philadelphia in January 1795 . In L . Neil Smith ' s alternate history novel " The Probability Broach " ( 1980 ) , Albert Gallatin convinces the militia not to put down the rebellion , but instead to march on the nation ' s capital , execute George Washington for treason , and replace the Constitution with a revised Articles of Confederation . As a result , the United States becomes a libertarian utopia called the North American Confederacy . In the satirical novel " Joyleg , A Folly " by Avram Davidson and Ward Moore , a veteran of both the American Revolutionary War and the Whiskey Rebellion is found alive and very well in the Tennessee backwoods , having survived over the centuries by daily soaks in whisky of his own making , to hilariously face the world of the 1960s . In 2012 , Wigle Whiskey , the first distillery in Pittsburgh since Prohibition , was founded . It was named after Philip Wigle . From 1971 to 1993 , the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World in Florida included a section on the Whiskey Rebellion .