Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794): Revolt Against the Whiskey Tax

The Whiskey Rebellion was a revolt by farmers and distillers on the western frontier of the United States, centred in western Pennsylvania, against a federal tax on whiskey passed in 1791. Resistance turned violent in the summer of 1794, when armed men attacked a tax inspector’s house and thousands gathered near Pittsburgh. President George Washington responded by calling out about 13,000 militiamen, and the rebellion collapsed without a battle, demonstrating that the new federal government could enforce its laws.

Background: Hamilton’s excise

The Constitution of 1787 gave Congress the power to levy taxes, something the old Confederation had lacked. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton persuaded Congress that the federal government should take over the states’ Revolutionary War debts. To pay the interest, he proposed an excise, a tax on goods produced at home, on distilled spirits.

Congress passed the excise in March 1791, and it took effect that July. Distillers could pay either according to the capacity of their stills or according to the amount they produced. Large commercial distilleries in the east, which ran continuously, could pay at lower effective rates than small producers who distilled only part of the year.

Grievances on the frontier

The tax struck hardest west of the Appalachian Mountains. Farmers in the four western counties of Pennsylvania, Washington, Westmoreland, Fayette and Allegheny, could not easily ship bulky grain across the mountains, and Spain closed the Mississippi River at New Orleans to American trade. Distilling grain into whiskey made it far easier to carry and sell, and whiskey often served as a medium of exchange where coin was rare.

The excise had to be paid in cash, which westerners lacked. Those accused of evading it could be summoned to federal court in Philadelphia, a journey of about 300 miles. Many westerners also felt neglected by the government in other ways, complaining that it had failed to secure the Mississippi or to end conflict with Native nations in the Ohio country. To them the tax recalled the British policies that had helped provoke the Revolution.

Early resistance, 1791–1793

Opposition began as soon as the tax was introduced. Meetings in western Pennsylvania denounced the excise, and in September 1791 a group of men disguised in women’s clothing seized a tax collector, Robert Johnson, in Washington County, then tarred and feathered him. Other collectors were threatened, their property damaged, and distillers who registered their stills were intimidated.

Congress lowered the rates in 1792, and Washington issued a proclamation condemning resistance, but compliance in the west remained very low. Similar evasion took place in parts of Kentucky, Virginia, the Carolinas and Maryland, though western Pennsylvania became the focus of federal attention.

The crisis of 1794

In July 1794 a federal marshal, David Lenox, rode through Allegheny County with General John Neville, the regional inspector of the excise, serving writs ordering distillers to appear in court in Philadelphia. On 15 July men fired on them at a farm. The next day a group of armed men approached Neville’s house, Bower Hill, and in the exchange of fire one attacker was mortally wounded.

On 17 July several hundred militiamen returned to Bower Hill, which was defended by a small detachment of US soldiers under Major Abraham Kirkpatrick. During a truce, the insurgent leader James McFarlane, a Revolutionary War veteran, was shot and killed. The attackers burned the house and outbuildings, and the soldiers surrendered.

Radical leaders, including the lawyer David Bradford, then intercepted the mail and called a muster at Braddock’s Field, east of Pittsburgh. On 1 August 1794 about 7,000 men gathered there, and some talked of attacking Pittsburgh or of forming a separate state. Moderates such as Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Albert Gallatin worked to calm them; the crowd marched through Pittsburgh but did little damage.

Washington’s response

Washington and Hamilton saw the crisis as a test of the government’s authority. On 4 August Supreme Court Justice James Wilson certified, under the Militia Act of 1792, that the courts could not enforce the law in the western counties. On 7 August Washington issued a proclamation ordering the insurgents to disperse and called up militia from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, while sending commissioners to negotiate.

Talks produced only partial submission, and the militia army of about 13,000 men assembled in the autumn. In October Washington travelled to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and on to Fort Cumberland and Bedford to review the troops, often described as the only time a serving president has personally led an army in the field. He then returned to Philadelphia, leaving command to Governor Henry Lee of Virginia, with Hamilton accompanying the army.

By the time the troops crossed the mountains in November, the resistance had dissolved. Bradford and other leaders fled down the Ohio River. Soldiers rounded up around 150 suspects, many of them roughly treated, and about 20 were marched to Philadelphia for trial.

Aftermath

Most of the prisoners were released or acquitted for lack of evidence. Two men, John Mitchell and Philip Wigle, were convicted of treason and sentenced to hang, but Washington pardoned them both, and in 1795 he issued a general amnesty. In a message to Congress in November 1794 Washington partly blamed the unrest on the Democratic-Republican Societies, political clubs critical of his administration, a charge that angered his opponents.

Western grievances soon eased for other reasons. General Anthony Wayne’s victory at Fallen Timbers in August 1794 and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 reduced conflict in the Ohio country, and Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain in 1795 opened the Mississippi to American trade. When Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans took power, Congress repealed the whiskey excise in 1802.

Key people

Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755–1804), the first Secretary of the Treasury, designed the excise and pressed for a firm response, arguing that the government’s credibility depended on enforcing it. Critics accused him of welcoming a confrontation to display federal power.

John Neville (1731–1803), a wealthy Revolutionary War veteran and landowner, had once opposed the excise but accepted the post of inspector for western Pennsylvania, which made him a target of local anger.

David Bradford (1762–1808), a lawyer and deputy attorney general for Washington County, emerged as the most radical leader in 1794. He was excluded from the amnesty and escaped to Spanish West Florida, where he was pardoned by President John Adams in 1799.

Albert Gallatin (1761–1849), a Swiss-born settler in Fayette County, opposed the tax but urged peaceful protest. He later served as Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson and Madison.

Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee (1756–1818), governor of Virginia and a celebrated cavalry officer of the Revolution, commanded the militia army. He was the father of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Timeline

• 1791, 3 March: Congress passes the excise on distilled spirits.
• 1791, September: Tax collector Robert Johnson is tarred and feathered in Washington County.
• 1794, 15 July: Shots are fired at marshal David Lenox and inspector John Neville.
• 1794, 17 July: Insurgents burn Neville’s house at Bower Hill; James McFarlane is killed.
• 1794, 1 August: About 7,000 men muster at Braddock’s Field.
• 1794, 7 August: Washington issues a proclamation and calls out the militia.
• 1794, October: Washington reviews the troops at Carlisle and Fort Cumberland.
• 1794, November: The militia army occupies western Pennsylvania and makes arrests.
• 1802, April: Congress repeals the whiskey excise.

Why it matters

The Whiskey Rebellion was the first major challenge to federal authority under the Constitution. Unlike the Confederation’s helplessness during Shays’ Rebellion, Washington’s government showed that it could raise an army and enforce national law, while his pardons showed restraint. The episode also deepened the divisions that were forming between Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans, which later sharpened over the Alien and Sedition Acts.