In this lesson I learned about the Whiskey Rebellion. This lesson had two main parts, a familiar theme, and the new elements of the story. Let’s begin with the familiar theme.
It starts with a distant central government imposing internal taxes, specifically against producers. Now the bigger producers pay the taxes, but off in Appalachia, the west, smaller producers, some distilling out of their homes, are outraged by the taxes. They rally the local citizens, and the local citizens threaten the tax collectors. Soon there is violence against the tax collectors, they are tarred and feathered. Needless to say taxes are not collected. So the government reduces the taxes, but it is too late, the rebellion spreads. Liberty poles are set up, government leaders are hanged in effigy, and a tax collector’s home is burnt down. A huge army of protestors forms, 7,000 in number.
If this sounds familiar that’s because it’s exactly what the British did to the colonists. Except the American government has grown even more powerful than Parliament.
Now this is where the new elements come in. The head of the government happens to be a military man, he had been a former militia commander in Western Pennsylvania. By law he is the Commander-in-Chief of the militias, the force which won the Revolution, and by law he is allowed to draft in order to suppress domestic revolt. There are draft riots, but eventually a huge army is assembled, 14,000 men in total. For the only time in our nation’s history, the Commander-in-Chief leads the army himself. The rebellion evaporates, realizing they have no chance to defeat the forces of their own government. However the majority of the public are pleased.
This is where the law of unintended consequences takes over. A new political party begins forming, with Thomas Jefferson as the primary leader, and Hamilton symbolic of the opposition. In 1800 it wins the election, and this is caused by the defection of Hamilton, who was the one who dreamed up the whiskey tax and called for armed suppression of the revolt in the first place. The reason for this was because of how the electoral college worked, there was a tie between Jefferson, whom Hamilton disliked, and Burr, whom Hamilton hated, so he broke the tie in Jefferson’s favor. Immediately Hamilton suffered the greatest political reversal in American history, as it would turn out, the man who called for armed suppression of the revolt would end up the political victim of his actions.
The internal tax was eventually repealed, only to be re-imposed in 1812 by a man named Albert Gallatin, who had previously been one of the rebels himself. Politics does strange things, but no one can ever break the law of unintended consequences entirely. A culture of resistance still exists in Appalachia, it remains to this day.
Connor's corner 