Okla-homey
8/26/2008, 04:48 AM
August 26, 1794: George Washington writes a letter
214 years ago on this day in 1794, President George Washington writes to Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, Virginia’s governor and a former general, regarding the Whiskey Rebellion, an insurrection that was the first great test of Washington’s authority as president of the United States. In the letter, Washington declared that he had no choice but to act to subdue the "insurgents," fearing they would otherwise "shake the government to its foundation."
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2392/lawsunionbh6.jpg
President Washington and Governor Lee pass militia commanded by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as they prepare to move against the rebels
The new federal government, at the urging of the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, assumed the states' debt from the American Revolutionary War. In 1791 Hamilton convinced Congress to approve taxes on distilled spirits and carriages.
Hamilton's principal reason for the tax was that he wanted to pay down the national debt, but he justified the tax "more as a measure of social discipline than as a source of revenue." Most importantly, Hamilton "wanted the tax imposed to advance and secure the power of the new federal government." In other words, Hamilton wanted to show the states who was boss.
The tax was designed so smaller distillers would pay by the gallon, while larger distillers (who could produce in volume) could take advantage of a flat fee. The net result was to affect smaller producers more than larger ones. George Washington, the president at the time, was one such large producer of whiskey at his Mt. Vernon plantation.
Large producers were assessed a tax ranging from 7 to 18 cents per gallon. But Western settlers were short of cash to begin with and lacked any practical means to get their grain to market other than fermenting and distilling it into relatively portable distilled spirits, due to their distance from markets and the lack of good roads. Additionally, whiskey was often used among western farmers as a medium of exchange or as a barter good.
The Whiskey Rebellion of August 1794 was the product of growing discontentment, which had been expressed as early as 1791, of Pennsylvania grain farmers who resented that federal tax imposed on their distillery products. As growers threatened federal tax collectors with physical harm, Washington at first tried to prosecute the resistors in the court system.
In 1794, however, 6,000 men angry at the tax gathered at a field near Pittsburgh and, with fake guillotines at the ready, challenged Washington and the federal government to disperse them.
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/4964/whiskeyrebelgr5.gif
The Liberty Flag of the Whiskey Insurrection was much like the Sons of Liberty flags used by the colonists in their rebellion against England, but note the fifteen stripes for the then fifteen states.
In response, Washington issued a public proclamation on August 7, giving his former Revolutionary War aide-de-camp and current Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton the power to organize troops to put down the rebellion.
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/3295/whiskeyrebgu6.png
In his letter to Lee on August 26, Washington noted that the general populace considered the insurrection with "universal indignation and abhorrence" and said that he otherwise would not have authorized such a heavy-handed response.
Washington knew that the nation, having only recently violently overthrown the tyrannical English king, was in a delicate state and did not want to appear as an equally despotic president. He waited to see if the insurgents would back down; they did not.
According to biographer Joseph Ellis in His Excellency, George Washington, the aging president mounted his horse on September 30 to lead a force of 13,000--larger than any American army amassed in one place during the Revolution--to quell the uprising. (The act of mounting his war horse was brief and largely symbolic; Washington made most of the journey by carriage.)
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/647/whiskeyrebellionvz7.jpg
Washington at the head of the force assembled to put down the rebellion
Lee joined Washington and the army on its march to Pennsylvania. This was the first and only time a sitting American president ever led troops into a military campaign. Washington abandoned the procession early, however, leaving Alexander Hamilton, the true mastermind of the military response to the insurrection, in charge of the final approach to Pittsburgh.
The rioters dispersed in the presence of the federal troops and bloodshed was averted. In the end, there were several arrests and indictments, and some rebels paid fines, but no one died. In the aftermath, Washington reported to Congress that although he had agonized about the decision and intended to uphold the constitutional right to protest unfair tax laws, the insurrection had to be put down or the survival of the young democracy would have been in peril.
Congress applauded his decision, but Washington’s former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was in temporary retirement at his Monticello estate, viewed Washington’s decision to call out troops against fellow citizens as a dire threat to republican ideals and an abuse of presidential power.
The uprising highlighted a growing division in early American politics which, by the end of Washington’s second term, pitted rural, agricultural interests, led by future Presidents Jefferson and James Madison, against the pro-industrial urban interests, represented by Hamilton and John Adams, and gave rise to the two-party political system.
It also foreshadowed the defining four years of American history in which republican (small "r") ideals finally prevailed over regional interests in the Civil War.
214 years ago on this day in 1794, President George Washington writes to Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, Virginia’s governor and a former general, regarding the Whiskey Rebellion, an insurrection that was the first great test of Washington’s authority as president of the United States. In the letter, Washington declared that he had no choice but to act to subdue the "insurgents," fearing they would otherwise "shake the government to its foundation."
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2392/lawsunionbh6.jpg
President Washington and Governor Lee pass militia commanded by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as they prepare to move against the rebels
The new federal government, at the urging of the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, assumed the states' debt from the American Revolutionary War. In 1791 Hamilton convinced Congress to approve taxes on distilled spirits and carriages.
Hamilton's principal reason for the tax was that he wanted to pay down the national debt, but he justified the tax "more as a measure of social discipline than as a source of revenue." Most importantly, Hamilton "wanted the tax imposed to advance and secure the power of the new federal government." In other words, Hamilton wanted to show the states who was boss.
The tax was designed so smaller distillers would pay by the gallon, while larger distillers (who could produce in volume) could take advantage of a flat fee. The net result was to affect smaller producers more than larger ones. George Washington, the president at the time, was one such large producer of whiskey at his Mt. Vernon plantation.
Large producers were assessed a tax ranging from 7 to 18 cents per gallon. But Western settlers were short of cash to begin with and lacked any practical means to get their grain to market other than fermenting and distilling it into relatively portable distilled spirits, due to their distance from markets and the lack of good roads. Additionally, whiskey was often used among western farmers as a medium of exchange or as a barter good.
The Whiskey Rebellion of August 1794 was the product of growing discontentment, which had been expressed as early as 1791, of Pennsylvania grain farmers who resented that federal tax imposed on their distillery products. As growers threatened federal tax collectors with physical harm, Washington at first tried to prosecute the resistors in the court system.
In 1794, however, 6,000 men angry at the tax gathered at a field near Pittsburgh and, with fake guillotines at the ready, challenged Washington and the federal government to disperse them.
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/4964/whiskeyrebelgr5.gif
The Liberty Flag of the Whiskey Insurrection was much like the Sons of Liberty flags used by the colonists in their rebellion against England, but note the fifteen stripes for the then fifteen states.
In response, Washington issued a public proclamation on August 7, giving his former Revolutionary War aide-de-camp and current Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton the power to organize troops to put down the rebellion.
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/3295/whiskeyrebgu6.png
In his letter to Lee on August 26, Washington noted that the general populace considered the insurrection with "universal indignation and abhorrence" and said that he otherwise would not have authorized such a heavy-handed response.
Washington knew that the nation, having only recently violently overthrown the tyrannical English king, was in a delicate state and did not want to appear as an equally despotic president. He waited to see if the insurgents would back down; they did not.
According to biographer Joseph Ellis in His Excellency, George Washington, the aging president mounted his horse on September 30 to lead a force of 13,000--larger than any American army amassed in one place during the Revolution--to quell the uprising. (The act of mounting his war horse was brief and largely symbolic; Washington made most of the journey by carriage.)
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/647/whiskeyrebellionvz7.jpg
Washington at the head of the force assembled to put down the rebellion
Lee joined Washington and the army on its march to Pennsylvania. This was the first and only time a sitting American president ever led troops into a military campaign. Washington abandoned the procession early, however, leaving Alexander Hamilton, the true mastermind of the military response to the insurrection, in charge of the final approach to Pittsburgh.
The rioters dispersed in the presence of the federal troops and bloodshed was averted. In the end, there were several arrests and indictments, and some rebels paid fines, but no one died. In the aftermath, Washington reported to Congress that although he had agonized about the decision and intended to uphold the constitutional right to protest unfair tax laws, the insurrection had to be put down or the survival of the young democracy would have been in peril.
Congress applauded his decision, but Washington’s former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was in temporary retirement at his Monticello estate, viewed Washington’s decision to call out troops against fellow citizens as a dire threat to republican ideals and an abuse of presidential power.
The uprising highlighted a growing division in early American politics which, by the end of Washington’s second term, pitted rural, agricultural interests, led by future Presidents Jefferson and James Madison, against the pro-industrial urban interests, represented by Hamilton and John Adams, and gave rise to the two-party political system.
It also foreshadowed the defining four years of American history in which republican (small "r") ideals finally prevailed over regional interests in the Civil War.