FREE ESSAY ON WASHINGTON - A TRUE MAN

WASHINGTON - A TRUE MAN

The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was hardly a shot heard round the world. But it was the
first big test of the federal government's power to enforce its laws and command the use
of state militias. The brouhaha began after Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton put an
excise tax on whiskey. The tax hit hard in western Pennsylvania, the chief
whiskey-producing region. Distillers and grain farmers saw the tax as an illegal federal
infringement of their rights, and they remembered that the 13 colonies rebelled against
Britain over taxes on tea. They tarred and feathered several revenue officials, then
rioted over attempts to arrest distillers. President George Washington asked the
governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia to mobilize militias. On
Oct. 14, 1794, Washington used the troops to put down the uprising. He pardoned the only
two offenders convicted of treason.
Bibliography
http://www.coloradoan.com/special/millennium/archives/mar/030199.html