Whiskey Rebellion

During the presidency of George Washington one of the early major issues confronting him was raising taxes to pay the debt of the states incurred during the Revolutionary War. Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton in 1790 recommended an excise tax on domestically produced distilled spirits (the Whiskey Act of 1791).¹ Hamilton felt the tax would be the least politically unpopular as it would be considered a luxury tax. However, farmers on the frontier did not agree as they felt it was taxation without local representation. Many of the affected farmers were veterans of the War and considered the act an issue they had fought against. They were also suspicious of the centralized power of the new emerging federal government. This was especially true of the small farmers in western Pennsylvania: Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties.² The farmers turned their leftover grain into whiskey since it was too great a distance to transport the grain to Philadelphia and other eastern cities. Whiskey on the frontier served an additional role as a form of currency due to the fact that hard cash (silver and gold) was in short supply as only states had the power to mint coinage under the Articles of Confederation^.3

The residents of Pennsylvania’s western frontier petitioned their local and federal representatives in order to repeal the excise tax. The appeal failed despite the tax being unpopular in many other Appalachia regions. As a result several vigilante groups formed and attacked, tarred, and feathered the tax collectors⁴; using some tactics similar to those carried out against English officials prior to the War of Independence. A less militant form of protest involved raising liberty poles including in 1794 on Carlisle’s square to show the support of Cumberland County residents’ of the western protestors.⁵ Washington and his administration became concerned as they did not want the matter to escalate into a large scale rebellion against the newly emerging government. Therefore, state militias were called out to put down any resistance.

Carlisle played a significant role as a central meeting place for the state militias. Coming mainly from Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia, the federalized force grew to approximately fifteen thousand men.⁶ The troops camped on Carlisle’s commons, lands boarding the west and south of the borough. President Washington arrived in Carlisle on October 4, 1794 and stayed in a residence on South Hanover Street previously built for the deceased Revolutionary War Colonel Robert Magaw.⁷ Washington was presented and entertained by several local compatriots who had served with him in the revolution including: John Armstrong, Ephraim Blaine, Samuel McCoskey, George Stevenson and Samuel Postlethwaite.⁸ The President remained in Carlisle for approximately a week, reviewing the troops before traveling on to Shippensburg and Bedford.

Once the western Pennsylvania farmers realized that Washington’s administration would not tolerate open rebellion and anarchy as well as having a military to support it, the insurrection collapsed.⁹ Most of the rebellion leaders’ eluded capture and only ten men stood trial for treason in federal court. Two men, Philip Wigle and John Mitchell were sentenced to death; Wigle had beaten a tax collector and had burned his house, and Mitchell had robbed the United States mail. Washington later pardoned both men.¹⁰