Causes Of The Whiskey Rebellion

An event in which occurred in early American history is the Whiskey Rebellion. This event took place in Western Pennsylvania and started in 1791. Alexander Hamilton, who was George Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury, had an idea to impose or to put taxes on all whiskey products produced and sold in the U.S.A. Congress in 1791 established excise tax. This way, the U.S can pay of the enormous debt they are facing because of the Revolutionary War that occurred prior to this event. With nearly 54 million dollars in debt in the USA! However, what actually caused the Whisky Rebellion was the citizen did not like this idea both congress and Hamilton were proposing. The citizens where made up of farmers, artisans, brewers, and laborers. Hamilton saw this as a steady source of revenue coming in the U.S. An author by the name of William Hogeland explains how farmers in western part of Pennsylvania, “The whiskey rebels opposed policies that consolidated wealth and opportunity. They wanted laws that made the political process …show more content…
This was referring back to George Washington’s proclamation of 1792. Militia force was necessary to protect and distill farmers to trade crops but later, farmers instead traded alcohol which back than was not tax under the eyes of the law. Plus, it was easier and quicker to ship and trade alcohol to other foreign countries than crops that where grown. By doing this in fact, this created slave jobs and efficiency to the American economy despite having millions of dollars after the revolutionary war ended. Moreover, another author who wrote a famous book which examined all events in the whiskey rebellion was an author by the name of Thomas Slaughter. His focus was very similar to another author by William Hogeland. Except the book was more on issues after this American event