Whiskey Rebellion

Alexander Hamilton, the treasury secretary, has established a new tax as part of his program to increase central government power and to fund his policy of assuming the war debt of those states which had failed to pay. The farmers who use their leftover grain and corn in the form of whiskey as a medium of exchange are forced to pay a new tax, and many resists this. They contend that they are fighting for the principles of the American Revolution, in particular against taxation without local representation, while we the government maintains that the taxes are the legal expression of the taxation powers of Congress.\nThe resistance developed into a rebellion when a marshal arrived in western Pennsylvania to serve writs to distillers who had not paid the excise. 500 armed men attacked the fortified home of tax inspector General John Neville. George Washington managed to quell the rebellion, but the resistance against the tax is still strong.