Whiskey Rebellion No Asylum Flag Gallery Wrapped Canvas
With the Revolutionary War over, the newly created Federal government decided to assume the war debts of the individual states. In 1791, Congress imposed a tax on whiskey to pay the debt. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton came up with the idea. Farmers west of the Allegheny Mountains - immediately took the tax as a personal assault. Whiskey was not only the drink of choice amongst the inhabitants of the West, but it served, as one wit put it, like money and medicine all in one as the Continental paper money was rarely honored. Many western distillers did not pay the excise and, if arrested, had to make expensive trips to Philadelphia for trial. But the Whiskey tax was just part of growing unrest in the West, culminating in rebellion. The rebellion had 7000 armed militia troops. To restore order to the ensuing "Whiskey Rebellion," Washington sent the Continental Army. The 13,000 federal troops sent to western Pennsylvania were the first test of the new government's power. Ev