The Whiskey Rebellion by Murray N. Rothbard

The Whiskey=20 Rebellion

by Murray=20 N. Rothbard
by Murray = N.=20 Rothbard

This article = appeared in=20 The Free Market, September 1994.

In=20 recent years, Americans have been subjected to a concerted = assault=20 upon their national symbols, holidays, and anniversaries.=20 Washington's Birthday has been forgotten, and Christopher = Columbus=20 has been denigrated as an evil Euro-White male, while new = and=20 obscure anniversary celebrations have been foisted upon us. = New=20 heroes have been manufactured to represent "oppressed = groups" and=20 paraded before us for our titillation.

There is nothing = wrong,=20 however, with the process of uncovering important and buried = facts=20 about our past. In particular, there is one widespread group = of the=20 oppressed that are still and increasingly denigrated and = scorned:=20 the hapless American taxpayer.

This=20 year is the bicentenary of an important American event: the = rising=20 up of American taxpayers to refuse payment of a hated tax: = in this=20 case, an excise tax on whiskey. The Whiskey Rebellion has = long been=20 known to historians, but recent studies have shown that its = true=20 nature and importance have been distorted by friend and foe=20 alike.

The=20 Official View of the Whiskey Rebellion is that four counties = of=20 western Pennsylvania refused to pay an excise tax on whiskey = that=20 had been levied by proposal of the Secretary of Treasury = Alexander=20 Hamilton in the Spring of 1791, as part of his excise tax = proposal=20 for federal assumption of the public debts of the several=20 states.

Western = Pennsylvanians failed=20 to pay the tax, this view says, until protests, = demonstrations, and=20 some roughing up of tax collectors in western Pennsylvania = caused=20 President Washington to call up a 13,000-man army in the = summer and=20 fall of 1794 to suppress the insurrection. A localized but = dramatic=20 challenge to federal tax-levying authority had been met and=20 defeated. The forces of federal law and order were = safe.

This=20 Official View turns out to be dead wrong. In the first = place, we=20 must realize the depth of hatred of Americans for what was = called=20 "internal taxation" (in contrast to an "external tax" such = as a=20 tariff). Internal taxes meant that the hated tax man would = be in=20 your face and on your property, searching, examining your = records=20 and your life, and looting and destroying.

The=20 most hated tax imposed by the British had been the Stamp Tax = of=20 1765, on all internal documents and transactions; if the = British had=20 kept this detested tax, the American Revolution would have = occurred=20 a decade earlier, and enjoyed far greater support than it = eventually=20 received.

Americans, = furthermore, had=20 inherited hatred of the excise tax from the British = opposition; for=20 two centuries, excise taxes in Britain, in particular the = hated tax=20 on cider, had provoked riots and demonstrations upholding = the=20 slogan, "liberty, property, and no excise!" To the average = American,=20 the federal government's assumption of the power to impose = excise=20 taxes did not look very different from the levies of the = British=20 crown.

The=20 main distortion of the Official View of the Whiskey = Rebellion was=20 its alleged confinement to four counties of western = Pennsylvania.=20 From recent research, we now know that no one paid = the tax on=20 whiskey throughout the American "back-country": that is, the = frontier areas of Maryland, Virginia, North and South = Carolina,=20 Georgia, and the entire state of Kentucky.

President Washington = and=20 Secretary Hamilton chose to make a fuss about Western = Pennsylvania=20 precisely because in that region there was a cadre of = wealthy=20 officials who were willing to collect taxes. Such a cadre = did not=20 even exist in the other areas of the American frontier; = there was no=20 fuss or violence against tax collectors in Kentucky and the = rest of=20 the back-country because there was no one willing to be a = tax=20 collector.

The=20 whiskey tax was particularly hated in the back-country = because=20 whisky production and distilling were widespread; whiskey = was not=20 only a home product for most farmers, it was often used as a = money,=20 as a medium of exchange for transactions. Furthermore, in = keeping=20 with Hamilton's program, the tax bore more heavily on the = smaller=20 distilleries. As a result, many large distilleries supported = the tax=20 as a means of crippling their smaller and more numerous=20 competitors.

Western Pennsylvania, = then, was=20 only the tip of the iceberg. The point is that, in all the = other=20 back-country areas, the whiskey tax was never paid. = Opposition to=20 the federal excise tax program was one of the causes of the = emerging=20 Democrat-Republican Party, and of the Jeffersonian = "Revolution" of=20 1800. Indeed, one of the accomplishments of the first = Jefferson term=20 as president was to repeal the entire Federalist excise tax = program.=20 In Kentucky, whiskey tax delinquents only paid up when it = was clear=20 that the tax itself was going to be repealed.

Rather than the = whiskey tax=20 rebellion being localized and swiftly put down, the true = story turns=20 out to be very different. The entire American back-country = was=20 gripped by a non-violent, civil disobedient refusal to pay = the hated=20 tax on whiskey. No local juries could be found to convict = tax=20 delinquents. The Whiskey Rebellion was actually widespread = and=20 successful, for it eventually forced the federal government = to=20 repeal the excise tax.

Except during the War = of 1812,=20 the federal government never again dared to impose an = internal=20 excise tax, until the North transformed the American = Constitution by=20 centralizing the nation during the War Between the States. = One of=20 the evil fruits of this war was the permanent federal "sin" = tax on=20 liquor and tobacco, to say nothing of the federal income = tax, an=20 abomination and a tyranny even more oppressive than an=20 excise.

Why=20 didn't previous historians know about this widespread = non-violent=20 rebellion? Because both sides engaged in an "open = conspiracy" to=20 cover up the facts. Obviously, the rebels didn't want to = call a lot=20 of attention to their being in a state of = illegality.

Washington, Hamilton, = and the=20 Cabinet covered up the extent of the revolution because they = didn't=20 want to advertise the extent of their failure. They knew = very well=20 that if they tried to enforce, or send an army into, the = rest of the=20 back-country, they would have failed. Kentucky and perhaps = the other=20 areas would have seceded from the Union then and there. Both = contemporary sides were happy to cover up the truth, and = historians=20 fell for the deception.

The=20 Whiskey Rebellion, then, considered properly, was a victory = for=20 liberty and property rather than for federal taxation. = Perhaps this=20 lesson will inspire a later generation of American taxpayers = who are=20 so harried and downtrodden as to make the whiskey or stamp = taxes of=20 old seem like Paradise.

Note: Those = interested in the=20 Whiskey Rebellion should consult Thomas P. Slaughter, T= he=20 Whiskey Rebellion (New York: Oxford University = Press, 1986);=20 and Steven R. Boyd, ed., T= he=20 Whiskey Rebellion (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, = 1985).=20 Professor Slaughter notes that some of the opponents of the = Hamilton=20 excise in Congress charged that the tax would "let loose a = swarm of=20 harpies who, under the denominations of revenue offices, = will range=20 through the country, prying into every man's house and = affairs, and=20 like Macedonia phalanx bear down all before them." Soon, the = opposition predicted, "the time will come when a shirt will = not be=20 washed without an excise."

Murray N.=20 Rothbard (1926=961995) was the author of Man,=20 Economy, and State, C= onceived=20 in Liberty, What=20 Has Government Done to Our Money, For a = New=20 Liberty, The=20 Case Against the Fed, and many other books = and=20 articles. He was also = the editor=20 =96 with Lew Rockwell =96 of The=20 Rothbard-Rockwell Report.

Murray=20 Rothbard Archives=20 =