THE WHISKEY REBELLION

I have named this blog "Musings of a Whiskey Rebel". No, that doesn't mean that I am a rebel, or that I like whiskey. In fact, I have never tasted whiskey in my life, and I am probably the last person you would consider a rebel. To those of you who grew up in Western Pennsylvania, the title will probably be obvious. On August 7, 1794, President George Washington, believing a certain group of farmers in Allegheny and Washington County to be guilty of treason because of their violent opposition to a tax imposed by the federal government on whiskey and other spirits, signed a proclamation ordering the United States Militia into those counties to put down the rebellion. One error that many historians make is to assume that the Whiskey Rebellion only took place in a few counties in Western Pennsylvania, which was then considered the western frontier. In point of fact, counties, territories and states all along the western frontier, from Georgia to Pennsylvania, opposed and refused to pay the tax. The western farmers considered it to be both unfair and discriminatory, since they had traditionally converted their extra grain into liquor. The rebellion actually started in 1791 and was finally put down in the fall of 1794. The militia, under the command of "Lighthorse Harry" Lee, assembled in Harrisburg and marched into Monongahela (Washington County). Although the rebels were never located, the militia rounded up 20 prisoners, effectively ending the rebellion which had begun on the Oliver farm, in what is now South Park Township (Allegheny County) in 1791 , when shots were first fired.