in the early 1790s the new national government and the new constitution faced its first great domestic challenge and it would be important for the administration of George Washington to display shows of strength in various areas of the country and in 1794 the Washington administration would need to exhibit signs of power and authority over the new nation in what was called the Whiskey Rebellion the Whiskey Rebellion was the result of Alexander Hamilton and his fiscal or economic plan of the 1790s which we've already spoken of for example in 1791 as part of his fiscal plan to help pay down the debt of the nation and assume and pay the debt of the states Hamilton urged Congress to pass a series of excise taxes and in terms of the Whiskey Rebellion there was no more famous or inFAMOUS excise tax than the excise tasks tax on the distillment of whiskey now this tax instituted by the second Congress of the United States ignited resistance among a lot of cash poor Farmers that lived out on the Western frontier of the United States this map shows you kind of the general area that we're talking about which at the time was known as West Sylvania interesting name now on the Western frontier we had a lot of uh cash poor Farmers that were engaged in the distillment of liquor most notably whiskey because liquor was made from grain or from fruit and in this area of the country it was the Region's most valuable product and it was even used as a form of currency in some of these areas and wouldn't be surprised if still today um and beginning in September of 1791 angry groups of farmers militiamen and even laborers began attacking federal tax collectors and U.S Marshals there to enforce this whiskey tax now these small-scale skirmishes weren't going to be declared a rebellion just yet but they were early signs of trouble and a direct challenge to the new National government's authority to tax the individual citizens of the states now the anger of these Farmers on in West Sylvania in the Western frontier of the United States was the result of the tax and their belief that it was unfairly aimed at them their problem with it is that they believed that any tax by the U.S Congress or by the federal government ought to apply to everyone equally and yet attacks on the distillment of whiskey such as the excise whiskey tax was seen as kind of zero you know uh um zeroing in on a specific portion of the American population and treating them differently uh than people that don't the the still whiskey so there was an argument to be made among the Farmers on the Western frontier that this was an unfair tax and perhaps even unconstitutional now it was in the summer of 1794. that this discontent over the excise tax finally exploded into what we would call a full-scale rebellion in Western Massachusetts and this uh Rebellion uh in Western Massachusetts this was the Whiskey Rebellion itself now Western Pennsylvania was home to the fourth uh to to a fourth of the entire nation's whiskey Stills and so this was where the whiskey tax was felt the most and what happened in 1794 is that a mob of very angry very upset farmers in Western Massachusetts armed themselves and began threatening to assault the nearby City of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in order to loot the homes of the Rich and they intended to set the town Ablaze uh this is obviously a direct challenge to the national government and the threat of armed resistance means that this is an actual Insurrection this is a rebellion and at first the Washington administration attempted to negotiate with the whiskey Rebels uh but after negotiations failed a U.S Supreme Court Justice declared on August 4th 1794 that the West that Western Pennsylvania was in a state of rebellion and now we had the first great domestic challenge to the federal government and it was imperative that the Washington administration respond decisively in this matter Alexander Hamilton began urging President Washington that a show of force an act of force needed to be perpetrated here in order to quell this Insurrection now Washington hesitantly agreed to this and on September uh here's Washington will reluctantly uh agree with uh Alexander Hamilton's assessment that a show of force was needed and on September 25th 1794 Washington issued uh what was known as the proclamation of military service now in this Proclamation and the reason I'm going to show it to you I'll explain in just a second but you can see that he he said that he had hoped that he could have found a peaceful means of uh with the combinations that were against the Constitution meaning the whiskey Rebels he was hoping that he could have found a peaceful solution to all of this but that he couldn't and at the moment quote is now come and the second paragraph there you see him saying that as president of the United States and in obedience to the high and irresistible duty consigned to me by the Constitution to quote take care of the laws be Faithfully executed he then hereby declares and makes known with the satisfaction that they can be equaled only by the merits of the militia which he is now summoning in the service from the various states of New Jersey Pennsylvania Maryland and Virginia now what does this proclamation mean well what's happening is for the first time in American history the president of the United States is acting as the commander-in-chief of the U.S military the reason the president of the United States was made the commander-in-chief of the U.S military was not to command the armies in times of War that was obvious the real reason the president of the United States was needed to be the commander-in-chief of the U.S military is that the president of the United States by uh uh authority of the Constitution is the enforcer of federal laws in this case a federal law is refusing to be obeyed he must enforce that law you might need the military in order to do it especially in this case where you have a very large heavily armed resistance in the whiskey Rebels this isn't one or two people refusing to obey a law which you can just arrest and handle uh through the courts this is a as Washington said armed combinations right that are larger than expected and so the military will be needed and what he's done here in this proclamation of service is he's exercised his constitutional authority of calling on the states to send him volunteers for the creation of an Army and the purpose of the army will be to March out the western Pennsylvania and put down this Insurrection so that the whiskey tax which is a federal law is passed or is is enforced and that's exactly what the proclamation is designed to do so in early September he had actually warned the rebels to disperse but they did not and at that point he issued this Proclamation uh and he organized over 12 500 militiamen from several states to begin marching out to Western Pennsylvania um now Washington even donned his military uniform for this uh and he even rode on horseback out to greet the soldiers that's what this famous painting here uh by Kimmel Meyer is is depicting uh and this actually marked the first and the last time by the way that a sitting president in the United States would actually lead troops into the field now this huge Army which was raised by uh Washington was actually commanded by the state of Virginia's Governor a guy by the name of Henry uh light horse Harry Lee uh he had been a Cavalry commander during the American war of independence by the way he's also the father of a Robert E Lee from the American Civil War now the arrival of this gigantic Army of course panicked the whiskey Rebels who just dispersed they just melted away and vanished into the hills then in the end a couple of dozen of them were charged with high treason two of them were even sentenced to hang um but Washington ended up pardoning all of these whiskey Rebels uh so why is this little Rebellion or seemingly insignificant Rebellion an important moment in the history of this country well uh one reason the Whiskey Rebellion is worth knowing is that it it fit into this growing disagreement among the American people uh about the power and scope of the federal government we just got done talking about the formation of the first two political parties in American history and the uh what happened in the Whiskey Rebellion played a role in helping to create those parties for example Jefferson and Madison's Democratic Republican party argue that this was a great over uh reaction by the federal government who they had routinely sang been saying was growing in power and authority and was likely going to squash the individual this was seen as kind of proof in the pudding if you will right it was it was it was obvious that uh the federal government was going to be stronger it was going to be more assertive uh and a lot of Democratic Republicans kind of reacted to this in sheer horror uh saying that 12 500 militiamen uh in order to deal with a few hundred uh Angry Farmers was uh no way for a government to to act now of course Federalists argued that this show of force was needed so the Whiskey Rebellion was a dispute then Over law enforcement in the 1790s that ultimately helped to form the first two political parties in American history but another reason the Whiskey Rebellion uh is significant is that it had an effect on the development of the country really in two ways number one it set a precedent for the president of the United States using his powers or their powers as commander-in-chief to enforce laws right we're going to see this a few more times in this course but you'll see it a lot in history 1302 where the president of the United States will have to rely on the U.S military and as their as they are the commander-in-chief will have to use the U.S military to enforce federal laws we'll see it with Andrew Jackson in the 1830s we'll see with Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War and even in the 20th century we saw it during the Civil Rights Movement President Eisenhower and John F Kennedy so the precedent of the president using his powers or their powers of commander-in-chief to uh uh use the military to enforce laws was obviously something that was established right here with the Whiskey Rebellion and that kind of leads me to the last reason the Whiskey Rebellion is significant it had an effect on the development of the country because it showed everybody that this new government right this new government this new constitution armed with its new powers and authorities and abilities could effectively deal with an internal Insurrection could effectively suppress a direct challenge to its Authority which was not the case in the 1780s with Shay's Rebellion so this episode of the Whiskey Rebellion shows us that the new government and the new constitution is working