The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution

Slaughter's book is the definitive treatment of the Whiskey Rebellion. The Whiskey Rebellion arose in 1794 along the frontier and especially in western Pennsylvania in reaction to a federal excise tax on whiskey. Western farmers relied on whiskey as a crucial cash crop and even as a medium of exchange. An internal tax on this item was greatly resented as an imposition by a distant Eastern government that could not even protect the farmers from Indian attacks. A rebellion of sorts began when federal tax collectors attempted to enforce the law. The west saw the entire episode as a challenge to the liberty so recently won while the east saw it as a challenge to the very notion of ordered liberty.

Slaughter relates that the unrest reflected a strong and potentially significant rift between the eastern and western US. Westerners considered that the eastern leaders simply did not care about western problems. In the midst of the debate over the excise tax, St. Clair's Indian expedition met with disaster in the Ohio country - the most complete defeat of the US Army ever. As Slaughter tells it this defeat confirmed for westerners the inability of the central government to protect their interests.

By the time Washington marched his troops (derisively called the Watermelon Army) west, the rebellion had already moved from violence to a political phase but Washington wanted to make a point about central authority. Washington, a major absentee landowner, put down what was left of the rebellion with few casualties. Only a handful of rebels were taken into custody, fewer still were charged. The few that were convicted of treason were pardoned by Washington. Washington did not need to be punitive as he had already made his point with his army.

Highly recommended. ( )