The Whiskey Rebellion by William Hogeland
Review of the Book on the 1790's Western Pennsylvania Uprising
Apr 15, 2009
To help fund the American government under Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's finance plan, an excise tax on whiskey was implemented. Hamilton and the easterners considered whiskey a luxury, but in western Pennsylvania, it was almost a necessity. As a result, the tax put the stressed economy of the poor at the Forks of the Ohio (the Pittsburgh area) to the breaking point.
Mingo Creek Association
Hogeland does an excellent job of explaining the economy of western Pennsylvania. For years, creditors and speculators forced many into debt and subsistence jobs, losing their autonomy in the process. Money was sparse and whiskey was often used as barter. Also, with the transport of grain difficult over the Alleghenies, locals distilled it into whiskey for easier transport. Therefore, many in the Forks believed they bore the brunt of the tax unfairly.
With the decreasing lack of control in their lives, these people sought control. They intimidated anybody who cooperated with the federal government. Hogeland goes into frightening detail of the intimidation: the tarring and feathering of tax collectors, and the formation of the Mingo Creek Association. This group infiltrated militia units and the local courts, acting as a dangerous shadow government.
Hugh Henry Brackenridge
Attempting to cool down the situation in the Forks community were a group of moderates. They, too, thought the whiskey tax was unfair, but they objected to the violent means of the rebels. Lawyer Hugh Henry Brackenridge was a leader for the moderates at the Forks. Hogeland makes you feel for Brackenridge. Caught in the middle and fearing for his life, he feigned support for the rebels while desperately striving for order.
Brackenridge also feared for his life at the hands of the federal government. Thanks to erractic news, an inflammatory letter from Brackenridge warning that the nation's capital, Philadelphia, was threatened, and his day late amnesty oath to the government, Brackenridge was ironically considered by many in Philadelphia a leader of the rebellion. Hogeland presents a suspenseful interrogation by Hamilton of Brackenridge.
The Wrath of Washington and Hamilton
Hamilton's zeal in this affair matched his expansive vision for the country. Not only would the whiskey tax fund the government, it would, Hogeland carefully points out, help America become a powerful industrial nation- Hamilton's dream. The tax was skewed to benefit the large distillers, like local entreprenuer John Neville and his Neville Connection. It was no surprise he was appointed the Forks' tax collector as well.
Once Hamilton and the federal army reached the Forks and a federal commission negotiated a settlement, the rebellion ended. Hogeland suggests that Hamilton was more interested in sapping the people's will for resistance than arresting the ringleaders. With President George Washington's approval, the army dragged people from their homes in the middle of the night and locked them in inhospitable rooms without charges. The intimidation was now performed by the government, not the local insurgents.
What Hogeland presents is a battle for sovereignty: the people of the Forks struggling for economic sovereignty and the federal government implementing its newfound political sovereignty. Trapped in the middle was a group trying to avert civil war between east and west. The book is a well rounded account with many points of view.
The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty
Published by Scribner, 2006, ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-5490-8, ISBN-10: 0-7432-5490-2
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