Back in the mid 1860s, some of those living on the remote frontier became bolder in the nefarious trade of the production of intoxicating drink.  This was because of the failure of the courts to convict some of the most notorious venders.

In spite of the best precautions possible under the circumstances by officials, there was considerable whiskey consumed at the Whetstone Agency and all the agencies up and down the Missouri River.  This was greatly to the detriment of the Indians and their associates at all the agencies.

In 1791, the first Congress passed an excise tax on distilled alcohol, the first tax ever levied by the national government on a domestic product manufactured in America.  Farmers in the nation’s frontier counties (who commonly turned much of their grain crop into whiskey for easier transportation to eastern markets) bore the brunt of the tax and rapidly made their dissatisfaction with the policy known.

Resistance was best organized in the four western counties of Pennsylvania, whose residents held a series of public meetings to draft petitions urging their representatives to repeal the law.  At the same time, these meetings adopted resolutions advising individual non-compliance with the law, framing it as an unjust imposition upon the liberties of the people.

The conflict dragged on for several years, and when their initial efforts at peaceful non-compliance failed to secure the repeal of the tax, some western Pennsylvanians adopted tactics of violent resistance to the enforcement of the law.  A number of tax collectors were accosted in the line of duty, tarred and feathered and in some cases tied up outside overnight in an attempt to coerce them into renouncing their commissions.

When accounts of the violence reached the national government in Philadelphia, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (whose department was responsible for collecting the tax revenue) prepared a report for President George Washington.

Hamilton’s report described the situation as a “disagreeable crisis” and ended it by labeling the parties involved as insurgents, and their resistance was a domestic insurrection.  He is credited with convincing the president that matters would not be resolved without the use of military force.  President Washington issued a presidential proclamation urging citizens to pay the tax.

Meanwhile, numerous letters were published in newspapers and posted in villages along the frontier.  These letters, all bearing fictitious names, were meant to turn public opinion against the rebellion and bolster public support for the president’s decision to send in the militia.

George Washington himself took command of the nearly 13,000 troops that were marched to the West in October of 1794.  This is the only time in the history of our country that an American president has actually served as a combat commander while in office.

Hamilton’s letters, all signed by a fictitious name, and the marshaling of troops succeeded in quelling the rebellion without further violence.  However, the central question raised by the insurgency remained: to what extent and in what ways can citizens in a republic organize to resist laws they find unjust or immoral before becoming rebels or traitors?

In the years following the incident, moderate opponents of the excise tax and other strong national policies like it would offer opposing narratives of the insurrection.  They attempted to present the national government as oppressive and harsh.

Following the model of the British crown, George Washington issued proclamations, even though the Constitution does not use the word.  Today, presidents still issue proclamations and other unilateral orders, such as executive orders.  Executive orders apply to employees of the executive branch and proclamations apply to the wider citizenry.

Washington issued a proclamation warning citizens of Western Pennsylvania to comply with the law and pay their taxes.  He later led a military force of over 10,000 men to put down what was referred to in the press as the “Whiskey Rebellion.”  He also wanted to demonstrate the power of the young and inexperienced national government.

Presidential proclamations have occasionally led to important political and historical consequences in the development of the United States.  George Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793 and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 were some of America’s most famous presidential proclamations in that regard.

Proclamations are also used, often contentiously, to grant presidential pardons.  Recent notable pardon proclamations are Gerald Ford’s pardon of former President Richard Nixon in 1974 and Jimmy Carter’s pardon of Vietnam War draft evaders in 1977.

The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863 had in effect changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans.  It played a significant part in the ending of slavery in the United States.

 

Author Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on November 27, 2024