.........

The Whiskey Rebellion

By
F.W. Thorlton

The revolution was over! The landed gentry were back home on their plantations while the Scotch-Irish farmer was back at his log cabin trying to scratch a living from an unforgiving land.

The new country had a problem... money.

There were huge debts incurred fighting the British for the freedom of the land. A land divided by two separate and very different classes of people. There were the nobles (the plantation owners, a title that was said did not exist anymore but in fact, did) and there were the peasants. The hard working church going family loving people who mostly lived on the frontier on their own with very little support from the eastern gentry. They had no money, they had no connections. All they had was their land their hands and their passion to live unfettered by any bureaucracy. They had just fought at the side and for General George Washington to free the landed gentry from what they considered an unfair tax. A tax on stamps, tea etc. which in realty and by any standard was not that burdensome of the eastern gentry.

George Washington was in fact an aristocrat, a feudal "lord". By birth and up bringing he was made such. He did not choose this, destiny did. It was not a pretense but his manner of being. He came to this aristocracy so naturally that it seems a surprise that the founder of the American Republic was an aristocrat and the son of an aristocrat. This seems to be a fact often overlooked. His air of authority, of greatness and of detachment which he was so well endowed (qualities useful to him throughout his career), were really the very qualities by which history describes him,and are the essential marks of an aristocrat.

Those who approached him, whether gentlemen, writers, preachers, tradesmen, or poets, all felt immediately that they were in the presence of a born leader. His election to the presidency only ratified and sanctified this title; it did not bestow it, it was his birthright. In truth he was born into and grew up in one of the most aristocratic, one of the most genuinely feudal societies the world has ever known.

The eastern plantation owners who were also, now land spectaculars, were developing new ways to increase their income and their land holding. The western frontiersmen were merely trying to survive after the long years away from their meager holdings. Their holdings consisted of a small piece of land far away from the markets of the east, and it was their religion, their love of family and their fierce feeling of independence. After all was that not what the just gave their blood and toil to protect?

But the new nation was in debt !

Who was to pay this debt?

Throughout history it has always been the burden of the commoner to supply the tax money to pay the debts of the richer members of the society. This moment in history was no different. Secretary Hamilton conceived a plan to tax spirits, an age old method of taxing the poor and known as excise tax. It had long been the habit of this Scotch-Irish settlers on the frontiers of this new nation to distill their own sipping liquor and they became quite proficient at it, so much so that their goods were in great demand.

Here on their frontier land there was no money. Mostly they lived by barter. If they needed something they traded and they survived, but there was no money involved, simply barter. Now George Washington's Administration under the advise of Hamilton proposed to tax these frontiersmen and the tax was demanded in money.... and the frontiersmen had no money.

The situation grew more desperate and overwhelming as time pasted until like the landed gentry of 1776 these backwoodsmen decided to rebel. They gathered their meager forces and as in 1776 faced the foe, the long hated tax man. To counter this conceived threat, General and now President George Washington mustered a larger army than he commanded during the Revolution to put down these poorly armed and unorganized fellow soldiers from the Revolution............

From the earliest days the settlers either possessed a still, or had access to one, perhaps through a joint venture with a neighbor. Of the many talents the Caldwells and the Thorltons possessed, whiskey making was the best honed.

There were few bank notes, and little hard cash. Captain John Thorlton was fortunate if he saw twenty dollars in a years time. But whiskey was a means of exchange accepted by everyone, it was as good as money. All over the frontier "wet goods" were bartered for, tools, cloth, utensils, or almost anything the frontiersman required. It was, in a world where there was little, hard cash. It was the frontiersman's bank account.

Captain John Thorlton was faced with many problems in marketing his crops. The only markets, where cash money was available, was in the east at Philadelphia. But between him and this market lay a very rugged terrain Roads that were often impassable, and even when they were, the cost of transport was so high, there was no profit left.

There was, however a very profitable market south over the broad rivers such as the Ohio and the Mississippi. But these markets were uncertain at best due to the Spanish blockades. So with grain as his only viable product, he was faced with the problem of a means of transport. While the average horse could haul four bushels of grain at a time, the same horse was able to carry the equivalent of twenty-four bushels when distilled to whiskey. The whiskey required less space, and there was little chance of loss, or spoilage. Even when grain was transported there was little market for it, except as fodder, or making of flour, and the prices brought were small.

These western counties were blessed with the three things needed to make excellent rye whiskey; the soil to produce exceptional rye crops, an abundance of clear spring water, and the men with the skill to combine all. The result was the "best drinking whiskey in the colonies." Demand for the "wet goods" was widespread, but locally the prices were low compared to that of the very lucrative eastern market. In the west the price for a gallon of whiskey was only twenty-five cents. The army sometimes paid as high as fifty cents a gallon. But in the eastern markets it brought as high as $1.25 a gallon.

The federal government was smothering under debts run up under the bankrupt Articles of Confederation. It was now looking for some way to repay a staggering fifty-four million dollars in national debt. Nearly twelve million was owed to France and Holland, and there were many Americans who advocated refusal of repayment of the debt. But this would incur the wrath of this countries own citizens from whom most of the monies were borrowed, not to mention that of the powerful nation of France. Besides if this new nation was to achieve a place within nations of the world, simply ignoring the debt was obviously not an option. To solve the problem, President Washington turned to his friend and subordinate of the Revolution, Alexander Hamilton. Possessing the very qualities, of order, efficiency, and organization, that President Washington hoped to mold into the young country, he appointed Hamilton his first Secretary of the Treasury.

Hamilton immediately set about the task of molding a plan to pay off every penny owed by the country. The plan which he submitted to the House of Representatives was bold and creative. First he proposed the combining of debts owed into one large debt. Second the establishment of a Central Bank of the United States, thereby allowing the government to manage, and keep its money in this bank. Then, as with the Bank of England, money could be lent to the government, and paper money issued.

While most congressman found little fault with the plan, some argued that the debts from the different states should not be combined. Some southern states like Virginia pointed out that since they had already paid off their debts, why should they now be even partly responsible for her sister state's obligations? To win these states over, Hamilton used his influence to have the new federal city of Washington located in a southern location. The southerners were anxious to have the city located in the south. So Hamilton was instrumental in the site location on the banks of the Potomac, between the states of Maryland, and Virginia. In return the southern congressmen united with the north to cast a favorable vote on the plan.

Though Hamilton's plan was successful, a basic financial problem still existed, that of raising the huge sums of money necessary to operate the federal government successfully? The tariffs now in operation were failing to raise the money required, and another source was required.

European governments had often turned to the internal tax or excise tax as very efficient source of needed revenue. In England taxes on items such as beer, ale, cider, salt, beef, rabbits, and pigeons, were quickly met with violent opposition from the populous. They reacted to these taxes with riots and burning of excise houses. Resistance had always been more intense in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and rural areas of England.

The young American government had imposed tariffs on imported goods, but the results were disappointing, so Hamilton turned to the old nemesis of the people, the excise tax. He added an excise tax to his overall plan, which the Congress quickly passed. This excise tax would be specifically placed on all distilled spirits, manufactured or sold within this country. The effect was to impose a heavy tax burden on the people least able to afford it, the backwoodsmen of Pennsylvania, and would be a crushing blow to their new found affluence.

Ten years had passed since the people of Pennsylvania had spilled their blood for the blessing of liberty promised to them by their revolutionary leaders. They had fought a war to end unfair taxation, or so they were told. Now George Washington, the leader of the army that defeated their old enemy, had signed into law a tax that was, to them, far worse than anything experienced under King George. A tax which placed an unequal burden on the small farmer distiller, but was advantageous to the large distillery.

Their reaction was violent, and immediate, and in some places the name of George Washington came to be hated. It seemed to the people that the heroes of the Revolution were now espousing the very ideas they, not so long ago, had so violently opposed, and had risked their lives and their fortunes to end. To many in the western counties of Pennsylvania there was little difference between the old George of England and this new George of America.

The excise tax was nothing new to the frontiersmen, there had been a similar tax as early as 1644, followed by others in 1740, 1756, 1778, and 1743. These taxes were met with little opposition for, mostly they were used to pay for the wars against the French, and later that of the Revolution, and they were not strictly enforced.

These people of the backwoods of Pennsylvania had long felt themselves second class citizens, in the eyes of the easterners. They were alone on the frontier, to fend for themselves with little support, as earlier from the Quakers proprietary leadership, and now from the federal government. They had for some time entertained the idea of autonomy, and had submitted a proposal to separate and form the state of Westsylvania. This proposal was never seriously considered by the eastern leaders, and was rejected along with similar ones from Watauga in the Tennessee area, Transylvania in Kentucky. Other attempts at autonomy occurred in the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and North Carolina.

These attempts had occurred prior to 1780's, and now in the years after 1785 things were little changed with regard to their political situation. Shay's Rebellion had been put down, but it had shown the ends to which the people would go to secure their rights. The eastern leadership considered the men of Shays Rebellion as knaves, thieves, anarchists, and madmen, while the people of the frontier generally considered them to be patriots. So with the actions of Shays Rebellion, and the State of Franklin's attempt at separation as his image of the frontiersmen, President Washington had cause to suspect the loyalty of these westerners.

The Spaniards had tried to lure the Franklinites and the Canadian English to their cause, and they had done the same with the Shay dissenters. Now President Washington harbored fears these backwoodsmen were only a step away form total rebellion against the United States. Even so, forced by his countries current economic circumstances, the President signed into law, the excise tax on whiskey in 1791, and the die was cast.

The United States was divided into fourteen districts. One district represented each state. The states were divided into surveys, with an inspector in charge of each. Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, Allegheny, and Bedford made up the Fourth Survey. Placed in charge of the Fourth Survey was the well liked and prosperous General John Neville. His salary of $450 a year, plus 1% of the revenue he collected, was going to do little to recompense him for the sorrow it was to cause. He had opposed the tax, but believed, because of his position in the community that he would be a moderating force among the disgruntled people.

The backwoods farmer-distiller was facing unfair competition from the large town distiller, who paid a lower tax rate than his frontier counterpart. The larger distiller possessed a further advantage, in that he could sell his larger output, lower taxed product, to government commissaries at full value, and be paid in cash. The small country distiller was forced to barter his whiskey for goods. Mostly he did not realize real cash money, and was generally denied the money markets available to the larger distillers. Worse off still, was the Rye farmer who did not distill his goods, but instead depended on the lower prices paid by merchants.

Even when the farmer-distiller shipped his whiskey to the lucrative eastern markets, the cost of transport, and now the added tax, left him with little money for himself. Even with the unfair tax, and competition from the large distillers, the farmers might well have remained quiet, and eked out an existence, had it not been for the penalty imposed. They had suffered through other excise tax laws, but this new law was different, it had teeth: Teeth that bit deep into the pockets of the backwoods farmer. Not only was the tax ruinous and unfair to the small farm distiller, but the penalty for non-compliance was even worse. The law stated: If a man was guilty of non-compliance he would have to stand trial in Philadelphia, three hundred miles away from his farm, and his everyday responsibilities. Even if he could afford the trial, and lawyer expenses, which few could, by the time he returned home, his farm would be ruined.

To the men of the backwoods of Pennsylvania this was far more tyrannical than anything they experienced before the Revolution. They were convinced that there was a plan afoot to rob them of all their possessions, and there were those of influence who agreed. Chief Justice John Marshall characterized it as, "a dire threat to the republic."

In the towns of Brownsville, Washington, and in Pittsburgh, meetings were planned on the county, and state levels, to voice displeasures and layout strategies. The first of these was held in the town of Brownsville, Washington County, on July 27, 1791. It was harvest week for the farmer and many were unable to attend so little was accomplished. One important person did attend, the anti-Federalist politician and member of Congress, William Findley.

To the approval of the farmers present, Findley gave a speech haranguing the evils of the excise tax. On August 23, another meeting was held at the town of Washington. Less controlled and more violent, this meeting vowed and resolved to treat all excise collectors as public enemies. It was decided they would be treated, with contempt, and all aid, support, and comfort, would be withheld. At Pittsburgh on September 7, in The Green Tavern on the east bank of the Monongahela River eleven delegates met to further plan strategies. Attending, were prominent men who would play a leading role in the "Whiskey Rebellion." They were; Edward Cook, an associate judge of Fayette County, and elected chairman of the meeting. David Bradford, a lawyer and politician of Washington County, John Woods, no lover of the excise tax even though he was the attorney for General Neville and his family, and James Marshall, an influential local leader, and Hugh Henry Brackenridge, author, lawyer, magazine editor, preacher, and gifted orator. Brackenridge had helped to start the first newspaper, bookstore, and academy, (which would later become the University of Pittsburgh.) Throughout the life of the Whiskey Rebellion, Brackenridge would act as a moderating force, between the "Whiskey Boys," and the government.

For three years the people accepted the situation with grumbling discontent. They voiced their displeasure with angry petitions and stern resolutions of protest. One of the loudest protesters was a leader among the regulators from the Battle of Alamance, Herman Husbands.

After escaping the wrath of the Governor's Militia in North Carolina twenty years earlier, he had fled to Pennsylvania, where he lived at Coffee Springs Farm, in Somerset County. Born in Cecil County, Maryland in 1724, he moved to North Carolina about 1755. He moved back to Maryland around 1759, and back to North Carolina in 1761, where he took an active part in the work of the Regulators. In 1771 he fled back to Pennsylvania. Here he was seen on many occasions wandering the hills "barefoot and in dirty clothes" he changed his name for a time to escape as he put "further persecutions." Here preaching his gospel, he forecast everything from the end of the world, to the date of his own death. Now seventy-three years old, this itinerant preacher, and pamphleteer, had always possessed a utopian view of his society, and expected a New Jerusalem to soon flourish in western Pennsylvania. Though moderate in his views on the tax question, he nevertheless was outspoken against the local tax collector for Bedford County, the much despised, and unfair, John Webster. This man not content with merely collecting the tax, sometimes seized the liquor from the poor farmer while he was attempting to barter them for goods. He was known to take bribes from the larger distillers, and was not adverse to cheating the government by keeping the taxes he collected, for himself.

Cheated by the tax man, and driven out of business by the large distillers, while feeling alone and abandoned by their government, these farmers turned to what they conceived to be the only avenue open to them . . . violence. They took revenge on those neighbors who were abiding by the law, by burning their barns, grain, and hay.

General Neville avoided a close call to the safety of himself and his family by simply facing down an angry crowd bent on his harm. Roving bands of dissenters destroyed the stills of those who were not opposing the tax, "by shooting them full of holes." These attacks came to be known as "mending the still." Soon those taking part in these attacks were called "The Tinker's Boys," referring to the trade of the tin mender, or tinker.

Warnings against those who might consider abiding by the tax law were posted all over the area, and signed by "Tom the Tinker." Revived from the Revolutionary days was the practice of raising up liberty poles. Originally symbols of protest against British tyranny, they now were raised in protest of the Whiskey Tax. In Bedford County, at intervals of five miles, and at every crossroad, were found these poles with the old Revolutionary symbols of a divided snake, and streamers bearing the inscription "An equal tax, and no Excise 0' Whiskey!"

So stiff was the resistance, and the fear placed in the minds of their neighbors, that when the deadline for registration placed by the government of June 20 arrived, not one had been registered in Allegheny County. All over the counties "Tom the Tinker's Boys" were busy destroying stills, tarring and feathering tax collectors, and burning barns, and grain.

Near Pigeon Creek in Washington County, the collector for Allegheny, and Washington County was attacked by sixteen men. The collector's head was shaved, and he was tarred and feathered, and taken a great distance into the countryside without horse or clothing. Warrants were issued for the arrest of the sixteen men. When the process server arrived with his warrants, he met the same fate as the tax collector. In Washington County, General Neville set up headquarters for the local revenue office in the house of an Army captain named William Faulker. Angry farmers warned that if Faulkner continued to allow his house to be used for this "unholy purpose," he would be scalped. Faulkner promised to comply with his neighbors demands, but failed to act quickly enough. On an August night a band of thirty men with blackened faces rode into the county, surrounded Faulkner's house, and broke in. Luckily for Faulkner he was away at the time. The angry crowd with nowhere to vent their anger, turned to the excise notice, which was ripped to shreds. Next was a plaque of President Washington which was promptly filled with bullet holes.

Feeding President Washington's fears of a national insurrection on the frontier, were the many societies, spawned by an American enthusiasm for the French Revolution, that sprang up in the Monongahela country.

The original excise act called for those guilty of non-compliance, to be served warrants, and transported to Philadelphia for trial. On June 5, 1794, a more moderate amendment became law, whereby cases that were more than fifty miles distant from a federal court, could stand trial in a state court.

Some proof that Hamilton was more interested in provoking an outbreak whereby he could humiliate the residents, lay in the fact that on the books were seventy-five warrants more than a year old, which had never been served, of these sixty or so were within the Forth Survey. Hamilton could have served them under the new, less stringent law, but instead choose to serve them under the conditions of the old law.

From Philadelphia, with his warrants in hand, came United States Marshall David Lenox. Experiencing little trouble in Bedford, and Fayette Counties, he moved onto the explosive Washington County, where he was joined by General Neville. As the two men moved through the county they felt the intensity of the anger grow as each warrant was served. One by one a crowd of local farmers began to gather. As the crowd tipped the jug their anger grew, till they decided to pursue the process servers. After serving most of their warrants, the two government men arrived at the farm of William Miller who happened to be the cousin of General Neville's brother-in-law. Feeling himself misused by his own family Mr. Miller refused to accept the warrant saying "My family has piloted the sheriff to my door." At that moment behind these three men, arrived the irate, liquored up crowd. With angry shouts, the farmers raced across the field, and at some point a rifle was discharged. After a moment of attempted reasoning with a crowd that would have none, the Marshal and his companion, who had never left their saddles, decided that caution was the better part of valor, and they galloped off with their remaining warrants in hand with the crowd in hot pursuit. General Neville, and Marshall Lenox, returned to the General home at Bower Hill.

Meanwhile, at nearby Mingo Creek a group of local militia had gathered. One of these militiamen had witnessed the goings on at the Miller place, and further excited the men by crying "the Marshal is carrying men off to Philadelphia."

A party of forty men, some armed, some not, was formed, and led by the reputed original "Tom the Tinker," John Holcroft. Their intent was to go to Bower Hill and capture Marshall Lenox, whom they believed to be under the protection of General Neville. They planned to seize the General, force him to give up his commission, and to surrender all his warrants, and his record book, which they, then intended to destroy.

When the two factions met at Bower Hill, on July 16, 1794 a fight began. For two days it continued, with six of the farmers wounded, and one killed. General managed sometime during the first day to dispatch a message to Pittsburgh informing the garrison there, of his situation. Responding to the distress call, was his brother-in-law, and William Millers cousin, Major Abraham Kirkpatrick.

John Holcroft, realizing that now he might face charges of treason if he fired upon these federal troops, decided he needed support. Relinquishing command to a Major James MacFarlane, who now commanded a force of over five hundred farmer militiamen. Attempting peaceful means first, under a flag of truce, the locals advanced on the Generals home demanding that he come out and talk. They were told by Major Kirkpatrick that the General was no longer there. The rebels then demanded to search the house but were denied access, and the battle began anew.

The farmers burned the Generals outbuilding and the Negro quarters. During the exchange Major MacFarlane was mortally wounded in the groin. With the burning out buildings threatening the mansion Major Kirkpatrick realized further resistance was useless, and surrendered. The federal troops were allowed to go free, but the mansion and all the Generals property was burned to the ground. When the crowd left Bower Hill all that was left was the hill.

During the following days General Neville and Marshall Lenox were to encounter the local dissidents on several occasions before reaching the safety of Pittsburgh. At one point Lenox was very nearly stabbed to death. The funeral of the Major MacFarlane, fueled the fires of anger burning in the hearts of the "Whiskey Boys" as they were now called. As tempers flared, fears grew in the minds of the residents of Pittsburgh that these "Whiskey Boys" might soon be upon them, and they dared not think of atrocities they might commit. However, all that transpired was a delegation of two men which arrived in Pittsburgh to talk. These two men, a justice of the peace, John Black and David Hamilton met with Hugh Brackenridge and some other town leaders. Managing to extract vague promises from General Neville, and Marshall Lenox, that they would resign their offices, but would not relinquish the warrants. After the delegation left, Neville and Lenox began to fear for their lives and imagined that when Hamilton and Black reported to the rebels their terms, the Whiskey Boys would march on Pittsburgh and "get them." Arranging for a number of soldiers to accompany them, the two government men left Pittsburgh, and made their way down the Ohio River, and by early August of 1794, they were within the safety of Philadelphia.

In a little log Presbyterian Church at Mingo Creek, near the freshly dug grave of Major MacFarlane, on July 23, 1794, the next important meeting was to take place. It was attended by Hugh Brackenridge, David Bradford, and many of those who had a hand in the affair at Bowers Hill. Unfortunately, preventing honest discourse, was the fact that the rebels possessed such a hold of fear on the people of the western frontier no one dared voice any opinion in support of the federal government. James Marshall and David Bradford, though later espousing fanatically the cause of the rebels, was originally recruited with threats of; "if you do not step forward and support us now, you shall be treated in the same or worse manner as the excise officers." It was believed that Edward Cook only participated "out of fear of retaliation from the rebels." In this lawless atmosphere, most men were concerned their lives, and property, were in jeopardy. David Bradford, a lawyer and politician, was also an unstable, rash, and excitable man, and was about to receive the thrust which would propel him a much more active role. One of the first to speak, he rose and playing to crowds hostility, he spoke in fiery oratory of the evils committed by the federal government against its people, and defended the actions taken by the rebels at Bowers Hill and the destruction of General Nevilles house and property.

Next to speak was Hugh Henry Brackenridge. Taking a moderate roll, he warned that;

" . . . what was done at Bowers Hill may have been morally correct, but it was illegal, and perhaps was treason, and it was within the power of the President to call out the militia against them."

He continued, the crowd, in a face to face confrontation with the federal government, stood little chance of victory. His words only brought jeers of protest. The angry grumbling crowd convinced Mr. Breckinridge he was wasting his time and in fact he stood in danger of bodily harm. So he, like the other dissenters left. Nothing further, of any importance, transpired except the calling of another meeting to take place at Parkinson's Ferry on August 14. In the mere three weeks between the two meetings, grave events were to take place that would altar the topics, and the outcome of the Parkinson's Ferry meeting. The first was the robbing of U.S. mail at Greenburg, next the muster at Braddock's Field, and finally the march on Pittsburgh.

David Bradford's unexpected success at Mingo Creek fired his imagination to the point that he imagined himself the founder of a new western nation, and like George Washington during the revolution, he would lead the backwoods people to victory over any federal force sent against them. Determined to learn who his real friends and enemies were, he directed his cousin and one other man to rob the mail. He would then gain the information he sought by reading the letters and learn the true opinions of the writers. Following their leaders orders the two men waylaided the postrider bound for Philadelphia. Within his bags was the mail from the towns of Washington, and Pittsburgh. At Greenburg, on July 26, they waylaid the rider and removed the mail pouch which they duly delivered to Bradford.

He gained more than he dreamed of for in the bags were letters from Presley Neville, the son of General Neville, to the Revolutionary officer Daniel Morgan, and others sent to Governor Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War Knox, and Alexander Hamilton himself, he learned of threats to hang the men involved in the Bowers Hill episode.

Bradford then planed to round up the writers of the letters, imprison them, then seize the arsenal at Fort Fayette near Pittsburgh. For such a plan to be successful Bradford knew he needed a much larger force. Bradford and seven of his accomplices signed their names to a letter that he then sent to all the militia officers. In the letter he informed the officers of the intercepted letters and their content, and called upon the officers to muster their men on Braddock's Field on the 1st of August. Surprising, even to Bradford, approximately 5,000 drinking, cursing, angry militiamen began to gather on the very field where 39 years earlier, General Braddock had been so overwhelming defeated.

Bradford then turned his attention to the town of Pittsburgh, and promised to spare the town if the writers of the offending letters left Pittsburgh and the town militia joined their neighbors on Braddock's Field. The town had, it seemed at the time little choice, and the Pittsburgh militia met the others on Braddock's Field.

On the day of the muster, in front of the milling militia, rode the new General of the west, David Bradford, graced in the full trapping of his newly chosen rank, that of Major General. Sitting atop a splendid horse, with his sword drawn and his plumes flying in the breeze, he pranced back and forth across the field alternately snapping orders, and haranguing the militia. Brackenridge had witnessed Bradford's popularity, and wrote later;

"The insurgents adored him, paid him the most servile homage, in order to control and manage them, certain it is, that his influence was great. I saw a man wade into the Monongahela River, lift cool water from the bottom of the channel, and bring it back in his hat to him to drink."

Bradford realized that if he vacillated he could be setting on a powder keg that would explode in his face, he must do something. The next morning a planning committee met with representatives from each battalion present. Bradford dominated the meeting and demanded the expulsion of the two remaining letter writers from Pittsburgh. They voted to allow the men eight days to vacate the town. Bradford then demanded that they march on Pittsburgh. Brackenridge, again acting as a moderating force, advised the men to make only a "token march through the town."

Meanwhile in Bedford County John Thorlton's neighbors exacted a somewhat less violent reprisal upon their tax man, John Webster. He was captured, his tax stamp and papers were destroyed, and his stables and fields put to the torch. He was held overnight, and the next morning he was made to mount a stump and cry out aloud "Hurrah for Tom the Tinker," three times.

At dawn, back at Braddock's field, the drums began to roll and the men prepared for their long awaited, "March on Pittsburgh." Eight miles away the townspeople prepared for what they now knew was coming. They hid their valuables and private papers. In a stroke of genius, and great insight of human nature the people probably saved their town. Instead of waiting in a mood of confrontation, they welcomed the "Whiskey Boys" behind tables filled with food, water, and of course whiskey. The plan worked quite well, although a few rebels entered the town cursing and yelling insults and threats, most of them partook of the town's hospitality liberally consuming the refreshments and befriending the people of the town.

While there was some looting, and burnings, notably the barn of Major Kirkpatrick, by nightfall more than four thousand militiamen had orderly passed through the town and either availed themselves of the boats that had been provided, or forded over the Monongahela on horseback.

All was not milk and honey however, the Liberty poles were still seen, and there was still talk of seceding from the United States. A group of American citizens had taken up arms and was in open rebellion against the authority the United States. This was the most dangerous threat to the republic since Shays rebellion eight years earlier. President Washington, and Alexander Hamilton realized that the government must stand firm in a show of strength, and punish the rebels in such a way that the People would see that insurrections would not be tolerated, and that the government of the United States stood fully ready and able to enforce its laws. On August 4, 1794, Supreme Court Justice James Wilson issued a statement certifying the western counties to be in a state of insurrection. On August 7, President Washington issued the following proclamation, which in part read;

"Whereas combinations to defeat the execution of the laws laying duties of spirits distilled within the United States and upon stills have from the time of the commencement of those laws existed in some of the western parts of Pennsylvania . . . have hitherto effected their dangerous and criminal purpose by the influence of certain irregular meetings whose proceedings have tended to encourage and uphold the spirit of opposition by misrepresentations of the laws calculated to render them odious; by endeavors to deter those who might be so disposed from accepting offices under them through fear of public resentment and of injury to person and property . . . by actually injuring and destroying property of persons who were understood to have complied; by inflicting cruel and humiliating punishment upon private citizens for no other cause than that of appearing to be friends of the laws; by intercepting the public officers on the highways, abusing, assaulting, and otherwise ill treating them; by going to their houses in the night, gaining admittance by force, taking away papers, and committing other outrages . . . insomuch that many persons in the western parts of Pennsylvania have at length been hardy enough to perpetrate acts which I am advised amount to treason, being overt acts of levying war against the United States . . . avowing as the motives of these outrageous proceedings an intention to prevent by of arms, the execution of the said laws . . . It shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia of such states to suppress such combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed. And if the militia of a state where such combination happen shall refuse or be insufficient to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the President, if the legislature of the United States shall not be in session, to call forth and employ such numbers of the militia of any other state or states most convenient thereto may be necessary . . . Whereas it is my judgment necessary under the circumstances of the case to take measures for calling forth the militia in order to suppress the combinations aforesaid: and to cause the laws to be duly executed: and I have accordingly determined to do so, feeling the deepest regret for the occasion, but withal the most solemn conviction that the essential interests of the Union demand it, that the very existence of the government and the fundamental principles of social order are materially involved in the issue, and that the patriotism and firmness of all good citizens are seriously called upon, as occasions may require, to aid in the effectual suppression of so fatal a spirit; Wherefore, and in pursuance of the proviso above recited, I George Washington, President of the United States, do hereby command all persons being insurgents as aforesaid, and all others whom it may concern, on or before the 1st day September next to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes. And I do moreover warn all persons whomsoever against aiding, abetting, or comforting the perpetrators of the aforesaid treasonable acts, and do require all officers and other citizens, according to their respective duties and the laws of the land, to exert their utmost endeavors to prevent and suppress such dangerous proceedings . . . ]Philadelphia, the 7th of August, 1794 . . .

G. Washington

The president declared that;

"The very existence of the government, and the fundamental principles of social order, are materially involved."

Thirteen thousand militia were called up, by Secretary of War Knox, from different states, and ordered to hold themselves in readiness. There they would set for the time being, for the President was faced with other problem which made immediate action inadvisable. General Anthony Wayne had just begun his campaign against the Indians in the wilderness, John Jay was on his way to England to negotiate a complex and sensitive treaty, and with her forts along the Mississippi, Spain was an ever present threat. With these things in mind the President decided to attempt one last peaceful jester at reconciliation. He chose Attorney General William Bradford United States Senator James Ross, and Jasper Yeates of the Pennsylvania court, and a pair of state commissioners appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Milfin Thomas McKean, and William Irvine, to go west and confer with the rebels, offer them pardons on conditions of assurance of future obedience of federal laws.

Arriving on August 16, the legation learned of the Parkinson Ferry meeting, which had taken place two days earlier. At that meeting on August 14, two hundred and twenty-six delegates from the western counties of Pennsylvania, and six counties of Virginia met.

Delegates were sent from both sides, but with little accomplished President Washington, and Secretary Hamilton were unmoved in their resolve to teach a lesson to these unruly backwoodsmen, and decided that an example of these "disloyal frontiersmen" must be made.

Against these farmers, some armed with nothing more than a pitchfork the government massed a total army in excess of 10,000 troops. George Washington rode into the backwoods of Pennsylvania, at the head of a larger army than he lead in any of the battles against the British, the most powerful nation in the world. Overwhelmed, frightened by the size, and unsure of their resolve the resistance on the frontier crumbled. From Bedford, Washington returned to Philadelphia leaving Hamilton in command.

As a postscript to his to the Secretary of the Treasury, from Wrights Ferry on October 26, Washington wrote;

"P.S. I hope you will be enabled by hook, or crook, to send Bradford and Husbands together with a certain Mr. Guthrie, to Philadelphia for their winter quarters."

His dreams of power shattered, David Bradford escaped down the Ohio to the Mississippi River, and into the safety of the Louisiana Territory, where he lived out his days in Bayou Sara. It was learned from papers later found that Bradford had been a leading force in a movement for frontier independence, and a separate frontier nation.

Henry Hugh Brackenridge was at first suspected by Hamilton who had threatened severe punishment to this man he believed to be a traitor. Later when Hamilton learned the truth his anger against Brackenridge subsided Brackenridge never completely regained his former place of honor in the community.

Twenty men from various counties were taken prisoner, among them our old friend Mr. Husbands, and were ordered to stand trial in Philadelphia They were forced to endure a cruel month long march back to their cells in Philadelphia.

Herded like cattle over the mountains they reached Philadelphia on Christmas Day 1794. Exhausted sick and weak they laid in a Philadelphia cell through the months it took for the legal proceedings to run their course. Finally eighteen men were released through pardon or acquittal. Two were found guilty. But it was a hollow victory for the authorities. The two men were mentally incompetent and obviously unable to manage their own affairs, let alone lead an uprising. They were later pardoned by President Washington.

Hurman Husbands was among the eighteen men released in late October. Old and ill from his months in prison, he died somewhere on the road back to Bedford, the old man in the dirty clothes, who ranted and raved his forecasts of gloom and doom, would no longer be of trouble to anyone.

The rebellion was over, but nothing had changed for the people of the western frontier, the tax would not be repealed until after Jefferson was elected in 1800. The government would continue to meet resistance to the collection of the tax. It would, in the intervening years, be learned that this resistance to the Whiskey Tax, was nation wide. Armed rebellion had occurred only in the western parts of Pennsylvania, but there had been resistance in the form of proclamations, and resolves in the states of North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, and Virginia. The old Liberty Poles were not an uncommon site in these states, as all over the frontier, the people resisted what they believed to be an unfair tax.

These people on the western frontier were judged harshly by some of the Federalists in the east, who considered them to be ignorant illiterates, bent on the destruction of the new government. Strong passions existed on both sides. Washington with his federalist beliefs was, as president, required to: support the government's position of maintaining a strong central power, enforce the laws, and repress any resistance to national order.

Pennsylvania was strongly anti-federalists, and advocated states rights, in fact Governor Mifflin had on several occasions taken stands in opposition to Washington's administration. The strongest anti-federalist feeling however was present on the western frontier. Populated with Scotch-Irish, these people brought with them a natural hatred for the tax known as excise, and any authority which diminished their own preeminence

The American Revolution, in many ways inspired the French Revolution, and the French Revolution had much to do with inspiring the people on the frontier to their uprising. The French Revolution of 1789 made a profound impression on people of the frontier. Not long removed themselves, from the oppressions of the monarchial families of England. They voiced approval of the French vie the "Rights of Man," and found it very easy to side with this new French movement.

This new idea of "government of the people and by the people," was still an abstract concept to these backwoodsmen, and most still harbored a suspicion of any strong governmental authority. They were not disloyal people but rather people with a strong desire for independence of mind and body. And, something new was happening to the Scotch-Irish American. Slowly they were moving away from the traditional clannish ideology of their fathers, and viewing their achievements more from an individual point of view. It was here in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains the American Pioneer was born, and here American Society would divide.

Those preferring the stability of an established community, with its moral, traditional, and institutional foundations set as guide lines for living would remain. The others, seeking adventure, independence, and a chance to see the other side of the mountain, the risk takers, moved on. Some needed little encouragement to join the moving tide, others required a jolt or two.

The fears of John Thorltons youth, in Ireland, returned to haunt him. The fears of the repression, of mind, body, and spirit, and this excise tax had struck at the heart of his subsistence. With the bleak picture that was forming in his mind's eye, he began to consider other options for the security of his family.

It was a grand time for the wanderlust spirit. A man with courage of heart and strength of body could begin a new life in any of the new frontiers. With the coming of the exciseman and his hated tax, and the ever encroaching grip of a confining central government, 2000 frontiersmen pulled up stakes and moved on. Looking for elbow room, some went west into the Ohio Valley, while others paid passage, or poled down the Ohio river into the Kentucky settlements, and some, turned their eyes south to. . . ......

The Territory South of the Ohio River.

And George Washington, recognizing the profits to be made, would soon build the largest distillery in the United States !!!!!!!