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| The Whiskey Rebellion Attributed to Frederick Kemmelmeyer |
The caption to the painting above (in the Wikipedia article about the Whiskey Rebellion) says "George Washington reviews the troops near Fort Cumberland, Maryland, before their march to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania."
Huh, a rebellion over whiskey? Not exactly, it was a rebellion over having to pay taxes on whiskey, the sale thereof which provided valuable income to some farmers in western Pennsylvania. A tax upon which would cut into their profits. So yeah, they rather ignored the Feds, which rather annoyed same.
You should go read the article - there's talk of insurrection, there are accusations of a "conspiracy thesis," a Congressman (one William Findley) wrote a book in which Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton was accused of deliberately provoking violence in order to increase Federal power.
It all sounds so very modern, doesn't it?
I highly recommend you go read that article (linked above) and do your own research on that event. I need to do more research but I have to believe that the Federal foray into western Pennsylvania was the first instance of an American President leading an army in the field. (Also the last.) To me it's the one stain on Washington's otherwise sterling record.
But that's just me.
I am considering not advancing the story anymore this weekend as it is Memorial Day weekend, I have a few things I want to get done around the manse (nope, not a honey-do list, as I've mentioned in the past, The Missus Herself seldom tasks me), it's a four day weekend for me, and I still need to iron out some inconsistencies in the narrative of Uprising. I think I've thrown enough curve balls for now.
My brain is tired, the creative juices are not inexhaustible, and I need to get some more sleep before writing further.
One last note, the issue of taxation of alcohol came up yesterday in a comment from Rob. At that point I remembered the Whiskey Rebellion, so I looked it up to do this quick post.
Yes, it kind of surprised me (and delighted me at the same time), that the painting above was set near Fort Cumberland, in Maryland. Which is the site of modern day Cumberland, MD where Captain Jackson and Lieutenant Colonel Ramirez are trying to make sense of the activities which their prisoner, one Al Rossi, has been entangled.
Synchronicity? Or some old memory percolating to the surface, I like to think it's the latter.
Be seeing you.
Aye, Sarge, take advantage of the time off, enjoy a brew or four (you did say FOUR days off) and don't forget......EVERY day is the weekend once you retire......... :)
ReplyDeleteI do look forward to those seven day weekends.
DeleteI don't know Sarge, fully retired means fixed income. Your history literate. What happens to the "well off Retirees" when the Monster Inflation crawls into your life? The sad running joke of the Volcker era was "What brand of cat food is best with rice for dinner?"
DeleteRetirees had to choose between buying meds, food, rent and utility bills. Pick 3 please.
Not a joke, we barely broke Inflations back when Volcker Fed Chief 1979-1982 reduced the amount of money in the system and home mortgage rates went to 18+%. He was hung in effigy more than once if I recall.
SNIP Fed debt to GDP:
1980 $908 32% Volcker raised fed rate to 20%
2022 $30,824 123% Inflation Reduction Act and student loan forgiveness
CURRENT "accepted" National Debt above $34.4 trillion AND it's an open fact we are ADDING 1 trillion every 100 days or so.
I wonder what the National Debt ratio was for Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany just when Hyperinflation made families run to the stores when paid to buy before the prices went up again.
3 day weekends and NO "Honey Do" list seems pretty sweet.
Paid work might not be so nasty friend.
Don't worry so much, it's bad for your health.
DeleteSarge my wife's parents both had excellent retirement plans and excellent health packages. The last 15 years of their lives they had to sell their house and move into my walkout basement we turned into a senior apartment. My wife an RN kept an eye on their finances and changes to their health insurance. Plenty of screw you in changing medical insurance especially with medications. We only had them pay for half of the electric bill.
DeleteAfter we buried mom, pretty soon dad was ready for assisted living and there was little assets to prevent him from going on state retirement home.
I don't worry much, I just pay attention to the trends and make plans for it.
Michael
Depends a lot on where you get your data doesn't it? Everything is cooked these days.
DeleteThe post-war inflation Weimar Germany was interesting. A theatre company would show a profit in the evening when a play ended. In the morning, they had taken a loss. As soon as they were paid, people would buy ANYTHING available (needed or not) that could be resold at the new inflated price a few days later.
DeleteInteresting unless you lived there.
DeleteIt was prohibitively expensive to transport corn on wagons to the urban East on wagons. Distilling corn into whiskey was far more efficient from a logistical standpoint. Taxing whiskey eliminated the ability of western farmers to generate revenue. It’s my understanding that Washington had more troops under arms to suppress the rebellion than were available to fight the Revolution
ReplyDeleteThe army he took into western Pennsylvania was nearly the size (so one source says) of the army he commanded during the Revolution. Most of them were Federalized militia and many of those militia units were understrength. They had to draft men to fill those units and there was resistance to that draft in some states.
DeleteWhiskey? Glad you asked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmuMLd_lAIU
ReplyDeleteHeh.
DeleteSarge,
ReplyDeleteI'm unfamiliar with Captain Jackson, Lieutenant Colonel Ramirez and Al Rossi. Google didn't seem to be much help although it does point the #1 result to this post :-). Got any pointers to get me started?
Glad you've got some time off.
juvat
Never mind, figgered it out
Deletejuvat #1 - I forgot that you typically don't start reading these until they're further along.
Deletejuvat #2 - I knew you would. 😁
DeleteNot enough pikturs for the pilot to understand. Bwahahahahaha.
DeleteOuch!
DeleteWait, what's that? An incoming airstrike?
Money and POWER, the fuel for the Governments growth into an Alphabet Blob.
ReplyDeleteA government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. Gerald R. Ford
Our House of Representatives TODAY voted down a Central Bank Digital Currency, most republicans voted for, only 3 democrats agreed, rest against. Ah the JOY that they know everything you bought once with Cash. Stalin's wet dream, almost China's current dream (a tiny amount of cash still floats in China). Social Credit Scores anybody? What? Wadda you mean I cannot use MY Money for... Ask the Canadian Trucker Protester-Supporters about that.
Will be interesting (as in Chinese curse) to see if the Senate tables or kills off this bill.
I see that the House PASSED the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act which bars the Fed from issuing digital currency without explicit permission from Congress. Digital currency is a BAD idea, very bad, as you note. They didn't ban a CBDC, just said that Congress must allow it first. When Maxine Walters is in favor of something (she thinks digital currency is a good thing), then you know it's a bad thing. That lady is as smart as a bag of hammers.
DeleteSarge, she make Harris look smart. That takes some doing. Well, at least in her pronouncements she makes Harris look smart. She lives in a mansion outside her district, while that that district falls deeper and deeper into squalor and decay. Has a net worth of $10,000,000 (depending on the source - it might "only" be $3,000,000) So....how dumb is she?
DeleteThe really dumb ones are the idjits that keep reelecting her zero value hind end over and over and over again, my friend.
All true.
DeleteA digital currency scares the wits out of me. That level of control over the people must never come to be.
DeleteConcur.
DeleteWait a minute...aren't ALL your weekend 4 days?
ReplyDeleteNo, four day workweeks, three day weekends.
DeleteThe Whiskey rebellion, it was American...follow the money!
ReplyDeleteAnd it was all about the Benjamins.
DeleteSarge, I believe you are correct in that it was first and last instance of a sitting President leading an army (Abraham Lincoln, perhaps, being first and last President to come under fire during an actual war - if I remember the story correctly, it was a young Oliver Wendell Holmes that told Lincoln to get his head down).
ReplyDeleteThe picture made me laugh - I remember that picture very distinctly from my U.S. History book from my Junior year of High School.
I should read more on it, but in general it was one of the instances of the Federal Government suddenly finding itself in the position of the enforcing the law, and having to do it in a manner that would put other such rebellions to rest. One wonders if the fact that a revolution had been fought not all that long ago over a similar issue bothered anyone on the Federal Government Side (or, if the Anti-Federalists had a moment of "We told you this would happen").
Enjoy the weekend. As per usual, we promise to try to not burn things down...
Governments require armed people to enforce things, revolutionaries, in the grip of fighting off "tyranny," often forget that when they come to power. (Britain had every right to collect taxes from the colonies, it was their hubris in ignoring the colonists' desires to be represented in Parliament which really set things off. George III was ill-served by his advisors.)
DeleteIf I remember my History correctly the Whiskey Tax was one of the few taxes that the Federal Government was allowed under the Constitution. The Federal Government was supposed to fund itself from taxes like that and by imposing Tariffs. If you really want some interesting reading take a close look at the shenanigans that were used to pass the 16th Amendment allowing the income Tax.
ReplyDeleteOne point, I think it was Hamilton, made is that they couldn't raise tariffs any higher. So they went after the whiskey. Government always seems to find a way to get its hands on people's money.
DeleteHave a great weekend, all of you!
ReplyDeleteExpecting government to think about unintended consequences ... they struggle to find the intended ones they think (I know, I know) they want.
Thanks for the pointer to the Whiskey Rebellion article.
Governments are sometimes compared to blind, stumbling monsters who cannot, sometimes will not, use any finesse when dealing with issues.
DeleteThere was another armed revolt against taxes (among other issues); that of Daniel Shays, again farmers against the government. Two of my ancestors were involved, in fact the one in my direct line (Henry Gale) was very nearly hanged being one of the leaders. A cousin, Lisa Saunders published a short book about this.
ReplyDeleteRob Gale
I remember that one as well.
DeleteAmericans revolting over taxes? Can you imagine what our forefathers would say if they saw our national income tax, let alone all the various state, county and municipal taxes?
ReplyDeleteOur Founders would largely be horrified to see what we have done to the Republic they gave us. Though to be sure; the degradation started over a century ago with Amendments 16 and 17.
DeleteBG
Beans - Aye.
DeleteBG - Sad, innit?
DeleteBG, it started long before that.
DeleteOl' Tommy J. saw it coming:
"Jefferson on how Congress misuses the inter-state commerce and general welfare clauses to promote the centralization of power (1825)
Barely 8 months before he died, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) wrote to the Virginia politician William Giles about the threat posed by the usurpation of states rights by a growing federal power. He identifies inter-state commerce and the “general welfare” clause as especially dangerous:
"I see, as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power. Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines of the President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too evident, that the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and domestic. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry, and that too the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the other, the most flourishing of all."
Congress has ever been corrupt and self-serving.
DeleteWe -started- over taxes.
ReplyDeleteWhy yes, yes we did. Especially the lack of representation in determining taxes.
Delete