Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Friday April 21 lecture cancelled -- discuss the Whiskey Rebellion here
I have to go out of town on Friday for a last-minute meeting. Because of the small amount of time we have left, I am posting the complete lecture notes for the next topic, "1794: The Year of the Gun." Please read these along with Thomas Slaughter's book on the Whiskey Rebellion. Those who need to boost their participitation/attendance scores may post comments or questions on the book and lecture here. Consider the question: Do you find the Whiskey Rebellion to be the crucial turning point in American history that Slaughter makes it out to be? Why or why not?
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2 comments:
Sean Maguire asked me to post this comment:
I do find the Whiskey Rebellion to be a crucial turning point for American history, for the following reasons. After the Revolutionary War, the loose alliance bound by the Articles of Confederation failed because it lacked a strong central government, which could back up and enforce its laws. A government composed of multiple sovereign states crippled itself.
Even though the form of a central government to remedy this had been passed by our Constitution, no one knew for certain it would work. From the Westerners' point of view, this was little different than the acts for which they declared their independence from England. Even if represented, the whiskey tax was an unfair burden, and the benefits they received were not anywhere close to the cost to them.
Washington's forceful action to enforce the tax, and put down the rebellion was unprecedented. First of all, no one expected the "Father of Our Country" to act so strongly. Secondly, because he was so respected and loved, his decisive action made such action by the president acceptable, so that his successors had the ability to take such drastic action.
I do feel that Slaughter was convincing in his assessment of the whiskey rebellion as a turning point in the history of America. The whiskey rebellion was an important event in American History because it took a weak government and allowed it to consolidate its power and to show that it was willing to fight to remain in power. If Washington had not taken such a strong stance against the rebels the federal government may have developed in a much different fashion than it did. Since Washington was so popular his raising of an army to put down this rebellion was not seen in a sinister light. If Washington had not acted as he did the power of the government to tax and collect taxes would have been undercut and the federal government would have collapsed in a few years. This collapse would have been a direct result of the governments inability to raise money. The whiskey rebellion was an important turning point in American History because it unified the federal governments power and the ability to tax.
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