Sunday, May 5, 2013

George Washington's command of the American militia during the Whiskey Rebellion was the only time in history where an acting American President has personally led military forces in the field

Did you know that George Washington’s command of the American militia during the Whiskey Rebellion was the only time in history where an acting American President has personally led military forces in the field


 


As part of the compromises that led to the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789, the new Federal government agreed to assume the Revolutionary War debts of the 13 States. In early 1791, to help pay off the resulting national debt, Congress used its new constitutional authority to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” and passed the first nationwide internal revenue tax—an excise tax on distilled spirits.[1] Congress took this action at the urging of the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton.


 


Unlike tariffs paid on goods imported into the United States, the excise tax on distilled spirits was a direct tax on Americans who produced whiskey and other alcohol spirits. The 1791 excise law set a varying six to 18-cent per gallon tax rate, with smaller distillers often paying more than twice per gallon what larger producers paid. All payments had to be made in cash to the Federal revenue officer appointed for the distiller’s county.


 


Large, commercial distillers in the eastern United States generally accepted the new excise tax since they could pass its cost onto their cash-paying customers. However, most smaller producers west of the Appalachian and Allegheny Mountains, then the Nation’s frontier, opposed the “whiskey tax.”


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George Washington's command of the American militia during the Whiskey Rebellion was the only time in history where an acting American President has personally led military forces in the field

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