In 1791 the new federal government, deep in Revolutionary War debt, placed an excise tax on distilled spirits. East of the mountains it was an inconvenience. West of the Alleghenies it was ruin. Roads were so bad that a farmer in Washington County, Pennsylvania could not haul bulk rye to market, so he distilled it into whiskey — the only cash crop light enough to carry on a packhorse, and the local currency for salt, iron, and land. Taxing whiskey meant taxing money itself. Worse, the law dragged accused men to federal court in Philadelphia, 300 miles away, a journey that could cost a man his farm. To Scots-Irish frontiersmen who had just fought a war over taxation without local consent, it was tyranny wearing a new hat...
Time Surfing: read it here.
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