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The Whiskey Rebellion was a rural uprising in 1795 against the United States government in response to excise taxes placed on distilled liquors.

Background

After the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the federal government assumed the debts that the states incurred during the American Revolution. In an effort to reduce the national debut, Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, proposed a bill to tax distilled spirits. The bill was passed into law in 1791.

The tax was not well received by farmers in the western frontier counties.