The
Whiskey Rebellion by William Hodgeland, 2006, Excerpts
A federal tax on
whiskey was hardly, to the small distillers who made up the majority that would
pay it, the mere luxury-tax-with-concomitant-health-benefit that Hamilton had
described to a Congress eager to be swayed.
The poorest people,
hired hands paid in kind, experienced the whiskey excise as a tax on income: if
community distillers had to pay the tax, they’d have to compensate themselves
by taking a larger share of whiskey from people who brought their grain
salaries in for conversion. Growers too felt the pain. There was no tax on
grain, but westerners who raised grain were forced to convert grain to whiskey
in order to transport it eastward. The tax thus imposed a federal tax on
western farmers while leaving farmers in more convenient and prosperous places
untaxed.
The duty would be
collected by federal officers, in coin, at the point of production, often a log
stillhouse on a small farm. Having collected the duty or secured the bond, the
deputy then issues a certificate stamped with a Treasury Department seal. The
certificate is the prize. It travels with the whiskey, proving to buyers that
the duty has been paid. Certification makes the product legal.
It wasn’t clear where
cash for the payment would come from, and failure to pay would make the product
non-transportable. Not registering a still was punishable by a cash fine.
Assets – the whiskey and the still itself – could be seized.
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