What was the Whiskey Rebellion?

What Was the Whiskey Rebellion? David Bradford, Treason, and the First Test of Federal Power

In the early 1790s, the newly formed United States faced its first major internal crisis: the Whiskey Rebellion. Sparked by an excise tax on distilled spirits passed in 1791, the rebellion tested whether the federal government had the authority and the will to enforce its laws. At the center of this confrontation stood David Bradford, a prominent Washington County, Pennsylvania attorney whose actions would lead to charges of treason and permanently shape early American history.

Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton promoted the nation’s first tax in 1791, on whiskey, to help pay off Revolutionary War debt. On the western frontier, especially in southwestern Pennsylvania, whiskey functioned as currency. Farmers distilled surplus grain because it was easier to transport and trade. To many residents, the tax felt like a return to the “taxation without representation” they had fought against during the Revolutionary War.

Federal tax collectors were harassed, threatened, tarred and feathered, and forced from their posts. Tensions erupted in July 1794 at Bower Hill, the home of General John Neville, the chief tax inspector for western Pennsylvania. After a violent confrontation that left two men dead, a large force of rebels burned the mansion to the ground.

As unrest escalated, David Bradford emerged as a leader. Rebels intercepted federal mail, organized mass meetings, and assembled thousands of armed men. In August 1794, Bradford helped lead nearly 7,000 men toward Pittsburgh in a dramatic show of defiance.

President George Washington viewed the uprising as a direct threat to the Constitution. He personally led a combined militia force of nearly 13,000 troops toward western Pennsylvania, the only time a sitting U.S. president commanded troops in the field. The rebellion collapsed without major bloodshed, but it proved that the federal government could enforce its laws. Bradford fled into exile, and his legacy lives on at the Bradford House in Washington, Pennsylvania.