1. Early Challenges

2. Objectives
Determine how the federal government asserted its power in the West.
Determine how the U.S. tried to stay out of the conflicts in Europe.
Determine why the government clashed over control of the Northwest territory

3. Vocabulary
Neutrality Impressment
Bartering

4. Set Up
FAR REMOVED FROM THE BUSTLE OF TRADE & SHIPPING ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST, FARMERS ON THE WESTERN FRONTIERLIVED VERY DIFFERENTLY.

5. Set Up
WESTERN WAYS SEEMED ALMOST PRIMITIVE TO TRAVELERS FROM THE EAST. THE EASTERNERS SEEMED TO NOTICE ONLY THE POOR ROADS & THE BORING DIET OF CORN & SALTED PORK.

6. Set Up
LIVING IN SCATTERED, ISOLATED HOMESTEADS, FRONTIER FARMERS WERE PROUD OF THEIR SELF RELIANCE. THEY WANTED NO “EASTERN” TAX COLLECTORS HEADED THEIR WAY

7. Whiskey Rebellion Hamilton’s taxes led to rebellion in Western PA.
Farmers were upset having to pay a tax on whiskey they made from their excess corn.
In the back country most farmers lived by bartering.

8. Whiskey Rebellion
bartering- Exchange of goods or services with out the exchange of money.
These farmers rarely had cash, so for the most part could not pay taxes.

9. Whiskey Rebellion
For the most part the resistance was peaceful until 1794, when federal officers stepped up efforts to collect tax.
In July 1794 a contingency of farmers armed with swords, guns, & pitchforks attacked tax collectors & burned down buildings.

10. Whiskey Rebellion
The tariff effectively eliminated any profit by the farmers from the sale or barter of an important cash crop, and became the lightning rod for a wide variety of grievances by the settlers of the region against the federal government.

11. Whiskey Rebellion
While citizens in the east did not find it difficult to abide by the concept that individual states were "subservient to the country," people west of the mountains were less accepting of decisions made by the central government.

12. Whiskey Rebellion
The rebel farmers continued their attacks, rioting in river towns and roughing up tax collectors until the so-called "insurrection" flared into the open in July of 1794 when a federal marshal was attacked in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

13. Whiskey Rebellion
On August 7, 1794, President Washington issued a proclamation, calling out the militia and ordering the disaffected westerners to return home.

14. Whiskey Rebellion
Washington's order mobilized an army of approximately 13,000 — as large as the one that had defeated the British — under the command of General Harry Lee, the then-Governor of Virginia and father of Robert E. Lee.

15. Whiskey Rebellion
Washington himself, in a show of presidential authority, set out at the head of the troops to suppress the uprising.

16. Whiskey Rebellion
This was the first use of the Militia Law of 1792 setting a precedent for the use of the militia to "execute the laws of the union.

17. Whiskey Rebellion
it was the first test of power of the new federal government, establishing its primacy in disputes with individual states.