Jun 25, 2024 - Sale 2674

Sale 2674 - Lot 50

Price Realized: $ 23,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
WHISKEY REBELLION: INFORMING GOVERNOR OF PA THAT TROOPS ARE ON THEIR WAY HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. Autograph Letter Signed, "AHamilton," as Secretary of the Treasury, to the Governor of PA Thomas Mifflin, conveying reports of disruptions in western MD, noting that the governor of MD has taken steps to suppress any uprising, reporting that the NJ militia has been ordered to Carlisle [PA], adding that 100 Continental troops are expected tomorrow in Reading [PA] before moving on to Carlisle, and conveying the encouragement of President Washington to spare no effort to stop the spread of threats to public order. 1 page, 4to; backed, holograph date clipped from elsewhere and mounted at upper right [date of letter is confirmed by citations], faint smudging to all text, folds. [Washington, 16 September 1794]
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In full: "I am instructed by The President to thank Your Excellency for the communication made by Your Letter of yesterday.
"Every moment brings fresh proofs of a spirit extensively disseminated fatal to the principles of good order. Disagreeable symptoms have appeared in the two most Western Counties of Maryland; but as the Governor of that State has announced measures taken by him of adequate decision, it is hoped they will be suppressed before they rise to a dangerous height. Every thing is doing to press forward the Jersey Militia to Carlisle. A detachment of about one hundred Continental troops will be in Reading tomorrow Morning on their way to Carlisle. Every thing seems to be going forward in this City with vigour.
"It is indeed of the highest moment, that these spreadings of so mischievous a spirit should be checked by every practicable effort. The President is convinced you will omit nothing that can contribute to this desirable end."
The letter in the present lot is quoted in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 17, ed. Syrett (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), 238–39; also in Papers Relating to What Is Known as the Whiskey Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, 1794, in Pennsylvania Archives (Harrisburg: B.F. Meyers, 1890), 4:433.
In 1790, to service the debt incurred from the Revolutionary War, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed that Congress employ the new power to levy a tax, since the import duties that represented the federal revenue up to that point could not be raised further. In March of the following year, the Tariff of 1791--known as the "Whiskey Tax"--was signed into law, conceived of as a luxury tax targeting distilled spirits, including increasingly popular whiskey. The tax immediately caused discontent among the whiskey distilling farmers of the American frontier, because the tax made their product less competitive and because the it diminished the income of those who used whiskey in lieu of money--a common practice on the western frontier. Near the end of September, 1794, in order to enforce the collection of the tax, President George Washington personally led the troops that had assembled at Carlisle, PA, in a march toward Reading, PA, and points further west. The leaders of the rebellion fled before the advancing army, causing much of the violence to subside. Nevertheless, the federal authorities managed to capture only ten men who were subsequently tried for treason, and opposition to the tax continued until Congress repealed it in 1802. It was not until the War of 1812 that another tax was imposed.