A Crossroads Resource

Unit V: The Ambiguous Democracy in America: 1800-1848

Question/Problem 2: How did individuals and states challenge the power of the federal government in the young nation?

Student Resource B:
Challenges to the Federal Government

Background

The federal government began to tax whiskey in 1791. Many protested the tax, especially farmers in western Pennsylvania. These farmers profited from making whiskey out of grain. This tax hurt them directly and they did not pay it. Some farmers us ed violence against the tax collectors and local police. The federal government was forced to respond.

George Washington's Response to the Whiskey Rebellion

[B]y a law of the United States entitled 'An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions,' it is enacted 'that whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed or t he execution thereof obstructed in any State by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings...it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia of such State to suppress such combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed. And if the militia of the State where such combinations may happen shall refuse or be insufficient to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the President, if the Legislature of the United States shall not be in session, to call forth and employ such numbers of the militia of any other State or States most convenient thereto as may be necessary;...'

Henry Steele Commager, Documents of American History, p. 164.

Directions: Using all the information shown above answer questions 1-4.

1. What were the reasons for the conflict?

2. How did the farmers of western Pennsylvania challenge the power of the federal government?

3. What specific power of the federal government did the farmers of Pennsylvania challenge?

4. What is George Washington's view of the power of the federal government in this conflict?

Use your textbook or other resources to answer the following question.

5. What action did Washington take regarding this challenge?

Back To Question #2