Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 171.

Philadelphia fever.

Last time out, we got into the details of the Excelli's Whiskey Tax of March 1791 and the repercussions of this, which followed over the next 18 months until Washington's Proclamation in September 1792, signaling a move towards a tougher

enforcement. It became clear quite quickly that enforcement of the excise tax was going to be

problematic. We have Hamilton's report to Congress in 1791 and 192 discussing it, and we can see him dismiss the criticisms of the legislation that came from the frontier.

He wasn't entirely dismissive of all criticism, just a smit bit.

Hamilton typically listened to certain sorts of financial arguments, which typically came

from the larger producers in the East.

This fit with his Federalist worldview.

For example, we've spoken in our episodes on Hamilton's financial program that he was

concerned with manufacturing,

and so he was particularly receptive to criticism that the legislation was damaging a domestic

industry, making foreign imports more competitive. So Hamilton supported lowering the domestic

tax and adding an additional duty on foreign imports.

However, arguments about accountancy requirements being burdensome to smaller producers,

Hamilton found out convincing. Just as he dismissed reports about lack of currency on the frontier,

Hamilton told Congress that he would support payment in kind due to lack of currency if Congress

found it to be the case, but he didn't believe it was.

Of course, Congress would not allow this anyway, so it was a moot point.

But Hamilton's lack of concern for the Western distillers, compared

to those in the East, is striking. It has been argued by Dorothy Spennell that Hamilton was actually

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