Hello and welcome to a history of the United States,

Episode 172 of the Whiskey Rebellion.

Last time out, we brought events up to the summer of 1794. It was a very tense situation around the country.

In Europe, France's new republic had embarked upon a reign of terror, a stance some of the more

democratic Republicans thought America should follow. War was engulfing Europe, and that

was causing a strain on Atlantic trade and on the American frontier.

There were fears of Indian attack, British and Spanish invasions, and a separatist movement in Kentucky

based on a need for trading access to the Mississippi.

And then there was whiskey.

The federal government had made a number of concessions on the whiskey excise,

but was ideologically committed to enforcing the excise, particularly in a location as close to the

national capital as western Pennsylvania. There, the only reason the excise had not been

more intently pursued was due to more pressing concerns, such as the revolution and war in Europe, and everything else I've just said.

This led to a few key misunderstandings.

The frontiersmen had formed two separate groups, one based in Whiggish political tradition,

which made petitions to government and had correspondence committees. These were primarily the elites.

And then there was a more violent movement where a community would attack any individual who tried to collect the excise.

Most of this again censored on Western Pennsylvania, because other areas in the south, such as the frontiers of Virginia and North Carolina, or in Kentucky, nobody would attempt

to collect the tax.

These were quite separate movements, but both to some degree thought they'd been successful

because the Pennsylvania state governments and the then federal government had not more vigorously attempted to collect the taxes.

In reality, both of these tactics thoroughly annoyed the federal government,

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