[Sidenote:  Internal revenue taxes.]

[Sidenote:  The Whiskey Rebellion, 1794. McMaster, 203-204.]

213.  The Whiskey Insurrection, 1794.—­The increasing expenses of the government made new taxes necessary.  Among the new taxes was an internal revenue tax on whiskey.  It happened that this tax bore heavily on the farmers of western Carolina and western Pennsylvania.  The farmers of those regions could not take their grain to the seaboard because the roads were bad and the distance was great.  So they made it into whiskey, which could be carried to the seaboard and sold at a profit.  The new tax on whiskey would make it more difficult for these western farmers to earn a living and to support their families.  They refused to pay it.  They fell upon the tax collectors and drove them away.  Washington sent commissioners to explain matters to them.  But the farmers paid no heed to the commissioners.  The President then called out fifteen thousand militia-men and sent them to western Pennsylvania, under the command of Henry Lee, governor of Virginia.  The rebellious farmers yielded without fighting.  Two of the leaders were convicted of treason.  But Washington pardoned them, and the conflict ended there.  The new government had shown its strength, and had compelled people to obey the laws.  That in itself was a very great thing to have done.

[Sidenote:  Relations with Great Britain. McMaster, 207-209; Source-Book, 188-190.]

[Sidenote:  Jay’s Treaty, 1794.]

214.  Jay’s Treaty, 1794.—­Ever since 1783 there had been trouble with the British.  They had not surrendered the posts on the Great Lakes, as the treaty of 1783 required them to do.  They had oppressed American commerce.  The American states also had broken the treaty by making laws to prevent the collection of debts due to British subjects by American citizens.  The Congress of the Confederation had been too weak to compel either the British government or the American states to obey the treaty.  But the new government was strong enough to make treaties respected at home and abroad.  Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to London to negotiate a new treaty.  He found the British government very hard to deal with.  At last he made a treaty.  But there were many things in it which were not at all favorable to the United States.  For instance, it provided that cotton should not be exported from the United States, and that American commerce with the British West Indies should be greatly restricted.

[Sidenote:  Contest over ratification of Jay’s Treaty, 1795.]

215.  Ratification of Jay’s Treaty, 1795.—­After a long discussion the Senate voted to ratify the treaty without these two clauses.  In the House of Representatives there was a fierce debate.  For although the House has nothing to do with ratifying treaties, it has a great deal to do with voting money.  And money was needed to carry out this treaty.  At last the House voted the necessary money.  The British surrendered the posts on the Great Lakes, and the debts due to British subjects were paid.  Many people were very angry with Jay and with Washington for making this treaty.  Stuffed figures of Jay were hanged, and Washington was attacked in the papers as if he had been “a common pickpocket”—­to use his own words.