Whiskey Rebellion

American  

noun

U.S. History.

1. a revolt of settlers in western Pennsylvania in 1794 against a federal excise tax on whiskey: suppressed by militia called out by President George Washington to establish the authority of the federal government.

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Example Sentences

As violence spread, Washington — in his second term as president — personally led a militia force to quell what became known as the Whiskey Rebellion.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 27, 2025

From the Whiskey Rebellion to the boom and bust of the tobacco and coal industries, she describes a community preyed on for decades as governments and companies extracted their resources.

From New York Times • Oct. 14, 2022

George Washington pardoned the plotters of the Whiskey Rebellion, Jimmy Carter pardoned draft dodgers, famously Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon.

From Slate • Dec. 7, 2020

“It’s an exciting concept,” says Tripp Kline, one of the organizers of the Whiskey Rebellion Festival in Washington, Pa., and the Bradford House Museum, both of which are on the trail.

From Washington Times • Jul. 13, 2019

The catalyst for the change was the Whiskey Rebellion, a popular insurgency in four counties of western Pennsylvania protesting an excise tax on whiskey.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis