A More Imperfect Union: A History of these United States

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The Whiskey Rebellion
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The Whiskey Rebellion

When the United States split into two, the decision of what governing principle to follow fell upon each state’s legislature. Rhode Island and New Hampshire didn’t even consider the new Constitution, but in every other state the matter saw spirited debate in the state chambers. Over the course of an eight month period, the states voted one way or another to stay on the Articles or to go onto the new Constitution. This time saw significant unrest between Federalists and Confederalists who alternated between marching in the streets or clashing with each other in violent riots. By the time South Carolina joined the Republic, the last state to do so, it was clear that the Great Disunion had done more than divide the country; It clearly showed the division in the states itself. Regardless of whether the state was in the Republic or the Confederation, there were angry citizens agitating for a different government. In less than five years, America became a powder keg of anti-government sentiments and it didn’t take long for a spark to ignite the pile.

As part of the Republic’s plan to settle war debt that they adopted from the states that joined the Republic, President Hamiltion turned to taxation. At that point, the Republic’s government primarily collected revenue from import taxes, which Hamilton believed was already raised as high as possible. Thus he felt he had no choice but to place an excise tax on alcohol produced in the country to gather revenue. Taxes by themselves were unpopular but Hamilton believed it would be the least controversial as he thought it would effectively be a luxury tax. In reality in the western regions of the Republic, alcohol was central to their livelihoods. Farmers in what was then Western Pennsylvania were particularly incensed as the tax made whiskey, the alcohol popular in the region, much more expensive. With cash hard to come by on the frontier, excess grain was brewed into whiskey which was either sold or used as currency itself. For these farmers in Western Pennsylvania, already a hotbed of Confederalist sentiment, the so called Whiskey tax was a threat to their livelihoods.

Resistance began almost immediately when tax collectors were sent to the region, largely with the goal of chasing them off. Violence sporadically erupted in the year of the resistance, mostly by angry mobs feathering and tarring tax collectors. However the situation dramatically escalated in its second year, when the Federalist government began cracking down on distillers who refused to pay the tax, sending federal marshals to make arrests. In response the farmers, decrying Hamiltonian tyranny, rose up in revolt in May 1793. The majority of the revolters, such as its impromptu leader David Bradford, were Revolutionary War veterans who began proclaiming their grievances laced with slogans and protests used by the American Revolutionaries decades earlier.
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Their protests found sympathetic ears in the Confederation, although Thomas Jefferson did not want to involve the Confederation in the tax protest. However the rebels found allies among local officials and citizens in Virginia and New York, which began sending many weapons over the border. Meanwhile Hamiltion faced with a major threat to federal authority, ordered that the rebellion was to be suppressed. He tasked Arthur St. Clair with gathering militia forces in the Mid Atlantic and then leading an expedition to the rebel controlled areas. Quickly gathering a force of 6000 militia forces from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware St Clair began their march in early August to western Pennsylvania.

Instead of striking fear into their hearts, the word that Hamilton had ordered the rebellion to be crushed only emboldened them. While St Clair was mobilizing his troops, sympathetic volunteers who had been watching the turmoil from New York and Virginia for over a year joined the ranks of the rebels. By the time St Clair reached the region, the rebel force was over 2000 strong. Nevertheless they were outnumbered, so the rebels led by James McFarlane attempted to avoid a direct confrontation. However as St. Clair attempted to control an unruly population, McFarlane was unable to control his troops, who were angry at the occupation. A house raid on a Confederalist sympathizer on August 28, went wrong as its occupants called for help. The situation escalated into a battle as troops from both sides moved in.

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The battle was chaotic and leaderless as both St. Clair and McFarlane were unable to coordinate their men. In the end the Federalist’s overwhelming numbers won the day, forcing McFarlane and his forces to scatter. However as St. Clair gathered his forces, he soon realized that the battle had only been the beginning. The battle had only galvanized further support among the population in Western Pennsylvania, while the story of patriotic farmers standing up to their Federalist oppressors made headlines across the country. The stream of Confederalist volunteers became a flood, as St. Clair’s forces began to run out of supplies while being harassed daily by ambushes. In an act of desperation, federalist forces began seizing food stores from local farmers to feed themselves, which turned out to be the final straw.

In September 1793, the counties under Confederalist control declared their independence from the Trenton Republic, forming the Free State of Allegheny. By that point, the Whiskey Rebellion had escalated into a major diplomatic crisis between the Republic and the Confederation especially after it was known that Confederation citizens joined the fight. The path to war was sealed when Virginia officially recognized the rebel state when St. Clair and his forces were driven out of the region that month. Tensions reached their peak as Confederalist and Federalist militias mobilized to their respective borders. By that point over a year's worth of propaganda had the populations of both states itching for war. For the Confederalists, they believed that they had to win another fight for freedom against the Hamiltonian spider, while the Federalists declared the very existence of America was at stake and a war to defend the Republic need to be fought. In this tense atmosphere did not take long for the first shots to ring out when militia clashed in the new state of Allegheny, sparking the First American Civil War.
 
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