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The Whiskey Rebellion is a 1794 uprising of farmers and distillers in western Pennsylvania and in protest of a whiskey tax enacted by the federal government.
Achievement or Failure?
Achievement

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Whiskey Tax
During the American Revolution, individual states experience important debt. In 1790 Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton pushed for the federal government to take over that debt. He also proposed an excise tax on whiskey to prevent further accounting difficulty.
The Violence
The law was immediately a failure, since refusals to pay the taxes were as common as intimidation against officials hired to collect them.
Excise officers sent to collect the tax were met with defiance and threats of violence. Some producers refused to pay the tax.
Achievement or Failure?
Failure

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In the summer of 1794, federal marshall David Lenox began the process of serving writs to 60 distillers in western Pennsylvania who had not paid the tax. On July 14, Lenox accepted the services of tax collector and wealthy landowner John Neville as guide through Allegheny County.

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On July 17, 1794, as many as 700 men marched to drums and gathered at Neville’s home. They demanded his surrender, but Major James Kirkpatrick, one of 10 soldiers who had come to the property to help defend it, answered that Neville was not there.

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Less than a week later, the mob met with local dignitaries who warned that Washington would send a militia to strike them down and they had to strike first. Wealthy landowner David Bradford, along with several other men, attacked a mail carrier and discovered three letters from Pittsburgh expressing disapproval of the attack on Neville’s property.