c distilled
spirits and distilleries. As whiskey was almost entirely a luxury, and
not a necessity, it seemed a just subject for levying a duty upon. And
the College of Physicians of Philadelphia advocated it as desirable both
to the morals and bodily health of the people. The bill was passed and
received Washington's signature. It imposed a tax of from nine to
twenty-six cents a gallon upon spirits distilled from grain.
Regulations for the collection of these duties were made and officers
appointed to collect them. Opposition to the law manifested itself in
various parts of the Union immediately after its passage, but nowhere so
prominently as in Pennsylvania. In July, 1791, a public meeting on the
subject was held at Red Stone (Brownsville), when it was arranged that
county committees should be convened at the different shire towns of
Alleghany, Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. In August, at
a meeting of another committee already alluded to,[66] one of the
resolutions adopted, as we have seen, declared, after condemning the
law, that whosoever should accept office under it should be considered
an enemy to his country, should be treated with contempt, and all
intercourse with him be dissolved. These resolutions were published in a
Pittsburgh paper and produced a feverish excitement.

Early in September another meeting was held in Pittsburgh. Twelve
delegates were present, and many complaints against the government, in
connection with the excise law, were recited. They adopted a
representation to Congress, and a remonstrance to the legislature of
Pennsylvania, against the excise on whiskey. Not long after this, a
collector of the revenue for two of the counties before-named was
seized, tarred and feathered, and deprived of his horse, by some armed
men in disguise. The perpetrators were known, however, and processes
were issued against them from the district court of Pennsylvania; but
the public feeling was so strongly against the law, west of the
Alleghany mountains, that, as a marshal to whom the writ was committed
for execution said, "any attempt to serve it would have occasioned the
most violent opposition from a greater portion of the inhabitants;" and
he declared that if he had attempted it, he believed he would not have
returned alive.

The resistance to law now assumed most alarming aspects. The meetings,
said Secretary Hamilton in a report upon the subject, "composed of very
influential persons,