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Memoir of George
Washington
by Danny
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I was in the American Revolution and then I was unanimously elected president of the United States of America when the Constitution was written in 1788. After the election the first thing I had to do was to pick a cabinet and organize the government. I chose John Adams as Vice-President, Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, Edmond Randolph as Attorney General and Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. At this time there were no term limits for president, but I wanted to resign after my first term. Friends convinced me that the new country needed me to keep it together.
March 1791 We still pay British taxes for many products like whiskey and tobacco. The new government decided to not put taxes on food, but to put tax on things we do not need to have. They decided to put taxes on whiskey because it was not something that you need, although a lot of people drank it at that time.
The farmers of western Pennsylvania were most affected by the taxes on the whiskey because it was made from wheat and corn. The farmers had to drag huge loads of wheat or corn through hundreds of miles of rough country, so the farmers thought they could divide the huge loads of wheat or corn so they could get it to markets in Pittsburgh faster. They did not like the taxes on whiskey because they weren’t selling as much of it. The farmers thought that the taxes were unfair so they protested against them. They thought the government would not respect views without a show of force. The farmers showed their force by covering the tax collectors with feathers and humiliating them, but when that did not work they beat up their neighbors that were paying that taxes. Alexander Hamilton, my Secretars of Treasury, and I agree that we should stop the rebellion and I sent him to the area of rebellion to arrest their leader and bring the rebels to trial.
On August 11, 1794 I decided to issue a public announcement to the country demanding that the rebels obey the law. I did this because in July, 1794, a mob of five hundred angry farmers attacked the house of the tax collector. My soldiers defended the house, but some of the farmers and the commanders were killed. The tax collector and his family escaped before the farmers burned his house down. A few weeks later six thousand protesters gathered at Pittsburgh. They threatened to rebel against the government. I hoped that I could settle this peacefully , but I could not.
I called twelve thousand men to duty to fight the rebels. They knew what they were up against so the farmers decided to pay their taxes on the whiskey. I had only a few ringleaders arrested. I had made my point that no matter how unfair the laws were they still had to be obeyed. The western farmers thanked me later because between 1790 and 1796, eighty percent of the country’s budget was being used to fight the Indians in the western area where the farmers lived.
Epilogue
I was convinced to be president for a third term. In my third term I wrote this farewell address. “In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal.”