General WILLIAM IRVINE April 1794 WHISKEY REBELLION Related Letter

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Jun 1, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-06-01 12:00:00 2019-06-01 12:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Historic Autographs, Colonial Currency, Political Americana & Revolutionary War Era https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/early-american-history-auctions/historic-autographs-colonial-currency-political-americana-revolutionary-war-era-4152
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• Lot Description
  Autographs
  1794 "Whiskey Rebellion" General William Irvine Autograph Letter Signed
  WILLIAM IRVINE (1741-1804). Continental Army Brigadier General in the American Revolutionary War, Physician, Soldier and Statesman from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, who Represented Pennsylvania in both the Continental Congress (1787-88) and the United States House of Representatives (1793-1795), Intimate Friend of George Washington, and Treasurer of the Society of The Cincinnati.
  April 26, 1794-Dated Whiskey Rebellion Period, Autograph Letter Signed, "Wm. Irvine", 6.25" x 8", 2 pages, Philadelphia, Choice Extremely Fine. William Irvine writes as Commander of the Pennsylvania State Militia to "Captain Ebenr. Denny / Commanding at / Fort Lebuff" regarding the raising of soldiers for the Army during the Whisky Rebellion period. In 1794 Irvine commanded Pennsylvania's militia during the Whiskey Rebellion. Throughout Western Pennsylvania counties, protesters used violence and intimidation to prevent Federal officials from collecting the distillery Tax. Local resistance came to a climax in July 1794, when a U.S. Marshal arrived in western Pennsylvania to serve writs to distillers who had not paid the excise. This historic Letter reads, in full:
  
  "Philadelphia - April 26th 1794 -- Sir --- I have yours of the 18th before me - am sorry your success in recruiting is not better. The delay of the other two Counties is very unaccountable, as it was asserted long since that, Westmoreland Company was complete however the militia will answer the present purpose, it is to be hoped, and ere now the Detachments, will doubtless be with you - the Artillery will also most certainly have reached you, but what store you are to set by them - you must Judge - I neither know their quality nor numbers - from your account of the delay the Commissions will probably not be on quite so soon as at first proposed, one will reach Pittsburg(h) on or before the 20th of may, the rest by the 25th. I shall remain here til(l) about the 10th of May, can therefore receive, any farther communications, by the returning post - by that time I flatter myself you will be able to give us a good account of the strength of your Detachment - in the meantime. - I am with great regard -- Your Obdt. Servant - (Signed) Wm. Irvine".
  
  This timely Letter is written just prior to the finale of the crisis which concluded in July 1794. It is highly attractive, extremely well written, and easily readable being in rich brown ink on very clean, fresh watermarked laid period paper. Includes a separate holograph address leaf in Irvine's hand, with an added Docket reading "Genl Irvine". (2 items)
  General William Irvine (November 3, 1741 - July 29, 1804) was an Irish-American physician, soldier, and statesman from Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
  
  Irvine was born near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh in Ireland. He served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army and represented Pennsylvania in both the Continental Congress (1787-88) and the United States House of Representatives (1793-1795). During the war, he convinced Colonel William Crawford to come out of retirement and lead an expedition against Indians in villages along the Sandusky River, which ended in Crawford's brutal execution. The militia troops went back under the command of John Rose, a Baltic German officer from Estonia.
  
  He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was buried in a graveyard near Independence Hall. He was reburied in 1833 at the new Ronaldson's Cemetery. When it was closed in the 1950s, the graves of a few Revolutionary War officers such as Irvine were identified by the rector of Old Swedes' and reburied at Gloria Dei Church cemetery.
  
  His great-granddaughter Margaret Biddle married Thomas Biddle of the Biddle family of Philadelphia.
  
  The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "Whiskey Tax" was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. It became law in 1791, and was intended to generate revenue for the war debt incurred during the Revolutionary War.
  
  The tax applied to all distilled spirits, but American whiskey was by far the country's most popular distilled beverage in the 18th century, so the excise became widely known as a "whiskey tax". Farmers of the western frontier were accustomed to distilling their surplus rye, barley, wheat, corn, or fermented grain mixtures into whiskey. These farmers resisted the tax.
  
  In these regions, whiskey often served as a medium of exchange. Many of the resisters were war veterans who believed that they were fighting for the principles of the American Revolution, in particular against taxation without local representation, while the federal government maintained that the taxes were the legal expression of Congressional taxation powers.
  
  Throughout Western Pennsylvania counties, protesters used violence and intimidation to prevent federal officials from collecting the tax. Resistance came to a climax in July 1794, when a U.S. marshal arrived in western Pennsylvania to serve writs to distillers who had not paid the excise.
  
  The alarm was raised, and more than 500 armed men attacked the fortified home of tax inspector General John Neville. Washington responded by sending peace commissioners to western Pennsylvania to negotiate with the rebels, while at the same time calling on governors to send a militia force to enforce the tax.
  
  George Washington himself rode at the head of an army to suppress the insurgency, with 13,000 militiamen provided by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The rebels all went home before the arrival of the army, and there was no confrontation. About 20 men were arrested, but all were later acquitted or pardoned. Most distillers in nearby Kentucky were found to be all but impossible to tax-in the next six years, over 175 distillers from Kentucky were convicted of violating the tax law. Numerous examples of resistance are recorded in court documents and newspaper accounts.
  
  The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the will and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws, though the whiskey excise remained difficult to collect. The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States, a process already underway. The whiskey tax was repealed in the early 1800s during the Jefferson administration.
  
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