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Whiskey’s history began with rebels, troops and taxes

If you love Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam, thank a soldier.

The existence of Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky bourbon — Jack and Jim being the biggest of the bunch — could arguably be credited to the U.S. military.

By 1791, the newly established U.S. government was looking for a way to pay off debts incurred during the American Revolution. Alexander Hamilton, the Treasury secretary at the time, proposed an excise tax on distilled spirits.

Congress approved the measure in fall 1791, and the law was signed by President Washington (who would, coincidentally, go on to become the largest whiskey distiller in the nation a few years later).

“Loud protests from all districts of the new nation soon followed,” according to information from the National Park Service. “These protests were loudest in the western counties of Pennsylvania.”

The tax was collected at the source — from the distillers themselves — and varied depending on the size of the still and the amounts produced. Disdain for the new law grew into revolt, culminating with what historians now know as “The Whiskey Rebellion.”

“The Whiskey Rebellion took place throughout the Western frontier,” according to the NPS. “There was not one state south of New York whose western counties did not protest the new excise with some sort of violence.”

The insurgency was on.

Reasons for the rebellion abound, but for the sake of brevity, let’s just assume that people generally hate new taxes — this one more than most.

From simply refusing to pay up to tarring, feathering and torturing excise officers, whiskey producers in the west were united in the idea that no means no.

But Washington wasn’t hearing it.

Calling up nearly 13,000 militiamen from various states, the commander in chief personally headed to the battlefield to squash the rebellion. Making an example of Pennsylvania for the entire nation, Washington marched his troops into the state and commenced to driving the point home.

More than 150 Pennsylvanians were arrested in the offensive, the first time under the new U.S. Constitution that military force was used against American citizens to bring them in line. Two men were convicted of treason and sentenced to death, but were later pardoned by Washington himself.

Rebellion over.

What does any of this have to do with the fine sippin’ whiskeys produced in Kentucky and Tennessee?

Sitting at the fringe of the new nation, far from the politics of the American government, Tennessee and Kentucky were areas where the land was fertile and the laws were hard to enforce. There’s little doubt that marching 13,000 troops into the frontier was far tougher than dropping them into western Pennsylvania, so many tax-averse farmers simply packed up and left.

Historians argue over what role the whiskey tax actually played in the relocation of farmers and distillers, but many distilleries in Kentucky and Tennessee still trace their roots back to the rebellion during their public tours.

Either way, when the farmers arrived at their new homes, they found land perfect for growing corn and limestone-filtered water perfect for brewing hooch. It wasn’t long before the development of the “sour mash” process, still used in today’s popular bourbons and Tennessee whiskeys.

And it might never have happened without the U.S. military. So the next time you crack open a bottle of Wild Turkey, toast the troops.