Challenges to the New Government
Name:_______________________________________________
Securing the Northwest Territory
What groups or countries posed a danger to American claims in the West?
1. What does the yellow area of the map represent?
2. Why might the British forts be located near water?
Settlers moving out west met fierce resistance from Native Americans. In 1790 and 1791, for example,
Chief Little Turtle of the Miami tribe of Ohio had won decisive victories against United States’ troops. In
1794, the Miami again faced attack by American forces. Little Turtle warned his people about the
troops led by General “Mad Anthony” Wayne.
“We have beaten the enemy twice under separate commanders… The Americans are now led by a chief
[Wayne] who never sleeps… We have never been able to surprise him… It would be prudent [wise] to
listen to his offers of peace.”
-Little Turtle, quoted in The life and Times of Little Turtle
Washington had always supported the idea of a strong national government. During his presidency, the
government revealed its strength when dealing with a number of threatening situtations.
Competing Claims to Territory Washington knew the nation needed peace to prosper. But trouble
brewed in the Trans-Appalachian West, the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the
Mississippi River. The source of the conflict was competing claims for these lands. The 1783 Treaty of
Paris had tried to resolve the claims. And some years later, Spain, Britain, the United States, and Native
Americans all claimed part of the area.
The strongest resistance came from Native Americans came from Native Americans in the
Northwest Territory. This territory was bordered by the Ohio River to the South and Canada to the
north. Native Americans in that territory hoped to unite to form an independent Native American
nation. The British, who still held forts north of the Ohio River, supported Native Americans because
they did not want to lose their access to trade in these territories.
Washington sent troops to the Northwest Territory to defend American interests. In 1790 this
first federal army was not match for warriors led by Little Turtle. A second American force was defeated
in 1791. Washington then formed another army and gave command to Revolutionary War hero General
(“Mad Anthony”)Wayne.
Native Americans are Defeated
On August 20, 1794, a force of around 2,000 Native Americans
met Wayne’s 1,000 troops near the future site of Toledo, Ohio. The Native Americans were easily
defeated. The battlefield was covered with trees that had struck down in a storm so the Americans
called it the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The Native Americans withdrew. The British, not wanting war
with the United States, refused to help them. The Battle of Fallen Timbers crushed Native American
hopes of keeping their land in the Northwest Territory. Twelve tribes signed the Treaty of Greenville in
1795. They agreed to cede, or surrender, much of present-day Ohio as well as numerous ports and
outposts in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana to the U.S. government.
Trouble in the Backcountry
In spite of the United States’ success at the Battle of Fallen Timbers,
Washington soon found it necessary to put another army into the field. This was in response to a
conflict over a new tax. To raise revenue, Treasury Secretary Hamilton had pushed through Congress a
tax to be levied specifically on the manufacture of whiskey. The tax hit small, backcountry farmers the
hardest. One of their major crops was corn. But whiskey made from corn was more profitable than the
raw grain, so whiskey became central to the Backcountry economy. Having little money with which to
buy goods, small farmers used whiskey like money to trade for other goods. As well, whiskey was one of
the few local products suitable for transport to markets across the Applachians. When the whiskey tax
was enacted, enraged farmers from Pennsylvania to Georgia resisted.
Causes of the Whiskey Rebellion
Large manufacturs of whiskey located in the eastern part of
Pennsylvania and on the East Coast generally accepted the new tax on whiskey, because they could
afford to pay it. The tax was also structured so that larger producers in the East paid a lower tax than
smaller producers in the West. Smaller producers would probably go out of business, and larger
producers would have less competition. Any charges or disputes also had to be settled in Philadelphia,
meaning that western farmers would lose many days in travel if they questioned the tax or refused to
pay it.
“Such a resistance is treason against society, against liberty, against everything that ought to be dear to
a free, enlightened and prudent people. To tolerate it were to abandon your most precious interests.
Not to subdue it were to tolerate it.”
--Alexander Hamilton, The Works of Alexander Hamilton
In October 1794, General Henry Lee, with Hamilton at his side, led an army of 13,000 soldiers into
western Pennsylvania to put down the uprising. As news of the army’s approach spread, rebels fled.
After much effort, federal troops rounded up about 20 accused leaders. Washington had proved his
point. He had shown that the government had the power and the will to enforce its laws. Meanwhile,
events in Europe gave Washington a different kind of challenge.
A Symbolic Show of Force
Washington himself led the army march to Pennsylvania to put down
the rebellion until he handed over command to Lee. The army of 13,000 was as large or larger than he
had commanded at times during the Revolutionary War. Although more were arrested , only two
people were convicted of treason in connection with the rebellion, and Washington pardoned them
quickly. But the fact that a large militia could be called out from states to enforce laws in another state
was very important in the development of the federal system.
Questions:
1. Why did Washington think it was so important to put down the Whiskey Rebellion?
2. How did the Whiskey Rebellion compare to Shays’s Rebellion?
3. Why might Native Americans in the Northwest Territory want to form one united Native
American nation?
4. What was the significance of the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville?
5. Why did backcountry farmers rebel against the whiskey tax?
6. Why do you think Washington pardoned the rebels?
Broadside from U.S. Congress dated July 25, 1794
Full Transcript: Gentlemen, The Governor having received information that a daring and cruel
outrage has been committed in the county of Allegheny by a lawless body of armed men, who,
among other enormities, attacked and destroyed the house of Gen. Neville on the 17th instant,
request, in the most earnest manner, that you will exert all your influence and authority to
suppress, within your jurisdiction, so pernicious and unwarrantable a spirit; that you will
ascertain, with all possible dispatch, the circumstances of the offence; and that you will pursue,
with the utmost vigilance, the lawful steps for bringing the offenders to justice. Every honest
Citizen must feel himself personally mortified at the conduct of the rioters, which, particular if it
passes with impunity, is calculated to fix an indelible stigma on the honor and reputation of the
state....
Background: Political polarization was further intensified by the outbreak of popular protests in
western Pennsylvania against Hamilton’s financial program. To help fund the nation’s debt,
Hamilton in 1791 adopted an excise tax on whiskey. On the frontier, because of high
transportation costs, the only practical way to sell surplus corn was to distill it into whiskey.
Frontier farmers regarded a tax on whiskey the same way that the colonists had regarded
Britain’s stamp tax. , By 1794, western Pennsylvanians had enough. Like the Shays rebels of
1786, they rose up in defense of their property and the right to earn a decent living. Some 7000
frontier settlers marched on Pittsburgh to stop collection of the tax. Determined to set a precedent
for the federal government’s authority to enforce laws enacted by Congress, Washington
gathered an army of 15,000 militiamen to disperse the rebels. In the face of this overwhelming
force, the uprising collapsed. Two men were convicted of treason, but later pardoned by the
president. What precedent does Washington want to set?
On February 3, George Washington wrote to Henry Knox, conveying his thoughts on both the recent
rebellion in Massachusetts and the Philadelphia Convention. Of Shays’ Rebellion, Washington wrote, “if
three years ago any person had told me that at this day, I should see such a formidable rebellion against
the laws & constitutions of our own making as now appears I should have thought him a bedlamite - a fit
subject for a mad house.” He wrote that if the government “shrinks, or is unable to enforce its laws . . .
anarchy & confusion must prevail.” What does Washington say will happen if the Shays’s
Rebellion is not put down?