Morning Quote: George Washington Stomps Tax Protesters

For all those who seek to challenge the mandate of the Affordable Care Act, a flashback to the 1790’s when farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled against a tax leveled on whiskey by Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton in 1791. In a letter to Benjamin Harris in 1792, George Washington wrote of his frustration in this matter:

The disinclination of the individual States to yield competent powers to Congress for the Federal Government—their unreasonable jealousy of that body & of one another—& the disposition which seems to pervade each, of being all-wise & all-powerful within itself, will, if there is not a change in the system, be our downfall as a Nation. This is as clear to me as the A. B. C.

In 1794, the U.S. Army marched into western Pennsylvania, ordered by President George Washington to bring the state in to compliance with the law and put down the armed insurrection, known as the Whiskey Rebellion. That's how the father of this country dealt with the likes of those who refused to pay taxes in order to contribute to the general well being.

HT Elding