The Whiskey Rebellion by William
Hodgeland, 2006, Excerpts
Creditors wondered how Congress could reliably fund such
bills. Robert Morris showed them how. He was fat; his financial presence was
fatter. He owned ships and warehouses and ran his own networking of trading
partners, connecting Philadelphia to New Orleans, Europe, and the West Indies;
soon he’d be investing in the China trade. He hadn’t favored American
independence, but given a fait accompli, Morris would find opportunities. Exploiting
the potential of a war economy, he hoped to unleash high finance, turn America
into a commercial empire, and make the merchant class fabulously rich.
In Morris’s view, Congress wasn’t collecting the necessary
taxes from the mass of ordinary people. He therefore became intent on imposing
on all people, throughout the states, direct federal taxes, payable by the
people to Congress – in coin. These taxes would be collected not by weak state
governments but by a powerful cadre of federal officers. Once people were
inured to direct federal taxation, Morris told Hamilton, cash poll taxes, cash
land taxes, and cash excise taxes would soon follow. To ensure payment to the
creditors, Morris intended to open, as he put it, the purses of the people.
That those purses were almost always empty of the metal he wanted did not faze
him.
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