This is a letter that i submitted to my local paper's opinion section:

At time of this writing, the situation in Burns is almost over, but I want to briefly take you on a trip in history.

In 1794, the new United States was facing one of its first internal crises as a sovereign nation. In order to pay off its debt it developed during the war, Congress passed one of this nation's first taxes: a tax on distilled drinks.

Many people did not like this, particularly in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Spirits, mainly whiskey, were very popular, and in some circles was a form a currency. Many people, even those who didn't own distilleries, felt this was illegal and told D.C. to go jump in a lake. Long story short, some people were killed and President Washington led a force of 13,000 militia men to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. However many of the 'rebels' came to their senses and went home. The closest thing to an armed confrontation was Battle of Bower Hill, where somewhere around three or four people died after a marshal tried to collect taxes. Eventually, the whole order ended with about 200 people being arrested.

Now, why did I bring this up? How many of you knew about this little tidbit of history? Not many of you. Because it was a small event in American History that's not even taught in most schools unless it's an AP history class. The same thing will happen with Villa Isis. After about five years, no one will care, assuming they even remember it. And if they do, the sentiment about what happened in Burns will be a shrug and a mild feeling of embarrassment.

I think George Washington had a fairly good idea what we fought for and what the founders intended. He clearly didn't think taxation was tyranny.

Also interesting is that a citizen militia was mustered to quell an insurrection and enforce the rule of law.

I guess "citizen militia" means something different to the Bundy Bunch.

There is an old tavern about halfway between our place and Gettysburg that has an official historical marker noting that Washington stayed there on the way back from quelling the Whiskey Rebellion.

Bucolic wrote:There is an old tavern about halfway between our place and Gettysburg that has an official historical marker noting that Washington stayed there on the way back from quelling the Whiskey Rebellion.

Apparently, George slept around a lot.

Let's go further back and look at Shay's Rebellion during the time of the Articles of Confederation.

Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in Massachusetts (mostly in and around Springfield) during 1786 and 1787. Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led four thousand rebels (called Shaysites) in rising up against perceived economic injustices and suspension of civil rights by Massachusetts, and in a later attempt to capture the United States' national weapons arsenal at the U.S. Armory at Springfield. Although Shays' Rebellion met with defeat militarily against a privately raised militia, it prompted numerous national leaders (including George Washington, who came out of retirement to deal with issues raised by Shays' Rebellion) to call for a stronger national government to suppress future rebellions, resulting in the U.S. Constitutional Convention and according to historian Leonard L. Richards, "fundamentally altering the course of U.S. history."[1]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27_Rebellion

A point about the Whiskey Rebellion is that it represented an Ear West split. The best way western farmers could market their crop was in liquid form. The west looked on the tax as an economic assault. The economic aspect shows parallels with the Oregon occupation.