THE WHISKEY REBELLION OF 1794 by Wythe Holt

by JF

A Democratic Working-Class Insurrection

There is a near-misdemeanor concerning this manuscript in that it is only 83 pages; there is a near-felony in that it is unpublished. A friend of mine introduced me to this. It was written about seven or eight years ago and Mr. Holt is or was a university professor from Alabama.

Here is a rare look at an American historical event (and a rather memory-holed one at that) from a perspective that is genuinely sympathetic to the vast majority of the people involved; that is, the common man. This manuscript corroborates the iconoclastic work of James Montgomery and “The Informer” fantastically well.

Holt documents how George Washington was in fact a despotic, elitist “land jobber” who had no compunctions whatsoever about lying his (expletive deleted) off and breaking laws whenever he and his cronies were threatened or stood to benefit.

Holt documents how international bankster’s boy Alexander Hamilton was an officious hypocrite, another elitist liar, and a general, all-around enemy of average Americans.

Holt documents how the first Supreme Court justices unlawfully subordinated their offices to Washington in 1794.

Holt documents that the rebellion was about far more than a tax on whiskey; it was about many average Americans coming to realize that they had fought the American Revolution only to be sold out at the SECRET Constitutional Convention by the UNelected Founding Fraudsters who had LIED about merely tinkering with the Articles of Confederation. Nevertheless, the rebellion was indeed partially attributable to Washington’s and Hamilton’s new tax on whiskey, a tax which Holt documents as being grossly unfair to common Americans and greatly slanted in favor of the corporations. Gee, where have I heard that before?

This manuscript also pivots upon the exploits of one of the most unknown, unsung, yet veritable heroes that America has ever produced: a preacher and social reformer named Herman Husbands. The elitist Founding Fraudsters saw him as radical and dangerous; the common American saw him as fair and wise. Holt identifies Herman Husbands as in reality the de facto leader behind the rebellion, and it was apparently one of those exquisitely rare cases in history where the leader did not strive for the job for himself but was instead genuinely selected by his peers because of actual virtues the man possessed that people found appealing. Husbands was a worthy and staunch pacifist, but he had a stunningly idealistic, yet quite detailed, and very different vision for what the United States ought to be. His plan would have been astoundingly fair and just for all Americans. Needless to say, the Washington elitists weren’t about to share their toys, and despite Husbands’s pacifism, elitists like Washington and Hamilton singled Husbands out as the “rebel” they most wanted to capture.

And they did. Washington, Hamilton & Company did catch Husbands and many other “rebels,” through despotic, duplicitous means. And then, such was the average American’s sympathy for the “rebels” that the government’s prosecutor could only manage two token patsy convictions, and Husbands wasn’t one of them. Nearly everybody walked, such was the unpopularity of the new government’s actions, and such was the greater understanding and greater courage of jury members then. But this has all of course been whitewashed from your history books. Holt poignantly reminds us how it is the American elite class who write the history books, and it is the American poor and working class who do not and are made historically invisible, though they were the ones who did nearly all of the actual living, fighting, dying, birthing, working, and experiencing of the country and the culture.

Holt is also a very competent, effective writer. I really wish this was longer. And I really wish that it was published so that others could enjoy it and learn real American history (as opposed to standardized American mythology) from it.

Rating: Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ
7/2014