"Whereas combinations to defeat the execution of the laws laying duties upon spirits distilled within the United States... have from the time of the commencement of those laws existed in the four western counties of Pennsylvania... I... do hereby command all persons being insurgents... on or before the first day of September next, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes." — President George Washington, Proclamation of August 7, 1794
The administration's handling of the Whiskey Rebellion most directly contributed to which political development of the mid-1790s?
- Acheck_circle
The crystallization of Democratic-Republican opposition to Federalist fiscal and military policy
- B
The collapse of the Federalist Party as a national organization
- C
The repeal of the federal excise on distilled spirits in 1795
- D
The relocation of the national capital to Philadelphia
Explanation
Jefferson and Madison criticized the army's size and Washington's denunciation of Democratic-Republican societies, helping consolidate Democratic-Republican opposition. The Federalists remained dominant until 1800, the whiskey excise stood until 1802, and the capital had moved to Philadelphia in 1790.