DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION
This question is based on the accompanying documents. The question is designed to test your
ability to work with historical documents. Some of the documents have been edited for the purposes
of the question. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and
any point of view that may be presented in the documents.
Historical Context:
Historians who have evaluated presidential leadership have generally agreed that
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt were
great presidents because each successfully addressed a critical challenge faced by
the nation during his administration.
Task:
Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States
history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to
the questions will help you write the Part B essay, in which you will be asked to:
• Describe a challenge that faced the nation during George Washington's administration
• Explain an action taken by President Washington to address this challenge
• Discuss the impact of this action on the United States
Document 1:
Author: Thomas P. Slaughter
Title: The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution
At daybreak on July 16, 1794, about fifty men armed with rifles and clubs marched to the
house of John Neville, regional supervisor for collection of the federal excise tax in western
Pennsylvania. They demanded that Neville resign his position and turn over to them all records
associated with collection of the tax on domestically distilled spirits. He refused. Shots were
fired. In the ensuing battle five of the attackers fell wounded. One of them later died. Neville
and his slaves, who together had defended the premises from secure positions inside the house,
suffered no casualties. The mob dispersed. . . .
The Whiskey Rebellion, as it is traditionally known and studied, had begun. Before it was over,
some 7000 western Pennsylvanians advanced against the town of Pittsburgh, threatened its
residents, feigned [pretended] an attack on Fort Pitt and the federal arsenal there, banished
seven members of the community, and destroyed the property of several others. Violence spread
to western Maryland, where a Hagerstown crowd joined in, raised liberty poles, and began a
march on the arsenal at Frederick. At about the same time, sympathetic “friends of liberty” arose
in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and back-country regions of Virginia and Kentucky. Reports reached
the federal government in Philadelphia that the western country was ablaze and that rebels were
negotiating with representatives of Great Britain and Spain, two of the nation’s most formidable
European competitors, for aid in a frontier-wide separatist movement. In response, President
Washington nationalized 12,950 militiamen from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Virginia—an army approximating in size the Continental force that followed him during the
Revolution—and personally led the “Watermelon Army”* west to shatter the insurgency
[rebellion]. . . .
1. According to Thomas P. Slaughter, what was one problem that resulted from the collection of the federal
excise tax in western Pennsylvania?
Document 2
Author: Alexander Hamilton (this is a letter from Hamilton to Major General Henry Lee, dated October 20, 1794).
Title: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Volume VI,
To Major-General Lee
Sir:—I have it in special instruction from the President [George Washington] of the United
States, now at this place, to convey to you the following instructions for the general direction of
your conduct in the command of the militia army, with which you are charged.
The objects [reasons] for which the militia have been called forth are:
1st. To suppress (put down) the combinations [groups] which exist in some of the western counties in
Pennsylvania, in opposition to the laws laying duties upon spirits distilled within the United
States, and upon stills.
2nd. To cause the laws to be executed.
These objects are to be effected (carried out) in two ways:
1. By military force.
2. By judiciary process and other civil proceedings.
The objects (goals) of the military force are twofold:
1. To overcome any armed opposition which may exist.
2. To countenance [approve] and support the civil officers in the means of executing the laws….
Your obedient servant,
Alexander Hamilton
2a: According to Alexander Hamilton, what action is President George Washington ordering in response to the
Whiskey Rebellion?
2b: According to Alexander Hamilton, what is one reason President Washington gave this order?
Document 3:
Author: Richard Kohn
Title: “The Washington Administration’s Decision to Crush the Whiskey Rebellion,"
The Journal of American History, December 1972 (this is a magazine article).
. . . The [whiskey] rebellion has long been interpreted as a milestone in the creation of federal
authority, and in most respects that is its chief significance. Certainly to the Federalists, who had
long been striving for a strong national government, it was a major test: the new government
successfully crushed organized and violent resistance to the laws. As Hamilton put it, the
rebellion “will do us a great deal of good and add to the solidity [stability] of every thing in this
country.”. .
3: According to Richard H. Kohn, what was the significance of the Whiskey Rebellion?
