COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 239 
Thus, after the lapse of more than six years the Government 
was committed to a course of action which was in harmony with 
the advice of the Academy, though it is probable that esthetic 
and sentimental considerations had more weight than that of 
permanence. 
COMMITTEE ON PROVING AND GAUGING DISTILLED 
SPIRITS AND PREVENTING FRAUD. 1866 
In the early history of the United States excises or internal 
revenue taxes were extremely unpopular on account of their 
association in the minds of the people with the despotism and 
extortions of colonial times. Nevertheless, the Government 
found it necessary to lay such a tax in 1791, which led to resist- 
ance and the well-known Whiskey Insurrection of 1794. In 
Jefferson’s administration all internal revenue taxes were abol- 
ished, but it was found necessary to revive them again in 
connection with the War of 1812. After that war they were 
once more discarded and no excises were collected subsequently 
until the outbreak of the Civil War. The enormous demands 
then made on the treasury necessitated the establishment of a 
vast series of internal revenue taxes, which were levied on 
property and activities of every description, Nothing was too 
great or too small to be pressed into service and the revenue 
collected in this way in the year 1866 amounted to more than 
$300,000,000. 
Among the articles subjected to taxation at this time were 
distilled spirits manufactured in the United States. At an 
earlier date only imported spirits were taxed and a simple system 
of inspection sufficed, but the collection of a high internal 
revenue tax on all domestic spirits necessitated much greater 
vigilance, a better form of proving instruments and a more 
elaborate system of inspection. By a singular coincidence the 
system of inspection employed for fifteen years prior to the Civil 
War was based on the recommendations of Professor Alexander 
Dallas Bache, the first President of the Academy. This system 
had now to be modified to adapt it to the new conditions. 
