294 Singing Valleys 



the reputation of being Washington's favorite troops, at 

 King's Mountain, Saratoga and The Cowpens. The war won, 

 they had gone back to their farms and to the lands which they 

 had taken as pay for their services in the war; to their keel- 

 boats and fur-trading. Their backs were to the eastern cities, 

 their faces to the new west. 



On their farms the still was as important as the barn. The 

 crop of corn and rye was not harvested until the meal had 

 been mashed and distilled into "juice," which could be carried 

 on horseback to the traders. Small boys put in hours at the 

 "armstrong machine" which was the Back Woods nickname 

 for the hand mill, grinding sprouted corn to be ready for the 

 mash tub. The teacher and the preacher were frequently paid 

 by the gallon. 



Washington had every reason to know what Jefferson knew, 

 and said bluntly, that Hamilton's proposal to place a federal 

 excise on distilling was to make a bid for trouble. It was to 

 legislate against the farmers in favor of the New England ship- 

 owners and their imported rum. True, the various colonies had 

 taxed spirits during the Revolution, and during the French 

 and Indian troubles which preceded it. The farmers had paid 

 those taxes without grumbling. But a federal tax, for a purpose 

 beyond the understanding of most of those who would be 

 called on to pay it, would seem to undermine the very prin- 

 ciple on which the Revolution had been fought. 



Only four years before, a Scotch-Irish farmer on the Berk- 

 shire frontier in Massachusetts had led eight hundred other 

 disgruntled farmers against the merchants and bankers whose 

 power in the state legislature overweighed that of the land 

 workers. Daniel Shays had sold the sword which Lafayette 

 presented to him for what it would bring, to try to save his 

 farm. He and his farmers had demanded a moratorium on 

 farm debts, which had greatly increased during the war and 

 during the period of deflation which came afterward. His revo- 

 lutionists had prevented the Court from sitting on the debt 

 cases. There had been the beginnings of a nice little war in 



