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. 1S66 



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. 



