Our enemy the state

April 25, 2024 | Categories: Guest Contributions | Tags: |  Print This Article

Our enemy the state

In 1802, President “Thomas Jefferson, an anti-Federalist, repealed all direct taxation, including the Excise Whiskey Tax. Unlike Hamilton, Jefferson saw tariffs as enemies to the constituents of a free democracy, limiting the worker’s ability to benefit fully from his labor. [In other words, Jefferson understood that taxation was a form of slavery or serfdom that appropriated the labor of people for needs other than their own, which is the same as slavery.]

While the pardons showed the power of the presidency, Jefferson’s repeal proved the power of American democracy. Even though the farmers lost the rebellion, they succeeded in checking the federal government’s early reach into civic liberties. That legacy of the grappling between government authority and individual freedom would become as much, if not more, a part of the American story as the pardon itself.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-presidential-pardon-pitted-hamilton-against-george-washington-180964659/