Taxation with representation

"Early Americans despised taxation with representation as much as taxation without representation"

"(...)He [Alexander Hamilton]persuaded Congress to impose the hated Whiskey Tax (to help pay for the states’ debts, which the central government had assumed), which led to the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. The Official View of the Whiskey rebellion used to be that it was a successful example of the putting down of a rebellion or insurrection by George Washington himself, and therefore cemented into place the taxing power of the central government. But this view is now recognized as fallacious. In fact, virtually no whiskey taxes were ever collected, and despite Washington’s show of force, no tax rebels were punished; all were given amnesty. Furthermore, the entire episode fueled the anti-tax mentality that was so prevalent during the Revolution, and helped elect Thomas Jefferson president in 1800. Jefferson abolished all of the hated federal excise taxes. (See Murray Rothbard, "The Whiskey Rebellion: A Model for Our Time."

Hamilton created another tax rebellion with his national property tax. This time the rebellion was in Massachusetts. When some of the tax rebels were imprisoned a man named John Fries organized a march on the courthouse and freed the tax protesters. Fries was imprisoned and sentenced to be hanged for treason. President John Adams pardoned him despite the strongest of protests by Hamilton, who was the leading proponent of hanging Fries. (See Charles Adams, Those Dirty Rotten Taxes: The Tax Revolts that Built America, pp. 70-72)."

[Alexander Hamilton] The Rousseau of the Right, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo