It wasn’t debt that triggered the rebellion, Richards concludes, it was the new state government and its attempt to enrich the few at the expense of the backcountry.
Like other states, Massachusetts had issued notes to help fund the Revolutionary War. Immediately upon issue they depreciated to about one-fourth par, and later declined to about one-fortieth of their face value. Many soldiers were paid in these notes, then later unloaded them to speculators at high discounts. Speculators bought roughly 80 percent of the notes, of which half were owned by just 35 men. Every one of these 35 had served in the state house during the 1780s or had a close relative who did.
The legislature voted to consolidate its war notes at face value and praised the speculators as “worthy patriots” who had come to the state’s aid in its time of need. But these men did not buy the notes directly from the government; they bought them for a song from farmers and soldiers, who were now being taxed to redeem them at full value. The speculators, most of whom had stayed home during the war, were seeking to benefit at the expense of veterans.
Poll and property taxes were to account for 90 percent of all taxes. The poll tax placed a fine on every male 16 years or older. Thus, a regressive tax ensured a wealth transfer from farm families with grown sons to the pockets of Boston speculators......
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/02/george-f-smith/just-war-and-debt-becomes-just-war-and-debt/
.....Conclusion
Hamilton’s funding proposals were step one in a fiscal policy that later included a rudimentary central bank and a proposal to protect favored American industries from foreign competition. By hijacking the legal system Hamilton did indeed manufacture a “revolution in government,” one that overturned the revolution of 1776. Though ostensibly constrained by the new constitution, he reinterpreted key clauses in such a way that the government could do almost anything, as long as it was declared to be in “the public interest.”
Somehow, ordinary Americans found themselves to be the public whose interests required subordination to the decrees of the government. The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, in which Hamilton joined President Washington and 13,000 conscripts and officers from the creditor aristocracy of the eastern seaboard to crush penny-ante tax protestors in western Pennsylvania, dramatized this point. So did the War to Prevent Southern Independence and every war or crisis since. So did the Sixteenth Amendment, the Seventeenth Amendment, the Federal Reserve Act, the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 (Withholding), the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act . . . I leave it to the reader to fill in the rest.
As the U.S. national debt continues its ascent to the heavens, perhaps people finally say “Enough!” and remove the government from monetary affairs altogether.