Credit: Courtesy of the Atwater Kent Museum
This gleefully angry cartoon tells the story of an "opprobrious" pensioner turned exciseman who flees two farmers intent on tarring and feathering him, only to be caught on the way by "his evil genius," who claps a hook in his nose and hangs him from a gallows, under which angry neighbors light a barrel of whiskey and blow him up! Below, the Distillers and Farmers says they will "pay all due deference and respect to Congress, [and] will not refuse to contribute amply for support of Government But resolve not to be harassed by that opprobrious character (in all free governments) Viz. an Exciseman, who are mostly forged out of old pensioners who are already become a burdensome drones."
