MGthes wrote:

To expand this thread to cover a wider interpretation of the question it posits than simply the OP's Whiskey Tax:

I (an Englishman) love America and Americans. I am in constant e-contact with a dear sister-in-law married for 50 years to a Chicago-an; and with a first-cousin in Virginia; and with the closest-possible friends in Santa Monica. I have visited the US many times, Coast-to-coast, and always been hospitably received and felt greatly at home. But someone [a fellow-Brit] once said to me, "The trouble is, the Land Of The Free was founded jointly on genocide and slavery; and not just in the South — notoriously Thomas Jefferson, one of the revered Founding Fathers and author of their Dec of Ind, owned slaves".

I endeavoured to frame a riposte; but couldn't think of one. Is there one?

Response 1, The Bland: "What's Your Point?"
Response 2, The Topper: "I've heard it said that the United States it the only land to go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening period of civilization."
Response 3, The Practical: "Put it on a T-Shirt and take it to Disneyworld."
Response 4, The Realistic: "I saw that episode of the Simpsons."
Response 5, American Street: "You should see the other guy."
Response 6, Historical: "At least Thomas Jefferson was man enough to feel BAD about it."
Response 7, Religious: "And some people say there's no such thing as Original Sin."
Response 8, School of Positive Thinking: "It made jazz possible!"
Response 9, New Jersey: "Oh, yeah? Well, up your hole with a mello roll!"

Anyone think I can't make it to double digits, place yer bets.