I'm not aware of spirits being used to physically pay back the war debts that the Continental Congress/states had incurred, however, it's probably an indirect reference to the Whiskey Rebellion. A whiskey excise tax was one of the first levied by the government after the Constitution was ratified (partly in order to repay the war debts that the US Government had assumed from states), and it caused considerable discontent in some areas to the point of fomenting a small insurrection against the US government.