...The Articles of Confederation created a weak central government that had no executive or judicial powers. The problems with this form of government were starting to become prominent during Shay’s Rebellion. Shay’s Rebellion was a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. The government's lack of power prevented them from responding to Shay's Rebellion. Shay’s Rebellion showed the need of constitutional reform in the of the Articles of Confederation. As a result, the representatives of the Constitutional Convention made sure that the central government had enough power to deal with domestic issues. The success of this policy was later shown with the Whisky Rebellion, a tax on whisky protest. The constitution includes an indirectly elected president to properly govern the states. George Washington, the first president’s response was to raise the militia to march over to west Pennsylvania in order to end the rebellion. That showed how strong the government was and their power over the...
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...Edonis Shehu History1301 12/7/12 Professor Troy Shays Rebellion January 25, 1787 was a day that played a huge factor in making the young nation, America, think very carefully about its form of government. Snow was falling eminently that day as the group of farmers and ex-revolutionary soldiers marched through it. All the ammunition and gunpowder the rebels needed to go to Boston and over throw the government was inside that federal arsenal. They had just one thing standing in there way, nine hundred militia troops. In this essay, we’re going to take a look at all the factors that led to Shays Rebellion, go in deep depth of how it all went down and show why this incident is one of the most important events of the United States. America after the Revolutionary War was in shambles. Americans had paid a very heavy toll for this independence. Thousands of men had died, homes and farms had been destroyed, and the nation was governed by a Congress which was governed by the Articles of Confederation; which was a really weak system of central government. Daniel Shays was born into poverty in Western Massachusetts and worked as a farm laborer most of his life. Shays goes into the Revolutionary War as a Private, spends five years fighting and leaves the war as a Captain. Marquis de Lafayette honored him with a sword because he thought Shays did a superior job under him. Soldiers were paid for the war they entered, but were paid in currency that depreciated very quickly, which was...
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...In the book Shay’s Rebellion by Leonard L. Richards the author clearly supports that the Shay’s Rebellion of 1786 and 1787 fundamentally changed the American nation towards a stronger national government. Richard’s new found set of data allows for a more detailed and accurate depiction of the Shay’s Rebellion than any other before stated version. Richard’s explains the use of this data to observe the participants of the rebellion, the causes and the outcomes all in a socioeconomic stand point. The book Shay’s Rebellion by Leonard L. Richards is about the subject of the armed uprising in Massachusetts that occurred in the summer of 1786 through the winter of 1787, called Shay’s Rebellion. Shay’s Rebellion was started by a western Massachusetts farmer named Daniel Shay who was a...
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...World History Shay’s Rebellion Darius Aaron 10/30/2015 After the revolutionary war there was a great debt left on Americans hands. So how were we going to pay for this enormous debt? Well the confederation decided to tax there on people ridiculously high rates with no representation. Many saw this unfair and raised their voice to the masses. Without an impost amendment with public land sales protected but not yet realize, the confederation again requisitioned the states to contribute revenue. Strange that thee confederation would do this right after the seven year war. Many of the states were still recovering from this war. In 1785 the amount requested was 3million, four times larger than previous year levy. 30 percent of...
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...Although Shay’s Rebellion failed, it illuminates the idea of a new government, which gives people individual freedom and limit the power of states. In this way, the states can pay more attention to the national interest rather than only their local interest. Motivated by the idea, James Madison called state representatives, trying to call for establishment of a new constitution. “Shay’s Rebellion” also “tip the balance in favor of reform” since although a new constitution with expanded federal power was created, but limited direct democracy which was the primary goal of “ Shay’s...
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...throughout America during the time of the French and Indian War. In fact, the Paxton Boys were a Rebellion to the Pontiac Rebellion. The Paxton Boys carried out many rebellious acts which were unprosecuted. Therefore, the Conestoga Massacre is a result of the Paxton Boys. The Conestoga Massacre occurred because of arguments over land, the massacre also occurred because Natives felt like they were being mistreated by white settlers. Native Americans carried out the various attack against the white settlers which made the settlers fearful. The Regulator movement was a movement that...
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...Shays’ Rebellion was an armed uprising of farmers in Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787. Farmers in Massachusetts rebelled against the United States government. This occurred because several farmers incurred high debts from creditors, that they could not afford to pay off. Farmers also suffered from high taxes, that the government imposed in attempt to pay off debt from the Revolutionary War. Massachusetts did not respond to farmers asking for help, so the rebellion transpired. The main conflict of Shay’s rebellion was farmers in debt versus the state of Massachusetts’ government. Shays’ rebellion was quite similar to the American revolution, it was citizens resisting the government when nothing was done to fix the nation’s issues.The Articles of...
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...Over many years, the United States Government has worked together to create an even bigger and better government than before. Our government has made some amazing decisions, as well as some very poor ones. Two major events that occurred back in the late 1700s were Shay's Rebellion and the Articles of Confederation. Both events were very harmful to our government we needed to come up with something quick before it fell apart. That's when we had the incredible idea of the Constitution. For as long as we can remember, the United States was getting controlled by Great Britain. They began putting taxes on the American colonists and provoked us deliberately. We had no voice in representation and our colonists were getting sick of being controlled by another country. This wasn't fair to the United States. We were not just going to stand around and have another country annihilate us. That's when we decided to fight for our independence against Great Britain. It all started around 1776 when the second continental congress voted to declare independence. The colonists finally were able to revolt from England and be our own country with our own type of Government. On July 4th, 1776 Thomas Jefferson drafted The Declaration of Independence which was a document stating that people have the right to overthrow a government that is not...
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...What caused this rift in Massachusetts? The incident, which would go down in history as Shays’ Rebellion, was brought on by social divisions and economic hardships that followed the end of the American Revolution. High taxes and debt-ridden farmers in the west clashed with wealthy eastern merchants. Though it was only a small event and virtually bloodless, this backcountry rebellion proved a pivotal turning point for the fledging American republic. The rebellion highlighted the many weaknesses the central government suffered when faced with a crisis. In response to Shays’ Rebellion, the newly established democracy of the former colonies was put to the test and brought about many changes that helped establish the Constitution of the United States of America. To understand the causes of Shays’ Rebellion, one must first look back to the American Revolution. During the Revolution, there was a great business boom for East Coast merchants. Goods were scarce, since a majority of imports into America came from Great Britain, who maintained a blockade on American seaports. Therefore, all goods were in high demand and fetched high prices. Anyone with something to sell, from equipment to textiles...
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...Shays’s Rebellion was an armed uprising in the state of Massachusetts, led by American Revolution Captain Daniel Shays, from 1786 to 1787. Approximately 4,000 farmers protested against tax increases, levied by the state to pay off the Revolutionary War debt. The already struggling farmers, who were in debt, demanded that the government provide tax relief. Throughout the state, protestors began shutting down the courts, where their debts were normally collected. The farmers, who rioted against all those in support of the government, desperately attempted to take over the government’s arsenal in Springfield. However, by the winter of 1787 the state militia defeated most of the rebels, causing many to flee. With the rebellion drawing to a close,...
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...War had a devastating economic impact on the newly established country ("Shay's Rebellion - Historic Northampton Museum and Education Center"). With the large acquired debt, the first thing the new government decided was to raise taxes on its citizens to make up for their economic loss. When most people gain a position in any government system they quickly forget that it was the so called, “little people” that got them there ("Daniel Shays"). This very idea of ignoring a group of individuals needs is what...
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...As the United States congress met to discuss the future of their newly formed nation, Massachusetts was experiencing the Shays’s Rebellion, whose important members played a part in changing the way the way the nation thought of their military policies. As the American Revolution came to a close, the United States acknowledged the debt they had accumulated over the course of eighteen years of war. The huge amount owed to the soldiers who fought, and France for their support, prompted congress to collect money from them in the form of taxes. At the time, many farmers owed huge debts, on top of having to pay taxes. This combination, caused many farmers to lose land, and some were arrested. As a retort to this, many famers created a petition against the taxes and sent it to congress, where it was ignored. The disregard for the farmer’s situation created disdain for the institution that began imprisoning them, and as a result, led to farmers taking arms....
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...was growing stronger, but all of these events have acts of opposition on newly imposed laws and taxes, government actions, and the nation’s needs. Settlers in the eighteenth-century American backcountry sometimes resorted to violent protest to express their grievances through significant protests like the march of the Paxton boys in Pennsylvania, Shays’ Rebellion supporting the need for a strong government, and the Whiskey Rebellion opposing the new whiskey tax. One significant violent protest settlers in the eighteenth-century resorted to in order to express their grievances was the march of the Paxton boys which occurred in Pennsylvania...
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...Strengths: set the legislative body and congress as the highest power, congress had the power to declare war, assign treaties, entertain forgoing relations and operate post offices. Weaknesses: government that was created was really weak, amendments require unanimous approval, gov't couldn't enforce laws, no power to levy taxes, no national army or navy, no system of courts, each state could issue its own paper money (which was used as IOU's), states could set tariffs on trade in between states, one vote was given for each state no matter the size of its population. Under the Articles of Confederation the government was nearly powerless, because of this powerlessness it caused for economic recession, a larger national debt, shay's rebellion...
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...The historical context between these two documents is the Shays rebellion and why the articles of confederation were changed after it. Shays' Rebellion happened on October 23, 1786, in Massachusetts. The people involved were Daniel Shays, George Washington, and Henry Knox. Shay's rebellion was a protest because of the many unjust things that happened to the government. Some of those things include unjust economic policies and political corruption. Such as Massachusetts raising the This was described to George Washington, the president at the time, by Henry Knox. After hearing about this, George Washington decides to change the Articles of Confederation because he feels that they need to make the government and army stronger. This rebellion...
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