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Motivations And Goal Of The Constitutional Convention Of 1787

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The motivations and goal of the Constitutional convention of 1787 was to reform the Articles of Confederation to allow a stronger centralized government, and hopefully to solve issues not yet agreed upon within the government. There was a significant lack of representation for smaller states. Shay’s rebellion showcased an economic class disparity. There was also a lack of balance in the powers and a weak national government made for the states to have conflicting rules with each other as well as too much power.

Shay’s Rebellion was the main perpetrator of the revision. Massachusetts, which had suffered one of the greatest burdens economically, socially, and physically by the American Revolution. Poverty, unemployment, and imprisonment due to debt was rampant. Many of the citizen tried to voice their complaints to the state government. The state government, heavy in debt, responded with higher taxes. Angered by this, Daniel Shay, a former war veteran in debt who now faces foreclosure of his farm, started a mob that wreaked havoc on many important establishments such as banks or prisons. As Shay’s mob got more and more dangerous, wealthy elites hired private soldiers to fend them off. Worrisome to the …show more content…

Which both important as a precedent to allow for more compromises and the creation of a stronger legislative branch. It allowed the creation of a senate, giving each state an equal number of votes, allowing equal representation. Additionally, The House of Representatives was created, a population based system which will help with representing majority of the population. These 2 were great additions to the political system due to them still existing modern day. And finally, the 3/5ths rule was created, which allowed slaves to count as 3/5ths of a person. This rule helped affirm slavery and would creates problems down the line as slavery based issues would become more and more

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When Daniel Shays took leadership of the rebellion, the events soon “flared into a full-scale revolt.” The members of the rebellion were soon named Shaysites, after Daniel Shays. Many saw them as heroes who stood up against the government for what they thought was right. But, many saw them as “dangerous rebels whose actions might topple the young experiment in republican government” (Shays' Rebellion). James Bowdoin, who was currently the governor of Massachusetts, decided to organize a military force that crushed the movement.

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Men in this group had before request for soldiers, guns, and gunpowder.

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According to the text in the excerpt adapted from a letter by Abigail Adams, “Luxury and wasteful spending of money both in furniture and dress has spread to all of our countrymen and women. This led people to build debt, that they cannot pay off.” Based off the evidence we can infer that Shays rebellion shouldn’t have blamed the wealthy when they saved their money rather than spending it on certain luxuries to satisfy their wants for certain

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The issues that precipitated the Constitutional Convention were the fact that “ … the framers sought to create a new government capable of promoting commerce and protecting property from radical state legislatures and populist forces hostile to the interests of the commercial and propertied classes.” The delegates were empowered to revise the Articles to meet the country’s needs, but they took it into their own hands and created an entirely new constitution. In my opinion, the Constitution of 1787 was legitimate in the social sense but was not legitimate by legal standards. The only reason that this new constitution was accepted was because it was what the United States needed at the time so the majority of the citizens agreed upon keeping it.

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Because of this, Congress could not pay the soldiers when the war ended. Many soldiers, such as Daniel Shays, struggled to care for their families. They became in debt to the states, and had to sell their property or face debtor prison. Shays and hundreds of other Massachusetts farmers rose up to counteract the state courts taking away their land. This rebellion brought up a second weakness imposed by the

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The next year, a problem occurred by the Massachusetts farmers that later became known as Shay’s Rebellion, broke out. The

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For example, conflicts between the rich and the poor, which have always existed throughout time in every country, still continued to exist in America after the American Revolution. As seen in the text on page 80, "In the midst of the war, in Philadelphia, which Eric Foner describes as ' a time of immense profits for some colonists and terrible hardships for others,' the inflation … led to agitation and calls for action. " Some of these calls for actions are known as the Fort Wilson Riot of 1779 and the mutinies in Morristown New Jersey, Trenton New Jersey, and Philadelphia. All of these different riots led to Shays' Rebellion, an event where a small farmer named Daniel Shays believed that he was being taxed unfairly by the government; therefore, he got together a bunch of men and petitioned the government to change or at least solve the farmers' needs. This rebellion was not something to be taken lightly, there were numerous deaths concerning the farmers involved.

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Before the rebellions occurred, the elite ran the government without fear of the reaction of the common man. In the case of the March of the Paxton boys the British army and the state militia failed to successfully protect the poor Scots-Irish farmers who under attack from the Native Americans. Also Shays’ rebellion occurred because the government failed to pay the bonds of the poor Massachusetts farmers who participated in the Revolutionary War. In addition, Congress passed the whiskey tax without taking in consideration that whiskey was the primary source of the yeomen farmers income and the impact the tax would have on the poor farmers lives. After the rebellions occurred, the elites and government officials had to take into account the wants and needs of the common people.

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William Bradford indicated that the occasion was that the ships were a day out of harbor in the new world. He indicated that he wanted them to come together as one body in agreement to submit to the government and governors. The agreed to consent together in unison to this. I do feel this is very similar to the motives of the original constitution a document which is still in force today. I have no doubt that the founders of this nation looked at what did work and did not work in the way the original colonies set themselves up and modeled our governing documents based off what they learned.

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As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “...what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let the people take arms.” In January 1787, a group of farmers lead by Daniel Shays protested in Massachusetts, because they were upset about unfair taxing laws and because of them, lost their property, couldn’t make money, and were sent to jail. They protested by taking over the government’s arsenal. Although some may argue that Daniel Shays and his followers were rebels because of their controversial methods, nevertheless Shays and his followers were freedom fighters, because they had a valid reason for what they did, the laws were unfair, and they were just trying to get their rights.

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Shay’s Rebellions follow the Revolutionary war and how the US fell into a economic crisis, There were a lot of tension due to farmers losing their property to to debt collectors. In January 1787, him and his force were sent to a federal armory at Springfield but it failed due the artillery fire and how it lead to 4 people being killed and 20 people being wounded. Rebellion doesn’t always end up peaceful and it can also show no improvement at.

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Due to the fact that Massachusetts was newly settled, yeoman farmers were attempting to build new farms resulting in debt that the farmers could not pay. The yeoman farmers were also in debt because of a post-war recession, lack of payment of their army stipends, and failure to receive payment for their bonds. These debts lead to farmers being arrested which caused the anger that lead to the creation of Shays’ Rebellion. Other states with this problem were passing laws to protect their farmers during this economic crisis, but Massachusetts did not which further angered the lower class. The already poor farmers were forced to give up their land as payment because the farmers could not pay their debts in specie.

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It set mandatory sentences for the crimes. So, this shifted the power from the judge to the prosecutor, and 95% of elected prosecutors are white(13th). This shows that still today racism and the effects of slavery are still being felt 151 years

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