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Weaknesses and strengths of the articles of confederation
Weaknesses and strengths of the articles of confederation
Weaknesses and strengths of the articles of confederation
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Shays' Rebellion is the name of protests by American farmers. The leader of the rebellion was Daniel Shay’s. Daniel would lead thousands of men against the State of Massachusetts, due to what was believed to be unjust economic issues. Shay’s Rebellion would go on to attempt to capture the largest Armory in the United States, located in Springfield MA.
BAby thesis!!!! Shays’ Rebellion was caused by the weakened national government. The Articles of Confederation did not have a strong national government therefore the yeoman farmers were in a lot of debt because of the post war recession. Since the yeoman farmers were unable to pay the debt the creditors took away the property the farmers owned. Shays’ Rebellion greatly alarmed politicians throughout the nation about the Articles.
Last night on February 4, 1787, General Benjamin Lincoln attacked members of the Shays’ Rebellion, and successfully captured 150 of the rebels. As a result, Daniel Shays left Massachusetts and fled to Vermont. Shays Rebellion was an armed rebellion consisting of 1,200 angry farmers from Massachusetts. They caused major chaos in this state. On December 26, 1786 Daniel Shays and the rebels revolted in Springfield, Massachusetts insisting that the state legislature address their issues, such as lack of money.
Hieu, I completely agree with your views on the two main struggles the Founding Fathers encountered while developing the foundation for this great nation. Your views on both taxation and the Shays ' Rebellion are very similar to mine. It 's crazy that a society in that time frame didn 't adopt the Europeans way of taxation, which evolved around the king and his government. Another good point you have is how it was up to the individual states to fend for themselves for protection. Where the thirteen colonies just finished working together to defeat Great Britain in the Revolutionary War.
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.
Many people tend to believe the end of the Revolutionary War meant the end of all problems in America, but that was not the case. The return to a normal lifestyle after the war was long-awaited and anticipated by just about everyone, as soldiers were reunited with their families and people once again had access to all the things made unavailable during wartime. This boom in morale and economics was however, short lived as the newly established government was faced with paying off the debts to other countries and the soldier who risked their lives for years. This sent many men and their families into debt. In response, veterans joined daniel Shays in a rebellion, known as Shays’s Rebellion, to protect the veterans being punished for not being
Shay’s Rebellion “What country before ever existed without a rebellion?” a quote from Jefferson in document C. Throughout the history of the United States many conflicts and protests have occurred. One of these was Shay’s rebellion and it was caused by the government not paying war veterans their money after fighting in the war. This made the protesters threaten the court that they are going to raid the armory and many people consider them rebels for this. Although many people thought the farmers or war veterans were rebels, nevertheless they are truly freedom fighters because they stood up for what was right, kept the government aware of needs, and were not treated fairly.
Even though the farmers took up arms in the urban towns around Massachusetts, Springfield, Massachusetts was the area most serious revolution. This was the beginning of the end of the uprising named after Daniel Shays (Schultz, 2009). “As stated by Schultz (2009), “Shays’s Rebellion was a warning that the federal government would have to address the problem of debt to prevent a lower-class uprising” (p. 124). The rebellion was about large debts owed by farmers and they were having a difficult time paying them back to their creditors. There were serious issues facing these debts and it led to governmental implications which consisted of officials who made the loans wanted their money immediately so they would not repay their individually.
Shay’s rebellion was a crisis happened in 1780s at rural areas of central and western Massachusetts. At that time, many farmers were bonded to high debt when they started new farm, because of the local government did not handle the economic crisis well, there was no pro-debtor laws (i.e. forgiving debt and print more paper money). They already sent letters to the elected leaders, however, they only getting ignored by the state government, also the national government could not do anything because they had no power under the Articles of Confederation, which had many weaknesses, such as; (1) The national government did not have power to tax, (2) Congress did not have power to forces the states to obey the laws, (3) There was no system of national courts, (4) Congress could declare war and raise army, however it could not force the state
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.
Daniel Shays, an american soldier and farmer organized over a thousand other farmers that followed him on a march to the Springfield Armory in attempt to prevent the Massachusetts Supreme Court from meeting. Even though Shays was defeated by the militia, the rebellion made it known that state and national governments could not stop violence from happening. An immediate effect of this rebellion was the Annapolis Convention. Shays’ Rebellion lead to the Annapolis Convention because a change needed to be made to the Articles to reduce sectional and political violence in America. While Shays’ Rebellion was not successful in its original purpose, it made the framers aware that a change needed to be made in order to further improve the
The rebellion also lead to somewhat of a victory for the farmers, as the tax was repealed years later. Like the Whiskey Rebellion, Shay's Rebellion was also an outcome of unfair taxes. New state taxes were very high because war debts had to be payed off, but farmers weren’t able to afford the taxes. Unlike the Whiskey Tax, these taxes were from the state government and not the federal government and since this rebellion took place in 1787, the Articles of Confederation were still in place. Because of this, a Revolutionary War veteran named Daniel Shay led around 1,200 farmers to an arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts.
During the summer of 1786, all over Massachusetts, Shays held conventions and there lists were made to determine certain demands that were to be delivered to state governors’ leaders in Boston. One of the founding fathers, Samuel Adams, became senate president and one of the first things he did was ban all conventions. After elected he spoke to the public and said “Conventions are not only useless, but dangerous. They served an excellent purpose when they were set up, but no more!” As time went on, Shays started to march along with his followers to bring down the arsenal.
Uniting Americans under one common set of values would strengthen the country and allow for the United States to become the new land of freedom and equality that had been envisioned. Another man famous for questioning what the new ‘America’ was to be was Daniel Shays. In 1787 he, among four other men, speak out against what they saw as the threat of imminent tyranny to Hampshire declaring “… the people of the county of Hampshire immediately assemble in arms, to support and maintain, not only the rights and liberties of the people...” . Still, even with the push for an American nationalism by Federalists, the states saw the federal government as a means for tyranny and complete control over the states. Having just recently fought for their independence from a different tyrannical power, the strong sense of pride for their countrymen and state prompted each state to look inwards for government rather than to a higher power.
As a result, the government gave more power to the states and at the time, the central government was considered as a just a legislature. In 1786, this country was at an economic low. With so much chaos going on, an angry farmer went on a revolt. This was known as Shay’s Rebellion. The revolt was then put down which led to Alexander Hamilton calling for a meeting in Philadelphia.
