Shay's Rebellion Dbq Essay

In the late 1700’s, it was America’s goal to create a republic that had a representative government that was based upon the approval of the people. Unfortunately, the people feared a strong central government because of the previous trouble the colonies had when they were ruled by Britain. They were always being unfairly taxed and had very few rights. In order to avoid this, a very weak government was developed that seemed to satisfy the people, but would not satisfy the well being of the country. It wasn’t until Shay’s rebellion which brought light to the fact that the Articles of Confederation were not going to cut it, so the Constitutional Convention was created and convened to find an alternative solution which was the creation of the Constitution.

This despised action caused a turning point in government at the time because of Shay’s rebellion. Thanks to Daniel Shays, whom was one of many fed up with the weak articles, they finally came to an end during the constitutional convention which was composed of representatives from each state except Rhode Island. The convention, for the most part, was all for giving the power back to the national government so the issues of taxation and foreign commerce could be better handled. This newfound power the government was about to have was going to be based off the newly written fundamental laws called the constitution. First, the convention had to decipher between two ideas about representation, the Virginia Plan or the New Jersey plan. The Virginia Plan proposed getting rid of the articles all together which would give congress the power to legislate with a two house legislature and would be votes would be based off the population of the state. The New Jersey plan on the other hand wanted to tweak the articles, wanted only a one house legislature, and only allowed each state one vote. Between the two, a compromise was made known simply as the Great Compromise. The issue of representation was solved because a two house legislature was decided upon, the senate would represent the states and the house of representative would be responsible for representing the people equally. Now that the government

With these new laws, fair taxes could be put into place that would allow them to raise revenue that would not only help the well being of the country, but would raise money for war if needed. **Not only was Shay’s rebellion a turning point in the history of the government, but it created knowledge for future leaders on how to avoid similar disturbances. For example, just shortly after Shay’s rebellion, the Whiskey rebellion took place which was a revolt because of unfair taxes placed in distilled whiskey. Thanks to the new constitution, the Washington administration, which included members of the cabinet, was able to negotiate peace with the help of military force, overall derailing the possible recurrence of the blood Shay’s