Compare And Contrast Shay's Rebellion

Daniel Shays led a rebellion after the U.S. went into economic depression. This caused the Massachusetts government to seize several farms and sell them to re-gain profits. Shays led a mob of 1,000 enraged Massachusetts farmers to get weaponry from a state warehouse in August 1786. The rebellion was a fail because Shays and other fellow comrades were arrested. All in all, Daniel Shays led a rebellion because many farmers plots of land were taken and sold for profit.

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. It brought 5 states together to attend the Annapolis Convention. The Annapolis Convention was a meeting to address the problems of the Articles. Which made the Articles Congress see that revisions to the Articles of Confederation were necessary. The Articles Congress agreed and called for the Philadelphia Convention

The events and ideas that led to the belief in 1786 and 1787 that the Articles of Confederation was not working well, was the fact that America did not have a president, Congress did not have the power to collect taxes, and every state had its own money. The nation did not have a president and the actions of Congress could not be enforced. Since the states were self-governing, they did what they believed was best for the state and not the country. Congress did not have the authority to create laws and states had to approve laws in order for them to be passed.

Shayś Rebellious Ways Shay and his followers were a group of farmers out to no good. After the American revolution, the US was without money, so they raised taxes. Farmers who couldn 't pay were thrown in jail so a rebellion started. Shay and about 1,500 farmers stole weapons and fought. Some people say that the people in Shay 's Rebellion were freedom fighters, nevertheless Shay and his followers were rebels because they protested violently, caused chaos in the country, and were criminals.

had major issues that lead to exposure of problems through, what could have been, dangerous events like Shay’s Rebellion. Although crushed before it could do substantial damage to the country, this group of 300 men exposed some serious problems with the A of C. Some of these include the government not having a standing army, and the fact the the national government couldn’t levy taxes. Under the Articles, the states had these powers under the idea that a weak Federal government was best. One of the first privileges discussed was shown in Document 1 (letter from James Madison to George Washington). It is stated that “the national government should be armed with positive and complete authority in all cases which require uniformity; such as the regulation of trade, including the right of taxing both exports and imports, the fixing of terms and forms of naturalization….”

The Articles of Confederation were put into effect to form some semblance of a central government, to keep peace between the states and to keep individual states from conducting foreign diplomacy on their own. Unfortunately the articles were flawed and gave the existing government little to no power. Federalism was the number one weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Without a separation of powers this type of government was bound to fail. Levying taxes was a much needed change to the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation were very weak. One weakness of the Articles of Confederation were that Congress could not tax the colonists, “...did not give the national

Settlers in the 18th century American frontier would at times resort to violent protests to express their political and social distress as a result, political, social, and economic reform followed.

The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.

Congress could not enforce states to pay taxes. In many cases when Congress asked states for taxes for military reasons, the states would not pay anything. Due to the lack of taxes, many War Veterans from the Revolutionary Army who were promised payment from the Government were barely given anything back, this ultimately lead to protests and rebellions. Congress could not do anything about these rebellions and protests because of their lack of funding from the states, and control over the states, so the States ultimately had to deal with this themselves. The United States then quickly made the new Constitution which balanced the power between the State and Congress.

The U.S. Constitution signed September 1787, not only unified America as one nation, but it also enriched America’s core structure of government on a national scale. One cannot ignore the significant disunion that existed during the time of the Articles of Confederation. Due to the fact that the states were allowed to act like independent countries, Congress had insufficient power to make and enforce laws or collect taxes. Both the national government and individual states had acquired a substantial amount of debt due to the cost of the American Revolution and needed the means to pay for it. The main source of government revenue became tariffs imposed by each state.

Settlers in the Western parts of the Unites States during the eighteenth century, sometimes looked to violent protest to express their grievances of political, economic, and social issues. The March of the Paxon Boys, Regulator Movement, Shay’s Rebellion, and The Whiskey Rebellion were all examples of settlers expressing their grievances.

Document A: The Rhode Island Assembly wrote a letter to the Congress, addressing them that they don’t agree with placing taxes on imported goods. The Congress wanted to place taxes on imported goods as a source of income, but first, all of the states had to agree with this. This was around the time when the Articles of Confederation were ratified. Their central government was based on the Articles of Confederation; yet, they had weaknesses in some areas. Taxing was one of their weaknesses.

It was affecting the farmers the most in that they were going into debt quickly and they would be imprisoned if they could not pay off their debts, also the large tax they had to pay. In the month of February there was a rebellion against the court to change and handle these problems. Shays was a leader of one of the militias, but not the leader of all the groups. The leaders were sentenced to death, but Shays made a petition and they got pardoned. Through these actions is what made the government replace the Articles of Confederation and create a strong national

Shay's Rebellion in 1786 took a while to put down. There was no army to break them up and the system that kept the poor, poor was breaking down through its promised contracts. Then a year later a strong central government was made to put a stop to the rebellions and control the people. This new constitution offered little and exclusive rights as a pacifier to stop further rebellions.