SHAYS’S REBELLION AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION Essay -- Essays Papers

SHAYSS REBELLION AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION Introduction Although no. widely known, Shayss Rebellion greatly impacted the debate on sovereignty and led many to conclude that the only possible solution was the centralization of power in a national authority. Historian John Garraty notes, The lessons became plain license must not become an excuse for license and at that placefore greater authority must be vested in the central government.1 While this effect was not the rebels intended goal, Shayss Rebellion helped shape the construction of the U.S. Constitution and the American political thought that has since followed. An analysis of both the causes and effects of Shayss Rebellion highlights its percentage to the demise of the Articles of Confederation and the ratification of the Constitution.What was Shayss Rebellion? In the winter of 1786-1787, many farmers protesting the foreclosure of their farms took up arms and stormed county courthouses across M assachusetts. All over New England, there existed a growing frustration with the American postwar situation under the Articles of Confederation. Massachusetts farmers disconnection from the Boston government rendered the situation more volatile than anywhere else. Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont instituted harsh laws to stem the growth of insurrection. But inland Massachusetts was so heavily agrarian that the rebellion gathered steam.2 Backcountry farmers banded together in mobs of up to one thousand men and marched to different cities, rioting in front of prominent shops and courthouses in order to make their frustrations heard. The rebellion is named after Daniel Shays, a former officer in the Contine... ...9415 Szatmary 10316 Kenney17 Marion L. Starkey, A Little Rebellion (New York Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1955), xiv.18 Richards 6719 Richard D. Brown, Shayss Rebellion and Its Aftermath A View from Springfield, Massachusetts, 1787, The William and Mary Q uarterly 40, no. 4 (1983), 598-615.20 Harpers Monthly Magazine 66021 Harpers Monthly Magazine 66122 Starkey 23523 Houston Chronicle, Side by side memorials tell both sides of 1787 Shays Rebellion, 6 February, 1987, 8.24 Kenney25 Robert A. Feer, Shayss Rebellion and the Constitution A Study in Causation, The New England Quarterly 42, no. 3 (1969), 388-410.26 Szatmary 12327 Houston Chronicle28 Starkey 24229 Jackson30 Jonathan Clark, The tree of liberty refreshed, The Times, 28 November 1996, 1.