Confederation Problems

The March of the Paxton Boys, Regulator Movement, Shay’s rebellion, and the Whiskey rebellion were violent byproducts of young America’s struggle with democracy to express the people’s grievances in the eighteenth century, notably those who lived in the backcountries such as farmers.

Everyone knows that the Constitution is one of the most important documents in American history, but many people have never heard of Daniel Shays. Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran turned farmer, lived in Western Massachusetts after the war. He had planned on retiring from his military life from which he had fought for the ideals of the revolution. However, he was drawn back into military life fighting against the very government he battled to create.

Instead, most money was in the hands of a few families and businesses who saved or invested rather than spent their money on American goods. Supply became greater than demand on products. Certain people profited, but many others did not. As a result of this, prices went up and Americans could not spare the money for many goods. While the wealth in America was not being distributed evenly, and overspeculation of the stock market led to a lack of confidence, the United States began to fall into a deep depression that would last until the beginning of World War II (Gupta).

The actions of the members of the Shay’s Rebellion were justified because state officials took their land, to pay their own debt. Shay’s Rebellion was a fight against government control. The country after the Revolutionary War was severely damaged especially in the trade market. The British cut off trades in the West Indies market crippling the economy. Due to the poor economy the farmers had difficulty selling their products and being able to pay the money requested to the government to pay off their war debts. This enabled the states to take the farmers’ land to pay the state's debts. Shay’s Rebellion, although dangerous the rebellion wanted to force the government to making their own money and create new policies in order to pay off the

The Regulators were a group of around four thousand rebels rising up against economic injustices in Massachusetts. They called themselves the Regulators in reference to the Regulator movement in North Carolina opposed to the taxation and fee system imposed by corrupt colonial officials in the late 1960s. Shays’ Regulators aimed to end aggressive tax and debt collection enforced by corrupt political officials and cronyism. It was possible for the Regulators and their opponents to have fought together in the Revolutionary War because at the time they both had the same goal, freedom from harsh British rule. Unforeseen post-war debt, aided by an unstable government caused the rift between the two groups interpretations of

The soldiers lined up, facing the crowd to try and dissolve the problem but the people were not backing down. Bostonians continued to taut the soldiers, yelling at them to fire their weapons. Not long after, shots were fired killing five Bostonians and wounding six others. The big question still unanswered today is whether or not Captain Preston yelled for the soldiers to fire or not.

Gordon sums up the American economic history in six chapters of his book. He explains that the United States had taken on huge debts following to the American Revolution. In order to pay such debts back, Hamilton created the federal bank and convinced the Congress to issue federal bonds. This way the federal government could make interest payments on time, build credit and keep the inflation from rising. Hamilton thought that the national debt could be a useful tool in order to create capital for the new industries. In his book, Gordon also recalls that soon after the 1812 War the seventh President of the United States cleared the government debts thanks to surpluses deriving from high tariffs. Then, he explains that the introduction of the first Federal income tax in America during the Civil Was turned out to be crucial in order to investigate how to distribute the tax

In order to understand the War of 1812, one must consider the post-revolutionary effects of the American Revolution. The United States accrued 52 million dollars of national debt in addition to the 25 million dollars debt of the individual states. Secondly, politically division swept the United States. The Federalist supported a strong federal government, tariffs and subsidies, and the establishment of a national bank to regulate the economy. As broad constructionist, Article 1 section 8 of the constitution as the foundation of the

In the book “Shays’ Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-revolutionary America”, Sean Condon shows us his outlook on how he saw post-revolutionary America to be within the late 1770’s and 1780’s. This book was released in 2015 by John Hopkins University Press, and was also made in a continuing book series by Peter Charles Hoffer and Willamjames Hull Hofer called Witness to History. The story takes us "Throughout the late summer and fall of 1786, farmers in central and western Massachusetts organized themselves into armed groups to protest against established authority and aggressive creditors. Calling themselves "regulators" or the "voice of the people.”” [1] Condon succeeds by prosing an appealing idea in an upfront style that shapes

After the Revolutionary War the United States had a massive debt to deal with, but because of the Articles of Confederation the federal government could not raise taxes to pay off the debt (Blake). States were responsible

After coming out of the Great Depression the United States could not afford to be in anymore debt. From purchasing guns, ammunitions, aircrafts, and warships, the debt was rising dramatically. While the American public supported the troops, the cost of the war would affect America for years to come.

Lincoln’s army attacked once more and captured over 150 rebels (Lester). The remaining men of Shays’ army disbanded and fled the area. The Regulator army was poorly trained, and did not have nearly enough men or artillery to fight the opposing army. The fight at Petersham occurred on February 4, 1787, and is now considered as the day Shays’ rebellion came to an end (Murphy).

As mentioned above, the immigrants dominated the political scene, influencing decisions unfairly at the expense of the local planters. Merchants offered loans to planters at high interest rates, and sometimes, it was difficult for the planters to repay their loans. As a result, the merchants collaborated with lawyers within the region to grab land from planters if they failed to repay these loans. Additionally, the immigrants influenced the authorities, thereby making it difficult for the farmers to gain support from their own leaders and the government that thay were greatly depending on.

As mentioned above, the immigrants dominated the political scene, influencing decisions unfairly at the expense of the local planters. Merchants offered loans to planters at high interest rates, and sometimes, it was difficult for the planters to repay their loans. As a result, the merchants collaborated with lawyers within the region to grab land from planters if they failed to repay these loans. Additionally, the immigrants influenced the authorities, thereby making it difficult for the farmers to gain support from their own leaders and the government that thay were greatly depending on.

The national government of the United States had many challenges under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles caused money problems and the most essential detail, a weak government. This also caused America conflicts among each of the 13 states. These problems greatly impacted the United States and it’s government as well.