Shays Rebellion Research Paper

Many people have questioned why the founding fathers implemented the use of the electoral college process and a good assumption would be that the they were quite intentional in rejecting a direct election process mindset and we also have to take into account that as they were crafting our entire constitution. They established the Electoral College in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. They were not trying to create a pure democracy, but had the difficult issue of having to incorporate

It does provide a separation of government in the voting process to ensure the prevention of corruption. It also helps to make a more level playing field ensuring that a president doesn’t win do to the high population and domination of votes due to a certain U.S. region. Electoral College also helps to determine a clearer winner with a “winner takes all” approach for each state and gives minority groups a bigger influence in votes. This helps give the smaller states as much of a voice as the bigger states. Lastly, it facilitates a two-party system of Democrats vs. Republican creating a generalized platform and creates more stability in choosing a

Though our founding fathers created the Electoral College over 200 years ago, it has been changed with time to accommodate modern needs and is still an important and necessary part of our electoral system. The Electoral College ensures political stability in our nation by encouraging the two-party system and also protects the interests of minorities. Furthermore, the Electoral College helps maintain a united country by requiring widespread popular support of a candidate in order for him or her to become president.

It was created to allow all citizens to participate in elections directly while also giving smaller states some leverage and weight in the presidential elections. The electoral college also allowed constituents a chance to participate directly in the election for chief executive by voting for the electors, or people selected by citizens to cast electoral votes in the presidential elections. It also allowed for the smaller, less populated states to have more pull in the presidential election than they would if the president was simply elected by popular vote.

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

The Electoral College is also an example of a plan implemented by the Framers that does not always uphold the common interests of the people. While many reasons are cited as to why the Framers chose this system, two stand out as being most prominent: They were concerned about representation for small states, and they wanted a precautionary system to ensure that the official who took the oath of President was indeed able to sufficiently perform these duties. Electors were supposed to vote with the majority decision of their state, but there was no law saying they had to. The latter of the two explanations is most undemocratic, although the Electoral College system is

After reading an excerpt from Daniel Gray’s verbalization, I accede that Shays “Rebellion” was a fight for liberation. First of all, one of the reasons the people decided to revolt is the money from taxes wasn’t used to pay off the peregrine debt. In document A, the text states, “Instead it is being used to pay off investments that are held by wealthy

Our Founding Fathers had great concern over the topic of the government obtaining too much power over the people and with that in mind they constructed a system of indirect election where citizens would choose an elector. That system would distant the citizens from directly electing the president, avoiding any possibility to create tyranny. Their fears were about whether citizens could exercise the best judgement and their capability to fully understand and make good choices in voting. They did not want a group to go off in the wrong direction and take control over others. They thought that a chosen group of more educated and elite individuals elected by the people would be able to better interpret the situation and exercise better judgement. In a way, they were trying to safeguard democracy by instituting the Electoral College as the method to elect our presidents.

When the Framers began working on the Constitution, they wanted to create a government which could survive centuries with minimal changes. One of the most important ideas the Framers included in the Constitution was the Electoral College. They believed it to be very important because it would prevent the direct election of a president. As Hamilton explained, “the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station”(Federalist 68). This means that the Framers did not trust the people of the U.S. to make smart decisions on their own and wanted a way to control the voting. This was because the Framers feared that a charismatic leader could persuade a population of his views and end up creating a dictatorship. By using the Electoral College, the Framers believed that it would insure that a qualified person would take office. Another reason that the Framers created the Electoral College was to give smaller states more power. The Framers made it so that each state would have the same number of electoral votes as members in congress. This satisfied the smaller states. It meant that each person's’ vote in smaller states counted for more than those who lived in larger states. Overall, the Electoral college was put into place as a safety net for

When the system of government was finally decided on, our founding fathers understood the importance of the balance of power within the three branches of the government. They called this system checks and balances. This system was set up to ensure that the government would remain loyal to the people and loyal to their states (Hamilton). In The Federalist Papers, No. 68, Alexander Hamilton discusses the importance of having the president elected by the Electoral College. He said that in order to ensure that we do not end up with the same problems that America had with the monarch of England, it was important that the balance of power was spread throughout the government and that no one portion have too much power.

The Coercive Acts were the next challenge to the colonists sense of free will. These acts ignited conflicts across the colonies. These acts affected almost all aspects of life, from taxation to social and political factors. The Coercive Acts mainly consisted of five separate policies. The first act was the Boston Port Act, which effectively closed the port of Boston. This caused famine in Eastern Massachusetts, leading colonies to unite out of necessity, as the Boston population

    There have been multiple arguments for and against the electoral college, but many of them focus on the historical basis. Mainly on the reasons that the college was invented in the first place. To recap, the electoral college was written in the constitution in Article II, Section I. It stated how the U.S. president would be

There is a way however to keep the electoral college by just reforming it. In the state of Carolina the person running for president gets all the electoral votes for that state if they win the popular vote over all. This is known as the “Winner takes all.” Now if all states where like this then it would make election more fair and gives the people more power to elect the president and politics would then actually work to try and win the popular vote instead of letting 6 states elect the leader of The United States of America. This why the Electoral College needs to go or be reformed.

The actions of Shay’s Rebellion did not go too far. Many farmers in Western Massachusetts were previously soldiers in the Continental Army. These farmers were now being met with unfair demands from Massachusetts merchants. When they could not live up to the demands, their land and possessions were taken and they could be thrown in jail. Many farmers such as Daniel Shay were previous members on the Continental Army, in which they received little pay for their contributions.

In 1770 there was an event where Lobsterbacks shot and killed American colonist in a mob with bayonets, this event is known as The Boston Massacre. In March of 1774 the Coercive or Intolerable Acts where placed on the colonies by Britain. The idea of the Coercive Acts for the colonies was to enrage the colonist after they had dumped all the tea into the harbor during the Boston Tea party. The act was placed on all legal documents and papers.