Significance of Shay's Rebellion

When the founders were creating the Constitution for the new nation they wanted to keep the freedoms of the United States but wanted to have a strong government. They thought the best way to get a strong government but to keep the people’s rights were to create the three branches of government. The three branches of government are Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch. Legislative makes laws, Executive enforces the laws, and the Judicial branch explains the laws. Know we will key on the Legislative Branch.

To prevent from one branch of government having all power, and therefore having tyranny, (Madison FP # 47) Checks and Balances was added to the defenses of the constitution. There are three branches of government: Legislative Branch (Congress), Executive Branch (President), and Judicial Branch (The Courts). These three branches work together to check one another to make sure the power is evenly distributed and balanced, hence the name Checks and Balances. The way it works is that the Legislative Branch (Congress) can check the Executive Branch (President) by approving Presidential nominations, being able to override a President’s veto, and can impeach the President, him or her, from office. The Legislative Branch can check the Judicial Branch by having Senate confirm Presidential nominations and by being able to impeach judges and remove them from office. The President can check the Legislative Branch by vetoing Congressional legislation, and can check the Judicial Branch by nominating judges. The Judicial Branch can check the Legislative Branch by declaring laws unconstitutional, and can check the Executive Branch by declaring presidential acts unconstitutional. (Madison FP # 51) All three branches of government work together to make sure no branch is abusing their limited power, by using the system Checks and

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

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

Each branch is staffed separately, with their equality and independence protected by the Constitution (O’Connor &Sabato, 2018, p. 28). As a result of this division of power, each branch has a different primary function. The legislative branch creates laws, the executive branch enforces laws, and the judicial branch interprets laws. Although this system is in place, each branch of government has a role in the other, a sort of interdependency. The checks and balances system was created so that each of the three branches of government could have some control and say over the other branches’ actions. In addition, the Framers created this system in order to eliminate the possibility of any one branch infringing on the rights of the people. For example, the legislative branch has the power to impeach the president and can propose constitutional amendments to override judicial decisions. The executive branch can veto a legislation and has the power to appoint federal judges. Finally, the judicial branch can rule federal and state laws unconstitutional, and can declare executive branch actions

“I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing” (Jefferson). Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in a letter to James Madison after hearing about Shay’s Rebellion while he was a foreign diplomat in Paris. After the rebellion happened, the “Shaysites” as they were called, were labeled as traitors to their country and the democratic form of government. But were they really? Many of the men fighting in the rebellion felt that they were being oppressed just as they had been under British rule.

Throughout 1786 and 1787, Shays' Rebellion, a series of protests by American farmers against local enforcement, spread through South Carolina, Maine, Connecticut, New York and New Hampshire, but nowhere were the protests as strong as in Massachusetts. Massachusetts got the worst of the Rebellion because they had bad harvests, economic depression, new laws, West Indies trade, and high taxes due to Revolutionary War debts. Shays' Rebellion was led by a former Captain of the Continental Army, named Daniel Shays.

The judicial branch also has the job of deciding the application of a law and protecting laws form passing that are unconstitutional. Another separation of power was put into place in the legislative branch to solve the problem of big states vs small states. This problem would be solved by having two parts of congress, the senate and the House of Representatives. The senate would consist of two representatives or senators from each state, while the house representatives would vary from state to state according to population. The small states were happy in the senate because they had the same say as larger states, whereas in the house, larger states were happy because they had more votes. This protected against tyranny because not one state or representative could gain absolute power. Having three branches with separate powers defends against tyranny simply because instead of having one power such as the king of England, who made all of the decisions, there are multiple parts of the government working together to come to an agreeable solution. (Document B, D)

These three branches were intended to be regulated by a system of checks and balances that would prevent any of the branches from being in a position of too much authority. Compared to the Articles, the Constitution’s national government was significantly stronger. The legislature was made up of a lower chamber, also known as the Senate, based on equal representation while the upper chamber, also known as the House of Representatives, was population-based. Congress now had the authority to levy taxes through the lower chamber. The executive branch, another component to the national government, was made up of the president and officials they appointed in the executive department. The executive would act as a check on the legislature through the power of the veto. The judicial branch was made up of the Supreme Court and all federal courts created by Congress. The Supreme Court was given the final jurisdiction to resolve disputes in the governments at the state and national level as well as the ability to declare national laws “supreme” through the supremacy clause. The new structure to the national government was more stable than the one established in the Articles of Confederation and remain in use for several

The Rebellion was a result of long-standing and increasing disaffection with State and Federal governments by farmers and others affected by tax and debt imbalances resulting from the falling out with Britain after the Revolutionary War. Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led a group of rebels in rising up first against Massachusetts' courts, and later in marching on the United States' Federal Armory at

Deference played a crucial role in early American politics and was seen as key to the republic. The framers of the Constitution bore the notion of deference, submissiveness or subordination to social elites, in mind and firmly believed that the American public would behave in such a manner. However, by early 19th century, it is clear that deferential political behavior has declined. Two major causes arguably of this decline are the Revolutionary War and later, the Sedition Act.

#3. Why did the USA Constitution replace the Articles of Confederation? The United States Constitution was duly nicknamed The Bundle of Compromises because it was just that, a collection compromises. After the thirteen American colonies declared independence from Great Britain there was a need to form a stronger union and government in order to be successful in their campaign.

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.

The end of the Revolution was not the end of political turmoil in the United States. In the years following the Revolution, political parties were forming and disbanding which then led to rebellions starting. The future of what the country looked like was seen differently by each political faction. All of the conflicting views of American politics began to manifest into governmental affairs because of the imposed tax on distilled spirits made by the federal government to pay off the nation’s debts from the American Revolution. This tax was only to be paid in cash, which was particularly hard on the small frontier farmers because of the fact that they bartered and did not have access to currency. Protests ran by frontiersmen occurred because

I believe Jefferson would likely support modern day protests because of his letter about Shay’s rebellion and the evidence found from the Declaration of Independence. For example, in his letter about Shay’s rebellion, an example of the text is, “And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let the people take arms. The remedy is to present them with the facts, pardon and pacify them.” According to the text, it shows that in order to know if the country’s rules are working, they must be notified by their people. This shows that Jefferson believes that the people should protest to show their perspective on the laws set upon them. To add on, another