Shays' Rebellion

During the Confederation period, the young American nation was in economic and political chaos. The new nation had to rebuild its economy without the benefit of belonging to the British mercantile system. America was desperately short on hard cash. This was due to the sudden renewal of British trade. Hard currency was leaving faster than it was coming into the country.

This combined with the war debt both on the national and state level helped to increase public anxiety over the nation's economy. States like Massachusetts attempted to pay off their creditors by raising taxes and implementing import duties on all incoming goods. These taxes would be a cause of contention because Americans hated taxes, particularly direct taxes. In fact, taxation was one of the leading causes of the American Revolution.

The framers of the Articles of Confederation deliberately forbade the Congress the power to collect direct taxes on income and property. The major obstacle in the Articles of Confederation was the States were 'asked' to pay to the Federal government the monies needed to pay the 'war debt' and for the running of the federal government. But the issue was that the federal had no 'power' to force the 'States' to pay. The Federal could enforce impost's, duties and excise taxes, (indirect taxes), but no direct taxes to the people.

The states maintained the power of direct taxes. Which they still hold the only power to enforce today. Thus, when the states like Massachusetts, needed to raise money to pay off their war debts, they levied direct taxes on property and attempted to collect them by methods and practices that were an anathema to their poorer citizens. This affected the farmers and small landowners the most. In Massachusetts, this problem came to a boiling point in August of 1786, with the outbreak of Shays' Rebellion. This rebellion would last until February 1787 with the capture of Shays and his followers by loyal State militiamen.

Shay's Rebellion, led by Daniel Shays, was a protest over these overburdening direct taxes which caused other economic problems faced by farmers of Western Massachusetts. Being unable to pay their debt, because the paper currency then in circulation was worthless, and because of the political power wheeled by the states. The State could take 'all' your property if you owed any taxes, even those taxes far less then the worth of your land. Thus, they lost their land to foreclosures and confiscation by the state government.

When the news of the insurrection spread, it had caused conservatives everywhere to shudder. They saw this rebellion as one step closer to tyranny and outright anarchy. The rebellion more than anything emphasized the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and that the states were too democratic in nature. This Rebellion is one of the main reason's that then farmer George Washington decided to return to the service of his countrymen, Shay and others being former officers and close friends under his command during the Revolution, accepted the request to Chair the Constitutional Convention to be held in Philadelphia.

The shown weaknesses of the national government to collect monies to pay the debt of the whole, helped the nationalist to call for a strong central government, capable of solving the economical and political problems of the nation. The Philadelphia convention would take place in the spring of 1787. The Constitution of the United States was outlined at this convention. As it went around the States for ratification the important first ten Amendments, known as the 'Bill of Rights' were added. The Bill of Rights are the only Amendments that cannot be, or have been, changed. One of these Rights again guaranteed that the federal government could not 'direct tax' the people of the United States, but this time they could by Apportionment (the actual count of each person in each state) enforce each state to pay their portion of the debt of the United States as a whole. The States could gather, by direct tax if necessary, and would 'have' to pay the tax to the federal government.

Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising that took place in central and western Massachusetts in 1786 and 1787. The rebellion was named afterDaniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and one of the rebel leaders.

The rebellion started on August 29, 1786. It was precipitated by several factors: financial difficulties brought about by a post-war economic depression, a credit squeeze caused by a lack of hard currency, and fiscally harsh government policies instituted in 1785 to solve the state's debt problems. Protesters, including many war veterans, shut down county courts in the later months of 1786 to stop the judicial hearings for tax and debt collection. The protesters became radicalized against the state government following the arrests of some of their leaders, and began to organize an armed force. Amilitia raised as a private army defeated a Shaysite (rebel) attempt to seize the federal Springfield Armory in late January 1787, killing four and wounding 20. The main Shaysite force was scattered on February 4, 1787, after a surprise attack on their camp in Petersham, Massachusetts. Scattered resistance continued until June 1787, with the single most significant action being an incident in Sheffield in late February, where 30 rebels were wounded (one mortally) in a skirmish with government troops.

The rebellion took place in a political climate where reform of the country's governing document, the Articles of Confederation, was widely seen as necessary. The events of the rebellion, most of which occurred after the Philadelphia Convention had been called but before it began in May 1787, are widely seen to have affected the debates on the shape of the new government. The exact nature and consequence of the rebellion's influence on the content of the Constitution and the ratification debates continues to be a subject of historical discussion and debate.