Shays' Rebellion
...life. After the War he held a political office in Pelham, Massachusetts but during the beginning of the rebellion his sympathies were with the farmers which is what brought him into the fight.7 The farmers decided that the person who should lead them into rebellion against their own government had to, in the words of a farmer, ”Be a firm leader and a man the is capable of keeping his head in case of emergency and I belive Daniel Shays is that such man.”8 So now the lines were drawn and a leader was picked it was time for action. Shays’ men were restless and wanted to take action. So while they were outside courthouse at Springfield they talked about kidnaping the judges and holding them as hostages. Daniel Shays was doing his best to hold them back. The Massachusetts militia was present but would not defend the judges, court was adjourned and the judges snuck away. Shays’ men then took control of the empty courthouse. Then on a prearranged signal the two groups dismissed. 9 Now after this event, numerous court house throughout the state begin to be held up by other farmers groups inspired by the actions of Shays’ men. For example, the Hampshire Country court, Great Barrington, and Worcester Court of Common Pleas were all held up during the rebellion. Some of these were protested in small groups and other such as Worcester, which had over 5000 people, were done by Shays’ men on a much larger scale.10 Word of a rebellion spend quickly through the state as well as the country. Massachusetts asked the Congress of the Confederation for help but found that once Congress said they would it proved ineffective. They had no way to raise money to field an army to combat the rebels because of the lack of national taxes.11 This rebellion demonstrated that the central government could not protect the citizenry from armed rebellion or provide adequately for the public welfare.”12 With tensions and fears growing within the citizens of Massachusetts something had to be done to put this insurrection to an end. James Bowdoin, Governor of Massachusetts, decided to take matters into his own hands. With his own funds and the funds of other merchant leaders Governor Bowdoin fielded an army under the command of General Lincoln to put down the rebellion.13 During Shays’ second advance on Springfield in which he planned to storm the arsenal he and his men were met by General Shepard and the militia. General Lincoln and his army were still on the way from Boston. During the confrontation an unexpected shot from a cannon was sent into the ranks of the rebels killing 4 and wounding 20. Shays’ men retreated in disarray, pursued by Lincoln’s governmental soldiers.14 Most of the men that were captured were pardoned right away. However, The Supreme Judicial Court soon sentenced fourteen of the rebellion’s leaders, including Shays, to death for treason. They were later pardoned by the newly elected Governor John Hancock. Only two men were hanged for their part in the Rebellion.15 So after all the fighting is done was anything really solved? Rebellion and the Constitution The rebels primary plan was not one to show the need for national supremacy and a new constitution. “We did not intend to destroy law, but only to reform all those laws which were oppressive” said one Shaysite farmer.16 The Importance of Shays’ Rebellion was not so much the acts of rebellion themselves but how it pointed out the weakness of the Articles of Confederation for governing the United States. In order to prevent such anarchy in the future and to strengthen the central government, the Philadelphia Convention convened to draft the Constitution in the spring of 1787, just a short time after the end of Shays’ Rebellion. For example, in the very first part of our present day Constitution called the preamble it states “ to ensure domestic tranquility”.17 This is a definite “red flag” that Shays’ Rebellion was on the minds of many delegates at the convention. Some localists accepted the necessity for a stronger national government. The resulting union of American leaders originated at least in part from the domestic upheavals taking place in 1786 and 1787. To the nationalists, Shays’ Rebellion reflected the overall inadequacy of a political system dominated by semi sovereign states. Prolonged domestic conflict in Massachusetts, one of the most respected and influential states in the Confederation, disclosed the vulnerability of individual states in the loose-knit union. For Nationalist-minded leaders such as George Washington, no “stronger evidence” could be given “of the want of energy in our governments than these disorders.”18 Another concern was the right of each state to coin its own money. The problems that Congress had with this is that the value of money in each state was different. This made interstate commerce very difficult and in turn creating a country of separate islands. At the Constitutional Congre...