How Did The Articles Of Confederation Lead To Shay's Rebellion

The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the

In May 1787, the Founding Fathers, who were made up of 55 delegates from one of the 13 states besides Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia for what would come to be called the Constitutional Convention [BRE]. When they met they intended to fix the consitution that was already in place, which was called the Articles of Confederation. This document had many weaknesses which ultimatly led to its downfall: it only had a legislative branch, so it could not hold trials or enforce laws, it could not raise taxes (it was able to raise money, however to do this the legislative branch had to ask the states for funds), it could not draft an army, so the federal government would have to use state militia, it could not control interstate or foreign commmerce,

Drafted in 1777 and later ratified in 1781, The Articles of Confederation created a very weak central government and just about left the 13 colonies to govern and rule themselves. It was extremely weak for a number of reasons,*1 One major reason being that the government did not have the power to tax the states and another reason was the fact that laws required a 9/13 vote to pass in congress. The Articles of Confederation made it so power was distributed between each individual colony, who then had powerful state governments. While these were just a fraction of the things that caused the Articles of Confederation to be inadequate, surprisingly this is in fact what the states wanted, a national government with less power. *2 “The fights

Shortly after America gained independence from England, Americans were faced with the trouble of setting up a strong central government. Several delegates representing their respective states were called to the Continental Congress, where they decided to put together a constitution for the new nation. Delegates agreed that the powers of the government must be limited, so that they wouldn’t resemble the British government. The constitution created by the Congress became known as the Articles of Confederation (1777). Although the government under the Articles of Confederation proved to be useful in establishing western lands, they provided an ineffective form of government due to the economic failures that plagued America.

After the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States had a major task ahead of them. While satisfying the people and insure success of economic demands and their nation as a whole, It is clear that The Articles of Confederation had many more weaknesses than strengths. This is mostly because the Articles of Confederation gave a lot of power to the states and not enough to the central government. Basically, they created a system which the nations could not work well together as one. The Articles of Confederation were indeed the first system of government that was proposed and put into effect. This attempt at creating a system that protected the people from a strong centralized government ultimately failed, yet set a precedent for the next trial, to create a stronger, more effective, government plan. After realizing this was a failure, the country had to regroup and create a stronger government.

Originally drafted in 1776, the Articles of Confederation served as being the nation's first constitution. This document instituted the United States as a sovereign nation; however, it proved to be inadequate. Lacking facilitation of an executive or judiciary branch, with no ability to raise revenue and no power to amend the Articles without unanimous state support, the federal government was not strong enough. The Articles of Confederation served to demonstrate to the delegates what short comings needed modification.

The Articles of Confederation was America's first set of laws, it created a government with most of its power given to the states, therefore having a weak national government. It contained no national court, military defense, power to tax the states effectively, and zero power to regulate commerce; giving the states too much power. The weakness within the AoC was revealed through Shays rebellion, in which farmers in western Massachusetts protested mortgage foreclosures - since the central government could not get an army together to stop the rebellion, so state military had to stop it. With this and other events, it was clear that a new document was needed to balance powers, the Constitution was drafted, but brought with it the overpowering of the federal government.

The Articles of Confederation was slow paced by its success from its terror of the central authority and broad land takers by other places since it was approved on this date of March 1, 1781. Between these situations, The states lasted independant, also as congress helping as one of the fewest spots on appeal of conflicts. Congress also received the force to design bargains and truces, manage armed forces and coin money. Although, the essential government required the qualification to fee taxes and classify commerce, problems that followed to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 for the formation of current federal laws. The U.S Constitution settled America’s national government and crucial laws, and insured positive basic rights for

The reasoning for the rebellion was that a lot of the farmers in our country, specifically those located in Massachusetts, had decided that they were not being treated fairly. Most everyone who joined on Shay’s side were poor farmers who could not afford to pay their taxes. Therefore, they were angered by their personal debts. These

The Articles of Confederation were the first written constitution of the United States and were adopted by Congress on November 15, 1777. Although their purpose was to unite the colonies, the Articles were more of a failure than a success. There were many weaknesses that overthrew the strengths in the Articles. The three weaknesses were, they didn’t have a tax base, it didn’t promote a good military program, and ⅔ majority needed to pass a law therefore, this created a very weak centralized government.

The actions and members of Shay’s Rebellion would do almost anything to get what that wanted and that passion is what won us the Revolutionary. This is the reason why they had the right to do what they did. All of what they did started like this. Farmers were suffering because they could not sell their goods. This lead to them not being able to pay the money to help the Revolutionary war debts. Since farmers could not pay this money state officials took their land to pay for debts. Another thing that the state officials did was throw innocent farmers in jail because they could not pay the money. After this protests soon evolved and a Rebellion formed. Farmer thought the government was the same as what the King did. Farmers pleaded for new money

The men to whom the state owed money had great influence in legislator because many of them were either a part of it or had relatives who were. This caused the legislator to rule in favor of higher taxes to quickly pay back war debts with little consideration for farmers who were already struggling to pay back personal debt. Many farmers were forced to sell land, animals and machinery to pay back their debts which made greatly reduced their profits. Many other farmers were taken to court for debts they could not pay back and some were thrown in to debtors prisons. Originally farmers tried to work through the legislator asking for them to lower taxes and to print more paper money but the legislator met again and again each time ignoring the farmer’s requests. In 1782, Samuel Ely, a preacher gathered farmers together in Western Massachusetts and targeted the court house he was arrested but the spark was ignited. Steep inflation and a depression continued to make things economically hard for farmers and more and more were facing court penalties for being unable to pay debts. In 1786 a countywide convention was held to organize their grievances against the Massachusetts

The Articles of Confederation were created as a loose binding of the colonies whilst they declared their independence from Britain, the document in itself worked well on paper, but when applied to an expanding nation that needed more intensive unification and strategic organization, the articles failed greatly. It didn’t build the internal systems that call for the calculated and precise decisions of a country. However, the Articles of Confederation provided a basis for the Constitution, to which is the basis of American government today.

The Articles of Confederation failed because of its weaknesses which were that “each state regardless of its size, had one vote in congress.”(Janda, 2015, p.50) Congress did not have the power to tax nor regulate foreign and interstate commerce. There was no executive branch to enforce any acts passed by Congress. There was no national court system. Amendments to the Articles of Confederation required a unanimous vote. Laws required a nine out of thirteen majority to pass in Congress. They retained power in the states. States often argued amongst themselves in the years of the Articles of Confederation. They did not want to financially support the national government therefore the government was powerless. There was no stable economy. The Articles of Confederation was insufficient to cover the nation. As the economic and military weaknesses became apparent, individuals began asking for changes to the Articles that would create a stronger national government. A meeting was set in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. This became the Constitutional Convention, which was called in order to make revisions to the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles failed to lead the country through war debts, multistate and international trade agreements, and Shay’s Rebellion. Like any war, the American Revolution was very expensive to have, especially on their own turf. The country borrowed money from the richer states in the form of war bonds, and when it was time to pay up, the country did not have the money, and defaulted on repayment. Congress did have the ability to create coin, but no ability to back it up. Plus, without having access to tax (the states kept rejecting Congress’s proposal), there was no way to raise revenue. After the war was over, multiple states made trade agreements with different, and at times, conflicting countries. This was a dangerous game, because as states in the same ‘unified’ country, a foreign entity may see one state trading with a country that they do not associate with, and another state may miss out on that trade opportunity that might benefit the country as a whole. The catalyst that brought the entire Articles down is Shay’s Rebellion. 1500 farmers marched to the Massachusetts capital to ensure the state does not close their mortgages, and the state government was too broke to muster up an army. After the other states refusal to help, Massachusetts had to use private funds to pay an army to put it down. All in all the Articles of Confederation created a weak central government, which led the Founders having to come together(O’Connor 32-34).