The Articles Of Confederation And Shays Rebellion

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The famous first words of the Constitution are “We the People.” The founding fathers, including Federalist Hamilton and anti-federalist Jefferson, all recognized that a Constitution is meant to serve its people above all else. This is why the Articles of Confederation had given states so much power. However, Shays’ Rebellion showed that serving the people did not simply mean empowering states. “We the People,” is a statement that people must come together as Americans and care about the interests of everyone. Being willing to sacrifice more ultimately benefits everyone. Daniel Shays deserves credit for creating the Constitution because he fought for reforming government to have the capital and authority to do more for disenfranchised Americans. Shays’ Rebellion exacerbated the need for national unity and strength. The rationale against crediting Daniel Shays is that it would be similar to crediting King George III for writing the …show more content…
Congress was feeble in comparison to the states and did not even have the authority to levy taxes upon states. It could not raise the capital to pay wages to veterans who were languishing in debtor’s prison because the war had left them jobless. Congress’ inability to regulate trade was detrimental on many fronts. Foreign nations distrusted America as a trading partner because of Congress’ inability to enforce trade agreements. State governments would tax interstate trade, which would bleed money out of the economy and worsen the financial situations of many Americans. The structure of the Articles made decisions which would increase efficiency or resolve conflicts exceedingly time consuming, which made the government more sluggish in combating rebellions and various other

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