The beginning of the rebellion
By 1876, state governments were on the verge of bankruptcy and the federal government had such limited power that it was helpless to the ailing states. (1) In order to become fiscally stable, the states needed to install a new policy of heavy taxation. As time wore on, more and more poor farmers across Massachusetts were running out of money and finding nowhere to turn. These men needed to find a way to change their current dreadful conditions and found hope in the hands of a man by the name of Daniel Shays.
|
Shays was a Revolutionary War hero who saw poor farmers all around being sent to prison and started to convince farmers that something had to change. In the summer of 1786, conventions were held all over western Massachusetts in order to compile a list of demands to be delivered to state government leaders in Boston.(3) The leaders in Boston were wealthy merchants, lawyers and property owners who, rather than address the growing issue of the angry farmers, ignored the unhappiness and went along with their program of taxation. The frustration of Massachusetts farmers was starting to boil over and therefore they decided to use violence to get the treatment they sought. The leader of these rebelling farmers who came to be known as the Regulators, was Daniel Shays. (4)
|
THE REBELLION GAINS GROUND
Under the leadership of Daniel Shays, groups of farmers would stop auctions using force and would not allow circuit courts to sit. Sometimes the Shaysites, as Shays’ followers came to be called, even took to intimidating and robbing wealthy industrialists and bankers. The main goal was to stop the courthouses from legally enforcing any punishment on the debtor farmers because as long as the courts were shut down, the farmers could not be sent to jail.
|
Efforts to Suppress the rebellion
As the year 1786 progressed, Shays’s Rebellion had gained nearly 9,000 supporters from across New England.(6) The rebellion was gaining ground and Massachusetts government leaders decided they must do something before the rebellion got completely out of hand. At first the governor of Massachusetts, James Bowdoin, called for the people of Massachusetts to protect the courts from the regulators. Soon, suppression efforts became more intense. Massachusetts suspended habeas corpus and passed the Riot Act, an act which states that if more than any 12 people assembled for any purpose which could be deemed negative, than any of them could be jailed, have their properties taken away, and be tried for treason. (7) However, as Shays Rebellion progressed, these attempts at suppression proved to be weak and the decision was made to appeal to the federal government for military aid.
|
Receiving aid from the federal government was not an easily attainable task. As mentioned earlier, the federal government under the Articles of Confederation had neither the power to tax the states nor to send federal troops to maintain a state’s internal stability.(8) Congress tried to find a way around these limitations by entreating the states to contribute money to raise federal troops to put down the rebellion, but this attempt had its limitations. Firstly, the states believed Shays Rebellion was simply a Massachusetts problem and that they need not waste their money on intervening. Secondly, Congress was dishonestly attempting to raise troops under the pretense that the troops were needed to subdue Indians.(9) In truth, Congress had no funds nor soldiers to yield any valuable aid to the Massachusetts government. These weaknesses of the federal government were duly noted by political figures during and after the rebellion.
|
(1) - 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America, directed by Marco Williams (2006; n.p.: A&E Television Network, 2006), DVD.
(2) - Shays' Rebellion-From Revolution to Constitution, last modified 2008, accessed April 13, 2014, http://shaysrebellion.stcc.edu.
(3)- 10 Days That Unexpectedly.
(4) - Richard Haesly, ed., The Constitutional Convention (San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2002), 192.
(6) - 10 Days That Unexpectedly.
(7) - 10 Days That Unexpectedly.
(8) - Articles of Confederation, Doc. (1781). Accessed April 23, 2014. http://www.ushistory.org/documents/confederation.htm.
(9) - Garry Wills, A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 210.
(2) - Shays' Rebellion-From Revolution to Constitution, last modified 2008, accessed April 13, 2014, http://shaysrebellion.stcc.edu.
(3)- 10 Days That Unexpectedly.
(4) - Richard Haesly, ed., The Constitutional Convention (San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2002), 192.
(6) - 10 Days That Unexpectedly.
(7) - 10 Days That Unexpectedly.
(8) - Articles of Confederation, Doc. (1781). Accessed April 23, 2014. http://www.ushistory.org/documents/confederation.htm.
(9) - Garry Wills, A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 210.