Shay's Rebellion: The Goal Of The Constitutional Rebellion

Shay’s rebellion was an armed uprising led by a veteran of the Revolutionary War named Daniel Shays. The goal of this rebellion was to to prevent the prosecution of debt-ridden citizens. Governor James Bowdoin of Massachusetts put down the revolution. While the rebellion failed to realize its goal, the underlying conditions that allowed the revolution to take place were present. The common people of the colony still remained resentful and discontented. As a result of the general discontentment of the people, “ popular resistance, and the election of pro-debtor governments in many states threatened the political notions of many political and social elites.” Shay’s followers were elected to legislature, went on to court houses and destroyed

He looked at the common people in a very negative light. He thought they were easily led, irrational and prone to be fooled by demagoguery. In other words the people have to be restricted for their own good. They were incapable of governing themselves. Alexander Hamilton felt exactly the same way. He was cynical in the ability of the few educated man to “succumb to revolutionary excesses, he found it "almost impossible among the unthinking populace.” Leaving the affairs of government in the hands of the people would surely lead to mayhem . Throughout his life, Alexander Hamilton “exhibited the same mistrust in the abilities of ordinary persons to govern themselves without descending into anarchy.” Like many, He saw Shay’s rebellion as "the excess of democracy”;. In Hamilton 's eyes the issue of leaving all that power in the hands of the will cripple the entire nation. Hamilton became infuriated by Congress ' lack of authority under the Articles of Confederation and used Shays ' Rebellion to advocate for a stronger the national government. Notably absent from the Philadelphia Convention was Thomas Jefferson . Jefferson and Hamilton were archrival and had opposing views in most everything . Jefferson was always on the side of individual liberty, he thought that Shay’s rebellion was justified. He believed that in order to have a true democracy it is necessary for people to protest every now and then. Jefferson tells Madison “loftily from Paris”: “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” He was against a big and strong central