Agenda 10-7-14 1. Daily Warm up!!! 2. Review AOC from Yesterday Unit 3 Assignment Sheet/Organizer 3. Congress debate (Right hand side of # 34 ) 4. Notes:

Agenda 10-7-14

1. Daily Warm up!!! 2. Review AOC from Yesterday Unit 3 Assignment Sheet/Organizer3. Congress debate (Right hand side of #

34 )4. Notes: Shays’ rebellion (#35)5. Work on left hand sides

State Wealth Ranked

Penn. – 6,175,000 Massachusetts – 4,500,000 New York – 3,900,000 Virginia – 2,355,000 NC – 875,000 New Jersey – 715, 000 New Hampshire – 675,000 SC – 445,000 Connecticut- 425,000 Georgia – 395,000 Maryland – 375,000 Delaware – 175,000 Rhode Island – 165,000

Review

The Continental Congress created the Articles of Confederation, which was the country’s first plan for a national government. The states had more power than the national government. Congress could declare war, borrow and print money, and make treaties with other nations. It could not start an army, create taxes, or control trade.

People wanted to settle on land won in the Revolutionary War. Congress passed two ordinances to control what happened in the Northwest Territories. The Land Ordinance of 1785 explained how the land would be measured, divided, and sold. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 It also outlawed slavery in the territory.

Why did Shays’ Rebellion Occur?

Disparity of Wealth

• No pay for many war veterans• Foreclosures of farms

• High Payment for the governor

• State offices based off of wealth not merit

Prohibited Money

Farmers wanted circulation of paper money

Would increase inflation, so would be easier to pay of debts

Officials wanted to maintain current currency, or else they would receive back their money at less value

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Similar?

Prohibiting the circulation of paper money was very similar to the Currency Act of 1764 that the British imposed on the colonists.

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Currency Act

Why were they in debt?-Many farmers served in the revolutionary war and were not paid at all for their service

-if they were paid they received worthless government securities

Massachusetts raised taxes

Massachusetts raised taxes to try and relieve debt; after poor farmers returned from fighting land taxes were raised to unreasonable rates

Uneven taxation

-Tax burden fell heavily on farmers-only 1/3 of all taxes on goods, 2/3 of all taxes

were on on land

2/3

1/3

Who did they blame?

-They blamed the government for favoring the commercial side in laws by not creating agricultural reforms that would allow them to easily pay back their debts.

The farmers wanted basic measures put in place by the government to ease the payment of their debts:

-Paper money-Tender laws to they could pay their debts in crops and

goods-Government denied them of both

Postwar Conditions

Unable to pay with coin and unable to sell goods for money in a bad economy, many farmers fell into deep debt

Public, as well as private debt can be attributed to weak central government unable to levy taxes

The rising tension

Many Americans thought that the Massachusetts government was restricting their liberty in a similar way that Britain had done

People argued that they had fulfilled their duty and fought in the war, yet the government was burdening them with unfair taxation.

Search and Seizure

If debtors felt threatened, they would file suit against their debtors

Creditors were able to foreclose and imprison those in debt through lawsuits; imprisonment was indefinite

Debtors had less protection and creditors were less compromising

Suspension of Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus is a legal action that allows one to question their imprisonment

In October, 1786 Massachusetts officials suspended Habeas Corpus

Summary

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/political/shays-rebellion.htm

Reasons:the absence of strong

national government providing stability

paper moneypoverty, debt,

disparity of wealth, uneven taxation

Shays’ Rebellion

Angry at the legislature’s indifference to their plight, in late August 1786, farmers in western Massachusetts rebelled. They closed down several county courthouses to

prevent farm foreclosures, and then marched on the state supreme court.

At this point, Daniel Shays, a former captain in the Continental Army who was now a bankrupt farmer, emerged as one of the rebellion’s leaders

Shays Rebellion

In January 1787, Shays and about 1,200 farmers headed to a state arsenal intending to seize weapons before marching on Boston.

In response, the governor sent more than 4,000 volunteers under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln to defend the arsenal.

Before they arrived, Shays attacked, and the militia defending the arsenal opened fire. Four farmers died in the fighting. The rest scattered. The next day troops arrived and ended the rebellion. The fears the rebellion had raised, however, were harder to disperse.

Outcome Of Shays Rebellion

People with greater income and social status tended to see the rebellion, as well as inflation and an unstable currency, as signs that the republic itself was at risk.

They feared that as state legislatures became more democratic and responsive to poor people, they would weaken property rights and vote to take property from the wealthy. As General Henry Knox, a close aide to George Washington, concluded: “What is to afford our security against the violence of lawless men? Our government must be braced, changed, or altered to secure our lives and property.”

Outcome

These concerns were an important reason why many people, including merchants, artisans, and creditors, (Middle Class) began to argue for a stronger central government, and several members of the Confederation Congress called on the states to correct “such defects as may be discovered to exist” in the present government. The confederation’s failure to deal with conditions that might lead to rebellion, as well as the problems with trade and diplomacy, only added fuel to their argument.

Work on Left Hand Side of Notebook!