History 103: US History I

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The Articles of Confederation were too weak to create an effective government for the new nation. In this lesson, discover how Shays' Rebellion proved that the national government needed to strengthen.

The Articles of Confederation

America's first founding document, which went into effect in the 1780s, had no power to tax, could not enforce laws and could not maintain a standing army. Under the articles, all power rested with the states so the national government had no authority to accomplish anything.

Growing National Debt

During the Revolution, men were off fighting for the new nation. Many of them had to take out loans to keep their farms going in their absence. After the war, the creditors wanted their money. Sometimes the states backed the debtors and ordered the creditors to forgive the debts. But, sometimes they backed the creditors and the peoples' farms - their homes - were foreclosed. Many men were put in debtor prison until family members could come up with the money to get them out.

The new nation was in a horrible crisis with inflation. The war had been financed by loans from Spain and France. The money had to be repaid, but because of the Revolution, a lot of business was lost from the former colonies. Trade with the British West Indies was gone. The new government asked the states for more money, but they said no.

The answer was to print more money, but of course, that never works. It made the money less and less valuable. So now the people had fistfuls of worthless money. So now you have all of these farmers, who had fought in the Revolution, unable to keep their farms. Now they cannot feed their family and they have no property, which at that time meant in most states they could not vote.

Shays' Rebellion

As this was happening, people turned to the leaders they had in the war. One of these leaders was Daniel Shays of Massachusetts. Daniel Shays and the other farmers pick up their guns and go to the state courthouse to stop them from foreclosing on their homes, and it worked.

You see, with no standing American military, it was the job of the state militia to put down this rebellion. Shays and the farmers were the state militia. Under the Articles of Confederation, the new government couldn't raise revenue, couldn't enforce laws to help the people and did not have the power to forcibly put down a rebellion.

Lesson Summary

In this instance, Shays' Rebellion showed that for the American experiment to work there had to be a stronger central government. Shays himself eventually received a pension for his 5 years of unpaid military service. Still, he actually ended his life in poverty as a heavy drinker, but due to his actions in Shays' Rebellion and other similar movements, the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were seen and a convention was called to create the U.S. Constitution.