Shay's Rebellion

After the war there were a lot of problems in the East, a lot of merchant ships were destroyed. So the Americans were having problems exporting tobacco, rice, and wheat. The British Navigation Acts kept Americans from trading with the British West Indies. However, the American markets were flooded with lowpriced British manufactures causing a lot of urban artisans and wartime textile firms to go out of business. At this time the state governments were dealing with a lot of the war debt. Speculators wanted their state debt certificates paid back in full, which meant that taxes had to be raised. But then on the other had farmers and artisans weren't making a lot of money so they couldn't afford to pay the taxes and the state legislatures felt for them. So to help out the artisans and farmers they printed more currency and they passed laws that made it ok for the people in debt to make payments towards the money they owed.
Because there was no such legislation in Massachusetts the debtors were mad, which led to an violent uprising. They persuaded the Massachusetts legislature to raise taxes in order to pay the state's war debt and in turn that helped because they weren't required to print more currency (would have led to inflation). So the people that were owned money wanted the debtors to be jailed for not paying, but the people that owned money were protesting all of the taxes and the property seizures. Pissed off farmers and some men of higher status forcibly closed courts. These actions and this rebellion were rather similar to the colonial resistance to the British Stamp Act.
In order to stop the rebellion Massachusetts legislature passed the Riot Act which outlawed illegal assemblies. So the governor made his own little army, with troops from the Continental Congress, and they fought off the rebellion. Shay's side ended up losing because of the freezing weather and the lack of supplies in the winter of 1786-87. The rebellion showed that cost of war and the independence was not shared evenly. The Massachusetts' governor was voted out of office and people in debt in New York, Pennsylvannia, Connecticut, and New Hampshire closed court houses also and wanted the same economic relief the people in Massachusetts wanted. Now the Americans feared their new government was bound for failure and other countries were thinking the same.

The Articles of Confederation

In the beginning of chapter 7 in Henretta, it talks about how the Patriots had to divide up poiltical power between themselves now that they had independence. It also mentions Abigail Adams, who many historians would consider to be the first American feminist. Abigail Adams demanded legal equal rights for married women. She is a very important figure because without her females might still be considered as inferior to men, and not be able to do certain things that we are able to do now such as vote.

This chapter also talks a lot about The Articles of Confederation, which was the first formalized state of government that the sates had. They were passed by government in November 1777, giving the confederation government much authority. Congress had to issue three ordinances that dealt with problems dealing with the lands north of the Phio River. The Ordinance of 1784, was Thomas Jefferson's idea, and it called for the division of the region into territories and the admission of a territory as a state as soon as its population equaled that of the smallest existing state. The Land Ordinance of 1785 required that the regions be surveyed before settlement. Jefferson also came up with the grid system here, which broke open land in the west into sections of 640 acres. This land was sold by the government for $1 per acre of land, however bacause paper money was not accepted, mainly speculators were able to buy and sell the land which ultimately made the righ get richer.

Lastly, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was issued to provide for the creation of the territories now known as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, ans Wisconsin. This ordinance prohibited slavery in those territories. It also guaranteed the right to a trial by jury, freedom of religion, and provided for public education.

Adams' "Thoughts on Government"

Upon the closing of the Revolution, America was ready to begin their quest towards independence. Each state created their own Constitution to replace that of the colonial charter. States defined their rights, limitations on power and how their government was to be set up, all resulting in several different versions of a similar idea. However, I think the most interesting element of this was the forward thinking of John Adams and his ideas for the new government, published in his writing, Thoughts on Government. Adams essentially mixed two different ideas into one; that of a republican society where power was shared but by “the king, lords, and commons.” He liked the idea of dividing up specific government functions and assigning different jobs to each function: One to make laws, one to enforce laws and one to ‘judge’ those laws (Legislative, administrative, and judicial). Adams motivation behind this setup was that it would spread out the authority instead of giving all power to one person/king. Two houses, an upper and a lower were included in his “thoughts” along with an elected governor that had the power to veto. A judicial board would be appointed to review the governmental functions.
Adams presented this idea over 200 years ago yet our American government is still structured similarly. I find it really impressive that one person could have possibly thought up the core idea for an entire nation’s government, yet states were too apprehensive to give too much power (especially veto power) to a governor, or any executive figure at all.