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Shays' Rebellion, a la Shmoop.

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These days, you hear plenty of people citing

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this policy or that law as being "constitutional" or "unconstitutional."

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Rarely do you hear anyone getting in a tizzy

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because something "doesn't align with the Articles of Confederation."

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So... what happened in between the penning of our Constitution's predecessor...

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...and the ratification of the BFD... Big, Fancy Document... that we know and love today?

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Well... first of all... we can't expect our founding fathers to have gotten it all right on the first try.

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They did their best, but there were, not surprisingly, some kinks that would have to be worked out.

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In the mid-to-late 1700's, those kinks were worked out... in the form of a military confrontation.

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There wasn't a lot of "write your Congressman" back in those days.

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Many Americans felt like the Articles made our central government... a little too weak.

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It wasn't allowed to levy taxes,

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and it had trouble mobilizing its military.

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The taxes part was a big sticking point with a lot of people... especially Revolutionary

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war veterans who were looking to collect a few bucks for their service.

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One veteran in particular, Daniel Shays, was a farmer who was pretty PO'd about the situation.

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The problem was, none of the farmers had any cash.

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They practiced subsistence farming,

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and they couldn't exactly pay their taxes in potatoes.

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As people sold off their possessions to pay the taxes, they ended up losing everything, even their land.

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But the government was still able to print money...

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and it printed tons of it to finance its expenses.

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So... because the printed money had no financial backing, we were facing financial ruin for

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both the central government, as well as the Massachusetts state government.

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There were also British moneylenders who were banging down doors

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to collect loans from American clients.

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All in all, it was an... icky situation.

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So, with many working class citizens facing bankruptcy and peeved out of their gourds...

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...Daniel assembled 5,000 or so farmers and merchants , who rebelled against the Massachusetts government.

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Our central government didn't whip out the big guns,

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leaving Daniel and his merry men to grapple with state militia.

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Why wasn't the government allowed to send in serious military forces?

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Because it was forbidden...

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by the Articles of Confederation, of course.

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Three cheers for irony.

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At the end of the day, Shays' Rebellion proved there was a need for a different constitution

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that gave the central government some power to actually do stuff...

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...like collect taxes, use its military when it needed to, regulate interstate commerce,

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and generally keep the states in line.

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Especially South Carolina. You have to keep that one on a short leash.

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