1786 Shay's Rebellion
Feb. 27th, 2013 06:00 amSuffering high rates of debt, taxes, and foreclosures, farmers in Massachusetts took up arms in rebellion in 1786, and the scent of radical politics was in the air. Government under the Articles of Confederation was proving inadequate.
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Shay’s rebellion thrust to the fore economic issues [...] as did an extremist movement in Rhode Island that beat the drum for abolishing debt and dividing wealth equally. The Massachusetts uprising shocked many who wondered just how far the rebels would go.
“Good God!” Washington proclaimed of the rebellion, aghast that some protesters regarded America’s land “to be the common property of all.” [...]
Where Madison though a weak republic would only invite disorder, Jefferson reacted to the turmoil with aplomb. “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” he told Madison loftily from Paris, “and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” To Colonel William Smith, Jefferson sent his famous reassurance: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
While Hamilton feared that disorder would feed on itself, the more hopeful and complacent Jefferson thought that periodic excesses would correct themselves.
-- Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton”
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Shay’s rebellion thrust to the fore economic issues [...] as did an extremist movement in Rhode Island that beat the drum for abolishing debt and dividing wealth equally. The Massachusetts uprising shocked many who wondered just how far the rebels would go.
“Good God!” Washington proclaimed of the rebellion, aghast that some protesters regarded America’s land “to be the common property of all.” [...]
Where Madison though a weak republic would only invite disorder, Jefferson reacted to the turmoil with aplomb. “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” he told Madison loftily from Paris, “and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” To Colonel William Smith, Jefferson sent his famous reassurance: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
While Hamilton feared that disorder would feed on itself, the more hopeful and complacent Jefferson thought that periodic excesses would correct themselves.
-- Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton”
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