Need For a New Form of Government

Our Living Constitution                                                              4-26-13

By Jerry Aten

 

p. 15-17, 21

During the American Revolution, the farmers did pretty well.  All the soldiers needed food, and they could charge higher prices.  After the war was over, though, they started to do very poorly.  They were in debt, and prices were not so good for their products.  A man named Daniel Shays led a rebellion known as Shays’ Rebellion.  It was not remembered so much for the incident itself, but for the circumstances that caused it.

Before the war, the thirteen colonies had acted as thirteen different nations.  They joined together to fight against England.  During the war, a loose sort of government, known as the Articles of Confederation, was formed.  After the war, the colonies went back to acting as thirteen different nations.  The Articles of Confederation could not hold them together.  A special convention was arranged, and every state sent representatives except for Rhode Island.  Included were George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and several others.  They met together with the intention of changing the Articles of Confederation, but these were so hopeless that they decided to start afresh and create a whole new system of government.  This would be the Constitution.