![\"Daniel](\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/wp-content\/uploads\/Unidentified_Artist_-_Daniel_Shays_and_Job_Shattuck_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\")
<\/a> Daniel Shays became a divisive figure, to some a violent rebel seeking to upend the new American government, to others an upholder of the true revolutionary virtues Shays and others fought for. This contemporary depiction of Shays and his accomplice Job Shattuck portrays them in the latter light as rising \u201cillustrious from the Jail.\u201d Unidentified Artist, Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck, 1787. Wikimedia<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn 1786 and 1787, a few years after the Revolution ended, thousands of farmers in western Massachusetts were struggling under a heavy burden of debt. Their problems were made worse by weak local and national economies. The farmers wanted the Massachusetts government to protect them from their creditors, but the state supported the lenders instead. As creditors threatened to foreclose on their property, many of these farmers, including Revolutionary veterans, took up arms.\r\n\r\nLed by a fellow veteran named Daniel Shays, these armed men, the \u201cShaysites,\u201d resorted to tactics like the patriots had used before the Revolution, forming blockades around courthouses to keep judges from issuing foreclosure orders. These protestors saw their cause and their methods as an extension of the \u201cSpirit of 1776\u201d; they were protecting their rights and demanding redress for the people\u2019s grievances.\r\n\r\nGovernor James Bowdoin, however, saw the Shaysites as rebels who wanted to rule the government through mob violence. He called up thousands of militiamen to disperse them. A former Revolutionary general, Benjamin Lincoln, led the state force, insisting that Massachusetts must prevent \u201ca state of anarchy, confusion and slavery.\u201d In January 1787, Lincoln\u2019s militia arrested more than one thousand Shaysites and reopened the courts.\r\n\r\nDaniel Shays and other leaders were indicted for treason, and several were sentenced to death, but eventually Shays and most of his followers received pardons. Their protest, which became known as Shays\u2019 Rebellion, generated intense national debate. While some Americans, like Thomas Jefferson, thought \u201ca little rebellion now and then\u201d helped keep the country free, others feared the nation was sliding toward anarchy and complained that the states could not maintain control. For nationalists like James Madison of Virginia, Shays\u2019 Rebellion was a prime example of why the country needed a strong central government. \u201cLiberty,\u201d Madison warned, \u201cmay be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power.\u201d\r\n\r\n ","rendered":"![\"Daniel](\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Unidentified_Artist_-_Daniel_Shays_and_Job_Shattuck_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDaniel Shays became a divisive figure, to some a violent rebel seeking to upend the new American government, to others an upholder of the true revolutionary virtues Shays and others fought for. This contemporary depiction of Shays and his accomplice Job Shattuck portrays them in the latter light as rising \u201cillustrious from the Jail.\u201d Unidentified Artist, Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck, 1787. Wikimedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 1786 and 1787, a few years after the Revolution ended, thousands of farmers in western Massachusetts were struggling under a heavy burden of debt. Their problems were made worse by weak local and national economies. The farmers wanted the Massachusetts government to protect them from their creditors, but the state supported the lenders instead. As creditors threatened to foreclose on their property, many of these farmers, including Revolutionary veterans, took up arms.<\/p>\n Led by a fellow veteran named Daniel Shays, these armed men, the \u201cShaysites,\u201d resorted to tactics like the patriots had used before the Revolution, forming blockades around courthouses to keep judges from issuing foreclosure orders. These protestors saw their cause and their methods as an extension of the \u201cSpirit of 1776\u201d; they were protecting their rights and demanding redress for the people\u2019s grievances.<\/p>\n Governor James Bowdoin, however, saw the Shaysites as rebels who wanted to rule the government through mob violence. He called up thousands of militiamen to disperse them. A former Revolutionary general, Benjamin Lincoln, led the state force, insisting that Massachusetts must prevent \u201ca state of anarchy, confusion and slavery.\u201d In January 1787, Lincoln\u2019s militia arrested more than one thousand Shaysites and reopened the courts.<\/p>\n Daniel Shays and other leaders were indicted for treason, and several were sentenced to death, but eventually Shays and most of his followers received pardons. Their protest, which became known as Shays\u2019 Rebellion, generated intense national debate. While some Americans, like Thomas Jefferson, thought \u201ca little rebellion now and then\u201d helped keep the country free, others feared the nation was sliding toward anarchy and complained that the states could not maintain control. For nationalists like James Madison of Virginia, Shays\u2019 Rebellion was a prime example of why the country needed a strong central government. \u201cLiberty,\u201d Madison warned, \u201cmay be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\t\t\t Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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