Shays Rebellion Dbq

After signing the declaration of Independence in 1776, the 13 Colonies were in search of their identity. The governing body at that time was the Continental Congress. Which was an important first step in the unification of the 13 states and in the development of the Articles of Confederation. These articles provided a form of union between the states but failed to provide a strong enough central government. The deficiency of power was evident by the lack of participation from the state delegates. The turning point for was “Shays Rebellion” where a group of farmers refused to pay their debt and state taxes causing a violent rebellion. The Confederation Congress was too weak to act on this matter. “Shays' Rebellion frightened so many of the nation's leaders that they opted for robust national government” (Blake). In 1787 the Constitutional Convention convened and the Constitution of the United States was created to strengthen the Federal Government. To prevent the Federal Government from having to much power, the writers of the constitution developed the Bill of Rights to protect the rights of every citizen through the concept of “natural law”. This concept was adopted from philosopher John Locke where he explains that all …show more content…
The overall right to happiness is in many ways tied to this amendment as we could see in the case of Loving v. Virginia in 1967. The Lovings were an interracial couple which fought for their right to be married to one another and won the case thanks to the 14th Amendment. “The Loving decision still stands as a milestone in the Civil Rights Movement” (Staff). If we lacked the right to due process, we would be a very oppressive nation where the government would bully their citizens any time it saw fit to do so. Our Constitution, Amendments and Bill of Rights is what makes is country the greatest nation in the