Midterm
Section One:
Shay’s Rebellion: An uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786. Shays 's followers protested the foreclosures of farms for debt and briefly succeeded in shutting down the court system. Although the rebellion was easily overcome, it persuaded conservatives of the need for a strong national government and contributed to the movement to draft the Constitution.
Government: The means by which a society organizes itself and allocates authority in order to accomplish collective goals. A country in where representatives are appointed to make political decisions on their behalf. The first governing document created by the founding fathers was the Articles of
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Yet, Locke believed in peace and believed men made reasonable decisions.
2. Why is democracy considered DANGEROUS by our founding fathers? The founding fathers feared direct democracy because they believed that the majority would become tyranny. The fear of absolute power to one comparing to the monarchy rule of Great Britain. In order to limit the government 's control the founding fathers balanced the power by dividing power to three branches, Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, and Judicial Branch thus separating the power amongst these branches.
3. Is America becoming more and more unequal?
Is America becoming more unequal depends of the different inequality there is today. We can start to summarize the women inequality, minority inequality, and social class inequality.
4. Which social groups vote for the Republican party, the Democratic party, and Independents?
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Section Three:
How are american elections connected to the founding fathers anyway? Connect how the founding fathers helped determine the nature of american elections.
The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College for the U.S. to elect a President into office. Again this connects to the Founding Fathers fear of pure democracy and the fear of one state having more power than others. To impose the Electoral College System the Founding Fathers had to devise the
Shay’s rebellion was led by a man named Daniel Shay in 1787. This was an historic event that shaped history in its own way. This uprising began in Massachusetts in the year of 1786. Daniel shay was characterized and labeled as a rebel, traitor, and a coward. He was also considered a devoted nationalist and a decent military officer supporting America’s revolution. He dedicated over five years of his life in service of America`s government. He mobilized everyone who disagreed with his government’s actions during the time. Shay was able to lead a militia of over 2000 men. The militia was armed and willing and ready to burn down Boston. According to miller (71), Jefferson heard of the rebellion while in France but felt that it would not last long.
The action by the rebels in Shay’s Rebellion of stopping the judges from going into court was against law. The soldiers in the militia didn’t follow the law. The whole rebellion was against the law too. Eventually, the rebels in the Shay’s Rebellion were defeated. This was a warning for the people, reminding them do not have the thought of rebelling, or you will get defeated and maybe sentenced to death. During the Whiskey Rebellion, the farmers were angry about the whiskey tax policy, so they rebelled. Washington reacted by sending a trop of 13000 men to Pennsylvania and crashing down the revolt. It gave a warning to the people, that they should follow the law, but not ignored it or resisted against it. If they don’t, they would need to face the consequences of their action, such as a gigantic trop of 13000
Shays' Rebellion was the first uprising of the new nation. The battles were fought in Massachusetts. During the time period of 1786-1787, The United States government decided to raise taxes, in order to raise capital and
Our Founding Fathers had great concern over the topic of the government obtaining too much power over the people and with that in mind they constructed a system of indirect election where citizens would choose an elector. That system would distant the citizens from directly electing the president, avoiding any possibility to create tyranny. Their fears were about whether citizens could exercise the best judgement and their capability to fully understand and make good choices in voting. They did not want a group to go off in the wrong direction and take control over others. They thought that a chosen group of more educated and elite individuals elected by the people would be able to better interpret the situation and exercise better judgement. In a way, they were trying to safeguard democracy by instituting the Electoral College as the method to elect our presidents.
The Electoral College was created during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when the framers of the constitution debated many options for determining how the President of the United States would be chosen. The Electoral College was created to give smaller states a voice in the process of choosing a President for the United States. If a President was chosen through popular vote, people feared numerous candidates would be receiving votes and a candidate would win the most votes from a populous state instead of votes from smaller states. Another option for voting for the President was that Congress would
The Electoral College dates back to the very founding of America and American politics. The way to elect the President was a hotly contested issue at the Constitutional Convention. Many options were considered, including selection by Congress, selection by state governors, selection by state legislatures, and direct popular vote (Electoral College 6). The final decision of the Founding Fathers was written in Article II, Sections II and III of the US Constitution:
When the system of government was finally decided on, our founding fathers understood the importance of the balance of power within the three branches of the government. They called this system checks and balances. This system was set up to ensure that the government would remain loyal to the people and loyal to their states (Hamilton). In The Federalist Papers, No. 68, Alexander Hamilton discusses the importance of having the president elected by the Electoral College. He said that in order to ensure that we do not end up with the same problems that America had with the monarch of England, it was important that the balance of power was spread throughout the government and that no one portion have too much power.
“I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing” (Jefferson). Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in a letter to James Madison after hearing about Shay’s Rebellion while he was a foreign diplomat in Paris. After the rebellion happened, the “Shaysites” as they were called, were labeled as traitors to their country and the democratic form of government. But were they really? Many of the men fighting in the rebellion felt that they were being oppressed just as they had been under British rule.
The Founding Fathers during this time-period was emphasizing the concept of the nation being recognized as a representative democracy back then. In this taking sides, two individuals have two unique and opposite arguments, discussing if the Founding Fathers Democratic Reformers. The first individual was The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, on November 15, 1777. The second continental congress appointed a 13-man committee to commission a federal constitution on June 12, 1776.
The third format they were debating was to elect president by a direct popular vote. This format was also rejected since the Framers thought that without sufficient information about candidates from outside their State, people would definitely vote for their “favorite” from their own State (Kimberling, W.C. 2008). Finally the last format the Framers came up with was an indirect election of the president through Electoral College which is still in use today (Kimberling, W.C. 2008). The reason why the Electoral College was decided was because the Framers wanted individuals from each State who are knowledgeable and intelligent who will be great candidates to select the president based strictly on value and favoring a particular State, origin, or political party (Kimberling, W.C. 2008). The Framers were also referred as the Founding Fathers which consisted of former soldiers who had fought in the American Revolution. Most of the Framers were well-educated and remarkably smart and accomplished thinkers (Billinkoff
By 1750, strains between Native Americans and colonists were still existing, leading to growing rebellious groups. In the backcountry, frontiersmen showed their frustration and opinions through bloody mutinies and rebellions. By joining together, they were able to make a point to their fellow peers and government officials. The March of Paxton Boys & Regulator Movement were both colonial uprisings, in an attempt to reform or dislodge the government and some of its officials. Contrariwise, Shay’s Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion were both protests against some form of the economy; yet all were very dangerous acts of violence in colonial America.
An example of something similar happening was the Whiskey Rebellion. Both revolts include an anarchy that called for the modifying of the government. Shay called for a changing of
Shays’ Rebellion is the name given to a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. (Shays’ Rebellion. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2015, from http://www.history.com/topics/shays-rebellion). The rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes endangered farmers with the loss of their farms. The rebellion took its name from the symbolic frontrunner, Daniel Shays of Massachusetts, a former captain in the Continental army. It all began summer of 1786 in Massachusetts. The rebels had tried to capture the federal arsenal at Springfield and harassed leading merchants, lawyers, and supporters of the sate government. General Benjamin Lincoln, crushed many of the rebels in several engagements in the winter of 1787. Shay and the other principal figures had first fled to Rhode Island then to Vermont. Even this never seriously threatened or endangered the stability of the United States, Shay’s Rebellion greatly alarmed politicians throughout the nation. Advocates of constitutional reform at the national level cited the rebellion as justification for revision or replacement of the Articles of Confederation, and Shay’s Rebellion figured prominently in the debates over the framing and ratification of the
The Founding Fathers wrote the Electoral College into the United States Constitution as insurance against popular passion electing the chief executive into office. They believed there needed to be a buffer between the people and election of the president. Also a concern of the forefathers was they did not want the states with a larger population to completely overshadow the states with a smaller populace. The Electoral College system was devised to help cope with these problems. The Constitution was written and ratified in 1787 more than two hundred years ago. At the time of drafting the drafters of the Constitution never imagined there would be a two political parties that dominate our system of government or
The electoral college was established by Article II of the US Constitution as the voting method to select the President and Vice President of the United States. The electoral college is a voting system in which residents of a state vote for a representative to vote for the president. “The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as a compromise between electing the president via a vote in Congress only or via a popular vote only.” (http://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005330#11)