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the Constitutional Convention

 

            The constitutional convention was a turning point in the history of the United States of America. It took place in Philadelphia in 1787 and the point was to push for a Constitution instead of the Articles of Confederation. There are many factors that lead up to the constitutional conventions, but the incident called Shay's Rebellion if possibly the straw that broke the camel's back.
             Ever since the United States broke from England and decided to govern themselves, there were debates and conversations on how this country should be lead. Many people, Anti-federalists, were for the Articles of Confederation, which decentralized the government and put most of the power in the hands of the states. Others, federalist, were in favor of a Constitution, which would create a centralized government in which a federal government had supremacy over individual state governments. For years, these two groups have debated over the two systems, but for the most part, the Anti-federalists almost always won. That is, until Shay's Rebellion.
             Shay's Rebellion took place so that the farmers could show the government that they did not want them to foreclose on their land. They rioted and kept the county courts from making decisions until the elections of the new leaders. This rebellion struck fear in many Americans and showed the state governments are unable to handle such a crisis with their militiamen. If the congress could have acted under the new constitution, this would not have been such a major deal (Lowi, p39).
             This rebellion, much like the Boston Tea Party, was an event that got people to think about their government and what is it actually doing for you? This event gave Federalists the fuel to go into the constitutional convention and prove to the nation that the Articles have too many flaws and that the new constitution is the best way to run this country. This plan worked, and the delegates in Philadelphia soon got to work on a second system of government that would later become our Constitution.


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