Do you believe Shays and his cohorts were justified in fomenting a rebellion against the state government? Exp

Answer 1

~Justified in what sense? The Regulators were simply doing in 1786 the same thing they had done in 1776. Shays was only one of many of the leaders and most of them were Revolutionary War veterans. Many, like Shays, were former decorated officers. The principles they espoused were lifted right out of the rhetoric of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and the other former rebels, now "founding fathers".

The difference is, the rebels against the crown won. The Regulators lost. If the colonial rebellion was just, so too was the rebellion against the oppressive government and policies of Massachusetts. Since history is written by the victors, Shays Rebellion is called unjust and the Revolution is a heroic struggle. With the actions and the actors and the issues being the same, wherein lies the difference?

Thomas Jefferson said of the affair, ' "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion." He had a point. More so than did Sam Adams, who said "Rebellion against a king may be pardoned, or lightly punished, but the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death." Such hypocracy, don't you think?

Answer 2

Doesn't matter, Our Constitution died one July afternoon in Gettysburg PA. We haven't had a government run by people who gave a damn about the Constitution since. I do know what Ape Lincoln said once in an unguarded moment about rebellion: "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right, which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much territory as they inhabit." -- Abraham Lincoln

Answer 3

They could have just refused to pay their taxes.
Instead, they resorted to violence.

They could have taken political action.