Essay Topic: Daniel Shay Today
Guidelines:
Be sure to follow all formatting guidelines provided in the syllabus. Your final work product must have a cover page with a word count, an essay that is 3-4 pages in length and a works cited page. The minimum writing requirement expectation is two full pages in your own words (excluding citations). If the minimum expectations are not met, the assignment will be marked incomplete. Be sure to provide a proper citation in MLA or APA format for all works consulted on a separate works cited page.
Essay Prompts:
Page 1 of your paper is to include the following:
For your introduction, carefully examine and then briefly discuss the events leading up to, during and the eventual outcome of Shays Rebellion. You are to demonstrate a strong understanding of the sequence of events and an intimate awareness of the motivations for this rebellion. Once that introduction has been outlined, discuss which of these positions you find more agreeable (no first person tones) as we look back at the events of 1786?
1. On 13 November 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote to New York senator HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Smith" \o "William S. Smith" William S. Smith saying,
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing . . . . God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty . . . . and what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned, from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed, from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
2. As a response to these views, in a letter exchanged between Jefferson and HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams" \o "Abigail Adams" Abigail Adams, the future First Lady applauded the action of the state militia that captured the rebellion's leaders, saying,
Ignorant, restless desperados, without conscience or principles have led a deluded multitude to follow their standard, under pretense of grievances which have no existence but in their imaginations...There is the necessity of the wisest and most vigorous measures to quell and suppress it. Instead of that laudable spirit which you approve, which makes a people watchful over their liberties and alert in the defense of them, these mobbish insurgents are for sapping the foundation, and destroying the whole fabric at once. HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27_Rebellion" \l "cite_note-10" \o ""
Pages 2 and beyond:
After establishing a deep personal understanding of Daniel Shays and the events surrounding the rebellion, try to step into his shoes as you examine the political events of today. What would be his intellectual reaction to the following pieces of contemporary legislation? In each case, be sure to compare and contrast the past with the present in your analysis of each law.
Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005:
HYPERLINK "http://www.cch.com/bankruptcy/bankruptcy_04-21.pdf" http://www.cch.com/bankruptcy/bankruptcy_04-21.pdf
Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007:
HYPERLINK "https://www.irs.gov/uac/home-foreclosure-and-debt-cancellation"
https://www.irs.gov/uac/home-foreclosure-and-debt-cancellation