Shay's and Whiskey Rebellion

Throughout the history of the United States, violent confrontations have erupted, and have often threatened the social and political fabric of the nation. On January 30, 1787, in the midst of Shays Rebellion, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison, “I hold I that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms to the physical” (Web). Indeed Jefferson was right. Approximately ten years before, the North American colonies of Great Britain had publicly declared their Independence, setting off perhaps the most important and significant rebellion this nation has ever seen. Why should a nation founded on rebellion not be faced with pockets of rebellion within its formation?
The roots of Shays Rebellion lay four years prior to his prevention of the Court of Common pleas in Northampton, Massachusetts from sitting in August of 1786. Since practically the end of the American Revolution, small communities, made up primarily of farmers in p...