Prompt Why did the founding fathers abandon the Aracles of Confederation
and draft a new constitution in 1787?
*POV:
HC:
Document 3
Source: Thomas Jefferson, letter to a friend, written from Paris, France, where he was serving as an
ambassador of the United States (and where revolution was starting to brew) November 13,1787)
The British have so long hired their newspapers to repeat every form of lies about our being in
anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, and we have believed them ourselves. Yet where
does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Shays' rebellion? God
forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.
2
**What country before ever existed without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its
liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Let the people take arms. The remedy is to present them with the facts pardon and pacify them
3
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It
is nature's manure. Our Constitutional Convention has [made too much of Shays' rebellion]: and in the
spur of the moment [1 worry powerful American men will over-react].
**AC: