Many political leaders saw both the debt and the struggling economy as a consequence of the Articles of Confederation, which provided the federal government with no way to raise revenue and did little to create a cohesive nation out of the various states. Their problems were made worse by weak local and national economies. In 17, a few years after the Revolution ended, thousands of farmers in western Massachusetts were struggling under a heavy burden of debt. This contemporary depiction of Shays and his accomplice Job Shattuck portrays them in the latter light as rising “illustrious from the Jail.” Unidentified artist, Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck, 1787. Less than two years before the national celebrations of 17, the United States had faced the threat of collapse.ĭaniel Shays became a divisive figure, to some a violent rebel seeking to upend the new American government, to others an upholder of the true revolutionary virtues Shays and others fought for.

Whatever the later celebrations, the new nation had looked to the future with uncertainty. The Constitution itself had been a controversial document adopted to strengthen the government so that it could withstand internal conflicts. Although the officials of the new federal government-and the people who supported it-placed great emphasis on unity and cooperation, the country was often anything but unified. 2īut the new nation was never as cohesive as its champions had hoped. That November, Washington called his fellow citizens to celebrate with a day of thanksgiving, particularly for “the peaceable and rational manner” in which the government had been established. In April 1789, for example, thousands gathered in New York to see George Washington take the presidential oath of office. Over the next few years, Americans would celebrate more of these patriotic holidays. The grand procession represented what many Americans hoped the United States would become: a diverse but cohesive, prosperous nation. Christian clergymen meanwhile marched arm-in-arm with Jewish leaders. Potters proudly carried a sign paraphrasing from the Bible, “The potter hath power over his clay,” linking God’s power with an artisan’s work and a citizen’s control over the country.

Blacksmiths carted around a working forge, on which they symbolically beat swords into farm tools. Workers in various trades and professions demonstrated. On July 4, 1788, Philadelphians turned out for a “grand federal procession” in honor of the new national constitution. The French Revolution and the Limits of Liberty

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