Shays' Rebellion and the Constitution

Revolutionary War soldiers got paid in worthless paper money that plummeted in value.

Many returned home broke, losing their farms to debt collectors. This sparked Shays'

Rebellion in 1786 when desperate veterans stormed courthouses to stop foreclosures. The government couldn't

stop them because they had no army and no money. This chaos terrified the Founding Fathers

so much that they scrapped the Articles of Confederation and wrote the Constitution. America's entire

government system exists because broke soldiers nearly burned it all down.