ABSTRACT
More than a political upheaval, the American Revolution was the most violent and destructive military episode in North America up to that point in time. The Revolution was fought not only over independence but also on behalf of concepts that Americans dearly cherished: liberty, equality, natural law, and popular sovereignty-all crucial elements of a republican form of government as they defined it. On September 26, Daniel Shays and Luke Day, carrying the torch of rebellion first lit by Samuel Ely, helped lead a force of over 1,000 rioters, now calling themselves regulators, in an attempt to shut down the Supreme Judicial Court in Springfield. The rebels demanded that General Neville resign and that the whiskey tax be repealed and replaced with a progressive tax on wealth. Gilje noted that while pre-Revolution riots tended to be relatively benign and represented a sense of community solidarity, antebellum riots were more destructive and revealed tensions and strains within a community.
