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== Early federalism ==
[[Federalism]] is a form of political organization that seeks to distinguish states and unites them, assigning different types of decision-making power at different levels to allow a degree of political independence in an overarching structure.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=Follesdal|first=Andreas|title=Federalism|date=2018|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/federalism/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Summer 2018|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=2021-02-06}}</ref> Federalism was a political solution to the problems with the [[Articles of Confederation]] which gave little practical authority to the [[Congress of the Confederation|confederal government]]. For example, the Articles allowed the [[Continental Congress]] the power to sign treaties and declare war, but it could not raise taxes to pay for an army and all major decisions required a unanimous vote.<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Gerston|2007|pp=24–25}}</ref>
The movement for federalism was greatly strengthened by the reaction to [[Shays' Rebellion]] of 1786–1787, which was an armed uprising of [[Yeoman#United States|yeoman farmers]] in western [[Massachusetts]]. The rebellion was fueled by a poor economy that was created, in part, by the inability of the confederal government to deal effectively with the debt from the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Moreover, the confederal government had proven incapable of raising an army to quell the rebellion, so that Massachusetts had been forced to raise its own.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Shays' Rebellion|url=https://www.history.com/topics/early-us/shays-rebellion|access-date=2021-02-06|website=HISTORY|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Franklin|first1=Benjamin|last2=Jefferson|first2=Thomas|last3=Jay|first3=John|last4=Adams|first4=Abigail|last5=Madison|first5=James|last6=Smith|first6=John Rubens|last7=Washington|first7=George|last8=Birch|first8=William|last9=Monroe|first9=James|date=2008-04-12|title=Road to the Constitution - Creating the United States {{!}} Exhibitions - Library of Congress|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/creating-the-united-states/road-to-the-constitution.html|access-date=2021-02-06|website=www.loc.gov}}</ref>
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