After an attack like Jan. 6, America's founders rallied to save their democracy

After an attack like Jan. 6, America's founders rallied to save their democracy

America's founders dealt with "mobbish insurgents" by strengthening the democracy.

By Michael Steele, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

History will not soon forget the 1,500 disgruntled Americans who set out on a cold January morning with the goal of overthrowing our government. They believed the system was “rigged.” Months of semi-peaceful protests hadn’t given them what they wanted. So, led by former military members, they armed themselves and surrounded a federal building as a first step toward a coup.

But the date was not January 6, 2021. It was January 25, 1787. That’s when a group of farmers and war veterans organized by Daniel Shays staged an attack on a U.S. armory as part of an effort to overthrow the government over high taxation.

The still young American republic was without a central military and was, thus, too weak to quash Shays’ Rebellion. A hastily organized Massachusetts militia ultimately put it down.

In the wake of the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the lesson to remember isn’t that there was another divisive U.S. insurrection in our history. The lesson to take away is America’s different response.

Former first lady Abigail Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, called the Shaysites “mobbish insurgents” and “ignorant, restless desperados, without conscience or principles.”

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