The Shays affair effectively set the table for the Constitutional Convention by highlighting the ineffectiveness and fragility of the existing system. “It may, in fact, be difficult to overemphasize the degree to which this rebellion jolted American political reflections,” writes the historian John Agresto.33 Shays and his comrades ultimately would be given a silent memorial in the Constitution’s Article IV, Section 4, which among other things guarantees the states protection against both foreign invasion and “domestic Violence.”
