Shays's Rebellion Chapter 6

THE SHAYS REBELLION 151 

and a line of policy urged upon the government, as to be worthy 
of quotation in full: 

Westfield, 17 Decemr. 1786. 

Sir, — I am now to acknowledge the honor of your Excellency's letter 
ot the fourteenth instant by Majr Shepard just come to hand. I am aware 
of the policy of some persons to let the insurgents proceed, presuming that 
they will undeceive themselves, or precipitate with their own rashness, 
or that they might be reclaimed with moderate and lenient measures, and 
in support of such an hypothesis advance that in government as much 
judgement is necessary to know when to recede as in merchants when 
to loose, which hypothesis, altho I do not fully admit, I shall not wholly 
reject. 

But I would beg to leave to suggest that it appears unseasonable and 
ill-timed to either procrastinate or introduce lenient measures untill the 
government have given proofs of their force and ability, otherwise clemency 
appears to proceed from inabilit)'' or pusillanimity, and comes with an ill 
grace. 

It now appears absolutely expedient to enforce the laws since neither 
the rashness of the insurgents or the mitigating steps of assembly have 
been productive of the tranquility that many expected. 

To begin with supporting the Worcester Court, as Your Excellency 
mentions, it will be necessary to save the risk of blood that two thousand 
should march from the lower counties, I should presume, under the com- 
mand of General Lincoln, whose high reputation would avail greatly in 
such an expedition. 

From this county and Berkshire I can march one thousand; what number 
can be raised in Worcester County I am uncertain, but should suppose 
one thousand, which constitutes in all four thousand which under the com- 
mand of General Lincoln would be amply sufficient to restore order and 
peace in a very short time. Respecting supplies I believe provisions can 
easily be furnished from this county, but spirits and some other articles 
must be sent from Boston; however, it appears that the bussiness would 
not require a very long time. 

I shall take early opportunity to transmitt your Excellency further 
information and more particular plans if coercion takes place, which, should 
it be the case, a system for supplying the whole ought previously to be 
concerted, tho I can furnish provisions for the troops of my division if 
it is best. 

I have mentioned Berkshire above, altho it may not be worth while 
for them to march, as I can raise one thousand in this county willing 
to tarry one or perhaps two months in case they should be wanted; how- 
ever your Excellency will have the opinions of the Generals Lincoln, 
Brooks, and Cobb capable of better plan than I can be at present, especially 
at this distance and so little time to weigh the affair. 

I am yr Excellency's most obedt hum. servant, 

Wm. Shepard, Majr Genii. 
His Excellency James Bowdoin. 

(Massachusetts Historical Collections, Seventh Series, Vol. VI, pp. 
119-20.) 



152 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 

The Boston Chronicle of December 27, 1786, published the fol- 
lowing letter from Springfield relative to the exploit of Shays and 
his rabble : 

There is a stagnation of almost every kind of business among us by- 
reason of the tumults which are so prevalent here. Yesterday we had an- 
other visit from the mobility; about 350 men marched in hostile array, 
with drums beating and took possession of the Court House, commanded 
by Shays, Day and Grover, in order to prevent the sitting of the court of 
common pleas, which by law was to have been held here at that time. This 
they effected as there was no opposition on the part of the government. 
It was not possible for the court (as they were surrounded by an armed 
force and a guard placed at the door of the room in which the judges were 
met) to proceed to do business. They therefore informed a committee who 
were chosen by the insurgents to wait on them that they would not at- 
tempt to open the court. After which, about dark, the insurgents left 
town. 

The citizens of Springfield were greatly amazed by this act of 
the insurgents, as the authorities at Boston must have been, since 
no preparation had been made to forestall it. The indignation 
was so intense and widespread that a local organization was im- 
mediately afterward formed to resist further aggression and main- 
tain public order. 

It was while Shays had his headquarters at Worcester that his 
cause began to seem to him hopeless. The attempt to overthrow 
the government, to make revolutionary changes in the whole civil 
fabric, substituting for the Constitution which had been adopted 
a few years before an entirely different one, of just wdiat pattern 
he himself had but the vaguest idea, in all probability, his lieu- 
tenants and rank and file being even more befogged than he, all 
that seemed more than could be accomplished by any forces which 
he could feel confident of commanding, and certainly beyond the 
reach of such as he had already mustered. His despondent atti- 
tude is indicated by the result of an interview which it is said 
that a confidential agent of the government secured with him. 

The officer asked him, "Whether, if he had an opportunity, 
he would accept of a pardon, and leave his people to themselves?" 
It was left optional with him to answer the question or remain 
silent. But he promptly replied, "Yes, in a moment." The officer 
having reported this answer to the Governor and Council, they 
empowered him to assure Shays that if he would immediately 
leave the insurgents, retire to his home, and conduct himself in 
the future as a law-abiding citizen, he might be sure of pro- 



THE SHAYS REBELLION 153 

tection; and in case he should be convicted he should be pardoned 
by the Governor and Council. But the commission thus intrusted 
was afterward returned, there having been found no opportunity 
to execute it. How different would have been the course of sub- 
sequent events had the plan succeeded ! 

The insurgents were in such need of arms and equipment that 
they naturally turned covetous eyes toward the arsenal in Spring- 
field, for the protection of which the Continental authorities dur- 
ing the later Revolutionary period had maintained a guard. Fear- 
ing for the safety of the valuable munitions there stored, a 
correspondence was entered into by General Knox, Secretary of 
War, who appealed for the help of the militia. 

A letter from General Shepard to him sets forth the danger 
of conditions then existing, and shows as well the fiery indigna-, 
tion against traducers and traitors which stirred his righteous 
soul: 

Westfield, December 20, 1786. 

Dear Sir, I addressed a letter to you of the 7th inst. since which time 
I have had information which alarms me. Our insurgents say that they 
have a letter in their hands, which they give out they found, subscribed 
by you and directed to me containing directions for me to remove the 
artillery arms and ammunition from the arsenal and magazine at Spring- 
field. This or something else has given a new alarm in this town and they 
have sent out already expresses to every quarter. 

What their intentions are I cannot determine but the report now in 
circulation is that they do not mean that the arms and military stores should 
be moved as they intend to keep them under their own command. I would 
be much obliged to you to give me the earliest intelligence whether yon 
have directed any letter to me since I saw you at Springfield the 3d of 
October last. If you have sent any letter no doubt it has fallen into their 
hands, and I shall at least be able to determine whether this new devil 
is originated by this accident. If you have wrote none since that date I 
must suppose this alarm has arisen from their own consciences. You are 
sensible, Sir, that the insurgents are in a desperate situation, they must 
either carry their point or lose their lives. They have and will no doubt 
adopt the most desperate measures to defend and support themselves. 

I am surprised that they have not seized the arsenal long before this 
time and erected their standard at Springfield. I cannot be answerable 
for those stores, situated as I am without men, money or provisions. I 
have spent my whole time for three months past opposing mobs and at- 
tending the General Court and sending expresses on every occasion when 
I found it necessary, until I have spent all my money and have no im- 
mediate prospect of receiving any reward. In addition to this I have lost 
eight years hard service to support the lives and property of a set of 
damned rascals who are daily threatening to cut my throat. I am told 



154 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 

they talk of retaliating on me for the captivity of Shattuck and that I am 
to be sent to the gaol in Great Harrington in the county of Berkshire. Till 
which time I have the honor to be with much esteem. 

Your most obedient 
humble servant 

Wm. Shepard. 

He has already made application to the Secretary of War for 
the use of such national property stored in Springfield as might 
be necessary to equip adequately the militia under his command, 
and written later to Governor Bowdoin relative to the Secretary's 
reply and to appeal to the state for supplies denied by the nation. 

A final convention in the county was held at Hadley, January 
2, 1787, but under a very illiterate president and differing widely 
in spirit from the long line of its predecessors. Its temper was 
so mild as to recommend the people to lay down their arms and 
depend upon the more praiseworthy procedure of seeking redress 
by petition. To the bolder spirits it seemed so feeble and timorous 
that they lampooned it in the public prints, and in one instance 
represented it as the "Robin Hood Club" which had died at Had- 
ley, followed by an elaborate description of its obsequies, the whole 
a labored and lame attempt at scathing sarcasm. 

The Governor and Council, in the absence of the legislature, 
having been informed of the latest exploit of Shays at Spring- 
field, though lacking some overt features which might have marked 
it, were thoroughly aroused to the crisis which was upon the Com- 
monwealth. More vigorous and decisive measures than had yet been 
employed were brought to the maintenance of exisiting institutions. 
Anarchy stalked grimly across the public domain. The fabric 
which had been reared at such immense cost of blood and treas- 
ure was undermined and threatened with collapse. Only the bold- 
est and sternest policy could save it, and deliver the old Bay 
State from a doom that would make it a hissing and a by-word 
throughout the Confederacy. 

It was imperative that forces of law and order, which weeks 
before had been ordered to complete preparations for action, should 
actually grapple with the great undertaking of repairing the ma- 
chinery of justice and scattering the hosts which had lifted unholy 
and treasonable hands for its destruction. 

Court was due to convene at Worcester on January 23, and 
there was danger that the lawless regulators would attempt to 
interfere with it. As Minot says, "This was to stride over the 
lines which the government had distinctly marked out for their 



THE SHAYS REBELLION 155 

defence. It might be said to be passing the Rubicon in this con- 
test, and to involve one or other of these consequences, that the 
whole constitutional powers of the Commonwealth were to be 
prostrated at the feet of usurpation and conquest, or that the lives 
and fortunes of the adventurers were to be forfeited for a treason- 
able attempt against their country." 

It would no longer be sane and justifiable to depend on strictly 
local forces, civil or military, to preserve the peace and maintain 
governmental functions. The militia, as the ultimate dependence 
of the Commonwealth, must be employed in strenuous wrestle 
with the hosts of disorder and directed to any district that should 
be threatened. The Council therefore resolved, that 700 men 
should be raised in Suffolk, 500 in Essex, 800 in Middlesex, 1,200 
in Hampshire, and 1,200 in Worcester, the whole amounting to 
4,400 rank and file, a formidable army in those days and circum- 
stances. Four companies of artillery from Suffolk and Middle- 
sex were to form a part of the force. The several contingents 
were to rendezvous at three different points, Boston, Worcester 
and Springfield, according to the districts wherein they were 
mustered. Major General Lincoln, who was appointed to supreme 
command, had two special qualifications for the responsible and 
delicate service demanded ; he had an honorable military reputa- 
tion and a mild and humane temper, in both those respects resemb- 
ling his capable subordinate. General William Shepard. It was 
extremely fortunate that the latter was thus endowed, because 
upon him fell the necessity of bearing the brunt of the conflict 
and making the crucial decisions of the short campaign. The ex- 
ecution of the government program, as has been seen, required 
men, and men required a commissariat, for the best soldiers in 
the world are no better than fresh conscripts if doomed to fight 
on empty stomachs. Furthermore, in those days rations consisted 
of food and grog, as General Shepard insisted in one of his urgent 
dispatches. 

But neither men nor rations could be supplied without money, 
and there was no Legislature in session to vote it. In the general 
impoverishment of the State and the great bulk of its citizenship 
then pressing, the problem of ways and means was emergent. In- 
deed, the question of raising funds instantly needed seemed as 
staggering as that of the disciples on the lake shore relative to 
feeding a multitude about the size of the militia force here re- 
quired. The place of the resourceful Master was in this exigency 



156 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 

taken by some noble and broad minded citizens of Boston who, 
"from a conviction of the necessity of maintaining good order, 
and from a consideration of the exigencies of government, volun- 
tarily offered a loan to support the publick cause." 

The Commissary General and Quartermaster General v^ere dir- 
ected by the authorities to use from this loan an amount not ex- 
ceeding £6000 in meeting necessary expenses. It is pleasing to 
be assured that the Legislature at its next session provided for 
the full payment of this timely loan. 

While the forces of the militia were gathering, on the 12th of 
January, Governor Bowdoin issued an address to the people of the 
Commonwealth setting forth with considerable fullness existing 
conditions, the reasons for recent decisions, and the plans of action 
put into operation. 

"Men of principle, the friends of justice and the constitution, 
were enjoined to unite, and by their union, if it should be as firm 
as the insurgents had been obstinate in trampling justice and the 
constitution under their feet, it was observed, a regular administra- 
tion of law and justice would be established without the horrors 
of a civil war, which were ardently deprecated, and which the ut- 
most endeavours would be used to prevent. But unless the force 
appeared, the greatest calamaties seemed inevitable." (Minot, In- 
surrections in Massachusetts, pp. 96-7.) 

The decisive action of the authorities, when once thoroughly 
aroused to the critical state of public afiFairs, disturbed the in- 
surgents and filled them with concern for the immediate future. 
Without relaxing military preparations, they sent a petition to 
the authorities at Boston, stating conditions upon which they 
would preserve the peace, namely, that state prisoners should 
be liberated, that the Courts of Common Pleas might be adjourned 
to the next election, and that a general pardon should be granted 
to all insurgents. They protested that the petition was devised 
and presented, not from any fear of death or penalties which might 
be inflicted for lawlessness, but moved solely by a desire "to 
prevent the cruelties and devastations of civil war." It was, of 
course, rejected. 

Three days later, January 15, Shays and four other leaders dis- 
patched a document to their various officers throughout Hamp- 
shire pressing them to muster their respective commands, fully 
armed and equipped, with ten days' rations, and that they should 
rendezvous near Dr. Hind's in Pelham by Friday the 19th inst. 



THE SHAYS REBELLION 157 

It contained also the declaration that "the Governor and his ad- 
herents" were resolved to support the Courts "by the point of 
the sword" and besides "to crush the power of the people at one 
bold stroke, and render them incapable of ever opposing the cruel 
power, Tyranny, by bringing- those who have steped forth to ward 
off the evil that threatens the people with immediate ruin, to an 
unconditional submission, and their leaders with an infamous pun- 
ishment." (Hampshire Gazette, January 24, 1787.) 

Dr. Nehemiah Hinds kept a tavern on Pelham east hill, where 
the insurgents were summoned to gather by the call of Shays, 
and there many of them were quartered before the retreat to Peters- 
ham. The tavern stood on the site of the present parsonage of the 
Congregational church in Prescott. The sign of the tavern con- 
tained a painting of a horse held by a groom, and was hung on 
a post set into the bed-rock in front of the building. The hole 
into which the post was set may still be seen, about six inches in 
diameter and two feet in depth. 

Two plans were earnestly considered by the insurgent leaders, 
one involving a movement upon Boston for the release of Shat- 
tuck, Parker and Page from confinement there ; the other an at- 
tempt to seize the arsenal at Springfield and the valuable military 
stores which it contained as preliminary to the attack on the 
Capital. It will be recalled that it was on account of the pre- 
vision of General Shepard that such a plan was frustrated in the 
previous occupancy of the city by the Shays mob. Meantime the 
General had not been unmindful of the danger to that property of 
the national government which at any moment might become 
imminent, and had secured orders for its protection from the Sec- 
retary of War. 

Four days after the Shays manifesto was dispatched to his sub- 
ordinates, looking forward to a concentrated movement upon 
Springfield, the following orders were issued to General Lincoln : 

Boston, January 19, 1787. 
Sir, You will take command of the militia, detached in obedience to 
my orders of the 4th instant. The great objects to be effected are, to pro- 
tect the Judicial Courts, particularly those next to be holden in the county 
of Worcester, if the Justices of said courts should request your aid; — to 
assist the civil magistrates in executing the laws; or in repelling or appre- 
hending all and every such person and persons, as shall in a hostile manner, 
attempt or enterprise the destruction, detriment or annoyance of this Con- 
monwealth; and also to aid them in apprehending the disturbers of the 
publick peace, as well as all such persons as may be named in the state 



158 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 

warrants, that have been, or shall be committed to any civil officer or 
officers, or to any other person to execute. * * * On these attempts to 
restore system and order I wish the smiles of heaven, and that you may 
have an agreeable command, the most perfect success, and a speedy and 
safe return; and am with much esteem. 

Sir, your most obedient servant, 
James Bowdoin. 
Hon. Major General Lincoln. 

Two days later he wrote to General Shepard expressing sat- 
isfaction that he had taken possession of the arsenal with so re- 
spectable a force, and referring him to General Lincoln to learn 
about "supplies of beef, bread, rum, forage and fuel." He explains 
that the money advanced by the merchants of Boston and vicinity 
was to be used solely for supplies, not for the pay of the militia, 
and suggests that in case of necessity the gentlemen of fortune 
and ability in these parts would be equally ready to advance 
money for the same patriotic purpose, but he reckoned without 
his host as the later desperate appeals of General Shepard, based 
on his inability to raise either funds or rum hereabouts, show. 
The Governor concludes, "As to the arsenal at Springfield it is 
expected that you defend it at all hazards ; the particular meas- 
ures for that important purpose must be left with you as exigencies 
require." 

In response to letters from General Lincoln and General Shepard 
to the Governor, the Council advised him to give such further 
orders as should enable him to apprehend all persons dangerous 
to the public peace and welfare, particularly in the Counties of 
Worcester, Hampshire and Berkshire where the disturbances were 
most general and the danger was most imminent. 

Just at this point, immediately preceding the engagement which 
proved to be the crucial point of the widespread and long-con- 
tinued conflict between the established order and the forces of 
discontent and revolt, it is natural to attempt an analysis of the 
elements which constituted the lawless force. 

It was a strange and heterogeneous combination of diversified 
factors. Many people united against the government who differed 
widely among themselves in their attitude toward specific questions 
at issue and specific ends sought. The apparently intimate rela- 
tionship between particular grievances rankling in many breasts, 
and the various courts which purported to administer justice and 
correct abuses, led many to wink at high-handed outrages against 
the duly authorized mechanism of legal procedure, who, but for the 



THE SHAYS REBELLION 159 

aggrieved state of their minds at that epoch, would have abhorred 
such anarchistic attacks. "The discontented of every class, there- 
fore, united at this important stage of the contest, without much 
attention to the difference between their several complaints, or 
their proposed systems of reform. Many who only wished for an 
alteration in the Judicial Courts were entangled with others who 
intended, if possible, to prevent the administration of justice in 
any way." 

So those moderate reformers, who wished for some changes in 
statutes and methods which would relieve undue burdens from the 
backs of citizens overwhelmed with debt and incapacitated by 
poverty, were swept away by the tide of insurgency with the 
extreme radicals who demanded wholesale repudiation of financial 
obligations and a desperate overthrow of the very Constitution 
itself. 

Tories who had intrigued against, insulted and exasperated the 
self-sacrificing patriots, now drilled shoulder to shoulder with 
them under Shays in Pelham and Day in West Springfield with 
sprigs of hemlock in their hats and bludgeons or muskets in their 
hands. Verily, "misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." 

"Thus," Minot concluded, "was formed a chequered but numer- 
ous body, some have supposed a third part of the Commonwealth, 
to aid, or at least not to contend against, the resistance made to 
the sitting of the courts." He estimated that another third of 
the population was neutral. If his conclusions were substantially 
correct it is readily seen that the existing state of affairs was 
momentously serious, demanding a large amount of wisdom and 
power in dealing with the menacing forces of disintegration. The 
times were seriously out of joint, and a skillful hand was needed 
to articulate them again and restore their functional utility. 

On the 10th of January, 1787, warrants were issued by Governor 
Bowdoin to the Sheriff of Hampshire County for the arrest of 
the following ringleaders of the insurgents in that county, declar- 
ing "that the enlargement of the above named persons is dangerous 
to the Commonwealth, its peace and safety." 

Captain Asa Fisk of South Brimfield, Alpheus Colton of Long- 
meadow, Luke Day of West Springfield, Captain Gad Sacket of 
Westfield, Captain Aaron Jewett of Chesterfield, Captain John 
Brown of Whately, Samuel Morse of Worthington, Captain Daniel 
Shays of Pelham, Joseph Hinds of Greenwich, Captain Joel Billings 
of Amherst, Obed Foot of Greenfield, Captain Abel Dinsmore of 



160 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 

Conway, Captain Matthew Clark of Colrain, Samuel Hill of Charle- 
mont, Captain Thomas Grover of Montague, John Powers of 
Shutesbury. 

Sheriff Elisha Porter announced in his report to the Governor, 
"Day, Colton, Clark and Brown, jailed, — the others not found." 
Evidently, Day at least managed to secure his freedom within the 
fortnight succeeding, wherever he had been incarcerated. 

It is a noteworthy fact that the list of names in the schedule 
above corresponds exactly, name for name, with the Committee 
appointed some time previously to raise and organize a body of 
troops composed of six regiments. 

Captain Gad Sacket of Westfield, included in the list, was a 
son of Daniel and Mary (Weller) Sacket, born April 13, 1748, 
and married to Lucy Williams, February 11, 1773, by whom he 
had eight children, six of them born before this date. 

His brother. Captain Daniel Sacket, was one of the prominent 
citizens and patriots of the town, who had represented the town 
as delegate to several of the county conventions called to consider 
grievances. Gad served several months during 1775 in the defense 
of his country. 

Notorious as Shays became as the chief promoter of insurgency 
and open rebellion, it is perplexing to study carefully his attitude 
toward the whole movement revealed by his replies to General 
Rufus Putnam as fully reported by the latter to Governor Bowdoin, 
January 8, 1787. They were given in Rutland, and at that time, 
only about a fortnight before his bold approach to the Springfield 
arsenal, he insisted that his earnest effort had been to restrain 
the insurgents from bloodshed ; that his name had been signed in 
his absence by Grover to the order to the Justices at Springfield; 
that the Committee had ordered forces to march against his wishes ; 
and that he was not nearly as prominent in the general movement 
as was commonly supposed. It may have been that he wished to 
mitigate the bitterness of the prejudice against him of the man 
who had been captain of the company in which he first enlisted 
and fought at Bunker Hill and elsewhere. 

In the early part of Januar}^ General Shepard did not realize 
how serious the situation was to become within a fortnight. In- 
deed, he wrote from Northampton as late as the 12th assuring 
General Lincoln that two or three hundred men would be ample 
for the defense of the arsenal, and that he himself with the balance 
of his command might be spared to march to Worcester to aid in 



THE SHAYS REBELLION 161