Shays's Rebellion Chapter 5

 

Shays's Rebellion Chapter 5

THE SHAYS REBELLION 141

 

day of January at the house of Samuel Dickinson, innholder in

Hatfield. It was signed "John Billings, Chairman. A true coppy.

Attest Sam Pepper Clark." (Hampshire Gazette, Dec. 13, 1786)

 

The speech of the Governor to the Legislature which convened

Sept 27 in response to his proclamation, was strong and stern in

its denunciation of those who had defied the laws and interfered

with the Courts, declaring that such treasonable proceedings

could not have been justified even had all their assumed griev-

ances been well grounded. The Senate earnestly approved of

the firm stand which he had taken and the measures which he

had recommended. But the House was honeycombed with in-

surgency, and beyond a willingness to suppress violent outbreaks

of lawlessness it was reluctant to champion any repressive and

punitive measures.

 

Addresses and petitions poured in from all parts of the Common-

wealth, four items of which were singled out for special consid-

eration, the retention of Boston as the place of holding the Gen-

eral Court ; the regulation of the inferior Courts ; the burdens of

the people due to accumulated taxes and the scarcity of money

and the fee-bill, and salaries of government officials.

 

As a measure for the protection of the Supreme Judicial Court

about to convene at Taunton, the Legislature passed a Riot Act,

which "visited upon all offenders who sho'^ld continue, for the

space of an hour, their combinations, after the act was read to

them, with the confiscation of their property, the infliction of

thirty-nine stripes, and imprisonment not more than one year,

with thirty-nine stripes every three months during the terms of

their imprisonment."

 

Though insurgents gathered at Taunton they committed no

overt act. A week later a large force of militia insured the sitting

of the Court at Cambridge. The action of the Legislature was

sufficiently positive and repressive to disturb the insurgents, as

is indicated by the fact that the following circular letter was sent

to the selectmen of the Hampshire towns :

 

Pelham, Oct. 23, 1786.

Gentlemen: — By information from the General Court, they are determined

to call all those who appeared to stop the Court, to condign punishment.

Therefore, I request you to assemble your men together to see that they

are well armed and equipped, with sixty rounds each man, and to be ready

to turn out at a minute's warning; likewise to be properly organized with

officers.

 

Daniel Shays.

 

 

 

142 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

 

It is a question whether the ground of this presumptuous action

was fear for the personal safety of the criminally involved in-

surgents, or a shrewd scheme for ripening opposition to the gov-

ernment. In either case, worded as the letter was, its effrontery

was sublime, even though phrased as a request rather than as

an order. Another convention was also appointed.

 

At a town meeting held November 1, in Westfield, Thomas

Noble and Jonathan Lyon were chosen to represent the town at

a convention at Hadley the first Tuesday in November in response

to an invitation of Benjamin Bonney.

 

Before the Legislature adjourned, November 18, after a session

which had spent nearly two months in discussion of pressing pub-

lic issues, it had passed three acts for easing popular burdens,

which provided for the collection of arrear taxes in specific arti-

cles ; for making real and personal estate a tender in discharge

of executions and actions commenced in law ; and for rendering

law processes less expensive. Besides it was enacted that one-

third of the proceeds of impost and excise duties should be appro-

priated for the exigencies of government.

 

But while a measure was passed which virtually continued the

suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, and dire vengeance was

threatened against those who should attempt to impede the Courts

of justice, no other action respecting those already guilty of overt

acts of insurgency was taken than to ofifer indemnity to such

of them as should submit to authority according to certain spe-

cified terms.

 

A long address to the people was issued upon which large hopes

of improved conditions were based. It entered into elaborate

details of the state and federal debts, taxes and expenditures,

salaries of officers and their reasonableness at existing rates.

Sundry other matters were discussed and appeals for popular

sanity, patience and loyalty were urged. It was ordered that the

address should be dispersed among the people, and ministers of

the Gospel were requested to present it to their congregations

on the approaching Thanksgiving day or at a lecture appointed

specially for the purpose.

 

The following order was promulgated through Hampshire

County. The original was found among the papers of Gen.

Israel Chapin in Western New York:

 

Northampton, 5th December 1786.

General Orders for the Militia of the 4th Division "Whereas, the Legis-

 

 

 

THE SHAYS REBELLION 143

 

lature, composed of the Representatives of the good people of this Common-

wealth, have, at their late meeting for that purpose, carefully and attentively-

examined our political circumstances and the various causes, and even pre-

tended causes of complaint among us of late; and have, as far as is con-

sistent with the interest and happiness of the State, complied with the

wishes of every one of its citizens; and have among other things prepared

and published an accurate statement of all taxes that have been granted,

and the sums paid; also the sums that have arisen from the Impost and

Excise, and the application of all monies within the State, Also the whole

amount of our foreign and domestic debt, and the particular debt of this

State. And have enumerated resources competent to the payment of the

whole, accompanied with agreements convincing to all honest and well

disposed members of society; and finally have even indemnified all concerned

in any irregular or riotous proceedings in any part of the State that none

who had acted from mistaken notions of propriety and civil duty, might

be precluded from returning to the same.

 

Notwithstanding which, there are still persons (so restless and aband-

oned to all sense of social obligations and tranquility and not improbably

influenced by the clandestine instigations of our avowed and most im-

placable enemies) again embodying under arms to obstruct the course of

law and justice, and perhaps by one bold stroke overturn the very founda-

tion of our Government and Constitution, and on their ruins exert the un-

principled and lawless domination of one man. The General, therefore,

from a sense of duty and desirous to ward ofiF impending evils, no less than

in compliance with orders from his excellency the Governor, once more

entreats and even conjures the militia of his division, both Train Band and

Alarm List, and indeed, every class of citizens, as they prize their lives,

their liberties, their prosperity and their country, unitedly to exert them-

selves to prevent those ills which must otherwise inure. And all officers

commanding Regiments, are hereby requested and commanded immediately

with all their effective men of their several regiments to Brookfield in the

County of Worcester, and to wait further orders, the commanders of regi-

ments will take care that the men are furnished with arms, ammunition

and accoutrements, well clad, and with fifteen days' provisions. The Gen-

eral begs that no little personal or private considerations may take place

of the very near regard we all owe our country, but that we may with

one mind contribute in our several conditions to reclaim the deluded, bring

all high handed offenders to the punishment they so justly deserve, and

give not only the present but future generations proof that the peace and

dignity of Massachusetts is not to be attacked with impunity.

 

Wm. Shepard, Maj. General.

(Phelps' and Turner's Purchase, Turner. Appendix, pp. 483-4.)

 

Late in the year, Dec. 4, 1786, General Lincoln sent a letter,

preserved by his descendants in Hingham, to General Washing-

ton, which was read at the centennial observance of the conflict

at the arsenal, in Olivet Church, Springfield, and part of which

follows :

 

 

 

144 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

 

Are we to have the goodly fabric, that eight years were spent in raising,

pulled over our heads? There is great danger that it will be so, I think,

unless the tottering system shall be supported by arms, and even then a

government which has no other basis than the point of the bayonet, should

one be supported thereon, is so totally different from the one established,

at least in idea, by the different states, that if we must have recourse to

the sad experiment of arms, it hardly can be said that we have supported

the "goodly fabric," — in this view of the matter, it may be "pulled over our

heads." This probably will be the case, for there doth not appear to be

virtue enough among the people to preserve a perfect republican govern-

ment. * * Failing of their point the disaffected in the first place attempted,

and in many instances succeeded, to stop courts of law and to suspend the

operations of government; this they hoped to do until they could by force

sap the foundations of our constitution and bring into the Legislature crea-

tures of their own, by whom they could mold a government at pleasure and

make it subservient to all their purposes; and when an end should thereby

be put to public and private debts the agrarian law might follow with ease.

 

Is it strange that Washington should have been horrified by

the receipt of this letter and news of the events which occurred

within two months following? He gave vent to his indignation

in words which the crisis in the affairs of the Commonwealth

makes perfectly explicable : "What, gracious God, is man that

there should be such inconsistency and perfidiousness in his con-

duct? It was but the other day that we were shedding our blood

to obtain the constitutions under which we now live, — constitu-

tions of our own choice and making, — and now we are unsheath-

ing the sword to overturn them !"

 

At the end of the month in which General Lincoln sent that

stirring letter to General Washington, a letter was sent by Gen-

eral Shepard from Northampton to Governor Bowdoin, under

date of Nov. 30, 1786, hardly more than a month before the at-

tempt of Shays to capture the arsenal, in which he says :

 

I have ever conceived the General Assembly at their last session did

everything they possibly could, and even made some sacrifices in expec-

tation of quieting all who should not be obstinate to conviction, and that

they had taken measures not to recede from in any extremity.

 

How far I am justified in these conceptions your Excellency will best

determine, but since the palliating scheme has failed to produce these effects

that were promised, it appears to me of the first importance to know whether

any further concessions from government are expected or not.

 

I beg leave to suggest whether if the Worcester Court is to be sup-

ported, the Assembly ought not previously to meet, if not to give more

energy to our operations, at least to remove all occasion of scruple in the

most nice.

 

As I have mentioned in my letter of the 14th inst. by the stage, I imagine

 

 

 

THE SHAYS REBELLION 145

 

two thousand men with two companies of artillery and one hundred light

horses to march first to Worcester from the lower counties, after part or

all into this, and so on to Berkshire, will be amply sufficient to crush all

opposition. * * Being now on my return from a tour through the whole

county I am much encouraged, as I find that the address with other cir-

cumstances have fixed the wavering in many instances, particularly in the

town of Northfield which voted unanimously satisfied with the doings of

the General Court. However nothing will restore order and peace to

these counties but superior forces, which I hope will be introduced as soon

as possible. (Massachusetts Historical Collections, Seventh Series. Vol. VI

pp. 126-7.)

 

The following address by the Insurgents to the People was

issued late in that troublous year:

 

It has been considered by the Officers of the several Companies in the

County of Hampshire returning from the movement to Worcester met in

Consultation at Pelham on the 9th Day of December instant to be a matter

of the Greatest importance that the several Companies and regiments in

the sd County to be Properly Organized and Officered. I am therefore

Directed by a committee appointed for that Purpose, to request you in the

name and behalf of the Committee aforesd forthwith to Assemble your

Companies to Chuse a Captain and the other Officers Necessary, and make

return of the Persons so Chosen to me as soon as may be.

Pr Order of the Committee

 

Greenfield December 19th 1786

Obed Foot

(Mass. Archives, Shays Rebellion, Vol. II, p. 297.)

 

The interpretation put by the insurgents upon the transactions

as a whole of that special Legislative session was one of weak-

ness, as is not now to be wondered at, and the response to that

deferential and pacific attitude was one of more vigorous defiance

and intense hostility. "The leniency of the Government was

stamped by the mob as an evidence of weakness and cowardice,

and hardly a single individual out of the thousands who had

engaged in the insurrection, availed himself of the act of in-

demnity passed for his benefit."

 

Within a week after the Legislature had adjourned a body of

regulators assembled at Worcester, and when the members of

the Court, headed by the Sheriff, approached the Court House,

they were defied by a triple row of bayonets. The Sheriff ex-

postulated with the mob, and read the Governor's Proclamation

and the Riot Act. While he was addressing the crowd one of

the leaders interrupted him, telling him that one of their most

intolerable grievances was the Sheriff himself and his offensive

 

"W. Mass. — 10

 

 

 

146 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

 

fees, particularly in criminal executions, to which he wittily re-

plied, "If you consider my fees for criminal executions as op-

pressive, you need not wait long for redress, for I will hang every

one of you, gentlemen, with the greatest of pleasure, and without

charge."

 

The object of the mob was accomplished, as it had been so

often before, and in view of that new defiance of authority the

Governor issued emergent orders to the Major Generals of the

State to put their several regiments of militia in the best pos-

sible condition immediately and to hold them in readiness for

instant action. Notwithstanding these preliminaries no regiment

was ordered to Cambridge to protect the Courts there. Insurgents

from Worcester and Middlesex marched into Concord under

Oliver Parker and were secretly joined there by Job Shattuck,

their former Captain. Under warrants issued by the Governor and

Council in the last extremity, Shattuck, Parker and Page were

arrested without bail or mainprise, Shattuck only after desperate

resistance in which he was wounded several times, once seriously.

 

Shays with a large party rendezvoused at Rutland whence he

executed plans of campaign and issued various orders.

 

Early in December, Day, with above a hundred men from West

Springfield, Longmeadow and Belchertown, moved to that neigh-

borhood. A letter from Springfield in the Hampshire Gazette of

December 4, 1786, refers to the movement:

 

By the best accounts I can get, Capt. Day received orders yesterday by

express from Capt. Shays to march to Worcester all the men he could raise.

He hath spared no pains to collect them. However I expect tvi^o-thirds

Of the men whom he expects will fail him. Perhaps his party from West-

field and West Springfield will consist of 100 or 130 men. The mob party

from Longmeadow have this moment arrived, after two or three expresses

sent them; but their number is only four poor boys.

 

The Gazette published also the following:

 

An Address to the People of the several towns in the county of Hamp-

shire, now at arms —

Gentlemen,

 

We have thought proper to inform you of some of the principal causes

of the late risings of the people, and also of their present movement, viz.

 

1st. The present expensive mode of collecting debts, which by reason

of the great scarcity of cash, will of necessity fill our gaols with unhappy

debtors, and thereby a reputable body of people rendered incapable of be-

ing serviceable either to themselves or the community.

 

2d. The monies raised by impost and excise being appropriated to dis-

 

 

 

THE SHAYS REBELLION 147

 

charge the interest of governmental securities, and not the foreign debt,

when those securities are not subject to taxation.

 

3d. A suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, by which those persons

who have stepped forth to assert and maintain the rights of the people, are

liable to be taken and conveyed even to the most distant part of the Com-

monwealth, and thereby subjected to an unjust punishment.

 

4th. The unlimited power granted to Justices of the Peace and Sheriffs,

Deputy Sheriffs, and Constables, by the Riot Act, indemnifying them to

the prosecution thereof; when perhaps, wholly actuated from a principle

of revenge, hatred, and envy.

 

Furthermore, Be assured, that this body, now at arms, depise the idea

Ot being instigated by British emissaries, which is so strenuously propagated

by the enemies of our liberties; And also wish the most proper and speedy

measures may be taken, to discharge both our foreign and domestic debt.

 

Per Order,

 

Daniel Gray, Chairman of the

 

Committee for the above purpose.

 

While wordy repetitions of grievances and demands which had

become wearisome to the law-abiding were being flaunted in the

face of the public, a very practical grievance was being experienced

by the citizens of Worcester, since Shays had 1000 men billeted

upon them, many of whom can hardly be conceived to have been

refined and pleasing guests. An amusing incident of their sojourn

there is related by Holland, illustrative of the strained condition

of the public mind and the consequent ease with which a panic

was started.

 

Several of the insurgents having become violently ill on one

evening, the rumor spread that poison had been administered in

their drinking water. A quack doctor from Paxton confirmed

their suspicions by declaring that a sediment which he discovered

on their glasses was a compound of arsenic and antimony. Then

it was recalled that some of the mob had purchased sugar for

their grog of an anti-Shays merchant in Worcester, and he was

charged with a criminal attempt. It was only after a reputable

physician had declared the sediment to be Scotch snuflf, and the

merchant's clerk had explained that he had accidentally spilled

some of that article when doing up the sugar, that the excitement

was allayed. To strengthen the truce, the suspected merchant

treated his accusers with a few gallons of old Santa Croix rum.

 

The troops already under arms, though so formidable as an

enforced burden upon the hospitality of Worcester, were wholly

inadequate to cope with the whole body of militia of the Com-

monwealth which was completing mobilization. Indeed, Boston

 

 

 

148 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

 

already presented the aspect of a state of siege, largely on account

of the confinement there of the three insurgent leaders while Shays

had so numerous a force within striking distance. A great part

of the militia was kept under arms ; several alarm posts were as-

signed to citizens, guards were mounted at the prison and the sev-

eral entrances to the town, while the discontented continually

spread alarming rumors and voiced hateful forecasts.

 

A letter from Springfield, dated Dec. 4, 1786, speaks of Shattuck

as "amply provided with all the necessaries and conveniences

proper for any person labouring under such a wound as he received

in his violent and obstinate resistence to the gentlemen who ap-

prehended him." In the issue of January 3 the Gazette speaks

of him as having, with Page and Parker, taken the oath of al-

legiance in Boston.

 

A communication from Northampton, dated December 27, says :

 

"We are credibly informed that the renowned Mr. Shays, has

been, for some time past, so extremely careful of his own preserva-

tion, as to keep a constant guard about his person, and also his

SEAT in Pelham — and that — Billings, of Amherst, has likewise

kept about 30 men on duty to guard him from supposed danger of

being taken by light-horse men."

 

A pretentious plan of enlistment and organization was agreed

upon at a meeting held at Pelham, December 9, 1786, and a com-

mittee of seventeen was intrusted with its execution, no less

formidable than the raising and equipping of six regiments of in-

surgent troops. Captain Gad Sacket of Westfield was associated

with Captain Day of West Springfield for raising the 2d regiment ;

Captain Shays of Pelham was associated with two others to gather

the 4th regiment. Eleven of the seventeen officers named had

seen service in the army. It is a notable fact that Springfield had

no representative among these doughty champions of liberty and

conquest. The conservative element there was strong and influ-

ential though many individuals sympathized and acted with the

insurgents.

 

West Springfield, the larger community at that period, differed

widely from the parent town across the river in its general spirit,

largely due to the rantings and activities of Luke Day.

 

The covenant into which the insurgents who formally enrolled

themselves entered as the basis of their organization was phrased

as follows :

 

"We do Each one of us acknowledge our Selves to be Inlisted

 

 

 

THE SHAYS REBELLION 149

 

into a Company Commanded by Capt. & Lieut. Bullard

 

& in Cols. Hazeltons Regiment of Regulators in Order for the

Suppressing of tyrannical government in the Massachusetts State,

And we do Ingage to obey Such orders as we shall Reseeve from

time to time from our Superior oflficers, and to faithfully Serve

for the term of three months from the Date in Witness hereof

we have hereunto Set our names — the Conditions of Will be for a

Sargt, Sixty Shillings pr Month ; Copl, Fifty Shillings a Month ;

Privet, Forty Shillings a Month and if git the Day their will be a

Consederable Bounty Ither Forty or Sixty Poonds." (History of

Pelham, C. O. Parmenter, p. 373.)

 

Late in December Shays appeared again in Springfield, and

General Shepard with his 1200 men awaiting a summons had not

been ordered there to meet him. Heading a rabble of 300 armed

men Shays took possession of the Court House, which was a

triumph peculiarly gratifying to them in view of their thwarted

attempt on a previous occasion.

 

The afifair is thus exploited in the Hampshire Gazette of Janu-

ary 3, 1787, showing an unaccountable deference to the dignity

and authority of the Court: "The Court of General Sessions of the

Peace and the Court of Common Pleas, by the late resolve of the

General Court were directed to be holden at Springfield on the

26th ult. In the morning of that day a number of armed men

took possession of the ground near the Court House, with an

avowed design to prevent the Justices entering the house. A

committee from the insurgents waited on the Justices with a re-

quest that the courts might not be opened, and intimations given

that very disagreeable consequences would follow in case of non-

compliance. And sentinels were placed at the door of the room

where the Justices had assembled. As no Jurors had been sum-

moned, and no business was proposed to be done if there had been

no opposition, except choosing a Clerk, and so no force had been

collected or attempted to be collected to support the courts, the

Justices present thought it prudent and necessary to inform the

said committee that the courts would not be opened at that time.

The committee requested an answer in writing; the Justices in-

formed them if they expected a written answer, they must ex-

hibit their request in writing; they retired and soon after produced

their written request, of which the following is a copy:

 

Springfield Dec. 26, 1786.

We request the Hon. Judges of the Court not to open said Court at this

 

 

 

150 WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

 

time, nor to do any Kind of business whatsoever, but all Kinds of business

remain as though no such court had been appointed.

 

Luke Day.

 

Daniel Shays.

 

Thomas Grover.

 

To which the following was returned :

 

Springfield, Dec. 26, 1786.

The Justices of the Court of Common Pleas and Court of General

Sessions of the Peace now assembled at Springfield, in consideration of the

opposition made to the opening of said Courts, have determined not to do

any business or open the said Courts this term.

 

Eleazer Porter

 

A contemporaneous comment upon this outrage is given by

Samuel Lyman, a Yale graduate of 1770, an eminent lawyer of

Springfield, who served in both branches of the State Legislature,

and in Congress from 1795 to 1801. In writing from Springfield

under date of December 27, 1786, to Samuel Breck, a merchant of

Boston, he says :

 

The number of insurgents under arms were about three hundred and

more appeared to be constantly flocking in from all quarters. Shays &

Luke Day & one Grover of Montague headed this party of madmen. This

expedition of theirs was conducted with as much secrecy and precaution

as if it was an enterprize of the greatest magnitude and importance, — not

more than one hour before these insurgents arrived in town, the Sheriff

told me that he had not the least apprehension that the Court would be

interrupted by them (altho he knew a number of them were then under

arms in West Springfield) and so there were no steps taken to support

the Court; neither did they request any support when they saw the neces-

sity of it; but from prudential motives dispensed with that substantial aid

which might have been afforded them, & complyed with the illegal & un-

just demands of a pack of villains.

 

In a detailed estimate of the number of insurgents in each of

the Hampshire towns except Springfield sent by Major Shepard

to Governor Bowdoin, Westfield and Southwick have thirty-five

apiece, West Springfield has sixty, and Pelham and Amherst each

has fifty. The aggregate number for the county is nine hundred

and seventy. General Artemas Ward's estimate for the three

upper counties, Worcester, Hampshire and Berkshire, in a report to

Governor Bowdoin, from Shrewsbury, December 16, is that they

would assemble thence about fifteen hundred.

 

An important letter to the Governor from General Shepard af-

fords so intelligent, careful, and detailed a survey of the situation

 

 

 

THE SHAYS REBELLION 151