Shays's Rebellion Chapter 6

 

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