USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > History of Worcester, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to September, 1836 : with various notices relating to the history of Worcester County > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > History of Worcester, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to September, 1836 : with various notices relating to the history of Worcester County > Part 15
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
CHAPTER VIII.
1782 to 1787. Insurrection. Distresses of the people. County Conventions, 1782, 1784, 1786. Court stopped, Sept. 1786. Spirited conduct of Judge Ward. Pro- ceedings of the insurgents. Convention, Sept. 1786. Town meeting, Oct. 1786. Court of Sessions interrupted. Sheriff Greenleaf. Insurgents occupy the town, Dec. 1786. Militia of Worcester appear in arms for the government. Capl. Howe. Con- sultations of the insurgents. Distresses of their retreat. Gen. Lincoln's army. Affair at New Braintree. Dispersion of the insurgents.
The struggles of the Revolution had scarce terminated, before dis- turbances arose among the people, which, in their progress, brought the commonwealth to the very verge of ruin.
Could the existence of insurrection and rebellion be effaced from memory, it would be wanton outrage to recall from oblivion the tale of misfortune and dishonor. But those events cannot be forgotten : they have floated down in tradition : they are recounted by the winter fire-side, in the homes of New England : they are inscribed on roll and record in the archives and annals of the state. Ilistory, the mirror of the past, reflects with painful fidelity, the dark as well as the bright objects from departed years, and although we may wish to contemplate only the glowing picture of patriotism and pros- perity, the gloomy image of civil commotion is still full in our sight, shadowing the background with its solemn admonition.
'The investigation of the causes of the unhappy tumults of 1786,
131
1782.]
DISTRESSES OF THE PEOPLE.
does not belong to the narrative of their local effects on one of the principal scenes of action. But it would be great injustice to omit the statement, that circumstances existed, which palliate, though they do not justify, the conduct of those who took up arms against the government of their own establishment. After eight years of war, Massachusetts stood, with the splendor of triumph, in repub- lican poverty, bankrupt in resources, with no revenue but of an ex- piring currency, and no metal in her treasury more precious than the continental copper, bearing the devices of union and freedom. The country had been drained by taxation for the support of the army of independence, to the utmost limit of its means ; public credit was extinct, manners had become relaxed, trade decayed, manufactures languishing, paper money depreciated to worthless- ness, claims on the nation accumulated by the commutation of the pay of officers for securities, and a heavy and increasing pressure of debt rested on commonwealth, corporations, and citizens. The first reviving efforts of commerce overstocked the markets with for- eign luxuries and superfluities, sold to those who trusted to the future to supply the ability of payment. The temporary act of 1782, mak- ing property a tender in discharge of pecuniary contracts, instead of the designed remedial effect, enhanced the evils of general insolvency, by postponing collections. The outstanding demands of the royal- ists refugees, who had been driven from large estates and extensive business, enforced with no lenient forbearance, came in to increase the embarrassments of the deferred pay day. At length, a flood of suits broke out. In 1784, more than 2000 actions were entered in the county of Worcester, then having a population less than 50,000, and in 1785, about 1700. Lands and goods were seized and sacri- ficed on sale, when the general difficulties drove away purchasers. Amid the universal distress, artful and designing persons discerned prospect for advancement, and fomented the discontent by inflamma- tory publications and seditious appeals to every excitable passion and prejudice. The constitution was misrepresented as defective, the administration as corrupt, the laws as unequal and unjust. The celebrated papers of Honestus directed jealousy towards the judi- cial tribunals, and thundered anathemas against the lawyers, un- fortunately for them, the immediate agents and ministers of cred- itors. Driven to despair by the actual evil of enormous debt, and irritated to madness by the increasing clamor about supposed griev- ances, it is scarcely surprising that a suffering and deluded people should have attempted relief, without considering that the misery
132
COUNTY CONVENTION. [1782.
they endured was the necessary result from the confusion of years of warfare. 1
Before the close of the revolutionary contest, whose pressure had united all by the tie of common danger, indications of discontent had been manifested. The acts of the legislature had excited temporary and local uneasiness in former years, as the operation of laws conflict- ed with the views of expediency or interest entertained by the village politicians. But in 1782, complaints arose of grievances, springing from the policy and administration of government, of more general character. On the 14th of April of that year, the delegates of twenty six towns of the county assembled in convention, and at- tribating the prevailing dissatisfaction of the people, to want of confidence in the disbursement of the great sums of money annual- ly assessed, recommended instructions to the representatives, to re- quire immediate settlement with all public officers entrusted with the funds of the commonwealth ; and if the adjustment was delayed or refused, to withdraw from the General Court, and return to their constituents ; to reduce the compensation of the members of the House, and the fees of lawyers ; to procure sessions of the Court of Probate in different places in the county ; the revival of confessions of debt ; enlargement of the jurisdiction of justices of the peace to £ 20: contribution to the support of the continental army in spe- cific articles instead of money : and the settlement of accounts be- tween the Commonwealth and Congress. At an adjourned session, May 14, they further recommended, that account of the public ex- penditures should be annually rendered to the towns; the removal of the General Court from Boston ; separation of the business of the Common Pleas and Sessions, and inquiry into the grants of lands in Maine in favor of Alexander Shepherd and others. Wor- cester was represented in these assemblies, and in the instructions to Samuel Curtis, Esq., framed in accordance with their resolutions,
1 Could we roll back the tide of time, till its retiring wave left bare the rocks on which the commonwealth was so nearly wrecked, it is not improbable, we should discov- er, that a loftier and more dangerous ambition, and wider, deeper, and more unhallowed purposes, urged on and sustained the men who were pushed into the front rank of rebel- lion, than came from the limited capacity of their own minds. We might find that the accredited leaders of 1786, were only humble instruments of stronger spirits, waiting in their concealment the results of the tempest they had roused. Fortunately, the energy of government, gave lo rising revolution the harmless character of crushed insurrection, saved to after years the inquiry for the Catalines of the young republic, and left to us the happy privilege of receiving the coin impressed with the mark of patriotism at its stamped value, without testing its deficiency of weight, or assaying the metal to deter- mine the mixture of alloy.
133
COUNTY CONVENTION.
1784.]
on the Sth of June, the town represented as additional grievances, that the Treasurer held the office of Justice of the Common Pleas in Middlesex, interfering with the discharge of his general duties ; and the proposition for the allowance of half pay for life to the officers deranged on the new organization of the army, and not in service. Some of the complaints were quieted by legal provisions, and when the convention was appointed to be again held by adjournment, in August, the few discontented persons in attendance dispersed with- out transacting business.1
The murmurs of the coming storm were first heard here, early in 1784. On the invitation of Sutton to each town of the county, the capital sent delegates to a convention, held in March of that year, of which Ebenezer Davis, Esq. was President. Although assembled for the professed purpose of considering the expediency of an excise duty alone, the inquiries of this body were more extensive in pursuit of existing evils. When the result of its deliberations was communi- cated to the inhabitants of Worcester, they adopted for themselves the petition prepared for general acceptance, representing as grievan- ces, the grant to Congress of an impost for twenty five years to dis- charge the interest accruing on state securities; the payment from the treasury of the expenses of festive days of rejoicing ; large com- pensation to officers of the continental army ; neglect to redeem the paper currency ; the want of a circulating medium ; and the impair- ed state of credit. The representative of the town was instructed to endeavor to procure the removal of the General Court from Bos- ton to some country town, where it would be secure from improper influences ; and to cause an account of the debts, revenues and charges of government to be published annually. These complaints, unnoticed by the Legislature, seemed to be hushed and quieted by the very neglect they experienced.
But the spirit of discontent, though stilled, was not extinct. It spread wider and deeper, and grew stronger in the minds of men, and its voice was again heard. In May, 1786, another invitation from Sutton, for a general meeting, was circulated, and passed over here without attention. The delegates of 17 towns, however, form- ed a convention at Leicester, and elected Willis Hall, of Sutton, its
1 ' While the great body of the people desired only escape from impending suits, without premeditated malice against the Commonwealth or its institutions, every trivial eause was magnified and perverled lo increase the existing irritation, till, under the influence of delusion, a deadly blow was struck at both.' MSS. Centennial Address of Hon. John Davis.
134
GRIEVANCES.
[1786.
President. As the attendance was thin, letters were addressed to Worcester, and the other towns of the county unrepresented, re- questing their participation, and an adjournment took place to the 15th of August following. Our inhabitants, at a meeting held on this application, determined, by a great majority, not to comply ; on the grounds, that the body from which it emanated was not recognized by the constitution, and that its session was unnecessary and ille- gal. Thirty seren towns, appeared by their representatives when the convention was reorganized at Leicester. It is not uninteres- ting to notice the gradual increase of alleged evils in its doings. In 1784, the list was brief. In 1786, without essential change in pol- icy or condition, it had swelled to voluminons extent. In addition to the grievances already stated, they enumerated among the sources of uneasmess, abnses in the practice of the law; exorbitance of the items in the fee bill ; the existence and administration of the Courts of Common Pleas and Sessions ; the number and salaries of public officers ; grants to the Attorney General ; and to Congress, while the state accounts remained unliquidated. A committee was in- structed to report a memorial, at another session, to be had, by ad- journment, in Paxton, on the last Tuesday of September.
Thus far, redress had been sought by the constitutional appeal of the citizen to the Legislature. The recorded proceedings of the convention are of pacific character, expressing disapprobation of combinations, mobs, and riots : yet, it is probable, that during the period of its consultations, the bold design was originated by the most violent of its members, of resisting the execution of the laws and suspending the operations of courts. Soon after the first meet- ing, it was stated in the paper of the town, printed by Mr. Thomas, that apprehensions existed of obstruction to the Common Pleas in June. The first open act of insurrection followed close upon the adjournment of the convention in August.
Although warning of danger had been given, confiding in the loy- alty of the people, their love of order, and respect for the laws, the officers of government had made no preparations to support the court, to be held in Worcester, in September, 1786. On Monday night, of the first week in that month, a body of eighty armed men, under Capt. Adam Wheeler of Hubbardston, entered the town, and took possession of the Court House. Early the next morning, their numbers were augmented to nearly one hundred, and as many more collected without fire arms. The Judges of the Common Pleas had assembled at the house of the Hon. Joseph Allen. At the usual
135
COURTS SUSPENDED.
1786.]
hour, with the Justices of the Sessions and the members of the bar, attended by the clerk and sheriff, they moved towards the Court House. Chief Justice Artemas Ward, a general of the revolution, united intrepid firmness with prudent moderation. His resolute and manly bearing on that day of difficulty and embarrassment, sustain- ed the dignity of the office he bore, and commanded the respect even of his opponents. On him devolved the responsibility of an occasion affecting deeply the future peace of the community : and it was sup- ported well and ably.
On the verge of the crowd thronging the hill, a sentinel was pa- cing on his round, who challenged the procession as it approached his post. den. Ward, sternly ordered the soldier, formerly a subal- tern of his own particular regiment, to recover his levelled musket. The man, awed by the voice he had been accustomed to obey, in- stantly complied, and presented his piece, in military salute, to his old commander. The Court, having received the honors of war, from him who was planted to oppose their advance, went on. The mul- titude, receding to the right and left, made way in sullen silence, till the judicial officers reached the Court House. On the steps was stationed a file of men with fixed bayonets : on the front, stood Captain Wheeler, with his drawn sword. The crier was directed to open the doors, and permitted to throw them back, displaying a party of infantry with their guns levelled, as if ready to fire. Judge Ward then advanced, and the bayonets were turned against his breast. He demanded, repeatedly, who commanded the people there ; by what authority, and for what purpose, they had met in lios- tile array. Wheeler at length replied : after disclaiming the rank of leader, he stated, that they had come to relieve the distresses of the country, by preventing the sittings of courts until they could obtain redress of grievances. The Chief Justice answered, that he would satisfy them their complaints were without just foundation. He was told by Capt. Smith of Barre, that any communication he had to make must be reduced to writing. Judge Ward indignantly refused to do this : he said, he ' did not value their bayonets : they might plunge them to his heart : but while that heart beat he would do his duty : when opposed to it, his life was of little consequence : if they would take away their bayonets and give him some position where he could be heard by his fellow citizens, and not by the lead- ers alone who had deceived and deluded them, he would speak, but not otherwise.' 'The insurgent officers, fearful of the effect of liis de- termined manner on the minds of their followers, interrupted. They
136
JUDGE WARD.
[1786.
did not come there, they said, to listen to long speeches, but to re- sist oppression : they had the power to compel submission : and they demanded, an adjournment without day. Judge Ward perem- torily refused to answer any proposition, unless it was accompanied by the name of him by whom it was made. They then desired him to fall back : the drum was beat, and the guard ordered to charge. The soldiers advanced, until the points of their bayonets pressed hard upon the breast of the Chief Justice, who stood as immoveable as a statue, without stirring a limb, or yielding an inch, although the steel in the hands of desperate men penetrated his dress. Struck with admiration by his intrepidity, and shrinking from the sacrifice of life, the guns were removed, and Judge Ward, ascending the steps, addressed the assembly. In a style of clear and forcible argument, he examined their supposed grievances ; exposed their fallacy ; ex- plained the dangerous tendency of their rash measures ; admonish- ed them that they were placing in peril the liberty acquired by the efforts and sufferings of years, plunging the country in civil war, and involving themselves and their families in misery : that the measures they had taken must defeat their own wishes ; for the government would never yield that to force, which would be readily accorded to respectful representations : and warned them that the majesty of the laws, would be vindicated, and their resistance of its power aven- ged. He spoke nearly two hours, not without frequent interrup- tion. But admonition and argument were unavailing : the insur- gents declared they would maintain their ground until satisfaction was obtained. Judge Ward, addressing himself to Wheeler, advis- ed him to suffer the troops to disperse : 'they were waging war, which was treason, and its end would be,' he added after a momentary pause, ' the gallows." The judges then retired, unmolested, through armed files. Soon after, the Court was opened at the United States Arms "Tavern, 1 and immediately adjourned to the next day. Orders were despatched to the colonels in the brigade to call out their regiments, and march, withont a moment's delay, to sustain the judicial tribu- nals : but that right arm on which the government rests for defence was paralyzed : in this hour of its utmost need, the militia shared in the disaffection, and the officers reported, that it was out of their power to muster their companies, because they generally favored those movements of the people directed against the highest civil in- stitutions of the state, and tending to the subversion of social order.
In the afternoon of Tuesday, a petition was presented from Athol,
1 On the site of the Exchange Coffee House, 1836.
137
COMMITTEES WAIT ON THE COURT.
1786.]
requesting that no judgments should be rendered in civil actions, except where debts would be lost by delay, and no trials had unless with the consent of the parties; a course corresponding with the views entertained by the court. Soon after, Capt. Smith of Barre, unceremoniously introduced himself to the judges, with his sword drawn, and offered a paper purporting to be the petition of ' the body of people now collected for their own good and that of the Common- wealth,' requiring an adjournment of the courts withont day. He de- manded, in a threatening manner, an answer in half an hour. Judge Ward, with great dignity, replied, that no answer would be given, and the intruder retired. An interview was solicited, during the evening, by a committee, who were informed that the officers of gov- ernment would make no promises to men in hostile array : an in- timation was given that the request of the people of Athol was con- sidered reasonable : and the conference terminated. A report of the result was made to the insurgents, who voted it was unsatisfactory, and resolved to remain until the following day.
During the night, the Court House was guarded in martial form : sentinels were posted along the front of the building, and along Main street : the men not on duty, bivonaced in the hall of justice, or sought s' '+pr with their friends. In the first light of morning, the whole force paraded on the hill, and was harangued by the leaders. In the forenoon, a new deputation waited on the court, with a repe- tition of the former demand, and received similar reply. The jus- tices assured the committee, if the body dispersed, the people of the county would have no just cause of complaint with the course the court would adopt. The insurgents, reenforced with about two hun- dred from Holden and Ward, now minstered four hundred strong, half with fire arms, and the remainder furnished with sticks. They formed in column, and marched through Main street, with their music, inviting all who sought relief from oppression to join their ranks, but receiving no accession of recruits from our citizens, they returned to the Court House. Sprigs of evergreen had been distributed, and mounted as the distinctive badge of rebellion, and a young pine tree was elevated at their post as the standard of revolt.
The court, at length, finding that no reliance could be placed on military support, and no hope entertained of being permitted to proceed with business, adjourned, continuing all causes to the next term. Proclamation was made by the sheriff to the people, and a copy of the record communicated. After this, about two hundred men, with sticks only, paraded before the house of Mr. Allen, where
18
138
INSURGENTS RETIRE.
[1786.
the justices had retired, and halted nearly an hour, as if meditating some act of violence. The main body then marched down, and pas- sing through the other party, whose open ranks closed after them, the whole moved to the common, where they displayed into line, and sent another committee to the court.
The sessions, considering their deliberations controlled by the mob, deemed it expedient to follow the example of the superior tri- bunal, by an adjournment to the 21st of November. When the in- surgent adjutant presented a paper, requiring it should be without fixed day, Judge Ward replied, the business was finished and could not be changed.
Before night closed down, the Regulators, as they styled them- selves, dispersed ; and thus terminated the first interference of the citizens in arms with the course of justice. Whatever fears might have been entertained of future disastrous consequences, their visit brought with it no terror, and no apprehension for personal safety to their opposers. Both parties, indeed, seemed more inclined to hear than strike. The conduct of Judge Ward was dignified and spirited, in a situation of great embarrassment. His own depreca- tion, that the sun might not shine on the day when the constitution was trampled on with impunity, seemed to be realized. Clouds, darkness, and storm, brooded over the meeting of the insurgents, and rested on their tumultuary assemblies in the county at subse- quent periods.
The state of feeling here, was unfavorably influenced by the suc- cess of the insurgents. At a meeting of the inhabitants, on the 25th of September, delegates were elected to the county convention at Paxton, with instructions to report their doings to the town. The list of grievances received some slight additions from this as- sembly. The delay and expense of Courts of Probate, the manner of recording deeds in one general office of registry, instead of en- tering them on the books of the town where the land was situated ; and the right of absentees to sue for the collection of debts, were the subjects of complaint in a petition, concluding with the request that precepts might be issued for meetings, to express public senti- ment in relation to a revision of the constitution, and if two thirds of the qualified voters were in favor of amendment, that a state convention might be called. The existence of this body was con- tinued by an adjournment to Worcester. The petition was imme- diately forwarded to the General Court. A copy was subsequently submitted to the town, at a meeting held, October 2, for the purpose
139
TOWN MEETING. PETITIONS.
1786.]
of receiving a report from the delegates. It was then voted, ' That Mr. Daniel Baird be requested to inform the town whether this pe- tition was according to his mind, and he informed the town it was : but that he did not approve of its being sent to the General Court before it had been laid before the town.' The petition was read para- graph by paragraph, rejected, and the delegates dismissed.
On the 16th of October, in compliance with the request of 34 freeholders, another town meeting was called : after long and warm debate, the former delegates were reelected, to attend the conven- tion, at its adjourned session. A petition had been offered, praying consideration of the measures proper in the alarming situation of the country, and for instructions to the representative to enquire into the expenditure of public money, the salaries of officers, the means of increasing manufactures, encouraging agriculture, intro- ducing economy, and removing every grievance. Directions were given to endeavor to procure the removal of the Legislature from the metropolis to the interior ; the annihilation of the Inferior Courts ; the substitution of a cheaper and more expeditious admin- istration of justice ; the immediate repeal of the supplementary fund granted to congress ; the appropriation of the revenue arising from impost and excise to the payment of the foreign debt ; and the with- holding all supplies from Congress until settlement of accounts be- tween the Commonwealth and Continent. Resolutions, introduced by the supporters of government, expressing disapprobation of uncon- stitutional assemblies, armed combinations, and riotous movements, and pointing to the Legislature as the only legitimate source of re- dress, were rejected. The convention party was triumphant by a small majority. While the discussion was urged, a considerate cit- izen enquired of one of the most zealous of the discontented, what grievances he suffered, and what were the principal evils among them ? ' There are grievances enough, thank God !' was the hasty reply, ' and they, are all principal ones.'
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