USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Gardner > History of the town of Gardner, Worcester County, Mass., from the incorporation, June 27, 1785, to the present time > Part 8
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Hence, though few in number, our fathers, in the very infancy of their corporate existence, did not hesitate to utter their sen- timents in the hearing of the governor and his council, as we shall find, in what now follows. In those events, of public interest, which agitated the state, at this time, to which refer- ence has been made in this chapter, our fathers bore an impor- tant part. At this precise period, we shall find this spirit of discontent and jealousy, crystallizing itself into armed force, preparing to resist oppression and maintain personal and mu- nicipal rights. In order to carry out this purpose, parties, called Regulators, were formed all over the state, whose object was to take the redress of public grievances into their own hands. As Regulators, their intention, if circumstances favored, was to regulate the affairs of the state and to see that they, at least, secured their own rights. In a somewhat milder sense, than the term is usually employed, they were an armed mob, willing to be orderly and well behaved, if their wishes should be consulted and gratified, but ready to shed blood if they were not.
Among the leaders in this mobocracy, was a man known by the name of Capt. Shattuck. He had been arrested and was, at this time, confined in jail. His confinement gave great uneasiness, especially to those who were in sympathy with the Regulators, and even to some who were not, and yet, who desired the peace and happiness of the state, through the enjoy- ment of equal rights. As a consequence of this general feeling, a County Convention, was called, to meet at Paxton, the 26th day of November, 1786, whose object may be indicated in the following vote of the town, and in the instructions given the delegate chosen to sit in that convention.
The town meeting was called, especially, as the warrant reads, " To see if the town will choose a person to sit in con- vention, at Paxton, on Tuesday, the twenty-sixth day of this instant, agreeable to a letter sent to this town, for that purpose. or act anything relating thereunto as the town shall think best when met. Met agreeable to warrant. Voted, To send a man
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to the convention at Paxton. Made choice of Capt. Samuel Kelton, to sit in convention, at Paxton, on Tuesday, the twenty- sixth day of September, 1786. Voted, To choose a committee of three to give directions to the delegate, namely : William Bickford, David Foster, Elijah Wilder, committee." The com- mittee made their report as follows :
Whereas, The difficulties and tumults that are rising, by reason of the scarcity of money and large salaries to support government, and high tax of officers at large, we desire that you will use your influence, that these salaries may be taken down, and salaries given, that may be handsome for their sup- port, and not too burdensome to the people at large, and that the lawyers and inferior courts, may be entirely annihilated, and also that the General Court, might not make any grants of state lands, to any person, except it is to pay state charges. Also that the General Court may be removed, out of Boston, into some country town.
WILLIAM BICKFORD, DAVID FOSTER, Committee.
ELIJAII WILDER, 1
Gardner, Sept. 25th, 1786.
Voted, To accept the report of this committee.
To Capt. Samuel Kelton, chose to sit in convention.
It is not certain that any of the citizens of Gardner, actively participated in the opposition then raised against state govern- ment. It will, however, be seen, by the instructions given to the delegate chosen to sit in convention, at Paxton, that they possessed emphatic ideas, upon the scarcity of money, high salaries, which, while they were willing to have " handsome," they desired to have " taken down," and that the " lawyers and inferior courts should be entirely annihilated." They also had so little regard for what has since been called the Athens of America, as to desire that the General Court should be removed out of it, " to some country town."
Since nothing further is recorded, upon the town records, concerning the action of this convention, nor of the town in it,
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we may conclude that the inhabitants had ceased to vent their feelings in this direction. They did not, however, cease to manifest a deep interest in state affairs. Leaving inferior things, their minds were brought to bear upon the Governor himself, whose cars they feared not to assault, in the following well expressed petition, which Capt. Elisha Jackson was chosen to bear directly to the hands of Governor Bowdoin.
Let the reader picture to himself the personal appearance of this same Capt. Elisha Jackson, as, " intent on high designs," and " true to imagined right," he laid the petition of his town, before the Governor, with the spirit of the " Arvernian aristo- crat." Vereingetorix, as he cast his arms at the feet of Cæsar, in his Gallie camp. Though " little among the thousands " of the state, Gardner was intent on being heard by the Governor and his Council. What effect the petition had upon these august personages, or what was its influence upon the future destinies of the state, does not appear.
To his Excellency, James Bowdoin, Esq., Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and to the Honorable Council of said Commonwealth :
The petition of the town of Gardner, humbly showeth, that, whereas, the state disturbances, and rising of the people in this state, in stopping the courts, etc., threatens the ruin of this state, if not all the states in the union, if matters are not settled soon, and in peace ; we therefore pray, your Excellency, with the Council, to do everything in your power, for the settlement of the same, even to the liberating of Capt. Shattuck and others, who are confined in any of the gaols of this commonwealth, who are of the party that is called Regulators, and are confined on that account, if it could be, without a trial, if not, that they may have it as quick as may be, and if even found guilty, they may have a pardon, and that no more of that party may be taken, if there is any likelihood of there being any means of settling the matter. And we have been informed, that the body, called Regulators, have petitioned that the Court of the General Ses-
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sions of the Peace, etc., should be put by, in several of the counties, until a new house should be chosen. We had better suffer a little, than a civil war should take place. Therefore, if the suspension of the courts, a little while, in a few counties, would be a means of accommodating the matter, we could wish for that, and until the people in the out counties, could even be informed of what the General Court have already done, con- cerning matters that are called grievances, though we have not a right of representation, by the Constitution, yet we have a right to pray for peace, which must be the strength and happi- ness of a people. Therefore, we pray, that everything you can do, to bring about peace, might be done, and that your Excel- leney lay the above before the General Court at their session. And we pray for their acceptance in completing the same, and that the God of Peace, may grant you all that wisdom, that the times call for; that peace and happiness be restored again to the people of this state.
Voted, That the town clerk date this petition and sign it. JOSEPH BACON, Toun Clerk.
Gardner, January 15th, 1787.
Voted, To choose some person to convey this petition to the Governor. Voted, That Elisha Jackson be the person.
For the sake of our children, who might otherwise remain in ignorance of the events which threatened the existence and perpetuity of our republican institutions, at this particular period of our history, we cannot resist the temptation to insert here, an account of " The Shays' Rebellion," which occurred at this time. We are indebted to William L. Smith, Esq., a lawyer in Springfield, for the following comprehensive and reliable account of this rebellion, which he read before the Con- necticut Valley Historical Society, at Springfield, Oct. 1st, 1877.
SHAYS' REBELLION.
The history of the insurrection in Massachusetts --- commonly called the " Shays' Rebellion"-is interesting as the record of
HISTORY OF GARDNER. 81
the only serious attempt ever made against the authority of the state government. The insurrection having first taken an organized form in the Connecticut valley and having here met its final overthrow, the preservation of local facts concerning it is expressly within the province of this society. This paper will relate mainly to such incidents of the rebellion as occurred in Springfield and the immediate vicinity.
The insurrection was the result of a condition of things now popularly described as " hard times." It did not originate so much in disaffection toward the state government as in an uncontrollable impulse of a distressed people to seek relief in some way, or any way. The long and burdensome war of the Revolution had just been brought to a close. The country was impoverished. The continental paper money had become worthless, and no substitute for it had been provided. There was no trade, no demand for labor, no way in which the value of property of any kind could be measured. Under the bar- barous laws then in force, the jails were becoming filled with prisoners whose only offense was their inability to pay their debts. Men who had nothing to do but to talk about their grievances and distresses were easily excited to turbulence, and local disturbances were frequent and serious. The authorities were too often in sympathy with the offenders against the law, and guilty parties went unpunished. The state constitution. adopted in 1780, was viewed with disfavor by a large minority of the people and was not regarded as securely established. The constitution of the United States had not then been framed, and all existing government was merely experimental.
There was at that time no law for the equitable distribution of a debtor's property among his creditors. The executions of the creditors were levied in the order in which their attach- ments were made, and each creditor was satisfied in his turn until all were paid, or the debtor's estate was exhausted. A man whose credit was suspected found his property covered by attachments at once, and in the condition of things then exist- ing a very slight circumstance excited suspicion. Litigation
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became general. The state was showered with executions, and large amounts of property were sold for almost nothing to satisfy them. In the unreasoning excitement of the time, the courts, lawyers and sheriff's were denounced in the wildest terms as the promoters of the suffering that men were inflicting upon each other. A cry arose that the courts ought to be abolished. Threats were made that the courts should not be allowed to sit, that no more suits should be entered and no more executions issued. It was such wild clamor as this that led to the first overt act in resistance to the lawful authority.
There was no general insurrection until the summer of 1786, but as early as 1783 a bold attempt was made at Springfield to break up the session of the court of common pleas. The " Massachusetts Gazette or the General Advertiser " ( then printed at Springfield ) of May 27, gives this account of it :-
On Tuesday last, being the day on which the general sessions of the peace and the court of common pleas opened in this town, a banditti, collected from the obscure corners of the county, composed of men of the most infamous character, to the amount of about sixty in number, met in this town to prevent the sitting of the court. * They showed no disposition to attack the courts in the forenoon ; at two o'clock they met at a public house in the town and resolved themselves to be a convention of the county, met together for the purpose of re- dressing grievances ; after having passed several important resolves they adjourned their convention to the elm tree near the court-house ; when the bell rang for the court, they, in hostile parade, armed with white bludgeons, cut for that purpose, marched before the door of the court- house, and when the court, headed by the sheriff, came to the door, with insolence opposed their entrance ; the sheriff, in the mild terms of per- suasion, addressing them as gentlemen, desired them to make way. Ilis civility was repaid with outrage, and an action soon commenced ; happily there was a collection of people friendly to the government pres- ent, and the mob was repulsed with broken heads. A number of them were instantly taken and committed to prison ; after which, by a regular procedure, they were brought before the court of sessions for examina- tion, and were bound to appear before the supreme court.
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The Legislature of 1786 was elected at a time of great ex- citement. Demagogism was in its glory, and the distresses of the people were used for the accomplishment of personal and political ends. Many of the men who had hitherto been in- trusted with the responsibilities of legislation, and were prom- inent in the service of the state, were superseded by inexpe- rienced and in many cases by utterly unfit persons. Patriots of the revolution, whose eloquent appeals had aronsed the spirit that carried the country triumphantly through the war of independence, were defeated as candidates, merely because they happened to be lawyers. When the Legislature assembled various visionary schemes were brought forward, among them a proposition that the state should go into the business of man- utacturing paper money. The " greenback " party of the day was active and noisy. The very men who had lived through a period of great inflation and consequent depreciation wanted to travel over the same wretched road again. We should wonder at this if we had not recently seen history repeating itself in this particular. After reading the discussions of that time one is brought to the conclusion that the advocates of rag money have not materially strengthened their arguments during the last ninety years. The Legislature proceeded deliberately, influenced, no doubt, by the conservative sentiment of Boston, and finally rejected the proposition ; and the Senate stood firmly in the way of other dangerous schemes. Thereupon there arose a new clamor. It was declared that the senate should be abolished and that the Legislature should not continue to hold its sessions at Boston ; and the agitators proceeded to supple- ment their boisterous declamations by a formal organization.
The Legislature adjourned on the 8th of July. On the 28th of August delegates from fifty towns in Hampshire county (Hampden and Franklin counties were part of Hampshire at that time) met in convention at Hatfield and held a session of three days. All the issues of the day were represented in that convention. The paper money party was in strong force. The men who " had fought for liberty and meant to have it," were
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there, and liberty as they understood it was defined by one of their leaders in a speech at West Springfield. Liberty, he said, " is for every man to do as he pleases and to make other folks do as you please to have them." Of course there was a mixture of local politics. There was some in the convention who hon- estly thought they could see their way out of their troubles through mere legislation, but with all of them the idea of re- dressing grievances by revolution was familiar and popular.
The convention solemnly voted " that this meeting is con- stitutional," and issued a declaration of its purposes. The declaration was a marked specimen of energetic fault-finding, but failed to present practical recommendations for the removal of the evils complained of. They wanted, among various other things, a revisal of the state constitution, the abolition of the Senate and of the court of common pleas, and more paper money. The convention called upon other counties to organize and took care to go through the form of advising the people to abstain from all mobs and unlawful assemblies.
The events of the next few days gave an unexpected con- struction to the convention's declaration against mobs and unlawful assemblies. The last Tuesday of August was the day fixed by law for the term of the court of common pleas at Northampton. Some fifteen hundred men took possession of the court-house, and prevented the sitting of the court. The term was not held, and the men who did not intend to pay their debts celebrated a victory over the law. After accomplishing its object the mob dispersed, but the insurrection was then under full headway.
It took the elerk of the court but very little time to record the proceedings of that term. Here is the full record :-
Early on the morning of this day there was collected a considerable number of persons under arms, who paraded near the conrt-house, with a proposed design to prevent this court from sitting ; a committee from whom presented a petition, requesting the court would not proceed to do any business. The court having considered thereof thought proper to open the same at the house of Capt. Samuel Clark, innholder, in North-
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ampton ; and having continued all matters now pending in said court 10 the term of this court next to be holden in Springfield, in and for the county of Hampshire, on the second Tuesday of November next, ad- journed without day.
The November term, to which the matters pending were con- tinued, was never held, nor was any term of the court held in the county until May of the following year. The docket was kept alive by legislative action.
Gov. Bowdoin issued a proclamation calling upon the civil officers and the good citizens of the state to sustain the laws, but the officers were powerless and the good citizens were over- awed by the aggressive violence of the insurgents. In some localities the militia were ordered out, but the order was soon countermanded, for it was found that the militia, as then organ- ized, was composed in a very large degree of the insurgents themselves, and could not be trusted. Meantime the rioters were profiting by the enforced inaction of the state authorities. The judges whose duty it was to hold the September term of the court of common pleas at Worcester found the door of the court-house bristling with bayonets, and they were not admitted. Like outrages were committed in Middlesex, Bristol and Berk- shire counties. In the other counties there was less open insur- rection, but, with the exception of the town of Boston and its immediate vicinity, the rebels had substantially the control of the state. The extent of the disaffection at this time was not known to the state authorities, and probably not to the insur- gents themselves. until after the troubles were over, and after the Legislature had made a law disqualifying persons engaged in the rebellion from holding civil office. It was then found that in some towns there were not enough men untainted with rebellion to fill the necessary town offices, and further legisla- tion was necessary to bridge over the difficulty. It is probable that about one-third of the population of the state were more or less actively in sympathy with the insurrection.
The governor issued a proclamation calling the Legislature to meet in special session on the 27th of September. The
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proclamation was an incentive to still greater activity on the part of the insurgents. On the other hand, the supporters of the government felt the increased necessity of making a stand against insurrection. The law required the supreme judicial court to sit at Springfield on the fourth Tuesday of September. The insurgents, who had not hitherto interfered with the court, declared that the term should not be held. At that time the grand juries reported to the supreme court, and the insurgent leaders knew that if the grand jury assembled and did its duty they would be indicted for treason. The friends of law and order declared that the court should be protected in any event, and at whatever cost. The issue was thus squarely made up, and each party meant what it said.
Gen. William Shepard of Westfield, who had served with distinction through the war of the Revolution, and had been a member of the continental congress and a trusted officer of Gen. Washington, was appointed to command such forces as could be raised for the protection of the court. Shays, the leader of the insurgents, had held a commission in the conti- mental army, and was conspicuous for his personal bravery at Bunker Hill and Stony Point, and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. Revolutionary experiences were still fresh, and almost every man in the community was accustomed in some degree to the use of arms and military drill. It was well understood that neither party would give way to the other, and there was hardly ground for hope that a bloody collision would be averted.
Gen. Shepard succeeded in collecting about 600 militia and volunteers, and anticipated the plans of the insurgents by taking possession of the court-house. On the appointed day the court was opened, Chief Justice Cushing and Justices Sar- geant, Sewall and Sumner being present, and Shays appeared at the head of a force largely superior in numbers to Gen. Shepard's, but his men were not as well armed as were the militia. The insurgent leaders were disconcerted at finding the militia in possession of the court-house ; their followers were
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enraged, and insisted upon making an immediate attack. But the leaders were more prudent. They knew that the govern- ment troops were well armed, they had no artillery and they were especially disgusted with the bark of a small cannon, which they styled the " government's puppy." They offered to withdraw if the judges would agree that no other than the ordinary criminal business of the term should be taken up. The judges replied in substance that they had a public duty to discharge, and would attend to such business as should properly come before them. But by the time this answer was received the insurgent leaders were indifferent as to the action of the court, for they were satisfied the grand jury could not be got together and that there would be no trials. They saw their main purpose would be accomplished without fighting. Shays had his headquarters on or near Ferry lane (now Cypress street,) and a tavern that stood on the southerly corner of the present Main and Sargent streets was a favorite rendezvous of the insurgents.
The inhabitants of Springfield were beginning to feel some relief from their anxiety when a new commotion was seen in the camp of the insurgents. It was rumored among them that the militia had determined that they should not be permitted to march past the court-house. It is not likely that any person in authority on the government side threw down the gauntlet in that way. It is more probable that the rumor originated with some of the Shays men who wanted a pretext for a fight and consequent pillage. But the rumor, however it originated, aroused the fighting qualities of the insurgents. Old soldiers were not to be told that they must not march over the highway. They notified Gen. Shepard that they would march past the court-house forthwith, and they did so in military order and with loaded muskets, and they countermarched and again passed under the windows of the court-house. But no one come for- ward to knock the chip from their leader's shoulder. The experiment of the insurgents proved a failure. The militia could not be tempted to accept a mere challenge or invite a
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battle. A taunt or a careless word would have occasioned a collision, but the word was not spoken. But some of the militia were so impressed by the numbers and bearing of the insurgents that they deserted their colors and enlisted under Shays.
The court was kept open three days, but the proceedings amounted to a mere ceremony. The grand jury did not assem- ble. Parties to causes, jurors and witnesses were under arms, either on one side or the other. One defendant, who was out on bail, was defaulted, and that was the only business trans- acted at the term. The adjournment of the court, under such circumstances, was a victory for the insurgents, and their tri- umph was made complete when they learned that the judges had determined not to hold the October term at Great Barring- ton. The judges had been informed of the preparations made for their reception at that place, and knew it would be useless to attempt to hold the term.
The rebels had accomplished all they intended, and more, but success had crazed them. The rank and file were elamor- ous for a fight, and Shays sent a message to General Shepard demanding a surrender of the court-house. Gen. Shepard did not deem the possession of the court-house worth fighting for, the court having adjourned, and moved his forces to the federal arsenal, where there was valuable property that required pro- tection. The insurgents, finding no satisfaction in standing guard over an empty building, and not yet being ready to make war against the federal authority, soon dispersed.
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