USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Shrewsbury > History of the town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1717 to 1829, with other matter relating thereto not before published, including an extensive family register > Part 7
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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
The office of Selectman then was one of great labor, and, while the knowledge of the extent of that labor is fast passing away, a recurring thought to those trying times may serve to keep in remembrance the names and services of those to whom pos- terity is so much indebted.
With the exception of two years, the number of Selectmen in this town has been five; in 1776 there were seven, but as re-
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sponsibility thereby became weakened, and a quorum for the transaction of business less easily obtained in an emergency, five were thought to be better than more.
The North Parish, having been incorporated into a town, by the name of Boylston, on the first day of March, 1786, only three Selectmen were chosen that year. For many years, and until the division of the town, three of the Selectmen were of the South and two of the North Parish ; the first, and generally the third and fifth belonging to the former, and the second and fourth to the latter; of the three Assessors, the second was of the North Parish.
At the March meeting in 1787, a violent contest came on, and great was the strife exhibited in the choice of town officers. One day was spent in choosing a Moderator, Clerk, and Select- men. At the adjourned meeting, the town voted to reconsider choosing those for Selectmen, and proceeded to choose another Board, which having done, they again adjourned, and at the next adjourned meeting all the Selectmen last chosen and the Clerk resigned their offices, and another Board, with all the usual town officers, was then chosen.
The probable cause of this difficulty was, that votes had been cast by some, who had been, by a then recent act of the Legis- lature, disqualified from voting, on account of their participation in the rebellion, which broke out in August, 1786, headed by Daniel Shays.
A large majority of the towns in this county and a majority of the voters in this town favored his views and not a few of them took up arms to compel the Government to redress their grievances.
This town was appointed the place of rendezvous for the in- surgents, and here they assembled in large bodies, under arms, from various parts of the county. The town wore the appear- ance of a military camp ; drilling of men, marching and coun- termarching up and down the principal streets in the town, ac- companied by martial music and the rattling of arms, produced an alarm for the safety of our infant institutions.
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The town magazine was broken open, and a portion of the town's stock of ammunition carried away ; a massive body of lead belonging to the town, and in the custody of Col. Job Cushing, and by him used as a weight in drawing water from a well, was stolen and secreted for a short time in Daniel Holden's barn, when he, with another person, fearful of a discovery if it remained there, took it in a sleigh, in the night time, to Long Pond, and sunk it through a hole cut in the ice. This circum- stance, known then to but few, has not probably been generally known to this day. No discovery was made of the offenders, notwithstanding the town offered a reward for that purpose. Some years after, Holden, from being a partizan in that cause, exerted himself against his old friends, and was said to have put more than one vote into the ballot box for the choice of Repre- sentative at the May meeting, in 1792, whereby the result of the election was conformable to his endeavors and wishes ; of this al- leged fraud he was accused on the spot in town meeting, by some of those against whom he acted. They afterwards com- plained of him to the Grand Jury, and procured him to be in- dited therefor. He was acquitted on trial, but whether guilty or not has been matter of doubt, for he had been strongly suspected of having done the like when acting in concert with his accusers. From that period animosity gradually subsided in town ; the fire, that once blazed so fearfully, was in a short time nearly extin- guished, and at length, by common consent, the brands being raked together and the ashes carefully drawn over them, peace and quietness returned.
By the lapse of time the events of that period have become so remote as to be generally known only as matter of history ; as such, though a delicate subject, they should not be passed over in silence, in giving a faithful, though brief, account of the rise and growth of the town, and the events in which it has shared its part in common with others.
Of the twenty-three citizens of this county, who were indicted for treason, only one was from this town. He immediately left the State, and did not return until an act of amnesty was granted to all who had been concerned in the rebellion. Eighty were
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indicted for treasonable practices, of whom there were none be- longing here.
The late William Lincoln, Esquire, of Worcester, in his his- tory of that town, has furnished an authentic and interesting ac- count of the origin, progress and termination of that rebellion ; the particulars of which should be known to all. They consti- tute an interesting, though painful, portion of Massachusetts his- tory. A knowledge of the past is essential to the well being of the future.
I therefore trust I shall be pardoned by the reader for intro- ducing him shortly to that collection of facts embodied by Mr. Lincoln, relating to the rebellion, and which he will find on the following pages.
In that way, while I hope to extend information important to be known, I shall relieve myself of the unenviable task of treat- ing at length on a matter of great delicacy.
The Constitution of the United States was adopted in 1789, on the part of this State, by Delegates assembled in Convention. The majority for adopting it was fourteen. This town, by its Delegate, voted in the negative on that question.
A large majority of the Delegates from the towns in Worces- ter, Hampshire and Berkshire County voted against its adoption, but the question being carried in the affirmative, and certain amendments having been agreed upon to be recommended to be made a part of that instrument, a good degree of harmony pre- vailed to give it a fair trial.
Nevertheless, so great was the disagreement on this question, both in and out of the Convention, that two political parties soon grew out of it. Those in favor of the Constitution were denom- inated Federalists, and those opposed to it, Anti-federalists.
Hence the origin of political parties in this country, and which, whatever phases they have undergone, and by whatever names they have been designated, now, as then, differ in their construc- tion of the extent of power granted in that instrument. Vary- ing constructions have produced varying measures, as the differ- ent parties have had the ascendancy. And such, in all proba- bility, will ever be the case. That the basis of disagreement
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will rest on the construction that should and ought to be given to the Constitution.
Parties, merely as such, are not injurious to the public weal ; they are, in the calm exercise of their rights, a public benefit-a blessing to any country. By gentle agitation they as much pre- serve the body politic from stagnation, as do the gentle breezes of the heavens prevent our ponds, by agitating their surfaces, from becoming living masses of putrefaction and corruption. Parties serve to purify the political atmosphere, as the winds do the air we breathe.
Without winds the trees would be short lived and of stinted growth; exercise is essential to their existence; nor without them would vessels be wafted to their destined ports. Would it be wise in us then to dispense with them, if in our power, merely because they sometimes, in their fury, endanger our property, and even our lives? The elements will have their freaks, and who shall say to party spirit, thus far thou may go, but no farther?
Without parties, no human government could long endure. It is only when party spirit is lashed into a frenzy, that it becomes dangerous by reason of its ungovernable fury.
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FROM LINCOLN'S HISTORY OF WORCESTER.
THE struggles of the Revolution had scarce terminated, before disturbances 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 recount- ed 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. History, 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 pic- ture of patriotism and prosperity, the gloomy image of civil commotion is still full in our sight, shadowing the back ground with its solemn admonition.
The investigation of the causes of the unhappy tumults of 1786, does not belong to the narrative of their local effects on one of the principal scenes of action. But it would be great in- justice 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 republican poverty, bankrupt in resources, with no revenue but of an expiring currency, and no metal in her treas- ury more precious than the continental copper, bearing the de- vices of union and freedom. The country had been drained by taxation for the support of the army of independence, to the ut-
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most limit of its means ; public credit was extinct, manners had become relaxed, trade decayed, manufactures lauguishing, paper money depreciated to worthlessness, clainis on the nation accu- mulated by the commutation of the pay of officers for securities, and a heavy and increasing pressure of debt rested on Common- wealth, corporations, and citizens. The first reviving efforts of commerce overstocked the markets with foreign luxuries and su- perfluities, sold to those who trusted to the future to supply the ability of payment. The temporary act of 1782, making prop- erty a tender in discharge of pecuniary contracts, instead of the designed remedial effect, enhanced the evils of general insolven- cy, by postponing collections. The outstanding demands of the royalist 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 sacrificed 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 inflammatory publications and se- ditious 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 pa- pers of Honestus directed jealousy towards the judicial tribunals, and thundered anathemas against the lawyers, unfortunately for them, the immediate agents and ministers of creditors. Driven to despair by the actual evil of enormous debt, and irritated to madness by the increasing clamor about supposed grievances, it is scarcely surprising that a suffering and deluded people should have attempted relief, without considering that the misery they endured, was the necessary result from the confusion of years of warfare .*
* 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 discover, that a loftier and more dangerous ambition, and wider, deeper, and more
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Before the close of the revolutionary contest, whose pressure had united all by the tie of common danger, indications of dis- content had been manifested. The acts of the legislature, had excited temporary and local uneasiness in former years, as the operation of laws conflicted with the views of expediency or ju- terest entertained by the village politicians. But in 1782, com- plaints arose of grievances, springing from the policy and admin- istration 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 attributing the prevailing dissatisfaction of the people to want of confidence in the dis- bursement of the great sums of money annually assessed, re- commended instructions to the representatives, to require imme- diate 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 con- fessions of debt ; enlargement of the jurisdiction of justices of the peace to £20: contribution to the support of the continental army in specific articles instead of money : and the settlement of ac- counts between the Commonwealth and Congress. At an ad- journed session, May 14, they further recommended, that ac- count of the public expenditures should be annually rendered to the towns ; the removal of the General Court from Boston ; sep- aration 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. Worcester was represented in these as- semblies, and in the instructions to Samuel Curtis, Esq., framed
unhallowed purposes, urged on and sustained the men who were pushed into the front rank of rebellion, 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 concealment, the results of the tempest they had roused. Fortunately, the energy of government, gave to rising revolution the harinless 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 determine the mixture of alloy.
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in accordance with their resolutions, on the 8th 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 ser- vice. Some of the complaints were quieted by legal provisions, and when the convention was appointed to be again held by ad- journment, in August, the few discontented persons in attendance dispersed without transacting business .*
The murmurs of the coming storm were first heard here, early in 1784. On the invitation of Sutton to each town of the coun- ty, the capital sent delegates to a convention, held in March, of that year, of which Ebenezer Davis, Esq. was President. Al- though 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 re- sult of its deliberations was communicated to the inhabitants of Worcester, they adopted for themselves the petition prepared for general acceptance, representing as grievances, the grant to Con- gress of an impost for twenty-five years to discharge the interest accruing on State securities ; the payment from the treasury of the expenses of festive days of rejoicing ; large compensation to officers of the continental army ; neglect to redeem the paper currency ; the want of a circulating medium ; and the impaired state of credit. The representative of the town was instructed to endeavor to procure the removal of the General Conrt from Boston to some country town, where it would be secure from im- proper influences ; and to cause an account of the debts, reve- nues 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.
*" While the great body of the people desired only escape from impending suils, without premeditated malice against the Commonwealth or its institutions, every trivial cause was magnified and perverted to increase the existing irritation, till, under the influence of delusion, a deadly blow was struck at both." MSS. Centennial Address of Hon. John Davis.
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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 in- vitation from Sutton, for a general meeting, was circulated, and passed over here without attention. The delegates of 17 towns, however, formed a convention at Leicester, and elected Willis Hall, of Sutton, its President. As the attendance was thin, letters were addressed to Worcester, and the other towns of the county, unrepresented, requesting their participation, and an ad- journment took place to the 15th of August following. Our in- habitants, 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 illegal. Thirty-seven towns appeared, by their representatives, when the convention was reorganized at Leicester. It is not uninteresting to notice the gradual increase of alleged evils in its doings. In 1784 the list was brief. In 1786, without essential change in policy or condition, it had- swelled to voluminous extent. In addition to the grievances already stated, they enumerated among the sources of uneasiness, abuses 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 Con- gress, while the State accounts remained unliquidated. A com- mittee was instructed to report a memorial, at another session, to be had, by adjournment, in Paxton, on the last Tuesday of Sep- tember.
Thus far, redress had been sought by the constitutional appeal of the citizen to the Legislature. The recorded proceedings of the convention are of a pacific character, expressing disapproba- tion of combinations, mobs and riots: yet it is probable, that during the period of its consultations, the bold design was origi- nated, by the most violent of its members, of resisting the exe- cution of the laws and suspending the operation of courts. Soon after the first meeting, it was stated, in the paper of the town, printed by Mr. Thomas, that apprehensions existed of obstruc-
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tion to the Common Pleas, in June. The first open act of in- surrection followed close upon the adjournment of the conven- tion, in August.
Although warning of danger had been given, confiding in the loyalty 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 Hubbards- ton, 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 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 in- trepid firmness with prudent moderation. His resolute and manly bearing, on that day of difficulty and embarrassment, sustained 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 supported well and ably.
On the verge of the crowd thronging the hill, a sentinel was pacing on his round, who challenged the procession as it approached his post. Gen. Ward sternly ordered the soldier, formerly a sub- altern of his own particular regiment, to recover his levelled musket. The man, awed by the voice he had been accustomed to obey, instantly 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 ad- vance, went on. The multitude, 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,
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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 hostile ar- ray. 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 founda- tion. He was told by Capt. Smith, of Barre, that any commu- nication 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 leaders alone, who had de- ceived and deluded them, he would speak, but not otherwise." The insurgent officers, fearful of the effect of his determined manner on the minds of their followers, interrupted. They did not come there, they said, to listen to long speeches, but to resist 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 bay- onets pressed hard upon the breast of the Chief Justice, who stood as immoveable as a statue, without stirring a limb, or yield- ing 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 ; explained the dan- gerous tendency of their rash measures ; admonished them that they were placing in peril the liberty acquired by the efforts and
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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 avenged. He spoke nearly two hours, not without frequent in- terruption. But admonition and argument were unavailing : the insurgents declared they would maintain their ground until satis- faction was obtained. Judge Ward, addressing himself to Wheeler, advised 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, un- molested, through armed files. Soon after, the Court was opened at the United States Arms Tavern,* and immediately adjourned to the next day. Orders were despatched to the colonels in the brigade to call out their regiments, and march, without a mo- ment's delay, to sustain the judicial tribunals : 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 institutions of the State, and tending to the subversion of social order.
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