USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1734 to the year 1800 > Part 38
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1 At the time of the Revolution, some of the people of Pittsfield were addicted to liorse-racing, and had a course near the present Berkshire Pleasure Park. It was suppressed in accordance with the Continental Articles of Association, but was revived and flourished after peace was restored.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
2d. That Col. William Williams, Dea. Josiah Wright, Capt. Eli Root, Capt. William Francis, and William Barber, be a committee, under oath to be administered by the town clerk, to hear and determine all breaches of peace and misdemeanors which, by the laws of this State now enacted and made cognizable by a justice of the peace or two justices (quorum unus), or by the the Court of General Sessions in all those cases where an appeal was by said laws the right of the defendant in the manner hereafter mentioned, to wit : in all cases where a justice of the peace by the law had the sole and final determination of the cause, the said committee to have the same power ; and, in all cases where an appeal by law was grantable, the second and final trial to be by a jury of six men, if requested by the defendant. The determi- nation of said jury shall be final and conclusive; which jury shall be formed and impanelled in this manner : -
The committee to nominate twelve men, being freeholders in this town, and the defendant twelve more ; out of which number, six are to be drawn by the constable if present, or, in his absence, by such person as the committee shall appoint for the purpose. And, in case any person so nominated and drawn shall neglect or not be able to serve, the constable, or such person as shall be appointed by the committee, shall return a sufficient number of the bystanders to make up such deficiency.
3d. That any one of the committee be empowered to administer oaths to all witnesses who shall be called before them, in the usual form, and also to administer the following oath to the jurors who may attend upon any trial as afore mentioned, to wit : -
" You shall well and truly try, and true deliverance make between the people and prisoner now upon trial. So help you God."
4th. Whereas, the case of bastardy may be considered by the committee as cognizable by them by virtue of the second resolve, and as this case is ex- empt and distinct from all the cases which may come before them, it is voted, that the committee use their best discretion in all matters of this sort as the circumstances of the case may require.
5th. That, in all cases where by law fines and mulets are to be inflicted for any offence, the said committee impose and order such fines to be paid, mak- ing the common and usual discouut betwixt money as it now passes, and as it formerly passed, or as it may be at the time of trial ; and that, in all cases where imprisonment is by law the punishment to be inflicted for any offence, the committee be empowered to inflict corporeal punishment according to the nature of the offence, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes for any offence.
6th. That the constable or constables for the time being shall serve and execute all warrants and processes of said committee or of either of them, and make due return thereof, and observe and obey all such orders as from time to time they shall receive from the said committee.
7th. That the said committee have power to appoint a clerk to attend them, and keep fair records of all their proceedings.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
8th. That all retailers of spirituous liquors and all innholders be appro- bated by the selectmen of the town and licensed by the committee, and that no persons be authorized or qualified to be retailers or innholders unless so approbated and licensed.
9th. That all fines arising in consequence of the foregoing resolves shall be paid into the treasury of the town for the use of the town.
10th. That this town will support and uphold the committee above named in the due execution of the trust committed to them by the foregoing articles and resolves.
11th. That when any person shall be found guilty of any offence, and shall not forthwith, after the conviction and sentence, pay the charges and costs aris- ing upon his trial such as shall be taxed by the committee agreeable to the rule hereafter given, the constable, by virtue of a warrant from the committee for that purpose, shall take and sell at a public vendue so much of his personal effects as shall be sufficient to defray said costs, and costs of sale, returning the overplus, if any there be, to the defendant ; and, in case the defendant hath not estate wherewith to pay and defray such costs, he shall be disposed of in service for the payment of the same.
12th. That when it shall appear to the committee that any person com- mences a vexatious and malicious prosecution against another, and shall fail in supporting the same, he shall be liable to pay costs as aforesaid, and to be recovered in the manner above prescribed.
13th. That the committee above named exercise the power and authority wherewith they are hereby invested until the next March meeting, or until others shall be chosen in their room.
14th. That three of the foregoing committee shall be a quorum, and that no defendant shall in his bill of charge be feed for the attendance of any greater number.
A table of costs to be taxed by the committee in such cases as may come before them : -
The committee each per day 1l. 4s. 0d.
Warrant
0 6 0
Summons for witnesses
0 3 0
Summons for jurors
0 4 0
Clerk's attendance per day
0 4 0
Writ or warrant of execution
0 6 0
Constable fees, -
Service of a warrant
0 3 0
Summons
0 2 0
Travel from defendant's place of abode to the place of trial, per mile 0 1 0.
Attendance on a trial per day 0 18 0 ·
Constable's necessary assistants per day .
0 18 0
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
Jurors cach per day
ol. 18s. 0d.
Witnesses' travel per mile
0 1 0
Attendance per day
0 18
Accepted,
WILLIAM WILLIAMS, Per Order.
At a legal adjourned meeting of the frecholders and other inhabitants of the town of Pittsfield, qualified to vote in town affairs, at the meeting-house in said town, on the nineteenth day of October, 1778, the foregoing resolves were read and accepted.
Attest : JOSIAH WRIGHT, Moderator.
CALEB STANLEY, Town Clerk.
We have no information of any cases tried in the town court established by the foregoing action ; but of the previous doings of the committee several instances are more or less fully recorded, some of which, in regard to the Tories, are related in connection with their story.
But the most remarkable case was the attempt of the town to discipline Capt. Charles Goodrich for opposition to its policy in the matter of the State government. The election of this gentleman in 1775 to the General Court, where he was one of those careful to secure their own appointment to civil office, has already been mentioned. Capt. Israel Dickinson, elected high sheriff at the same time, declined to serve in opposition to the will of the people, and received their favor; but Goodrich, who was elevated to the populous bench of the General Sessions, clung to his commission, although the court was not permitted to sit. The consequence was, that in June, 1776, the town forbade him longer to represent them ; to which he paid no attention. In February, they made against him the mild decree of outlawry, in connection with his lawsuits already alluded to ; and, in May, they expressed by resolu- tion their opposition to his " sustaining a civil commission," and instructed their committee to petition the General Court that the people might have the right of nomination, i.e., the right to choose their own magistrates.
Thus far the town record : but, at the September session of the Court, Capt. Goodrich presented a memorial, in which he related the story of his wrongs so piteously that they might have moved hearts less disposed to sympathy than those to which he appealed ; declaring, that, on the 25th of March, the town committee assumed the power to hear, judge, and assess both private and
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
public damages against him, for defending himself with blows when previously assaulted by one James Morey, who was proba- bly engaged in executing some process of the committee, and that, in the course of the affair, he was forcibly dragged out of his house, and carried, late at night, before the committees, by a num- ber of men claiming to act under their authority, and there detained until he gave a written agreement to pay the adjudged damages and costs ; that, upon a late raising of every twenty-fifth man, he was informed, by report only, that he was ordered by the commissioned officers of Pittsfield either to serve as a drafted man or furnish a substitute ; and that afterwards, being cited to appear before the committee to answer to a complaint not specified, he neglected to do so, supposing himself not bound thereto either in law, equity, or common prudence; whereupon he found his name included in a list given to John Graves, a notorious Tory, as one of those persons inimical to his country, with whom he was forbidden to hold intercourse; and also published, with a similar charge, in " The Hartford Courant " of Sept. 2, 1776.
Capt. Goodrich did not directly ask for redress in the matter of the costs and damages, but stated, that, in the publications named, his character had been " maliciously stabbed," and would suffer, until an impartial hearing could be had; and, the civil affairs of the county being so nearly in a state of nature that he could not then have such protection as society was instituted to give, he prayed.the interposition of the legislature.
The committee having made answer to this complaint, the Coun- cil found that the principal reasons which they alleged for their proceedings against the memorialist were, that " he had procured himself a commission, in the king's name, to exercise authority over the people as a justice of the peace," which they seem to have considered as "submitting to the British authority ; " his not pay- ing proper attention when he was drafted in the alarm-list to serve in the expedition against Canada; 'and his having "joined himself with the most ancient Tories and implacable enemies among us."
This may have been a candid synopsis of the response from Pittsfield; but we cannot help regretting that the paper had not been preserved in full, so that we might have seen precisely how the committee put its defence, since it probably relied upon argu- ments which the Council were fain to consider foreign to the pur- pose. Their Honors, however, who may almost be regarded as 25
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
judging their own case in that of their appointec, found that "Capt. Goodrich received his commission as justice from the major part of the Council, of such a tenor and form as they judged it proper to adopt, and such, as far as they could learn, as was agree- able to the practice of the other colonies, and agreeable to the sen- timents of Congress; and that the committee, therefore, in exhibit- ing this charge, discovered an entire ignorance of their line of duty, and great indecency towards the constituted authorities of the State."
With regard to the second charge, the Council excused Capt. Goodrich on the ground that he " did not consider himself liable to draft under the law ;" and they declared the allegation that he consorted with Tories too general and unsupported by evidence to merit attention. And finally they resolved, with the concurrence of the House, " that Charles Goodrich, Esq., ought not to be stig- matized as an enemy to his country ; but that, on the other hand, we consider him a friend to the rights of mankind, and the grand cause in which these United States are at present engaged."
This result was a natural one, as the judges were the very power for sustaining whose rightfulness Capt. Goodrich suffered; and the justice of their conclusion, regarded from their stand-point, was indisputable. Nor will any one at this day be inclined to doubt the sincere patriotism of the accused. We need not again recapitulate the reasons which inclined the Berkshire constitution- alists to place a different estimate upon his character. Political rancor, and perhaps personal dislike as well, gave them a weight which the calmness of after years denies.
If the action of the General Court had any effect in Pittsfield, it certainly was not in the direction of favor to their client : for on the 15th of October, in defiance of the legislative decision in the pre- vious month, Capt. Goodrich was again summoned to attend the town meeting; and, not responding, six men were sent to " desire him to come, and, should he still refuse, to bring him forth." What the success of this expedition was, is not related. Very likely the stout-hearted old pioneer, who in the French war had transformed his house into a castle, now made his defence so for- midable as to suggest delay in " bringing him forth." The meet- ing ordered a guard at his residence that night, and, after thanking the gentlemen from Lenox -the committee of that town-for their attendance, adjourned to the 19th. No mention is made of
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
the presence of the defendant on that day; but the witnesses were examined, and it was resolved, "that it appeared from their evi- dence, that Capt. Goodrich, in his late conduct, had acted inimical to the cause of these States."
An " advertisement " was offered by the committee, and approved by the town. And thus the quarrel continued to be waged in " The Hartford Courant;" for the assailed was not one to suffer in silence what he considered a wrong.
But at Christmas, 1778, the lucky thought - inspired, perhaps, by the season consecrated to peace on earth and good will among men - occurred to some sensible fellow to get the controversy ter- minated by arbitration. On the 1st of January, 1779, the plan was adopted, and the following gentlemen, all eminent for integrity and good sense, were selected as referees : Col. Job Safford of Cheshire, Col. William Whiting of Great Barrington, and Gen. John Fellows of Sheffield; with James Harris, Esq., of Lanes- borough, to fill the place of either of those first named who might fail to serve.
One of the conditions of the reference was, that the party which was found to have wronged the other should pay the costs of arbitration,
The arbitrators met at Col. Easton's tavern on the 8th of January ; all the gentlemen named, including Mr. Harris, being present. Valentine Rathbun, Capt. James Noble, and Deacon Josiah Wright managed the case for the town. "After due investiga- tion," says the award, it was decided that the parties had mutu- ally wronged each other ; but that as, on the whole, Capt. Goodrich had been the worst aggressor, he should be adjudged to pay the entire costs, which were taxed at £35. 9s. 6d." This decision practi- cally recognized the rightfulness of the Berkshire opposition to the *existing State government ; for otherwise Capt. Goodrich would have been entirely justified, the town entirely in the wrong. While admitting the right of the county to oppose the non-con- stitutional civil administration, the coincident right to enforce that opposition followed of necessity ; and the only ground of com-, plaint which remained to Capt. Goodrich was the unjust imputation upon his character as a patriot. The publications on behalf of the town in " The Hartford Courant," so far as they related to his case, were not only unjust, but disingenuous, weak, and quibbling; placing the defence of the committee's action upon the lack of
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
unessential formalities on the part of the legislature, and denying statements which the writers well knew to be substantially correct, because their allegations were made without technical precision. The style of composition, the logic, and the spirit of the committee's articles, all show that minds were engaged in the management of the case of a very different cast from those whose arguments, clearly stated, and founded upon great principles, have been quoted in our discussion of the Berkshire troubles.
The result of the arbitration was acquiesced in by both parties, apparently without objection; and the reconciliation which fol- lowed was cordial. Capt. Goodrich received honorable trusts from the next and following town meetings, and lived long, a respected citizen of the town. From 1781 to 1788, he was a judge of the county Court of Common Pleas. Thirty-three years after the termination, in 1778, of his political vexations, he held the plough at the first cattle-show of the Berkshire Agricultural Society. In 1815, he died at the age of ninety-six, and lies buried in the Pitts- field cemetery.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE SHAYS REBELLION.
1781-1786.
Its Causes. - Taxes. - Private Debts. - Harsh Laws and Customs. - County Conventions. - Popular Outbreaks. - Organized Rebellion. - The Peculiar Course of Berkshire County. - Convention at Lenox. - Courts obstructed at Great Barrington. - Gen. Lincoln establishes Headquarters at Pittsfield. - The Rebellion suppressed.
ITHE Constitution of 1780 was not permitted to have a fair trial before it was assailed by an opposition which, in 1786, culmi- nated in the Shays Rebellion, - a popular convulsion which, although some of its features gave it a vraisemblance to the Berk- shire troubles of 1775-80, essentially differed from them in princi- ple and character; the earlier agitation having, in behalf of constitutional liberty, resisted the imposition of a government without basis or limitation, while the latter sought, by force of arms, to reform real or supposed grievances, for which the Con- stitution just established by the people provided a sufficient remedy through ordinary legislation.
The one movement was an attempted imitation of the other by men who entirely mistook its spirit and justification, or by dema- gogues who took advantage of the ignorance of others. But the resemblance of the two in some non-essentials, together with their proximity in time, will only serve to throw into stronger relief their intrinsic dissimilarity of character.
The popular ferment which prompted the Shays Rebellion had its origin chiefly in the circumstances of the Commonwealth at the close of the Revolution with regard to public and private indebted- ness ; aggravated by the harshness with which, by law and custom, debts and taxes were at that time collected. The acts in which
389
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
that feeling manifested itself were the result of a false interpreta- tion of precedent, and of the crude political knowledge of men who perceived clearly - what the experience of every day taught them - that they and their fellows were harshly dealt with, but who had not learned to trace effects to their causes with states- manlike sagacity, and who did not comprehend that the same means which, in default of better, are legitimate for the overthrow of an oppressive government, become heinous offences when ap- plied to the reform of even oppressive laws under the plastic insti- tutions of a republic.
The financial situation of the Commonwealth was indeed most distressing, and such as, even in the most hopeful view, could find no perfect relief, except in long years of toil, endured by its people under the depressing influences of debt and enormous taxa- tion. It seemed inevitable that the greater portion of the genera- tion then living must go down to their graves in poverty, leaving the same bitter heritage to their children.
The debt of the State, contracted in its own name, was $4,333,- 000, exclusive of $833,000 due to the officers of the Massachusetts contingent in the army, which was as just a liability, to say the least, as any other. The Commonwealth's proportion of the na- tional debt, for which, under the Confederation, it was specifically responsible, was not less than $5,000,000; making an aggregate of considerably over $10,000,000.
Besides this, every town was heavily indebted for money ex- pended in local exigencies, such as filling quotas of men, demands for military supplies, &c. The payment of the interest alone upon this crushing accumulation of liabilities was an undertaking which might well have daunted the financiers of the impoverished State, even at a time of happier promise for the future; but the unwise impatience of the people, dissatisfied with paying interest, which was compared with a canker which consumed their substance without lessening their burdens, led to the imposition in 1784 of a tax of $466,000, and in 1786 of $333,000 additional, for the pur- pose of sinking that amount of the army debt.
As might have been expected, all the taxes were soon found to be largely and hopelessly in arrears, notwithstanding the deprecia- tion of the certificates of indebtedness issued by the State treasury, which were made receivable for them.
But the tax-gatherer was not the only unwelcome visitor that
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
was wont to haunt the doors of the citizens of Massachusetts in those unhappy days : the tap of the sheriff or the constable was no less familiar. Private debts which had, for various reasons, been postponed during the war, had accumulated fearfully, and a mania for bringing suits upon them seemed to possess creditors ; so that the courts were fairly clogged with business.
No condition of things could have been imagined more unfavor- able to the imposition of heavy taxes, and the collection of long- standing debts, than that which then existed in Massachusetts. A paralysis seemed to have struck the young vigor of the Common- wealth, for whose cure time, and a process quite other than deple- tion, were required. The febrile symptoms which manifested themselves everywhere were the pure results of exhaustion.
The sanctity of property and the obligations of contracts had become impaired, not from the license of the people, nor because courts were obstructed in Berkshire or elsewhere, but from the unsettling of values through the excessive, however unavoidable, emission of paper money, and from the legislation which vainly attempted to sustain its credit. Gold and silver had, long before the war closed, disappeared as a circulating medium; and the faith of the nation, which has since been found to furnish a not entirely inadequate substitute, was without the basis to do so then. The Continental currency, despite the exhausting efforts of Massachusetts to redeem her proportion of it, was fast sinking to an unappreciable value, and encumbered rather than facilitated the course of trade, until the only practicable relief was found in the formal recognition of its entire worthlessness.
Under circumstances of such overwhelming depression, manu- factures, which, under the stimulus of the war, had attained a somewhat vigorous growth, now languished; the fisheries, fearfully narrowed in their markets, ceased to be that source of wealth which had enriched the Province; agriculture afforded but a scanty subsistence to farmers without the means of improving or stocking their lands, which were, indeed, in many cases, hopelessly mortgaged; while commerce had come to be little more than the means of draining what little of hoarded treasure yet remained in the State in payment for goods imported from markets which re- quired few of the productions of Massachusetts in return.
We should fail to complete the picture of desolation without adding, that thriftless habits acquired in camp-life found little in
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
the condition of things at home to stimulate or encourage reforma- tion, and that intemperance prevailed to an extent which had never before been known, nor has been since.
Other results incident to a long and costly war conspired to inflame the discontent of the masses. Those who had served the „great cause most faithfully had generally become impoverished, while men who deserved little had grown wealthy, and, for the most part, had invested what they had gained from the necessities of their country in something more substantial than the worthless paper which clogged the knapsack of the returning soldier and the hoard of the rural patriot.
In Boston, Salem, Newburyport, and other large towns, the osten- . tatious display of wealth and luxury by men of this class by suc- cessful naval adventures, and by others whom chance had favored in the general wreck, contrasted harshly with the struggling pov- erty of those whose long years of exposure and suffering had been cheered by the hope of a recompense very different from that which they received.
It may perhaps be pardoned to these latter, that some of them did not trace the causes of their disappointment with the nicety, or seek a remedy for it with the calm sagacity, of philosophers. They had left men at home charged with the care of these things; and their wisdom seemed almost as much confounded by the mis- erable entanglement of affairs as was their own ; although it soon began to manifest itself in legislation which gradually brought, not only safety, but prosperity and harmony, to the Commonwealth.
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