USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume I > Part 28
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Providentially as it would seem, two obstacles intervened to prevent the rebellion from winning more than a transient success. One was the New England climate. The other was the choice of Daniel Shays of Pelham as commander-in-chief. The winter of 1786-87 was one of utmost severity. Blizzard followed blizzard, and, as it chanced, each picked a time most inop- portune to the plans of the rebels. Shays possessed no quality of leadership. Physically brave in battle, he was lacking in principle and the finer instincts. When in 1780 Lafayette presented a sword to each of the American officers who served directly under him, a pledge of regard and appreciation which any good soldier would have cherished as a precious possession, Shays quickly sold his for a few dollars. As a lieutenant, he was sent from the Continental Army to New Hampshire to raise recruits. He enlisted an entire company under a pledge that they would serve under no captain but himself. Returning to camp, the inspector was about to distribute the recruits to vari- ous commands, when Shays produced the enlistment papers, and pointed to the conditions contained therein. After indignant remonstrance, rather than to lose so many men, Shays was given the company and eventually the prom- ised commission as captain. We mention these incidents to show the type of man he was. When it became evident that the cause of rebellion was lost, he was first to seek forgiveness from the government, and, this failing, took to flight, leaving his subordinates to shoulder the responsibility. His only claim to distinction was to give the rebellion its name.
Had the insurgents been led by a man resolute and bold and of out- standing military skill, it might have taken more than winter storms to dis- courage their efforts, and battle with government troops might have followed. As it was the rebellion was little more than a flash in the pan.
The Causes of the Revolt-William Lincoln's account of the Rebel- lion, contained in his History of Worcester, generally accepted as authorita- tive, summarizes the causes as follows. "After eight years of war Massachu- setts stood, with the splendor of triumph, in republican poverty, bankrupt in resources, with no revenue but an expiring 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 sup- port 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 worthlessness, 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 the Commonwealth, corpora- tions and citizens.
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"The first reviving efforts of commerce overstocked the markets with foreign luxuries and superfluities, sold to those who trusted to the future to supply the ability of payment. The temporary act of 1782, making property a tender in discharge of pecuniary contracts, instead of the designed reme- dial effect, enhanced the evils of general insolvency 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 two thousand actions were entered in the County of Worcester, then having a population less than fifty thousand, and in 1785 about seventeen hundred. 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 seditious appeals to every excitable passion and prejudice. The Constitution was misrepresented as defective, the administrations as corrupt, the laws as unequal and unjust. The celebrated papers of Honestus directed jealously toward the judicial tribunals, and thundered anathemas against the lawyers, unfortunately for them, the immediate agents and min- isters of creditors. Driven to despair by the actual evil of enormous debt, and irritated to madness by the increasing clamor against supposed griev- ances, 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."
The position of the debtor in the eighteenth century was very different from what it is today. There were no insolvency or bankruptcy laws to purge him of his honest debts and thus permit him to start anew. There were no banks. Loans were made from one man to another, usually at high rates of interest and with security covering much if not all of the borrower's posses- sions. As a rule creditors were hard. Old letters show that they met with cold refusal the most pitiful appeals for more time in which to pay. If a man owed money payable on a given day, it had to be paid on that day. Otherwise mortgaged property was sold forthwith. An execution levied against a man was promptly put into effect. Often, to be sure there was good reason for haste, for there was no law under which a bankrupt estate could be equitably divided among creditors. The first to get a judgment took the first bite. If it required all of a man's property to meet the claim, the creditor took it all. If, after all was gone, a few dollars of debt remained, the debtor could be committed to jail and kept there as long as the creditor would pay the required dollar or more weekly for the prisoner's board.
NEW WORCESTER POST OFFICE
Photo by Paul W. Savage
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In 1784 one hundred and four offenders were committed to the Worcester County Jail-ten under sentence for criminal offenses, ninety-four for debt. If in Worcester County today the same proportion of its citizens were impris- oned because they could not meet their obligations, the jails would have a thousand more prisoners than now occupy them. So crowded was the old jail in Worcester that the poorer debtors were crowded fifteen in a room.
The menacing aggregate of private indebtedness of which the innumerable law suits were the result was the accumulation of several years. During the Revolution the people had exercised the most rigid economy in their manner of living and in their financial affairs generally. There followed as a reac- tion, an extremity of extravagance which had no precedent in New England. In the closing period of the war, there had been a very large influx of gold and silver money, chiefly from disbursements of the French and British armies, and also from foreign trade conducted under the protection of the French fleet. Massachusetts got a large share of precious currency during the visit of the French fleet to Boston following the taking of Yorktown. But the specie soon disappeared, largely because of great sums sent abroad in payment for luxuries. There was hoarding of currency, also. Finally trade in Worcester County was practically paralyzed, labor was without employment, and there was so little money that trade was reduced to the level of barter. There was clamor for fiat money, as there always is under such circumstances, insisted upon by demagogs ignorant of or ignoring the inevitable consequences.
As was inevitable in New England, the people turned to town meeting and county convention. Of the latter the first was held in 1782, with representa- tives present from twenty-six towns. They set forth a list of grievances, which was the foundation upon which succeeding conventions built as fast as new causes of complaint were discovered or imagined.
The 1782 convention recommended that the towns instruct their repre- sentative to require immediate settlement with all public officers entrusted with the funds of the Commonwealth, and if settlement were delayed, to withdraw from the General Court and return to their constituents ; to reduce the compensation of members of the House and other State officials, and like- wise the fees of lawyers; to insist upon contribution to the support of the Continental Army in specific articles instead of money ; to demand that an account of public expenditures be rendered annually to the towns ; and finally to demand the removal of the General Court from Boston. There was a feeling abroad that in the State capital undue influences were brought to bear upon the body of representatives.
Wor .- 17
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In succeeding years similar conventions were held by invitation of the towns, at Sutton, Leicester and Paxton. Each added to the list of grievances, until they became almost innumerable, and town meetings added others. It is related that at such a gathering, a citizen asked one of the most active of the discontents what grievances he himself suffered and what were the prin- cipal evils among them. "There are grievances enough, thank God," was the reply, "and they are all principal ones."
In the meantime companies of "Regulators," as they first called them- selves, were forming and drilling. Not every town had them. Perhaps lack of leaders was to blame for this. The shire town showed no active interest in the military preparations. The eastern counties were not deeply affected, but in some of the towns of Hampshire and Berkshire the movement reached fever heat. Worcester County communities which had no companies sent recruits to neighbor towns which had.
Rebel March on Worcester-The crisis came in early September, 1786. The government had plenty of warning of what was to be expected, but the Governor and other officials found it impossible to believe that the people of Massachusetts would resort to armed rebellion. Therefore no precautions were taken for protecting the sessions of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions which were scheduled for the first week in the month.
On Monday night of court week, a company of eighty armed men com- manded by Captain Adam Wheeler of Hubbardston marched into Worcester and took possession of the courthouse. Early the next morning his force was increased to a hundred men, and there were as many more without arms. The judges were assembled at the house of Joseph Allen, clerk of courts, which stood on the south corner of Main and School streets.
Shortly before noon the judges started for the courthouse. In the little procession were Chief Justice Artemas Ward and his associates of the Com- mon Pleas, the justices of the Sessions, the clerk, the high sheriff and other court officers, and the members of the bar. Court Hill was crowded with rebels and spectators. On the outskirts paced a sentinel. As the judges approached he challenged them, levelling his musket which carried a bayonet. The Chief Justice was furiously indignant. "Present arms !" he commanded. The sentry, formerly a subaltern in Ward's own regiment, mechanically obeyed. The insurgents opened their ranks to let the procession through and proceeded to the courthouse steps. At the door was a file of men with fixed bayonets, with Captain Wheeler at their front.
"Who commands the people here?" thundered the old general. "By what authority and for what purpose have you met in hostile array?" He ordered
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the crier to open the doors and he threw them back. There stood revealed a triple line of soldiers with levelled muskets. The Chief Justice was not to be so rebuffed. He advanced and the bayonets were turned against his breast. Again and again he demanded who commanded the people there. At length, Captain Wheeler, first disclaiming the rank of leader, replied that they had come to relieve the distresses of the county by preventing the sitting of the courts until the people could obtain redress for their grievances. The judge answered that he would satisfy them that their complaints were without foundation.
He was informed by Captain Smith of Barre that any communication he had to make must be reduced to writing, and this the Chief Justice indig- nantly refused to do. He told the assembled officers and men that 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 permit him to be heard by his fellow-citizens, and not by the leaders alone, who had deceived and deluded them, he would speak, but not otherwise." The officers refused to permit an address. They feared the effect of the words of so influential and determined a man. They had not come there to listen to long speeches, they told him, but to resist oppression. They had the power to compel submission, and demanded an adjournment of the court without delay. Judge Ward refused to answer any demand or request unless it was accom- panied by the name of him who made it.
They ordered him to "fall back." The drum was beat and the order to charge given. The soldiers advanced until the points of their bayonets pressed hard upon his breast. "He yielded not an inch, but stood immovable as a statue," although the steel was piercing his clothing. The soldiers could not stand the strain. They feared to wound the distinguished jurist. They were struck with admiration at his stand. The bayonets were with- drawn and the judge ascended the courthouse steps and addressed the insur- gents and spectators. He had never been a ready speaker; eloquence was foreign to his make-up. But on this occasion, inspired by the thought that the fruits of the long labors of Massachusetts patriots were imperiled by rebellious citizens, he soared to hitherto unknown heights. In a style clear and forceful, "he examined their supposed grievances, exposed their fallacy, explained the dangerous tendency of the rash measures, admonished them that they were placing in peril the liberty acquired by the efforts and suffer- ings 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 to force." For nearly two hours he spoke. He was frequently interrupted, but never lost the thread of his argument.
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Finally he addressed himself directly to Captain Wheeler and advised him to order the troops to disperse. "They are waging war," he said "which is treason and the end will be"-he paused-"the gallows !"
The judges then retired through a respectful gathering and repaired to the United States Arms Tavern across Main Street, which hostelry, removed only a few years since, is remembered today as the Exchange Hotel. Their court was opened and immediately adjourned to the following day.
The judge had done a fine and brave thing. His argument and warning were sound, and under ordinary circumstances would have been convincing. But the insurgents were in no mood to be convinced. Their wrongs, real and imaginary, rankled as deeply after listening to his words as before. The threat of the gallows did not move them. Perhaps the Chief Justice sym- bolized to them that which they were attempting to correct by force of arms.
It happened at this time that a petition of Athol citizens was presented to the court, asking that no judgments be rendered in civil actions, except where debts would be lost by delay, and no trials held unless with the consent of both parties to the action. The request was exactly in line with the views of the justices. Had there been no interference they would probably have adopted some such temporary rule. But under the new circumstances no concession of any sort was possible.
Almost simultaneously with the receipt of the petition, Captain Smith of Barre unceremoniously entered the presence of the judges and, drawn sword in hand, presented a paper which he said was a petition of "the body of peo- ple now collected for their own good and that of the Commonwealth requir- ing an adjournment of the court without delay." His manner was threatening as he demanded an answer within half an hour. Judge Ward informed him that no answer would be given, and he retired. In the evening an interview was asked by a committee. The answer was that the court would have no dealings with men under arms against the State but an intimation was given that the request of the people of Athol was considered reasonable, which terminated the conference. The committee reported the results to the body of insurgents. They voted it unsatisfactory, and decided to remain until the next day.
Through the night the courthouse was guarded as if it was a fortress. Sentinels were placed along the front of the building and in Main Street. Men off duty slept in the court room and were quartered by their friends. At daybreak the force formed on Court Hill and was addressed by the leaders. During the morning another committee waited upon the court and renewed the demand that adjournment be without day, and again met with peremptory refusal. The judges assured the committee that if the armed force would disperse, the people of the county would have no cause for com- plaint with the course the court would pursue.
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The "Regulators" had been reinforced by two hundred men from Holden and Ward (Auburn), and now mustered four hundred men, half of them carrying muskets, the remainder 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 they won no recruits and returned to the courthouse. Sprigs of evergreen had been distributed and stuck in their hats as a symbol of their cause, and a young pine tree was set up as a standard.
Orders had been dispatched to the colonels of the county brigade of militia to call out their regiments and march without delay, but so strongly was the dissatisfaction shared by the people, that the officers reported it beyond their power to muster their men. The military arm of the govern- ment was paralyzed. The justices saw that the only alternative was to adjourn court and ordered the sheriff to proclaim to the people that all cases were continued until the next term. The answer of the insurgents was to parade their two hundred unarmed men before the house of Clerk Allen to which the justices had retired. They halted there for an hour, meditating violence. Then the main body marched down and passed through them, and the entire command proceeded to the Common where they paraded in line, and appointed another committee to wait upon the court, with the same unsatisfactory result. The Court of Sessions followed the example of the superior tribunal and adjourned its sitting to November 21. Before night- fall, the Regulators had dispersed and were returning to their home towns.
The judges went from Worcester to Springfield, where the courthouse was under guard by a body of militia. But the assembled insurgents were rapidly increasing in numbers, and it was considered inexpedient to continue the sitting, and on the third day the court adjourned, having heard no cases.
The Legislature Intervenes-To meet the emergency, the Legislature assembled in special session on September 27. The gravity of the situation was recognized, but the members were divided on the course which should be taken. Many of them were in sympathy with the insurgents and were not keen on casting their votes for laws imposing heavy punishments on this special class of offenders. But an agreement was finally reached, and various acts were passed to strengthen the arm of the government and to remove some of the oppressions.
One law provided particularly severe penalties in case of the assembling of armed persons or of riotous or tumultuous assemblies, whether armed or not. The full punishment for offenders was that they should forfeit all "lands, tenements, goods and chattels," and should further "be whipped thirty-nine stripes on the naked back, at the public whipping post, and suffer imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months nor less than six
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months; and once every three months during the said imprisonment receive the same number of stripes on the naked back, at the public whipping post, as aforesaid." The law of habeas corpus was suspended, and the Governor and Council were empowered to cause the arrest and imprisonment without bail of anyone whom they considered dangerous to the Commonwealth.
As remedies of existing evils, full pardon was offered for offenses already committed in the course of the rebellion ; an act provided for the payment of back taxes in kind ; and another reduced the costs of civil actions. An address to the people summarized the indebtedness of the State, explained the neces- sity of taxes as levied, and declared that some of the grievances offered were without foundation, and that State officials were by no means overpaid. The solons concluded by giving the people a scolding. They were blamed for unnecessary extravagances, particularly for wasting money on "gewgaws imported from Europe and the more pernicious produce of the West Indies," notably rum and molasses from which to make it, and for indulgences "in fantastical and expensive fashions and intemperate living." But the address conceded that "the taxes were indeed very great."
Court of Sessions Interrupted-When the 21st of November came round, no defensive steps were taken to guard the Court of General Sessions at Worcester, because, as its jurisdiction was chiefly over criminal offenses, no interruption was anticipated. But on that day sixty armed men under command of Abraham Gale of Princeton marched into Worcester, and the next morning a hundred more arrived from Hubbardston, Shrewsbury and other towns. A committee presented a petition to the judges at the United States Arms asking for their adjournment until a new choice of representa- tives could be made. But the petition was not received. The insurgents then took possession of the grounds around the courthouse, and when the judges approached, they found their advance checked by rows of bayonets.
The sheriff, Colonel William Greenleaf of Lancaster, tried reasoning with the rebels, but to no purpose. Next he read the riot act. He then remarked with great severity on the conduct of the men about him. Whereupon one of the leaders replied that they were only seeking relief from grievances, that one of the most intolerable among them was the sheriff himself, and next to his person were his fees, which were exorbitant, particularly in criminal executions.
"If you consider fees for executions oppressive," replied the angry sheriff, "you need not wait long for redress, for I will hang you all, gentlemen, for nothing, with the greatest pleasure." Then some sly hand stuck a sprig of evergreen in his hat, and he departed with the judges, wearing the badge of rebellion.
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This second assault on the courts caused a revulsion of feeling on the part of many whose sympathies had been strongly with the rebel. So long as their purpose was simply to check the flood of executions which wasted their property and brought misery to their families, their acts of military violence were regarded with indulgence, not only by the people but by the government itself.
The insurgents, however, had fallen into the error of construing a policy of extreme leniency as a symptom of weakness and fear, and instead of accepting results already obtained by their aggressive action, proceeded to extend their plans from present relief to permanent change. Their inter- ference with the criminal sitting, which had no bearing whatsoever upon their grievances, wiped out sympathy and roused indignation. The dignity of the Commonwealth had been flouted. Stern methods of suppression were imperative, even should they threaten actual civil war and the shedding of blood.
Governor Bowdoin and his Council were informed that large bodies of insurgents were forming, and were proposing to oppose the session of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas to be opened at Worcester, Monday, December 4. The Governor and his Council determined to protect the court with an amply strong body of troops, and orders were issued to General Warner to call out the militia of his Worcester County division, and five regiments were directed to hold themselves in instant readiness to march. But doubt arose as to whether troops mustered from the infected districts were to be trusted, and the sheriff of the county confirmed this suspicion by reporting that a sufficient force could not be collected. Therefore the instruc- tions to General Warner were countermanded, and it was determined to raise an army of sufficient size effectually to crush out the last vestige of rebellion. The judges were advised to adjourn the sitting to January 22 following, - which would afford time for completing the necessary military preparations.
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