History of Gardner, Massachusetts/Town History
Town History.
The first warrant for a town meeting in Gardner, was issued by Nicholas Dyke, Esq., of Westminster, directed to Peter Goodale, of Gardner, ordering him to warn all the male inhabitants of Gardner, qualified by law to vote in town affairs, to meet at the house of John Glazier, on Monday, the 15th of August, 1785, for the purpose of choosing all town officers, as the law directs, for annual March meetings.
The meeting was opened by Nicholas Dyke, Esq.
At a town meeting held September, 1785,
Voted, that it is the opinion of the Town, that the county road leading from Royalston to Westminster, ought to go through the center of Gardner.
Voted, to build a meeting-house 60 feet in length, and 45 in width, with two porches. Chose a Committee to select a building spot for the same.
Voted, and chose Samuel Kelton, Joseph Bacon, John White, Moses Hill, Committee, to draw a plan of the house; also, to see what stock is needed for the same.
Voted, and chose Elisha Jackson, Samuel Kelton, Simon Gates, Committee, to hire preaching.
Voted, to hire four Sabbaths; also, that the Town allow accounts, and that the Town Clerk provide books for keeping the records.
Voted, that the Selectmen take a deed of Seth Heywood for four acres of land for the common, and give him security for the same in behalf of the Town. The price of the land is $100.
Voted, to lay out the road two rods wide. Also, that the annual meeting be held on the first Monday in March.
Voted, to let out the framing and finishing the outside of the meeting-house. Joseph Bacon took the job with the addition of laying the floor, making the doors and windows,—also, painting the house, the Town furnishing the materials,—for $575. The remainder of the work was let out in small jobs to different individuals.
About this time the people of Massachusetts were in much distress on account of the scarcity of money, and many, perhaps not without some reason, supposed the trouble arose from the maladministration of the affairs of government.
The discontented portion of the people were called insurgents, and were led by a Mr. Shays; hence the name of "Shays' rebellion." To show the energy of the first settlers of this town, when they undertook to accomplish an object, the following extract of a town meeting, held September 25th, 1786, is inserted.
It appears that a convention of reformers was to be holden at Paxton.
Voted, to send a delegate to the convention at Paxton. Made choice of Capt. Samuel Kelton.
Voted, to choose a Committee of three to give directions to the delegate chosen.
Chose William Bickford, David Foster, Elijah Wilder, Committee.
Voted, to adjourn this meeting for two hours, then to meet at this place. Met agreeable to the adjournment. The Committee make 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 fees of officers at large:
We desire that you will use your influence that the salaries may be taken down, and salaries given that may be handsome for their support, and not so burdensome to the people at large; and that the lawyers and inferior Courts may be 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.
To Captain Samuel Kelton, chosen to sit in Convention.
William Bickford,
David Foster,
Elijah Wilder,Committee.
Gardner, Sept. 25th, 1786.
Voted, to accept of the Report of this Committee.
It may be interesting here to insert an extract from Lincoln's History of Worcester, giving an account of the Insurrection in Massachusetts.
Could the existence of insurrection and rebellion be effaced from memory, it would be wanton outrage to recall from oblivion the tale of misfortune and dishonor. But those events cannot be forgotten: they have floated down in tradition: they are recounted by the winter fire-side, in the homes of New England: they are inscribed on roll and record in the archives and annals of the State. 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 picture of patriotism and prosperity, the gloomy image of civil commotion is still full in our sight, shadowing the background with its solemn admonition.
The investigation of the causes of the unhappy tumults of 1786, does not belong to the narrative of their local effects on one of the principal scenes of action. But it would be great injustice to omit the statement, that circumstances existed, which palliate, though they do not justify the conduct of those who took up arms against the government of their own establishment. After eight years of war, Massachusetts stood, with the splendor of triumph, in republican poverty, bankrupt in resources, with no revenue but of 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 support of the army of Independence, to the utmost limit of its means; public credit was extinct, manners had become relaxed, trade decayed, manufactures languishing, paper money depreciated to worthlessness, claims on the nation accumulated by the commutation of the pay of officers for securities, with a heavy and increasing pressure of debt resting on Commonwealth, corporations and citizens. 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 remedial effect, enhanced the evils of general insolvency, by postponing collections. The outlandish 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 1,700. 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 administration as corrupt, the laws as unequal and unjust. The celebrated papers 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.[1]
Before the close of the revolutionary contest, whose pressure had united all by the tie of common danger, indications of discontent had been manifested. The acts of the Legislature had excited temporary and local uneasiness in former years, as the operation of laws conflicted with the views of expediency or interest entertained by the village politicians. But in 1782, complaints arose of grievances, springing from the policy and administration of government, of more genial 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 disbursement of the great sums of money annually assessed, recommended instructions to the representatives to require immediate settlement with all public officers entrusted with the funds of the Commonwealth; and if the adjustment was delayed or refused, to withdraw from the General Court, and return to their constituents: to reduce the compensation of the members of the House, and the fees of lawyers; to procure sessions of the Court of Probate in different places in the county; the revival of confessions of debt; enlargement of the jurisdiction of justices of the peace to £20—contribution to the support of the continental army in specific articles instead of money: and the settlement of accounts between the Commonwealth and Congress. At an adjourned session, May 14th, they further recommended, that account of the public expenditures should be annually rendered to the towns; the removal of the General Court from Boston; separation of the business of the Common Pleas and Sessions, and inquiry into the grants of lands in Maine, in favor of Alexander Shepherd and others.
The first open act of insurrection, followed close upon the adjournment of the convention held at Leicester, 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 Captain Adam Wheeler, of Hubbardston, entered the town and took possession of the Court House. Early the next morning their numbers were augmented to nearly one hundred, and as many more collected without fire-arms. The Judges of the Common Pleas had assembled at the house of the Hon. Joseph Allen. At the usual hour, with the Justices of the Sessions, and the members of the bar, attended by the clerk and sheriff, they moved towards the Court House. Chief Justice Artemas Ward, a General of the Revolution, united intrepid firmness with prudent moderation. His resolute and manly bearing on that day of difficulty and embarrassment, 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 subaltern 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 advance, 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 Capt. Wheeler with his drawn sword. The crier was directed to open the doors, and permitted to throw them back displaying a party of infantry with their guns levelled as if ready to fire. Judge Ward then advanced and the bayonets were turned against his breast. He demanded repeatedly, who commanded the people there; by what authority, and for what purpose they had met in hostile array. Wheeler at length replied; after disclaiming the rank of leader, he stated, that he had come to relieve the distresses of the country, by preventing the sittings of courts until they could obtain redress of grievances. The Chief Justice answered that he would satisfy them their complaints were without just foundation. He was told by Capt. Smith of Barre, that any communication he had to make must be reduced to writing. Judge Ward indignantly refused to do this: he said he "did not value their bayonets, they might plunge them to his heart; but while that heart beat he would do his duty: when opposed to it, his life was of little consequence: if they would take away their bayonets and give him some position where he could be heard by his fellow citizens, and not by the leaders alone, who had deceived 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 peremptorily refused to answer any proposition, unless it was accompanied by the name of him by whom it was made. They then desired him to fall back: the drum was beat and the guard ordered to charge. The soldiers advanced until the points of their bayonets pressed hard upon the breast of the Chief Justice, who stood as immovable as a statue, without stirring a limb, or yielding an inch, although the steel in the hands of desperate men penetrated his dress. Struck with admiration by his intrepidity, and shrinking from the sacrifice of life, the guns were removed and Judge Ward ascending the steps addressed the assembly. In a style of clear and forcible argument he examined their supposed grievances; exposed their fallacy; explained the dangerous tendency of their rash measures; admonished them that they were placing in peril the liberty acquired by the efforts and sufferings of years, plunging the country in civil war and involving themselves and their families in misery: that the measures they had taken must defeat their own wishes; for the government would never yield that to force, which would be readily accorded to respectful representations: and warned them that the majesty of the laws would be vindicated, and their resistance of its power avenged. He spoke nearly two hours, not without frequent interruption. But admonition and argument were unavailing: the insurgents declared they would maintain their ground until satisfaction 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 judge then retired, unmolested, through armed files. Soon after, the Court was opened at the United States Arms Tavern, and immediately adjourned to the next day. Orders were then dispatched to the colonels in the brigade to call out their regiments, and march without a moment'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.
In the afternoon of Tuesday, a petition was presented from Athol, requesting that no judgments should be rendered in civil actions, except where debts would be lost by delay, and no trials had unless with the consent of the parties; a course corresponding with the views entertained by the Court. Soon after, Capt. Smith, of Barre, unceremoniously introduced himself to the judges, with his sword drawn, and offered a paper purporting to be the petition of "the body of people now collected for their own good and that of the Commonwealth," requiring an adjournment of the Courts without day. He demanded, in a threatening manner, an answer in half an hour. Judge Ward, with great dignity replied, that no answer would be given, and the intruder retired. An interview was solicited, during the evening, by a committee, who were informed that the officers of government would make no promises to men in hostile array: an intimation was given that the request of the people of Athol was considered reasonable: and the conference terminated. A report of the result was made to the insurgents, who voted it was unsatisfactory, and resolved to remain until the following day.
During the night, the Court House was guarded in martial form: sentinels were posted along in front of the building, and along Main street: the men not on duty, bivouaced in the hall of justice, or sought shelter with their friends. In the first light of morning, the whole force paraded on the hill, and was harrangued by the leaders. In the forenoon a new deputation waited on the Court, with a repetition of the former demand, and received a similar reply. The justices assured the committee, if the body dispersed, the people of the county would have no just cause of complaint with the course the Court would adopt. The insurgents, reinforced with about two hundred from Holden and Ward, now mustered four hundred strong, half with fire arms, and the remainder furnished with sticks. They formed in column and marched through Main street with their music, inviting all who sought relief from oppression to join their ranks, but receiving no accessions of recruits from the citizens, they returned to the Court House. Sprigs of evergreen had been distributed, and mounted as the distinctive badge of rebellion, and a young pine tree was elevated at their post as the standard of revolt.
The Court, at length, finding that no reliance could be placed on military support, and no hope entertained of being permitted to proceed with business, adjourned, continuing all cases to the next term. Proclamation was made by the sheriff to the people, and a copy of the record communicated. After this, about two hundred men, with sticks only, paraded before the house of Mr. Allen, where the justices had retired, and halted nearly an hour, as if meditating some act of violence. The main body then marched down, and passing through the other party, whose open ranks closed after them, the whole moved to the common, where they displayed into a line, and sent another committee to the Court.
The sessions, considering their deliberations controlled by the mob, deemed it expedient to follow the example of the superior tribunal, by an adjournment to the 21st of November. When the insurgent adjutant presented a paper, requiring it should be without fixed day; Judge Ward replied, the business was finished and could not be changed.
Before night closed down, the Regulators, as they styled themselves, dispersed; and thus terminated the first interference of the citizens in arms with the court of justice. Whatever fears might have been entertained of future disastrous consequences, their visit brought with it no terror, and no apprehension for personal safety to their opposers. Both parties, indeed, seemed more inclined to hear than strike. The conduct of Judge Ward was dignified and spirited, in a situation of great embarrassment. His own deprecation, that the sun might not shine on the day when the Constitution was trampled on with impunity, seemed to be realized. Clouds, darkness and storm brooded over the meeting of the insurgents, and rested on their tumultuary assemblies in the county at subsequent periods.
The state of feeling was unfavorably influenced by the success of the insurgents. At a meeting of the inhabitants on the 25th of September, delegates were elected to the county convention at Paxton, with instructions to report their doings to the town. The list of grievances received some slight additions from this assembly. The delay and expense of Courts of Probate, the manner of recording deeds in one general office of registry, instead of entering them on the books of the town where the land was situated, and the right of absentees to sue for the collection of debts, were the subjects of complaint in a petition, concluding with the request that precepts might be issued for meetings, to express public sentiment in relation to a revision of the Constitution, and if two-thirds of the qualified voters were in favor of amendment, that a State convention might be called. The existence of this body was continued by an adjournment to Worcester. The petition was immediately forwarded to the General Court. A copy was subsequently submitted to the town, at a meeting held October 2nd, for the purpose of receiving a report from the delegates. It was then voted, "That Mr. Daniel Baird be requested to inform the town whether this petition was according to his mind, and he informed the town it was; but that he did not approve of its being sent to the General Court until it had been laid before the town." The petition was read paragraph by paragraph, rejected, and the delegates dismissed.
On the 16th of October, in compliance with the request of 34 freeholders, another town meeting was called: after a long and warm debate, the former delegates were re-elected to attend the convention, at its adjourned session. A petition had been offered, praying consideration of the measures proper in the alarming situation of the country, and for instructions to the representative to inquire into the expenditure of public money, the salaries of officers, the means of increasing manufactures, encouraging agriculture, introducing economy, and removing every grievance. Directions were given to endeavor to procure the removal of the Legislature from the metropolis to the interior; the annihilation of the Inferior Courts; the substitution of a cheaper and more expeditious administration of justice; the immediate repeal of the supplementary fund granted to Congress; the appropriation of the revenue, arising from impost and excise, to the payment of the foreign debt; and the withholding all supplies from Congress until settlement of account between the Commonwealth and Continent. Resolutions, introduced by the supporters of government, expressing disapprobation of unconstitutional assemblies, armed combinations, and riotous movements, and pointing to the Legislature as the only legitimate source of redress, were rejected. The convention party was triumphant by a small majority. While the discussion was uged, a considerate citizen inquired of one of the most zealous of the discontented, what grievances he suffered, and what were the principal evils among them? "There are grievances enough, thank God!" was the hasty reply, "and they are all principal ones."
The jurisdiction of the sessions was principally over criminal offences, and its powers were exercised for the preservation of social order. No opposition had been anticipated to its session on the 21st of November, and no defensive preparations were made. On that day, about sixty armed men, under Abraham Gale, of Princeton, entered the north part of the town. During the evening, and on Wednesday morning, about one hundred more arrived from Hubbardston, Shrewsbury, and some adjacent towns. A committee presented a petition to the Court, at the United States Arms Tavern, for their adjournment, until a new choice of representatives, which was not received. The insurgents then took possession of the ground around the Court House. When the justices approached, the armed men made way, and they passed the open ranks to the steps. There, triple rows of bayonets presented to their breasts, opposed farther advance. The Sheriff, Col. William Greenleaf, of Lancaster, addressed the assembled crowd, stating the danger to themselves and the public from their lawless measures. Reasoning and warning were ineffectual, and the proclamation in the riot act was read for their dispersion. Amid the grave solemnity of the scene, some incidents were interposed of lighter character. Col. Greenleaf remarked with great severity on the conduct of the armed party around him. One of the leaders replied, they sought relief from grievances: that among the most intolerable of them was the sheriff himself: and next to his person, were his fees, which were exorbitant and excessive, particularly on criminal executions. "If you consider fees for executions oppressive," replied the sheriff, irritated by the attack, "you need not wait long for redress; for I will hang you all, gentlemen, for nothing, with the greatest pleasure." Some hand among the crowd, which pressed close, placed a pine branch on his hat, and the county officer retired with the justices, decorated with the evergreen badge of rebellion. The clerk entered on his records, that the court was prevented from being held by an armed force, the only notice contained on their pages that our soil has ever been dishonored by resistance of the laws.
To this period the indulgence of government had dealt with its revolted subjects as misguided citizens, seduced to acts of violence from misconception of the sources of their distress. Conciliatory policy had applied remedial statutes wherever practicable, and proffered full pardon and indemnity for past misconduct. Reasonable hopes were entertained that disaffection, quieted by lenient measures, would lay down the arms assumed under strong excitement, and that reviving order would rise from the confusion. But the insurgents, animated by temporary success, and mistaking the mildness of forbearance for weakness or fear, had extended their designs from present relief to permanent change. Their early movements were without further object than to stay that flood of executions which wasted their property and made their homes desolate. That portion of the community, who condemned the violence of the actors in the scenes we have described, sympathized in their sufferings, and were disposed to consider the offences venial, while the professed purpose of their commission was merely to obtain the delay necessary for seeking constitutional redress. All implicated, stood on safe and honorable ground, until the renewal on the 21st of November, of the opposition to the administration of justice. Defiance of the authority of the State could no longer be tolerated without the prostration of its institutions. The crisis had arrived, when government, driven to the utmost limit of concession, must appeal to the sword for preservation, even though its destroying edge, turned on the citizen, might be crimsoned with civil slaughter. Information was communicated to the executive of extensive levies of troops for the suppression of the judiciary, and the coercion of the Legislature. Great exertions were making to prevent the approaching session of the Court of Common Pleas in Worcester, on the first week of December. Gov. Bowdoin and the council, resolved to adopt vigorous measures to overawe the insurgents. Orders were issued to Major General Warner, to call out the militia of his division, and five regiments were directed to hold themselves in instant readiness to march. Doubts, however, arose, how far reliance could be placed on the troops of an infected district. The sheriff reported, that a sufficient force could not be collected. The first instructions were therefore countermanded, a plan having been settled to raise an army whose power might effectually crush resistance; and the Judges were advised to adjourn to the 23d of January following, when the contemplated arrangements could be matured, to terminate the unhappy troubles.
The insurgents unapprised of the change of operations, began to concentrate their whole strength to interrupt the Courts at Worcester and Concord. They had fixed on Shrewsbury as the place of rendezvous. On the 29th of November, a party of forty from Barre, Spencer and Leicester, joined Capt. Wheeler, who had established his head quarters in that town during the preceding week, and succeeded in enlisting about thirty men. Daniel Shays, the reputed commander-in-chief, and nominal head of the rebellion, made his first public appearance in the county soon after, with troops from Hampshire. Reinforcements came in, till the number at the post exceeded four hundred. Sentinels stopped and examined travelers, and patrols were sent out towards Concord, Cambridge and Worcester. On Thursday, November 30th, information was received that the Light Horse, under Col. Hitchborn, had captured Shattuck, Parker and Paige, and that a detachment of cavalry was marching against themselves. This intelligence disconcerted their arrangements for an expedition into Middlesex, and they retreated in great alarm to Holden. On Friday, Wheeler was in a house passed by the horsemen, and only escaped being captured, by accident. Another person, supposed to be the commander, was pursued, and received a sabre cut in the hand. The blow was slight, but afforded sufficient foundation for raising the cry that blood had been shed, and rousing passion to vengeance. The wounded insurgent was exhibited and bewailed as the martyr of their cause. As the Light Horse retired, it was discovered they did not exceed twenty. About a hundred of Shays' men rallied, and returned to Shrewsbury, following a foe whose celerity of movement left no cause to fear they could be brought to an encounter. Search was made for the town stock of powder, removed by the vigilance of one of the Selectmen, Col. Cushing, whose house they surrounded, and whose person they endeavored to seize, but he escaped. Consultation was held on the expediency of marching directly to Worcester, and encamping before the Court House. Without clothing to protect them from cold, without money, or food to supply the wants of hunger, it was considered impracticable to maintain themselves there, and on Saturday they marched to Grafton and went into quarters with their friends.
The party left at Holden, found one object of their meeting, the junction with the insurgents at Concord, frustrated. Those who belonged to the neighboring towns were therefore dismissed, with orders to assemble in Worcester on Monday following. Shays retired to the barracks in Rutland, and sent messengers to hasten on the parties from Berkshire and Hampshire, in anticipation of meeting the militia of government at Worcester.
On Sunday evening, the detachment from Grafton entered the town, under the command of Abraham Gale, of Princeton, Adam Wheeler, of Hubbardston, Simeon Hazeltine, of Hardwick, and John Williams, reputed to be a deserter from the British army, and once a sergeant of the continental line. They halted before the Court House, and having obtained the keyes, placed a strong guard around the building, and posted sentinels on all the streets and avenues of the town to prevent surprise. Those who were off duty, rolling themselves in their blankets, rested on their arms, on the floor of the Court room.
As the evening closed in, one of the most furious snow storms of a severe winter commenced. One division of the insurgents occupied the Court House: another sought shelter at the Hancock Arms. The sentinels, chilled by the tempest, and imagining themselves secured by its violence from attack, joined their comrades around the fire of the guard room. The young men of the town, in the spirit of sportive mischief, contrived to carry away their muskets, incautiously stacked in the entry-way, and having secreted them at a distance, raised the alarm that the Light Horse was upon them. The party sallied out in confusion, and panic struck at the silent disappearance of their arms, fled through the fast falling snow to the Court House, where their associates had paraded. The guns were discovered at length, and the whole force remained ready for action several hours, frequently disturbed by the fresh outcries of their vexatious persecutors.
The increasing fury of the storm, and the almost impassable condition of the roads, did not prevent the arrival of many from Holden and the vicinity, on Tuesday, swelling the numerical force of malcontents to five hundred. The Court was opened at the Sun Tavern,[2] and in conformity with the instructions of the Governor, adjourned to the 23d of January, without attempting to transact business. Petitions from committees from Sutton and Douglas, that the next session might be postponed to March, were disregarded.
Worcester assumed the appearance of a garrisoned town. The citizens answered to the frequent challenges of military guards: the traveler was admonished to stay his steps by the voice and bayonet of the soldier. Sentries paced before the house of Mr. Allen, the clerk, where Judge Ward resided, and the former gentleman was threatened with violence on his own threshhold. Justice Washburn, of Leicester, was opposed on his way, and two of his friends, who seized the gun presented to his breast, were arrested and detained in custody. Justice Baker, on his return homeward was apprehended in the road, and some of his captors suggested the propriety of sending him to prison, to experience the corrective discipline, to which, as a magistrate, he had subjected others.
On Tuesday evening, a council of war was convened, and it was seriously determined to march to Boston, and effect the liberation of the State prisoners as soon as sufficient strength could be collected. In anticipation of attack, the Governor gathered the means of defence around the metropolis. Guards were mounted at the prison, and at the entrances of the city: alarm posts were assigned; and Major General Brooks held the militia of Middlesex contiguous to the road, in readiness for action, and watched the force at Worcester.
During the evening of Tuesday, an alarm broke out, more terrific to the party quartered at the Hancock Arms, than that which had disturbed the repose of the preceding night. Soon after partaking the refreshment which was sometimes used by the military, before the institution of temperance societies, several of the men were seized with violent sickness, and a rumor spread, that poison had been mingled with the fountain which supplied their water. Dr. Samuel Stearns, of Paxton, astrologer, almanac manufacturer, and quack by profession, detected in the sediment of the cups they had drained, a substance, which he unhesitatingly pronounced to be a compound of arsenic and antimony, so deleterious that a single grain would extinguish the lives of a thousand. The numbers of the afflicted increased with frightful rapidity, and the symptoms grew more fearful. It was suddenly recollected that the sugar used in their beverage had been purchased from a respectable merchant of the town,[3] whose attachment to government was well known, and the sickness around was deemed proof conclusive that it had been adulterated for their destruction. A file of soldiers seized the seller, and brought him to answer for the supposed attempt to murder the levies of rebellion. As he entered the house, the cry of indignation rose strong. Fortunately for his safety, Dr. Green, of Ward, an intelligent practitioner of medicine, arrived, and the execution of vengeance was deferred until his opinion of its propriety could be obtained. After careful inspection of the suspected substance, and subjecting it to the test of different senses, he declared, that to the best of his knowledge, it was genuine, yellow, Scotch snuff. The reputed dying raised their heads from the floor: the slightly affected recovered: the gloom which had settled heavily on the supposed victims of mortal disease was dispelled, and the illness soon vanished. Strict inquiry furnished a reasonable explanation: a clerk in the store of the merchant had opened a package of the fragrant commodity in the vicinity of the sugar barrel, and a portion of the odoriferous leaf, bad, inadvertently been scattered from the counter into its uncovered head. A keg of spirit was accepted in full satisfaction for the panic occasioned by the decoction of tobacco so innocently administered.
Bodies of militia, anxious to testify their reviving zeal, were toiling through the deep snow drifts. Gen. Warner, finding that no benefit could be derived from their presence, sent orders for their return to their homes, and the insurgents enjoyed the triumph of holding undisputed possession of the town.
On Wednesday, December 6th, they went out to meet Shays, who arrived from Rutland with 850 men. As they re-entered the street the appearance of the column of 800 was highly imposing. The companies included many who had learned their tactics from Steuben, and served an apprenticeship of discipline in the ranks of the Revolution: war-worn veterans, who in a good cause would have been invincible. The pine tuft supplied the place of plume in their hats. Shays, with his aid, mounted on white horses, led on the van. They displayed into line before the Court House, where they were reviewed and inspected. The men were then billeted on the inhabitants. No compulsion was used: where admittance was peremptorily refused, they quietly retired, and sought food and shelter elsewhere. Provision having been made for the soldiers, Shays joined the other leaders in council. At night, he was attended to his quarters, at the house of the late Col. Samuel Flagg, by a strong guard, preceded by the music of the army, with something of the state assumed by a general officer. Precautions against surprise were redoubled. Chains of sentinels were stretched along the streets, planted in every avenue of approach, and on the neighboring hills, examining all who passed. The cry of "all's well," rose on the watches of the night, from those whose presence brought danger to the Commonwealth.
Committees from some of the neighboring towns, and many of the prominent members of the conventions, assembled with the military leaders, on Thursday, the 6th of December. Their deliberations were perplexed and discordant. The inclemency of the weather had prevented the arrival of the large force expected. The impossibility of retaining the men who had assembled without munitions, subsistence, or stores, compelled them to abandon the meditated attack on Boston, then put in a posture of defence, and more pacific measures were finally adopted. A petition was prepared for circulation, remonstrating against the suspension of the habeas corpus writ; asking for the pardon and release of the prisoners; a new act of amnesty; the adjournment of Courts until the session of the new Legislature in May; and expressing their readiness to lay down their arms on conpliance with these demands. In the afternoon, Shays' men and part of Wheeler's, to the number of five hundred, began their march for Paxton, on their way to the barracks in Rutland. About a hundred more retired to the north part of the town.
Friday was spent in consultation. Aware that public sentiment was setting against them with strong re-action, the mercy which had been rejected was now supplicated. Letters were addressed to each town of the county, inviting the inhabitants to unite in their petitions. Shays himself, in a private conference with an acquaintance, made use of these expressions. "For God's sake, have matters settled peaceably; it was against my inclinations I undertook this business; importunity was used which I could not withstand; but I heartily wish it was well over."
In the evening, the Court House was abandoned, but the sentries were posted at almost every door of the outside and interior of the public house, where the leaders remained in consultation.
Another snow storm commenced on Saturday morning. Luke Day, with 150 men from Hampshire, reached Leicester, but was unable to proceed in the tempest. About noon, all the insurgents in Worcester paraded before their head quarters, and were dismissed. The companies of Ward, Holden, Spencer, Rutland, Barre, and Petersham, after moving slowly through Main street in distinct bodies, took up the line of march for their respective homes, through roads choked with drifts.
The condition of these deluded men during their stay here, was such as to excite compassion rather than fear. Destitute of almost every necessary of life, in an inclement season, without money to purchase food which their friends could not supply, unwelcome guests in the quarters they occupied, pride restrained the exposure of their wants. Many must have endured the gnawings of hunger in our streets: yet standing with arms in their hands, enduring privations in the midst of plenty, they took nothing by force, and trespassed on no man's rights by violence: some declared they had not tasted food for twenty-four hours; all who made known their situation, were relieved by our citizens with liberal charity.
The forlorn condition of the insurgents was deepened by the distress of their retreat. Their course was amid the wildest revelry of storm and wind in a night of intense cold. Some were frozen to death by the way; others, exhausted with struggling through the deep and drifted snow, sunk down, and would have perished but for the aid of their stouter comrades: when relief was sought among the farm houses, every door was opened at the call of misery, and the wrongs done by the rebel were forgotten in the sufferings of him who claimed hospitality as a stranger.
The whole number assembled at Worcester never exceeded a thousand. The spirit animating the first movements had grown cold, and Shays expressed to an acquaintance here, the impression that the cause had become gloomy and hopeless. In conversation with an officer of government, he disclaimed being at the head of the rebellion; declared he had come to the resolution to have nothing more to do with stopping courts: that if he could not obtain pardon, he would gather the whole force he could command, and fight to the last extremity, rather than be hanged. When asked if he would accept pardon were it offered, and abandon the insurgents, he replied, "yes, in a moment."[4]
The delay of government, while it afforded time to circulate correct information among the people, left the insurgents at liberty to pursue their measures. The Court at Springfield, on the 26th of December, was resisted, and intelligence was received of active exertions to prevent the session of the Common Pleas, at Worcester, on the 23d of January. Longer forbearance would have been weakness, and vigorous measures were adopted for sustaining the Judiciary. An army of 4400 men was raised from the Counties of Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, Hampshire and Worcester, for thirty days service. General Benjamin Lincoln, whose prudence, and military skill peculiarly qualified him for the important trust, received the command. Voluntary loans were made by individuals for the armament, pay, and subsistance of the troops.
On the 21st of January, the army took up the line of march from Roxbury. The inclemency of the weather, and the condition of the roads rendered a halt necessary at Marlborough. The next day the troops reached Worcester, notwithstanding the effects of sudden thaw on the deep snow, and were quartered on the inhabitants, the houses being thrown open for their shelter and comfort. Here they were joined by the regiments of the county. The town contributed its quota liberally. In the company under Capt. Joel Howe, were twenty-seven non-commissioned officers and privates. In the artillery, under Capt. William Treadwell, were enrolled forty-three of our citizens. Nineteen served under Capt. Phinehas Jones. Seven dragoons were embodied in a legionary corps. Lieut. Daniel Goulding was at the head of a troop of cavalry. The late Judge Edward Bangs, Timothy Bigelow, afterwards Speaker of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, and Theophilus Wheeler, Esq., served as volunteers.
Detachments of insurgents collected at Rutland, New Braintree, Princeton, Sterling and Sutton, but, intimidated by the military, hovered at a distance, while the Courts proceeded. On the 25th of January, Gen. Lincoln hastened westward for the relief of Shepherd, and of the arsenal at Springfield, invested by Shays and Day.
Major General Warner was left in command at Worcester, with a regiment of infantry, a corps of artillery, including Capt. Treadwell's company, two field-pieces, and a party from the legionary battalion of volunteer cavalry. Information having been given that a body of about two hundred insurgents had assembled at New Braintree, intercepting travelers and insulting the friends of government, twenty horsemen, supported by about 150 infantry in sleighs, were sent out on the night of the 2d of February, to capture or disperse the disaffected. Upon approaching the place of their destination, the cavalry were ordered to advance at full speed to surprise the enemy. The insurgents, apprised of the expedition, had abandoned their quarters at the house of Micah Hamilton, and taken post behind the walls of the road-side, and having fired a volley of musketry upon the detachment, fled to the woods: Mr. Jonathan Rice, of Worcester, a deputy sheriff, was shot through the arm and hand: Dr. David Young was severely wounded in the knee;[5] the bridle rein of Theophilus Wheeler, Esq., was cut by a ball. Without halting, the soldiers rapidly pursued their way to the deserted head quarters, where they liberated Messrs. Samuel Flagg, and John Stanton, of Worcester, who had been seized the day previous, while transacting private business at Leicester. Having dispersed those who occupied the barracks at Rutland, the next day the companies returned with four prisoners.
The career of Shays was fast drawing to its close. Driven from post to post, he suddenly retired from Pelham to Petersham, where he expected to concentrate the forces of expiring rebellion, and make his final stand. Intelligence of this change of position reached Gen. Lincoln at Hadley, February 3d, and he determined by prompt and decisive action, to terminate the warfare. When the troops took up the line of march at 8 o'clock, the evening was bright and mild. Before morning the cold became intense: the dry and light snow, whirled before a violent north wind, filled the paths and rendered them almost impassable. The severity of the cold prevented any halt for rest or refreshment. At a distance from shelter, without defence against the inclemency of the weather, it became necessary to press on without pausing, to the camp occupied by men possessing all martial advantages, except courage and a good cause. The heavy sufferings of the night were terminated by the arrival of the troops in the very center of Petersham. The followers of Shays, trusting to the violence of the storm and the obstruction of the highways, rested in careless security. The first warning of danger was from the appearance of the advanced guard of the forces of government, after a journey of thirty miles, in the midst of their cantonment. Had an army dropped from the clouds upon the hill, the consternation could not have been greater. Panic struck, the insurgents fled without firing a gun or offering resistance to soldiers exhausted by fatigue, and almost sinking under the privations and hardships of the severe service.
The rebellion being terminated, the infliction of some punishment for the highest political crime was deemed expedient. Some of those who had been in arms against the laws, were brought to trial, convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Henry Gale, of Princeton, was the only insurgent found guilty of capital offence, in this county.[6]
On the 23d of June, at the hour fixed for his execution by the warrant, he was led out to the gallows erected on the common, with all the solemn ceremony of such exhibitions. A reprieve was there read to him, and afterwards full pardon was given.*[7] Proceedings for seditions practices, pending against several prisoners, were suspended. The mercy of government was finally extended to all who had been involved in the difficulties and disorders of the time, upon taking the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth, after some temporary civil disqualifications.[8]
- ↑ 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 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 harmless character of crushed insurrection, saved to after years the inquiry for the catalines of the young republic, and left to us the happy privilege of receiving the coin, impressed with the mark of patriotism, at its stamped value, without testing its deficiency of weight, or assaying the metal to determine the mixture of alloy.
- ↑ United States Hotel, 1836.
- ↑ The late Daniel Waldo, (Sen.) Esq.
- ↑ The retreat of Shays not only afforded the friends of order occasion for triumph, hut sport for wit. An Epigram, from one of the prints, affords a specimen of the poetry and jest of the time. The name of the common carriage, the chaise, and that of the insurgent lender, had then the same spelling as well as sound.
"Says sober Will, well Shays has fled,
And peace returns to bless our days.
Indeed! cries Ned, I always said,
He'd prove at last a fall back Shays;
And those turned over and undone,
Call him a worthless Shays to run - ↑ Dr. Young afterwards recovered £1000, in a civil action, against those by whom he was wounded.
- ↑ The Court assigned as his counsel, Levi Lincoln, sen. and James Sullivan. The warm support of government by the former had rendered him obnoxious to the insurgents. During their occupation of the town, they sent parties to seize his person, who surrounded and searched his house. Seasonably informed of their intentions, he was able to disappoint them.
- ↑ Six were convicted of treason in the county of Berkshire, six in
- ↑ The facts stated in the foregoing chapter have been derived from the Worcester Magazine, published by Isaiah Thomas, 1786, 1787, Independent Chronicle, Columbian Centinel, Minot's History of the Insurrection, Files in the office of the Secretary of State, Correspondence of Levi Lincoln, sen., American Antiquarian Society's MSS.