The farmers shut down the business of the court and prevented it from approving any further property seizures, debt collections and foreclosures.
Not only did local militias fail to defend the courts, some of their members even joined the insurrection. Many Massachusetts courts were forced to shutter for the remainder of their term in Do they proceed from licentiousness, British influence disseminated by the Tories, or real grievances which admit of redress? The movement did indeed snowball as the snow began to fall from the skies in January Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin decided action was needed to quell the insurrection.
Bypassing his militia, Bowdoin raised private funds from Boston merchants to pay for a 1,man army that marched west under the command of former Continental Army General Benjamin Lincoln. Shays was, however, one of the leaders of the force that marched on the Springfield armory through four feet of snow and bitterly cold temperatures on January 25, There the Regulators were met by a state militia force of 1, men guarding its gates.
Men who fought side-by-side against the British just years earlier now confronted each other at gunpoint. When the rebels ignored two warning shots, the militia opened fire. Grapeshot and cannonballs tore through the front line of the Regulators, leaving 4 dead and 20 wounded. The band of farmers, some of whom were carrying only sticks, fled immediately. As a result, imports of British goods remained strong while the export of American goods to Britain slumped.
Continuing inflation made paper money virtually worthless. Meanwhile, taxes rose to pay off Revolutionary War debts and make up for the loss, at the end of the conflict, of foreign loans. New England, in particular, was suffering an economic depression. Merchants and shopkeepers in eastern Massachusetts demanded the payment of debts from hard-pressed western farmers, many of whom had overextended themselves during the relative prosperity of the war years.
Farmers were burdened by high taxes and unable to pay their debts, especially mortgages. In the summer of , farmers in the western counties assembled to petition the Massachusetts legislature for relief. Citizens from whom these farmers had borrowed money insisted, however, that contracts be honored. Critics called the farmers traitors and agents of the British, even though many were veterans of the Revolution. Some lenders, eager for the money farmers had promised to repay, insisted that debtors should be more industrious and live more frugally.
Neither side provided an easy way to resolve the crisis. They met in taverns, churches, and town meetings to plot their strategy. Beginning in late August, they armed themselves and converged on county courts, hoping to close them. They reasoned that if the courts could not meet, they could not lose their property.
At the end of August, fifteen hundred angry farmers took up arms and seized the Northampton courthouse. On September 5, the judges tried to convene their court in Worcester, but three hundred bayonet-wielding farmers blocked their access. Over the next month, the rebels shut down courts in Worcester, Middlesex, Plymouth, and Berkshire Counties. Where authorities called out the militia, its members were locals who either refused to muster against their neighbors and kinfolk or who joined them.
Secretary of War Henry Knox asked Congress to send troops to quell the rebellion and protect the federal armory at Springfield, which stored seven thousand guns, bayonets, artillery, and gunpowder.
Congress agreed, but little money and few recruits were forthcoming from the states. However, it also passed several measures to deal with the crisis. Finally, the ancient liberty of the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, authorizing the roundup and detention without bail of suspected traitors. The legislature offered a pardon to any insurgent who swore allegiance to the government. Most courts closed or recessed in October; the farmers went home to harvest their crops.
Another round of troubles occurred in November and December, however, when courts in Worcester and Springfield were forcibly closed. The Confederation Congress agreed and the Constitutional Convention of effectively ended the era of the Articles of Confederation.
Toggle navigation. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up.
0コメント