Shays Rebellion encyclopedia topics

Origins

The origins of the rebellion can be found in the heavy debt accrued during the Revolution at all levels of Massachusetts's public and private sectors made worse by the outward flow of specie and the scarcity of gold and silver to pay the debts.

The supply of foreign credit from France, Spain and Holland helped to initially buoy the Massachusetts economy in the first half of the 1780s as these foreigners, paying in specie, purchased large quantities of agricultural goods; however, the early prosperity would ultimately give way to a economic crisis. The Revolution had left domestic industries, especially the fishing industry, teetering on collapse. Whaling ship fleets in Nantucket shrank from 150 ships before the war to 19 after, privateering revenues evaporated, and nascent manufacturing industry stalled, leaving few sources of taxable revenue. The foreign gold and silver specie quickly left the country as imports ballooned forcing the state to issue paper money which created upward hyperinflationary pressure. When debts came due, both public and private, the newly printed paper money became worthless and the people began demanding payment immediately. The private debts in the state amounted to £1,300,000; the Massachusetts's treasury owed £250,000 to its soldiers; and that same treasury owed £1,500,000 to the National Congress. With census data showing less than 90,000 people in the state, hefty capitation taxes were levied to pay off the debts.

While state scrambled to pay its obligations to veterans, impoverished veterans sold their notes to wealthy business men at large discounts. These wealthy speculators than collected handsome sums when the government funds came through. At the same time individuals mounted numerous lawsuits against one and other demanding payment. In 1784 alone, Worcester County, home of 50,000 people, saw 2,000 claims filed in local courts. Failure to pay debts led to asset liquidation and debtors' prison, making lawyers and judges the objects of the people's ire.

Looking to improve the situation, lawmakers met in Boston in 1786 to try to redress the financial grievances of the people. The House passed a bill opening the courts to all people and curtailing attorneys fees; the Senate disregarded this bill. A bill to produce more devalued paper money was quickly rejected by the House. Attempts to make real estate and property legal tender was defeated. In the end, the House only passed a bill securing funds to pay off the debt to the National Congress.

Furthermore, Massachusetts rewrote credit schemes at the time to be administered by elected rather than appointed officials. These efforts were resisted and obstructed by wealthy and influential parties, led by men like Governor James Bowdoin. Governor Bowdoin had strong control of the government. Because of the property eligibility requirements for office at the time, when Bowdoin was elected governor many of the people in western Massachusetts were outraged by what they perceived as injustice.

Armed conflict

After several years of irregular "conventions" sending petitions to the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature) for tax and debt relief, and mobs shutting down local courts (to prevent judges from enforcing debt collection), a lack of relief prompted even more radical action.

In 1786 or 1787, two Revolutionary War veterans, Daniel Shays of Pelham, Massachusetts and Luke Day of West Springfield, Massachusetts, led semi-armed mobs in military-style drills on the West Springfield town common, and threatened the legislature and local courts. Governor James Bowdoin ordered the local militia of 600 men under the command of General William Shepherd to protect the Springfield court.

Shays sent a message to Day proposing an attack on January 25, 1787, before General Benjamin Lincoln's 4,000-man combined Boston and Springfield militia could arrive. Day's response that his forces would not be ready until January 26 was never received (thus providing a real-world example of the Two Generals' Problem). Shays attacked the Armory not knowing he would not have reinforcements.

General Shepherd's forces were unpaid and without food or arms. Shepherd had requested permission to use the weaponry in the Springfield Armory, but Secretary of War Henry Knox had denied the request on the grounds that it required Congressional approval, and that Congress was out of session.

When Shays and his forces attacked, Shepherd ordered a warning shot, followed by a single round into the oncoming mob. Two or three of the Shaysites were killed, and the rest fled north. On the opposite side of the river, Day's forces also fled north. The militia captured many of the rebels on February 4 in Petersham, Massachusetts; by March there was no more armed resistance.

General Shepherd reported to his superiors that he had made use of the armory without authorization, and returned the weapons in good condition after the crisis had ended.

Several of the rebels were fined, imprisoned, and sentenced to death (but not actually executed), but in 1788 a general amnesty was granted. Although most of the condemned men were either pardoned or had their death sentences commuted, two of the condemned men, John Bly and Charles Rose were hanged on December 6, 1787.

Legacy

The rebellion was closely watched by the nation's leaders, who were alarmed at what they saw as an effort to "level" the inequalities the new nation was experiencing in the aftermath of the Revolution. George Washington, for example, exchanged dozens of letters through the fall and early winter of 1786–87, and it can be argued that the alarm he felt at the rebellion in Massachusetts was a strong motivation to bring him from retirement and work for a stronger central government. Most alarming for Washington and other early American elitists such as Samuel Adams and former general Henry Knox was the very real helplessness that the Confederation government had in the face of a rebellion that had nearly seized one of the few federal arsenals the country had. Adams was so disturbed by the rebellion that the former great advocate of revolution called for death to the men rebelling against ostensibly similar oppression, saying, in monarchy, the crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of republic ought to suffer death — however, not all founding fathers thought the rebellion was bad. On 13 November 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote to New York senator William S. Smith saying,

As a response to these views, in a letter exchanged between Jefferson and Abigail Adams, the future First Lady applauded the action of the state militia that captured the rebellion's leaders, saying,

In the aftermath of the Newburgh Conspiracy in 1783, the high cost of a standing army, and the country's discomfort with a standing army, the Confederation Congress had nearly completely demobilized the army. In the face of the increasing unrest through the fall of 1786, Knox ordered an expansion of the Continental Army; by mid-January, he'd managed to recruit only 100 men.

Some of the nation's leaders were frustrated by the weakness of the Articles of Confederation. James Madison initiated amendment efforts that were blocked by small, but significant, Congressional minorities. Emboldened by his success in the Maryland–Virginia border dispute of 1784–85, Madison decided that decisions outside Congress were the only way for states to resolve their commercial and sundry problems. Others in Congress worried that the government was too weak to repel invasions, but the general sentiment against standing armies kept the power of the government limited.

As an extension of process of working out problems between the states, Madison and others decided to call for a gathering of the states in the fall of 1786. The Annapolis Convention held in Annapolis, Maryland September 11 to September 14 1786 initially earned the acceptance of eight of the states, but several, including Massachusetts, backed out, in part due to suspicion at Virginia's motives. In the end, only twelve delegates from five states (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia) appeared. The Convention did not accomplish much other than to endorse delegate Alexander Hamilton's call for a new convention in Philadelphia to "render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union."

The events of Shays' Rebellion over the coming months would strengthen the hands of those who wanted a stronger central government, and persuade many who had been undecided as to the need for such a radical change. One of the key figures, George Washington, who had long been cool to the idea of strong centralized government, was frightened by the events in Massachusetts. By January 1787, he decided to come out of retirement and to attend the convention being called for the coming May in Philadelphia. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, a new, stronger government would be created under the United States Constitution.

References

Sources

Hale, Edward Everett (1891). The Story of Massachusetts. Boston: D. Lothrop Company.
Munroe, James Phinney (1915). New England Conscience: With Typical Examples. Boston: R.G. Badger.
Richards, Leonard L. (2002). Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle. Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania Press.
Swift, Esther M. (1969). West Springfield Massachusetts: A Town History. Springfield, MA: F.A. Bassette Company.