SHAYS'S REBELLION. An uprising in Massachusetts in 178G-87. The Revolutionary War had left the country in great economic dis tress. Especially was this the case in western Massachusetts. where the people were weighed down with private debts and burdensome taxes, and snffered greatly from the inevitable effects of a depreciated currency. The courts were over crowded with lawsuits. The malcontents, gath ered in county and district conventions, soon began to draw up demands and grievances; while committees of correspondence endeavored to rouse the general public to action. It was asserted that the merchants were rapidly drain ing the State of specie; that the taxes were unnecessarily high; that the State senate was grievously aristocratic; that the salaries of State officials were too large; that lawyers' fees were exorbitant; and that the courts were used as instruments of oppression. The complainants therefore clamored for the issue, in large quan tities, of paper money, for salary retrenchment, for the abolition of the Court of Common Pleas, and for a radical reduction of taxes, and insisted that the General Court should no longer sit amid the baleful influences of a merchant-and-lawyer infested Boston. In the summer of 1786 the situ ation became critical, and the malcontents, headed by Daniel Shays (q.v.), everywhere threatened violence. At Northampton, Worces ter, Great Barrington, and Concord, armed mobs prevented the sitting of the courts, and, in spite of General Shepard and GOO militia, Shays with GOO followers broke up a session of the Supreme Court at Springfield (September, 1736). Not
withstanding concessions made by the General Court, the disturbances continued, and Governor Bowdoin, now fully aroused, organized a force of 4400 militia, which he put under the command of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. On January 25, 1737, Shays, with about 2000 men, marched into Springfield to seize the Federal arsenal there, but was confronted by Shepard with a force of 1200. At the first serious fire, the insurgents lost cour age and fled, passing through Ludlow, Amherst, and Pelham to Petershar-, where they were over taken and dispersed by Lincoln. Subsequently, several minor skirmishes occurred in Berkshire, notably the one at Sheffield, February 26, 1787, hut the insurgents soon disbanded, and, for the most part, took refuge in adjacent States. On trial, fourteen of the leaders were sentenced to death for treason, but were subsequently par doned by Governor Hancock. Consult: Alinot. History of the Insurrections in Massachu setts in 1786, and the Rebellion Consequent Thereof• (Boston, 1310) ; and Holland, History of Western Massachusetts (Springfield, 1855).