Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

308 SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1886.
siou :iu(l the sheriffs a by-word and a hissing. The passing of the
tender act of 1782, by which neat cattle and other specified property
could be offered to satisfy executions for debt, opened the door for
greater irregularities. A war between rich and poor was precipitated,
and the judgment debtor and the judgment creditor crossed swords.
More people were in debt than out of debt, and a good authority says
that from 1784 to 1786 every fourth, if not every third, man was a
defendant in writs of execution in Massachusetts.
The great object of the insurgents was, at first, to stop the courts,
in order to prevent the entering of judgments. In May, 1783, a mob
of debtors attempted, with clubs, to prevent the judges, headed by
the sheriff, from entering the Springfield court-house, but were re-
pulsed and several arrested. Many were clubbed, and it is said that
one offensive insurgent was thrown into the town brook. Conven-
tions were held at Deerfield in September, 1783, and at Hatfield
the following October, but no violent measures were recommended.
As lawyers were considered instruments of oppression to the debt-
ridden people, a general agitation against the profession followed.
At the Deerfield convention the town committees of Hampshire county
voted :
"It
appears to us absolutely impossible that the people
should be able to grapple with the burdens lying on them, and that
nothing but a general bankruptcy must soon inevitably be our por-
ti(m."
The Springfield representatives to the General Court for 1783,
Thomas Williston and Gideon Burt, were given sundry instructions
in view of the popular commotions. These instructions are lost, but
certain it is that they both declined to serve, and Thomas Stebbins
and Nathaniel Ely went in their stead. We would infer that the latter
were more in sympathy with the debtor class than the former. On
October 17 the town-meeting was presided over by James Sikes, and
the delegates to the Hatfield convention of October 20 were Luke Bliss
and Thomas Williston, for which service they received £3, showing
that these conventions were recognized b}- the towns. It was claimed