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

SrniXdFIELD, 1636-18S6. 319
tember 2*), hy interfering with the session of tlie Supreme Judicial
Court, Chief Justice Cushing presiding. General Shepard discreetly-
prevented a collision with the forces of Shays, as they marched and
countermarched before the Springfield court-house, or rendezvoused
at Stebbins's tavern, in North Main street ; and after the court had
adjoiirned, and had also abandoned the October term at Great Bar-
rington, he withdrew his militia companies to the arsenal, and the
Shays men returned to their homes, well pleased that no indictments
had been found against them. Three weeivs later Daniel Sha^^s issued
an order from Pelham requiring all his men to arm and furnish them-
selves Avith sixty rounds. He proceeded to Rutland, and superintended
the interruption of the courts at Worcester and elsewhere in Decem-
ber. He turned up in Springfield on the 22d of that month, and found
the judges of the Court of Common Pleas an easy prey to the clubs,
drums, muskets, and threats of his men.
The legal profession continued to be the object of bitter attack.
Demagogues and lampoonists plied their trade industriously. The
following lines were dropped upon the floor of the Springfield court-
house :
—
" If Sampson's foxes tail by tail
With firebrands were set running,
My God, what havock must prevail,
When Lawyers' tails are burning
" Quoth Jack, Tis true as any fact
Established in the nation.
Unless their tails were often wet
They'd cause the conflagration.'"
While these sorry matters divided brother and brother in the village
of Springfield, and set friend against friend, the Springfield town-
meeting was not swamped by the debtor party. It voted that the in-
crease of paper money at a time when it was alread}' a burden was
!