History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

17«6.] DIVIDING THE COUNTY—HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE. 487
mendations was a demand for paper money subject to de-
preciation ; another proposed a revision of the constitution ;
still another suggested an immediate session of the General
Court to redress grievances ; the whole winding up with
the customary advice to the inhabitants of the county to
abstain from all unlawful assemblies, until a constitutional
method of redress could be obtained.
Result of this As- Whatever may have been the opinion of
serabiy.
tliis Convention, as expressed by its vote
against mob violence, the real design of its
instigators was to break up the court to be held at Northampton
the following week. Mr. Judd in noting the choice
of delegates from Southampton, adds: — "the design is to
b^eak up the court next week. "^ In this "connection may
be stated the fact that in September, Northampton, after
having the list of grievances set forth by the convention,
read aloud in town-meeting, voted, "that the several arti-
cles therein contained ought not to be considered griev-
ances, excepting that they were of the opinion that the
Court of General Sessions of the Peace was unnecessary."
The hot-headed regulators found in the Hatfield gathering
opportunity to air their vocabulary of oppression without
check. Their harangues inspired their followers with
a determination to redress at least one of their grievances,
and four days afterwards, on the 29"' of August, a mob
assembled at Northampton, and opened the first act in the
drama of the Shays rebellion in the County of Hampshire.
1 Judd's Diary.