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

I
1T86.] SHAYS REBELLION. 501
the money raised by impost and excise to be used to discharge
the foreign debt ; the repeal of the supplementary
aid act ; "the total abolition of the Inferior Court of Common
Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace ; " the abolition
of the office of Deputy Sheriff, and that constables be
empowered to do their duties. These documents were published
in the Hampshire Gazette of Dec. 27. The next
week a communication appeared in the same paper, stating
that Thomas Grover, who belonged in Montague, hearing
that a movement was on foot to capture him, " with his
usual presence of mind and wonted audacity, boldly put
on his snow shoes and took to the woods to secure himself
from the danger and duplicate grievance of being taken
and brought to justice."
A Committee of In Order the better to carry out their destrategy,
signs, the rebel leaders sought to organize
their forces, and a committee of seventeen
was chosen from among the companies in the county to
accomplish this end. The list contains no name from
Northampton.
The Demonstration Notwithstanding this war of words on the
at Springfield. p^j.^ Qf ^^Le regulators, no demonstration
was made by either party, either to assail
or protect the courts. A court met at Springfield on the
26^'' of December. The following account of what took
place at that time is copied from the Hampshire Gazette of
January 3, 1787: —
" The Court of General Sessions of the Peace and the Court of Common
Pleas, by the late resolve of the General Court, were directed to
be holden at Springfield, on the 26"' ult. In the morning of that day
a number of armed men took possession of the ground near the Court
House, with an avowed design to prevent the Justices entering the
house. A committee from the insurgents waited on the Justices with
a request, that the courts might not be opened, and intimations were
given that very disagreeable consequences would follow, in case of noncompliance,
and sentinels were placed at the door of the room where
the Justices had assembled. As no Jurors had been summoned, and no
business was proposed to be done, if there bad been no opposition, except
choosing a Clerk, and so no force had been collected or attempted
to be collected to support the courts, the Justices present thought it
prudent and necessary to inform the said committee that the courts