bellion in 1786. Some
historians maintain that the uprising resulted primarily from a scarcity
of money, from a shortage in the circulating medium; that, while the
eastern counties were keeping up their foreign trade sufficiently at
least to bring in enough metallic currency to relieve the stringency and
could also use various forms of credit, the western counties had no
such remedy. Others are inclined to think that the difficulties of the
farmers in western Massachusetts were caused largely by the return to
normal conditions after the extraordinarily good times between 1776 and
1780, and that it was the discomfort attending the process that drove
them to revolt. Another explanation reminds one of present-day charges
against undue influence of high financial circles, when it is
insinuated and even directly charged that the rebellion was fostered
by conservative interests who were trying to create a public opinion in
favor of a more strongly organized government.

Whatever other causes there may have been, the immediate source of
trouble was the enforced payment of indebtedness, which to a large
extent had been allowed to remain in abeyance during the war. This
postponement of settlement had not been merely for humanitarian reasons;
it would have been the height of folly to collect when the currency was
greatly depreciated. But conditions were supposed to have been restored
to normal with the cessation of hostilities, and creditors were
generally inclined to demand payment. These demands, coinciding with
the heavy taxes, drove the people of western Massachusetts into revolt.
Feeling ran high against lawyers who prosecuted suits for creditors, and
this antagonism was easily transferred to the courts in which the suits
were brought. The rebellion in Massachusetts accordingly took the form
of a demonstration against the courts. A paper was carried from town
to town in the County of Worcester, in which the signers promised to
do their utmost "to prevent the sitting of the Inferior Court of Common
Pleas for the county, or of any other court that should attempt to take
property by distress."

The Massachusetts Legislature adjourned in July, 1786, without remedying
the trouble and also without authorizing an issue of paper money which
the hardpressed debtors were demanding. In the months following mobs
prevented the courts from sitting in various towns. A special session of
the legislature was then called by the Governor but,