paper money and the Shays rebellion, 1786.]

The troubles reached their climax in 1786. Because there seemed to be no
other way of getting money, the different states began to issue their
promissory notes, and then tried to compel people by law to receive such
notes as money. There was a strong "paper money" party in all the states
except Connecticut and Delaware. The most serious trouble was in Rhode
Island and Massachusetts. In both states the farmers had been much
impoverished by the war. Many farms were mortgaged, and now and then one
was sold to satisfy creditors. The farmers accordingly clamoured for
paper money, but the merchants in towns like Boston or Providence,
understanding more about commerce, were opposed to any such miserable
makeshifts. In Rhode Island the farmers prevailed. Paper money was
issued, and harsh laws were passed against all who should refuse to take
it at its face value. The merchants refused, and in the towns nearly all
business was stopped during the summer of 1786.

In the Massachusetts legislature the paper money party was defeated.
There was a great outcry among the farmers against merchants and
lawyers, and some were heard to maintain that the time had come for
wiping out all debts. In August, 1786, the malcontents rose in
rebellion, headed by one Daniel Shays, who had been a captain in the
Continental army. They began by trying to prevent the courts from
sitting, and went on to burn barns, plunder houses, and attack the
arsenal at Springfield. The state troops were called out, under General
Lincoln, two or three skirmishes were fought, in which a few lives were
lost, and at length in February, 1787, the insurrection was suppressed.

[Sidenote: The Mississippi question, 1786.]

At that time the mouth of the Mississippi river and the country on its
western bank belonged to Spain. Kentucky and Tennessee were rapidly
becoming settled by people from Virginia and North Carolina, and these
settlers wished to trade with New Orleans. The Spanish government was
unfriendly and wished to prevent such traffic. The people of New England
felt little interest in the southwestern country or the Mississippi
river, but were very anxious to make a commercial treaty with Spain. The
government of Spain refused to make such a treaty except on condition
that American vessels should not be allowed to descend the Mississippi
river below the mouth of the Yazoo. When Congress seemed on the point of
yieldi