Rhode Island the agitators obtained control of the government, and
the result was a paroxysm of tyranny. In Massachusetts the agitators
failed to secure control of the government, and the result was a
paroxysm of rebellion.

[Sidenote: Rag money victorious in Rhode Island; the "Know Ye"
measures.]

The debates over paper money in the Rhode Island legislature began in
1785, but the advocates of a sound currency were victorious. These men
were roundly abused in the newspapers, and in the next spring election
most of them lost their seats. The legislature of 1786 showed an
overwhelming majority in favor of paper money. The farmers from the
inland towns were unanimous in supporting the measure. They could not
see the difference between the state making a dollar out of paper and a
dollar out of silver. The idea that the value did not lie in the
government stamp they dismissed as an idle crotchet, a wire-drawn
theory, worthy only of "literary fellows." What they could see was the
glaring fact that they had no money, hard or soft; and they wanted
something that would satisfy their creditors and buy new gowns for their
wives, whose raiment was unquestionably the worse for wear. On the other
hand, the merchants from seaports like Providence, Newport, and Bristol
understood the difference between real money and the promissory notes of
a bankrupt government, but they were in a hopeless minority. Half a
million dollars were issued in scrip, to be loaned to the farmers on a
mortgage of their real estate. No one could obtain the scrip without
giving a mortgage for twice the amount, and it was thought that this
security would make it as good as gold. But the depreciation began
instantly. When the worthy farmers went to the store for dry goods or
sugar, and found the prices rising with dreadful rapidity, they were at
first astonished, and then enraged. The trouble, as they truly said, was
with the wicked merchants, who would not take the paper dollars at their
face value. These men were thus thwarting the government, and must be
punished. An act was accordingly hurried through the legislature,
commanding every one to take paper as an equivalent for gold, under
penalty of five hundred dollars fine and loss of the right of suffrage.
The merchants in the cities thereupon shut up their shops. During the
summer of 1786 all business was at a standstill in Newport and
Providence, except in the bar-rooms. There and about the market-places
me