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Shay's Rebellion: 1786--Vets Fight Back

By VVAW

In 1783, after months of trying to find work, Revolutionary War veteran Elijah Fisher wrote in his diary; "There was so many that come from the army and from the sea (the Navy) that had no homes, that would work for little or nothing but their vittles, that I could not find any Employment...I begun over how I had been in the army, what ill success I had met there, and also how I was wronged by them I worked for at home." Like today, unemployment and other kinds of financial grief followed discharge from the military after the American Revolution; like today, vets fought back.

The Treaty of Paris officially ended the war in 1783, though the fighting was actually over in 1781. Many veterans faced both short and long range money problems. The Continental Army paid wages seldom; when they did, wages were paid in paper money which was practically worthless. Many discharged vets had to beg along the route home just to survive. In Pennsylvania, a group of 240 outraged veterans demonstrated outside the Executive Council of the state demanding cash; although their target was the state government; the Continental Congress was also meeting in the building, and quickly decided to adjourn. One eye-witness reported, "I myself saw a soldier...charge on one of the members of the Congress with his bayonet, while the gentleman was on his escape, after promising to do everything in his power to have our arrears of pay and clothing paid off." This groups of privates and non-commissioned officers was broken up by the Continental army, but on until they got their pay and clothing which they were demanding.

The long-range money problems facing returning vets were even greater, however. A large number of the 210,000 men who served during the war were farmers, often owning or paying on their own small plot of land. While speculators, some merchants, and some leaders of the Revolution were getting rich during the war, the small farmers often had to borrow money or at least not pay the mortgages on their lands. The problems were compounded by there being no uniform "money" (under the Articles of Confederation, printing of money was left to the states). In the general prosperity that immediately followed the war, these vets could go by, but by 1785, notes were falling due, people were being hauled off to debtor's prisons, farms were being foreclosed. In one Massachusetts town, one of every four citizens had anywhere from 1 to 13 suits filed against him.

The court system which served as the instrumental for the rich creditors to collect their debts became the focus of anger and resistance; many people saw this battle as a continuation of the Revolution, now against the tax-collectors and the courts instead of the British. As one veteran pointed out in a letter to the local newspaper, "I early stepped forth in the defense of this country and cheerfully fought to gain the prize; and liberty is still the object I have in view...to prevent such abuses as have of late taken place by the sitting of these courts...valuable and industrious members of society dragged from their families to prison. I am determined to stand with firmness and resolution."

And stand they did. A fife and drum parade of 1500 armed men, most of them vets, kept the courts from opening in Northampton, Mass. In Groton, vets built barricades out of fence-posts until the judges snuck away from the court. When the Massachusetts state Supreme Court attempted to indict leaders of the rebellion, 700 men marches to the court-house; there were no indictments.

Out of this turmoil came Daniel Shays. He had joined the army after Lexington, had served bravely at Bunker Hill, and been promoted to captain; he was noted for the unusual consideration with which he treated those below him in rank. Mustered out in 1780, he settled on small farm in Pelham, Mass, where his neighbors elected him to serve as a community officer. Shays' trophy for his service was a ceremonial sword, presented to him by Lafayette; after Shays' Rebellion, he attacked in the press for selling the sword. In fact, he had come from grinding poverty, was poor all his life, and needed the money.

Shays' fellow townspeople prevailed on him to take charge of a group of men in the area in 1786 as the resistance to the courts was spreading. Drilling his men with hickory sticks instead of guns, and with sprigs of hemlock in their hats as insignia, Shays and his men closed down the courts in western Mass. For three months. Still, the wheels of the rich man's courts ground on. In January, 1787, Shays led 1100 men toward the federal arsenal at Springfield.

Under the pressure of Shays' army, the Mass legislature called out the militia--but only a special contribution from a number of wealthy Bostonians (who felt their property was being threatened) provided the $20,000 needed to pay the troops. The first confrontation found the militia (mostly veterans) facing Shays volunteer army, also mostly war vets. When ordered to fire, the militia fired into the ground. But in later skirmishes, several Shays' men were killed and his army scattered; they were no match for the well-armed, trained, and disciplined militia. Shays and other leaders were sentenced to death, but escaped. Shays was pardoned several years later, and eventually moved to the frontier in western New York state.

The immediate effects of Shays' Rebellion were notable--debts were not payable in paper money; there were public sales of land which meant no more tax increases; debtors' prisons were abolished (through a couple of years later). Large numbers of people agreed with what the vets were doing. One historian, writing a year after the Rebellion, noted that the farmers did not think it fair that they had shed blood in the field only to be worn out by taxes at home, or fought for the rights of their creditors to drag them off to prison.

It was the people of the country who had fought and won the Revolution against British rule; now it was the same people who were fighting to keep the new ruling class from taking away from them all the gains they had fought for. Vets who had given their blood and several years of their lives in the fight were paying the penalty for that time--and then like now, they resisted the attacks on them.