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NEW-YORK, March 5. A report prevailed yesterday in this city, and is generally credited, that Shays, the ringleader of the Massachusetts insurgents, (for the apprehension of whom, in New-York or Massachusetts, 150l. have been offered by proclamation) is at present actually in King's District, Columbia County, in this state, accompanied by about 1000 of his adherents; that they have been countenanced by many of the inhabitants of the district, several of whom have joined them; and that, in consequence thereof, they have entrenched themselves. Be this as it may, it is certain that an express arrived on Saturday afternoon, to his Excellency Governor Clinton, said to be from General Lincoln, now on the borders of this state, soliciting permission to enter it in pursuit of the rebels; and that his excellency, accompanied by our worthy High Sheriff, Col. Willet, Col. Fish, Adjutant General of Militia, and some other gentlemen of note, set out from this city yesterday morning for Columbia County, in order by this presence to give an instanteneous and effectual check to the first appearance of insurrection in this state.

Extract from the proceedings of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, Friday, March 2.
Resolved, That the supreme executive council be by law authorized to give the additional proposed reward (100l. for Shays, and 50l. for either Day, Wheeler or Parsons) for apprehending Daniel Shays, Luke Day, and others, and that a committee be appointed to bring in a bill for that purpose.

Whereupon it was directed that the committee who brought in the reports, be a committee to prepare and bring in a bill for the same.

BENNINGTON, February 26.
On Saturday the 17th instant, there appeared in the towns of Brattleborough and Marlborough, a troop of Horse from the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and broke into the dwelling house of Giles Day, of Marlborough, in search of Luke Day, of West-Springfield; on their way through Brattleborough, they were interrogated by a number of the inhabitants by what authority they entered this state in such a hostile manner, were answered by Capt. Buffington, their commander, that they had licence from Governor Chittenden.

Extract from Journals of the General Assembly of last week.
24. The Committee on Major Tyler's, Gov. Bowdoin's and Gen. Lincol's letters, reported a form of a proclamation for apprehending Daniel Shays, Luke Day, Adam Wheeler and Eli Parsons, and delivering them to the authority of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and forbidding the citizens of this State to aid or assist the rebels in that government, on which Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be and hereby is requested to issue his proclamation contained in the foregoing report, and take effectual measures that the same be promulgated immediately, in every part of this Commonwealth.

BOSTON, March 8.
Pittsfield Feb. 28th. 1787,

DEAR SIR,
I HAVE this morning been honoured with the receipt of your favour, giving an account of your movements of yesterday:- They were judicious and timely:- The spirit rendered on the occasion was truly military:- Your success must be important, as it will teach those deluded wretches that they cannot march unchecked by the good citizens, or spread depredations among them with impunity.

While I beg you to accept my thanks for your exertions, and request you to communicate them to the officers and men with you in the field, I must solicit you to mention to the friends of the deceased that I sincerely condole with them- and to the wounded, my sympathetick concern for their misfortune, and my wishes for their speedy recovery; - tell them I remember my own wounds, and that my consolations was, they were received in the line of my duty, whilst in the service of my country. From reflections like these, they cannot fail to derive the most substantial comfort.
I am &c.
B. LINCOLN.
Colonel ASHLEY.

Extract of a letter from Hon. General LINCOLN, to his Excellency the GOVERNOUR, received last evening.
Pittsfield March 3d. 1787.

"Dear Sir,
I HAVE this morning information, by Major Allen, who is on his return from Otter Creek, that Shays, Parsons, and others, who have been leaders in the rebellion, are there; he saw Parsons on his way there. His opinion is, that they will set down near the British lines, until they know their disposition concerning them. He also informs me, that he met a large number or people moving northernly, in the state of Vermont with their household furniture, stocks of cattle &c.- I have received information, that some circumstance or other has caused the rebels to leave the states of Connecticut and New-York. It is said they have been ordered out by authority: it is a fact they are not there now in bodies, as they have been. Parsons, who seemed to be their late director, having left them, they are discouraged; some are returning here, others are seeking settlements in Vermont. I am pretty well convinced, that the body of man who for a short time past, were distressing the good citizens, in this part of the country will soon be so effectually dispersed, as that we shall not have any thing to apprehend from them hereafter, unless they are aided by those without the State, who ought to be our friends."

Major Tyler who left the Camp at Pittsfield on Thursday last further informs, that 62 of Hamlin's men, among them were a number who had taken the oath of allegiance, were on Wednesday escorted by a party of light-horse to the provost in Pittsfield: That an half hour previous to the time of action, the Rebels had paroled a part of their prisoners, upon condition of their proceeding to Egremont under a small guard of four men, and that it was currently reported that those gentlemen were relieved a few hours after the action by a party of horse.

Major Tyler has likewise favoured us with a partial list of the principal gentlemen who were captured by the rebels, viz.

Jahleel Woodbridge, Esq. Deacon Nash, Henry W. Dwight, Edward Edwards, Silas Pepoon, Daniel Pepoon, Silas Whitney, Henry Hopkins, Solomon Gleason, jun. said to be killed in the action, Elisha Williams, Jonathan Woodbridge, George Kirtland, Dr. Erastus Sergeant, Moses Ashley, Capt. Josiah Jones, Josiah Jones jun.- Smith- Jearom.

Ge. Ethan Allen, we are informed, lately declared, in the presence of several gentlemen of this state, that he had never had any communications with Shays or any of his adherents, directly or indirectly; but that he heartily despised both them and their cause.

Last Monday Daniel Beard, a Selectman of Worcester, late a member of Worcester County convention, a character notoriously disaffected to Government- Daniel Brawd and George Pepperel- persons whose being at large was considered as dangerous to the public safety, were brought to town and lodged in jail.

On Saturday last, the Legislature made choice of the Honorable FRANCIS DANA, ELERIDGE GERRY, NATHANIEL GORHAM, RUFUS KING and CHARLES STRONG, Esquires, as Delegates to represent this commonwealth in the Convention to be held at Philadelphia, on the second Monday in May next- agreeably to the resolution of Congress, of the 21st of February, 1787.

On the 15thth of February, the bill for granting the impost to Congress, agreeably to their requisitions of the 18th of April 1783, was negatived in the assembly of New-York, being
Yeas 21.
Nays 37.
Majority 16.- Against the bill.

On this important and interesting question Mr. Hamilton went into a large and extensive field of discussion, and with Ciceronian elequence advocated the measure.- Whether his arguments were inrefragable, and admitted no reply, those who read that nervous oration will judge; but certain it is, not a word was spoken in opposition to the bill, yet. on calling the question the decision was as above stated.

Extract of a letter from Springfield, dated March 9, 1787.

"Shays, and ten more (his officers) are taken up by the British garrison at St. John's, and confined until Sir Guy Carleto's pleasure is known respecting them. Gen. Lincoln has sent an express to Sir Guy on the subject, but it does not appear probable they will be returned."

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The actions in January, 1787, at the Springfield Arsenal, caused concern in states other than Massachusetts. This newspaper from New Haven, Connecticut, reports that Daniel Shays and 1000 of his followers were in Columbia County, New York, and that General Lincoln asked permission from that Governor to enter the state in pursuit. Regulators were staying in New Lebanon, New York and traveled over the border to Stockbridge, where they attacked and looted the town, taking thirty-two prisoners, but Shays was not one of them. The letters from Benjamin Lincoln refer to the skirmish on February 27, 1787, in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts. Government supporter Colonel John Ashley had assembled a company of eighty men from Great Barrington and Sheffield and proceeded to the western border of Sheffield. There the company met Captain Perez Hamlin and his men who had ransacked Stockbridge. A deadly battle ensued. In just six minutes, two regulators, one prisoner and one of Ashley's men were killed, and thirty regulators were wounded including one man who later died. With help from reinforcements from Lenox, Ashley took one hundred fifty prisoners. Lincoln states in his letter to the governor that he had received information that Daniel Shays and some of his supporters had been seen in Vermont, which was true.

 

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Multiple articles from The New-Haven Gazette and The Connecticut Magazine newspaper regarding Shays' Rebellion

publisher   New-Haven Gazette and Connecticut Magazine
author   General Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810)
date   Mar 15, 1787
location   New Haven, Connecticut
height (overall)   20.0"
width   2.5"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L07.057


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See Also...

Circulating letter asking for help in destroying Lincoln's troops published in the Hampshire Gazette

Excerpt of Willard letter to E. B. Wilson on Shays' Insurrection of 1786

Letter to Rev. Erza Stiles on Shays' Rebellion reprinted in "The New-Haven Gazette and The Connecticut Magazine"


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