Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03538

Author/Creator: Bowdoin, James (1726-1790)

Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts

Type: Broadside

Date: 2 September 1786

Pagination: 1 p. ; 38 x 25 cm.

Summary of Content: Issued as Governor of Massachusetts. Gives a brief account of the rebel mobs storming the Court of Common Pleas in Northampton. Calls upon all civil & military officers to suppress Shays’ Rebellion.

People: Bowdoin, James, 1726-1790.

Historical Era: The New Nation, 1783-1815

Full Transcript: …A Proclamation. , WHEREAS information has been given to the Supreme Executive of this Commonwealth, that on Tuesday last, the 29th of August, being the day appointed by law for the sitting of the Court of Common Pleas and Court of General Sessions of the Peace, at Northampton in the county of Hampshire, within this Comonwealth, a large concourse of people, from several parts of that county, assembled at the Court-House...many of whom were armed with guns, swords, and other deadly weapons, and with drums beating and fifes playing, in contempt and open defiance of the authority of this Government, did, by their threats of violence and keeping possession of the Court-House until twelve o’clock on the night of the same day, prevent the sitting of the Court, and the orderly administration of justice in that county: , , AND WHEREAS this high-handed offence is fraught with the most fatal and pernicious consequences, must tend to subvert all law and government; to dissolve our excellent Constitution, and introduce universal riot, anarchy and confusion, which would probably terminate in absolute despotism, and consequently destroy the fairest prospects of political happiness, that any people was ever favoured with: , , I HAVE therefore thought fit, by and with the advice of the Council, to issue this Proclamation, calling upon all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, Constables, and other officers, civil and military, within this Commonwealth, to prevent and suppress all such violent and riotous proceedings.... , , AND I DO hereby, pursuant to the indispensable duty I owe to the good people of this Commonwealth, most solemnly call upon them, as they value the blessings of freedom and independence, which at the expense of so much blood and treasure they have purchased--as they regard their faith, which in the sight of GOD and the world, they pledged to one another and to the people of the United States, when they adopted the present Constitution of Government- as they would not disappoint the hopes, and thereby become contemptible in the eyes of other nations, in the view of whom they have risen to glory and empire--as they would not deprive themselves of the security derived from well-regulated Society, to their lives, liberties and property; and as they would not devolve upon their children, instead of peace, freedom and safety, a state of anarchy, confusion and slavery, I do most earnestly and most solemnly call upon them to aid and assist with their utmost efforts the aforesaid officers, and to unite in preventing and suppressing all such treasonable proceedings, and every measure that has a tendency to encourage them.

Keywords/Subjects: Articles of Confederation, Government & Civics, Shays’s Rebellion, Rebellion, Mobs & riots, Judiciary

Sub Era: Creating a New Government

LOC Search Terms: United States--Politics and government--1781-1790., Shays’ Rebellion, 1786-1787., Massachusetts--History--1781-1790., Vermont--History--1781-1790., Massachusetts--Politics and government--1781-1790., Northampton (Mass.)--History--18th century., Insurgency--United States--History--18th century.