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Following the abortive assault on the United States Arsenal at Springfield, men who had marched with the Regulators worried about being arrested for their activities. This notice from the commander of the government militia appeared on January 31 in the Hampshire Gazette Signed by General Benjamin Lincoln, it promised pardons to any rank-and-file Regulator came forward and surrendered his weapon, if he owned one, and took an oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On February 16, 1787, a Disqualification Act laid out the terms of the pardon and accompanying penalties for any "who have been, or may be guilty of Treason, or giving Aid or Support to the present REBELLION, and to whom a Pardon may be extended." The government did not offer pardons to men it had identified as leaders of the "rebellion," agreeing with Abigail Adams that Daniel Shays, Job Shattuck and other Regulator leaders were "Ignorant, restless desperados, without conscience or principles" who had "led a deluded multitude to follow their standard."

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