To the Hon. SENATE and the Hon. HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES, in General Court assembled.

The PETITION of the Convention in the County of Hampshire, consisting of Delegates from twenty-four Towns, humbly sheweth-

THAT your Petitioners being chosen Delegates from the several towns to meet in Convention, to collect the sentiments of our constituents respecting their grievances, and to petition the General Court for redress ;- after mature deliberation, find, by the collective sense of our constituents, that they wish relief from the following articles of grievance, which wish is more fully made manifest by their concurrence to this Petition, viz.

1st. The sitting of the General Court in town of Boston.
2d. The want of a circulating medium.
3d. The present mode of appropriating the revenue arising from impost and excise, which revenue we pray may be reposited in the public chest.
4th. The present mode of taxation, as we conceive too great a proportion is laid upon the polls, and likewise it operates very unequally between the landed and mercantile interest.
5th. The present method of paying governmental securities.
6th. We conceive that some of the grants made to some of the officers of government, are not agreeable to that 'moderation and temperance' required by the constitution.
7th. The supplementary aid.
8th. The Fee Table as it now stands.
9th. The suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, and likewise the late Riot Act.

Furthermore, we pray your honours, that the minds of the freemen of this Commonwealth might be taken with respect to a revision of the Constitution, as we conceive some relief may be gained from that quarter: Furthermore we do acknowledge our gratitude to the Hon. Court, for granting us much relief in their last session, and further pray that your attention may be turned particularly to the above grievances, and grant they may be speedily redressed, and your Petitioners as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

Published by order of Convention.
JOHN BILLINGS, Chairman.
Hatfield, January 4, 1787.
[The above Petition is to be sent to the several towns, for their concurrence, before it is presented to the General Court.]

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This petition from the convention in Hampshire County asks the Massachusetts State House of Representatives and Senate (the General Court) for relief from a list of nine grievances. Most of the grievances are a result of the deflation of money that happened after the American Revolution ended. The petition is dated January 4, 1787, just three weeks before the assault on the Federal Arsenal in Springfield. Many of the demands are the same as the ones issued August 25, 1786 by another convention held in Hatfield.

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