Worcester December 7, 1786.
An ADDRESS to the PEOPLE of the several Towns in the County of Hampshire,
from the Body now at arms.
Gentlemen,
WE have thought proper to inform you of some of the principal causes of the
late risings of the people, and also of their present movement, viz.
1st: The present expensive mode of collecting debts, which by the reason of
the great scarcity of cash, will be necessity fill our gaols with unhappy debtors,
and thereby render a reputable body of people incapable of being serviceable
either to themselves or the community.
2d. The monies raised by impost and excise being appropriated to discharge
the interest of governmental securities, and not the foreign debt, when these
securities are not subject to taxation.
3d. A suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, by which those persons who have
stepped forth to assert and maintain the rights of the people, are liable to
be the taken, and conveyed even to the most distant part of the commonwealth,
and thereby subject to an unjust punishment.
4th. The unlimited power granted to Justices of the Peace, Serriffs, Deputy-Serriffs
and Constables, by the Riot Act, indemnifying them in the prosecution thereof,
when perhaps wholly actuated from a principle of revenge, hatred and envy.
5th. _ _ be assured, that this body now at arms, dispite the idea of being
initiated by British emissaries, which is to strenuously propagated by the enemies
of our liberties: We also with the most proper and speedy measures may be taken
to discharge both our foreign and domestic debt.
Per Order,
DANIEL GRAY, Chairman of a Com. for the above purpose. |