We have spoken of the uneasy, restless spirit which was agitating in the newer settlements, the resistance against taxation being in many cases the primal cause, while others were by no means wanting, among which may be reckoned the disorganisation of the social state by the long war, the regular useful and arduous occupations of the male population having been interrupted, and a vast number of discontented, impoverished and unoccupied men thrown upon society. The general court of Massachusetts had found it necessary to impose taxes which, perhaps, in any case would have been ill received, but which now led to general resistance and even rebellion. The discontented had arms in their hands; they had seen the country free itself from the tyranny of Britain by these means, and now they were about to try the same against what they considered the tyranny of their own government. In September of 1786, the number of the malcontents appearing so large and formidable, the militia were called out to protect the sittings of the court, which it was the object of the insurgents to prevent; and so conciliatory and considerate was the spirit of the government, that their grievances were taken under consideration and as much as possible redressed. Bills were passed for diminishing legal costs, law charges being at that time enormous; and for allowing the payment of taxes and private debts in specific articles instead of specie, of which there was scarcely any in the country; as well as for applying certain revenues, formerly devoted to other purposes, to the payment of governmental taxes. So far were concessions made; still the agitation continued, and the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended for eight months. Under the plea of raising troops to act against the north-western Indians, congress enacted the enlistment of 1,300 men, to sustain the government of Massachusetts. Nevertheless full pardon for past offences was promised to all, if they would cease from these illegal agitations. But the seriousness of the occasion only increased, and at length some few of the agitators were lodged in Boston jail. This was the token for more determined measures, and upwards of 1,000 armed men, under the command of Daniel Shays, a late captain in the continental army, of Luke Day and Eli Parsons, appeared at Worcester, where the supreme court had just adjourned, and placed guards over those houses where the judges lodged, so as to prevent the sitting of the court, while the remainder took up their quarters in an old revolutionary barracks in the neighbourhood. Another still larger body, also under the command of Shays, marched towards Springfield, where was the federal arsenal under the guard of General Shepherd, of which they intended to possess themselves.