Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

[165] a convention at Hatfield, Aug. 22, 1786, declaring the following to be some of the “grievances and unnecessary burdens now lying upon the people:—The existence of the Senate; the present mode of representation; the officers of government not being annually dependent on the representatives of the people, in General Court assembled, for their salaries; all the civil officers of government not being annually elected by the representatives of the people, in General Court assembled; the existence of the Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace; the Fee table as it now stands; the present mode of appropriating the impost and excise; the unreasonable grants made to some of the officers of government; the supplementary aid; the present mode of paying the government securities; the present mode adopted for the payment and speedy collection of the last tax; the present mode of taxation, as it operates unequally between the polls and estates, and between landed and mercantile interests; the present method of practice of the attornies at law; the want of a sufficient medium of trade, to remedy the mischiefs arising from the scarcity of money; the General Court sitting in the town of Boston; the present embarrassments on the press; the neglect of the settlement of important matters depending between the Commonwealth and Congress, relating to monies and averages.” “It is scarcely possible for a government to be more imperfect, or worse administered, than that of Massachusetts is here represented to be. Essential branches of the legislative and judicial departments were said to be grievous; material proceedings upon national concerns erroneous; obvious measures for paying the debt blindly overlooked; public monies misappropriated; and the constitution itself intolerably defective.” ¹ “The immediate remedies proposed by this convention were, the issue of paper money which should be made ‘a legal tender in all payments, equal to silver and gold;’ a revision of the Constitution; and a session of the General Court forthwith, for the redress of the ‘grievances’ complained of.” ² The first notice of this civil commotion found on the town records is under date of July 24, 1786:—

A letter to the Selectmen of Cambridge, and signed by John Nutting, purporting to be written by desire of a meeting of committees from the towns of Groton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend, and Ashby, and requesting our concurrence in a County Convention to be held at Concord on the 23d of August next, in order to consult upon matters of public grievances, and find out means