7843. SHAYS'S REBELLION, Excuse for.—
Those people are not entirely without
excuse. Before the war, those States depended
on their whale oil and fish. The former was
consumed in England, and much of the latter
in the Mediterranean. The heavy duties on
American whale oil, now required in England,
exclude it from that market; and the Algerines
exclude them from bringing their fish into the
Mediterranean. France is opening her ports
for their oil, but in the meanwhile, their ancient
debts are pressing them, and they have nothing
to pay with. The Massachusetts Assembly, too,
in their zeal for paying their public debt had
laid a tax too heavy to be paid in the circumstances
of their State. The Indians seem disposed,
too, to make war on us. These complicated
causes determined Congress to increase
their forces to 2000 men. The latter was the
sole object avowed, yet the former entered for
something into the measure.—
To William Carmichael. Washington ed. ii, 81.
Ford ed., iv, 345.
(P.
1786)
