A Schedule of Grievances (1786)
BY THE CONVENTION OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY
AT a meeting of delegates from fifty towns in the county of Hampshire, in convention held at Hatfield, in said county, on Tuesday, the 22d day of August instant [1786], and continued by adjournments until the twenty fifth, &c. Voted, that this meeting is constitutional.
THE convention from a thorough conviction of great uneasiness, subsisting among the people of this county and Commonwealth, then went into an inquiry for the cause; and, upon mature consideration, deliberation and debate, were of opinion, that many grievances and unnecessary burdens now lying upon the people, are the sources of that discontent so evidently discoverable throughout this Commonwealth. Among which the following articles were voted as such, viz.
1st. The existence of the Senate.
2d. The present mode of representation.
3d. The officers of government not being annually dependent on the representatives of the people, in General Court assembled, for their salaries.
4th. All the civil officers of government, not being annually elected by the Representatives of the people, in General Court assembled.
5th. The existence of the Courts of Common Pleas, and General Sessions of the Peace.
6th. The Fee Table as it now stands.
7th. The present mode of appropriating the impost and excise.
8th. The unreasonable grants made to some of the officers of government.
9th. The supplementary aid.
10th. The present mode of paying the governmental securities.
11th. The present mode adopted for the payment and speedy collection of the last tax.
12th. The present mode of taxation as it operates unequally between the polls and estates, and between landed and mercantile interests.
13th. The present method of practice of the attornies at law.
14th. The want of a sufficient medium of trade, to remedy the mischiefs arising from the scarcity of money.
15th. The General Court sitting in the town of Boston.
16th. The present embarrassments on the press.
17th. The neglect of the settlement of important matters depending between the Commonwealth and Congress, relating to monies and averages.
18th. Voted, This convention recommend to the several towns in this country, that they instruct their Representatives, to use their influence in the next General Court, to have emitted a bank of paper money, subject to a depreciation; making it a tender in all payments, equal to silver and gold, to be issued in order to call in the Commonwealth’s securities.
19th. Voted, That whereas several of the above articles of grievances, arise from defects in the constitution; therefore a revision of the same ought to take place.
20th. Voted, That it be recommended by this convention to the several towns in this county, that they petition the Governour to call the General Court immediately together, in order that the other grievances complained of, may by the legislature, be redressed.
21st. Voted, That this convention recommend it to the inhabitants of this county, that they abstain from all mobs and unlawful assemblies, until a constitutional method of redress can be obtained.
22d. Voted, That Mr. Caleb West be desired to transmit a copy of the proceedings of this convention to the convention of the county of Worcester.
23d. Voted, That the chairman of this convention be desired to transmit a copy of the proceedings of this convention to the county of Berkshire.
24th. Voted, That the chairman of this convention be directed to notify a county convention, upon any motion made to him for that purpose, if he judge the reasons offered be sufficient, giving such notice, together with the reasons therefor, in the publick papers of this county.
25th. Voted, That a copy of the proceedings of this convention be sent to the press in Springfield for publication.
George Richards Minot. (Worcester, 1788), 34–37.