Jefferson the rebel

It was on this day [Nov 13] in 1787 that Thomas Jefferson (books by this author) said, “The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

There was a big uprising of small farmers going on in central Massachusetts at the time, an event known as Shays’ Rebellion. They were rebelling because their farms were being foreclosed and repossessed by wealthy urban bankers, who were in debt to European creditors. Countries like France had lent money to America while it was fighting its Revolutionary War against Britain the past decade — and now they wanted to be paid back, in gold and silver. Banks could not gather the money they needed fast enough, so they started trying to make thousands of small farmers pay up at once on their farm and house mortgages. The farmers could not manage to do so, of course, and so the lenders confiscated their lands. They used the powers of the local courthouses to enforce the seizure of property.

Angry and indignant farmers in Springfield, Massachusetts, tried to occupy the local courthouse to prevent it from processing repossessions. And so the government prepared a militia full of soldiers to guard the courthouse; some war heroes from the Revolutionary War even came out of retirement to help lead the militia, which was financed by Boston merchants and sent in by the government of Massachusetts. But a man by the name of Daniel Shays decided that he’d lead a band of rebel farmers to the courthouse, and get there before the militia sent from Boston could. His farmers didn’t have any weapons, so they planned to raid the Springfield Armory along with way and pick up guns to fight with.

It turns out that the government’s militia was short on weapons too, and also had plans to stop at the armory. And the militia got to the armory first, and was waiting when Shays’ band of untrained men arrived. The militia general ordered that a warning shot be fired. Two cannons rang out, and they killed four of Shays’ rebels and wounded another 20. The rebels fled, were captured in about a week and imprisoned, fined, or condemned to death, though most were granted amnesty the following year.

Thomas Jefferson was in France when this happened; he was serving as the U.S. ambassador there. George Washington and the rest of federal government in the United States were very distressed by the rebellion, but Jefferson was far less worked up about it.

In addition to his fiery words about fertilizing the Tree of Liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants, he wrote on this day in 1787: “God forbid that we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. … If [the people] remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.” Writers Almanac