The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-12-17

off their misfortunes, and the
sheriffs and other court officers
who did the actual seizures of
property.
By 1885 so great was the feel
ing against the lawyers that vir-
tually all members of that pro-
fession were defeated in the
spring legislative elections. More
over, the new legislature was
asked to regulate the lawyers
and reform the courts. A bill to
restrict law fees was passed in
the house of representatives but
defeated in the state senate. This
fed the rage of an already in
famed populace. "Was this
real government of the people
and for the people when little
group of senators could check
mate the will of the elected rep
resentatives?" the aroused farm
ers, mechanics and other work.
ing men began asking.
By the time the legislature,
blind to the needs of the people
and deaf to their pleas for relief,
went home, the men of Mas
sachusetts were ready for des-
perate measures. All they needed
now was a leader around whom
to rally for action to gain the
rights which, they had under
stood from the Declaration of In
dependence, were theirs. They
found such a leader in Daniel
Shays.
In the Fight for Liberty.
When the news of Lexington
and Concord spread through
western Massachusetts, in April,
ITS, Shays was twenty-eight
years old, but recently married
and trying to make living for
himself and his bride on a little
farm in that part of the colony.
Born at Hopkinton of parents
too poor to educate him, Shays
had hired out as a farm hand
in his early youth and had grad
ually drifted westward. He had
managed to save a little money
so when he came to the village
of Pelham, where land was
cheap, he was able to buy a few
acres of thin soil on bleak ridge
above the bottom lands of the
Connecticut valley.
Shays Immediately joined an
Amherst company which dis
banded after IL days. But he was
in the fight for liberty for good
so he re-enlisted. By the time
he reached Boston he had been
made an ensign and for bravery
at Bunker Hill he was made a
sergeant. During the five years he
served in the Continental army,
he was in the march on Ticonder-
oga, he was at the surrender of
Burgoyne at Saratoga, he served
under MAD Anthony" Wayne at
Stony Point and he starved and
froze with the other veterans of
Washington's army.
On the promise that he would
be made a captain, he enlisted
a company but he had to wait
for two years before the captain
cy was forthcoming. Meanwhile
he had become conspicuous
enough among the minor Off
GERS to be one of number who
received swords at the hands of
Lafayette, the gallant young
Frenchman who had joined
Washington's army.
An Unwanted Sword.
Daniel Shays must have smiled
grimly when the sword was pre-
sented to him. He had sword.
He didn't need another one. What
he did need greatly was money
to send back to Massachusetts
where his wife and children were
in want. So dire was their dis
tress that he did what seemed to
him the logical thing to do-he
sold the sword. And because he
thus violated the code of an
"officer and gentleman" his
brother officers ostracized him.
Soon afterwards he resigned his
commission and returned home
where some of his neighbors-
even his father in law
also snubbed him for what he
had done. No wonder he was an
embittered man when he retired
to his farm near Pelham.
But he soon found that the
plain people of that section
weren't much concerned over the
sword incident. His war record
outweighed that. So they elected
him to the committee of safety
and the next year made him town
warden. Other veterans return