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Pennsylvania Antifederalist Richard Baird noted that “on the
West side of the Susquehanna there is at least nine out of
every ten that would at the risk of their lives and property”
seek to defeat the proposed Constitution.
High taxes and economic depression in the 1780s fol-
lowing the American Revolution exacerbated tensions. The
following two maps show how political disputes in
Massachusetts and South Carolina reflected this geographi-
cal pattern, with legislators in the western portions of each
state favoring radical measures while the coastal districts
opposed them. Some historians believe that such tensions
culminated in the debate over ratification of the U.S.
Constitution late in the decade.G
ouverneur Morris, a wealthy New Yorker who helped
draft the Constitution, feared that the western farmers
would vote against its ratification.“I dread the cold and
sour temper of the back counties,” he confided to George
Washington. The mercantile elites of the port cities and
great planters of the lowland estates had reason to fear the
often-impoverished farmers toward the frontier. In 1676
disgruntled frontiersmen led by Nathaniel Bacon razed
Jamestown, Virginia; in 1763 the Paxton Boys, furious with
the political elites of Pennsylvania, marched on
Philadelphia; several years later frontiersmen in hardscrab-
ble North Carolina rose up against the plantation owners
near the coast. During the debate over ratification,
MAPPING THE PAST
Radical Frontiersmen vs.
Conservative Easterners
Massachusetts
BayCONNECTICUTNEW
HAMPSHIRERHODE
ISLANDLINCOLNBRISTOLPLYMOUTHSUFFOLKESSEXWORCESTERMIDDLESEXBARNSTABLEDUKES NANTUCKETBERKSHIRE
HAMPSHIRECUMBERLANDYORKGreat
BarringtonSpringfieldPetersham
BostonUnanimously voted to
suspend debt collection
Majority voted to suspend
debt collection
Evenly divided
Unanimously voted against
suspending debt collection
Majority voted against
suspending debt collectionATLANTIC
OCEANCharlestonUnanimously opposed
Majority opposed
Even
Unanimously in favor
Majority in favorSOUTH CAROLINAMassachusetts House Vote to Suspend Collection of Private
Debts, 1786In the 1780s, a postwar depression and high taxes in
Massachusetts devastated the farmers in western Massachusetts.
Many lost their farms; others crowded into debtors’ prisons. Pressure
mounted on the Massachusetts legislature to ease up on debtors by
suspending debt collection. In 1786, the Massachusetts House voted
to do so by a vote of sixty-nine to fifty. The geographical pattern of
that vote is reflected in the accompanying map. Legislators from the
western frontier generally supported debt relief, while those
representing the more prosperous farmers and merchants along the
coast voted against it. But this bill was vetoed by the Massachusetts
Senate. As thousands of farmers in western Massachusetts were
hauled into court for non-payment of debt, hostile crowds gathered
in protest. Sometimes, joined by local militia, they shut down the
courts. In January 1787 Daniel Shays and a group of farmers and
militiamen attempted to seize the federal armory in Springfield.
Federal soldiers fired on the mob and dispersed it. Most of the leaders
were captured in Petersham and Great Barrington in February.
South Carolina Vote to Raise Governor’s Salary, 1787In 1787, a
few months after the collapse of Shays’ rebellion, South Carolinians
were divided by an issue with strong class overtones: Whether to fix
the governor’s salary at the princely figure of £1,000. The legislators
from Charleston and the prosperous plantations along the coast
favored the bill; but legislators representing the western frontier
defeated the measure by a vote of fifty-four to sixty-three.