The History of the Insurrections, by George Minot

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mutation to the officers, and of the continental impost ; measures which had received the sanction of the legislature, and which no new reasons could be offered to obviate. About the same time, Sutton made a similar proposition to the towns in the county of Worcester. The answer of the capital to the circular letter sent to them, was decidedly against the proposal. In later times, the proceedings of conventions have been still less justifiable. We shall find that they undertook to censure and condemn the conduct of the publick rulers; they voted the Senate and the Judicial Courts to be grievances ; they addressed the people in language dangerous, even in times of tranquillity ; they called for a revision of the constitution, previously to the end of its intended duration ; and, under this idea, attempted to collect a body of men as a general convention, that might rival the legislature itself. But the proceedings of these assemblies, will particularly appear in the general account of the insurrections. From the short view which we have taken of the affairs of the Commonwealth, sufficient causes appear to account for the commotions which ensued. A heavy debt lying on the state, added to burdens of the same nature, upon almost every incorporation within it ; a decline, or rather an extinction of publick credit ; a relaxation of manners, and a