Page:History of Gardner, Massachusetts (1860) - Glazier.djvu/73

Rh , and halted nearly an hour, as if meditating some act of violence. The main body then marched down, and passing through the other party, whose open ranks closed after them, the whole moved to the common, where they displayed into a line, and sent another committee to the Court.

The sessions, considering their deliberations controlled by the mob, deemed it expedient to follow the example of the superior tribunal, by an adjournment to the 21st of November. When the insurgent adjutant presented a paper, requiring it should be without fixed day; Judge Ward replied, the business was finished and could not be changed.

Before night closed down, the Regulators, as they styled themselves, dispersed; and thus terminated the first interference of the citizens in arms with the court of justice. Whatever fears might have been entertained of future disastrous consequences, their visit brought with it no terror, and no apprehension for personal safety to their opposers. Both parties, indeed, seemed more inclined to hear than strike. The conduct of Judge Ward was dignified and spirited, in a situation of great embarrassment. His own deprecation, that the sun might not shine on the day when the Constitution was trampled on with impunity, seemed to be realized. Clouds, darkness and storm brooded over the meeting of the insurgents, and rested on their tumultuary assemblies in the county at subsequent periods.

The state of feeling was unfavorably influenced by the success of the insurgents. At a meeting of the inhabitants on the 25th of September, delegates were elected to the county convention at Paxton, with instructions to report their doings to the town. The list of grievances received some slight additions from this assembly. The delay and expense of Courts of Probate, the manner of recording