Page:History of Gardner, Massachusetts (1860) - Glazier.djvu/76

72 rows of bayonets presented to their breasts, opposed farther advance. The Sheriff, Col. William Greenleaf, of Lancaster, addressed the assembled crowd, stating the danger to themselves and the public from their lawless measures. Reasoning and warning were ineffectual, and the proclamation in the riot act was read for their dispersion. Amid the grave solemnity of the scene, some incidents were interposed of lighter character. Col. Greenleaf remarked with great severity on the conduct of the armed party around him. One of the leaders replied, they sought relief from grievances: that among the most intolerable of them was the sheriff himself: and next to his person, were his fees, which were exorbitant and excessive, particularly on criminal executions. "If you consider fees for executions oppressive," replied the sheriff, irritated by the attack, "you need not wait long for redress; for I will hang you all, gentlemen, for nothing, with the greatest pleasure." Some hand among the crowd, which pressed close, placed a pine branch on his hat, and the county officer retired with the justices, decorated with the evergreen badge of rebellion. The clerk entered on his records, that the court was prevented from being held by an armed force, the only notice contained on their pages that our soil has ever been dishonored by resistance of the laws.

To this period the indulgence of government had dealt with its revolted subjects as misguided citizens, seduced to acts of violence from misconception of the sources of their distress. Conciliatory policy had applied remedial statutes wherever practicable, and proffered full pardon and indemnity for past misconduct. Reasonable hopes were entertained that disaffection, quieted by lenient measures, would lay down the arms assumed under strong excitement, and