Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/81

* SHAYS'S REBELLION. ing the State o£ specie; that the taxes were unnecessarily high ; that the State Senate was grievously aristocratic ; that the salaries of State ollicials were loo large; that lawyers' fees were exorbitant; and that the courts were used as instruments of oppression. The complainants therefore clamored for the issue, in large quan- tities, of paper money, for salary retrenchment, for the abolition of tlic Court of Connuon Pleas, and for a radical reduction of taxes, and insisted that the General Court should no longer sit amid the balefid influences of a merchant-and-lawyer- infested Boston. In the summer of 1780 the situ- ation became critical, and the malcontents, headed by Daniel Sha3s (q.v. ), everywhere threatened violence. At Northampton, Worces- ter, Great Harrington, and Concord, armed mobs prevented the sitting of the courts, and, in spite of General Shepard and 600 militia. Shays with 600 followers broke up a session of the Supreme Court at Springfield (September, 1786). Not- withstanding concessions made by the General Court, the disturbances continued, and Governor Bowdoin, now fully aroused, organized a force of 4400 militia, which he put under the command of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. On January 25, 1787, Shays, with about 2000 men, marched into Springfield to seize the Federal arsenal there, but was confronted by Shepard with a force of 1200. At the first serious fire, the insurgents lost cour- age and fled, [)assing through Ludlow, Amherst, and Pelliam to Petershan where they were over- taken and dispersed by Lincoln. Subseqtiently, several minor skirmishes occurred in Berkshire, notably the one at Sheffield, February 26, 1787, but the insurgents soon disbanded, and, for the most part, took refuge in adjacent States. On trial, fotirtccn of the leaders were sentenced to death for treason, but were subsequently par- doned by Governor Hancock. Consult: Minot, History of the Insurrections in Massachu- setts in J7Sf>, avd the Rebellion Consequent Thereon {Boston, 1810) ; and Holland, History of Western Massachusetts (Springfield, 1855). SHEA, sha, John Dawson Gilmabt (1824- 92). An American historian. He was born in New York, educated at the Columbia Grammar School, and admitted to the bar. He gave him- self chiefly to historical research, mainly in con- nection with French colonization and Jesuit mis- sions in America. He published prayer-books, school histories, the Catholic Almanac, and edited the Historical Mac/azine (1859-65). Among his scholarly historical treatises may be named: The Discovery atid Exploration of the Mississippi Valley (1853) ; History of the Catholic Missions Amonfi the Indian Tribes of the Uirited States (1854) ; Early Voyages Up and Doirn the Missis- sippi (1862); Xornm Belrtium : An Account of the New Netherlands in 'lGJ,^-J,!, (1862); The Operations of the French Fleet Under Count de Grasse (1864;. Jlention should also be made of the three volumes of his unfinished History of the Catholic Church in the United States, as well as of his Indian grammars, translations of Charle- voix and similar writers, and his editions of early .American historical tracts. SHEA (she-a) BUTTER TREE. See But- ter Tree. SHEARING MACHINE. See Metal-Wobk- ING JIachineby. 61 SHEATHBILL. SHEARMAN, sher'man, Thomas Gaskell (1834-1900). An American lawyer and political economist. He was born in ijirmingham. Eng- land, emigrated with bis parents to New York in 1843, settled in Brooklyn, and was ;ulmittcd to the bar in 1859. At first he devoted himself almost exclusively to writing books on law. In 1868 he entered the law office of David Dudley Field and was successful in practice. In 1S74 he undertook the defense of his friend Henry Ward Beecher in the celebrated suit brought by Theodore Tilton. In politics Shearman was a Republican except in the period from 1884 to 1890. He was, however, an ardent supporter of free trade and an opponent of all indirect ta.xa- tion. With Mr. Tillinghast he wrote Practice, Pleading, and Forms (1861-65); and with Mr. Redfield, Treatise on the Laic of Negligence (1869 and 1888). Among his other books are: Talks on Free Trade (1881); Distribution of Wealth (1887); Owners of the United States (1889); The Coming Billionaire (1890); Crooked Taxation (1891) ; Taxation of Personal Properly (1895). For the New York Code Com- missioners he prepared the Book of Form ( 1860) , and most of the Cicil Code (1862-65). SHEARWATER, or Hagden. A petrel of the genus Puffinus. difl'ering from other petrels in having the nostrils opening separately and di- vided by a very thick partition. Shearwaters spend their lives mostly on the ocean, skimming the waters with very rapid flight and plunging into them for their food. They rarely visit the shore except for the purpose of incubation. All are sooty brown above and white below with various specific markings. The greater shear- water (Puffinusi major), about 18 inches long, wanders over the whole Atlantic Ocean and is abundant on the coasts of Newfoundland. The Manx shearwater {Puffinus puffinus) is foirad also in more northern regions, but is very rare on the coasts of North America. It is about 14 inches long, grayish black, the neck mottled with gray, the throat and all the under parts white. Like all the others, it breeds on islets, in rabbit- burrows, or in crevices of the rocks, and lays one or two white eggs. There are numerous other species in various parts of the world, one of which ( Puffi.nns brcricaudiis) is well laiown about Australia as 'mutton-bird.' SHEATFISH (probably from sheat, variant of sliofe, from AS. secota, trout, from seeotan, to shoot, OHG. seio~an. Ger. schiessen, to shoot ; jtrobably connected ultimately with Skt. skand, to jump, Lat. scandcre, to climb), or Sheath- Fi.SH. The great catfish, 'wels' or 'silurus' (Silu- rus glanisj. of the rivers and lakes of Northern Europe, east of the Rhine, sometimes 12 feet long, it is bluish black above, spotted with olive-green, and the under parts are dull white with black markings. It feeds on aquatic animals, and will pull down ducks and other swinuning birds. It is the largest fresh-water fish in Europe. Compare Catfish and see Plate accompanying that article. SHEATHBILL. A curious Antarctic bird of the family Chionidae. which looks like a pigeon, but is now decided to be limicoline. The thick, fowl-like beak is covered by a homy sheath, ex- tending up to the eyes, and is bare and caruneu- lated, but the forehead is densely feathered. Two species are known. Chionis alha of the Falklaml and other Antarctic islands, with the sheath of