Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/35

 the land from the Indians. Such rentals had been paid with a fair degree of regularity up to 1844, when the farmers rebelled, declaring that the exactions were oppressive and unlawful. In some cases the rent exacted had consisted of so many bushels of wheat, a certain number of fowls or a few days' labor per year. In other cases cash payments were demanded.

Secret organizations were formed in Delaware county, and some of the aggressive movements were particularly directed toward John B. Gould, who declined to join the anti-rent party. The officers of the law were resisted in their attempts to levy on or sell property for non-payment of rent. The anti-rent men claimed that the land really belonged to the Indians, and they armed themselves and went about the country disguised as Indians. They carried tomahawks and applied tar and feathers to several men whom they accused of persecuting them. Mr. Gould had in his possession for many years one of the tomahawks that was brandished by the Roxbury "Indians," and he could readily recall the events that preceded and followed the battle of Shacksville, in which a body of armed anti-renters, in resisting a sheriff's posse, killed several men. Gov. Silas Wright was then obliged to declare several counties in a state of insurrection and many arrests were made. The state authorities overcame armed resistance, but the anti-rent men carried their grievance into politics and succeeded in electing John Young for Governor over Silas Wright.