Table of public securities listed for taxation in each of these counties:
| SUFFOLK | ESSEX | |
|---|---|---|
| Funded, sixes | £29,228 | £36,502 |
| Funded, threes | 17,096 | 26,761 |
| Funded, not on interest | 14,854 | 18,119 |
| Other securities | 14,056 | 16,273 |
| Money at Interest | 29,941 | 33,115 |
Now let us take the vote in the convention, and the property in two counties which were heavily against the Constitution.[[638]] The vote is as follows:
| Worcester | |||
| For the Constitution | 7 votes | Against | 43 votes |
| Berkshire | |||
| For the Constitution | 7 votes | Against | 15 votes |
The tables of public securities and money in these counties follow:
| WORCESTER | BERKSHIRE | |
|---|---|---|
| Funded, sixes | £12,924 | £981 |
| Funded, threes | 8,184 | 665 |
| Funded, not on interest | 5,736 | 384 |
| Other securities | 10,903 | 602 |
| Money at interest | 25,594 | 6298 |
Now if we take the securities in these two counties which went heavily against the Constitution several economic facts are worthy of notice. Of the total amount of 6 per cents in the state, only £13,905, or about one-eighth is to be found in them. Of the 3 per cents, we find £8,849, or about one-eighth of the total amount in the commonwealth. But if we take money at interest, we find £31,892, or about one-sixth of the total amount in the state. This is not surprising, for Worcester was the centre of the Shays rebellion in behalf of debtors, and a large portion of their creditors were presumably in the neighborhood.[[639]]
“The courts were burdened with suits for ordinary debts by means of which creditors sought to put in more lasting form the obligations which their debtors could not at that time meet. In Worcester county alone, with a population of less than 50,000, more than 2000 actions were entered in 1784, and during the next year 1700 more were put on the list.”[[640]]
These figures, like all other statistics, should be used with care, and it would require a far closer analysis than can be made here to work out all of their political implications. We should have a thorough examination of such details as the distribution of the public securities among towns and individual holders; and such a work is altogether worthy of a Quetelet.
Meanwhile, it may be said with safety that the communities in which personalty was relatively more powerful favored the ratification of the Constitution, and that in these communities large quantities of public securities were held. Moreover, there was undoubtedly a vital connection between the movement in support of the Constitution and public security holding, or to speak concretely, among the leading men in Massachusetts who labored to bring about the ratification was a large number of public creditors.