red more from the paper-money aberration than Rhode
Island. Under pressure from the radical elements the legislature passed
an act for the emission of bills of credit which were to be issued to
any freeholder who would offer as security real estate of any sort to
double the amount of the loan. "Many from all parts of the State made
haste to avail themselves of their good fortune, and mortgaged fields
strewn thick with stones and covered with cedars and stunted pines for
sums such as could not have been obtained for the richest pastures." But
when they sought their creditors, not a merchant nor a shop-keeper could
be found. Nobody fished to have a just debt discharged in such currency.
Not to be thwarted in their purpose, the radicals then enacted a law
which threatened with a summary trial and a heavy fine any one who
refused to accept paper money in payment of debt.

Under this Force Act, one John Weeden, a butcher, was brought to trial
for refusing to receive the paper offered by a customer in payment for
meat. To the discomfiture of the legislature the court refused to
enforce the law in this instance, on the ground that the statute was
contrary to the constitution of Rhode Island; and when summoned before
the legislature to answer for their defiance, the judges boldly stood
their ground. The case of _Trevett_ v. _Weeden_ was not without its
lesson to those who were casting about for ways and means to defend
property from the assaults of popular majorities. In Virginia, too, the
highest state court, in the case of _Commonwealth_ v. _Caton_, boldly
asserted the right of the judiciary to declare void such acts of the
legislature as were repugnant to the constitution.

Meantime the debtor and creditor classes in Massachusetts were locked in
a struggle which menaced the peace of the country. Here as elsewhere
hard times had forced the small farmers of the interior counties to the
wall. No doubt their difficulties were caused in part by their own
improvidence, but they were increased by the prevailing scarcity of
money. So dire was the want of a medium of exchange that many
communities resorted to barter. The editor of a Worcester paper
advertised that he would accept Indian corn, rye, wheat, wood, or
flaxseed, in payment of debts owed to him, up to the amount of twenty
shillings. It seemed to the ignorant farmer that his creditors were
taking an unfair advantage of circumstances in demanding currency to
settle debts whi