t no man could vote at elections or hold any office without
taking a test oath promising to receive paper money at par. But this was
going too far. Many soft-money men were not wild enough to support such
a measure; among the farmers there were some who had grown tired of
seeing their produce spoiled on their hands; and many of the richest
merchants had announced their intention of moving out of the state. The
new forcing act accordingly failed to pass, and presently the old one
was repealed. The paper dollar had been issued in May; in November it
passed for sixteen cents.

These outrageous proceedings awakened disgust and alarm among sensible
people in all the other states, and Rhode Island was everywhere reviled
and made fun of. One clause of the forcing act had provided that if a
debtor should offer paper to his creditor and the creditor should refuse
to take it at par, the debtor might carry his rag money to court and
deposit it with the judge; and the judge must thereupon issue a
certificate discharging the debt. The form of certificate began with the
words "Know Ye," and forthwith the unhappy little state was nicknamed
Rogues' Island, the home of Know Ye men and Know Ye measures.

[Sidenote: Rag money defeated in Massachusetts; the Shays insurrection,
Aug. 1786-Feb. 1787.]

While the scorn of the people was thus poured out upon Rhode Island,
much sympathy was felt for the government of Massachusetts, which was
called upon thus early to put down armed rebellion. The pressure of debt
was keenly felt in the rural districts of Massachusetts. It is estimated
that the private debts in the state amounted to some $7,000,000, and the
state's arrears to the federal government amounted to some $7,000,000
more. Adding to these sums the arrears of bounties due to the soldiers,
and the annual cost of the state, county, and town governments, there
was reached an aggregate equivalent to a tax of more than $50 on every
man, woman, and child in this population of 379,000 souls. Upon every
head of a family the average burden was some $200 at a time when most
farmers would have thought such a sum yearly a princely income. In those
days of scarcity most of them did not set eyes on so much as $50 in the
course of a year, and happy was he who had tucked away two or three
golden guineas or moidores in an old stocking, and sewed up the treasure
in his straw mattress or hidden it behind the bricks of the
chimney-piece. Under such circums