Knox, Henry, as Secretary of War

Autograph letter signed ("HKnox"), 4 pages folio (12 3/4 x 8 in.; 325 x 203 mm), New York, 14 February 1787, to General Benjamin Lincoln, congratulates him on his defeat of the Shays' Rebellion insurgents, dismisses objections to the proposed Constitutional Convention as unfounded, and recommends that Lincoln be sent to Philadelphia as one of three delegates from Massachusetts; pp. 2–3 strengthened with tissue, closing fold separations at center and on pp. 3–4. Beige linen folding case, black morocco spine, green morocco lettering pieces.  

Shays' Rebellion and the Constitutional Convention. Knox heartily congratulates General Benjamin Lincoln on his crushing defeat of the insurgents led by Captain Daniel Shays and Luke Day, which effectively ended five months of armed revolt against central authority in Massachusetts known as Shays' Rebellion. The insurrection stemmed from a colonial aversion to taxation amidst a post-war depression. Knox flatters Lincoln: "Were not your military reputation already highly established your manouvers would have elevated it ... It will be a sufficient satisfaction to you that you have disipated a cloud that threatened a violent storm."  Knox also states that he has reported Lincoln's actions to General Washington and Congress: "the solicitude discovered for your complete success has been very considerable—I am happy that it has been so amply gratified."

Knox next turns his attention to the Constitutional Convention which was slated to be held in May at Philadelphia. "The convention ... engroisses a great portion of the attention of the men of reflection—Some are for and some against it, but the preponderance of opinion is for it— ... I have endevoured to investigate all that has been alledged against the convention, and I confess I do not think the objections so well founded as many people do. The Convention will be at liberty to consider more diffusively the defects of the present system ... If a differently constituted republican government should be the object, the shortest road to it will be found in the convention."  Knox closes by hoping that Massachusetts will select Lincoln, King, and Higginson as its delegates. Shays' Rebellion was an event that called for the establishment of a stronger central government, not only to  quell such uprisings but to prevent them by improving economic conditions. Thus Shays gave traction to the creation and adoption of the Federal Constitution. Simultaneously it brought relief to those who had participated in it: the Massachusetts legislature pardoned the insurgents (including Shays and Day), postponed imposition of a direct tax, and limited the liability of debtors.