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Unlike Massachusetts, Rhode Island issued paper money and made it legal tender. The first issue of paper money was authorized by an act of the legislature in May. By June, an act was passed that made it illegal to post two prices - one for paper money and the other for hard cash - or to refuse to accept paper money as legal tender. This report states that the state of Rhode Island moved up the date for the payment of a tax from January to November and that interest on foreign and domestic debt would be paid in the new paper money. William Butler began publication of the Hampshire Gazette on September 6, 1786, in Northampton, Massachusetts. The mission of the newspaper was to inform the public about the issues pertaining to the ongoing conflicts. Butler was decidedly on the government side of the issues.