Adding to this concern, a poor harvest in late summer led many to worry about the possibility of starvation.

He was so divisive that two diverse groups, rural farmers and educated middle class "Liberals", joined together to oppose the current government.

They knew very little about the constitution, rather they pushed for concrete things such as changes to military service or construction of roads.

On 12 September 1830 two young students, Johann Peter and Kaspar Leonz Bruggisser, rode to Lenzburg to attend a meeting that would draft a petition to the government.

As the meeting wore on, the movement developed a more aggressive approach and increasingly delegates called for an armed revolution.

Johann Heinrich Fischer belonged to the wealthy rural upper class and was the innkeeper at the Zum Schwanen Gasthof in Merenschwand.

During a meeting of the Grand Council, on 26 November 1830, he launched into an impassioned speech on the explosive mood in the Freiamt.

When the president interrupted his speech, Fischer left the room stomping and reportedly shouted "The people themselves will show you what they want!

"[2] On 4 December 1830, at the Sternen Gasthof in Wohlen, several prestigious Freiämter, including Fischer and both Bruggisser, met to discuss the situation.

[1] On the morning of 5 December, throughout the entire upper Freiamt, alarm bells rang, calling the militia out.

That evening he made the zum Sternen inn his temporary military headquarters, as he waited for the militia to assemble the next morning.

At the head of the army were about 2,000 uniformed and well armed soldiers, who were recently returned from mercenary service in France.

The situation became more dangerous in Lenzburg, where about 100 government soldiers formed to resist the militia, and brought their guns in position.

The two Bruggisser brothers made careers as chief justices, members of the Grand Council, and representatives of the Canton at the Confederation Tagsatzung.