USA > Vermont > Points in Vermont history : address before the Boston Vermont Association, January 27, 1892 > Part 1
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Gc 974.3 B44p 1770880
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00084 5401
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POINTS IN VERMONT HISTORY.
ADDRESS
BEFORE THE
BOSTON VERMONT ASSOCIATION,
BY
J. H. BENTON, JR. JANUARY 27, 1892.
"Next to the worship of the gather of us all, is the love of the land that gave us birth." - HOLT.
BOSTON: ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, NO. 24 A'RANKLIN STREET. 1891.
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BENTON, JOSIAH HENRY, 1843-1917. Points in Vermont history. Address before the Boston Vermont association ... January 27, 1892 ... Boston, Mudge, 1891. cover-title, 25p. i
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Mr. President : -
Vermont was first known to the white man on the pleasant morning of July 30, 1609, when Champlain, Lieutenant Governor of New France, fought the Iroquois at a spot near Ticonderoga on the shore of the beautiful lake which has since born his name, which was some weeks before Hendrik Hudson sailed up the Hudson, and eleven years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
The first Christian worship within its borders was in 1704, when the Rev. John Williams, pastor of the Congregational Church of Deerfield, Mass., at a point in its southeastern corner, by permission of their Indian captors, preached to the sorrowful captives of that raid, who were then being taken to Canada for ransom, from the text, "My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity."
The first actual occupation by the whites was the con- struction of a block-house, named Fort Dummer, on the Connecticut River, near Brattleboro, by the Colony of Massa- chusetts for the protection of the settlers at Northfield in that colony against the French and Indians in 1724.
In 1730, a few French families came up the lake from Canada and built a block-house and windmill at what is now the town of Addison .*
Vermont, was, however, but little more than a battle- ground or war path between the English and the French till the close of the long struggle for the control of North America by the capture of Montreal by the English in
* Hall's Early Hist. Vt., pages 2, 3.
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September, 1760. Its settlement was thus delayed, while Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire were being rapidly colonized and cultivated. It was not until after 1763 that it really began to be permanently occupied by the whites, when, it is said, that the Rev. Samuel Peters and his adventurous companions ascended Mt. Pisgah, and look- ing out over its verdant hills, even then "tolerant of culture to their very tops," christened it "Verd Mont."
A large portion of it was claimed by the Colony of New Hampshire till 1740 ; and up to 1764, the entire southern por- tion was claimed both by Massachusetts and New York, its first township, now Westminster, being granted by the former to settlers from Taunton and laid out in November, 1736. Benning Wentworth, the Royal Governor of New Hamp- shire, granted 138 townships within its territory before the king decided, in 1764, that this territory belonged to New York .* That colony then assumed to treat all these grants as void, and in violation of an order of the King granted to others the lands which they covered, and then attempted to forcibly evict the settlers under the New Hampshire grants in favor of the subsequent purchasers under the New York grants. f The settlers naturally resisted this illegal attempt to drive them from their homes which they had honestly purchased. This territory then became known as the New Hampshire Grants, and its inhabitants as "Green Mountain Boys," and as such they successfully resisted by arms all attempts of New York to assert its authority over them.
Under this state of affairs there was naturally but little orderly administration of law in Vermont, and the result
· Hall, page 5.
t All these grants, after July 24, 1767, were made in violation of the order of the King in Council of that date, certified copies of which the New York Courts refused to admit in evidence in defence of ejectment suits under the New York grants. - Slade's State Papers, page 21.
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was that only the daring and determined wished to settle there. So that at the time of the Revolution the population was composed of those who were accustomed to maintain their rights by their own exertions rather than by resort to legal remedies.
What government they had was administered by com- mittees appointed at popular meetings, and known as "Committees of Safety," for. whose apprehension the Assembly of New York, from time to time, offered large rewards without success .*
But although thus isolated, and under the pressure of New York, when the Revolution came, the Vermonters did not hesitate to make immediate armed resistance to England, and the British troops were first compelled to surrender to American arms at the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by the Green Mountain Boys on the morning of the tenth of May, 1775, which were actually captured with sixty-five guns and stores before the' Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia.
When this gallant exploit was reported to the Congress, however, instead of thanking the Green Mountain Boys for it, they adopted a resolution which really apologized for it, and recommended the Colony of New York to cause the captured cannon to be removed from Ticonderoga to the south end of Lake George, where they would furnish pro- tection to Albany, but none whatever to Vermont. They also directed "an exact inventory to be taken of all the cannon and stores that they might be safely returned on
* For the proclamation offering one hundred pounds each for the apprehension of Ethan Allen and Remember Baker, and fifty pounds each for that of six others, and for the inhuman Act of the New York Assembly making resistance to its laws, by the Green Mountain Boys, punishable by death, and authorizing the conviction without trial of those who were accused but could not be caught, see Slade's Vermont State Papers, page 42.
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the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies." *
June 2, 1775, Ethan Allen proposed to the Provincial Congress of New York that he would raise a regiment of rangers for the invasion of Canada, and asked it to grant commissions for that purpose, saying that it was the first favor he had ever asked of them, and if it was granted he should be "zealously ambitious to conduct for the best good of my country and the honor of the government," but to this application no reply was made.
A committee of Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, and Remember Baker then applied to the Continental Congress at Phila- delphia for permission to raise troops. On this application Congress passed a resolution recommending the Convention of New York to employ "those called Green Mountain Boys under such officers as the said Green Mountain Boys shall choose." The committee then waited upon the Convention of New York and were " permitted to have an audience," the result of which was that they were authorized to raise a body of troops not exceeding five hundred men and officers " of those called Green Mountain Boys," but were not allowed to elect their field officers. The troops were raised, how- ever, and took part in the siege and capture of St. Johns under Montgomery ; and on his death at the siege of Quebec they marched at once to the assistance of the colonial troops there.
In January, 1776, a convention of the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants, as the territory was then called, met at Dorset and appointed a committee to represent their con- dition to the Continental Congress, and state to it that they were " entirely willing to do all in their power in the general cause of the colonies under the Continental Congress, but
* Hall's Early History of Vermont, pages 204, 205.
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not willing to put themselves under the Provincial Congress of New York in such manner as might be detrimental to their private property," by taking the oaths required of those who served under that Congress, and prayed permis- sion " to do duty in the continental service as inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants."
Congress did not grant this petition, but advised the petitioners to submit to the government of New York, whereupon the petitioners were permitted to withdraw the pe- tition, and returned and reported to the Convention their lack of success. The members of this Convention then subscribed an association, pledging their "lives and fortunes to defend by arms the United American States against the hostile at- tempts of the British fleets and armies," and also directed the field officers of the regiments already raised in the dis- . trict "to see that their men be forthwith furnished with suitable arms, ammunition and accoutrements, agreeably to the resolve of the Continental Congress." They also adopted resolutions looking to the formation of a " separate district," and adjourned to meet on the 25th of September, 1776, at which time they met, and themselves subscribed, and recommended to their constituents to subscribe, a com- pact or covenant that they would "adhere to the several resolves of this or a future convention constituted on said district by the free voice of the friends to American liberties, not repugnant to the Resolves of the Honorable, the Conti- nental Congress, relative to the cause of America," and unanimously resolved to take suitable measures to declare themselves a separate district, and appointed a committee to draw up a petition to be sent to the "Honorable Continental Congress." *
They made at the same time preparation for continuing
* Slade's State Papers, page 66.
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the war against the British, appointed a War Committee, authorized it to issue commissions in the name of the Con- vention to the field officers of the militia, and invested it with superintendence of the military affairs of the district, and directed it, on notice from the Continental Congress or Commander-in-chief of the Armies of the United States, to order "the militia to march immediately to any such part of the continent as might be required." They then voted to " build a jail for securing Tories," and adjourned to the 30th of October, at which time they met, but, owing to the con- dition of hostilities, transacted little business, and adjourned to the 15th of January, 1777.
On that day they met at Westminster, and on the 17th of January unanimously adopted a declaration of indepen- dence, declaring that " the district of territory, comprehend- ing, and usually known by the name and description of, the New Hampshire Grants, of right ought to be, and is hereby declared, forever after to be, considered as a separate, free and independent jurisdiction or state," and that its inhabi- tants are " entitled to the same privileges, immunities and enfranchisements which are allowed to the inhabitants of any of the free and independent States of America, to be regu- lated in a bill of rights and by a form of government to be established at the next adjourned session of this Convention."
They then adopted a petition to the Continental Congress, setting forth this declaration, and stating "that they were at all times ready, in conjunction with their brethren of the United States, to contribute their full proportion toward maintaining the present just war against the fleets and armies of Great Britain." The petition concluded by praying that the district " might be ranked among the free and indepen- dent American States," and delegates therefrom admitted to seats "in the Grand Continental Congress."
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On the 8th of April, a committee of the Convention pre- sented this petition to Congress, by which it was laid on the table. The committee then returned and reported to the convention, which was held by adjournment in Windsor on the 4th of June, and composed of seventy-two delegates from fifty townships. This Convention resolved that the district should be known by the name of Vermont, and also that its members " did renew their pledges to each other by all the ties held sacred among men" to abide by and maintain their declaration of independence, and " in conjunction with their brethren in the United States to contribute their full pro- portion toward maintaining the present just war against the fleets and armies of Great Britain."*
July 2, 1777, the Convention met and framed a constitu- tion, which provided for the election of a General Assembly under it in the following December, and for a meeting of the Assembly in January, 1778.
They first, however, took active measures to send troops to the aid of Ticonderoga, and appointed a committee with authority to pledge the credit of the State to the amount of four thousand pounds for the purchase of additional arms. Owing to the retreat of the American Army from Ticon- deroga, the whole Western frontier of the State was thus exposed to the enemy, and the Convention adjourned to defend their homes, leaving all the powers of the govern- ment in the hands of its Council of Safety.
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Under the energetic action of this Council which called out troops, and to pay their expenses confiscated the property of the Tories who had fled to the enemy, they made war with such vigor that the British Commander, Gen. Bur- goyne, declared that they were " the most active and rebel- lious race of the continent."
* Slade's State Papers, page 72.
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After the surrender of Burgoyne, the Convention reas- sembled on the 24th of December, 1777, and postponed the time for the first election under the constitution to the first Wednesday in March, and the time for the meeting of the Assembly to the second Thursday of the same month.
This constitution provided for manhood suffrage by giv- ing the elective franchise "to every man of the full age of twenty-one years " who had resided in the State for one year, vested the legislative power in a single assembly annually chosen, the executive power in a governor and councillors annually elected, and provided that the mode of choosing judges should be left to the discretion of the Legislature, and, although slavery then existed in all the adjoining colonies, it specifically and definitely prohibited it in Ver- mont, which was the first constitutional prohibition of . slavery in the United States.
Under this constitution, the people of Vermont gave full support to the Continental Congress and maintained their independence and administered their domestic affairs until the close of the Revolution in 1783, and for nearly nine years thereafter.
Being included in the territory given up by Great Britain under the treaty of peace, and New York being incapable of asserting any actual authority over it, Vermont was then left as practically an independent sovereign State. It was in a better condition than any other State. It had no debt, it had a hardy, industrious, and growing population, and it continued to administer its affairs independent of all the world. It fixed its own weights and measures, established its own coinage, organized its own troops, set up and main- tained its own post office department, and in every respect managed its affairs as an independent sovereignty. Indeed, there was little which it could gain by admission as a mem-
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ber of the Confederacy, which had no power over Commerce and was practically only an inefficient partnership of jealous colonies.
In 1789, however, the adoption of the Constitution of the United States established the Union upon a firm foundation, and on the fourth day of March, 1791, Vermont was ad- mitted " as a new and entire member of the United States of America " under the Constitution which she had adopted in 1777 .*
Thus did these trappers and farmers, threatened by the arms of England on the north, menaced by the hostility of New York on the west, tormented by the claims of Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire on the south and east, and refused even recognition by Congress, stand " four square to all the winds that blew," and not only protected their homes with their trusty rifles, but founded a conservative, constitu- tional government. There is nothing more wonderful in the story of States, nothing more marvellous in the history of constitution making, than this achievement of these sturdy frontiersmen.
The long struggle for the protection of their homes, how- ever, had stimulated and strengthened their native love of personal liberty ; and the dominant trait in the character of their descendants has been intolerance of oppression and devotion to personal freedom and individual rights. They inscribed on their State flag "Unity and Freedom," and in their constitution they styled themselves the "Freemen of Vermont." Their town meetings are known as " Freemen's meetings," and their representatives in the General Assembly are by the constitution termed "Representatives of the Freemen of Vermont."
They have not only jealously guarded personal rights at
* Poore's " Constitutions and Charters," page 1875.
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- home but have denounced slavery and oppression wherever it existed, and have always given their property and their lives in lavish and unselfish devotion to liberty and to the Union. Elisha Allen gave to the negro slave and her child captured from the British at Ticonderoga the first certificate of emancipation ever bestowed in America, and they not only prohibited slavery by the first article of their own con- stitution, but they have always protested against it else- where. Their General Assembly early resolved in favor of abolition of the slave trade and emancipation in the District of Columbia ; and when the national House of Representa- tives adopted the infamous rule that all petitions on slavery be laid on the table unprinted and unread, the Assembly annually resolved that this was "a daring infringement of the right of the people to petition, and a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States."
They sternly resisted the infamous laws by which it was sought under the Constitution of the United States to make the free States the hunting grounds of slaveholders. In 1840 they provided by law that fugitives from slavery should, when claimed in Vermont, have a right of trial by jury .* In 1842 their General Assembly declared that Congress ought not only to prevent the interstate slave trade, but that the Constitution should be amended so as to prohibit slavery throughout the Union. t In the following year the Assembly provided that State courts and magistrates should not issue warrants for the arrest of fugitive slaves under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, in April of that year, when the General Assembly met in October, the first Act which they passed was one specifically extending the provisions of the writ of habeas corpus to persons claimed as fugitive slaves, and se-
* Chap. 8, Laws 1840.
t Joint Resolution, No. 44, Laws 1842.
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curing to them the right of trial by jury .* This Act also en- larged the number of judges who could issue the writ of habeas corpus, and made it the duty of the State's Attorneys in the different counties whenever any inhabitant of the State was arrested or claimed as a fugitive slave to "diligently and faithfully use all lawful means to protect, defend, and procure him to be discharged," and provided for the immediate issue of a writ of habeas corpus, upon application, in such cases. The Act then made it the " duty of all judicial and executive officers, who should know, or have reason to believe, that any inhabitant of the State was about to be arrested or claimed as a fugitive slave, to give notice to the State's At- torney of the county in which such person was," and it also provided that if, on hearing of the writ of habeas corpus in such cases, the person claimed as a slave should not be dis- charged, he should have an appeal to the County Court and a reasonable time to give bail, that he should have a jury trial in the County Court, and that if costs were adjudged against him they should be paid by the State.
In 1854, to still further resist the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law by lawful means, the Assembly passed a law entitled " An Act to Prevent Kidnapping," which pro- vided that any person who falsely declared or represented or pretended that any free person was a slave, with intent to procure such person to be removed from the State as a slave, should be punished by a fine of three thousand dollars and imprisonment in the State's Prison for five years, and also provided that " no declaration, representation or pretence that any person, being or having been in the State, is or was a slave, shall be deemed to be proved except by the tes- timony of two credible witnesses to the facts tending to show the same to be true." t
* Chap. 16, Laws 1850.
t Chap. 52, Laws 1854.
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It is needless to say that no fugitive slave was ever returned to bondage from Vermont, or to state again the familiar decision of the Vermont magistrate, who, when asked to issue a warrant for the apprehension of a slave, declared that nothing less than a conveyance from God Almighty was sufficient to make title to a human being in Vermont. It was in speaking of this decision that Charles Sumner said he knew "of nothing in the wisdom of Marshall, the learning of Story, or the fullness of Kent which would ripen with time like that honest decree.".
In 1856, its Assembly appropriated twenty thousand dol- lars for the relief of free State men in Kansas .* In 1857, when a majority of the Supreme Court of the United States held in the Dred Scott case that no negro of African descent, whose ancestors were slaves, could, though born of parents who were free at his birth, and himself free, become a citi- zen under the Constitution, the Vermont Assembly at its next session in October of that year passed a resolution declaring that the opinion had "no color of authority or binding force." t In 1858, it again resolved that the opinion was unconstitutional and declared that " when the Government or judiciary of the United States refuses to protect citizens when in another State or territory, it becomes the duty of the States to protect their own citizens at whatever hazard or cost," # and for that purpose passed an Act providing that "neither descent near or remote from an African, whether such African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or complexion shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any person from becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such persons of the rights and privileges thereof." §
* Chap. 60, Laws 1856. t Joint Resolution No. 70. Laws 1857. # Joint Reso- lution No. 65, Laws 1858. § Chap. 37, Sect. 5, Laws 1858.
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Such was the temper of the freemen of Vermont when the Slaveholders' Rebellion broke out in 1861. But though her people were most thoroughly opposed to secession, and devoted to the maintenance of the Union, Vermont was of all the Northern States probably the least equipped to support the government by arms. Its population was mainly agricultural, and its emigration to the West and the Pacific had been so great that though, from 1850 to 1860 the population of the United States had increased from twenty-three millions to thirty-one millions, that of Vermont had increased only nine hundred and seventy-eight, or from 314,120 to 315,098.
It had substantially no military organization, there being at the close of the year 1860 only seventeen actually organ- ized companies of militia, nominally organized into a brigade of four regiments, but having in reality no effective regi- mental organization, and the State had barely sufficient arms to equip a single regiment. It did not, however, hesi- tate for an instant, but acted even in advance of actual hostilities.
Jan. 5, 1861, Gov. Fairbanks wrote Gov. Buckingham of Connecticut suggesting action of the different Northern States to sustain the general government .*
Jan. 23, 1861, Senator Collamer of Vermont introduced a bill authorizing the president to close the ports of the seceded States, and suspending the United States mail service therein, which has been justly termed the only practical measure of resistance to secession proposed in that Congress.
* This was the very day on which Gov. Andrew was inaugurated as the governor of Massachusetts, and on the evening of which he sent his famous message to the other New England States, stating that he was about to put a portion of the Massachusetts militia in readiness for active service in defence of the national capital, and urging them to do likewise.
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Jan. 26, 1861, the Governor directed that returns be made of the number of persons liable to do military duty, with instructions that if any were unable or indisposed to respond to orders made upon any requisition of the Pres- ident of the United States they be discharged and their places filled by men who were ready.
On April 12, 1861, the rebels fired upon Fort Sumter ; on the 14th, President Lincoln's first call for seventy-five thousand troops reached Vermont, and instantly from Massa- chusetts to the Canada line the people sprang to arms.
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