USA > Vermont > A history of Vermont : with geological and geographical notes, bibliography, chronology, maps, and illustrations > Part 9
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JOHN ADAMS, Vice-Prefident of the United States," and President of the Senate.
APPROVED, February the eighteenth, 1791. The action of GEORGE WASHINGTON, President of the United States. Vermont was not · DEPOSITED among the RoLis in the OFFICE of the SECRETARY followed by the TheMM Secretary of State anticipated admis- sion to the Union. Matters still dragged on. The war ended, but FACSIMILE OF ACT OF ADMISSION the effects of the war began to appear. For Vermont the situation became less critical ; for the United States it did not. The condi- tion of Congress and the confederation was disreputable.
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The United States had no money, no revenue, no credit. The armies were unpaid, and the government was sinking into disgrace. Vermont grew less anxious for admission. Then came that wonderful reorganization and recovery under the constitution of 1789, with the splendid work of Hamilton and the administrations of Washington. Within two years of its reincarnation Congress unanimously voted that on the fourth day of the following March " the said State, by the name and style of the State of Vermont, shall be received into this Union as a new and entire member of the United States."
Conflicting interests were settled with comparative case. This state paid to New York thirty thousand dol- lars in full settlement of all claims, and the money was used to reimburse those persons who had been dispos- sessed of lands held under New York grants.1 Many of the prominent men of the earlier struggle had died, and the new generation felt less bitterness over the ancient quarrel. Many of the Bennington disputants had also passed away. Three of the Allen family were dead, Ethan among the number, he having died at Burlington in 1789, of apoplexy.
The best men in New York were also becoming con- vinced that nothing was to be gained by prolonging the struggle. In fact the contest was hindering the wel- fare of the state. Alexander Hamilton urged the settle- ment of it, and showed that New York with its burden of Revolutionary debt could not afford to carry on an
1 The division of this money by New York among the claimants may be found in B. IL. Hall's History of Eastern Vermont, Appendix I .; also in Documentary History of New York, IV, 1024. The amounts range from $5.49 to $7218.9.1.
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offensive war with Vermont ; a war would require an army and a treasury. This was the alternative : to settle or to fight. Vermont showed her appreciation of an amicable settlement by making grants of land to some of the prominent men of the sister state. John Jay was endowed with land in the town which still bears his name. With the admission of the state all the animosity of years was laid aside, and the neighboring common- wealths assumed their new relations with harmony and good will.
THE RULING MOTIVE
It requires a somewhat broader view than that given in the history of this contest as it has been outlined above really to explain the attitudes which the various parties to the controversy took at different times. It will be worth while to get this broader view, because it is what makes events comprehensible. Frequently movements in history - political movements, for example - require an explanation which does not appear on the surface or in the mere narration of facts.
If we look into the events of the Revolution during these years, we shall see that the Continental Congress had more trouble of its own than it knew what to do with, without taking up the battle for Vermont. With- out going into these events we can readily see that Con- gress could not afford to risk a quarrel between three of her important states, and perhaps others, for the mere sake of preserving the integrity of an outsider. The integrity of the outsider was not absolutely essential to the success of the American cause, but the integrity of
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the Union was. The successful culmination of the war was far more important to Congress than the acquisition of another member to a body of wrangling states. This interprets the dilatory and vacillating course of Congress on the question of admitting Vermont to the Union.
Upon Vermont, therefore, was thrown the necessity of maintaining her own independence against a manifest disposition of Congress to sacrifice her, as well as against the more aggressive acts of her immediate neighbors. This explains her granting of lands, her annexations of the East and West unions, and the somewhat shady diplomacy of the Haldimand negotiations. Vermont could not fail to see that, after all her efforts to aid the common cause, she was likely to get less from its success than she would from its failure; for Great Britain, the very power she was helping to fight, offered her what Congress did not. At any rate, appearances indicated that she would be forbidden as a state to participate in the results of that freedom which she was helping the others to secure. If such was the case, then every further step taken in support of the Revolution was suicidal for her. Could it be expected that Vermont would aid in defeating a foreign foe if by so doing she would put her neck under the yoke of a more hateful tyranny at home ? As a matter of policy, dictated by the instincts of self-preservation, the state could lend a listening car to the proposals of British agents to detach Vermont from the American cause and make her a free British province.
The disclosure of the British design, especially the Germaine letter, opened the mind of Congress to the
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possible magnitude and significance of Vermont's foreign relations, and brought once more into the sphere of national politics the question of admitting her to the Union. Congress was at length ready to admit that Ver- mont had gained a place of sufficient importance as a political entity to give her in all justice the right to be recognized. At the same time circumstances already noted made it impossible for Congress to grant imme- diate admission. This explains the attitude of Congress after 1781, - why she was ready to concede Vermont's independent statehood but did not admit her for ten years more.
While the close of the war and the removal of British troops ended alike the danger of invasion and the nego- tiations with the British, these events did not leave the United States in a condition which rendered admission altogether desirable for the state. Vermont had then secured freedom from invasion, protection of life and property, the establishment of order, financial integrity, a vigorous and economical administration, an increasing population. Under the circumstances it was no gain to be admitted to membership in a government whose burdens were greater and whose guaranties of such essential advantages were less than her own. This explains why Vermont became less anxious to push her claims for admission.
When, however, the federal situation reached a pitch of disintegration which necessitated reorganization, and the constitution of 1789 was "crammed down the gullet of America," or, in the more refined language of John Quincy Adams, "extorted from the grinding necessity of
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a reluctant nation," the general situation began straight- way to improve. The financial integrity of the United States was no longer a matter for speculation. National politics now began to turn on internal interests instead of foreign domination, and it became evident that in the new national politics the interests of Vermont were iden- tical with those of New England and the northern states, New York included. These common interests would be strengthened by the admission of the state. This explains why the motives for admission grew stronger while the obstacles grew less.
So we find in this period of her independent statehood a curious and entertaining interplay of local and federal politics, which on the whole was not detrimental to Vermont's interests, and which also reveals the relation between separate states and the central government in what is essentially its true and permanent form.
One cannot close the study of this period of Ver- mont's history without an increased admiration of the remarkable powers of her first governor. One of our historians, himself a governor, has not overstated his capacity in the following estimate : "The formation of the territory of Vermont into a separate state, the suc- cessful progress of its government, and its final estab- lishment against the powerful opposition of other gov- ernments were owing in a great degree to the almost unerring foresight, unhesitating firmness and sound judgment of Thomas Chittenden."
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CHAPTER VIII
FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SETTLED PORTIONS OF THE STATE
A. Industrial Conditions
We must take a glance at the life of the people between the close of the Revolution and the War of 1812, so as to fix in our minds some of the ways in which that life differed from our own. While in a sense it may be true that Vermont remained industrially in about the same condition as during the war down to the political disturbances which heralded the next war, such a statement contains only half the truth. There was no wide change in the forms of industry, but there were a few changes of exceedingly great importance, and furthermore there was a great industrial development. Different kinds of business did not arise so rapidly then as now, but the few kinds which were carried on multiplied in different parts of the state.
The lack of good means of transportation perpetuated colonial conditions to the period which we are now con- sidering. The growth of the transporting business is the key to the wonderful differences which we everywhere see between those days and our own. For example, we obtain supplies of grain, such as wheat and corn, and
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supplies of meat, such as beef and pork, in immense trainloads daily coming from the West. Modern trans- portation has made this possible. In those earlier days it was more of a problem to get a cow from an interior Vermont town to Boston or New York or Montreal than it is to-day to get a carload of beef from the western prairie to Europe. Now every step in such a process is carefully provided for, and the business of providing for it has given rise to whole systems of great industries which influence the welfare of millions of people, provide millions of others with daily food, and enter the halls of our national government as questions of public policy.
In colonial days these industries of transportation and the problems connected with them did not exist. That fact accounts for some of the most interesting phases of colonial life and work. Wheat and corn and potatoes could not be easily taken to market, but cattle could be driven, pork could be hauled on the sledges in winter, and potatoes could be turned into starch or whisky. Whisky was a very highly condensed form of grain, starch a condensed form of potato. You will find that the marketable products of the farms went into those forms of merchandise which combined the most value with the least bulk. There were one hundred and twenty-five distilleries in the state in 1810, turning out one hundred and seventy-three thousand gallons of spirituous liquors.
An agricultural community, even in its earliest days, needs certain artisans. It needs, for example, black- smiths, carpenters, masons, tailors, and shoemakers. Individual workmen were more necessary in these crafts
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then than they are to-day, because now great factories do the work, and in the factories cach man does only a small part of the work which is done on the completed article. Then each workman mastered the entire trade and was a sort of factory in himself.
The products of such labor were locally consumed. To-day they enter into trade and come even into the . range of international commerce. The individual black- smith then made many tools ; the individual carpenter made many wares. Over one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars' worth of cabinet work was done in the state in 1810. Fulling mills dressed many yards of cloth. In the year above mentioned the amount was nearly a million yards ; one hundred and sixty-six mills were then operating. The local tannery tanned and dressed many skins. The itinerant cobbler worked no small part of these up into boots and shoes. Sixty- five thousand pairs of boots and more than twice that number of shoes were made in 1810.
Some of these trades necessitated others. The black- smith must have iron. There was plenty of it in the state, and so you will find that the production of iron was localized where ore and fuel were near together. Many little iron mines, foundries, and forges were scat- tered over the older-settled portions of Vermont. There came a time when coke instead of charcoal was used in the furnaces. That did away with the necessity of near-by forests for fuel. There came a time when new processes were invented for converting pig iron into bar in large quantities. That centralized the iron business in certain localities where the largest natural deposits of
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ore were found. So the iron business dropped out of sight in Vermont after a time, except when unusual emergencies created a special demand. At Woodford there was a forge built for making anchors for the gun- boats which Jefferson's administration bequeathed the country. The War of 1812 also acted as a stimulus to Vermont's iron business, as we shall see later.
A Vermont lawyer who was on Governor Chittenden's staff in 1794, and was in the same year sent to England as a special agent for the Episcopal Church, wrote some letters describing the condition of things in Vermont as he knew them before he left the state. The letters were published in a little book in London,1 and they make rather interesting reading now. Among other things this writer very frequently mentions the iron industries of different towns.
We read in his book that Tinmouth then had foundries and a furnace at which all kinds of hollow ware were cast. At Skenesboro were Mr. Arwin's large forges and foundries. Mr. Burnham of Middletown also had large foundries and forges. At Fairhaven a furnace had been erected for casting all kinds of hollow iron- ware. At the same place were also two forges, and a slitting mill for making nail rods. Benson and Orwell, towns on Lake Champlain, abounded with ore and had a number of foundries and forges. At Brandon good bar iron was made. At Chittenden was a large furnace which yielded $10,000 as the proceeds of its second blast in 1795. Between Burlington and Colchester, on the great falls in the Onion River, were Ira Allen's works. At
1 J. A. Graham, Descriptive Sketch of Vermont, London, 1797.
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Vergennes were others. So the account runs on, show- ing us that the iron business was quite a factor in early industry in the state and that the works were scattered over the older western portions. The census of 1810 showed that there were sixty-seven cut-nail factories and sixty-five trip hammers in operation.
The letters also indicate a general thrift among the farming people. The inhabitants of Shaftsbury were said to be wealthy. They had especially favorable mar- kets at Troy and New City. They evidently possessed handsome houses, for it is especially mentioned that they used fine white marble for underpinnings and fire- places. It was also used for tombstones. The uplands of Sunderland produced large crops of hay, wheat, Indian corn, hemp, and flax. There were farmers in Claren- don who cut from two hundred to five hundred tons of hay in a season. They made butter and cheese in abundance, so of course must have had good herds of cattle.
Farmers of the mountain towns, like Readsboro, Stamford, Glastonbury, and Somerset, raised cattle for the markets. In such regions, well up among the hills, game was still abundant. The moose had gone north, and beaver, too, had left the more thickly settled southern portions of the state; but foxes, wolves, deer, bears, and rabbits still remained. The town of Dorset was so infested with wolves that sheep raising was hazardous business.
We hear of the farmers of Cavendish getting lime to use as fertilizer at the kilns of Saltash, now Plymouth. The towns of Ludlow and Reading were also supplied
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from the same source. The soil about Bennington was especially good, and vast quantities of wheat and Indian corn were raised, besides great crops of hay of red and white clover and herd's grass. Winter wheat was then a sure crop in Vermont. Wheat was raised for the New York markets, in fact, until about 1825, in the south- western part of the state.
This part of the state had the advantage of being near water communication to Troy. The markets on the Hudson were always good, and roads were excellent for the times. In winter, especially, when they were smooth with snow and the Hudson was bridged with ice, it was comparatively easy to market any kind of produce. Ox and horse teams were kept busy going to Albany with loads of wheat, pork, beef, butter, cheese, and potash, and returning with store goods or a snug little sum of ready money for the thrifty owner.
We begin to hear more about fruits and fruit raising. Bennington boasted of apples, peaches, pears, red and white plums, grapes, currants, gooseberries, etc. It is said that wax grafting was invented by one of the inhabitants of Shaftsbury, although this was at a later date, and that having perfected the system he taught it to others. So proficient did his disciples in the art become that in the months of April and May the exodus of grafters almost depopulated the town of the male por- tion of its inhabitants.
More evidences of thrift appear in the descriptions of houses of the time. Those at Bennington are said to be positively " elegant." They were made of wooden · frames and filled in with brick and mortar. Some were
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even made entirely of brick. The house of a certain Mr. Tichenor, so the writer of those letters said, had "chimney pieces and hearths of beautiful clouded marble as highly polished as any I have seen in London." If the writer were alive to-day he would be pleased to learn that Vermont marble has not lost any of the reputation which he was one of the first to make known to the Old World.
If one wishes to learn about the life of the people and get a bird's-eye view of what was going on over the state, this eighteenth-century gossip is of no small interest. We learn that the schools of Manchester were especially good; that the town of Newbury was supplied with water by an aqueduct; that the same town had the " most elegant church in the state " and the only bell; that at Bellows Falls Colonel Hale had built a toll- gate across the Connecticut River; that rights of lock navigation had been secured over the falls, so that the settlements above could enjoy the blessings of river transportation; that Windsor had one of the best corn mills in New England; that at Rutland there were an oil mill, a brewery, and a hat factory; that Fairhaven possessed a paper mill, and a printing press which used paper made at the mill from the bark of basswood trees; that ore from a certain lead mine had been taken to London for Dr. Johnson to analyze; that Mr. Clark of Orwell could make Epsom salts from his salt spring by boiling down the water.
The author also makes mention of the great pines in the state, some of them being six feet through at the base. Other fine timber abounded in his day. He
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speaks of the winter travel to Canada by sledges. In various towns schools are mentioned, both day schools and academies. There were seven academies and gram- mar schools incorporated before 1800, and fifteen more before the war. Churches, oftentimes several denomi- nations, existed in almost every town. He says the religion at one place was a "medley of almost every denomination under heaven,"- a condition which would no longer be regarded as peculiar.
Conditions which awaited new settlers seem to have been more favorable than in earlier days. These letters describe settlers as coming from Connecticut to Sand- gate, cutting the timber, chopping it into lengths, piling these in heaps, burning them, collecting the ashes, boil- ing them down into salts, harrowing over the land, and sowing it to wheat or planting Indian corn, without any further cultivation. Wheat was said to yield from thirty to forty bushels per acre. The writer remarked: " Thus the labourer gets his grounds cleared without any expense and with little trouble, and his first harvest seldom fails of yielding him double the original cost of the whole land so cultivated." . By saying that the farmer got his ground cleared without expense the writer probably meant that the product of the ashes would sell for enough to repay the labor of clearing.
B. Industrial Transition
New enterprises were being started. In 18rr the legislature granted a charter authorizing the manufac- ture of glass. A factory was built on the western shore of Lake Dunmore, and ran for many years, employing
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about forty people. At Middlebury, a little before the War of 1812, a stone cotton-factory was built which made cotton cloth that sold for fifty cents a yard. At the same place, a little carlier than this, marble had been found, and a factory was built. It was the first extensive one in the state for working marble. Quar- ries had been opened, however, a good deal earlier. In Dorset, in 1785, Isaac Underhill was making fire jambs, chimney backs, hearths, and lintels for the capacious fireplaces of that day. Limestone or slate had been used previously, but the new fashion of using marble once begun, people came from distances of fifty or a hundred miles to get these beautiful fireplace stones.
This was years before marble was sawn, so the sheets had to be riven off where Nature had formed strata from four to eight inches thick and then hewn into the desired shape and dimensions with mallet and chisel. When one layer ran out, there was nothing to do but find another which had already yielded sufficiently to atmospheric forces to allow the hand of man to com- plete the work.
Railroads had not as yet pierced the state. Steam navigation did not begin until 1808. Over in the eastern part of the state Captain Samuel Morey of Fairlee was years before that working on his model of a steamer, and as early as 1791 constructed a steamer and exhib- ited it on the Connecticut River. He afterward trans- ferred it to Morey Lake, and in 1795 secured a patent. He also showed his invention to friends of Fulton, and tradition says that when a few years later the latter produced his triumphant work the disgusted captain
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sank his own apparatus to the bottom of the lake. It has been searched for, but like Captain Kidd's treasure, non constat. Lake Champlain is not far from the Hud- son River, and it was not long after the Clermont had puffed its victorious way from New York to Albany before one of the finest steamers in the world could be seen tearing about the lake at the terrific speed of five miles an hour. Steam navigation had come to stay.
Of course sailing vessels had traversed the lake for years. In 1749 the Swedish naturalist, Kalm, visited Fort Frederick and found there a sailing vessel plying regularly between that point and St. John's in Canada. That was probably the first such vessel built on the lake; but between the French and the English the practice did not cease, and after the wars were over the lake became a highway of commerce.
One of the few products of the Vermont forest for which there was then a demand was ship timber. This could be marketed only when there was water near to float it to the ports. In Vermont that confined the early lumber business to the vicinity of the Connecti- cut River or Lake Champlain. Since none of the ship timber in western Vermont was on a water route to the New England ports, it was taken to Europe instead. The well-timbered sections of white and Norway pine bordering the lake had through that body and its outlet water communication to Quebec and thence to Europe. In 1786 Ira Allen built at Winooski Falls the first saw- mills in this section and sent the lumber to Quebec. The demand was for oak for ship timber, and white and Norway pine for masts and spars. A good trade grew
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up. The Quebec outlet for Vermont timber lasted a third of a century, and then the trade turned and began to come the other way.
It must have been quite an undertaking to get a raft together and take it through to Quebec as they used to do. The men lived on the raft, equipped with tents, pro- visions, and cooking utensils. On this crude eighteenth-
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