USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. I > Part 14
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Hamilton in reply, on July 22, 1788, said that
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"the accession of Vermont to the Confederacy is doubtless an object of great importance to the whole. * * Upon the whole, therefore, I think it will be expedient for you as early as possible, to ratify the Constitution, upon condition that Congress shall provide for the extinguishment of all existing claims to lands under grants of the State of New York, which may interfere with claims under the State of Vermont."
In Grand Committee of both Houses, on Oct. 22, 1787, Moses Robinson, Ira Allen and Jonathan Arnold were elected agents to Congress ; and on Oct. 25, 1787, the General Assembly re- solved that it be the duty of the agents to Con- gress to use all due diligence to remove every ob- stacle to the accession of the State to the Federal government. John Jay and more than sixty oth- ers of New York presented their memorial to the New York Legislature suggesting it would be ex- pedient to appoint commissioners with full powers to treat of and agree to, the independence of Ver- mont ; and on Feb. 27, 1789, the New York Assem- bly again passed a bill on a vote of 40 to 11, de- claring the consent of the Legislature of that State to erecting the district of Vermont into a new State by Congress.
This billalso was defeated in the Senate. But on July 6, 1789, the New York Assembly passed a bill, that became a law, appointing seven Commis- sioners to declare the consent of the Legislature to erect the Vermont territory into a new State on such terms and conditions and in such manner and form as they should judge necessary and proper,
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with the restriction that no person claiming lands in such district should have any right to any com- pensation whatsoever from New York.
On July 23, 1789, the Vermont Legislature ap- pointed, also, seven Commissioners with like pow- ers, purposes and restrictions. Upon this subject the following lines were published in the Vermont Gazette Jan. 25, 1790 :-
At Westminster, lately, the State of Vermont, After due consultation determined upon't, That seven good men were sufficient to join With New York to determine the government line, Remove all obstructions and point out the way For Vermont in the Union her stars to display : But alas ! brother freeman, I fear it will prove
We have raised six or seven new blocks to remove.
The Vermont Commissioners went to Albany to fulfil the duties of their appointment and to con- fer with the New York Commission; and a long correspondence took place between the two Boards of Commissioners. The New York Commissioners concluded the powers given them were not suffi- ciently broad to treat fully on all the subjects of the controversy. They, however, afterwards ob- tained ample power from their Legislature. The two Boards met at New York on Sept. 27, 1790, and after a long negotiation the two Boards of Commissioners agreed, and executed a formal in- strument in writing as a basis of final adjustment of the whole controversy.
By this agreement New York was to give her consent that Vermont be admitted asone of the United States of America, and the boundary line between the two States, to be where it now is; and on the admission of Vermont, all claims of
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jurisdiction from the State of New York, within the State of Vermont, should cease; that if the Legislature of the State of Vermont should on or before Jan. 1, 1792, declare that the State of Ver- mont, should on or before June 1, 1794, pay the State of New York the sum of thirty thousand dollars, then all right and title of New York, to lands within the State of Vermont under grants from the government of the late Colony of New York, or from the. State of New York, should cease. If Vermont should not elect to make such declaration, it was provided in the instrument how New York should be compensated in lieu of the thirty thousand dollars.
As Vermont made the required declaration and afterwards paid the thirty thousand dollars to New York, we omit the other provision. The Vermont Commissioners reported to the Legisla- ture of Vermont that they closed the negotiations with New York on Oct. 7, 1790. And on Oct. 28. 1790, it was enacted by the Legislature of Ver- mont that the treasurer of the State pay to the State of New York the thirty thousand dollars on or before June 1, 1794, and that the boundary line, agreed upon, be made perpetual, and that all grants, charters, or patents made by or under the government of the late Colony of New York, in the Vermont district, except such as were made in confirmation of grants, charters or patents by or under the government of the late Province of New Hampshire, "are declared nul and void, and in- capable of being given in evidence in any court of law within this State."
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Alexander Hamilton exerted a greater influence in obtaining the consent of New York to the inde- pendence of Vermont and to her admission into the American Union, than any other citizen of New York. He was a man of great abilities and a statesman of whom Vermonters have ever had the highest regard, and her people regretted his un- timely death.
An Act was passed by the Legislature of Ver- mont on Oct. 27, 1790, authorizing a convention to be called, to consist of one delegate from each town, to meet at Bennington Jan. 6, 1791, to de- liberate upon and agree to the Constitution of the United States. The delegates were elected, and the Convention met as provided by the Act. The general question arose in the convention whether it would be expedient or inexpedient for Vermont to enter the Federal Union. Nathaniel Chipman, the delegate from Rutland and a lawyer of supe- rior abilities, took a leading part in favor of the State entering the Federal Union and agreeing to the Constitution of the United States. His argu- ments were strong and convincing. He said in part, in substance, that the narrow limits of Ver- mont were wholly inadequate to support the dig- nity or to defend the rights of Sovereignty; the division of an extensive territory into small inde- pendent Sovereignties greatly retards civil im- provements, but when small States are united un- der one general government, civilization has pro- ceeded, more rapidly, and the kindly affections have much sooner gained an ascendent than when they remained under numerous neighboring gov-
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ernments: the weak are jealous of the strong and endeavor by art and cunning to supply their want of power; the strong are ever ready to decide every question by force according to their own in- terest, that creates a want of public faith, recrim- ination and animosities. In an extensive govern- ment, national prejudices are suppressed, hostili- ties are removed to a distance, and private in- juries are redressed by a common judge; the peo- ple view all as members of one great family, con- nected by all the ties of interest, of country, of affinity and blood.
We are almost encircled by the United States that have become great and powerful, and our in- tercourse with them must be on very unequal terms. When our interests clash with those of the Union, it requires very little political sagacity to foretell that every sacrifice must be made on our part. In the event of war between Great Britain and the United States, Vermont would be in a sit- uation much to be regretted. Our country, from its situation, would become a rendezvous and a thoroughfare to the spies of both nations. Con- fined to the narrow limits of Vermont, genius, for want of great occasions, and great objects, will languish, and the spirit of learning will be con- tracted and busy itself in small scenes, commensur- ate to the exigencies of the State, and the narrow limits of our government; but admitted into the Union, instead of being confined to the narrow limits of Vermont, we become members of an ex- tensive empire, social feelings willexpand, channels of information will be opened wide and the spirit
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of learning and laudable ambition will be called forth.
Daniel Buck, the delegate from Norwich, op- posed the admission of Vermont. Hesaid, in part, in substance, that Vermont, by her local situation, had a uniformity of interest; that there was no mercantile and landed interests found clashing here, and that of lord and tenant was not known; the laws, therefore, were simple and suited to the whole; the affairs of government were managed, as it were, under the eye of the people and the ma- chine was so small that every one could look and see how the wheel moved, but if Vermont came into the Union the sacrifice she makes must be great-her interest must bend to the interest of the Union; that the people of the State must be much happier unconnected with any other power, than to be in the Union.
The Convention on Jan. 10, 1791, by a vote of 105 to 4, assented to and ratified the Constitu- tion of the United States. The main act or reso- lution of the Convention was as follows: viz., "This Convention having impartially deliberated upon the Constitution of the United States of America as now established, submitted to us by an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Vermont passed Oct. 27, 1790, do in virtue of the power and authority to us given, for that pur- pose, fully and entirely approve of, assent to, and ratify the said Constitution; and declare that, immediately from, and after this State shall be ad- mitted by the Congress into the Union, and to a full participation of the benefits of the government
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now enjoyed by the States in the Union, the same shall be binding on us and the people of the State of Vermont forever."
A duplicate of said Act and resolution was transmitted to the President of the United States. When the news of the result of the Convention was received at Albany, New York, Jan. 13, 1791, the independent company of artillery paraded in uniform, and fired a Federal salute of 14 guns, followed by three cheerful huzzas from the respect- able citizens.
At Rutland, Vt., a celebration was held, and after a collation, fifteen toasts were drank, with the discharge of cannon. The following song composed for the occasion was sung : viz,-
Come every Federal son, Let each Vermonter come.
And take his glass Long live great Washington, Glory's immortal son ; Bright as the rolling sun. O'er us doth pass.
Hail, Hail this happy day.
When we allegiance pay, T' our Federal head, Bright in these western skies.
Shall our new star arise,
Strike our enemies With fear and dread.
Come each Green Mountain Boy. Swell every breast with joy, Hail our good land, As our pines climb the air Firm as our mountains are, Federal beyond compare Proudly we stand.
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Fill, Fill your bumpers high, Let the notes rend the sky, Free we'll remain, By that immortal crown Of Glory and renown, Which our brave heroes won On blood stained plain.
Then come join hand in hand Like a firm Federal band, Bound by our [one ] law, From our firm Union spring Blessings unknown to kings, Then each shout as he sings Federal huzza.
On 'Jme 20, 1791, the General Assembly of Vermont passed an Act for the appointment of . commissioners to look after the interest of the State in the matter of her admission into the Union; and Nathaniel Chipman and Lewis R. Morris were appointed such commissioners, and they repaired to Philadelphia in discharge of their duties. The Act for the admission of the State of Vermont into the Union was as follows; viz :-
"The State of Vermont having petitioned the Congress to be admitted a member of the United States-Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, and it is hereby enacted and declared, that on the fourth day of March, 1791, the said State, by the name and style of, 'The State of Vermont,' shall be received and admitted into this Union, as a new and entire member of the United States of America."
This bill passed the House Feb. 14, 1791, and
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it passed the Senate and was duly signed by John Adams, President of the Senate, and by George Washington, President of the United States, Feb. 18, 1791. And on Feb. 25, 1791, Congress enact- ed a law giving Vermont two Representatives in Congress, and on March 2, 1791, passed an Act giving effect to the laws of the United States with- in the State of Vermont, and constituting Vermont one judicial district, of which Nathaniel Chipman was appointed Judge by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate.
We have now come down to a period in the his- tory of Vermont when she first stood as one of the sovereign States of the United States of America. We have seen she has filled a unique place in his- tory. She is the only State of the Union, save Texas, that for years held her place among the nations of the earth absolutely independent from all other nations, Kingdoms or States, rendering obedience . to no other power. She established post offices and post routes within her borders, issued bills of credit, coined money, made treaties with foreign powers and agreed with them on the terms of exchange of prisoners in time of war, and other sovereign acts that the States of the Union could not exercise under the Constitution of the United States. She was not only the first State that was admitted into the Union after the orig. inal thirteen Colonies had become confederated, but was the first State that never had tolerated Slavery within her borders.
There has been a misunderstanding or dispute as to whether persons were ever held as slaves in
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Vermont. The official printed reports of the cen- sus of the United States assigned sixteen slaves to Vermont in 1790, or 1791, all in the County of Bennington. The fact was discovered after the publication of the report, that the persons charged to Vermont in 1790, as slaves, were free blacks.
The most severe battle that was fought on the soil of Vermont while she was acting as an inde- pendent jurisdiction was near the present village of Bennington on August 16, 1777. The victory there won over the British forces was made pos- sible by the heroism and the blood shed by the brave Green Mountain Boys. The defeat of the enemy on the field hastened the surrender of the British army under General Burgoyne at Saratoga, and the surrender of the Royal troops under Gen- eral Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, and the close of the War of the Revolution.
It is but a few years since, that the spot where that battle was fought and victory won, was. marked by the erection of a monument. The General Assembly of Vermont passed an act Nov. 28, 1876, incorporating the Bennington Battle Monument Association, for the purpose of erect- ing and maintaining a suitable monument com- memorative of the achievements of General John Stark and the patriot soldiers of Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts at the decisive battle of Bennington. The monument was erect- ed, the shaft of which was 100 feet high, at the expense, with the grounds, of $90,000. The one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Benning- ton was celebrated at Bennington on a grand
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scale, and with imposing ceremonies, on August 16th, 1877.
The Battle of Bennington was not commemor- ated by the erection of this monument on account of the large numbers engaged (for the numbers were small in comparison to the great battles of the world, like Waterloo and Gettysburgh), but it is remembered for the principle at stake, the hero- ism and self-sacrifice displayed. Judged by these standards, it will be reckoned among the memor- able battles of the world.
At the time the chances seemed to be desperate. Burgoyne was making a successful march with a trained veteran army from Canada to the Hudson to connect with the British force under General Clinton. Ticonderoga had fallen, and the Ver- monters had been defeated at Hubbardton, and it looked as though Burgoyne's march to Albany could not be prevented. The whole frontier of Vermont was exposed to the enemy composed of British troops and savages. The left flank of Burgoyne's army must be struck and vanquished. for it was nearing Bennington, where the supplies for the Vermont soldiers were stored. What was done must be done quickly. The situation was critical. Soldiers from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and the Green Mountain Boys from their farms were quickly gathered, and they under General John Stark, seconded by Warner, met the enemy on August 16, 1777, and won a victory that not only saved Vermont from the incursion of the British troops and savages, but the nation.
In that battle the Vermont farmers fought
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with desperation; it was the' last hope of the Hampshire Grants, who were fighting as Hon. E. J. Phelps said in his dedicatory address, "for all they had on earth, whether of possession or of rights. They could not go home defeated, for they would have had no homes to go to." Their vic- tory sounded the first notes of the death knell of the power of Great Britain over the American Colonies. It revived the drooping spirits of the American Generals and of Congress.
Hon. John W. Stewart, Ex-Governor of Ver- mont, in an address delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of the monument the 16th day of August, 18$7, said, that, "Our fathers did rally and stand here, like a wall of consuming fire, against the invading host, and their rally and ·battle and victory will forever stand in American history as one of the most dramatic and eventful episodes recorded on its pages. Probably few, if any, of those engaged in the battle began to meas- ure the momentous consequences which hung upon its issue. It seemed to them simply a strug- gle for the capture or the retention of a quantity of supplies, and so far important; but the far- reaching consequences of the result could not then be foreseen. Our fathers builded better than they knew. We estimate the value of their services in the light of subsequent events. But their want of foreknowledge does not detract, in the slightest degree, from the moral quality of their action. That lies in their ready, unselfish loyalty to a peril- ous duty, and their prompt response to its call at the risk of life itself.
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"No race of .men ever trod this planet, who more than they revered and respected rightful au- thority, divine and human, and it was the right- ness and righteous exercise of authority which commanded their respect and allegiance. Its abuse they knew was outside the functions of govern- ment and therefore intolerable. * * On Aug- ust 14 Baum had reached a point about six miles from Bennington and had captured a large quanti- ty of wheat and flour at Sacoik mill. From here he wrote a dispatch to Burgoyne, that about 1800 militia were in his front, which would leave at his approach; of which another has wittily said, they did leave but took Baum's whole army along with them. On the night of the 14th Baum en- trenched his army in a strong position. On the 15th it rained. On the 16th Stark attacked the entrenched and disciplined troops on all sides. They made a brave defense, but they were nearly all killed or taken prisoners. Immediately after the battle was over Col. Brevman, sent to rein- force Baum with five or six hundred men, was ob- served approaching, with whom a second battle was fought, continuing until sunset, when the ene- my fled, leaving his artillery and escaping in the darkness. About 700 of the enemy were captured and 207 men killed. Burgoyne in a pri- vate letter to the British minister, soon after the battle, said, the New Hampshire Grants, in par- ticular, a country unpeopled in the last war, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race of the continent and hangs like a gathering storm on my left."
CHAPTER XIII.
A RESUME AND EARLY HISTORY OF VER- MONT CONCLUDED.
There has been presented in this and the previ- ous chapters the main features of the struggle of the Green Mountain Boys for an independent ex- istence from New Hampshire and New York. It is not possible to crowd into one volume of moder- ate size all the acts and a detailed history of the people of the territory named Vermont, and shall be content with a short resume.
Before the American Revolution the New Hamp- shire Grants were engaged in their conflict with New York. The Grants had taken and paid for their lands as a part of the Colony of New Hamp- shire, under grants from its governor as agent of the British Crown. New York, for more than a hundred years from the date of her own charter, attempted no jurisdiction over the Grants. But after the settlements began to be numerous and had grown to considerable importance, New York, greedy to enlarge her boundaries, arbitrarily began to claim that her eastern boundary extend- ed to Connecticut River. The loosely drawn and even conflicting charters of New Hampshire and New York invited a controversy. The greater in- fluence and power of New York obtained from the Crown an order establishing the Connecticut as the dividing line, and then claimed that all of the
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grants of land, that had been made by the Gov- ernor of New Hampshire, were void, and claimed the right to and did grant the same land to others, to some extent.
The Grantsclaimed that if the decree or order of the Crown had any effect it could not be retro- active; that it did not invalidate titles that had become vested in the possessor, whether acquired under the New Hampshire charters or grants or by adverse possession. The settlers resisted the claim of New York and their efforts to confiscate their land, and in 1767, succeeded in again bring- ing the subject before the King and Council, who reheard the matter and positively forbid New York making further grants of land that had been granted by New Hampshire prior to 1764, but New York, nevertheless, continued to makegrants. The settlers were without money and had no means to resist the arbitrary course of New York. Justice was denied them in the Courts of New York. Then they set the authority of New York at defiance and resolved to protect themselves. How well the grants succeeded has been told in these pages. When the authority of Great Britain was thrown off, the organization of a separate government was a necessity unless they submitted to the arbitrary power of New York, as New Hampshire, after the Royal order of 1764, had withdrawn all claim to lands west of Connecticut River.
In 1777, a Constitution was drafted and rati- fied, and an election was held under it, and Thomas Chittenden was made Governor. Under this con-
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stitution Vermont was for thirteen years an inde- pendent community, when it was admitted as an independent State. Down to this time she had maintained herself against New York and against Congress. Hon. E. J. Phelps, said, in an oration delivered at the dedication of the Bennington Battle monument, that, "No oppression charged upon Great Britain by America, approached that sought to be visited by Congress and New York upon Vermont, while she was fighting side by side with them to her last man and last dollar, in the struggle for national independence."
The more closely westudy the lives and achieve- ments of early Vermont men, the greater is our ad- miration for their patriotism, their love of liberty, their character and capacity. It came to be seen by New York that the right of self-government ought not to be denied to Vermont, nor the lands of her people taken from them, and that such re- sults could only be attained by a war of extermi- nation. The demands of Vermont were finally conceded. So Vermont came more than a hun- dred years ago into the sisterhood of the States -- the first accession to the thirteen original States. She came into the Union unconquerable in spirit, proud of her untarnished history, and reluctant to surrender the independence that had cost so much and been cherished so long. But she came to re- main.
Mr. Phelps, in the oration referred to, referring to the monument, said, "Long before it shall cease to be reckoned as young, we and our children will have disappeared from the scene. It is our mes-
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senger to posterity. Here it shall wait for them, while the successive generations shall be born and die. Here it shall wait for them, through the evenings and the mornings that shall be all the days that are to come. Crowned with the snows of countless winters; beautiful in the sunlight and shadows of unnumbered summers; companions of the mountains which look down upon it, whose height it emulates, whose strength it typifies, whose history it declares. *
* Itshall tell the story not only of Stark and Warner and Chitten- den and Symonds, the Allens and the Fays and the Robinsons, and their compeers, but of that multi- tude of their humbler associates, less conspicuous, but just as devoted, whose names are only written in the memory of God."
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