USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. I > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
The first proclamation for a fast was issued the 7th day of June, 1777, by Joseph Bowker, Presi- dent of the Convention, and by its order. It was set forth in the proclamation that, "since God has been pleased in his wisdom to visit the inhabitants of this land with his judgements by suffering our unnatural enemies to wage war against us, the pestilence to prevail," etc., as a just reward for the many prevailing sins, it called upon the people for solemn fasting and prayer. I suppose this was an old theological view of God's dealings with the children of men; that it was a world of special providences. But how different is this from the more reasonable idea that every- thing is worked out by God's natural laws ac- cording to the principles of evolution.
On the 4th day of June, 1777, the Convention passed resolves as a sovereign body, and took ex- clusive jurisdiction of the territory under the new name of Vermont, and soon after, in July, 1777. proceeded to frame and adopt a Constitution for
79
OF VERMONT.
the State. At this time the Convention was very much disturbed by reason of a dispatch from Col. Seth Warner announcing the advance of Burgoyne upon Ticonderoga, and calling for assistance. ' And as a further soveringn act the convention as- serted its right, as against New York, to the County jail at Westminister, and issued orders to a sergeant and six men to guard it.
Many of the militia of Vermont at this time were with a part of the Continental army defend- ing Ticonderoga under General St. Clair, but the pressing needs of that General for assistance, and at the earnest request of Col. Seth Warner, the Convention took further measures to aid the com- mon cause by furnishing more men and stores. While the Convention at Windsor was in session, a dispatch from General St. Clair was received, announcing the evacuation of Ticonderoga on the morning of the 6th of July, 1777, and the pursuit of the retreating Americans by the British, and the attack upon the forces of Col. Warner at Hub- bardton on the morning of the 7th of July.
The Convention received a letter from General St. Clair bearing date at Col. Mead's at Otter Creek, July 7th, 1777, stating, among other things, that, "Finding that the enemy were ready to attack, and that it was morally impossible to maintain the Post with the handful of troops, and at the same time considering how necessary to the States it was to perserve our army, small as it is, it was determined in a council of general offi- cers, that the Post on Ticonderoga and Mount In- dependence, should be evacuated and a retreat at-
.
80
EARLY HISTORY
temped to Skeensborough by the way of Castle- ton," on his march to Bennington.
Before the Convention adjourned, a Council of Safety was appointed to administer the affairs of the State until some other provision in that re- ' gard should be made. This was the first Council appointed under the Constitution. Thomas Chit- tenden, Ira Allen, Moses Robinson, Jonas Fay, Joseph Fay, Paul Spooner, Nathan Clark, and Jacob Bayley were of the number of that Council of Safety. The whole number was twelve, but it is not certain who all the other four were. The duties of this Council were onerous, delicate, and confidential, and owing to the fact that the peo- ple of Vermont had declared their position as an . independent and sovereign State, and had to con- tend against a powerful enemy on the north, and as New Hampshire on the east, Massachusetts on the south, and New York on the west were striv- ing to extend their jurisdiction over Vermont lands, it required men of the best talent and of reliable character, imbued with the most exalted patriotism, to discharge the duties of the Ver- mont Council.
This Council, and those they selected to aid them, were vigilant and thorough in their work in suppressing all action that was intended to favor New York. Their faithful service was shown in the case of Benjamin Spencer of Durham, now called Clarendon. Spencer had held the office of justice of the peace and assistant judge of the court of common pleas under the jurisdiction of New York., He and other New York officers in the
81
OF VERMONT.
neighborhood persisted in issuing writs against New Hampshire grantees, and conveying lands under New York title; and they were charged with seducing and inveigling the people to be subject to the laws and government of New York. Ira Allen said he was "an artful, intriguing and design- ing man." The Vermont leaders visited him with a large body of men in the autumn of 1773, and warned him to desist on penalty of suffering vio- lence, which he did not greatly heed. They made a second visit to him, and Spencer was arrested. The people assembled when Ethan Allen an- nounced that "the proprietors of New Hampshire Grants had appointed himself, Seth Warner, Re- member Baker, and Robert Cochran to inspect and set things in order, and to see that there should be no intruders on the Grants, and said that Durham had become a hornet's nest which must be broken up." Spencer's trial immediately commenced and he was required to stand up with uncovered head. He was charged with the above mentioned offences; in short with cudling with the land jobbers of New York. He was found guilty of all the charges, his house declared to be a nuisance and must be burnt; and he was required to promise that he would no longer act as a New York magistrate. Spencer objected to the destruction of his house and property, as it would be cruelty to his wife and children. The committee modified the order and simply required the roof of the house to be taken off, to be re- placed when Spencer would accept it under the New Hampshire title. This was agreed to, and
10
82
EARLY HISTORY
Spencer promised to no longer act under New York, and he afterwards became a delegate in the Convention at Windsor, pledging to stand by the new State.
Other Yorkers were visited in like manner, with salutary effect. When Burgoyne's army ad- vanced into the country, Spencer sought personal safety with the enemy at Ticonderoga, where he died a few weeks afterwards.
There has been considerable criticism of the con- duct of General St. Clair in not defending Ticonde- roga, and evacuating the place, and exposing the country south, and western Vermont to the rav- ages of the enemy. And it has been asserted by many that his conduct was not consistent with' loyalty to the American cause. On this question I here insert an address delivered by Hon. Lucius E. Chittenden of New York, but formerly of, Bur- lington, Vt., before the Soldiers' re-union at Ben- nington, Vt., on Nov. 5th, 1897. Mr. Chittenden, as a writer on the early history of Vermont, is em- inently qualified to accurately state the facts, and his address can be treated as good authority on the historical facts related by him. The address is worthy of being preserved in a substantial form, and is as follows :-
"I come to address you when my life has "fallen into the sere and yellow leaf," and whatever of ability to interest you I once had has left me, be- cause I hope still to be competent to perform an act of justice to one of the founders of independent Vermont and to correct another chapter of the false history written about her before she had
83
OF VERMONT.
fought her way into the Federal Union. Of the events with which you were personally connected it would be presumptuous for me to speak. Of these, you have your own historians who have written with the bayonet and sabre as well as with the pens of ready writers. Without further preface, then, let me come at once to the event which forms my subject and which ushered in upon this theatre the battle summer of 1777. It is the second capture of Ticonderoga, and its historian, Ira Allen.
"With the current history of this capture, you are familiar. It runs after this wise. Gen. Schuyler was in command of the continental army at Sara- toga; Gen. St. Clair held the twin posts of Ticon- deroga, and Mount Independence on the Vermont shore, the two being connected by a bridge. The army of Burgoyne was approaching by the lake and along the west shore. St. Clair, who was perfectly aware of Burgoyne's advance, had given out that his force was quite sufficient to hold these forts, if attacked, until he could be reinforced from Schuyler's army or from the militia of Vermont and Massachusetts.
"But on the morning after Burgoyne appeared, St. Clair was surprised to find that the British had a battery on the top of Mount Defiance which commanded the interior of Fort Ticonderoga. This position St. Clair supposed was impregnable. Find- ing that the British had taken it and placed a bat- tery upon its top which commanded every square foot inside the fort, there seemed to be no alterna- tive between retreat and surrender. He therefore
84
EARLY HISTORY
summond a council of war, which with equal haste decided to withdraw the army, partly in boats to Skenesborough, now Whitehall, and partly on land, via. Hubbardton, Castleton and a round-about circuit through the woods, to Saratoga.
"This retreat was attended with disaster. That by water had scarcely commenced before the whole region was lighted up by the burning buildings on Mount Independence. The boats exposed were attacked by the British and many of them were captured. Only an insignificant remnant reached Skenesborough.
"The retreat by land was more disastrous. What became of Gen. St. Clair does not appear in the current accounts. But it does appear that the . British pursuit under Gen. Fraser was immediate; that within the first ten miles the retreat of the continentals had become a rout, and that the reg- iments of Francis and Warner, which held the rear, were the only regiments which undertook to pre- serve their formation, and that these regiments protected the retreat from destruction. At Hub- bardton they halted.
"The continentals scattered, and a few of them afterwards came in at Castleton and other south- ern towns. Warner and Francis were attacked the next morning by an overwhelming force of British and Indians, and after a fierce resistance in which over 300 of the British were killed, Fran- cis fell and Warner directed his regiment to retire and make their way as best they could to Manches- ter. There they remained until the great day of Bennington, when Major Safford led them by that
85
OF VERMONT.
night march through the mud to this town, and brought them to their colonel in the field in time to defeat the second column of British and Hes- sians, and to turn a great battle into a great vic- tory.
.
"It has been impossible for anyone to read even the most partisan account of the loss and retreat from Ticonderoga and to suppress his suspicions of the loyalty of Gen. St. Clair. These suspicions were rife at the time. Warner did not hesitate to denounce him, and to declare that his treachery caused the loss of the battle of Hubbardton and the other calamities of that disastrous retreat. There was a court of inquiry, but it was conducted at a time when the country was rejoicing over great victories ; Warner was a soldier who had no love for the role of a prosecutor; the inquiry was very superficial and resulted in St. Clair's acquittal. The account which I have sketched has therefore become the accepted history of the second capture of and the retreat from Ticonderoga.
"I propose to-night to inquire into the histori- cal accuracy of this version. It is a subject in which Vermonters are interested, for it concerns the only defeat that has ever occurred on her soil. It concerns also the reputation of her soldiers and at least one of the founders of independent Vermont who had much to do with bringing her into the Federal Union.
My principal witness will be Ira Allen. As the weight of his evidence depends upon the character of the witness, you will ask :
Who was Ira Allen ?
86
EARLY HISTORY
I answer that he was one of the founders of Vermont. The first governor, assailed for his al- leged favoritism to Ira Allen when he fell into pe- cuniary difficulties, is reported to have exclaimed with an indignation that he seldom exhibited, that he "would not be the governor of a people who found fault with him for helping Ira Allen. For!" he said, "there would have been no Ver- mont if there had not been an Ira Allen." When. in 1774, the governor settled upon his Williston farm, Ira Allen was making a survey of the Col- chester lands, of which he became the owner. It is quite possible that he knew Ira Allen in Connecti- cut. Ira was the brother of Ethan, and the youngest of a family of nine children. We know almost nothing about him until he came to the New Hampshire Grants. There, he became one of the most energetic of the leaders, always working in close connection with Thomas Chittenden. He was a born diplomatist and writer. He was the author or editor of all the Allen pamphlets, which are now so rare and so indispensable to Vermont history. Vermont had no newspaper until 1778. When it became necessary to make public some new phase of the controversy with New York, Ethan Allen would write it out and Ira would re- vise it; or Ira himself would prepare a pamphlet, procure a small edition printed in Hartford, Con- necticut, and distribute it. In this way the case of Vermont in all its changes, was kept before the Continental Congress and the public. He was Thomas Chittenden's most able lieutenant. They were present in all the conventions of the Grants.
87
OF VERMONT.
either as delegates or officers. Both were dele- gates to the convention at Windsor on the sec- ond of July, 1777, when the first constitution was adopted, and the members hastened home to resist the advance of Burgoyne.
"The last act of the Windsor convention was to name a Council of Safety to govern the new State until the State government went into opera- tion. Of that council of eight members, Thomas Chittenden was made president and Ira Allen sec- retary. It was agreed that the council should meet at Manchester as soon as Allen could return from Hartford, where he went to have the consti- tution printed for distribution.
"What time Allen reached Manchester, we do not know, for there is no record of the council meeting there. It was probably about the middle of July. In the meantime, disastrous events had occurred. Ticonderoga had been evacuated; the battle of Hubbardton had been lost; St. Clair, with the remnant of his continentals, was retreat- ing toward Saratoga, and Burgoyne was pursu- ing his triumphal march southward and the whole frontier was open to the enemy.
"Warner, who was now satisfied with the treachery of St. Clair, had directed the men of his regiment to separate and make their way as best they could to Manchester, where he would meet them. They obeyed his orders and about 150 of them reached Manchester, where they remained while Warner went with Gen. Stark to Benning- ton.
"Ira Allen then not only met Col. Warner at
-
88
EARLY HISTORY
Manchester, but he was there when Warner's men, fresh from the retreat and the defeat at Hub- bardton, arrived there. He must have had means of knowledge of the facts of that retreat almost equal to that of having been personally present. When, within a few years afterwards, he wrote out the story, we may, I think, accept it as the true history of the events in the order of their oc- currence.
"Before I lay this interesting document before you, I should explain how it came to be written. After the war was over, Ira Allen purchased of the French directory 15,000 muskets and 21 brass cannon for arming the militia of Vermont. They were shipped from a French port in the 'Olive Branch,' which was captured on the high seas by a British ship and proceeded against in Admir. alty on an unfounded claim that the cargo was in- tended for use in Ireland.
"The case of the 'Olive Branch' is too dark a chapter in English judicial history to be presented in the time at my command. It began in Decem- ber, 1796, when Gen. Allen was probably the wealthiest man in Vermont. It ended in Febru- ary, 1804, when he was a ruined man who could not return to Vermont without being imprisoned for debt. The ship and cargo was discharged be- cause no syllable of evidence against them was ever produced. There was no justificatian or apol- ogy for the capture, and yet Gen. Allen was con- demned to pay the captor's costs, amounting to some four thousand dollars.
"To anyone desiring to understand the scien-
89
OF VERMONT.
tific process of the ruining a man by litigation, where the party is a nation having one of its own judges at command, I recommend the study of Ira Allen's account of the 'Olive Branch,' published in 1805. It comprises 550 closely written pages and is a history of judicial oppression and tyranny which would be incredible were it not supported by documentary proof. It accomplished its in- tended purposes, for it crushed the most patriotic, brilliant and deserving of the early Vermonters, and drove him to his death in exile and in pov- erty. It is not agreeable to me to be compelled to make the admission that we do not even know where his body lies buried.
"The 'Olive Branch' is the first reported case in the British Court of Admiralty. Ira Allen deter- mined that such an exhibition from the English ju- dicial bench should not be lost to posterity. He paid for the report, and the case now stands at the head of a long list of reported cases in which no parallel to it can be found. I will give you one example from the report.
"Sir James Marriot was an irritable old man long past his usefulness, if that condition ever ex- isted. Mr. Pitt had offered him a pension for life and an Irish peerage if he would resign. But he would not be tempted. The 'Olive Branch,' how- ever, was his last judicial appearance. He was succeeded by that able judge, Sir Walter Scott, who was one of the counsel for the captors of the 'Olive Branch.'
"On a motion for the discharge of the 'Olive Branch,' while the counsel for the claimant was 11
90
EARLY HISTORY
pointing out that there was not one syllable of proof to sustain the allegation of the captors, Judge Marriot burst in upon him with this fulmi- nation :
"'Why, Doctor Nicholl! I am surprised that you will attempt to support such a cause. What! the State of Vermont want 20,000 stands of arms? No such thing; 400 or 500 would be enough for them. Why, they are a young, sucking State. The people are a banditti, transported for crimes from France and England ; not well settled in government. These arms may be intended for use against Mr. Washington. The claimant is like Romulous and Remus who sucked the wolf, full of fight and revolution. I knew he was a military man by his step on the floor and his name (Ira), which denotes rage, revenge and madness.' The lawyer who reads this paragraph will not be sur- prised that Judge Marriot condemned the cargo of the 'Olive Branch.' True, it was held on appeal that there was not a particle of evidence to sustain the finding, but Judge Marriot was not embar- rassed by a little fact like that. He would prob- ably have condemned the ship if the captors had not consented to her discharge.
"Why was Ira Allen dogged to his ruin by Brit- ish emissaries ? Unfounded suits for hundreds of thousands of dollars were commenced against him by London traders, in which he had to give bail. They pursued him to Paris, had him arrested and confined, without fire or light, in the cold of win- ter, in the prisons of the Temple and St. Pelagie. And when finally he compelled a decision in his fa-
91
OF VERMONT.
vor, it was with the singular condition that he must pay the captor's costs of three thousand three hundred pounds. For Ira Allen was a fighter. Through these seven years he had stood as the vindicator of Vermont in London. There he wrote his history in her defence. There he com- pelled even Judge Marriot to retract his libels on the people by showing that Vermont was settled by the best emigrants from Connecticut and other New England States, and he never gave up the fight until though ruined in fortune, he was vindi- cated as a Vermonter.
"The treatment of Ira Allen is so. contrary to British notions of fair play, is apparently so causeless and inexcusable, that many have long believed in and looking for a secret and deep- seated cause for it. I have been one of their num- ber, and I now believe that cause is susceptible of explanation. I shall make no apology for at- tempting to explain it, for if I succeed I shall have made a valuable contribution to our early history.
"The Allens' were a family of fighters. Ethan had captured Ticonderoga, invaded Canada, and when captured and made a show in England, had never failed to beard the British lion and show his contempt for him at every opportunity. Ira was not a soldier, but he was the most adroit and skilful of the early leaders. It was largely through his influence that Vermont, when rejected by Congress and opposed by the surrounding States, instead of yielding to the apparently inevit- able, became independent and stood upon her own resources.
92
EARLY HISTORY
"And there came a time when it seemed that the Vermonters must vield. It was after the win- ter at Valley Forge. The military strength of Ver- mont of males from 16 to 45 was over 7000 men, and they were almost all in the army. Warner's regiment of Vermonters was withdrawn from the State and put under continental authority. Every gun, even the spades and pick axes, had been or- dered out of the State for the use of the 'army. Then it was that Governor Chittenden made a statement of the facts to General Washington and showed that the whole frontier was open to Brit- ish invasion, and asked him what the Vermonters
. were to do. Washington replied in substance, admitting the truth of the governor's statement, and stating that the fate of the war depended upon keeping his army together; that there was no other way to do it, and that the Vermonters must be left to take care of themselves.
"And this occurred just at the time when the British agents were tempting our generals with bribes of money and place. Arnold yielded, but he was the only traitor. The same agent, Beverly Robinson, made similar offers to Ethan Allen, and his response to the tempting offer was to send the letters which made it, to Congress.
"It was then that Ira Allen preformed the great act of his life-an act for which Vermonters should honor his name and defend his memory. The famous Haldimand negotiation for a truce and au exchange of prisioners was opened and its manage- ment was entrusted to Ira Allen. I cannot here go into details. I can only speak of its results.
93
OF VERMONT.
The whole Northern frontier was open and un- defended. On one side of it lay Vermont and a part of New York; on the other were ten thousand disciplined British regulars, and there they lay all through the years 1780 and 1781, and until the capture of Cornwallis and his army put an end to the war and secured the independence of the United States of America. And the entire negotiations were conducted with such diplomatic ability and skill that no accusation was ever made of the slightest deception, misrepresentation or unfair- ness on the part of Ira Allen or his associates.
"Until the logic of facts convinced him of his error, Allen relied confidently upon the impar- tiality of the Court of Admiralty, and with Sir Thomas Erskine, one of his council, referred to his services in the Revolution as not discreditable to his standing in a British court. When confined in the Temple prison in Paris in November, 1791, he had addressed a letter to the French Directory showing that himself and his family had been in- fluentialin ripening and bringing about the Revolu- tion, in the capture of Ticonderoga, in cutting off the right wing of Burgoyne's army, and in keeping the British in Canada, inactive in 1780 and 1781. This letter was before Judge Marriot's court, and there are powerful reasons for supposing that had much to do with influencing Judge Marriot's de- cision. In fact, it is impossible to account for the temper and partiality of that decision in any other way. If the purpose existed to ruin Allen in return for his success in the Haldimand negotiation, Judge Marriot proved to be a very willing instrument in carrying that purpose into execution.
.
94
EARLY HISTORY
"That Allen believed that the court was influ- enced by the prejudices excited against him is evi- dent from his own comments upon the case. On page 390 of the report, he says : 'In the course of events that took place in the Revolutionary War, British gold was repeatedly offered to my deceased brother, Col. Ethan Allen, the late Col. Joseph Fay and the claimant.'
"If the exertions of the Council of Safety in Ver- mont disconcerted any mysterious plans of the British cabinet and their generals and thereby con- tributed to the capture of Burgoyne and his army, it might have been the means of raising greater prejudices against the claimant in the Court of Admiralty. If these early exertions in defense of his native country, (for he was an active member of the Council) furnished ground for a judge of the Court of Admiralty to impeach his character and condemn his property, taken on the high seas, it must be a hard case if it does not furnish some support of his character and rights in the United States against the speculators there, engaged in a conspiracy against him.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.