USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. I > Part 7
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"I think as Allen's countrymen we may ask if it was not intended to punish Allen for defeating the projects of the British in Canada. Why does Judge Marriot, after being driven from the first ground stated in his sentence of condemnation, at this late period in the trial in the Court of Appeals aban- don these suggestions about Ireland, and then raise suspicions without one syllable of evidence, after near two years diligent inquiry respecting hostile designs against the Canadians?
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"After the decision in his favor, which, at the end of eight years of litigation had ruined him, was too late to be of any value, Allen made some at- tempts to secure indemnity for his losses from the British government which he believed was respon- sible for Judge Marriot's conduct. In this he failed ; and then for his own vindication he wrote and published the history of the litigation and the matters connected with it. The volume is now of great rarity, and most indispensible to the early history of Vermont. In it occurs the document to which I have already called your attention. It is entitled 'Ticonderoga Evacuated.' I can only give it in a condensed form as follows :-
"On the 6th day of July, 1777, while it was yet dark, the Americans evacuated the garrison of Ti- conderoga and its dependencies, previous to which the commandant had requested assistance from the militia of Vermont in virtue of which about nine hundred and fifty militia men had assembled at said garrison; some officers that were members of a convention to form a constitution for said State had been excused that service on the frontier . and gone to Windsor. The militia of Vermont were united in one regiment under the command of Col. Moses Robinson and Major Heber Allen as field officer ; Joseph Fay, as adjutant; James Brooklings, as quartermaster.
"'This regiment was quartered within the fort in the barracks, and, as the continental troops were without and around them, it was said by an old aid-de-camp of the general that it was not nec- essary to keep out guards, and when they were
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wanted to man the lines they would be notified. In this situation, said regiment remained from their arrival on Thursday until Saturday evening, when they received orders to lie on their arms as they might be called on to man the lines before daylight. Towards day, Col. Robinson, being un- well, called on Adjutant Fay to get him some wa- ter. On his going out, he saw the general's house on fire, by the light of which he discovered that all the tents were struck and removed, and not a man to be seen on the ground. He immediately returned to Col. Robinson with this information; the regi- ment was ordered to parade, when Col. Robinson ordered Major Allen to take the front and march, quick time, to Mount Independence, and brought . up the rear himself. Just as the front entered on the bridge to pass from Ticonderoga to said Mount, the British arrived at the outposts, as ap- peared by their firing and shouting for success. As the rear left the bridge, the British shipping in the lake were bearing down under a press of sail.
"'I pause here to ask: If this account is true, what becomes of the discovery of the battery on Mount Defiance and the council of war, in the St. Clair version, which advises the evacuation ?'
"Allen's account continues that when the regi- ment had marched about a half mile to the top of the Mount, Major Allen found two regiments of continentals there and ordered his own to halt. The vessels had then reached the bridge and com- menced firing.
""But for the providence that led Col. Robinson for water,' continues Ira Allen, 'in twenty minutes
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more, nearly 1000 Vermonters would have been prisoners to Gen. Burgoyne. For neither Gen. St. Clair, or any of his officers, had given Col. Robin- son the least information of the intended evacua- tion, although Robinson's regiment comprised nearly one-fourth of St. Clair's army, and every man but that regiment had crossed the bridge, or gone by water toward Skenesboro, a considerable time before.'
"On the top of Mount Independence, Major Al- len found Gen. St. Clair and two regiments of con- tinentals. St. Clair seeing the Vermonters halted, asked : 'What regiment is that?' 'Col. Robin- son's', was the answer. 'What!' exclaimed St. Clair in a tone of surprise. 'Of the militia?' 'Yes,' replied Major Allen, 'of the militia.'
"I remark here, as Ira Allen implies in a note, there were good reasons for St. Clair's surprise. He had stolen away in the silence of the night, leaving his regiment to be made prisoners to Bur- goyne, and now they were here, under their own officers, in no temper to be trifled with by the trai- tor who had intended to betray them.
"According to Allen's account, St. Clair under- took to assume the command just as though nothing had happened. He ordered the Ver- monters to remain where they were until all the continentals had passed and then to bring up and protect the rear, thus exposing them to all the danger of the actual pursuit of the enemy, which he knew was inevitable.
"Major Hebar Allen was sufficiently convinced of St. Clair's treachery to Vermonters, to justify
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him in repudiating his authority and disobeying his orders. Ira Allen's account states that the major told St. Clair to his face, and with emphasis that the regiment did not come there to guard the continentals but to assist them; and turning to the regiment gave it the order to march.
"St. Clair then ordered Warner to guard the road of the retreating continentals. Warner re- plied that 'by the rules of war, his place was in the front and not in the rear, but he could only obey orders.'
"The retreat then began by the road to Castle- ton. Within the first mile it become a panic-stricken rout. The continentals did not attempt to pre- serve their formation and broke up in the utmost. confusion. The panic was increased when St. Clair and his staff, on horseback, dashed through and rode down the crowd until they reached the front.
"Within the first five miles, Warner repeatedly sent to the front to halt until some order could be restored. No attention was paid to him. Then Warner himself rode through the crowd until he overtook St. Clair and demanded 'What in the name of God' he meant by such confusion? said that there was neither front, rear or flank guards, nor one regiment or company together; that no officer knew his men nor men their officer; and that asmall party of the enemy would capture the whole body. St. Clair then ordered Warner to stop and see that the men passed in files, and then to take the rear. St. Clair and his aids kept the front to Lacey's camp, fifteen miles from Mount Independence. He then ordered the men to halt
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and sit down on each side of the road. Major Al- len with about 200 men of the Vermonters, appre- hensive that parties of the enemy were by this time distressing their families, were marching with trailed arms until they came up with St. Clair, who ordered them to halt. No attention was paid to his orders; he then gave peremptory orders for them to halt or he would order the continentals to fire on them. 'Fire and be damned, if you dare,' was the indignant reply of Major Allen. His men cocked their guns and marched past St. Clair. In about a mile they discovered the trail made by a party of the enemy, which they crossed and marched rapidly to Castleton Mills, which they found in possession of the enemy. Robinson's men were then ordered to disperse, and each man was directed to go to the defence of his family and home, for these men all lived in the frontier towns.
"At Hubbardton, Warner found the regiments of Francis and Hale, and with them decided to wait for the attack of the pursuing enemy. The next morning they were attacked by the British under Colonel Fraser and a force of nearly twice their number. The regiments of Warner and Fran- cis defended themselves with their usual courage, inflicted a loss on the British of over three hundred, and would have defeated them had not Francis mistaken a movement of Warner to a less exposed position for a retreat. Francis was killed, and Warner ordered his men to disperse and make their way to Manchester. St. Clair had reached Castle- ton when he heard the guns of the battle at Hub- bardton. Several of his officers wished to go to
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the assistance of the Vermonters, but St. Clair for- bid them. Capt. Fletcher of the militia ordered his company to leave their packs with the guard and follow him. St. Clair ordered them to stop. But Fletcher and his men went on until they were met with the news of the defeat. Then the brave St. Clair with the guns of Hubbardton booming in his rear, continued his flight to Rutland, Claren- don, Wallingford, Hardwick, Manchester, Sunder- land, Arlington, White Creek or Salem to General Schuyler's headquarters at Saratoga.
"This was a circuit of thirty miles and left this part of Vermont exposed to the ravages of the enemy. Warner's men gave the people some assist- ance in saving their cattle and goods; Capt. Gid Brownson made a stand with his company at Pawlet until Warner collected his men at Man- chester.
"Ira Allen further says that St. Clair was a citi- zen of Pennsylvania, that the grants of that State covered lands previously granted by the Colony of Connecticut to the Delaware and Susquehanna com- panies; that disputes existed between the claim- ants and blood had been repeatedly shed; that in 1778 a great part of the settlers under said com- panies had been killed by the common enemy, and that St. Clair participated in the prejudices of Penn- sylvania against Vermonters and other men of New England origin.
"The remaining portions of Allen's article, while they are not pertinent to the loyalty of St. Clair. are of great interest to Vermonters. He said that circumstances in 1780 led the Vermonters to be-
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lieve that their frontiers were left exposed to the enemies through the influence of the land claimants of New York. But the negotiations and truce be- tween the British in Canada and the Vermonters protected her alike against the British and the in- trigues of the land claimants of New York.
"The capture of General Burgoyne and his army (continues Allen) was of the first consequence to the cause of the United States from its more than threefold effect; first in uniting and strengthening the people and their armies; second, in discourag- ing the British, Hessian and Loyalist troops in America, strengthening the minority and opposers of the war in England; thirdly, it enabled the United States to make a treaty with the French nation in 177S which brought the French fleets and armies to their assistance and opened the French ports to the cruisers of the United States; and, finally, the truce between Vermont and the British in Canada, kept 10,000 troops inactive in 1780 and 1781, and enabled General Washington to recall his forces from the north and concert measures with the French Admiral and General for the capture of Cornwallis and his army.
"There is much more of interest to Vermonters in this record of Ira Allen's, but I must not further trespass upon your time by its presentation. You have done great things for the honor of Vermont ; you may yet do one more. You may advocate until you secure a history of early Vermont which shall do full justice to the members of the Vermont Council of Safety. Then will the story of the battle summer be remembered as long as the de-
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feat of Pickett's charge, and the name of Ira Allen and George J. Stannard shine in her annals with equal and undiminishing lustre.
"Comrades: You are standing on consecrated ground. Bennington, like the field of Gettysburg, has been enriched by the blood and hallowed by the devotion of brave men. Our fathers have made it renowned while the bronze monument of Cata- mount Tavern stands. If you would know of, what metal they are made, come here and see.
"It is July of the battle summer of 1777. The Green Mountain Boys have captured Ticonderoga, swept the British from the lake, pursued them into Canada, and everywhere been swift to answer every call of the Revolution. But every adjoining colony is against them now, and is waiting to pounce upon its share of dismembered Vermont. Congress has shut the doors of the Union in their face and advised them to make new terms with New York, which they have defied for fourteen years. Their answer to such gratuitous advice was to declare Vermont independent, with the Windsor constitution as their charter, and then they disperse to defend their homes.
"For now, a new peril threatens them. The un- defended frontier is fringed with the invading hosts of Burgoyne, swooping down like Goths upon Roman Italy to burn, plunder and slay. Their able-bodied men with their arms, and even their axes, picks and shovels, are far away with the Continental army, and this year boys and women will gather the harvests. The need of the hour is armed mea; and they must be had or Vermont
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must fall. Ticonderoga has been abandoned; the battle of Hubbardton has been lost, and the traitor St. Clair is swinging around a great circle as far as possible from Vermont and from danger. The Coucil of Safety has met in Manchester, and as that is now a frontier town, had adjourned to meet at the house of Joseph Bradley in Sunderland.
"That meeting was not unlike that other on the day of Pentecost. The apostles were not more faithful to their risen Lord than these men to Inde- pendent Vermont. We can almost see the cloven tongues, like as of fire, that sat upon each one of them, so filled were they with the spirit of liberty. Like the apostles, too, they had their Judas. His name was Spencer, of Clarendon, who had on that day deserted to Burgoyne, and with St. Clair be- came the only traitors who disgraced our history.
"These councillors lacked neither faith nor courage, but they could not achieve impossibilities. They could not bring gold for brass nor silver for iron, nor could they sow dragon's teeth and have them spring up armed men. All that long day they debated and consulted until the going down of the sun, but they had accomplished nothing. Then they agreed to adjourn to meet at sunrise next morning.
"Before the adjournment the president rose, (not to make a speech) Daniel Chipman said he was never known to make a speech, and the near- est he came to it was to make a suggestion. He made a suggestion now, in his ordinary tone, free from excitement but full of determination. 'The men must be enlisted,' he said, 'a full regiment,
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and armed ready for the field, and fed and paid. We will put that proposition behind us. It is not open to discussion.' 'I agree to the necessity,'said one, 'but how can it be done when we have neither the money nor the means of raising it?' 'I don't know how we are to get it,' said the president, 'but my wife has a string of gold beads and I have ten head of fat cattle. We will begin with the beads and the cattle, and trust the Lord to show us what then to do.'
"From this point I read from Record: 'We ad- journed to meet at sunrise. One member of the Council who had spent the night alone concerting plans to raise the money, early in the morning proposed that the Council appoint Commissioners. of Sequestration, who should seize on all the prop- erty of those who had joined the enemy, sell it at auction, and pay the money to a treasurer, to be appointed, for the use of the State. The plan was adopted which, it is supposed, confiscated the first property of the kind in the United States. The
treasury was well supplied with money to defray the expenses of the government and to pay bounty, wages, and equip a regiment fit for service, under the command of Colonel Samuel Herrick, in about fifteen days.' I need scarcely add that the member who walked his room all that night ; who devised the plan, and who wrote this modest record in which his name does not appear, was the youngest member of the Council, Colonel Ira Allen."
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A Convention was summoned by the Council of Safety to meet at Windsor on the 24th of Decem- ber, 1777. They met and revised the Constitution which had been framed, but postponed the election under it until the first Tuesday of March, 1778, and the sitting of the Assembly till the second Thursday of the same month. At this time there was no printing press establishment in Vermont, and Ira Allen procured the printing of the revised Constitution at Hartford in Connecticut. The Convention was fearful that if the ratification of the Constitution was submitted anew to the people it would be rejected. They, therefore, con- cluded to keep the ratification of it within as small a circle as possible, and keep its ratification away from the voice of the people further than was vested in the Convention by the delegates who were authorized to form the Constitution. The Constitution was so framed that legal means might be taken to alter or amend it once in seven years, agreeable to the will of a majority of the freemen of the State.
It has been noticed that the influence of Con- gress had been rather against the formation of the new State. And the intrigues of New York to divide the people would endanger the ratification of the Constitution if it was submitted to the voice of the people; so but little time and oppor- tunity were given the people to discuss the merits of the document, or to stir up opposition to it. Allen returned with the printed Constitution from Hartford, Conn., only a few days before the gen- cral election. The friends of the Constitution were
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induced to attend the meetings in the several local- ities for the election of representatives, and to take the freeman's oath. By this means representatives were chosen to the Assembly that was to meet at Windsor on the 12th of March, 1778. The repre- sentatives met, and the votes of the freemen that had voted for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Treasurer, and twelve Councilors, were sorted and counted, and those who had a majority of votes for the respective offices were declared elected. Bennington was the only town that objected to the Constitution for want of a proper ratification of it, but as the Assembly approved of it, the objection died away, and the people of the State were satisfied.
The Constitution was, in the main, a copy of that of Pennsylvania, which was recommended as . a model by Dr. Thomas Young, the carly friend of Vermont; and who was influential in adopting the name Vermont for the State. The Constitution had the approval of Benjamin Franklin. There was added to the declaration of rights that was not in the Pennsylvania declaration, viz .: "There- fore, no male person born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law to serve any person as a servant, slave or appren- tice, after he arives to the age of 21 years, nor fe- male in like manner, after she arrives to the age of 18 years, unless they are bound by their own con- sent after they arrive to such age, or bound by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines. costs and the like." Vermont was thus the first of the States to prohibit slavery by constitutional
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provision, a fact of which Vermonters may well be proud.
The legislative power was vested in a single Assembly of members chosen annually by ballot by the several towns in the State; each town was entitled to one representative only, unless it had more than eighty taxable inhabitants, when they were entitled to two.
The executive authority was vested in a Gov- ernor, Lieutenant-Governor and twelve Councilors, elected annually by ballot of the whole freemen of the State. The legislative powers of the Coun- cilors was simply advisory, but bills were allowed to originate in the Council. The judges of supe- rior courts were elected annually by joint ballot of the Council and Assembly.
The people of the State were so completely set against any kind of slavery that the Assembly at its October session enacted, "that if any person shall hereafter make sale of any subject of this State, or shall convey or attempt to convey any subject out of this State, with the intent to hold or sell such person as a slave," and should be con- victed thereof, they should forfeit and pay to the person injured 300 pounds and costs of suit. In Novemember, 1777, one Dinah Mattis, a negro woman, with Nancy, her child, who were in cus- tody of the British army, were taken prisoners, with some soldiers. Ebenezer Allen, a captain in the Vermont service, immediately gave her and her child a deed of manumission.
The Allen family were most closely identified with the early history of the State, and were de-
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scendants of Samuel Allen, who resided at Chelms- ford about 1632. Joseph Allen of Litchfield and Coventry, Conn., married Mary Baker, daughter of John Baker, March 11, 1737. From this mar- riage sprang Gen. Ethan Allen, who was born at Litchfield, Conn., Jan. 10, 1738, also, later, Heman, Lydia, Heber, Levi, Lucy, Zimri and Ira. Col. Ira Allen died at Philadelphia, Jan. 7th, 1814, in the 62d year of his age.
Ethan, Heman, Zimri and Ira Allen and Re- member Baker constituted the "Onion River Land Co.," and became extensive proprietors of land in the State. Their lands were estimated to be worth from one to one and a half millions of dol- lars. The controversy with New York involved the title to their lands, and undoubtedly the great value of which stimulated their zeal, courage, per- sistent and successful efforts for the independence of the State.
The character and fate of the sons of Joseph Allen were different. Heber and Zimri did not be- come very prominent. The time of General Ethan Allen, when he might have been of the most use to his country, was spent in a British prison, and he died at the age of 51. Heman died in the 29th year of his age, but his life opened with promise. Levi was brilliant and daring, but "unstable as water," and his life was a failure. Ira attained the greatest age and rendered the most numerous and valuable service, but his great wealth was wasted through protracted litigation; he was forced to leave the State to preserve his personal liberty from exacting creditors, and died in pov-
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erty. In a letter to Eleazer Keyes, July 3d, 1810, after stating he had failed to obtain justice in Great Britain and Vermont, and the injury to his health by British, French and Vermont prisons, said, "he left Burlington in 1803: 'skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life,' " and wanted to know if these were the rewards for exertions for the independence of Vermont and the United States ? He came to Vermont when 21 years of age, and rose to the position of Major- General of militia, and was busy with his pen in the interest of Vermont, and conducted the diplo- matic correspondence with Gen. Haldimand; he was one of the commissioners who amicably set- tled the long and violent controversy with New York that insured the admission of Vermont to the Union, and was the founder of the University of Vermont.
Thomas Chittenden, who was born at East Guilford, Conn., Jan. 6, 1730, was one of the most remarkable and important men that figured in the early history of Vermont. He was Colonel of mili- tia and a justice of the peace. In 1774, he settled in the valley of the Winooski at Williston, from whence he was driven by the invasion of the Brit- ish in 1776; and dwelt in Pownal and Arlington till 1787, when he returned to his homestead in Williston. He was a member of the Vermont Con- vention, President of the Council of Safety, and was Governor from March, 1778, with the excep- tion of one year, until he resigned a short time be- fore his death, which occurred August 25, 1797. He had but acommon school education, and in his
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youth was not devoted to books and study so much as to athletic sports, but he had an intuitive insight into all men with whom he came in con- tact and into all questions he had to decide. Ethan Allen said, "he was the only man I ever knew who was sure to be right in all, even the most difficult and complex cases, and vet could not tell or seem to know why it was so."
When the Convention at Windsor adjourned, July 8th, 1777, Ticonderoga was in the hands of the enemy, Warner had been defeated at Hubbard- ton, Burgoyne was rapidly advancing into New York on the western border of Vermont, and Gen- eral Howe with another British army was moving up North River to enable General John Burgoyne to join him. General Schuyler, in command of the Continental troops, was lying with his army be- tween the two British forces. One part of Bur- goyne's forces were threatening the American stores at Bennington. Under this state of affairs active measures must be immediately taken by the Vermont Council of Safety against the invasion of her territory by the Army under Burgoyne.
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