USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. II > Part 4
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EARLY HISTORY
north on the west line of the State to the forty- fifth degree of latitude, thence east to Orange County, thence south on the west line of Orange County to the north line of Rutland County. By this division of the State it brought Addison and Orange together as adjoining Counties, both ex- tending north to Canada line.
At the October session of the Grand Assembly of 1787, an Act was passed October 22, restrict- ing the limits of Addison County, and forming Chittenden County; the dividing line between it and Addison County commenced at the south- west corner of Charlotte, thence east on the north line of Ferrisburgh and Monkton to the north- east corner thereof, thence south on the east line of Monkton to the north line of Pocock, (now Bristol) thence south to the north-west corner of Lincoln, thence the most direct course eastwardly between towns on town lines, until it intersected with the west line of Orange County. All terri- tory north of said line to the north line of the State was named Chittenden County; and it was provided that the courts for that County, for the time being, should be held at Colchester. By an Act passed October 22nd, 1790, the towns of Windsor and Woodstock should be half shires of Windsor County, and the courts to be held alter- nately at those places.
Vergennes was taken from the towns of New Haven, Panton and Ferrisburgh and was by an Act of the General Assembly, passed October 23rd, 1788, incorporated as a city. It has the distinc- tion not only of being the oldest city of Vermont,
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but the oldest incorporated city in New England- incorporated thirty-three years before Boston, Mass. Boston was incorporated February 23, 1822, then numbering 43,000 inhabitants.
By an Act of the General Assembly passed Nov- ember 5, 1792, Orange and Chittenden Counties were divided and limited. And from said two Counties there were constituted the Counties of Franklin, Caledonia, Essex and Orleans. Orange County was limited to 20 towns, Caledonia to 21 towns and some gores, and Essex embraced all the remaining towns of Orange County except Greensborough, Glover, Barton, Brownington, Navy, Caldersburgh and Holland. The north line of Chittenden County was fixed; beginning at the east side line of then Orange County at the north- east corner of Worcester and running on the north line of Worcester, Stowe, Mansfield, Underhill, Westford and Milton to Lake Champlain to the northward of South Hero and through the deep- est channel and water between North and South Hero and west to the deepest channel of the lake, and all territory north of said line was instituted and named Franklin County, the east line of which ran southerly from Canada line between Carthage and Richford, and between Westfield and Montgomery, excluding Belvidere and to the north-west corner of Eden, and on the west line of Eden to Hyde Park, and thence on between Hyde Park and Johnson, and between Morristown and Sterling to the north line of Chittenden County. Orleans County was constituted and formed by the same Act from the remaining towns of Orange 5
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County and the towns of Elmore, Morristown, Eden, Hyde Park, Wolcott and Greensborough. It was provided by the Act, constituting these new Counties, that the court business was to be done in certain other Counties till courts should be es- tablished in the new ones.
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By an Act of the General Assembly passed Nov- ember 9, 1802, a County was formed from the towns of South Hero and Middle Hero and islands near, of Chittenden County, and North Hero, Isle LaMotte and Alburgh from Franklin County and was named Grand Isle County.
By an Act of the Legislature passed November 1, 1810, a County was formed from the towns of Fayston, Duxbury, Waterbury, Waitsfield, Wor- cester, Middlesex, Moretown and Stowe of Chit- tenden County, from Montpelier, Calais, Marsh- field and Plainfield of Caledonia County, and from Barre, Berlin and . Northfield of the County of Orange; and this new County was named Jeffer- son, but by the Act of November S, 1814, the name was changed to Washington. Montpelier became its shire, and is the Capital of the State.
At this writing there are five incorporated cit- ies in the State: viz. Vergennes, incorporated in 1788; Burlington, incorporated in 1864; Rutland, incorporated 1SSS ; and Montpelier and Barre, in- corporated in 1894, and St. Albans, incorporated in 1896. By Acts passed by the Vermont Assem- bly October 26, 1835, and October 1836, Lamoille County was formed from towns taken from Franklin, Chittenden, Orleans and Washington Counties. Hyde Park became the shire town of Lamoille County.
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On January 27th, 1791, the General Assembly passed an Act dividing the State into three Con- gressional Districts: Bennington and Windham Counties forming the First District; Windsor and Orange the Second District; and Rutland, Addison and Chittenden the Third District; but as Congress was not expected to admit only two representa- tives when the State should be admitted, and in such case, the Counties on the west side of the mountains were to form the First District, and those on the east side, the Second. When the State was admitted by vote of the Senate, February 12, and by the House, February 18, but two repre- sentatives were assigned to the State. And by Act of November 8, 1792, the two Congressional Districts were established, one on the east, and the other on the west of the mountains.
In 1796, there was a difference of opinion with some and a question made as to whether there was not a strip of land lying between what was treated as the north line of Vermont and the true line between Vermont and Canada, as made by the treaty between the United States and Great Britain. William Coit of Burlington represented to the General Assembly that he had examined the supposed north line of the State, and had with Mr. Collins, then late surveyor of the Province of Canada, who made said line, and found the line varying so far south of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude as to embrace within Canada lands really belonging to Vermont to the amount 23, 040 acres. The Assembly appointed a committee to confer with the Surveyor General Whitelaw re-
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specting the lands. The committee reported they could not ascertain that there were any such va- cant lands. By the treaty of Washington of 1842, on boundaries, the line run by Collins and Valen- tine in 1772-3-4 was agreed upon as the bound- ary line, and commissioners were appointed to mark the line. The joint report of these Commis- sioners, made April 20, 1848, stated in substance, that they had explored the Valentine and Collins line and found the blazes on the original forest trees that indicated it was marked at the time Valentine and Collins ran the line, and that the committee were satisfied that the line they found, was the one mentioned in the treaty, although it was not a straight line, and that the western por- tion of it was about a half-mile north of the true parallel of latitude 45 degrees. So that it appears that all the maps which give the northern bound- ary of the State on or below the parallel of lati- tude 45°, are erroneous.
CHAPTER V.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CONTRO- VERSY OF THE GRANTS WITH NEW YORK AND THE STAND THE GRANTS TOOK IN THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE.
The general political history of the territory now known as the State of Vermont, down to the time it was admitted as one of the States of the American Union in 1791, was embraced in the first volume. In this chapter it will be our endeavor to supply some facts and incidents that occurred during the time covered by that volume, and give the substance, at least, of some papers and docu- ments, not heretofore given, that were brought in- to existence during that time, that will serve to make the history more complete, and show the courage, capacity and the indomitable energy of the Green Mountain Boys.
The first uprising in the New Hampshire Grants against the New York land jobbers was mainly started in the western part of the Grants; the State government originated in that uprising, and was to a large extent the work of the Chittendens, the Allens, the Fays and the Robinsons, all of : whom resided on the west side of the Green Moun- tains. That part of the territory east of the mountains was nominally under the jurisdiction of
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New York, and for many years its leading men, at least the majority of them, were content to submit to it. Although they were willing to submit to the authority of New York, most of them were Whigs, as were nearly all of the leading men west of the mountain; and ultimately the Whigs, of both sides of the mountain, were active in getting rid of Tories and in establishing the independent State of Vermont. Hence the early meetings and conventions held by them, and the efforts put forth by them resulting in Vermont becoming the four- teenth State of the American Union, should be re- lated as a part of the history of the State. Pre- vious to 1791, the territory east of the Green Mountains contained the largest part of the pop- ulation of Vermont; up to 1771, the population of Cumberland and Gloucester Counties (which now embrace Windham, Windsor and Orange) contain- ed about two-thirds of the people of the whole ter. ritory, but in 1791, the number on the east side of the mountains were 43,970, and on the west side 41,569.
As soon as the people of the American Colonies began to take a strong and determined stand against the oppressive acts of Great Britain, there began to be a determination to overawe the ad- herents of Great Britain who were called Tories; there was a determination to root out all Tory sentiment. When the people of the New Hamp shire Grants began to put forth efforts to shake off New York authority and to prevent its inter- fering with the grants obtained from Governor Wentworth, the Tory party took sides against the Grants.
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A committee of correspondence of fifty members was formed in New York, May 10, 1774, for the purpose of eliciting the sentiment of the people of the Colonies on the measures of the mother coun- try concerning the Colonies. Isaac Low, a lead- ing merchant of New York, an ardent Whig, was appointed its chairman May 23, 1774. Two days before his appointment he addressed a letter to supervisors of Cumberland County, asking infor- mation as to the sentiment of the people. The supervisors met in June 1774, but endeavored to conceal the purpose of the letter, it was supposed on account of their Tory sympathies. Low stat- ed in the letter, "Let us with the brave Romans, consider our ancestors and our offspring. Let us follow the example of the former, and set an ex- ample to the latter. Let us not be like the slug- gish people, who through love of case bow them- selves and become servants to tribute, and whom the inspired prophet, their father, justly compared to asses. Had I the voice which could be heard from Canada to Florida, I would address the Americans in the language of the Roman patriot." This was patriotic language, but its sentiment was not carried out by him. Although Low was a member of the first Continental Congress, he be- came a Loyalist when the British army controlled New York, to save his property, as he was a man of great wealth. The Whig government of the State of New York, however, attainted him and confiscated his property. The letter referred to was procured of the supervisors through the ef- forts of Doct. Reuben Jones of Rockingham and
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Capt. Azariah Wright of Westminster, who heard of its existence; and a copy of it was sent to sev- etal towns. The result was a County convention Was called to take into consideration the subject matter of the letter and the preparing a report to the New York committee of correspondence. Fol- lowing the circulation of the copy of said letter a meeting was called in the town of Chester by the supervisor and clerk to be held October 10th, 1774, which resulted in passing the following resolves; viz.
"First, that the people of America are nat- urally entitled to all the privileges of free born subjects of Great Britain, which privileges they hinve never forfeited. Secondly, resolved that ev- ery man's estate, honestly acquired, is his own and no person on earth has a right to take it away without the proprietor's consent, unless hs forfeits it by some crime of his committing. Thirdly, resolved that all Acts of the British Parlia- ment tending to take away or abridge these rights, ought not to be obeyed. And fourthly, re- solved that the people of this town will join with their fellows, American subjects, in opposing in all lawful ways every encroachment on their natural rights."
Following the meeting at Chester, a Cumber- land County convention was called and held at Westminster on the 19th of October, 1774, at Which delegates from Townsend, Chester, Hart- land, Westminster, Halifax, Marlborough and Woodstock, at least, attended, and at which they Look into consideration Mr. Low's letter above re-
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ferred to, the Act of the British Parliament in lay- ing a duty or tax on tea, the Boston Port Bill, and other Acts. The convention appointed a committee to take those subjects into consider- ation and report to the convention. The com- mittee reported that,-
"This County being in its infant state, contend- ing with the hardships of subduing the wilderness, and converting it into fruitful fields, being situat- ed here in a corner, at a considerable remove from the populous, civilized parts of the country, con- ceive they, by their own experience, in a small de- gree feel the sufferings of their ancestors.
"The first planters in America endured hunger, cold, and other distresses, until they, by their ar- duous industry, found suitable relief from their bountiful fields and their own expenses; and as the people of this County were chiefly born in some one or other of the New England Provinces, and conceive them to be at least as loyal to the King as any subjects he can boast of, are surprised to find, by the late Acts of Parliament, that all Amer- icans are deprived of that great right of calling that their own, which they by their industry have honestly acquired; are surprised to find a power arise in Britain, which, with impunity say, they have a right to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever, and attempt to exercise that author- ity, by taking, at their pleasure, the properties of the King's American subjects without their con- sent, especially since some of the former Kings of Great Britain by charter granted to their subjects in New England, their heirs, and assigns, and all
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others who should settle within certain bound- aries, divided into Colonies, all the liberties and privileges of natural free-born subjects of Eng- land; yet, notwithstanding this, that such a power should arise under the mere inspection of the King, unrebuked, to claim all American prop- erty, and actually to takeas much as they please, in direct breach of the solemn compact between a former King, on his part, and his successors, made with the first planters of these Colonies, and others that after should be born among them, or join them, or be born on the seas when going thither ; and we do not conceive those whose rights are as aforesaid solemnly declared, are more sacred in respect of the security of their property, than the right of this and other Colonies whose rights are only natural as British subjects; for he who has nothing but what another has power at pleasure lawfully to take away from, has nothing that he can call his own, and is, in the fullest sense of the word, a slave-a slave to him who has such power; and as no part of British America stip- ulated to settle as slaves, the privileges of British subjects are their privileges, and whoever endeav- ours to deprive thein of their privileges is guilty of treason against the Americans, as well as the Brit- ish Constitution. Therefore Resolved,
"I. That as true and loyal subjects of our gra- cious Sovereign, King George the Third of Great Britain, &c., we will spend our lives and fortunes in his service.
"II. That we will defend our King while he reigns over us, his subjects, and wish his reign
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may be long and glorious, so we will defend our just rights, as British subjects, against every power that shall attempt to deprive us of them, while breath is in our nostrils, and blood in our veins.
"III. That considering the late Acts of the Brit- ish Parliament for blocking up the port of Boston, &c., which we view as arbitrary and unjust, inas- much as the Parliament have sentenced them un- heard, and dispensed with all the modes of law and justice which we think necessary to distin- guish between lawfully obtaining right for prop- erty injured, and arbitrarily enforcing to com- ply with their will, (be it right or wrong,) we resolve to assist the people of Boston in the defence of their liberties to the utmost of our abilities.
"IV. Sensible that the strength of our opposi- tion to the late Acts consists in a uniform, manly, steady, and determined mode of procedure, we will bear testimony against and discourage all riot- ous, tumultuous, and unnecessary mobs which tend to injure the persons or properties of harm- less individuals ; but endeavour to treat those per- sons whose abominable principles and actions show them to be enemies to American liberty, as loathesome animals not fit to be touched or to have any society or connection with."
These meetings and conventions served to stir up the people and set them firmly against British oppression. Following this convention Lieut. Leonard Spaulding, a bold and a most ardent Whig of Dummerston, was committed by a Sheriff
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and his deputies to the common gaol for high treason against George the Third. The next day, October 29th, 1774, the majority of the people of that town met on the green and chose a commit- tee to better secure and protect their rights from the ravages of the British tyrant and his New York and other emissaries. A committee of five were chosen who, in about eleven days, proceeded to the gaol and released Spaulding from his confinement. The official account of the action of the committee is as follows: "The plain truth is, that the brave sons of freedom whose patience was worn out with the inhuman insults of the imps of power, grew quite sick of diving after redress in a legal way, and finding that the law was only made use of for the emoluments of its creatures and the emissaries of the British tyrant, resolved upon an easier method, and accordingly opened the gaol without key or lockpicker."
Said Lieut. Leonard Spaulding came first into notice as a resident of Putney in 1768. From the outset of the controversies he was widely known as an outspoken and sturdy enemy of the Tories and Yorkers, and as such, was a favorite with the Whigs who were generally strong adherents of the Continental cause, and numbered as the Green Mountain Boys. In 1771, a judgement had been recovered against Spaulding in a New York court, and the officer in serving the papers had seized a portion of his property and held it in his custody, thereupon, a large party crossed Connecticut River from New Hampshire into Putney, broke open the enclosure, and rescued the property. In
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1774, Spaulding had become a citizen of Dummers- ton and was so free in the expression of his Whig sentiments, that he received special attention from the royal authorities ; he having thrown out some words unfavorable to the British tyrant (referring to the King) relating to the Quebec Bill, by which, he said "George III is made pope of the English Government," and that "one man they put into close prison for high treason, and that all they proved against him was, that he said, if the King had signed the Quebec Bill it was his opinion that he had broke his Coronation oath." For this pre- tended crime Spaulding was imprisoned eleven days for treason. It took three or four Yorkers to conquor him when he was committed. His friends went and opened the prison door and let him go, they doing no violence to any man's per- son or property. This imprisonment in no meas- ure dampened the patriotic zeal of Spaulding who was in 1775, conspicuous among those who re- sented the Westminster massacre by arresting the royal officers; he, in 1776, at the head of a mili- tary force, held in duress Judge and Colonel Sam- uel Wells, a wealthy citizen of Brattleboro and a leader among the Tory Yorkers. Spaulding after- wards made suitable confession and apology for the taking Colonel Wells. In 1781, the Vermont government, by way of conciliation appointed two well known Yorkers to office-men who were officials under New York at the time of the West- minster massacre, but Lieut. Spaulding united with others in sending an indignant remonstrance to the Governor and Council against the appoint-
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ment, which had the effect to delay but not to pre- vent them from being commissioned. Spaulding was a delegate in all the conventions called in the interest of the Grants, after September 24th, 1776, and represented Dummerston in the General As- sembly of March 1778, and for the years 1781, 1784, 1786 and 1787.
On October 14th, 1774, the Continental Con- gress discussed and adopted the following declara- tion and resolves : viz.
"Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British parliament, claiming a power, of right, to bind the people of America by statutes in all cases whatsoever, hath, in some acts, expressly imposed taxes on them, and in others, under various pre- tenses, but in fact for the purpose of raising a rev- enue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these Colonies, established a board of commis- sioners, with unconstitutional powers, and ex- tended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only for collecting said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a county :
"And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent on the crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in time of peace: And whereas, it has lately been resolved in parliament, that by force of a statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the eighth, colonists may be transported to England, and tried there upon accusations of treasons and misprisions, or con-
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cealments of treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute, such trials have been di- rected in cases therein mentioned :
"And whereas, in the last session of parliament, three statutes were made: one entitled 'An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing or discharging, lading, or shipping of goods, wares and merchan- dize, at the town, and within the harbour of Bos- ton, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, in North America;' another entitled 'An act for the- better regulating the province of Massachusetts- Bay in New England ; ' and another entitled 'An act for the impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England ;' and another statute was then made, 'for making more effectual provision for the government of the pro- vince of Quebec, &c.' All which statutes are im- politic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitu- tional, and most dangerous and destructive of Americaif rights :
"And whereas assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate on grievances ; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petitions to the crown for redress, have been re- peatedly treated with contempt by his majesty's ministers of state :
"The good people of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode Island
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and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Vir- ginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, are justly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of parliament and administration, have severally elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet, and sit in general Congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such establish- ment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties, may not be subverted : Whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a full and free representation of these colonies, taking into their most serious consideration, the best means of ob- taining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first place, as Englishmen, their ancestors in like cases have us- ually done, for asserting and vindicating their rights and liberties, DECLARE,
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