USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. II > Part 9
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through these grants, in part, in anticipation of a possible contest with New York, and even with Congress. A committee was appointed to report what lands could be granted and what persons would most conduce to the welfare of the State to have such grants. This shows that not only money was wanted, but men of influence both in and out of the State. The first grant recom- mended by the committee was that of Montpelier. On October 21, 1780, the House directed that the grant be made to Colonel Timothy Bigelow and Company, and that the Governor and Council were requested to issue a grant or charter of in- corporation of said township of Montpelier. The grantees were required to pay for the grant four . hundred and eighty pounds in hard money or an equivalent in Continental currency. In some cases lead and flint were accepted for the grants, instead of hard money. More than fifty town- ships were granted at the October session of 1780. Ira Allen's account as State Treasurer from March 1777, to October 1786, was, omitting shill- ing and pence, as follows: Continental money re- ceived of Commissioners :
For confiscated property £190,433
Lawful money received for lands granted 66,815
State notes (bills of credit) issued 24,750 Cash received in lawful money from taxes 38,536
Cash received on hard money taxes 7,411
In the year 1791, Allen reported that for that year the average state tax per capita was but six pence three farthings to cach inhabitant.
At times the military strength was too small
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to protect all the settlements in the State. The Assembly appointed a committee to report where the frontier lines should be established during the campaign of 1781. The committee reported, on February 14th, 1781, "that the line of defence on the west side of the Green Mountains be estab- lished at the forts of Pittsford and Castleton, and by no means to be drawn further south unless by urgent necessity by the opposition of a superior force of the enemy."
Ebenezer Walbridge and Thomas Porter, who were a committee to sign bills of credit emitted by the State, suspected that Samuel Avery and Ezra Stiles and others were "concerned in the wicked plan of counterfeiting said money," and a war- rant was issued June 13, 1781, directed to Benja- min Fay, to arrest them, and bring them before the Governor and Council at Bennington, and "to make diligent search in all suspected places, and break locks and doors for counterfeit money." These persons were examined and liberated.
It has been stated in the first volume of this history that there were negotiations carried on between the authorities in Vermont with the Brit- ish in Canada ostensibly to agree upon a cartel for the exchange of prisoners, and that the British took this opportunity to induce the Vermonters to forsake the American cause and unite with them. A correspondence was entered into between those high in authority in Vermont with General Haldi- mand, the British general in Canada, on that sub- ject. This negotiation and correspondence, of whatever nature or design of it was, was kept
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within a very narrow circle, and the knowledge of which was intended to be kept from the people, but it came very near being given to the public by what took place between the British General St. Leger and the officers commanding the Vermont troops. It was necessary to keep up a show of hostile designs between the Vermont army and the British forces, therefore, General St. Leger, at the head of the British army from Canada, as- cended Lake Champlain and rested at Ticonder- oga. General Enos had the command of the troops of Vermont with his headquarters at Cas- tleton. Each army sent out scouts, and shots were exchanged between them. Sergeant Tupper of the Vermont troops was killed and his body fell into the hands of General St. Leger who sent all of Tupper's clothes with an open letter to General Enos, informing him of his regret for the fate of the sergeant and made an apology for his death. General Enos sent the news of the arrival of St. Leger at Ticonderoga at the head of the British ar- my, and thedeath of Tupper with St. Leger's apol- ogy for his fate to Governor Chittenden by a mes- senger. When the Governor received the message he was sitting in a large room at Charleston with some other persons. These persons were eager to learn of the negotiations, supposed to be carried on with the British, for the purpose of making an ill use of the information. While the message from General Enos was being read by the Gov- ernor, Major Runnals, who had heard something about St. Leger's apology, came in and inquired of Ira Allen, "what was the reason that General
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St. Leger was sorry that Sergeant Tupper was killed." Allen said he could not tell, but observed "that good men were sorry when good men were killed or met with misfortune, which might be the case with General St. Leger." This enraged Run- nals. Allen then requested Runnals, "to go at the head of his regiment, and demand the reason of his sorrow, and not stay there asking impertinent questions, eating up the country's provisions, do- ing nothing when the frontiers were invaded." Other high words passed between them that drew the attention from the letters and message sent the Governor and Colonel Allen from General Enos and other officers. The Governor immedi- ately summoned the Board of War to meet in se- cret session at his chambers where new letters were made out purporting to come from General Enos and other officers of his army, to be used for the information and satisfaction of the public and read in Council and the Assembly for the originals and then returned to the Governor. These letters . contained everything that was in the originals ex- cept the negotiations had with the British which prudence dictated to be separared from the other part, that the public might not thwart the object of the negotiation that the Board of War and some leading Vermonters had in view. Soon after the news came of the surrender of Lord Cornwal- lis and his army. When this surrender was made known to General St. Leger he and his army re- turned to Canada. Thus ended the campaign of 1781. It has been seen that the object of the Haldimand correspondence on the part of Ver-
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mont was to make the British believe, that if they let the northern campaign of 1781, go by without forcing Vermont to defensive measures, Vermont could be induced to cast in their fortunes with them. While the Vermonters in fact never in- tended to carry out that purpose. It was simply & ruse to get rid of the horrors of a bloody cam- paign. Chief Justice Samuel Church of Litchfield, Connecticut, in an address at Salisbury in that State in 1841, declared that the policy of Ver- mont, in the Haldimand Correspondence and the eastern and western unions was shaped and her designs accomplished, by the advice of a confiden- tial Council and friends of Vermont, assembled at the house of Governor Wolcott in the village of Litchfield, Connecticut.
In May 1782, seventeen British prisoners were taken to Canada and exchanged for forty citizens of Vermont and neighboring States who had been captured by the British.
John Murry, 4th Earl of Dunmore, who was born in 1732, and descended in the female line from the house of Stuart, and who succeeded to the peerage in 1756, was made Governor of New York, in January 1770. While Governor of New York, in a period of less than five months between February 28th and July Sth, 1771, he granted lands in Vermont to the amount of 511,900 acres, all of which had been previously granted by Gov. Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire; of this quantity of land, 51,000 acres were granted, in the name of other persons, for himself. His fees for these grants amounted to $14,24S.44.
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The titles of land under the New Hampshire grants were incidentally confirmed, at least, by the British board, which had jurisdiction of land ti- tles in America, eighteen years after the King and Council on the 24th day of July, 1767, com- manded that the Governor of New York was not to make any grant of any part of the land known as the New Hampshire Grants. On December 24, 1786, John Munro of Shaftsbury wrote to James Duane that he had been to England to get com- pensation for loss of his property ; that in Septem- ber 1785, the Commissioners awarded him a piti- ful sum, having made large deductions from his claim; and he declared that "we discovered that the deduction was owing to the New Hampshire claims covering the most part of my property."
Joel Bigelow, Elijah Prouty and William Shat- tuck were returned by the Cumberland County Committee of Safety to the session of January 21, 1784, of the New York Convention ; they were the last representatives of Cumberland County in New York.
In 1791, an act was passed that every pos- sessor of improved land should cut the thistles in the month of July or August in each year and a penalty not exceeding thirty shillings for each neg- lect, with costs of prosecution.
The first reward offered by the Assembly for the detection of crime was in 1791. On the night of October 6th, 1791, the Windham County court house was burned, and on the 24th of October fol- lowing that of the County of Windsor was also burned. The Assembly advised Governor Thomas
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Chittenden to offer a reward of five hundred dol- lars for detection of the incendiaries, and the Gov- ernor, accordingly, issued his proclamation.
An act in 1791, was passed to meet the con- scientious scruples of the Quakers. It was en- acted that "Whereas the people called the Quak- crs, living in this State, have petitioned the Legis- lature, informing them that they feel a tenderness in their conscience with respect to paying taxes in the expenditure of which, sums of money are paid to the Chaplains of the General Assembly ; and where- as this Legislature are ever willing to show their readiness to comply with the seasonable request of all such people as may think their rights of con- science infringed on." Therefore it was enacted that such sum as may be necessary for that pur- pose, shall be paid out of the avails of fines and penalties laid by the Supreme Court.
CHAPTER VIII.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF VERMONT AND. THE CONTROVERSY WITH NEW YORK. CONTINUED.
In the year 1774, to get rid of the Colony of New York, a plan was formed by Colonel Ethan Allen, Amos Bird, Colonel Philip Skene and other principal characters among the people, to establish a new royal colony, which was to contain the Grants of New Hampshire west of the Connecti- cut River and the country north of the Mohawk River to latitude 45° north, and to be bounded west by Iroquois River and Lake Ontario. Skene had been an officer in his Majesty's service, and had retired on a large patent of land lying at the south end of Lake Champlain, which was called Skenesboro (now Whitehall) which was regarded as a proper site for the capital of the new colony of which Skene was proposed to be Governor. With this in view he went to London, at his own expense, to accomplish that object. Had he suc- ceeded, important results would have come to individuals and to the public. If that event had taken place the people who settled under the royal grants of New Hampshire would have been quiet. and relieved from the oppressive conduct of the Governor and Council of the Colony of New York.
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At London Colonel Skene got himself ap- pointed Governor of the garrisons of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and then was advised to delay making application for the charter of a new col- ony, and first bring forward a petition from the people living in the proposed colony to the King and Privy Council, stating therein, "that in order to restore harmony in said district and for the convenience of administering justice in a depart- ment very remote and extensive, his Majesty would be pleased to establish the territory afore- said, with colonial privileges, and appoint Colonel Philip Skene Governor thereof." At that time matters seemed favorable for the establishing of a new colony, but soon the approaching war in America put an end to the negotiations for a royal colony that was to surround that impor- tant body of water, Lake Champlain. This was a separate project from the attempt to form the west union with Vermont. It has been asserted that Colonel Skene actually obtained a charter for Skene's Province, but no actual proof has ever been produced of its actual existence, and it is probable that. the then approaching Revolution- ary War served to put an end to the whole scheme before the charter was actually granted.
It was resolved by the Governor and Council June 19, 1781, "that Mr. Samuel Sherman be em- ployed to ride post from his Excellency's in Arling- ton to Camp Headquarters at Castleton once a week for three months from the date hereof, to go up one road by the way of Tinmouth and return by way of Pawlet; that for his encouragement he
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be allowed fourteen shillings per week out of this State's treasury, he to convey all public letters and dispatches free of all other expenses."
On June 9, 1785 articles of impeachment were laid before the Council by Stephen R. Bradley, pursuant to an act of the General Assembly passed October 16th, 1783, against John Barrett, a Justice of the Peace of Springfield, for mal-ad- ministration in office for rendering judgement and corruptly awarding execution in suit against one Holmes, at the suit of one Shaw when he knew the parties had settled and Shaw had given or- ders to have the suit withdrawn, and for cor- ruptly rendering judgement and awarding execu- tion against one Prouty of Brattleboro, when he knew said Prouty had been dead for three years. Barrett was tried and found guilty, and asked that his case might be reviewed, which request was denied by the Council, but by an act of the Assembly a rehearing was granted. A new trial was had and he was found guilty again on Octo- ber 24, 1785, and suspended from office for six months, and ordered to pay the costs of prosecution.
When Gov. Chittenden was declared elected for another year in October, 1784 ,for Governor of the State, he made a congratulatory speech on the ratification of the Articles of Peace between Great Britain and the United States. The ceremonies attending the inauguration were unusually impos- ing, the account of which in the Vermont Journal was as follows, viz. :
"On the 14th instant, (being the second Thurs-
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day of October, ) the annual General Election of this State was held at Rutland. In the morning, a company of troops, completely equipped, and dressed uniformly in scarlet, from Col. Clark's regiment of Rutland, proceeded to Wallingford, where they met his Excellency and a part of the honorable Council, whom they escorted to Rut- land. The attention of the officers, and the alert- ness and activity of the privates, was parallel to that of veteran troops-orders were given with judgment, and executed with precision. About 11 o'clock they proceeded to the meeting-house, where a sermon was preached, by the Rev. Job Swift of Manchester, very suitable to the occa- sion. In the afternoon, Col. Clark's regiment of foot, the horse, and a company of artillery were paraded, when the whole were reviewed by his Excellency ; after which thirteen cannon were fired for the United States, and a fourteenth for Ver- mont, succeeded by an equal number of vollies from the foot and horse. The militia then pa- raded at proper distances from each other, the troop rode through, & the usual firings were per- formed-at the same time regular discharges were given by the artillery, which added a grace and dignity to the maneuvers. Indeed the whole exer- cises of the day were such as did honor to the performers."
The town of Wilmington was first chartered to Phineas Lyman of New Hampshire April 29, 1751, but on the ground that the conditions of the charter had not been complied with, New Hampshire again chartered the town, by the
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name of Draper to Francis Barnard and sixty others June 17, 1763. Subsequently the name was changed to Wilmington again.
The first Council of Censors, the election of whom was declared May 6, 1785, were as fol- lows, viz .: The Hon. Ebenezer Walbridge, Jona- than Brace, Micah Townsend, Ebenezer Marvin, Increase Mosely, Elijah Robinson, Joseph Marsh, Ebenezer Curtis, John Sessions, Jonathan Hunt, Benjamin Carpenter, Stephen Jacobs and Lewis Beebe, Esquires. The Convention called by the first Council of Censors met at Manchester on the last Thursday in June, 1786, and adopted part of the amendments of the Constitution which had been proposed by the Censors. The General As- sembly, October 20, 1786, "Resolved that the Committee appointed by the Convention for pre- paring the Constitution for the press, lay before the General Assembly at their next session the journal of said Convention in order to see if some particular sections of the Constitution are not omitted through mistake." From this it would seem that the Constitution was redrafted by a Committee of the Convention, so as to incorpor- ate the amendments. The Constitution was signed by order of the Convention July 4, 1786, by Moses Robinson, president, and Elijah Paine, sec- retary, and first printed in the Vermont Journal, from August to October, 1786.
From a letter written by Jacob Bayley Octo- ber 28, 1787, to Gov. Clinton of New York, it ap- pears that Clinton had, or claimed to have, an in- terest in considerable land in Vermont, which
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shows the ground of his hostility to the indepen- dence of Vermont. Bayley had become a member of the Vermont Council; he wrote Gov. Clinton asking pay for his sufferings in behalf of New York. He wrote him that "Your land in New- bury is safe- have secured Hillsborough [part of Danville] all others on the York grant is gone, or at least granted by this State. If I could have had a plan or map of your claim I might have saved some. John Kelley has a grant of St. George (formerly Shelbyvale) and now Lowell, and says it is all his. I wish to know and have the bounds set." Gov. Clinton claimed land in Cavendish under a New York grant. Hillsbor- ough covered about one half of the present town of Danville, which was chartered by Vermont to Bayley and his associates October 31, 1786. The name of Gov. Clinton did not appear in the list of persons who were compensated for land out of the Vermont fund that New York received on sur- rendering her claim to Vermont territory : hence he either disposed of his claim to others or forbore to make it known, lest he might be charged with pecuniary interest in his persistent opposition to . the independence of Vermont.
In 1788, the several towns were assessed each their proper portion of the expense of surveying town lines and cutting roads.
In those early days the Governor was received at the opening of the General Assembly with a good deal of pomp and military demonstration. An account of Gov. Chittenden's journey to meet the Assembly in 1789, as stated in the Vermont
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Journal of October 14, 1789, was as follows, viz .: "On the day preceeding the meeting of the two houses Gov. Chittenden was met at Hartland by a company of cavalry commanded by Captain Elisha Hawley of Windsor, and safely escorted to Westminster, where he met the General Assembly of this State. They were supplied with every nec- essary while on the road (which was two days,) and on their return home, at his Excellency's ex- pense." The election sermon was delivered by Rev. Dan. Foster of Northfield.
In the early history of Vermont there was no law that required that the representatives to the General Assembly should be residents of the town they represented. In 1789 Hon. Noah Smith, a resident of Bennington, represented the town of Johnson. There may have been other instances. It is claimed that Highgate was represented by John Knickerbacor, a non-resident, in 1790, 1791 and 1792.
There was no choice of Governor by the people in 1789, whereupon the Council and the Assembly met in grand Committee and chose Moses Robin- son, Esq., Governor, but the next year Thomas Chittenden was again elected Governor by the people by a majority of near 1300 votes.
Gov. Robinson, on quitting the supreme magis- tracy October 14, 1790, addressed the gentlemen of the Council and the House of Representatives as follows, viz. :
"At the last annual election of the officers of this government, there was no choice made by the freemen of the supreme magistrate of the state; it
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was therefore the duty of the council and house of representatives, by their joint ballot, to elect some person to that office; it was the pleasure of the two houses to honor me with the appointment, of which I cheerfully accepted, and am conscious to myself that I have faithfully discharged my duty in the execution of that trust.
"It appears from the present election, that the freemen have given their suffrages in favor of his excellency governor CHITTENDEN. I heartily ac- quiesce in the choice, and shall, with the greatest satisfaction, retire to private life, where I expect to enjoy that peace which naturally results from a consciousness of having done my duty.
"The freemen have an undoubted right, when they see it for the benefit of the community, to call forth their citizens from behind the curtain of pri- vate life, and make them their rulers, and for the same reason to dismiss them at pleasure and elect others in their place. This privilege is essential to all free, and to republican governments. As a cit- izen I trust I shall ever feel for the interest of the state: the confidence the freemen have repeatedly placed in me ever since the first formation of gov- ernment, lays me under additional obligation to promote their true interest.
"Fellow citizens of the legislature, I wish you the benediction of heaven in the prosecution of the important business of the present session; that all your consultations may terminate for the glory of God and the interest of the citizens of this state, and that both those in public and private life may so conduct, in the several spheres in which God in
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His providence shall call them to act, as that, when death shall close the scene of life, we may each of us have the satisfaction of a good con- science and the approbation of our JUDGE."
The House through its speaker, Gideon Olin, made the following answer, viz. :-
"Although the suffrages of the freemen of Ver- . mont have replaced his excellency Governor Chit- tenden in the chair of government, for the year en- suing, yet their representatives in general assem- bly are happy in having an opportunity of ex- pressing their entire satisfaction with your late administration; and beg you to accept their warmest thanks for the services you have ren- dered them.
"In republics like ours, every citizen has an equal right to be elected into the first office of gov- ernment : upon this principle, we flatter ourselves you will feel no regret in retiring from office, and mixing with your fellow citizens, till they shall again call you to public view.
"In your retirement, we wish you the full en- joyment of all the happiness and tranquility which result from domestic life, and a consciousness of having discharged every duty both as a private citizen and a chief magistrate with faithfulness and integrity."
On the return of Gov. Chittenden to the exec- utive chair he was honored by the military dis- play and public gathering usual on election day at that time, and he addressed the gentlemen of the Council and the Assembly as follows, viz. :-
"I have received official information of my ap-
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pointment by the freemen of this state to be their governor for the year ensuing. My heart is im- prest with a grateful sense of the singular respect shewn and honor done me by this election.
"This day witnesses the excellence and beauty of our glorious constitution; which by the bless- ing of heaven, the fortitude and perseverance of former conventions, councils, and assemblies, with the aid of the military force, we have obtained and supported, against the opposition of a potent foreign power, a haughty neighboring govern- ment, and numerous domestic opposers. The constitution, gentlemen, groped in the dark for days, months and years, but now it shines with purer lustre. By it our lives, properties, liberties and privileges, civil and religious, are protected : By it we retain a right to choose our own rulers and that from among ourselves ;- by it we are rescued from submitting to the edicts of any foreign power, or neighboring government, while every civil officer is annually taught his de- pendence. The appearance of this day also evinces, that our government is well established, the minds of the people happily cemented, and ev- ery thing contributes to complete our political felicity, and prepare the way for the happy day when we shall add no small weight to the scale, and be under the protection of a new and glorious empire, which bids fair in a short time to vie in power and policy with any of the European States, which gives me more satisfaction than all the honors in the power of this or any other state to confer on me.
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