USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. III > Part 7
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from being plundered by the Vermonter's. * * * The forts are being put in a state of defence and many boats are building, and one of seventy oars was launched last week, alleged to be for carrying provisions. *
* * Ten thousand troops were expected to arrive from Europe * * * and Lord Dorchester was daily looked for from Quebec, to review the troops, militia, and forts."
Royal Corbin of Alburgh, in his letter to Gov- ernor Chittenden of Aug. 18, 1794, asking protec- tion from British injuries and insults, said :
"The repeated injuries and insults this vicinity has suffered from the British, while in a time of peace, and within the jurisdiction of this State, are so glaring, and so very frequent, as to arouse the indignation of every one who has the smallest tincture of Republican blood, circulating in their veins .- The peculiar situation of my business, be- ing in the merchatile line, and consequently having much necessary call to pass your Lake Champlain up and down, as well as across, subjects myself to daily abuses from an armed vessel-and my prop- erty to an unjustifiable seizure and detention .- I am not suffered to pass southward to Isle la Motte -- because they alleged I am within their lines, and must apply to the ship, for liberty. Neither am I allowed to pass to or from, St. John's, although within their lines-so I am deprived of every ad- vantage a citizen of every State ought to enjoy, as your Excellency will be pleased to observe."
Corbin's representations were supported by several affidavits.
On March 10, 1794, the British Minister had
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complained to the Secretary of State that out- rages had been committed by Vermonters. Lord Dorchester had been endeavoring to stir up the In- dians to aid the British against the Americans in case of war, and on May 20th, Edmond Randolph, Secretary of State, in spirited and peremptory terms called upon the British Minister to explain the belligerent speech of Lord Dorchester to a council of hostile Indians, and called his attention to the hostile movements of Lieut. Gov. Simcoe of Upper Canada with British troops to build a fort at the lower rapids of the Miami. George Ham- mond on May 22, 1794, after quoting from Lord Dorchester's speech, said :
"It is manifest that Lord Dorchester was per- suaded, that the aggression which might eventu- ally lead to a state of hostility, had proceeded from the United States : and so far as the State of Ver- mont, to which I presume his lordship principally alluded, was implicated, I am convinced that that persuasion was not ill-founded, * I assert with confidence that not only those encroachments have never been in any manner repressed but that recent infringements in that quarter, and on the territory in its vicinity, have since been committed. * In regard to your declaration that 'Gov- ernor Simcoe has gone to the foot of the rapids of the Miami, followed by three companies of a Brit- ish regiment, in order to build a fort there'-I have no intelligence that such an event has actually occurred. * *
** Before I conclude this, I must be permitted to observe that I have confined [com- plaints] to the unrepressed and continued aggres-
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sions of the State of Vermont alone, the persua- sion of Lord Dorchester, that they were indicative of an existing hostile disposition in the United States against Great Britain, and might ultimate- ly produce an actual state of war on their part."
Secretary Randolph called for the facts from Gov. Chittenden, which he gave and are embraced in the following extracts from a letter of Gov. Chittenden of July, 1791, to Secretary Randolph, viz :
""'The letters you refer me to, written by your predecessor [Jefferson,] in consequence of com- plaints exhibted to him by the British Minister, urging the prevention of all movements which might tend to disturbe the harmony, subsisting between the United States and Great Britain, I can with truth say, have been strictly adhered to by the government and the citizens of this State; in every requisition.'
"His next is an observation of pointed regret at these complaints : and he then goes on thus :
"' Before the reception of the above mentioned letters, written by your predecessor, I had for- warded a particular statement with affidavits, relative to the complaints in said letters exhibited, directed to the President of the United States, to which I beg leave to refer you; by which state- ment and affidavits is most manifestly made to ap- pear that British subjects had less cause of com- plaint than those of the United States. No just cause of complaint hath come to my knowledge, of any abuses done or committed by any citizens of this or the United States, to British subjects as 7
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such : or of any infringements being made on gar- sisons, territories, or jurisdictions, which British subjects have ever made any serious pretensions to in this quarter.'
"After a remark, relating to those who "pre- tend personal grievances," and a suspicion that the situation of the British garrisons is not gener- ally understood at a distance, the remaining pass- ages of his letter are the following :
"Therefore in order to understand the force of the complaints it is necessary to premise that the only British garrison now established within the limits of Vermont is a place called Dutchman's Point, composed only of about twelve men, situ- ated on the north end of the North Hero, twelve miles south of the latitude line. This garrison does not pretend to hold or keep jurisdiction over any land within this State other than a few acres on which their garrison is situated .- And indeed citizens of this State are settled quite in the neighi- borhood of said garrison, on every direction, and they are intimate with each other without any difficulty to my knowledge.
"That part of the tract called Caldwell's manor, which lies within the bounds of this State, hath long since been chartered as a town by the name of Alburgh-And the inhabitants thereof are in- corporated as citizens, with all the privileges of other towns within this State and have long since been in the peaceable possession of the same. With regard to the recent instance of misdemeanor com- mitted on the officer of the crown by the capture of a small party (said to be made) on British
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subjects, in pursuit of a deserter before Dutchman's Point as complained by Mr. Hammond-The cir- cumstances which probably gave rise to the asser- tion are as follows, to wit: four armed men and in the common dress of the citizens of this State, appeared some time last winter in the town of Sheldon, alias Hungerford, within this State (a place about twenty miles distant from any place ever known or pretended to be claimed by British subjects) in disturbance of the peace-there made a violent assault upon the body of one John M'All, an inhabitant of that town, and then being in the peace of God and the State, in consequence where- of, in defence of the public peace, the said four men were taken into custody by a constable, and agree- able to the civil laws of this State convicted of breaking the peace, and accordingly fined .- It is said they were British subjects, which I am willing to admit-But that they had any authority as such from the British nation, to break the peace of this State within the known and acknowledged bounds of the same, did not appear from any cre- dentials which they produced, nor does it yet ap- pear-But the contrary I believe to be true, there- fore as persons under the common protection of that government, they have been holden to re- spond for their breach of that protection, accord- ing to the civil law.
"From the above statement it is conceived that Mr. Hammond's complaint of the capture be- fore Dutchman's Point, is ill founded and unjust. Of this you may be assured, that every attention has been paid by me to prevent all the movements
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which may tend to thwart the friendly negotia- tions now taking place between the two powers ; and I have pleasure to say, that nothing hath hitherto transpired, wherein I can think myself or any of the citizens of this Sate culpable.
"And of this you may be further assured, that every precaution and means within my power will still be used to ensure the continuation of all good harmony, between citizens of the two govern- ments."
This communication from the governor of Ver- mont led Secretary Randolph to say, "that it leaves no room for comment on my part ; although to contrast it, sentence by sentence, with the rep- resentations which have occasioned it, would afford grounds more and more striking, to appre- hend, that the Governor-General of Quebec has been mistaken."
On the appointment of John Jay as minister to England, the negotiations on the whole contro- versy were transfered to London, where an agree- ment was reached. John Jay, Envoy of the United States, wrote to the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, from London under the date of July 12, 1794. "We had an informal conversation relative to Simcoe's hostile measure. We concurred in opin- ion that during the present negotiation and until the conclusion of it all things ought to remain and be preserved in Statue quo-that therefore both parties should continue to hold their possessions, and that all encroachments on either side should be done away-that all hostile measures (if any such should have taken place) shall cease and that
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in case it should unfortunately have happened that prisoners or property have been taken the prisoners shall be released and the property re- stored. And we have agreed, that both govern- ments shall immediately give orders and instruc- tions accordingly."
Henry Knox, Secretary of War, wrote Governor Chittenden, Oct. 7, 1794, "that the agreement which it specifies should be duly observed as it re- spects the frontiers of Vermont. The statu quo as it existed immediately after the peace of 1783, is to be inviolably observed. All encroachments since that period are to be abandoned."
In view of all the foregoing facts and what sub- sequently appeared, the said agreement of Jay at London, "that both parties should continue to hold their possessions," was a give away so far as it applied to the frontier of Vermont south of the line of 45°, as the Vermont government and her cit- izens did not exercise any jurisdiction over any ter- ritory or property north of that line. And it could be justified only on the ground to avoid the im- mediate clash of arms, and to give an opportunity for further negotiations on the subject. It is quite evident that England had no jurisdiction or rights south of that line. If the organization of Alburgh in June, 1792, was in violation of the treaty of 1783, then the continuance of that organization, by representation in the Vermont legislature, and the appointment of Magistrates for the town by that body, in 1794-5, was in violation both of the treaty of 1783 and the agreement of John' Jay in 1794, but no complaints had been made against
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the Vermont government or the National govern- ment in this matter, and, therefore, it is fairly pre- sumable any claim south of that line was not insisted upon, and Governor Chittenden was sus- tained in every particular. Even farther west the British abandoned their assumed jurisdiction. As late as Aug. 20, 1794, General Anthony Wayne fought a fierce battle near Fort Miami that Simcoe had built. In this battle Gen. Wayne had to con- tend against Indians and Canadian militia and Volunteers, the latter armed with British muskets and bayonets, and three British officers were on the battlefield at a respectable distance. In this victory a Vermont company bore their share. On Aug. 22, 1794, Gen. Wayne totally destroyed houses and cornfields above and below the fort, in- cluding the houses, stores and property of Col. M'Kee, the principal British stimulator of the war then existing between the United States and the savages. Under Jay's treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, concluded on Nov. 19, 1794, and proclaimed Feb. 29, 1796, by the second article of which the British posts in the United States were evacuated on or before the first day of June, 1796.
After Vermont became a State of the Federal Union in 1791, there were three regiments added to the National army under the act of Congress of March 5, 1791, and President Washington assign- ed the first company of the third of these regi- ments to Vermont, and appointed William Eaton of Windsor Captain, James Underhill of Dorset as Lieutenant and Charles Hyde of Poultney, Ensign. A recrating office was opened at Bennington about
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the first of May, 1792, by Ensign Hyde, and under the spurs of glittering promises of glory and fervid appeals, the ranks were soon filled and the company departed for the seat of war by the 31st of August following. The enlistments were for three years with a bounty of eight dollars for each recruit; the privates to have the monthly pay of three dollars. It was stated at the time by those who saw a number of the other companies, that Captain Eaton's company was by far the best who marched from any rendezvous whatever, and they left Bennington in good spirits and with that military ambition that becomes a soldier. Cap- tain Eaton was a brave and capable officer but se- vere in his discipline. He was President of a Court Martial at Albany, on the 26th of May, 1792, when a private in a New York company was found guilty of desertion and punished by one hundred lashes. On Aug. 7th, a private in Eaton's company attempted to force the guard and was shot dead. The company reached Lancaster, Pa., on its way to join the army under command of Gen. Anthony Wayne that was at Pittsburgh on Sept. 20, 1792; and at that date Captain Eaton wrote to a friend at Bennington that, "not a single man has at- tempted to escape me since I left Bennington, and I have the reputation of marching the best com- pany of recruits that have passed through the country," and that Ensign Hyde has had a very handsome compliment paid to his abilities, in re- ceiving from the war office an appointment of Judge Advocate General of the United States Army.
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The Vermont company joined Wayne at Pitts- burgh on Oct. 22, 1792, and the succeeding sum- mer was spent in organizing and drilling the army, for fighting Indians, on a plan prescribed by Presi- dent Washington, and in endeavors to negotiate a peace with the Indians. Wayne, failing in these negotiations, advanced eighty miles north of Cincinnati and there erected a fort on the site of Greenville, Ohio, where he remained till the spring of 1794.
On Sept. 22, 1793, Captain Eaton wrote, that, "the Indians are collected in large numbers at the site of Fort Defiance and are determined to meet us on our route-they are elated with their former success [in the defeat of St. Clair]-they are resent- ful, determinate and laugh at the idea of our ap- proaching their towns. These circumstances con- cur to make them less contemptable as an enemy. That they will fight with desperation, we expect- and God grant they may have enough of it. We are well desciplined and well reconciled to the ex- pedition, and whatever may be our success, I will venture to assure you, that we shall not fly. Our business will be serious and decisive provided we are engaged of which I have not a doubt." He stated, also, in his letter, that Thomas Avery and Benjamin Coburn of his company had died, and that "they were excellent soldiers, and I consider their death a very great loss in my company,-but death is arbitrary." About the first of January 1794, a part of Captain Eaton's company, ad- vanced into the Indian country about thirty-five miles from Greenville and met a large party of In-
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dians, suprised and routed them, but the loss of the company was three killed and one wounded. About this time the company was out in skirmish- ing and scouting parties, and in gathering and burying the bones of those who were killed in St. Clair's defeat, and in reconstructing Fort Recov- ery on that disastrous battle ground.
The Vermonters were engaged in the decisive battle near the British fort Miami on Aug. 20, 1794. In that battle, James Underhill had suc- ceeded Eaton as Captain, and the Vermont com- pany was in the fourth sub-legion that lost in killed fourteen men, five of which were from Cap- tain Underhill's company. The fact, that five of the fourteen killed in that sub-legion, were from the Vermont company, is proof that the Green Mountain Boys were in the thickest of the fight.
An act of Congress of May 9, 1794, directed a detachment from the militia of eighty thousand men to be organized, armed and equipped and held in readiness to march on a moment's warning in the service of the United States. 2,139 of those men were assigned to Vermont. And on May 19, 1794, President Washington issued his requisition to the Governors of the several states to use the most effectual means for making the necessary de- tachment. Governor Chittenden took immediate measures to raise the men and the work was promptly done, but the men were not called into . actual service. In anticipation that these militia would be called into active service by the general government, the Vermont Legislature, Oct. 30, 1794, passed an act raising the monthly pay to
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forty shillings to each private and a larger sum to the officers of the company. This was a precedent for the giving the extra State pay to volunteers from Vermont in the United States service in the war of the rebellion.
During the administration of John Adams a requisition for men was made under the act of Congress of June 24, 1797; and under that requi- sition Governor Tichenor issued orders for the de- tachment of three regiments of Vermont militia, numbering in all 2,150 men to be under the com- mand of Big. Gen. Zebina Curtis of Windsor, but these men were not ordered into actual service.
By an act of Congress of July 16, 1798, twelve regiments were added to the U. S. Army, making the army composed of sixteen regiments of which George Washington was to have the command as Lieutenant General. The 16th regiment was to be filled by enlistments in New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island, and of these, Vermont was to furnish three companies. Enlistment offices were at once opened at Westminster, Newbury and Bur- lington, and the rendezvous for the State was at Westminster under the command of Major Cor- nelius Lynde of Williamstown; Captains and Lieutenants were appointed. None of these 12 regiments were filled and only 233 men were en- listed for the 16th regiment; and in February, 1800, enlistments were suspended, and the army reduced to four regiments. It has been seen that when Vermont sought to establish her independ- ence her brave sons stood forth against the un- just claims of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and
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New York for her territory, and rather than sub- mit to the grasping and intolerant power of New York, they were determined to maintain their in- dependence by force against the federal power. But when she became one of the States of the Fed- eral Union, she was ready and willing to furnish her share of men and money against aggressive foreign powers and to maintain the honor of the nation.
CHAPTER IV.
ACCEPTANCE AND RESIGNATION OF OFFI- CIAL POSITIONS-EXTRADITION OF FUGATIVES FROM JUSTICE- COLONIZATION SOCIETY- SLAVERY.
In the closing years of the eighteenth century there were several notable resignations of men from public office-some on account of the infirmi- ties of old age and some to take other and higher positions. Samuel Knight, on Oct. 19, 1791, in accepting the appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, said, "I am convinced from experience I have had for two years past, that the office of Judge of the Supreme Court is at- tended with many and great difficulties, and that the number of persons completely qualified to fill that place are very few, among which number I cannot claim to be reconed." And on retiring from the office of Chief Justice he addressed the General Assembly on Oct. 15, 1794, and said, "I cannot but express a consciousness of the most upright intentions and view in the discharge of every part of the duty of that important office and I am happy to find that the people of this State have not complained that any part of my official conduct has appeared unto them to deviate from
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the strictest rules of justice, equity or propriety." The House through their speaker, Daniel Buck, said in answer, the House "take the liberty to express to you the lively sense with which they are im- pressed of the justice and propriety of your con- duct, in the discharge of the various duties of the important office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court-and of the dignity with which you have so long presided. And in retiring, sir, from the public business of the State, we wish you may enjoy all the satisfaction appertaining to private and social life,-long continue a blessing to your family and society, and when the curtain of life shall drop, receive a crown of Glory that shall never fade away."
Knight, never having received a grant of land from the State, or the government of New Hamp- shire, or New York, the Legislature at the same session, granted leave for Samuel Knight to bring in a bill granting him two thousand acres of land, if there was that quantity unlocated, and an act was passed accordingly.
Elijah Paine stated in his letter of acceptance of his appointment as Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, Oct. 19, 1791, that "I have a greater ambitition to serve the State in which I live while I can do it to their satisfaction, than I have to serve any other government," but he complained of the then inadequacy of compensation. Heserved the State in that capacity until 1793; he was elected United States Senator from Vermont in 1793, which position he resigned in 1801, to ac- cept the office of Judge for the U. S. District of
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Vermont. On his election to the United States Senate, he said, "I dare make no promise but I cannot but hope that the lively impressions I now feel, will on all occasions produce an uniform zeal for the welfare of this and the United States."
Roger Enos on tendering his resignation of the office of Major General of Militia of the State on . Oct. 31, 1791, to Governor Chittenden, said, "It has ever afforded me satisfaction to serve my country in every sphere in which I have been called to action. But it has been my highest ambition to merit their approbation in a faithful discharge of the duties of the different military offices with which I have been honored."
Peter Olcott, on Aug. 1794, who had served the State as Lieutenant Governor from 1790, de- clined a re-election on account of infirmities of age and bodily indisposition, and made the request in the choice of his successor, "to elect some person of known integrity and abilities and acceptable to the community at large."
"Israel Morey resigned his office of Brigadier General, Oct. 18, 1794, after having served in the military department for nearly twenty years. He represented Fairlee several years in the Vermont Assembly and was Judge of Orange County Court three years and member of the Constitutional Convention of 1793. His son Samuel propelled a boat by steam in 1792 and 1793, ten years be- fore Robert Fulton constructed his experimental steamboat. Fulton in fact had the benefit of Morey's invention and prospered by it.
Enoch Woodbridge on accepting the office of
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Judge of the Supreme Court, Oct. 29, 1794, said, "I feel, sir, as if the lives, liberties and property of my fellow citizens are to be in some degree com- mitted to my charge." He resided at Vergennes and was its first Mayor. The last few years of the eighteenth century found the people of Vermont in great poverty except in land, and the taxes that had to be imposed for the ordinary expenses of government, and to pay the thirty thousand dol- lars to New York due that State in settlement of the long drawn out controversy, so fully set forth in these volumes, were very burdensome.
In 1796, the crimes of highway robbery, horse stealing and other high crimes had been committed in the Province of Canada and the supposed crimi- nals had fled to Vermont or other States of the Union. And on March 31, 1796, Lord Dorchester then of Quebec, addressed a circular to Governor Chittenden and Governors of other States, stat- ing therein that Ephraim Barnes and James C. Freeman, against whom the Grand Jury of the District of Montreal had found bills, either for highway robbery and horse stealing or accessory to those who did commit the crimes, had made their escape and fled to one of the neighboring States, and requesting the Governor, if they were found in his government, to cause them to be delivered up to the bearer of the circular. Governor Chittenden did not comply with that demand on the ground that he was not authorized so to do by the then late treaty between Great Britain and the United States. The words of the treaty were, "that his Majesty and the United States on mutual requisi-
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