History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 14

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054

USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 14

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

Vermont was justified in her course by the conduct of Congress in with- drawing the forces of the United States from her frontiers, with the evident purpose of driving her to seek the protection of New York and relinquishing her claims to independence. The British had not fewer than 10,000 troops in Canada, and they entered upon the negotiation the following year with high hopes of success. The principal agent for Vermont in the several interviews which took place, Colonel Ira Allen, accomplished his ends with the most won- derful skill and courage. The conferences occupied seventeen days in the spring of 1781, and while Allen did not once commit himself, he induced the British agents to an agreement that hostilities should not be resumed against Vermont until after the next session of the Assembly. The exact object and extent of these negotiations were at this time known only to eight men, viz .: Thomas Chittenden, Moses Robinson, Samuel Safford, Ethan Allen, Ira Allen, Timothy Brownson, John Fassett and Joseph Fay. When it became known, therefore, that Allen was to make known to the Legislature at Bennington in June the result of the negotiations, a large number of spectators, including Whigs from Vermont and the neighboring States, and secret emissaries from the British in Canada, drew together to learn the true state of affairs. The papers which Colonel Allen read, however, had no mention of an armistice or the establishment of a royal government in Vermont, as the correspondence respecting the matter had been purposely carried on verbally. After reading the papers, Colonel Allen rose and stated that if any member of the committee or any one of the spectators desired further information he was ready to be questioned ; but his open conduct satisfied all that nothing contrary to their wishes had taken place between Vermont and the British.

Major Joseph Fay was at this session appointed " commissioner of prison- ers," and in July he went on board the Royal George on the lake and obtained an exchange and a further extension of the armistice. About this time Ethan Allen and Ira Allen and the British carried on a secret correspondence by means of a British guard of a sergeant and eight men, which conveyed the messages of the British to one of the Allens personally, in the dusk of evening, and returned on the following evening for the answer, which they carried at once to the superior officer on Lake Champlain.

The committee appointed to attend the deliberations of Congress at their session in June consisted of Jonas Fay, Bezaleel Woodward and Ira Allen. Meantime a letter from Lord Germain to Sir Henry Clinton, commander of the British forces in America, was intercepted by the French and found to con- tain statements which seemed to verify the suspicions of many that Ver- mont and Great Britain had really come to a definite and mutually agree- able understanding. It was dated Whitehall, February 7, 1781, and contained, among other things, the following significant sentence : "The return of the people of Vermont to their allegiance, is an event of the utmost importance to

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THE CONTROVERSY WITH NEW YORK.

the king's affairs ; and at this time, if the French and Washington really medi- tate an irruption into Canada, may be considered as opposing an insurmount- able bar to the attempt." This letter, says an able writer, did more towards disposing Congress to recognize the independence of Vermont and to gain her admission into the Union, than all her sacrifices and services in maintaining the war. It also convinced the diplomats in Vermont that their correspond- ence with the British had had the force to induce a belief even in the minds of the members of the British cabinet that the inhabitants of the Green Mountain State were generally in favor of the resumption of royal authority.

At another interview between Colonel Allen and Major Fay, on the one hand, and the British agents on the other, held in September, 1781, a plan of government was agreed upon. This was to consist of a governor whom the king should appoint, and who should be a citizen of the State; a lieutenant- governor and twelve councilors, chosen by the people; and a house of repre- sentatives composed of delegates from the respective towns. During this in- terview the British agents insisted that Vermont should at once declare herself a British province ; to which the Vermont commissioners opposed the argument that as the inhabitants of some parts of the territory had not yet been won over to sympathy with the British, such a proclamation would be extremely hazardous, for the frontiers of Vermont could not without a unanimity of senti- ment among the people be defended against the forces of the United States. The British then proposed the following alternative, as the ultimatum : During the session of the Legislature in October a proclamation should be issued by the British general, declaring Vermont a colony under the crown, and confirm- ing the plan of government they had agreed upon ; whereupon the Legislature of Vermont should accept the same, and take measures to carry it into effect ; or, the armistice must then and there be declared at an end. After considerable discussion the commissioners were forced to accede to the first proposition. Early in the following month, while the Legislature was in session at Charles- town, General St. Leger landed at Ticonderoga with a powerful army. The Vermont troops were at Castleton under the command of General Enos, who, with Colonels Fletcher and Walbridge, was alone acquainted with the true state of affairs. The body of the troops being ignorant of the negotiations, were kept free from suspicions by the frequent sending out of scouting parties. One of these, commanded by Sergeant Tupper, exchanged shots with a party of the British which they met, and Tupper was killed. General St. Leger gave or- ders that his body be decently buried, and sent his clothing and an open letter of regret to General Enos. This proceeding aroused the suspicions of the troops, and much murmuring was the result. General Enos and Colonels Fletcher and Walbridge immediately sent Mr. Hathaway with letters to Gover- nor Chittenden. Hathaway was not in the secret, and gave information in the streets of Charlestown of the remarkable conduct of the British general, in con-

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

sequence of which he was followed by a large concourse of people to the gov- ernor's apartment, eager after information of which they might make an ill use. The letters contained intelligence concerning the negotiation which it was not deemed prudent to make public. At this time Major Runnels entered the room, and demanded of Colonel Ira Allen why St. Leger should regret the killing of Tupper. Allen's reply not being satisfactory, evoked an unmannerly rebuke from Runnels, who was thereupon requested to return to his regiment and not ask impertinent questions when the frontier was threatened by the enemy.

The government of Vermont seemed to be approaching an imminent crisis. It is impossible to tell what the result of a proclamation by the British general at this time might have led to; for, at the most favorable moment, a report be- came current that Cornwallis had surrendered. Thereupon Colonel Allen and Major Fay wrote to the British agents that it would be inexpedient to publish the proposed proclamation until this report was confuted, that all doubts might be removed concerning the ability of Vermont to maintain her frontier against the forces of the United States. Not more than an hour after this letter was de- livered to the British at Fort Ticonderoga, an express from the south confirmed the report of the capture of Cornwallis and his whole army. Before night the British left Ticonderoga with all their stores, and sailed to Canada. In the winter of 1782 and the spring of 1783 further correspondence took place be- tween Governor Chittenden, or Colonel Ira Allen, and the British authorities in Canada, which resulted in securing an extension of the armistice until the close of the war. And even after that auspicious termination of the contest, letters frequently passed between this State and Great Britain, which had the desired effect of hastening the end of the controversy between Vermont and New York, and the admission of the former State into the Union.

During all these proceedings with the British the commissioners appointed to attend the deliberations of Congress, in Philadelphia, in the spring of 1781, had been laboring to effect the admission of their State into the Union. On the 7th of August Congress began the consideration of the subject, and ap- pointed a committee of five persons to confer with the committee from Ver- mont, and agree with them upon the terms of admission, provided Congress should recognize the independence of that State. After a conference held on the 18th of August, the Congressional Committee made a report to Congress, upon which that body adopted the following resolution : " Resolved, That it be an indispensable preliminary to the recognition of the independence of the people inhabiting the territory called Vermont, and their admission into the Federal Union, that they explicitly relinquish all demands of lands or jurisdic- tion on the east side of the west bank of Connecticut River, and on the west side of a line beginning at the northwest corner of Massachusetts, thence run- ning twenty miles east of Hudson River, so far as said river continues north-

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easterly in its general course, then by the west bounds of the townships granted by the late government of New Hampshire, to the river running into East Bay, thence along said river and bay to Lake Champlain, thence along the waters of said lake to latitude 45 degrees north."

For an obvious reason this resolution dissatisfied both Vermont and New York; the former, because it called upon her to dissolve a union which had proved to be one of the principal elements of her strength, and which she was in sacred honor bound to preserve ; and the latter, because it compelled on her part a renunciation of all the claims upon which the controversy had been con- tinued. On the 19th of October the Legislature of Vermont, in assembly at Charlestown, voted that they could not comply with the resolution of Congress. The Legislature of New York also entered a protest against the measures pur- sued by the United States. Meanwhile a correspondence between Governor Chittenden and General Washington had served to influence the minds of the leading men of Vermont to such a degree, that the Vermont Legislature, on the 22d of February, 1782, resolved to comply with the resolution of Congress, " and relinquish all claims to jurisdiction, beyond the bounds therein men- tioned." This compliance greatly displeased and disappointed those inhabit- ants of the territory east of the Connecticut, who had favored the union with Vermont. The refusal of Vermont to comply had caused such feeling in Con- gress, that on the Ist of March, before they had learned of her subsequent compliance, they attempted to adopt a series of spirited resolutions, to the effect that if Vermont did not, within one month from the time the resolutions were communicated to Governor Chittenden, comply with the preliminary resolution, such refusal would be interpreted as a signal of hostility to the United States. Vermont would thus be regarded by Congress as divided between New Hamp- shire and New York, by a line along the summit of the Green Mountains.

After a protracted debate it was found that the foregoing resolutions could not at that time pass Congress, and soon after the attempt was suspended, a new committee from Vermont, consisting of Jonas Fay, Moses Robinson, Paul Spooner and Isaac Tichenor, arrived in Philadelphia to complete the admission of Vermont into the Union. At their report Congress again took up the mat- ter and referred it to a committee of five persons, which, after mature delibera- tion, recommended the immediate admission of Vermont into the Union. But the votes of Congress, looking to a postponement of the consideration of the re- port, so disappointed the agents from Vermont that they addressed a remon- strance to the president of Congress, and left Philadelphia. In the following October, that the world might not question their good faith, the Legislature of Vermont, notwithstanding their disgust at the evasive policy pursued by Con- gress, again appointed agents with plenary powers to obtain the admission of the State into the Union.

Pending these transactions the Legislature of New York determined to try

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

the effect of a lenient course towards the inhabitants of the territory to which that State laid claim, and therefore, on the 14th of April, 1782, passed several acts, granting pardon and immunity to the inhabitants of the district for all crimes charged against them, excepting murder, and treason in adhering to the king of Great Britain, and confirming all the grants of lands made by New Hampshire, prior to those made by New York, all grants of New York not pre- ceded by grants to New Hampshire, all Vermont grants not previously granted, and further confirming the possessions of individuals of tracts not exceeding 500 acres. These acts, however, had no influence with the people of Vermont, who understood their situation and rights too well to be wheedled into a sub- mission which they had escaped by means of force and management. It was. true that there were people in the State, however, who were in open sympathy with the government of New York, and, particularly in the southern part of the county of Windham, those were found who recommended the organization of a military force for the purpose of effectually resisting the authority of Ver- mont. These rebellious acts determined the government of Vermont to sup- press the insurrection before it could acquire power. The militia were ordered out and the leaders in the rebellion taken. Five of them were banished from the State and others punished according to the degree of their offense. Against this proceeding, of course, New York remonstrated to Congress, which, after much angry discussion, on the 5th of December, severely censured Vermont for having exercised authority over persons who professed allegiance to New York. They resolved, among other things, that Vermont make full restitu- tion to the persons condemned to banishment or confiscation of property, and that they be permitted to return unmolested to said district. The closing words of the resolution were, " that the United States will take effectual measures to enforce a compliance with the aforesaid resolutions, in case the same shall be disobeyed by the people of the said district. " On the 9th of January, 1783, the Governor and Council of Vermont returned a vigorous remonstrance to the fore- going resolutions, complaining of the breach of faith on the part of Congress in refusing to fulfill the solemn engagement made on the 20th of August, regard- ing the admission of Vermont into the Union. It also asserted that Vermont had as much right to prescribe measures to Congress as that body had to inter- meddle in the internal affairs of Vermont. The praiseworthy temperance of the Governor and Council was evinced by the closing words of the remonstrance, to the effect that Vermont still desired admittance into the Union, and would not recede from the compliance, which she had voted, with the congressional resolution of August 20, 1780. Another remonstrance, equally spirited, was sent to Congress on the 26th of February, 1783, and the issue showed that Congress did not feel disposed to carry her intemperate threats into force. For several years after the termination of the war with Great Britain the courts and various departments of the State government were so embarrassed by the-

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riots and disturbances produced by malcontents, who were undoubtedly suffering from the effects of a struggle which had loaded the government and the peo- ple heavily with debts, that the controversy with Congress and the State of New York was almost forgotten. At the close of this war Vermont found her- self happy in not having been admitted into the confederation of States. The United States was, owing to its depreciating currency, and its debility, rapidly sinking into contempt. There seemed little prospect that the country would be able to pay the enormous debt which had been contracted during the war; while the government of Vermont, notwithstanding her many embarrassments. of earlier days, " was moving prosperously onward and was daily increasing in firmness and efficiency." The discouraging tendency of public affairs in the nation fortunately evoked the energies of her wisest statesmen, who constructed and procured the adoption of the new constitution, equipped with powers ade- quate to the exigencies of that and of every time. This constitution was rat- ified by the States, and on the 3d of March, 1789, the first Congress under it convened. By the wise and prudent measures which it adopted it restored to the people of Vermont much of that confidence that the old Congress destroyed. The more recent government of New York, too, manifested a disposition to lay aside the asperities of the full-grown controversy, because it was too plainly a useless task to overturn the now powerful government of Vermont. The for- mer governors of New York, however, had entailed upon their successors the necessity of effecting a settlement, not alone with Vermont, but with the nu- merous persons who had purchased lands in Vermont from the old State of New York, and after the various expenditures preliminary to occupation, were forced at last to abandon the hope of establishing a settlement under their grant. The government of New York did not feel inclined to refund what the cupidity of the royal governors had extorted, yet she was anxious to compromise the mat- ter and have the difficulties amicably adjusted. Accordingly, on the 15th of July, 1789, the Legislature of New York passed an act appointing commis- sioners with full powers to acknowledge the independence of Vermont and bring the controversy to an end. On the 23d of the following October the Legis- lature of Vermont appointed commissioners on their part to treat with those appointed by New York, and to prepare the way for the admission of Vermont into the Union. On the 7th of October, 1790, the commissioners for New York declared the consent of the New York Legislature to the admission of Vermont into the Union; "and that immediately upon such admission all claims of jurisdiction of the State of New York, within the State of Vermont, shall cease, and thenceforth the perpetual boundary line of the State of Ver- mont shall be as was then holden and possessed by Vermont," viz .: The west lines of the most western towns which had been granted by New Hampshire, and the middle channel of Lake Champlain.

Concerning the lands which had been granted by New York, it was agreed

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

that if the Legislature of Vermont "should, on or before the Ist day of Janu- ary, 1792, declare that, on or before the Ist day of June, 1794, the State of Vermont would pay to the State of New York the sum of thirty thousand dollars, that immediately from such declaration by the Legislature of the State of Vermont, all rights and titles to lands within the State of Vermont, under grants from the government of the colony of New York, or from the State of New York, should cease ; " except alone those which had been made in confirm- ation of New Hampshire grants. To this the Legislature of Vermont at once agreed, and on the 28th of October, 1790, directed the State treasurer to pay the sum of thirty thousand dollars to the State of New York at the time agreed upon.

A controversy of twenty-six years' duration being thus amicably settled, proceedings were set on foot to ascertain the views of the inhabitants of Vermont with reference to the union with the United States. At a con- vention called for that purpose, held at Bennington on the 6th day of January, 1791, a final vote was obtained after four days of deliberation, yeas 105, nays 2, that application be made for admission into the Federal Union. On the 18th of the same month the Legislature appointed the Hon. Nathaniel Chipman and Lewis R. Morris commissioners to attend Congress and secure the admis- sion of the State. They immediately repaired to Philadelphia, and on the 18th of February, 1791, procured the passage of an act declaring that " on the 4th of March, 1791, the said State, by the name and style of ' the State of Ver- mont,' shall be received and admitted into their union, as a new and entire member of the United States of America." The act was passed without de- bate and without a dissenting vote.

CHAPTER V.

THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

Chittenden County in 1776 - Disadvantages of the Colonies - Ethan Allen at Ticonder- oga - Surrender of St. Johns - Capture of Allen - Siege of Quebec -- Repulses in the North -- Arnold's Defeat - Campaign of 1777 - Advance of Burgoyne - His Compact with the In- dians - Americans Retreat from Ticonderoga - Battle of Hubbardton - Schuyler's Timidity - Battle of Bennington - Engagements at Behmus's Heights - Capture of Burgoyne - Re- turn of Ethan Allen.

A T the outbreak of the Revolution the territory embraced within the pres- ent limits of Chittenden county was almost completely in a state of na- ture. As we have said in a former page, there is reason to believe that Col- chester Point, perhaps as early as the seventeenth century, contained a promis- ing little settlement of French, who must have deemed their village one of the

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THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

suburbs of Fort La Motte. When the French receded before the power of the English under General Amherst, they were forced to leave the evidence of their occupation behind. Many of the soldiers who fought under the English flag were adventurous men from the British provinces in America, and were alive to the possible improvement of their worldly condition. They were attracted by the beauty of the country along Lake Champlain, and their cupidity, perhaps, was excited by the apparent fertility of the soil, the rare advantages offered to the manufacturer by the number and power of mill privileges, and to the trader by the facilities along the lake for transportation. Moreover the forests, mountains and streams abounded with game for the hunter and trapper. Set- tlement was encouraged by Governor Wentworth, and by the royal governor of New York. The king of Great Britain himself rewarded the fidelity of his soldiers with grants of land in the most smiling portion of his colonial posses- sions. With all these agencies at work, the wonder is that settlement did not progress more rapidly between the close of the French and English War and the commencement of the Revolution ; but at that period only the most daring and adventurous spirits had invaded the wildernesses of Northern Ver- mont, and many of these returned to their families in Massachusetts, Connect- icut, or New Hampshire for the winter.

Previous to the Revolution all the territory within the present boundaries of the county had been divided into townships, and granted for the most part to speculators who had no intention of settling here. The town of Bolton was granted on the Ist of June, 1763 ; six towns, viz., Burlington, Colchester, Essex, Huntington, Jericho, and Williston, were granted on the 7th of the same month. Milton and Westford were granted on the 8th of June, and Shelburne and St. George on the 18th of August following. The first towns granted in the county, however, were Charlotte and Hinesburg, both charters bearing date of June 24, 1762. Underhill was not granted until the 8th day of June, 1765. Under a number of these grants, settlement had begun before 1776. Felix Powell, Lemuel Bradley, and several others settled in Burlington a short time before the war ; Ira Allen and Remember Baker came from Arlington to Winooski Falls in 1772. Two years later Thomas Chittenden and Jonathan Spafford came down the lake in a bateau, and began a settlement in Williston. Derick Webb, a German, attempted a settlement in Charlotte early in 1766, and again in 1777. Allen and Baker erected Fort Frederick on the north side of Winooski River in 1773. Colchester, indeed, was more extensively settled than any other town in the vicinity. There were two settlers in Hinesburg, three in Jericho, two in Richmond, a number in Shelburne, and about forty families along the Winooski River and the lake shore adjoining. On the ad- vance of the enemy from Canada in 1776, all the settlements in this part of the State were abandoned, and not occupied again till after the surrender of Burgoyne and the close of the war. Most of those who left the territory zeal-

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History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 14

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1054

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054