USA > Vermont > Records of the Council of Safety and Governor and Council of the State of Vermont, to which are prefixed the records of the General Conventions from July 1775 to December 1777, Vol. I > Part 14
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Council of Safety-Introduction.
A public teacher of righteousness, An able advocate to his last for Democracy, And the equal rights of man. Removed to this town, (Guilford,) A. D. 1770. Was a field officer in the Revolutionary war,
A founder of the first constitution and government of Vermont, A Council of Censors, in A. D. 1783,
A member of the Council, and Lieut. Governor of the State in A. D. 1779,
A firm professor of Christianity in the Baptist church 50 years. Left this world
And 146 persons of lineal posterity, March 29th, 1804, Aged 78 years 10 months and 12 days, with a strong Mind and full of faith of a more Glorious state hereafter. Stature about six feet-weight 200. Death had no terror.
The above omits several facts. Mr. Carpenter was the first delegate of Guilford in a Vermont Convention. " In 1776," says Thompson, "the town voted to pay the expenses of Benjamin Carpenter, their delegate to the Westminster Convention of 1775." If there is no error in the dates, this must mean the Convention of April 11, 1775, which con- demned the government of New York, the massaere at Westminster, &c. He was a delegate in the Dorset and Westminster Conventions of 1776. In 1777 the town " voted, John Barney and Benjamin Carpenter be a committee to go to Windsor, in June next, to hear the report of the agent sent to Congress concerning a new state." Accordingly Mr. Car- penter attended the Windsor Convention of JJune 4, 1777; and the above inscription indicates that he was also a member of the Windsor Conven- tion which adopted the Constitution. In 1778 there was a change in the politics of the town, the opponents of Vermont having obtained posses- sion of the records of the town and ruled it until about 1791, when the town was duly organized under Vermont. Mr. Carpenter disregarded the dominant party and adhered steadily to Vermont, on occasions not without personal danger, since it is recorded that in December, 1783, he was taken prisoner by the Yorkers and carried away, "to his great dam- age." Feb. 1, 1776, he was chairman of the Cumberland County Com- mittee of Safety, and by that body was nominated lieutenant colonel of militia, which was confirmed by New York, March 1. 1776 .- See Thomp- son's Vermont. and B. II. Hall's Eastern Vermont.
THOMAS CHITTENDEN was born at East Guilford, Conn., Jan. 6, 1730. He remained with his father until Oct. 4, 1749, about which time he mar- ried Elizabeth Meigs and removed to Salisbury, Conn., which town he represented in the legislature of Connecticut from 1766 to 1769 and again in 1772. IIe was colonel of militia and a justice of the peace. In 1774 he settled in the valley of the Winooski at Williston, from whence he was driven by the invasion of the British in 1776. He dwelt in Dan-
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by, Pownal, and Arlington mainly, until his return to the homestead in 1787. He was a leading member in the Vermont Conventions, Presi- dent of the Council of Safety, and Governor from March 1778, one year excepted, until he resigned, a short time before his death, which occur- red August 25, 1797. His defeat in the General Assembly in 1789, al- though he was nearly elected by the people, was a political accident, which is chargeable more to jealousy of Ira Allen felt by the politicians of the day, than to any lack of affection for or confidence in the Governor. Indeed, in an address to the Governor, on that occasion, the Assembly declared the satisfaction they felt in his administration ; a grateful sense of the many and good services he had rendered, "as the supporter, guar- dian and protector of their civil liberties ;" and "all that a noble and generous mind can give or wish to receive, their gratitude and warmest thanks."-See Memoir of Chittenden by Daniel Chipman; Early History; and Vt. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. I passim; also vol. II, pp. 479, 484, 485, and passim.
The predominant traits in Gov. Chittenden's character were of the most substantial excellence. IIe did not tower high like an ornate and graceful Corinthian column, but was rather like the solid Roman arch, that no convulsion could overturn and no weight could crush. "He was ed- ucated to habits of industry and economy, and had but little to do with the artificial forms of society. A common school education completed his early advantages ; and, indeed, the little time he had to spare from labor was not devoted to books and study so much as to his favorite ath- letic sports."1 . He seemed to have an intuitive insight into all men with whom he came in contact, and into all questions which he had to decide.2 Ethan Allen said "That he was the only man he ever knew who was sure to be right in all, even the most difficult and complex cases, and yet could not tell or seem to know why it was so."3 Hence, his letters and official documents were usually written by others-Jonas or Joseph Fay, Ethan or Ira Allen, Moses Robinson, and later by Nathaniel Chip- man; but it cannot be doubted that Chittenden dictated them. for no man in Vermont was superior to him in judgment. From his first en- trance into the state he was the master in every community in which he dwelt, either by the force of his character or the power of his official po- sitions ; and yet " his government was rather patriarchal than constitu- tional."+ Like a father, he did not spare the rod, as with the tories. and yet all men were his children, and he tempered justice with mercy. " His sagacity, humanity and sound discretion are conspicnous especially in the disposition of the tories, their estates, and their families."5 The fact has already been stated that Gov. Chittenden became a resident of Arlington to quell the tory power there, as he rigorously did, until nearly every royalist was driven out or persuaded to remain in submission.
1 Hon. David Read, in Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I., p. 906. 2 Ibid, p. 911.
3 Ibid, p. 929. + D. Chipman's Memoir, p. 9.
Ibid, p. 19.
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The historian of Arlington added, "Soon circumstances arose which really gave Governor Chittenden a place in the affections of the people. So great had been the disorders of the times, and so many men had left the country that fields were unharvested and there was imminent danger of famine. The Governor took upon himself the task of visiting, from time to time, every family and taking an account of the provisions on hand. Under his oversight, and by his impartial and disinterested coun- sel, distribution was so made that, although all were pinched, none per- ished."1 The remarkable proclamation of pardon to the tories and Yorkers, June, 1779, was "a gracious design of mercy," "to alleviate the miseries of those unhappy subjects who act through mistaken no- tions, and resist the penalties thereof."? Not only was he ready to grant all possible relief in every present emergency, but like a watchful and provident father he anticipated future necessities. Hence, again and again were embargoes imposed on the exportation of breadstuffs, and on one occasion it transpired that the Governor had stored up the abun- dance of his own fields, refusing to sell for cash, but reserving it for the benefit of the people in a time of need.3 He was, eminently, a good governor-a wise ruler-a father to his people. His son, MARTIN CIIIT- TENDEN, described him as a man over six feet, of fair proportions though not portly, and fine teeth, but for a portion of his life he lost the use of one eye.
JEREMIAII CLARK was born in Preston, Conn., in 1733, came to Ben- nington in 1767, and quickly made his pitch in the west part of Shafts- bury, where he dwelt for half a century. He served as Major, and took part in the battle of Bennington with a son sixteen years of age. He was one of the committee which "warned" the Dorset Convention of Jan. 16, 1776, and was a delegate in several other Conventions ; served as member of the Council of Safety in 1777-8; as Councillor in 1778, 1779, and 1780 ; and chief judge of Bennington county in 1778. In the last capacity he passed sentence of death on David Redding, who was the first man executed in Vermont. Maj. Clark died in 1817, aged 84 years .- See history of Shaftsbury, and letter of Hon. MYRON CLARK, grandson of Major Clark, in Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, pp. 234, 236. On the authority of the last named alone, Major Clark's name is inserted in the roll of the Council of Safety. The grandson gave him the char- acter of a conscientious and religious man.
NATHAN CLARK came to Bennington from Connecticut in 1762, and was prominent in the controversy with New York, being frequently chairman of conventions and committees and the author of many of the
1 Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 130.
" Slade's State Papers, pp. 556, 557, and post.
8 Vt. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. II, p. 482.
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published papers of the time. He was chairman of the Bennington Committee of Safety, and was complimented by Gen. Gates for efficient services. He was member of the State Council of Safety, and speaker of the first General Assembly. He lost one son, Nathan Clark, jr., in the battle of Bennington ; and another son, Isaac Clark, familiarly known as "Old Rifle," was in that battle, was a Colonel in the war of 1812, and distinguished as a partizan leader.1-See Early History, p. 459 ; and Memorials of a Century, Bennington.
1 Col. ISAAC CLARK, afterward General, married Hannah, the third daughter of Gov. Thomas Chittenden. He was not only a good fighter, but a very zealous Republican of the school of Jefferson. He repre- sented Castleton in the General Assembly of Vermont four years, 1796-'99, and was one of the victims of the so-called " Vergennes slaugh- ter-house" in 1798, having been expelled from the House for an alleged misdemeanor as a member of the committee to canvass votes for state officers. A new election was ordered, Clark was again elected by a ma- jority of all the voters in his town, but the Federalists refused to admit him at that session. One of the very last and rarest acquisitions of the late State Librarian, Hon. CHARLES REED, was a volume thus entitled:
A Republican Magazine: or Repository of Political Truths. By James Lyon, of Fairhaven, Vermont.
NATURE has left this Tincture in the Blood, That all Men would be TYRANTS if they cou'd-
If they forbear their Neighbors to devour,
' Tis not for want of WILL, but want of POWER. DE FOE'S Jure Divino.
Published at Fairhaven, Vt. M,DCC,XCVIII.
It is a sixteen mo. volume, consisting of four semi-monthly numbers with this title :
The Scourge of Aristocracy. and repository of Important Political Truths.
In this volume is a notice, by MATTHEW LYON, of Gen. Clark's expul- sion, which is so characteristic both of LYON and the spirit of that day as to be worth perpetuating. It is as follows:
VERGENNES, Oct. 28, 1798.
It is not in my power to make you any communications of importance, except what you have no doubt already received. The last political death reported, is that of General CLARK-he departed this life the 25th instant, aged 14 days ;- He died in the defence of that country, which, thro' his aid, had given birth to his assassins-his last moments were marked with as much serenity as the celebrated John Rogers's were, and in some degree similar; only the one died for religious, the other for political sentiments, both under the reign of Party Terror. His depart- ing soul breathed forth a strong and manly hope of a speedy and glori- ons resurrection of Republicanism.
When party zeal in public good shall end,
And show the world who is his country's friend;
10
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Council of Safety-Introduction.
Dr. JONAS FAY, son of Stephen Fay, was born at Hardwick, Mass., Jan. 17, 1737, and removed to Bennington with his father in 1766. He was from the first prominent in the contest with New York and with the mother country, and influential in the organization of the state, his pen being often used in its service. He was clerk of the convention of settlers in March, 1774, and uniformly, when present, of subsequent con- ventions. On the declaration of Vermont independence in 1777 he was of the committee, with Chittenden, Reuben Jones, Bayley, and Capt. Heman Allen, to prepare and present to Congress the declaration and petition of the state, and on four occasions, from 1777 to 1782, he was agent of the state to Congress. At the age of nineteen he had served in the French war during the campaign of 1756. Ile was with Ethan Allen as sur- geon in the capture of Ticonderoga in May, 1775; served in the same ca- pacity with Elmore's Connectient regiment, and also for a time in War- ner's regiment. In July, 1775, he was appointed by the Massachusetts committee at Ticonderoga to muster the troops as they arrived. He was a member of the Council of Safety in 1777-8, and then of the State Council for the first seven years; a judge of the supreme court in 1782, and judge of probate for five years, 1782-86. He resided for awhile after 1800 in Charlotte and Pawlet, and died in Bennington, March 6, 1818 .- See Early History, pp. 463, 464.
Col. JOSEPH FAY, brother of Jonas, was born in Hardwick, Mass., about 1752, and came to Bennington in 1766. He was Secretary of the Council of Safety from Sept. 1777 to March 1788; of the State Council from March 1778 to 1794 ; and Secretary of State also from the resigna-
When Democrats shall rise and reign, And Freedom bless the earth again; When Tories shall sink down to hell, Where Pandemonium Harpies dwell; Millennial Love shall then prevail; Aristocrats lament and wail: Republicans rejoice to see The blest return of Liberty; Vergennes fever will harmless prove, Or rage a stimulous to Love.
Of course the above was written when LYON was in jail at Ver- gennes, suffering the penalty of the alien and sedition act. He was committed in October, 1798 and was not released until February. 1799.
Drake's Dictionary of American Biography records this:
CLARK, GEN. ISAAC, d. Castleton, Vt., Jan. 31, 1822, a. 73. Member of the Constitutional Convention, and many years [1806-'10] chief judge of the Vermont [Rutland] County Court, a soldier of the Revolution, and Colonel 11th U. S. Infantry, March 12. 1812. Commanded a suc- cessful expedition against Massequoi, [ St. Armand,] Lower Canada, Oct. 12, 1813.
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tion of Thos. Chandler, jr., (supposed to be in November 1778,) to 1781. He was associated with Ira Allen in the famous negotiation with Gen. Hal- dimand, Gov. Gen. of Canada, from 1780 to 1783, for which by his talents and address he was fitted. He removed to New York city in 1794. and died there, of yellow fever, in October 1803 .- Early History, p. 464 ; Memorials of a Century, Bennington, p. 262 ; see also Vt. Hist. Soc. Col- lections, vol. II.
MATTHEW LYON deserves to be ranked among the remarkable men of Vermont. Born in Wicklow county, Ireland, in 1746, he was appren- ticed at an early age to a printer and bookbinder ; but he came to America at thirteen and was so poor that he had to indenture his person iu Litchfield, Conn., to pay for his passage. This indenture was finally sold to Jesse Leavenworth (one of the founders of Danville, Vt.,) for a pair of steers, and Lyon's favorite oath used to be, " by the bulls that re- deemed me." He was first known in the annals of Vermont as a dele- gate for North Wallingford in the Dorset Convention of July 24, 1776, he being then thirty years of age. During the same year he was lieu- tenant in Capt. John Fassett jr's. company and was stationed at the block-house in Jericho, which was abandoned by the men of the company on the retreat of the continental army from Canada. Lyon reported this fact to Gen. Gates and charged the responsibility mainly on Capt. John Fassett jr., when the officers were arrested, (Lyon included,) tried by court martial for cowardice, convicted, and cashiered. 1 It was in allu-
1 Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 457. It was charged that Lyon and the sub- ordinate officers persuaded the men to desert, which Lyon always de- nied. The "cowardice" charged could have been constructive only, meaning simply that they had abandoned the post without orders. For forty men to stay at Jericho when our army was retreating before the British up the lake, and every man, woman and child had quit that part of the State, would be something more than courage-sheer fool-hardiness. In the Memoir of my own Times, by Gen. JAMES WILKINSON, Vol. I, P. 189, is the following passage, giving unquestionably a truthful account of this affair:
The night of the 7th [July, 1777, the night after the battle of Hub- bar lton,] being extremely dark and rainy, one of the guards took up and reported to head quarters a young man suspected of being a spy. I vis- ited the guard, and found the prisoner to be a Lieutenant Lyon (since Mr. Matthew Lyon of Congress) of the militia, who had joined us to offer his services as a guide. of whom we stood in great need, being strangers to the country, which was in general a wilderness, a town hav- ing sometimes barely a cabin or two to distinguish it; even Bennington, the seat of the government of the Hampshire grantees, could not number more than a dozen log cabins, which were however surrounded by a con- siderable tract of improved ground. Lieutenant Lyon, an active, ardent young man, was extremely zealous, and accompanied us as long as his
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Council of Safety-Introduction.
sion to this event in Lyon's history that afterward, in Congress, Roger Griswold taunted Lyon for " wearing a wooden sword." and Lyon re- sented the insult by spitting in Griswold's face. For this it was proposed to expel Lyon from the House, and the vote stood yeas 52, nays 44- failing for want of two thirds. Goodrich afterwards caned Lyon, when it was proposed to expel both members, but that was rejected, 73 to 21, and a resolution to reprimand them failed by one majority. The cashiering of Lyon was not injurious to him in Vermont, however annoying for a time it might have been, as he was subsequently made commissary-gen- eral, and colonel, and elected twice to Congress .- Benton's Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, vol. II, pp. 205-206.
Arlington was a stronghold of the tories, and the Convention of Sept. 25, 1776, ordered the Friends of Liberty to choose a Committee of Safety nevertheless, conduet as other towns, and call upon the committees of neighboring towns for aid if necessary. Further to thwart the tories of that town, Thomas Chittenden. Matthew Lyon and John Fassett, jr. temporarily became citizens of Arlington, taking possession of the confiscated property of tories. Ira Allen was only three miles distant, and these four leading men of the State erected a judgment seat and sat as a council to pronounce woe npon every rebellious tory .- Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 130. Here Lyon married, for his second wife, Beulah, widow of Elijah Galusha and fourth daughter of Thomas Chittenden. From 1777 for several years he was clerk of the court of confiscation, and in 1785, for refusing to furnish its records to the Council of Cen- sors, he was impeached by the General Assembly, tried and convicted in his absence by the Governor and Council. ordered to deliver the doc- uments, and sentenced to a reprimand and to a fine of five hundred pounds. He subsequently appeared, the sentence was read, and he re- quested a rehearing, which was ordered, but nothing seems to have been done .- Vt. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. II, p. 428. July 15, 1777, Gen. Schuyler restored Lyon to his military rank by appointing him a temporary pay- master in Warner's regiment. In April 1778 he was appointed deputy Secretary of the Governor and Council. and he served until Nov. 24. Hc was also clerk of the Assembly and Secretary of the Board of War in 1779. He represented Arlington in the General Assembly four years. 1779-1782; and Fairhaven ten years, 1783-4, and 1787 to 1796. He was elected to Congress in 1796 and re-elected in 1798, first taking his seat at the called session, May 15, 1797, and closing his service for Vermont on the 3d of
services were useful: he had been stationed the preceding campaign, with a party of militia, at Otter creek, [Onion river,] in a subordinate capacity; the post was evacuated without orders, and Lieutenant Lyon has been censured for that transaction, although he opposed the meas- ure, and on an investigation was acquitted of blame.
The last assertion probably refers to an investigation made by Maj. Gen. SCHUYLER, who restored Lyon to service as pay-master in War- ner's continental regiment.
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March, 1801. Lyon was a terse and vigorous writer and an able debater, and these qualities were manifest in his speeches, of which abstracts have been preserved. He was neither inactive nor insignificant in Congress. On the 4th of July 1798 the sedition act went into effect, and on the 31st of the same month the Vermont Journal [Windsor] published a letter written by Lyon June 20. fourteen days before the act went into effect, but mailed at Philadelphia, as appeared by the postmark, on the 7th of July, three days after the act had been approved. A portion of this let- ter was deemed seditious, and for it Lyon was indicted, tried and con- vieted in October following, the penalties being a fine of $1000 and im- prisonment for four months. While he was in prison he was re-elected to Congress, and when the prison doors were opened in Feb. 1799, at the end of the four months, he announced that he was on his way to attend Congress at Philadelphia, and thus escaped a re-arrest which his oppo- nents had prepared for him. He took his seat on the 20th of February, and on the same day Mr. Bayard of Delaware introduced the following resolution, which is very extraordinary when compared with the lan- guage for which Lyon was indicted:
Resolved, That Matthew Lyon, a member of this House, having been convicted of being a notorious and seditious person, and of a depraved mind, and wicked and diabolical disposition; and of wickedly, deceitfully, and maliciously, contriving to defame the Government of the United States, and John Adams, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and to bring the said Government and PRESIDENT into contempt and disre- pute, and with intent and design to excite against the said Government and PRESIDENT the hatred of the good people of the United States, and stir up sedition in the United States-wickedly, knowingly and mali- ciously, written and published certain scandalous and seditious writings, or libels, be therefore expelled this House .- Benton's Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, vol. II, p. 364.
The editor now gives Lyon's words, both as a comment on the animus of Mr. Bayard's resolution, and as a specimen of Lyon's style. It cer- tainly was not seditious under the present measure of the liberty of the press :
As to the Executive, when I shall see the efforts of that power bent on the promotion of the comfort, the happiness, and the accommodation of the people, that executive shall have my zealous and uniform support. But whenever I shall, on the part of the Executive, see every considera- tion of publick welfare swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, in an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, or selfish avarice ; when I shall behold men of real merit daily turned out of office for no other cause but independency of spirit ; when I shall see men of firmness, merit, years, abilities, and experience, discarded, in their appli- cations for office, for fear they possess that independence, and men of meanness preferred, for the ease with which they can take up and advo- cate opinions, the consequences of which they know but little of; when 1 shall see the sacred name of religion employed as a state engine to make mankind hate and persecute each other, I shall not be their humble advocate.
Another charge against Lyon was, that he had procured the publica- tion of a "Letter from an American diplomatic character [Joel Barlow,] to
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a member of Congress in Philadelphia" [Abraham Baldwin, ] containing alleged seditious matter ; which Lyon denied, and in any event it is not necessary to quote it .- For this and the preceding extract, see Rev. PLINY H. WHITE'S address before the Vt. Historical Society Oct. 29, 1858, on the Life and Services of Matthew Lyon.1
Another fact pertinent to the animus of Bayard's resolution was, that on its passage might depend the fact whether the federalists should or should not have the vote of the state if the election of President should be thrown into the House in the next Congress. it being then known that the two members eleet for Vermont for the sixth Congress were MATTHEW LYON Republican, and LEWIS R. MORRIS Federalist-Lyon having been elected on the second trial by five hundred majority. If Lyon could be expelled, the Federalists would at least have a chance to secure the seat on a special election.
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