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 6
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1 This "Convention " was probably a meeting of a committee.
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General Conventions.
dent states of America : And that such privileges and immunities shall be regulated in a bill of rights, and by a form of government, to be es- tablished at the next adjourned session of this convention.
1001. Voted, N. C. D., to accept the above declaration.
" To the honorable the chairman and gentlemen of the convention: your com- mittee appointed to take into consideration what is further necessary to be transacted at the present convention. bey leave to report, riz.
That proper information be given to the honorable Continental Con- gress of the United States of America, of the reasons why the New-
State."-Manuscript in possession of Hon. JAMES H. PHELPS, grand- son of CHARLES PHELPS.
Both of the letters, from which the following extracts are taken, were written after the name of " New Connecticut" had been changed to VERMONT, [June 4, 1777.] and more than five months after the pre- tended christening of "New Connecticut alias Vermont." The N. Y. delegates had seen and combatted the petition and declaration and com- missioners of the new State in Congress, all ordained and appointed in January, 1777, and yet they had never heard of the alias. It is "passing strange," if there was an alias.
Extract from a Letter from JAMES DUANE, and other N. Y. Delegates in Congress to the N. Y. Council of Safety, dated Philadelphia, 8 July, 1777.
[ Supposing the Council might not wish the decision of Congress in re- gard to "their revolted subjects published just at that time "-i. e. the resolutions of June 30, 1777,-they write .
" From these considerations, we shall refrain from communicating a single copy ; but it must be remembered that Mr. ROGER SHERMAN, who is gone to the Eastward, was furnished with one, and there is too much reason to apprehend that he may forward it to his friends in NEW CONNECTICUT."-Journals N. Y. Cong., vol. I, p. 999.
Extract of a Letter from JAMES DUANE to N. Y. Council of Safety, dated Philadelphia, 10 July, 1777.
[ Says he has seen the Connecticut Courant of 30th June, 1777, and adds,]
" It contains a new and extraordinary declaration from a part of our State which is attempted to be wrested out of our jurisdiction and which is dubbed the STATE OF VERMONT, a name hatched for it in Philadel- phia. It is evident the plan has been laid here under the direction of Doctor YOUNG. and too probably of some others of more consequence." &e .- Journal Cong. N. Y., vol. 1, p. 1000.
It is obvious that opponents of Vermont residing in the State, and the New York delegates in Congress in 1777, understood this matter pre- cisely as Gov. HALL has represented it in his history, and in the first and second volumes of the Collections of the Vermont Historical So- ciety.
The editor now proposes to enlarge somewhat upon a suggestion made by Gov. HALL in the second volume of the Historical Society Collections,
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Adjourned Session at Westminster, Jan. 15, 1777.
Hampshire grants have been declared a free state, and pray the said Con- gress to grant said state a representation in Congress ; and that agents be appointed to transfer the same to the said Congress, or the committee
p. xx, that, after the change of the first name of the State, " the words alias Vermont were added by way of explanation that New Connecticut had become Vermont, and without the expectation that the added words would be treated as part of the original record." It is a curious fact,- and in this relation a very important one. as showing that the addition of " alias Vermont" to the record, after the name had been changed, was in accordance with the previous practice of the clerk-that on a former occasion the original record of the convention had been altered to cor- respond to an amendment subsequently made. July 24, 1776, the Dorset Convention adopted a resolution in respect to the Association for na- tional defense, (ante, p. 23,) which was amended at the next session, Sept. 25, 1776, (ante, p. 28 ;) but instead of allowing the two votes to stand on the record, the last modifying the first and the record correcting itself, Dr. FAY, the Secretary, changed the record of the first vote so as to embrace the amendment. Moved by a like motive, the editor believes that Doct. FAY changed his copy of the record of the declaration of January 17, 1777, after the Convention of June 4, 1777, had changed the name of the State. It is a singular fact, if the alias really existed for five months, that there is no evidence that it was ever published as a part of the do- ings of the Convention until the History of Vermont by Dr. WILLIAMS appeared in 1794; while again and again, in the Connecticut Courant, which was the official organ of Vermont until 1783, and in letters of our own citizens and of citizens of New York, the State was uniformly named as New Connecticut, without an alias. If, then, the change sug- gested was made by Doct. FAY, and that became public, from that moment of course the alias would begin to appear publicly, and thus would be perpetuated to the annoyance of all men of good taste, and to the plague of historians. This is precisely what has happened. Doct. FAY did not keep the original minutes or record of the Convention of Jan. 1777, be- cause, according to the certificate of JOSEPHI FAY, (post,) the minutes, both of the Conventions and of the early sessions of the Council of Safety, were in the possession of IRA ALLEN. It is known, however, that Doct. FAY did have what purported to be a copy of minutes of Con- ventions, in part of an old account book in which he had made profes- sional charges. This was once in the possession of Hon. JAMES H. PHELPS, and from it were copied some of the very valuable contribu- tions he has made to the history of the Conventions. In Williams's Vermont, vol. II, pp. 450-453, will be found the proceedings, in part, of the Convention of Jan. 15, 1777, precisely as in Slade's State Papers, pp. 68-70, including the error as to the representation of Dnminerston and Putney; and at the end of it Doct. WILLIAMS added: " Original records of the Convention, p. 62-68; in the hands of Jonas Fay of Bennington."
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General Conventions.
be filled up that are already appointed, and that a committee be ap- pointed to draw the draught : That a committee of war be appointed on the east side of the mountains, to be in conjunction with the committee of war on the west side of the mountains. to act on all proper occasions: That some suitable measures be taken to govern our internal policy for the time being. until more suitable measures can be taken ; that some suitable way be taken to raise a sum of money to defray the expences of the agents that are to go to Congress ; and for printing the proceedings of the convention, which. we are of opinion, ought to be printed. All which is humbly submitted to the convention, by your committee.
By order of the Committee,
THOMAS CHANDLER, Chairman."
11th. £ Voted, N. C. D., to accept the above report.
12th. Voted, That the Declaration of New Connecticut be inserted. in the News Papers. 13th. Voted, That Captain Heman Allen, Colo Thomas Chandler, and Nathan Clark, Esq., be a Committee to prepare the Declaration for the Press as soon as may be.
14th. Voted, That Doct. Jonas Fay, Colo Thomas Chittenden. Doct. Reuben Jones, Colo Jacob Bailey, and Capt. Heman Allen be the Delc- gates to carry the remonstrance and Petition to the Honble Continental Congress and further to negociate Business in behalf of New Connecti- cut.
[15th. There is no fifteenth vote in the record. Mr. PHELPS suggests that, probably through inattention, Dr. Fay did not designate any vote of this convention by the number 15.]
16th. Voted, That Major Thomas Chandler. Mr. Stephen Tilden, Mr. Ebenezer Hoisington, Mr. Joshua Webb, Lieut. Dennis Lockland, Mr. Jotham Biglow, Colo Thomas Johnson. Mr. Elijah Gates and Nicholas
That this book was not the " original record " appears not only from Jo- SEPH FAY's certificate, but also from the error, and the fact that the same book contained the list of delegates only, and not the proceedings, of the Convention of June 4, 1777 .- See list of delegates. That Convention changed the name to VERMONT,, and as Doct. FAY seems not to have recorded that change, it is reasonable to suppose that he memorized it by adding the alias to the name previously adopted. Then in 1794 first ap- peared the alias Vermont, so far as the editor has been able to ascertain. Apparently it was stated on official authority, and yet it must be counted only as a memorandum made by Doct. FAY to commemorate the two names-that of January and that of June, 1777. IRA ALLEN'S History succeeded WILLIAMS's, but ALLEN, who knew the facts, gave no coun- tenance to the alias, but explained both names by a simple, logical, and accurate statement. SLADE followed WILLIAMS, and perpetuated the mistake; and B. H. HALL, HENRY B. DAWSON, and others, have fol- lowed in the train. It remained for HILAND HALL to correct the error, and he has done so effectually. To many readers this note will seem to be too prolix; but by those best informed it will be accepted and excused as a just vindication from a malicious sarcasm on " Vermont history as written by Vermonters."-See N. Y. Historical Magazine, for January, 1871, by HENRY B. DAWSON.
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Adjourned Session at Westminster, Jan. 15, 1777.
White, be a Committee of War to act in conjunction with the Commit- tee of War already chosen. 1
17th. Voted, That it is recommended to each town in Cumberland and Gloucester Counties to choose new Committees of Safety where the Towns are disaffected with the [existing] Committees ; and in other Towns to let the Committees stand for the time Being.2
18th. Voted. That Capt. Heman Allen, Doet. Jonas Fay, Mr. Joshua Webb, and Major Thomas Moredock be a Committee to procure each one hundred dollars for to defray the expenses of the delegates that are appointed to go to the Continental Congress according to the report of the Committee of Proceedings.
19th. Voted, That Mr. Ebenezer Hoisington, Mr. Benja Emmonds, Lieut. Leonard Spaulding, and Mr. Stephen Tilden be a Committee to draw a letter forbidding the Delegates from Cumberland County sitting in the Honble Provincial Congress of the State of New York.
20th. Voted, That the Committee that are to make the above Draught are empowered to annex the Chairman's name by order of the Conven- tion.
21st. Voted, That it is the ardent wish of this Convention that each Town in this State would send Delegates to the Convention at their next sitting. Those Towns that have not chose any to choose and send.
LETTER AS PER NINETEENTH VOTE.
WESTMINSTER, 17th Jany, 1777.
Gentlemen :- The General Convention consisting of Delegates from the several Counties and Towns through the tract of Land known by the name of the New Hampshire Grants have met according to adjournment at Westminster the 16th. inst., and have resolved and declared the above District of Land shall hereafter be a distinct State or Government, and the Inhabitants thereof have full authority to make such laws as they shall from time to time think fit.
The said Convention therefore desire and request that you will on sight hereof withdraw yourselves from the Convention of the State of New York, and appear there no more in the character of Representatives for the County of Cumberland ; as you were not chosen by a Majority of the people at large.
Gentlemen I am your most obedient Humble Servant,
EBENEZER HOISINGTON, Chairman Sub-Committee. Messrs. John Sessions and Simon Stephens.3 By order of Convention, JOSEPH BOWKER, Chairman.
1 Referring to the Board of War appointed Sept. 27, 1776.
2 Meaning doubtless Committees of Safety appointed under the advice ot the Committee of Safety of New York.
3 June 20, 1776, Col. Joseph Marsh, Deacon John Sessions, and Simon Stevens, Esq., were appointed " Representatives to go to New York," by the Cumberland County Committee of Safety, and not by the people. Sessions was returned again for the session of Ang. 18, 1779, with Elka- nah Day and Micah Townshend ; Joel Bigelow, Elijah Prouty, and William Shattuck were returned for the session of Jan. 21, 1784, which
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General Conventions.
22d. Voted, To adjourn this Convention to the first Wednesday of June next to be held at the Meeting-House in Windsor at nine o'clock in the forenoon.
By order of Convention, JOSEPH BOWKER, Chairman.
Attest, IRA ALLEN, Clerk.
A true copy from the original.
THE DECLARATION AND PETITION TO CONGRESS.
The following declaration and petition, in accordance with the resolu- tions of the convention of the 15th of January, announcing the territory of the New Hampshire Grants to be a free and independent State. was presented to the Continental Congress, by the Committee appointed for that purpose, on the 8th of April, 1777 :
To the Honorable the Continental Congress :-
The declaration and petition of that part of North America, situate south of Canada line, west of Connecticut river, north of the Massachu- setts Bay, east of a twenty mile line from Hudson's river, containing about one hundred and forty-four townships, of the contents of six miles square, each, granted your petitioners by the authority of New Hamp- shire, besides several grants made by the authority of New York. and a quantity of vacant land, humbly sheweth,
That your petitioners, by virtue of several grants made them by the authority aforesaid. have. many years since, with their families, become actual settlers and inhabitants of said described premises ; by which it is now become a respectable frontier to three neighboring states, and is of great importance to our common barrier Tyconderoga ; as it has fur- nished the army there with much provisions, and can muster more than five thousand hardy soldiers capable of bearing arms in defence of Amer- ican liberty :
is the last representation of Cumberland County in New York. Col. Marsh seems to have retired in 1776 or early in 1777. as he was a mem- ber of the Windsor Convention in July, 1777. and in March 1778 was elected Lieut. Governor of Vermont. In 1783 Stevens was a represent- ative in the Vermont Assembly; also a delegate in the Vermont Con- vention of 1791, which adopted the Constitution of the United States. To Mr. Stevens is probably due the preservation of what are now known as " the Pingrey Papers."-See Eastern Vermont.
. Dea. Sessions represented Westminster in the Vermont Assembly in 1787. An anecdote recorded in Graham's Letters and Eastern Vermont illustrates the deacon's position. A member of parson Bullen's church in Westminster had shot a bear in his cornfield on Sunday. and for this, excommunication was voted. When the parson attempted to read this document in church, the accused. fully armel and equipped, rose to his feet and brought his musket to hear on the parson's person. This was too shoeking for the nerves of the parson, who therefore handed the paper to deacon Sessions, asking him to read it. The deacon declined, saying-" All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expe- dient." It was not expedient for the deacon to adhere to New York.
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Adjourned Session at Westminster, Jan. 15, 1777.
That shortly after your petitioners began their settlements, a party of land-jobbers, in the city and state of New York, began to claim the lands, and took measures to have them declared to be within that juris- diction :
That on the 20th day of July, 1764, the king of Great-Britain did pass an order in council, extending the jurisdiction of New York government to Connecticut river, in consequence of a representation made by the late lieutenant governor Colden, that for the convenience of trade, and administration of justice, the inhabitants were desirous of being an- nexed to that state :
That on this alteration of jurisdiction, the said lieutenant governor Colden did grant several tracts of land in the above described limits, to certain persons living in the state of New York, which were, at that time, in the actual possession of your petitioners ; and under color of the lawful authority of that state, did proceed against your petitioners, as lawless intruders upon the crown lands in their province. This pro- duced an application to the king of Great Britain from your petitioners, setting forth their claims under the government of New-Hampshire, and the disturbance and interruption they had suffered from said post elaim- ants, under New-York. And on the 24th day of July, 1767, an order was passed at St. James's, prohibiting the governors of New-York, for the time being, from granting any part of the described premises, on pain of incurring his Majesty's highest displeasure. Nevertheless the same lieutenant governor Colden, governors Dunmore and Tryon, have, each and every of them, in their respective turns of administration, pre- sumed to violate the said royal order, by making several grants of the prohibited premises. and countenancing an actual invasion of your peti- tioners, by force and arms, to drive them off' from their possessions.
The violent proceedings, ( with the solemn declaration of the supreme court of New-York, that the charters, conveyances, &e. of your petition- ers' lands, were utterly null and void,) on which they were founded, re- duced your petitioners to the disagreeable necessity of taking up arms, as the only means left for the security of their possessions. The conse- quence of this step was the passing twelve acts of outlawry, by the leg- islature of New-York, on the ninth day of March, 1774; which were not intended for the state in general, but only for the part of the counties of Albany and Charlotte, viz. such parts thereof as are covered by the New- Hampshire charters.
Your petitioners having had no representative in that assembly, when these aets were passed, they first came to the knowledge of them by pub- lie papers, in which they were inserted. By these, they were informed, that if three or more of them assembled together to oppose what said as- sembly called legal authority, that such as should be found assembled, to the number of three or more, should be adjudged felons : And that, in case they, or any of them, should not surrender himself or themselves to certain officers appointed for the purpose of securing them, after a warn- ing of seventy days, that then it should be lawful for the respective judges of the supreme court of the province of New-York, to award execution of Death, the same as though he or they had been attainted before a proper court of judicatory. These laws were evidently calculated to in- timidate your petitioners into a tame surrender of their rights, and such a state of vassalage, as would entail misery on their latest posterity.
It appears to your petitioners, that an infringement on their rights is still meditated by the state of New-York ; as we find that in their general convention at Harlem, the second day of August last, it was unanimously voted, " That all quit-rents, formerly due and owing to the crown of Great-
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Britain within this state, are now due and owing to this convention. or sneh future government as may hereafter be established in this state."
By a submission to the claims of New-York your petitioners would be subjected to the payment of two shillings and sixpence sterling on every hundred acres annually ; which. compared with the quit-rents of Living- ston's, Phillips's, and Ransalear's manors, and many other enormous tracts in the best situations in the state, would lay the most disproportionate share of the public expense on your petitioners, in all respects the least able to hear it.
The convention of New-York have now nearly completed a code of laws, for the future government of that state ; which, should they be at- tempted to be put in execution, will subject your petitioners to the fatal necessity of opposing them by every means in their power.
When the declaration of the honorable the Continental Congress, of the fourth of July last past, reached your petitioners, they communicated it throughout the whole of their district ; and being properly apprised of the proposed meeting. delegates from the several counties and towns in the district, described in the preamble to this petition, did meet at Westminster in said district, and after several adjournments. for the pull- pose of forming themselves, into a distinct and separate state, did make and publish a declaration, " that they would, at all times thereafter, con- sider themselves as a free and independent state, capable of regulating their own internal police, in all and every respect whatsoever ; and that the people, in the said described district, have the sole, exclusive right of governing themselves in such a manner and form as they, in their wis- dom, should choose ; not repugnant to any resolves of the honorable the Continental Congress." And for the mutual support of each other in the maintenance of the freedom and independence of said district or separate state, the said delegates did jointly and severally pledge themselves to each other. by all the ties that are held sacred among men, and resolve and declare that they were at all times ready, in conjunction with their brethren of the United States, to contribute their full proportion towards maintaining the present just war against the fleets and armies of Great- Britain.
To convey this declaration and resolution to your honorable body, the grand representatives of the United States, were we (your more imme- diate petitioners) delegated by the united and unanimous voices of the representatives of the whole body of the settlers on the described premi- ses, in whose name and behalf, we humbly pray. that the said declaration may be received. and the district described therein be ranked by your honors, among the free and American states, and delegates therefrom admitted to seats in the grand Continental Congress ; and your petition- ers as in duty bound shall ever pray.
New Hampshire Grants, Westminster, Jan. 15th, 1777.
half of said inhabitants, 1 JONAS FAY.
Signed by order, and in be-
THOMAS CHITTENDEN, HEMAN ALLEN, REUBEN JONES.
THE REVISED DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
The following is the declaration of independence as " prepared for the press," by the committee appointed for that purpose in obedience to the 12th and 13th votes of the January Convention. It was published in the Connecticut Courant of March 17, 1777, and was not satisfactory to the
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Adjourned Session at Westminster, Jan. 15, 1777.
subsequent convention of the 4th of June, for the reason that it omitted to state the causes for the separation from New York, as will be seen by the proceedings of that body.
VERMONT'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
In Convention of the representatives from the several counties and towns of the New Hampshire Grants, holden at Westminster, January 15, 1777. by adjournment.
Whereas the Honorable the Continental Congress did, on the 4th day of July last. declare the United Colonies in America to be free and inde- pendent of the crown of Great Britain : which declaration we most cor- dially acquiesce in : And whereas by the said declaration the arbitrary acts of the crown are null and void, in America, consequently the juris- diction by said crown granted to New York government over the people of the New-Hampshire Grants is totally dissolved:
We therefore, the inhabitants, on said tract of land. are at present with- out law or government. and may be truly said to be in a state of nature ; consequently a right remains to the people of said Grants to form a gov- ernment best suited to secure their property. well being and happiness. We the delegates from the several counties and towns on said traet of land, bounded as follows : South on the North line of Massachusetts Bay ; East on Connecticut river : North on Canada line ; West as far as the New Hampshire Grants extends :
After several adjournments for the purpose of forming ourselves into a distinct separate state, being assembled at Westminster, do make and publish the following Declaration. viz. :
" That we will. at all times hereafter. consider ourselves as a free and independent state. capable of regulating our internal police, in all and every respect whatsoever-and that the people on said Grants have the sole and exclusive and inherent right of ruling and governing them- selves in such manner and form as in their own wisdom they shall think proper, not inconsistent or repugnant to any resolve of the Honorable Continental Congress.
" Furthermore. we declare by all the ties which are held sacred among men. that we will firmly stand by and support one another in this our declaration of a state. and in endeavoring as much as in us lies, to sup- press all unlawful routs and disturbances whatever. Also we will en- deavor to secure to every individual his life, peace and property against all unlawful invaders of the same.
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