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 9
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In his address to the Legislature, printed in 1808, (and quoted in the appendix to D. P. THOMPSON's Address, 1850,) IRA ALLEN said :
Abel [Benjamin] Spencer of Clarendon, who had been a stickler for New York, had been suddenly converted to an advocate for a new State, and so ingratiated himself as a good whig, that he was elected a member of the Council of Safety. Mr. Allen declared he would not take a seat in the Council if Spencer did; and that he should not be surprised if Spencer should go to Burgoyne's camp, which he did, and died with the British soon after.
There were two Spencers known to Allen, and both went to the enemy -Abel for a short time. He was tried, convicted, and fined. Afterward he became a very prominent man, much in public service. Allen's mem- ory was in fault.
1 See letter of that date, post.
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There is still to be added, on the authority of IRA ALLEN, member and first secretary of the Council, the name of Capt. HEMAN ALLEN, who, about that period, resided at Bennington, Arlington, or Sunder- land, at his convenience, though bis intended home probably was Col- chester. He died May 18, 1778.1
Still another name is to be added on the authority of Hon. MYRON CLARK of Manchester. to wit : that of Maj. JEREMIAH CLARK of Shafts- bury. MYRON CLARK was a grandson, and lived in the Major's family from the age of ten years till he was sixteen. He has recorded the tra- dition of the family 2 in full faith of its accuracy, as none will doubt who know the character of the man.
The number of members of the Council thus ascertained,-on author- ity which can hardly be contradicted, even if in some points it is not en- tirely satisfactory,-is eleven. The twelfth member is most probably to be ascertained from the list suggested by the Rev. Mr. WHITE, as fol- lows :
There is good reason to believe that Samuel Robinson, Matthew Lyon, Thomas Rowley, Gideon Olin and Benjamin Carpenter were also members.8
Col. CARPENTER is of course to be omitted from this list, as his name has already been included vice SPENCER. If the remaining names in this list are added to the eleven already ascertained, then the total num- ber of the Council would be fifteen, which is three too many, The result is that only one name is wanted, either that of Samuel Robinson, or Mat- thew Lyon, or Thomas Rowley, or Gideon Olin. To make this selection a consideration of the position of each of these gentlemen at the time is indispensable.
SAMUEL ROBINSON, of Bennington, was in full vigor of manhood in August, 1777. 39 years of age ; but he was full of work also which de- manded all his strength-his duties then being those of a captain of militia engaged in active field service, and overseer of tories and prison- ers. of which he had many on his hands as the fruits of the victory of Bennington. A large portion of the orders of the Council are addressed to him, touching these last offices. It is not very probable, certainly, that the duties of a member of the Council were superadded.
THOMAS ROWLEY, then resident of Danby, died in 1796, at seventy- five years of age, which would make him fifty-six in 1777. He was then chairman of the Committe of Safety of Danby. He was the poet of Ver- mont in his day, and zealously and effectively used his powers of wit and satire against New York ; but it is noticeable that he was clearly identi- fied with only one of the many great revolutionary movements in Ver- mont previous to 1777. By the Dorset Convention of Jan. 16, 1776, he
1 I. Allen's History of Vermont in Vt. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. I, p. 388.
2 Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 236.
3 Vt. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. I, p. 63.
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Convention at Windsor, July 2-8, 1777.
was appointed, with JONAS FAY and Col. WM. MARSH, to draw a peti- tion to Congress, and he was probably a delegate in that Convention, bnt from the record of that petition, as it is incorporated in the journal of the Convention of July 24 following, it appears that the petition was "per JONAS FAY, IRA ALLEN, Committee appointed."] A biographer of Mr. ROWLEY, in Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 98, claims that he "partici- pated largely in the deliberations of those who declared Vermont a free and independent State, and aided in framing its first Constitution." This implies that he was a member of the Windsor Convention of July, 1777, and yet all the record evidence in his case up to 1777 has just been cited. Conceding that he may have had all the qualifications needed as a member of the Council, which sat at Bennington almost constantly from July 28, 1777. to March 6. 1778, Mr. ROWLEY's residence and duties at Danby, as chairman of its Committee of Safety, militate seriously against the theory that he was a member of the Council.
Maj. GIDEON OLIN was thirty-four years of age in 1777, and he had fine qualities for the office of Councillor, which were afterwards mani- fested by honorable service for thirty years in various and important offi- ces ; and yet the record shows that he had not fairly entered upon his public life until after the Council of Safety had ended its work. He was appointed Major June 6, 1778-three months after the Council had closed; and in 1778 also he entered the General Assembly.2
The last name on the Rev. Mr. WHITE's list, and most probably the right one to be selected. is that of MATTHEW LYON, then of Arlington. In a memoir of THOMAS CHITTENDEN, by Hon. DAVID READ, in Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 911, it is said that LYON was a member of the Council. The editor is inclined to put little stress upon this, however, from a surmise that Mr. READ has taken the partly ascertained and partly suggested list of Mr. WHITE as the roll of the Council. The only difference is, that Stephen Fay is given instead of "Joseph Fay," which was, possibly, a slip of the pen or an error of the press. In any event, the list embraces fourteen, which is too large a number.3 In the absence
1 Ante p. 19. This may mean that they were appointed simply to verify the copy. The editor is of opinion that JONAS FAY and IRA ALLEN were the authors, chiefly, of the petition, and that it was drawn in anticipation of the Convention. FAY was chairman of the committee appointed to draw it, and also one of the agents selected to present it to Congress. IRA ALLEN was not in the habit of waiting for an appointment to act on such occasions. He was "the ready writer" of his day, and a willing one.
2 Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 234.
3 Since the above was in type, the editor has received a letter from Mr. READ, dated March 5, 1873, in which he says he does not recollect his authority, though he presumed it to be undoubted. He wrote with the Stevens' papers in his possession, but he suggests that he may have
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of all undoubted authority, the probability of LYON having been a mem- ber must be deduced from known facts concerning him at the time. He went into Arlington to reside in 1777, with THOMAS CHITTENDEN and JOHN FASSETT, jr., not to become permanent residents, but for the express purpose of overthrowing the power of the Tories in that town. LYON had before lived with CHITTENDEN, and now they took opposite houses and constructed a vault between the two as a prison for Tories. JOHN FASSETT, Jr., was also in the immediate neighborhood, and IRA ALLEN was only three miles off. Capt. HEMAN ALLEN is not named, but he certainly could not be very far from IRA. Here, then, were cer- tainly three members of the Council of Safety : why should not LYON -a recognized associate with all the rest, not many years after becoming the son-in-law of CHITTENDEN,-why should not LYON be the fourth member of the Council located in this most important strategetical point? His character as a bold and energetic man. his intense patriot- ism, and his talents, were equal to the position. His age was thirty-one, being five years the senior of IRA ALLEN. A fact of some moment is, that shortly after, in 1778, LYON was elected deputy Secretary of the Governor and Council, when seven members of the Council of Safety were in that body. He was deputy Secretary of the Council often. and Secretary of the Board of War. This shows not only that his aptitude for public affairs was recognized, but also that he was entrusted with the se- crets of the Council, which was then acting as a Council of Safety and Board of War. Assuming, as it is certainly safe to do, that LYON was qualified for the place, his close relations with Chittenden and the Allens, and the convenience oftentimes of having him a member to make up a quorum, in the frequent absences of IRA and the illness of HEMAN ALLEN, are the strong points in favor of the probability that he, rather than any other man suggested by Mr. WHITE, or any other man who can be sug-
taken his list from D. P. THOMPSON's address before the Vt. Historical Society, Oct. 24, 1850. Mr. R. admits that Stephen was an error for Joseph Fay. Thompson's list agrees with Mr. White's. D. P. Thomp- son's historical statements are to be taken with great allowances for er- ror. His habit for years was to build superstructures of fiction upon a very narrow basis of fact, having the air but not the accuracy of history. His address was eminently of that character. Messrs. White, Thomp- son and Read all include LYox in the Council, and yet their lists prove too much, by giving too many members. In Vt. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. II, pp. 135-7, are the reports of British agents, who speak of LYON as expressing to them the views of the Governor and his Council ; and one of them says he [Lyon] was "one of the Council." Lyon was never a member of any "Council," unless it was the Council of Safety, which closed more than two years previous to these reports. He did act at times as Secretary of the Governor and Council. Probably this evi- dence is valuable only as it shows that Lyon was in the confidence of the
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Convention at Windsor, July 2-8, 1777.
gested, was the twelfth member of the Council of Safety. There was, per- haps, one man in Eastern Vermont who might be as reasonably suggested but for one consideration,-and that was JOSEPH MARSH. The fatal objection is, that he could not attend without abandoning his family and business for months. The great point of danger was in and near Bennington county ; there the Council must constantly sit to be effective, and there it actually did sit for nearly eight months, and until within a week of the state organization which superseded it. Another name might have been suggested in western Vermont, that of JOHN FASSETT, Jr .; but with his military duties, and the exactions upon his time and energies as Commissioner of Sequestration, he had full enough to do.
It is remarkable, the editor must confess, if LYON was a member, that the fact should not somewhere appear from his own declarations, or from unquestioned contemporary sources. The truth, however, is, that records and traditions, thus far preserved, both of the Windsor Convention and the Council of Safety, are fragmentary : the records prove nothing as to three of the members. If LYON is to be rejected for want of official evi- dence, so are HEMAN ALLEN and JEREMIAH CLARK, at least. The claims of each of these rest either upon assertion simply, or upon known facts which raise a reasonable presumption of membership. The official record of the Council of Safety proves the following eight members only, and that by the offices they held-the office of Secretary not furnishing, in itself alone, absolute proof :
THOMAS CHITTENDEN, President. JONAS FAY, Vice President. MOSES ROBINSON, President pro tem. IRA ALLEN, Secretary.
JOSEPH FAY, Secretary.
PAUL SPOONER, Deputy Secretary. NATHAN CLARK, Secretary pro tem. BENJAMIN CARPENTER, [by letter of Council. ]
To be supplied by other evidence, there remain four members, to wit : HEMAN ALLEN, JACOB BAYLEY,1 JEREMIAH CLARK, and MATTHEW LYON. The assertion of IRA ALLEN, that HEMAN ALLEN was a mem-
Governor and Council, and thoroughly apprised of its most secret trans- actions. Gov. HALL concurs fully with the editor of this volume in omitting the names of Samuel Robinson, Thomas Rowley, and Gideon Olin from the roll of the Council of Safety.
1 The official letter of the Council, in which Gen. JACOB BAYLEY and " Squire [Benjamin] SPENCER" are named as members, is a part of the missing record which has been recovered from other sources. It is un- doubtedly genuine, but of course is not strictly record evidence. The record does show, however, that Mr. BAYLEY was appointed on a com- mittee by the Council in September, 1778. 7
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ber, is equivalent to record evidence, and so is the letter by the Council to Gen. BAYLEY, leaving only two who should be added and recorded as members probably, to wit : JEREMIAH CLARK and MATTHEW LYON.
It is reasonable to suppose that the gentlemen who had performed successfully the delicate and arduous duties of the Council of Safety from July '77 to March '78, would be retained in public service on the organi- zation of the government under the constitution, and specially in the first Governor's Council, which also acted as Council of Safety and Board of War. We do accordingly find the following :
MARCH, 1778.
1. THOMAS CHITTENDEN, Governor,
2. IRA ALLEN, State Treasurer and Councillor.
3. NATHAN CLARK, Speaker of the General Assembly.
4. JOSEPH FAY, Secretary of the Gov. and Council.
5. JONAS FAY,
6. JEREMIAH CLARK,
7. BENJAMIN CARPENTER, Councillors.
8. PAUL SPOONER,
9. JACOB BAYLEY,
10. MOSES ROBINSON,1
APRIL-OCTOBER, 1778.
11. MATTHEW LYON, Dep. Sec'y of Governor and Council, [April, May, July, and Oct. 8 to Nov. 24, 1778.]
4. JOSEPH FAY, Secretary of State.
It will thus be seen that every person then living, who is supposed to have been a member of the Council of Safety, was assigned to an honor- able position within the first seven months of the existence of the State government. HEMAN ALLEN, the only exception, died May 18. 1778.
HILAND HALL [1868] added a few facts in addition to those already noted. President BOWKER. after having written by order of the conven- tion to New Hampshire for aid, "also wrote to Gen. ST. CLAIR, informing him of what they had done." " The efforts of the Vermont Convention for the relief of Ticonderoga were duly appreciated by Gen. St. Clair." In a letter dated at Col. Mead's. (Rutland), July 7. addressed to the Presi- dent of that body, he gives a brief explanation of the necessity he was un- der to evacuate that post. and says: "The exertions of the Convention to reinforce us at Ticonderoga merit my warmest thanks, though they have been too late to answer the good purpose they intended."2 In still another letter of the 9th he added: " Your Convention have given such proofs of their readiness to concur in any measure for the public safety, that it would be impertinent to press them now."3 Mr. Hall further added:
1 See Roll of the first Council, and note, post.
See ante, p. 66.
3 Gen. St. Clair to Jonas Fay, Secretary to State Vermont. COLONEL MARSIIE'S, July 9th, 1777.
Sir .- I have just now received a Letter from General Schuyler direct- ing that Colo. Warner's Regiment, with the Militia of your State, should
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Convention at Windsor, July 2-8, 1777.
The Convention also voted to establish a loan office, and appointed IRA ALLEN its trustee, as we learn from an advertisement in the Connec- ticut Courant, of Angust 18th, 1777, in which Mr. ALLEN over his signa- ture as trustee informed the public " that agreeably to a resolution of the Convention," he had opened a loan office at Bennington, where those disposed to lend any sum amounting to ten pounds might receive secu- rity in behalf of the state, payable in one or more years with interest at six per cent. per annum.
After due deliberation, the Convention adopted a constitution for the government of the new state, directed the first election for state officers to be holden the ensuing December, and the legislature to meet at Ben- nington the succeeding January. The Convention appointed a Council of Safety to manage the affairs of the state until the government should go into operation under the Constitution, and then, on the 8th day of July, after a session of six days, adjourned.1
be left for the Protection of the People, and I have, by this Conveyance, wrote to the Colonel to acquaint him thereof. The General also desires that all the Cattle may be drove further down than where it may be thought proper that Colo Warner take Post, and that all the Carriages that may be of use to the Enemy be brought off' or destroyed. He also desires that all the Cattle in the Condition for Killing may be sent on by a safe route to Fort Edward, where he now is with some Continental Troops and Militia. A large reinforcement from Peekshill is on their March from Albany to join him, and if I can be supplied with provisions at Manchester, I shall also join him with the utmost expedition, where we shall have force sufficient to check the progress of the Enemy. Your Convention have given such proofs of their readiness to concur in any measure for the public safety, that it would be impertinent to press them now : I will only repeat the request that I made before that the Militia from the Eastward Marching [to] No. 4 may be directed to take the shortest route to Join the Army.
I am, Sir, Your humble Servant, A. ST. CLAIR.
To JONAS FAY, Sec'y to State Vermont.
P. S. Previous to the receipt of your Letter of the 6th inst. I had directed the Militia of your State that were with me to remain at Rut- land for the protection of the People until your Convention should direct otherwise and am pleased to find myself in Sentiment with them, and with General Schuyler. The Militia that can be raised in your Country will I think keep the people in security, for in my opinion they have lit- tle to fear except the Depredation of a few Indians. Fort Ann was at- tacked the day before yesterday and the Enemy repulsed with consider- able loss.
True Copy, Examined by ISRAEL ALLEN, Sec'y. See Vt. Hist. Soc. Col., Vol. I, p. 178.
1 Early History of Vt., 254-257.
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General Conventions.
SECOND SESSION OF THE CONVENTION AT WINDSOR,
DECEMBER 24. 1777.
"The journals of the several sittings of the Convention are not to be found." So wrote WILLIAM SLADE in 1823. He recited the order of the July Convention, for the first election under the Constitution in De- cember, 1777, noted its failure, and added: " The Convention was there- fore summoned by the Council of Safety to meet at Windsor on the 24th of December, 1777. They met, revised the Constitution, and postponed the day of election until the first Tuesday of March, 1778, and the sitting of the Assembly until the second Thursday of the same month."1
IRA ALLEN was of course a member, as he was appointed to procure the printing of the Constitution. His statements, as to the difficulties en- countered and motives that ruled this Convention at both sessions, indi- cate that he must have been present and active at both. His account is as follows:
Now? many of the citizens of Vermont returned to their habita- tions. The Council of Safety again paid attention to the constitution, and made a preamble, stating the reasons why the citizens had rejected all connections with New York; but as there was not time, before the day assigned for the election, to print and publish the constitution, there- fore the Convention was summoned to meet at Windsor, in December, 1777: they met, revised the constitution, and appointed the first election to be on the 12th day of March, 1778. One difficulty was discovered by some members of the Convention, who concluded the best way to evade it was, to keep it in as small a circle as possible ; the difficulty was, to establish the constitution without the voice of the people, further than was vested in the Convention by their credentials, that authorized them to form a constitution. but were silent as to its ratification, and they had no ancient government to predicate their claims upon; besides intestine divisions and different opinions prevailed among the people, and even in the Convention. To avoid discord, a large majority, in one instance, conformed to a minority, when deliberating on the articles of the consti- tution. As the people seemed inclined for a popular government, the constitution was so made, and for the better satisfying those who might choose any difference in the form of government. and as circumstances or increasing knowledge might make it necessary, a principle was estab- lished in the constitution, by which legal means might be taken to alter or amend the constitution once in seven years, agreeable to the will of
1 Slade's State Papers, p. SO. The order of the Council of Safety will be found post. under date of Nov. 25, 1777.
2 After the surrender of Burgoyne and the withdrawal by Carleton of British forces south of Canada line.
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Second Session at Windsor, Dec. 24, 1777.
the majority of the freemen of the State, which, if perpetuated, would transmit to posterity the same privileges of choosing how they would be governed, as the people of that day exercised from the inherent right of nature, without revolution or bloodshed. Had the constitution been then submitted to the consideration of the people for their revision, amend- ment, and ratification, it is very doubtful whether a majority would have confirmed it, considering the resolutions of Congress, and their influence at that time, as well as the intrigues and expence of the provincial Congress of New York, who endeavoured to divide and subdivide the people. Under these circumstances the Convention appointed Ira Allen to see the constitution printed and distributed before the election. Mr. Allen returned from Hartford, in Connecticut, a few days before the time of the general election, with the constitution print- ed, and dispersed it. There was one (or more) in each town who covet- ed the honour of being a member in the first general Assembly of the new State of Vermont. It was, therefore, their interest to induce their friends to attend the meeting, and take the freeman's oath. This was done, and representatives were elected, and attended the Assembly at Windsor, on the 12th of March. 1778, when and where the votes of the freemen for a Governor, a Lieutenant Governor, 12 Counsellors, and a Treasurer, were sorted and counted, and the persons who had the major- ity of votes for the respective offices, were declared duly elected.
Thus the constitution of the State of Vermont was put in force, and Bennington was the only town that objected against the constitution, for the want of a popular ratification of it. Only twenty-one freemen qualified in that town, who elected representatives for the first general Assembly, but as the people and the assembly approved of the constitu- tion, which was subject to a revision and amendment every seven years, the Bennington objection died away, and universal content has prevailed in the State. 1
This revelation suggests the probable reasons for the neglect of the Convention to publish a detailed account of its proceedings. Its work in July was incomplete ; the people of the state from the beginning of July until autumn were constantly alarmed: many had sought safety by joining the enemy, of which they subsequently repented; many more had taken their families to New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connec- ticut, and probably not a single town on the west side of the mountain north of Pittsford could hold an election until the inhabitants had re- turned. Aside from the objection, (likely to be popular.) that the Con- stitution had not been subjected to a vote of the people, it certainly was prudent to defer both an election and all discussion of the action of the Convention, until the Constitution could be printed and distributed. For these reasons probably the record of the Convention was not pub- lished. Thus the Constitution itself was left to herald whatever it had of merits or defects, and unfriendly discussion seems to have been generally avoided. While we have not an official record of the proceed- ings of the Convention, we have its chief work in the Constitution which it adopted. The editor cannot better close the account of the Conven-
1 Ira Allen's History of Vt., pp. 107-110 ; or Vt. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. I, pp. 391-393.
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tions,1 than by giving the following extract from Hiland Hall's Early History of Vermont, pp. 268-270.
The constitution which had been framed by the convention of July, 1777, provided for the holding of an election under it in the following December, and for the meeting of the assembly in January ; but owing to " the troubles of the war and the encroachments of the enemy," it was found impracticable to have it printed and circulated in season for such an election. The council of safety, in consequence. requested the presi- dent of the convention to call the members together again on the 24th of December. This was accordingly done, when the time for the first elec- tion was postponed until the first Wednesday in March, and the assem- bly was required to meet at Windsor, on the second Thursday of the same month.
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