USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 20
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This bold and defiant declaration was signed by Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Remember Baker, Robert Cochran, Peleg Sunder- land, John Smith and Sylvanus Brown, and to it in the published copies both in newspapers and hand bills was appended the following lines, written by Thomas Rowley, a man distinguished in those days among the settlers for wit and poetry.
" When Cæsar reigned king at Rome, Saint Paul was sent to hear his doom ; But Roman laws, in a criminal case Must have the accuser face to face, Or Cæsar gives a flat denial. But here's a law made now of late Which destines men to awful fate, And hang's and damns without a trial.
Which made me view all nature through
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To find a law where men were ti'd, By legal act which doth exact Men's lives before they're tried. Then down I took the sacred book And turned the pages o'er, But could not find one of this kind By God or Man before. . . T. R." 1
This manifesto of the proscribed parties was in accordance with the general feeling of the New Hampshire grantees, the New York law and proclamation being regarded by them as originating in the avarice of a set of speculators, who coveted their lands with their valuable improvements, and as designed to terrify them into submis- sion. They were well aware that the great body of the people of New York felt no interest in enforcing the claims of their adversaries and that the popular sentiment on the contrary, was favorable to those of the settlers, former experience having shown, that the militia of the colony could not be brought to act against them with effect. Under such circumstances, the threatnings of that government, so far from causing terror, were looked upon with utter contempt, and instead of palsying the arm of resistance nerved it to greater vigor.
But while the people of the New Hampshire grants were deter- mined not to submit to the claims of their adversaries, they were not unmindful of the opinions which might be formed of their conduct by the inhabitants of the neighboring colonies.
They were desirous that their position should be fully understood by the people surrounding them, and in addition to other vindica- tions of their conduct, there was published by Ethan Allen, in the year 1774, an elaborate review of " the State of the Right of the Colony of New York with respect to its Eastern Boundary on Con- necticut River " etc., which "State of the Right" as has been here- before mentioned, had been given to the public under the authority of the New York assembly the previous year. This work of Allen was a pamphlet of more than two hundred pages, printed at Hart- ford, Connecticut, and entitled " A Brief Narrative of the proceed- ings of the Government of New York relative to their obtaining the jurisdiction of that district of land to the westward of Connecticut river," etc., etc. This narrative was drawn up with considerable ability, and it commented with much severity upon the conduct of
1 Slade, 49-54. Allen's Narrative, 36-48. Connecticut Courant, June 28, 1774. New Hampshire Gazette, No. 915.
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the New York land claimants towards the grantees under New Hampshire, who were vindicated as purchasers in good faith under one of the king's governors, who had at least a prima facie right to grant their charters. Only a portion of the documentary evidence hereinbefore produced in behalf of the New Hampshire title being used, for want of a knowledge of historical and official papers, and of access to them. The pamphlet, however, from the evidence there brought forward of the defects of the New York claim of jurisdic- tion prior to the king's order of 1764, and of the strength of the title of New Hampshire during the period in which its charters were granted, together with its exposure of the avaricious and inequita- ble conduct of the New York city speculators, was such as to pro- duce a very favorable impression on the public, especially in New England, where the measures adopted by the New York patentees and government, were very generally viewed with strong disappro- bation.
Besides this grave and formal appeal to the public in behalf of the New Hampshire settlers, others of a lighter character were sometimes made, among which may be mentioned certain poetical effusions from the unpolished but popular pen of Thomas Rowley. One of these was entitled " an invitation to the poor tenants under the patroons in the province of New York to come and settle on our . good lands under the New Hampshire grants." It is too long for insertion, but a few stanzas may be given as a specimen of its spirit and execution. It began :
" Come all you laboring hands that toil below, Among the rocks and sands - that plow and sow Upon your hir'd lands, let out by cruel hands, 'Twill make you large amends - to Rutland go.
Your pataroons forsake, whose greatest care Is slaves of you to make, while you live there, Come quit their barren lands, and leave them in their hands, 'Twill ease you of your bands - to Rutland go.
* *
We value not New York with all their powers, For here we'll stay and work, the land is ours, And as for great Duane, with all his wicked train, They may eject again, we'll not resign.
*
* * * In George we will rejoice, he is our king," &c.1
1 Rural Magazine, vol. 1, p. 383. Deming's Vermont Officers, p. 139. 24
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Notwithstanding the large rewards offered for Allen and his associates, they do not appear to have been in any real danger of being apprehended under the governor's proelamation. The terror which their threats, backed as they were by the known power and determination of the Green Mountain Boys, produced among their adversaries, and the general sympathy felt for them by the people of the province, were sufficient to prevent any serious attempts to capture them.1 Further protection against invasion of the territory by " the Yorkers " was, however, provided by the erection of two forts near the outskirts of the settlements ; one at New Haven falls, on Otter creek, in the neighborhood of Col. Reid's patent, and the other on Onion men, at Colchester. Information of the erection of these fortresses, and of the continued hostility of the settlers being laid before the New York council, that body on the 1st of Septem- ber, 1774, advised Lieut. Gov. Colden to apply to Gen. Gage, then military commander-in-chief, for the aid of regular troops. With this application Gen. Gage declined to comply, on the ground that a similar application had been previously denied by the British ministry, and also for the reason that Gov. Tryon had been called home to give light on the points in dispute concerning the New Hampshire lands, upon which a final decision might soon be expected. An appeal from this decision of Gen. Gage having been made by Lieut. Gov. Colden to the English ministry, Lord Dart- mouth, with strong assurances of regard for the loyal conduct of the New York government, informed him that he did not " at present see sufficient ground for the adoption of such a measure." Thus ended the third and last abortive effort of the New York land claimants to have their titles enforced by the aid of the king's regular troops.2
1 Two attempts to arrest Allen were made at an carlier date, under a pre- vious proclamation, for an account of which see biographical notice of Allen, Appendix.
2 Benjamin Hough's petition and accompanying affidavits and proceedings of the council thereon, and Lieut. Gov. Colden's correspondence with Gen. Gage and Lord Dartmouth .- Doc. IIist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 875 to 890. Ver- mont Quarterly Magazine, p. 69. Ira Allen's Hist., p. 42.
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CHAPTER XVII.
PUNISHMENT OF YORKERS, AND THE WESTMINSTER MASSACRE.
1774-1775.
Ludicrous punishment of Dr. Samuel Adams, a Yorker-Trial and corporal punishment of Benjamin Hough for petitioning the New York Assembly, and advocating the passage of the act of outlawry against Allen and others, and for acting as a magistrate under New York - Uprising of the people of Cumberland county in March, 1775, and the Westminster Mas- sacre-Action of the New York Assembly thereon, and the case of Hongh-A convention of Committees of Cumberland and Gloucester counties, resolve to petition the king against the New York government, and to be either annexed to another government, or formed into a new one-Col. Skene's project of a new province-The battle of Lexington gives a new direction to these affairs.
A FTER the passage of the New York act of outlawry, all attempts of the Yorkers to obtain possession under their patents were unsuccessful. Although the Green Mountain Boys were ready, when- ever necessity required it, to resort to severe measures against their adversaries, they were not unwilling to try the effect of milder means. Ridicule, as well as violence, was sometimes used. An example of a mixture of both may be found in the case of Dr. Samuel Adams of Arlington. He held lands under the New Hampshire title and up to the close of the year 1773, he had been an advocate of that title. But after the promulgation of the riot act, he for some unexplained reason, began to talk in favor of the New York title and advise his neighbors to purchase it. This open desertion of their cause was very distasteful to the New Hampshire men, and he was repeatedly warned to desist from such discourse. But he per- sisted in his offensive language, in consequence of which he was arrested and taken to the Green mountain tavern at Bennington, for trial. There the committee of safety heard his defence, which not being satisfactory, he was sentenced " to be tied in an armed chair, and hoisted up to the sign (a catamount's skin stuffed, sitting upon the sign post, twenty-five feet from the ground, looking and grinning towards New York), and there to hang two hours, as a punishment merited by his enmity to the rights and liberty of the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants." The sentence was executed, to the no small merriment of a large concourse of people. The doctor was then let down and dismissed by the committee, with an admonition
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to sin no more. "This mild and exemplary disgrace," says Ira Allen, in his history, " had a salutary effect on the doctor and many others." 1
From this period, there do not seem to have been many occa- sions for the exercise of violent measures against the New York claimants, they in general, being unwilling by new efforts, to incur the further displeasure of the Green Mountain Boys. To this sub- mission to their power, if not to their authority, a notable exception was found in the case of Benjamin Hough. He not only occupied land under the odious patent of Socialborough, but had, during his residence there, from early in the year 1773, been an open and troublesome advocate of that title, although he claimed to have also agreed for that of New Hampshire. It was on his petition that the resolutions of the assembly, offering the rewards for Allen and the seven others, and the act for hanging them without trial, had been passed. He had spent the winter in New York, advocating their passage, and had come back to his residence with a commission as justice of peace, bearing date the 12th of March, three days after the consummation of those obnoxious measures. He was loud in his denunciation of rioters, and active in the exercise of his office as magistrate. He was formally served with a copy of the resolution of the convention held at Manchester, on the 12th and 13th of April, 1774, certified by Jonas Fay, clerk, by which it was declared that whoever should, in the then situation of affairs, " until his majesty's pleasure in the premises should be further known," presume to take a commission of the peace from the New York government, should " be deemed an enemy to their country and the common cause." He was also verbally warned to desist from the further exercise of his official authority, and threatened with punishment if he persisted. To these warnings he paid no heed, but continued as active and troublesome as ever. The indignation against him became very great, and it was resolved to make such an example of him as would not only effectually silence him, but deter others from the commission of like offences. He was accordingly seized by a body of his neigh- bors, placed in a sleigh and carried south about thirty miles, to Sunderland, where he was kept for three days under strict guard until Monday, the 30th of January, 1775, when the leading Green Mountain Boys being assembled, he was brought to trial for the offences before mentioned. The court appointed for that purpose, consisted of Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Robert Cochran, Peleg
Ira Allen's History, p. 46. Vt. Quarterly Magazine, p. 126. Slade, p. 36. B. Hough's affidavit, Doc. ITist. N. Y., p. 897-8.
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Sunderland, James Mead, Gideon Warren and Jesse, Lawyer. His judges being seated, he was put upon his defence, which being held insufficient, he was found guilty and sentenced " to be tied to a tree and receive two hundred lashes on the naked back, and then as soon as he should be able, should depart the New Hampshire Grants and not return again till his majesty's pleasure should be known in the premises, on pain of receiving five hundred lashes." This sentence was read to him from a paper by Allen, and was put in immediate execution with much severity. For his protection against further punishment for the same offences, and to show their fearless and defiant contempt for the government officers at New York, whither he was going, Allen and Warner gave him a certificate and pass in the following words :
" Sunderland, January 30th, A.D. 1775. This may certify to the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants, that Benjamin Hough hath this day received a full punishment for his crimes committed heretofore against this country, and our inhabitants are ordered to give him the said Huff free and unmolested passport towards the city of New York, or to the westward of our grants, he behaving as becometh. Given under our hands the day and date aforesaid.
ETHAN ALLEN, SETH WARNER."
This chastisement of Hough seems to have been the last act of per- sonal violence to which the claimants under New York as such were subjected by the New Hampshire men, during the colonial period ; the open resistance to their authority ceasing from that time. It was undoubtedly the most severe and painful injury which had ever been inflicted on any of the Yorkers.
Hough departed the next day for New York, where he made an affidavit before Chief Justice Horsmanden, giving an account in detail of the abusive and cruel manner in which he had been treated, and he petitioned the council for protection against the rioters. The council, after due deliberation, declared they were powerless to furnish such protection ; but on his subsequent representation, in connection with one Daniel Walker, Jr., that they had been " expelled from their habitations by the Bennington rioters, and were destitute of the means of support and had been involving themselves in debt for the necessaries of life," it was ordered "that a brief be issued in favor of the petitioners," by which they were allowed to solicit contribu- tions from the public, or in other words were permitted to beg for their livelihood. It would seem that the wealthy New York land
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claimants, among whom were the lieutenant governor, several members of his council, and other prominent government officers, might have spared this mortification to their friend Hough, who had been so great a sufferer in their behalf.1
Before the deliberations of the lieutenant governor and his council on this affair of Hough had terminated, information was laid before them of a most alarming outbreak against the authority of the New York government, on the east side of the Green mountain, no less than that of the breaking up of the session of the county court of the county of Cumberland by mob violence, and the arrest and imprisonment of the sheriff and judges by the rioters. Of this event it is necessary to give some account.
It has been herein before mentioned that the order of the king in council of 1764 for annexing the territory of the New Hampshire Grants to the province of New York, was connected with, and sub- ordinate to the plan then forming by the British ministry for raising a revenue from the colonies by parliamentary taxation. In pursuance of that plan numerous aets of parliament had been passed, which had met with such determined opposition from the inhabitants of the colonies as to render them nearly or quite inoperative. The oppres- sive character of those acts, and of the means used to enforce them, had served to alienate the affections of the people from the mother country, and to engender a bitter animosity towards the king's government. Riotous resistance to the officers of the crown, as violent and disorderly as any that had been made to those of New York by the New Hampshire settlers, had become common through- out the country ; and the whigs concerned in making such resistance were as loudly denounced by the king's government, as the Green Mountain Boys had been by that of New York. In September, 1774, a congress of delegates from twelve of the colonies assembled at Philadelphia, and agreed to suspend all commercial intercourse with the mother country until the obnoxious acts of parliament should be repealed. This and other measures of opposition, were embodied in the form of an agreement or association, subscribed by all the delegates, and recommended for adoption in all the colonies. One of the articles of agreement was that they "would have no trade, commerce, dealings or intercourse whatsoever with any colony or province in North America which should not accede to, or should violate the association, but would hold them unworthy of the
1 Doc. Ilist. N. Y., vol. 4, 891 - 903, 916. Council Minutes, 1765-1783, p. 422. Ira Allen's History, p. 44.
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rights of freemen and as inimical to the liberties of their country." These measures, recommended by congress, were approved and adopted by the assemblies of all the colonies, except New York, where a tory majority steadily defeated every attempt to obtain a vote of approbation ; and the assembly also refused, contrary to the action of the assemblies of the other colonies, to appoint delegates to another general congress which was to meet the following May. The whigs of the county of Cumberland, who sympathized with their brethren in the other colonies and approved of the proceedings of congress, very naturally felt that they were under no strong obli- gations of allegiance to a provincial government with which they had always been dissatisfied, and which had now violated the decrees of the general congress, and had thereby become, in the language of that congress, " unworthy the rights of freemen," and in fact ene- mies to the liberties of the country.
By the month of March, 1775, a warlike attack upon the people by the king's troops, which had been collected in force at Boston, was almost daily expected, and preparations for resistance were extensively made, especially in the New England colonies. The business of the inhabitants had become much interrupted, and the courts of justice which had been held under the royal authority were, in general, either shut up or had been adjourned without doing any business. A term of the county court, for Cumberland county, was to be held by appointment at Westminster on the 14th of that month. The conduct of this court had long been complained of as unjust and oppressive, and the judges and other county officers were either known to be advocates of the king's measures, or strongly suspected of being secretly favorable to them. Under these circum- stances the whigs of the county, to use their own language, felt it to be " their duty to God, to themselves and posterity, to resist and oppose all authority that would not accede to the resolves of the Continental congress," and especially to prevent the exercise of such authority over themselves, by the holding of a term of such obnox- ious court. All efforts to persuade the judges not to hold a session of the court proved unavailing, and the people, to the number of eighty or ninety, assembled at the court house late in the afternoon of the 13th of March, the day previous to the intended session, with the determination to hold possession of it until the hour of opening the court the next morning. Sheriff Patterson, apprehensive of an attempt to stop the court, had industriously collected a body of men, a large portion of whom " were armed with guns, swords and pistols," while those in the house had only staves and clubs. Towards night
.
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the sheriff with his posse appeared in front of the court house, and commanded those within to disperse, which demand not being com- plied with, he caused the king's proclamation against riots to be read, and threatened, with an oath, that "if they did not comply with his demand in fifteen minutes he would blow a hole through them." The sheriff with his party then retired and not appearing again at the appointed time, some negotiations were entered into with one of the judges, by which those in the house were led to believe that they would be suffered to occupy it peacefully until morning, when the negotiation would be renewed. Under this impression a large portion of the party left the house and took lodgings in the village, leaving the residue to keep guard. But a little before midnight the sheriff with his posse again appeared in front of the house, and demanded entrance, which being refused, he commanded his men to fire, and the order being obeyed, and the doorway thereby cleared, the assailants rushed into the house where, after a short hand-to-hand contest, during which several more shots were fired, the sheriff's party obtained a complete victory. Some of the whigs had escaped from the house by a side passage, but ten were wounded, two of them mortally, and seven taken prisoners, who were all thrust into the jail. After a night of revelry by the sheriff and his party, the court was opened at the appointed hour, but no · business was transacted. The news of this rash and bloody attack upon the people spread with great rapidity in all directions, and by noon of the 14th, several hundred men, variously armed, and burn- ing with indignation at the conduct of the court party, had collected together at Westminster. The prisoners were at once liberated, and their places in the jail were occupied by the judges and officers of the court as fast as they could be found. William French, one of the wounded, having died, an inquest was held on his body, and a verdict of murder found against the sheriff and several of his assist- ants. By the morning of Thursday the 16th, says a contemporary account, " five hundred good martial soldiers, well equipped for war," were assembled. Among them were forty or more of the Green Mountain Boys from the west side of the mountain, under Captain Robert Cochran, and a considerable number from the neighboring provinces of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. A committee of those assembled was appointed to pass upon the fate of the prisoners, who, after much deliberation, decided that Noah Sabin and Benjamin Butterfield, two of the judges, Samuel Gale, the clerk, William Patterson, the high sheriff, Benjamin Gorton, a deputy sheriff, and four others, should be taken to Northampton,
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and there held in jail for trial, and that the others should be released on giving bonds to appear and take their trials at such time as should be appointed. These nine persons, in pursuance of this decision, were escorted to Northampton jail under a guard of twenty- five men, commanded by Captain Cochran and an equal number of men from New Hampshire under Captain Butterfield of that province. The persons thus imprisoned were removed at the expiration of a few weeks by a writ of habeas corpus, issued by Chief Justice Hors- manden, to the city of New York, ostensibly for trial; but they were never prosecuted. This assault of the court or tory party on the people has always been designated as the Westminster Massacre. 1
Information of this outbreak of the people in Cumberland county, reached New York by messengers from the judges and others of the court party, on the 21st of March. Being embodied in the form of depositions, it was, in accordance with the advice of the council, laid before the assembly by Lieut. Gov. Colden, together with the papers relating to the affair of Hough. Treating the two occurren- ces as arising from the same causes, the lieutenant governor, in his message to the assembly, used the following language :
" Gentlemen : You will see with just indignation, from the papers I have ordered to be laid before you, the dangerous state of anarchy and confusion which has lately arisen in the county of Cumberland, as well as the little respect which has been paid to the provisions of the legislature at their last session, for suppressing the disorders which have for some time greatly disturbed the north eastern dis- trict of the county of Albany and part of the county of Charlotte." The message concluded by recommending that effectual measures be taken " for the protection of his majesty's suffering and obedient subjects," and for the vindication of the honor and dignity of the government.
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