USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 35
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" The order of the day being read, for taking into consideration the resolutions of the honorable the senate, relative to the tract of country commonly called the New Hampshire Grants, Mr. Speaker put the question, whether the house will now proceed to take the said resolutions into consideration. Debates arose and it was carried in the affirmative."
Upon the declaration of this vote, the governor's private secretary, who, it seems, had been waiting the result, announced a message from his Excellency which was immediately read. In his message the governor stated that he had received information "in a manner that claimed his credit, that certain resolutions, originating in the senate, had been sent to the assembly for concurrence, proposing the relinquishment of jurisdiction to that part of the state commonly designated by the name of the New Hampshire Grants," and declaring that "if the house should agree to carry those resolu- tions into effect, the duties of his office would oblige him to exer- cise the authority vested in him by the constitution and prorogue them."
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This message, threatening to put an abrupt end to the session of the assembly, in case they should proceed to concur with the senate in the passage of the resolutions, had its intended effect of prevent- ing their adoption. But for this extraordinary threat to exercise an odious power, which has since been expunged from the constitution, there is every reasonable probability that the controversy would have been brought to a speedy and happy close, and all the troubles and heart burnings which resulted from it, for several succeeding years, would have been thereby prevented. Gov. Clinton, not only on this occasion, but on all others, during the whole period of the controversy, manifested an obstinate determination that no terms, short of absolute submission to the authority of New York, should be entertained. It is not doubted that Gov. Clinton possessed many commendable qualities as a citizen and a patriot. A friendly bio- grapher says of him, that " his patriotism was undoubted," that he possessed frankness and amiability in private life; was kind and affectionate in his personal relations, warm in his friendship and decided in his enmity." There needs no stronger proof that he was " decided in his enmity," than that which is furnished by his uni- form and untiring hostility to the claims of the Vermonters. But for this very " decided enmity," there is little room for doubt that their independence would have been acknowledged by New York, and the state admitted a member of the Confederation ten years earlier than its actual occurrence in 1791.1
Gen. Schuyler was a member of the senate and took an active and leading part in the proposed measure of conciliation. His residence at Albany and Saratoga in the vicinity of the disputed district and his extensive intercourse with its inhabitants while in the military command of the northern department, together with the knowledge he had acquired of the disposition of the members of the continental congress during his former and recent service in that body, had undoubtedly made him better acquainted than any other public man of the state, with the true nature and character of the controversy. He had no confidence that congress would effec- tually interfere in behalf of New York. The hatred of the Ver- monters to the government and institutions of that state, embittered by a controversy of fifteen years duration, in which they believed they were contending for their dearest rights, rendered any thought
1 Assembly Papers, Albany. Clinton Papers, No. 3384 and 3616. Jour- nals of N. Y. Senate and Assembly. Strect's Council of Revision, p. 111.
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of undertaking to subdue them by force of arms out of the ques- tion; and any effort to reclaim them by proffers of conciliation. which they ever distrusted, equally so. Despairing of any other means of reconciliation, and fearing that if the hostility of New York towards them was allowed to continue, they might be driven to resort for aid to the common enemy, Gen. Schuyler appears to have entered heartily into the measure of providing for the acknowledgment of their independence. On the 21st of February, 1781, the day on which the conciliatory resolutions were adopted by the senate, he wrote Gen. Washington that he had made a motion in that body looking to the creation of "a new state," and on the 4th of May following he wrote Washington again in relation to the Vermonters, saying : " I was anxious for ceding the jurisdiction beyond a twenty mile line from Hudson's river, that their indepen- dence might be immediately acknowledged, and they made useful to the common cause ; but the governor put a stop to the business, 'as the affair was referred to the decision of congress.' I sincerely wish they would speedily decide, acknowledge. them independent and admit them into the union." Chancellor Livingston who was examined before the senate, and many other prominent men of New York are presumed to have concurred with Gen. Schuyler in this movement. That it was founded in wisdom and enlightened states- manship appears to be established and confirmed by subsequent events. 1
The course taken by Gov. Clinton was not justified by the terms of the constitution and was clearly unparliamentary. He had the power by the constitution to prorogue the legislature. But to undertake to influence the deliberations of either house upon a measure properly before it, by a formal threat to put an end to the session if it was proceeded with, was a direct attack upon the freedom of debate, and a palpable breach of legislative privilege. Such was probably the light in which it was viewed by the senate. On the 12th of March that body on motion of Mr. Schuyler proceeded to the consideration of the governor's threatening message, when it was resolved to present him an address "on the subject matter " of it, and it was ordered that Mr. Schuyler and Mr. Platt should prepare and report a draft of such address. This was about two weeks before the close of the session, and nothing further is found on the journal in rela- tion to it.
1 Sparks's Rev. Cor., vol. 3, p. 213. Sparks's Washington, vol. 8, p. 43.
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Gov. Clinton, in a letter addressed to Gen. McDougall, one of the New York delegates in congress, under date of April 6th, attributes the neglect of further action on the subject by the senate, to an official letter from that delegate to hiim of the 12th of March, in which it was in substance stated, that the recent cession by New York of western territory to the United States, had removed the cause of the opposition to New York with the delegates of several of the states ; and that a decision in her favor might soon be expected. It is scarcely necessary to say that this expectation was delusive. Gov. Clinton speaks of the effect of the letter as follows : "Your official letter informing that there was reason to hope for a speedy and just decision of the controversy by congress, arrived very oppor- tunely. It changed the sentiments of some, and for the present stopped the mouthis of all, and occasioned the laying aside of a long address moved in the senate in consequence of my message to the assembly, but not yet agreed to."
Gov. Clinton in his letter, admits that the measure of reconcilia- tion proposed by the senate, was approved by ".the greater part of the citizens of Albany and Schenectady, and the inhabitants of the northern frontier," and that his " message to the assembly declaring his intentions to prorogue them, was unpopular in Albany." He says, however, that " if the measure had succeeded, it would have reflected lasting ignominy and disgrace upon the state." Twenty years later he might, perhaps, have looked upon the matter in a dif- ferent light.1
During the early part of these proceedings at Albany the legisla- ture of Vermont was in session at Windsor. In order to be in readiness to act upon any favorable response to the application of Gov. Chittenden, the assembly on the 17th of February chose, by ballot, Col. Ira Allen and Major Joseph Fay "agents to wait upon the legislature of the state of New York at Albany, to agree upon and establish the line" between the two states. A committee was appointed to join from the council to prepare and report instruc- tions for the agents. Five days afterwards, as the assembly was about to adjourn, the whole subject of instructing the agents and of agreeing upon and settling the boundary was committed to the governor and council. On the 7th of March, after the receipt of information of Gov. Clinton's threatening message and the suspen- sion thereupon of further action on the subject by the New York assembly, the council at a meeting at Arlington, voted " not to send
1 N. Y. Senate Journals. Clinton Papers, No. 3575, 3616.
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the agents to Albany or to write any further to the general assem- bly of New York at present." 1
The failure of this attempt to put a happy end to the controversy which for a time promised to be entirely successful, and the arbi- trary and abrupt manner in which it was defeated, served to exasperate still further the feelings of the Vermonters towards the government of New York, and furnished them with an additional apology for the retaliatory measure to which they soon afterwards resorted.
1 Vermont Assembly Journals, Feb. 17 and 22, 1781. Council Journals, Feb. 22 and March 7, 1781.
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CHAPTER XXX.
. ENCROACHMENTS OF VERMONT ON THE TERRITORIES OF NEW YORK AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
1780-1781.
Attempts of the friends of New York in Eastern Vermont, to form a new state in the valley of the Connecticut - Annexation of New Hampshire towns west of Mason's Grant to Vermont on their application - Petition of inhabitants of New York to the eastward of Hudson's river, for a union with Vermont - Proposals accepted and union formed.
W HILE the events of which an account has been given in the preceding chapter, were occuring to the westward of Ver- mont, others of no less importance were in progress on the other side of the state. The inhabitants along the two sides of Connecti- cut river had settled their lands under New Hampshire charters, were similar in their character and habits, and had like notions of government. Although many of them were satisfied with the differ- ent governments to which they respectively belonged, others were desirous of entering into some new organization of a state whose seat of government would be established upon that river. This object would be accomplished, either by annexing the whole of Vermont to New Hampshire, or by dividing Vermont by the ridge of the Green mountain, and uniting the eastern part with that portion of New Hampshire lying west of Mason's grant. Either of these would have Connecticut river nearly in the centre of the territory, and ensure the placing of the state capital upon its bank. The same result would doubtless be effected by attaching the territory in New Hampshire west of the Mason line to the whole of Vermont, as much the largest part of the new jurisdiction would be east of the Green mountain. All these projects had their friends, as had also the plan of annexing the eastern half of Vermont to New Hampshire; and when the resolve of congress, of the 27th of September, 1780, declin- ing, after a full hearing, to decide the long pending controversy, became known, the subject of a new state organization was exten- sively agitated.
Among the earliest to move in the matter were the supporters of the New York jurisdiction in the southeastern part of Vermont. They had struggled long and earnestly to maintain their favorite jurisdiction, in the hope of eventual aid from congress. This hope
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they felt had failed them. New York was powerless to protect them, and there seemed no chance left for them but to submit quietly to the government of Vermont, or to connect themselves with some other state organization. They resolved to attempt the latter alternative. A convention of the New York committees of the several towns in that section of Vermont was called for the 31st of Octo- . ber, at which a committee of thirteen, consisting of Luke Knowlton, Hilkiah Grout, Oliver Lovell, John Sargeant, Micah Townsend, Jona- than Hunt, Simon Stevens, Charles Phelps, Benjamin Henry, James Clay, Elkanah Day, Thomas Cutler and Barzilla Rice, was appointed to take into consideration the feasibility of a new government, and to meet and consult with committees or conventions of the inhabitants on both sides of Connecticut river. The object of the meeting at which this committee was appointed was declared to be, to devise such measures as should be calculated " to unite in one political body all the inhabitants from Mason's grant on the east to the height of land on the west side of Connecticut river." The chairman of this com- mittee was Luke Knowlton, who had represented the Vermont friends of New York at the recent hearing before congress, and who had lately returned from Philadelphia. All the others had, up to this time, been active and prominent adherents of the New York jurisdiction. Conventions for a comparison of views, and for consultation were soon afterwards held at Charlestown and Wal- pole, on the New Hampshire side of the river. At this latter convention the report of a committee was approved in favor of uniting all the New Hampshire Grants on both sides of the river under one state jurisdiction, and it was declared that " from the best authority that could be obtained, it appeared that the agent of the state of New Hampshire was endeavoring to confirm a division of the Grants, contrary to their true interests; which had given the people on the Grants just occasion to rouse and exert themselves in support of an union of the whole." It was then recommended as the means of preserving harmony and arriving at a proper result that a convention from every town in the Grants should be held at Charlestown, on the third Tuesday of the ensuing January, at which the whole subject should be considered and finally acted upon. All parties appear to have acquiesced in this suggestion.
Forty-three towns, situated on the two sides of Connecticut river, were represented in this convention. Much pains appears to have been taken by influential men in New Hampshire to obtain a majority in favor of attaching either the whole or the eastern part of Vermont to that state. But after full discussion, a large majority of the
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convention was found to be in favor of joining the already established government of Vermont. Upon which, twelve of the delegates pro- tested against the proceedings, and withdrew from the convention, most of whom were members of the New Hampshire legislature. The convention then appointed a committee to confer with the assembly of Vermont, which was to hold a session at Windsor carly in the ensuing month, and adjourned to meet at the same time at Cornish on the Connecticut river opposite Windsor.
On the 10th of February, the Charlestown committee made appli- cation to the Vermont legislature for a union of the towns west of Mason's grant with that state. About the same time a petition was presented by sundry inhabitants living to the westward of Vermont for a like union with the state, of the territory lying to the eastward of Hudson's river. The petitioners prayed for protection against the enemy in Canada, declaring that they were left to the mercy of the enemy by New York, and that unless Vermont would receive them into union "they should be obliged to remove with their families and effects into the interior parts of the country for safety."
The propriety of complying with these two applications was dis- cussed in a joint committee of the whole council and assembly, and the views of the committee were embodied in a report, in which a concise history of the origin and progress of the hostile proceedings of the people and governments of the adversary states towards the inhabitants of Vermont was given, tending to show that the exten- sion of the jurisdiction of the state to the east and west, as asked for, had become a necessary measure of self-defence against the unjust claims of those states, which were striving by every possible means to increase their territories and power by the extinguishment and annihilation of Vermont. Such extensions of jurisdiction were also declared to be just to those who asked for them, and necessary to the adoption of proper means for the defence of the frontiers against the common enemy. In conclusion the committee recom- mended, " that the legislature of the state do lay a jurisdictional claini to all the lands situated cast of Connecticut river, north of Massachusetts, and south of latitude forty-five, and that they do not exercise jurisdiction for the time being." It was also recommended that a like jurisdictional claim, but not to be exercised for the time being, should be made to all the land situate north of the north line of Massachusetts, extended to the Hudson, and to the east of that river. These recommendations were approved by the legislature, and a joint resolution making the claims of jurisdiction was adopted.
In accordance with this resolution, negotiations were immediately
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entered into with the Cornish convention for settling the terms upon which the castern union should be consummated, which in a few days were mutually agreed upon. They were in substance, that the constitution of the state of Vermont should remain unchanged until it should be altered in the mode therein pointed out ; that as soon as circumstances should permit, the legislature of the state should apply to congress to be admitted into the confederation, and that after such admission, congress might determine questions of disputed boundaries ; that the expenses and losses of the several towns on both sides of Connecticut river, occasioned by the war, should thereafter be equitably adjusted ; and that a general act of amnesty and oblivion should be passed by the legislature for all offences and acts of trespass committed against the authority of the state by persons under a claim of being subjects of New York, and all suits, prosecutions and judgments against them, should be dis- charged and annulled. Other provisions of less importance were made, and it was agreed that the question of forming the union on such terms, should be submitted to the several towns in the state of Vermont, and to the towns to about twenty miles east of Connecticut river, and that if two thirds of the towns on each side of the river approved of the union, it should be considered as rati- fied and completed. The assembly then adjourned to meet again at Windsor on the first Wednesday of the ensuing April.
At the April session it appeared that the requisite number of towns on both sides of Connecticut river had voted for the union, and it was accordingly declared to be consummated. Thirty-five members, representing twenty-eight towns east of the river, then took scats in the assembly.
It has already been seen that at the first organization of the state in 1778, it had been divided into two counties, Bennington on the west side of the Green mountain and Cumberland on the cast. At the session of the assembly in February, 1781, a new division had been made. Bennington county was circumscribed to its present limits, and the towns to the northward of it were formed into the county of Rutland. Cumberland county was made to constitute three counties, viz : Windham, Windsor and Orange, the two former hav- ing about the same extent as at present, and the latter embracing all the territory to the northward of the county of Windsor. At the April session of 1781, the towns on the east side of the Connecticut opposite to the counties of Orange and Windsor, were annexed to those counties respectively, and the towns opposite the county of Windham, were erected into a new county by the name of Washing-
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ton. Provision was also made for transferring the suits which were pending in the New Hampshire counties of Cheshire and Grafton to the proper counties organized under the Vermont authority.
Other necessary measures for perfecting the eastern union having been taken, the legislature turned its attention to the subject of that which had been proposed to the westward of the state. 1
Additional petitions for a union with Vermont, having at this session been received from inhabitants residing between the west line of the state and Hudson's river, the subject was again discussed in committee of the whole, and a report was made in which the petitioners were designated as " the people inhabiting that part of the former government over which Gov. Philip Skene was to pre- side, to which the legislature at their session in February last laid a jurisdictional claim." The report recommended to them to choose members to attend a convention at Cambridge, on the second Wednesday of the ensuing May, to consider and act upon the sub- ject. It advised the legislature to appoint a committee to meet the convention with power to agree upon articles of union, the articles to be submitted to the several districts of the territory, and that if approved, they should choose members to represent them in the assembly of the state. This report appears to have met with con- siderable opposition from members of towns near Connecticut river, and especially from those lately admitted to a union from the east side of it. It was, however, approved and adopted by 48 ayes to 39 nays. A joint committee from the council and assembly was appointed to attend the Cambridge convention, who agreed upon the terms of a union, and reported the same to the legislature at its session holden at Bennington, on the second Wednesday of June following .?
The situation of the inhabitants of this district was peculiarly alarming. They formed the northern frontier of New York, but that state had failed to protect them from invasions of the enemy. Their memorials to the legislature for aid had been ineffectual. They had the previous winter hoped for the settlement of the con- troversy with Vermont, and were greatly dissatisfied with the conduct of Gov. Clinton in preventing it. In point of fact, the state government of New York, by reason of its unpopularity and the general distress, was utterly unable to furnish them any adequate
1 Hall's E. Vt., p. 400-402, 424, 4. Slade, p. 128-137, 427, 428. Journal of Assembly, Feb. 7th, 10th, 14th, to 21st, 1781, and April 5th. Williams's Vt., p. 258. I. Allen's Vt., p. 149.
2 Jour. Vt. Assembly, April 11th, 1781. Slade. 138.
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security against the ravages of the enemy from Canada. Of this there is no doubt. Col. Stone, a writer friendly to New York, in his Life of Brant, represents the condition of affairs in the state at this period as truly deplorable. "So wretchedly supplied," he says, " were the small garrisons from Albany northward and west- ward, both in respect to food and clothing, that it was only with the utmost difficulty that the officers could keep the soldiers upon duty. Ravaged as the Mohawk country had been the preceding summer and autumn, no supplies could be drawn from the diminished and impoverished inhabitants remaining in those settlements; and it was equally difficult to procure supplies either at Albany or below, or eastwardly beyond that city."
So great and universal was the distress for provisions, that Gen. Clinton, on the 29th of March, wrote to the governor, " I am hourly under apprehensions that the remaining different posts occupied for the defence of the frontiers of this state will be abandoned, and the country left open to the ravages of the enemy." On the 5th of May Gen. Clinton again wrote the governor, " From present appear- ances, I am convinced that the troops will abandon the frontier."
* "I have repeatedly called for assistance from every quarter, but could obtain none." "Great blame," says Col. Stone, " was imputed to congress, and likewise to the state government, for allowing the commissariat to come to such a deplorable pass. The resources of the country were known to be abundant for the comfort and sustenance of a much larger army than was at that time in the field." In the midst of this distress the Mohawk country was threatened by the Indians. Information was also received that the enemy had come up Lake Champlain in great force, and an immediate invasion was apprehended. On the 21st of May, Gen. Schuyler wrote from Saratoga that he liad " been informed from very good authority, that the enemy's morning and evening guns at Ticonderoga had been distinctly heard near Fort Ann for three or four days past." And on the 24th he wrote again still more confidently of the enemy's approach. "Capt. Gray," he says, "is returned. He has not been near enough to determine the enemy's force, but sufficiently to discover by their fires that they are numerous." But in addition to all other evils, Col. Stone says, " Treachery was at work, and from the temper of great numbers of the people, the carriage of the disaffected, and the intelligence received by the means of spies and intercepted dispatches, there was just cause to apprehend that should the enemy again invade the country, either from the north or the west, his standard would
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