USA > Vermont > The story of Vermont (1889) > Part 15
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1826. American Temperance Society at Boston founded.
1827. General school act passed.
1828. William Lloyd Garrison comes to Bennington. New tariff passed which greatly encourages wool growing. Andrew Jackson elected president.
1829. Censure of Nullification doctrine. The Anti-Masonic party organized.
1830. U. S. branch bank founded in Burlington. Great floods. Anti- Masonic party in Vermont. Death of Stephen R. Bradley - December 9. The first railroad opened in England and America.
1831. Railroad and bank charters issued in Vermont. Anti-Masonic governor, Palmer, elected.
1832. New State House projected. Anti-Masonic party still controlling the State. U. S. Bank tries to get its charter renewed and fails. Jackson elected president. Vermont electors for Wirt, the Anti-Masonic candidate.
1833. Palmer still governor. Great distress caused by withdrawal of bank loans. Beginnings of Temperance legislation in Vermont.
1834. Last year of Anti-Masonic control. Slavery question discussed.
1835. The Rev. Samuel J. May and other anti-slavery speakers mobbed in Vermont.
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ERA OF PROGRESS.
1836. Constitution amended. The wheat crop fails. Jackson's specie circular issued. American Temperance Union founded at Saratoga.
1837. The panic begins. Van Buren, president. Specie payment sus- pended. The wheat crop again a failure. The patriot movement in Canada. Legislature adopts anti-slavery resolutions.
THE ERA OF PROGRESS.
1838. End of the panic. Specie payments resumed- May 15. Silk cul- ture encouraged by the Legislature. Governor Jenison's warning to the patriots. Surrender of the patriot army - December 29. Death of Isaac Tichenor - December II.
1839. Revised statutes adopted. Legislative protests against the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
1840. Washingtonian Temperance movement begun in Baltimore. Act to give escaped slaves a trial by jury passed. Harrison, the Whig candidate, receives Vermont's vote and is elected.
1841. The Legislature protests against the admission of Texas.
1842. More protests against the admission of slave States. The cold winter and the epidemic. The Legislature calls upon the Government to abolish slavery.
1843. The issuance of warrants for escaped slaves forbidden by law. Appropriations made for agricultural societies. Death of Nathaniel Chipman- February 13.
1844. A license law passed. More anti-slavery protests. James K. Polk elected president. Vermont's vote cast for Clay.
1846. A local option law passed. Maine passes a prohibitive law. Ver- mont votes on the license question. War against Mexico begun.
1847. End of Mexican War. Burlington Savings Bank chartered.
1848. General Taylor elected president. Protests against slavery by the Legislature.
1849. Slavery declared a crime against humanity. Burlington and Windsor and Rutland and Burlington Railroads.
1850. The sale of liquor for medicinal purposes entrusted to public agents. The compromise measure adopted by Congress. State's attorneys instructed to defend slaves claimed by their masters in Vermont. Michi- gan adopts a prohibitory liquor law. Railroads from Rutland and White- hall and from Essex Junction to Rouse's Point.
1851. Railroad from White River Junction to St. Johnsbury.
1852. Passage of the prohibitory law. Franklin Pierce president.
1853. Further temperance legislation.
1854. Formation of the Republican party. Further temperance legisla- tion.
1855. Statue to Allen authorized. Further temperance legislation.
1856. James Buchanan elected president. Frémont carries Vermont. Legislature appropriates twenty thousand dollars for "bleeding Kansas."
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ERA OF PROGRESS.
1857. Resolution condemning the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court. Financial difficulties. Kansas appropriation repealed. .
1858. Vermont's "emancipation proclamation." All negroes in the State or hereafter brought into it declared free. Perfecting the prohibition law. Vermont Homeopathic Medical Society founded.
1860. Lincoln elected president. Secession ordinances passed by South- ern States. Vermont's militia prepares for action.
1861. President Lincoln inaugurated. Sumter fired upon by the rebels - April 2. The President's call for troops - April 15. Governor Fair- bank's call - April 15. First Vermont regiment formed - April 19. The Battle of Bull Run - July 21. Special sessions of the Legislature. Prompt and generous war acts. First brigade formed.
1862. Organizing the armies. Gallantry of Vermont troops at Lee's Mills and Savage's Station. Rapid formation of new regiments.
1863. The dark days of Rebellion. Valor of Vermonters at Marye's Heights. They turn the scale at Gettysburg - July 1, 2, 3, 4. Mob duty in New York. Union victories.
1864. Vermont troops in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Spring Harbor, Winchester. Lincoln elected president. The St. Albans raid - October 19.
1865. The end of rebellion. Vermont troops lead the charge at Peters- burg. Lee's surrender - April 9. Lincoln's assassination - April 14. The return of the soldiers.
1866. Constitutional amendments and the Reconstruction acts. The recovery from the war.
1867. Wool growing and other Vermont industries encouraged by the Morrill tariff.
1868. Grant chosen president. Vermont's enormous Republican majority.
1869. Meeting of the Council of Censors. Proposed constitutional amendments.
1870. The Constitutional Convention. Amendments adopted doing away with Council of Censors and making legislative sessions and State elections biennial. The Fenian raid on Canada.
1871. The amendments ratified by the people. Liquor war at Rutland. 1872 Re-election of President Grant. First session of the biennial legislature.
1873. The beginning of the financial panic. Vermont's debt greatly re- duced and its credit good. Decrease in value of dairy products.
1874. The financial stringency continues. Measures of retrenchment by the Legislature.
1875. Centennial of the death of French and the capture of Ticonderoga.
1876. Centennial of the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia. Hayes elected president.
1877. Centennial of the Vermont Declaration and of the adoption of the Constitution. Great celebration at Bennington on the anniversary of the battle.
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ERA OF PROGRESS.
1878. Many town centennials about this time. Recovering from the panic.
1879. Very cold wave - January 3. Success of the resumption of spe- cie payments and the refunding of the U. S. bonds.
1880. Senator Edmunds nominated for president. James A. Garfield elected. Legislature proposes Constitutional amendments.
1881. Assassination of President Garfield- July 2. Centennial of York- town's evacuation.
1882. Constitutional amendments passed again by Legislature. They provide for the popular election of Secretary of State and make U. S. officials ineligible to State offices. The tax law reformed. Property to be taxed at its full value. First encampment, Sons of Veterans. Law provid- ing for the study of physiology in schools.
1883. Amendments ratified by the people. The tariff revised by Con- gress. A lower duty on wool.
1884. Edmunds again proposed for president. Grover Cleveland elected. Vermont's vote cast for Blaine.
1885. Professor Phelps appointed minister to Great Britain. Removals of many Federal officials.
1886. Completion of State Library. Protests of Vermont's representa- tives in Congress against lowering the tariff.
1887. The Interstate Commerce Bill, favored by Vermont, becomes a law. The Burlington winter carnival. Terrible railroad accident at Woodstock.
1888. Great storm - March 12. Centennial of New Hampshire's State- hood - June 21. Formation of State Board of Trade. Brooks Library at. Brattleboro opened. State farm purchased for agricultural experiments. President Cleveland's tariff message. The Mills tariff reduction bill opposed by Vermont members of Congress but passed by the House of Representatives. Benjamin Harrison elected president.
1889. Senate tariff bill passed. Senators Edmunds and Morrill vote in favor of it. The House fails to concur. Redfield Proctor appointed Sec- retary of War - March 5.
Vermont has contributed to the direction and development of the United States two Presidents pro tem. of the Senate, Stephen R. Bradley (1802) and Solomon Foot (1862), a Postmaster General, Jacob Callamer (1849), and a Secretary of War, Redfield Proctor (ISS9). Two Presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur, were born in Vermont, though later they be- came residents of other States, and the list of Vermont boys accredited to other States as Governors, Senators and Representatives is a long one.
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THE PEOPLE'S COVENANT.
AS EMBODIED IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF VERMONT.
THE first Constitution of the State of Vermont was adopted July 8, 1777, and its provisions have formed the basis of subsequent amendments and revisions. Its most noticeable features were its prohibition of slavery within the State and the fear its framers evidently felt lest the General Assembly should usurp too much power. The first, coming at a time when slavery was legal in all the other colonies, has reflected great credit upon the State and its founders. The second, constraining the builders of the Constitution to limit too closely the powers of the Legislature, compelled a revision in 1786.
A new Constitution was adopted July 4, 1793, soon after the admission of the State, and though amended in some important particulars, most of its sections still stand. This Constitution consists of two chapters or parts, subdivided into twenty-one articles and forty-three sections which are here condensed to the briefest possible limits :
I.
A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE STATE OF VERMONT.
Article 1. declares that all men are born equally free and independent and prohibits slavery forever within the State.
Article 11. asserts the right of the State to use private property when necessary and the right of the owner to receive compensation therefor.
Article III. while commending Christian worship and the keeping of the Sabbath or Lord's day, provides that all citizens shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences, without any abridgment of rights or privileges.
Article IV. declares that every person in the State must find in its laws full, free, prompt and legal redress for all wrongs or injuries.
Article V. reserves to the people of the State the right, by their repre- sentatives, of governing its police.
Article VI. describes all State officers as servants of the people, deriving power from them and accountable to them.
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THE CONSTITUTION.
Article VII. sets forth the right of the people to reform or alter the government.
Article VIII. declares that all elections should be free and without cor- ruption, and all freemen should have the right to vote, and be eligible to office.
Article IX. states that citizens enjoying the law's protection are bound to uphold the law by payment of taxes and by personal service.
Article X. defines the rights of the accused in criminal proceedings to a fair trial and defense by counsel.
Article XI. protects the persons, possessions and houses of the people from search or seizure except by proper warrant.
Article XII. declares the right of jury trial sacred.
Article XIII. guarantees free speech and a free press.
Article XIV. provides that no action at law or prosecution can be founded upon words used in debate in the Legislature.
Article XV. reserves to the Legislature the power of suspending laws or their execution.
Article XVI. declares for the right of the people to bear arms and against standing armies in time of peace.
Article XVII. restricts martial law to persons in military service.
Article XVIII. enjoins upon the people the duty of exacting right con- duct on the part of legislators and magistrates.
Article XIX. asserts the right of the people to emigrate from one State to another.
Article XX. upholds the right of assembly and petition.
Article XXI. prohibits transportation of criminals to another State.
II.
PLAN OF GOVERNMENT.
SECTIONS ONE, Two and THREE fix the Legislative power in a House of Representatives and the executive power in a Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor and Council.
SECTION FOUR establishes courts of justice.
SECTION FIVE empowers a future Legislature to create a Court of Chancery.
SECTION SIX provides that executive, legislative and judicial powers shall be separate and distinct.
SECTION SEVEN fixes the ratio of representation in the House.
SECTION EIGHT names the first Tuesday of each September election day.
SECTION NINE fixes a quorum of the House, prescribes the power of members and gives them, collectively, the title of the General Assembly of the State of Vermont.
THE CONSTITUTION.
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SECTION TEN, now no longer in force, constituted an executive Council of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and twelve Councilors, and described the manner of their election.
SECTION ELEVEN defined the powers of Governor and Council.
SECTION TWELVE prescribes the oath of office for Representatives.
SECTION THIRTEEN provides that the deliberations of the Assembly shall be open to the public except when the welfare of the State forbids.
SECTION FOURTEEN provides for the printing of Assembly proceedings. SECTION FIFTEEN gives the " style " of the laws.
SECTION SIXTEEN, now no longer in force, to prevent hasty legislation, gave the Governor and Council the right to suspend the operation of laws until the next session of the Legislature.
SECTION SEVENTEEN prohibits expenditure of money except by act of the Legislature.
SECTION EIGHTEEN gives the qualifications of Representatives.
SECTION NINETEEN seeks to prevent the acceptance of fees or bribes by legislators.
SECTION TWENTY prohibits the Legislature declaring any person guilty of treason or felony.
SECTION TWENTY-ONE gives the right of suffrage to males twenty-one years of age who have resided in the State one year.
SECTION TWENTY-TWO provides for a militia.
SECTION TWENTY-THREE relates to commissions.
SECTION TWENTY-FOUR describes the process of impeaching State officers. SECTION TWENTY-FIVE is intended to regulate the compensation of officers.
SECTION TWENTY-SIX prohibits the holding of more than one State office by the same person at the same time.
SECTIONS TWENTY-SEVEN and TWENTY-EIGHT provide for the proper performance of the duties of Treasurer and the auditing of his accounts.
SECTION TWENTY-NINE prescribes the form of oath to be taken by State officers.
SECTION THIRTY declares that no person shall be eligible to the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor who has not resided in the State four years.
SECTION THIRTY-ONE affirms the right of jury trial of civil causes.
SECTION THIRTY-TWO gives the legal form of indictments.
SECTION THIRTY-THREE forbids imprisonment for debt and the fixing of excessive bail for bailable offenses.
SECTION THIRTY-FOUR prescribes forfeitures and penalties for those guilty of bribery at elections.
SECTION THIRTY-FIVE provides for the recording of deeds.
SECTION THIRTY-SIX directs the Legislature to regulate entails so as to "prevent perpetuities."
SECTION THIRTY-SEVEN pronounces in favor of employing prisoners at hard labor.
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THE CONSTITUTION.
SECTION THIRTY-EIGHT confirms the right of suicides' heirs to inherit their property.
SECTION THIRTY-NINE, since modified, gave to every immigrant the right to hold real estate, and provided that after one year's residence he could vote.
SECTION FORTY asserts the right of the people of the State to hunt and fish within its limits under proper regulations.
SECTION FORTY-ONE calls for laws to prevent vice, for the establishment of a sufficient number of schools and for the encouragement of religious and charitable societies.
SECTION FORTY-TWO makes the declaration of rights an inviolable part of the Constitution of the State.
SECTION FORTY-THREE, not now in. force, provided for a Council of Cen- sors to meet once in seven years, whose duty it was to inquire whether the Constitution and laws had been observed, to recommend the passage and repeal of laws and, if thought necessary, to call a Convention to consider amendments suggested by the Censors.
III. AMENDMENTS AND ADDITIONS.
It will be seen by the last section that no provision was made for the adoption of an entirely new Constitution, as in other States, but from time to time amendments have been made.
The first of these, adopted in 1828, restricts the suffrage to native or nat- uralized residents.
The next amendment, in twelve Articles, was passed in 1836. It abolishes the Governor's Council and establishes in its place a Senate, whose thirty members are elected one from each county and the remainder apportioned according to population. All bills appropriating money are to originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate is sole judge of the qualifica- tions of its members and has the power of impeachment. The Lieutenant- Governor is President of the Senate except when acting as Governor, when an acting President is chosen. To the Governor is given the power of veto- ing bills passed by the Assembly; but vetoed bills, when repassed by a bare majority of Senate and House, become laws. The concluding paragraphs provide that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, and that portions of the Constitution of 1783 inconsistent with the amendment shall be repealed.
In 1870 two other important amendments were passed. The first pro- vides that the General Assembly shall meet biennially on the first Wednes- day of October. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Treasurer, Senators, Representatives, Assistant Judges of County Court, Sheriffs, High Bailiffs, State's Attorneys, Judges of Probate and Supreme Court and Justices of Peace are elected on the first Tuesday in September. The terms of the
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THE CONSTITUTION
State officers commence when they are chosen and qualified, of the Senators and Representatives on the first Wednesday of October, and of the other officials named on the first of December.
The second of the 1870 amendments abolishes the Council of Censors and provides that at the session of the General Assembly for 1870 and each tenth year thereafter, the Senate can, by a two thirds vote, propose amend- ments to the Constitution which, if concurred in by a majority of the House of Representatives, are referred to the next General Assembly and published in the newspapers. If again passed by both Houses they are submitted to popular vote, and if supported by a majority of the voters become an effec- tive portion of the Constitution. The powers formerly belonging to the Council of Censors are now conferred upon the House of Representatives, and Section Forty-three of the original Constitution is abrogated.
In 1880 twenty-two amendments were proposed by the Senate. These were cut down in the House to six. The Assembly of 1882 cut the number down to two and these were ratified by vote of the people in 1883. The first amendment provides for the election of the Secretary of State by the people, and the second prohibits the election of United State officials as legislators.
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A SELECTION OF BOOKS
TOUCHING UPON THE STORY OF VERMONT.
THE student of Vermont's history will soon discover that, while what may be called the heroic age of the Commonwealth has inspired a comparatively large number of writers and formed the theme of many interesting books, the not unevent- ful century since its admission as a State has received scant attention. The period of the Green Mountain Boys, the unquiet times between the close of the last French war in 1763 and the successful issue of the Revolution twenty years later, has always been the favorite of the Vermont historians, but the more recent history of the State must be gathered, a scrap here and a scrap there, from a variety of sources ; and this fact must explain and excuse the inclusion in the following list of some volumes which may seem to have but a remote relation to the subject. No general history of the State has been recently published, and the best extant do not bring its story beyond the beginning of the present century.
Williams' " History of Vermont " covers the history of the State up to the close of the eighteenth century, and a later edition adds a few years to the record. This book is old and somewhat rare. Hiland Hall's " Early History of Vermont " tells its story up to 1791 and is probably the best his- tory extant of that period. B. H. Hall's " History of Eastern Vermont " is hardly a general work, as its name implies, but is very full and painstaking. Chase's " Gathered Sketches from the Early History of Vermont and New Hampshire " is a collection of frontier tales and legends. The character of H. W. DuPuy's " Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Heroes of 1776" is indicated by its title. Ira Allen's "Natural and Political History " was published in London at the close of the last century, and is mainly devoted to the New Hamphsire controversy. Graham's " Present State of Ver- mont," published in London in 1797, is more curious than Allen's book but less valuable. The Rev. Hosea Beckley's History is an unmethodical but chatty and readable account of Vermont up to about 1840. Zadock Thomp- son's Gazetteer, along with much other matter, relates the legislative pro-
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BOOKS RELATING TO VERMONT.
ceedings of the State up to 1841, with some account of religious, educational and other forms of activity. A very brief appendix was published in 1853.
The story of the discovery of New France, of which Vermont was a part, may fitly be read in .the works of such old chroniclers as Charlevoix and Joliet. Champlain's account of his voyage up Lake Champlain is in his translated works and is full of interest. Champlain's style is much more modern than that of the English writers of a century or more later and his book reads like a novel. The character and experiences of the early settlers may be studied from such works as Williams' " Redeemed Captive," Hub- bell's " Narration of the Sufferings of the Early Settlers of Wolcott," Sparks' " Life of Ethan Allen " in his American Biographies, Mrs. Ellet's " Women of the Revolution," wherein is an account of Jane McCrea, and in-Everett's " Life of Stark."
The complicated controversy with New York and New Hampshire is fully told in the general histories mentioned in the first paragraph, but the curious can consult further E. Allen and J. Jay's " Refutation of the Claims of New Hampshire and Massachusetts," Bradley's " Vermont's Appeal to the World," Slade's " State Papers of Vermont," the fourth volume of the " Documentary History of New York " and an article in the Historical Magazine in 1869 and another in 1873.
The Revolutionary period may be studied with special reference to the part played in that war by Vermont in the general histories, and in Headley's " Life of Schuyler," Everett's " Life of Stark," Riedesel's Journal and Mme. Riedesel's Memoirs, Burgoyne's Narrative, Stark's account of Bennington in the New Hampshire State Papers, the volume published on the centennial celebration of Bennington, and the articles under the appropriate headings in " Hemenway's Gazetteer."
The period of the growth of parties is treated only by Thompson of the historians mentioned and his account may be supplemented by the various lives of Adams and Jackson, by Benton's " Thirty Years " and Van Buren's " Political History." The anti-masonic movement is treated in these books and in the " Life of William Wirt." The canals are discussed in the special works on the subject, and in Tuckerman's " Life of Clinton and Others." The Canadian troubles of 1837 and succeeding years are fully told in Lind- sey's " Life and Times of W. L. Mackenzie." The anti-slavery agitation is described in S. J. May's " Recollections," Wilson's " Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," the " Life of Garrison," by his children, and a vast number of other books, and in a monograph on Slavery in Vermont by Hiland Hall in the New England Register for 1875. The histories respectively of the growth of the railroads and of the temperance movement figure in the special works on those subjects and in the statute books of the State.
The authoritative work upon the share of the Green Mountain troops in the Civil War is Benedict's "Vermont in the Civil War." It is supple- mented by a vast number of general war histories, by monographs upon Gettysburg and the Wilderness and by the war papers in the Century Maga- zine, which are the latest word upon many disputed points. Such works as
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BOOKS RELATING TO VERMONT.
Walker's " The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley " and Haynes' " History of the Tenth Regiment," and many memorial volumes also bear witness to the interest shown by Vermonters in their second heroic age.
Works which defy classification are Hemenway's ponderous Gazetteer in four volumes, which contains much general as well as local historical matter, the " Poets and Poetry of Vermont," by the same editor, a large number of local histories of counties and towns, a few of them admirable, but the greater part of comparatively little value ; Slafter's " Vermont Coin- age," and articles upon the geology of Vermont in the American Journal of Science for 1868 and 1877, its fossil remains in Hours at Home for 1866, and its archeology in the American Naturalist for 1881.
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