USA > Vermont > The story of Vermont (1926) > Part 3
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The sun was shining in a clear sky as he stepped in front of his army and said: "Boys, there are the enemy; we will capture them or to-night Molly Stark will be a widow."
Then began a hard fought battle. The Hes- sians held their fortress against attack after attack by the Americans. But the Americans never gave up. They surrounded the fortress.
At last the Hessians attempted to escape by charging through the Americans. They did not get through, Colonel Baum was killed and the Hessians who were not killed or wounded surrendered.
The battle over, the Americans became more like a victorious crowd after a baseball game than an army. The officers could not keep them in order. Suddenly, while all were shout- ing and rejoicing, guns were heard to the west- ward, then scouts arrived with the news that a new British army was coming on the double
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General Stark sends word for the Green Mountain Boys to hurry.
quick. It was the reinforcements that Colonel Baum had sent for.
It looked as though the hard earned victory was to be lost, for the Americans were not and could not be put in order to fight before the arrival of the British. But when things looked the darkest, guns were heard to the rear of
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the Americans, and soon the news was brought that a force of Green Mountain Boys from Manchester was coming. General Stark sent word for them to hurry.
Tired out from marching all day in the hot sun, the troops nevertheless answered Gen- eral Stark's messenger by pushing forward on the run. They arrived on the battlefield about the same time as the British. Fortunately most of them were trained soldiers, men who had fought with Warner at Hubbardton and were anxious to meet the British again.
They stopped the British attack and gave Stark and Warner time to re form their broken army. The two armies fought until dark, then the British line broke. The Americans pur- sued and took many prisoners; others were able to escape in the darkness.
With the exception of a few raids, this was the end of the fighting in Vermont. A few weeks later Burgoyne was forced to surrender at Saratoga and the active theatre of the war was shifted farther south.
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CHAPTER V STATESMANSHIP
There is a scene in the famous play "Riche- lieu" where the white-haired cardinal tries in vain to lift up the huge sword with which in his youth he had won many battles. He tells his page to put back the sword and as he lifts up his pen remarks:
"Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword."
With all respect to the bravery of the valiant Green Mountain Boys, Vermont never could have become a State by the sword. But, as we shall see, the pen proved mightier than the sword.
In order to understand this chapter of the "Story of Vermont" it is quite important to have in mind a picture of our country as it was in the days of the Revolutionary War. There were thirteen colonies, or, as they called them- selves later, States, extending from the moun- tains of New Hampshire to the rice and cotton
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fields of Georgia. There were no trains, no hard-surface roads, no telephones or telegraph; it took longer to go from Boston to Phila- delphia than it takes now to go from New York to San Francisco.
As a result of this the people of one colony knew very little about the people of the colony next to them and almost nothing at all about the people in the more distant colonies. All were united in their determination to be free from the tyranny of England and in order that they might act together each colony sent delegates to a congress at Philadelphia. This Continental Congress could tell each State how many soldiers it should furnish, how much money, how many supplies, but the States could obey just as much or as little as they pleased and Congress could do nothing about it.
It was this Congress that on July 4, 1776, published to the world the famous Declaration of Independence.
When the Green Mountain Boys read this famous paper they began to ask themselves "Where do we come in?" If they were not recognized as a colony they were not included in the Declaration of Independence.
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They sent delegates to the Continental Con- gress at Philadelphia asking that they might be represented. But Congress was busy with the war with England, most of its members knew nothing about Vermont, and they took the word of the New York delegates that this petition came from a few dissatisfied moun- taineers in the northeastern part of their State and was not worth considering. It is true that the delegates from the New England States generally were in favor of admitting Vermont, but they were in the minority, and even they did not consider it wise to offend such a power- ful State as New York.
Of course, the Green Mountain Boys held another convention to consider the situation. They met first at Dorset, July 24, 1776. Some members were frightened and urged that they surrender to New York, others suggested that they declare themselves a part of New Hamp- shire and pronounce the edict of the King of England which had declared that they be- longed to New York as of no effect. But the bolder members were in favor of forming an independent State until such a time as Con- gress would recognize them as a part of the United States.
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Before taking such a bold step it was de- cided that the delegates to this convention should go home and talk the matter over with the people in their respective towns. This they did and met again at Westminster in January, 1777. Evidently the people were in favor of independence, for the convention promptly voted to publish to the world that from that time forth the section known as the New Hampshire Grants declared itself to be a free and independent State. The first name adopted for the State was New Connecticut, but it was soon voted to change it to Vermont, a name made from the French words vert and mont, meaning green mountain.
The step having been taken, the next thing to do was to organize a State government. Up to this time the only government except that of the towns and the resolutions passed by the conventions was that from New York State. After the beginning of the war the authority of New York State almost disap- peared.
At Windsor on the 2nd of July, 1777, the convention voted to accept the constitution written by its committee. While this con- vention was in session news was brought that
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the British under Burgoyne had captured Fort Ticonderoga and were advancing south. It looked as if there might be no State for the new constitution. But the Vermonters, as we may now call the Green Mountain Boys, held to their purpose. They not only accepted the constitution but named the date for the first election of governor and members of the legis- lature and the day and place when the newly elected officials should meet. Then they left the convention to join their comrades in fight- ing the British.
At the election in the following March, 1778, Thomas Chittenden was chosen for the first governor. The new legislature met at Windsor in the same month. A strange problem con- fronted this legislature. Sixteen towns in New Hampshire bordering on the Connecticut River asked to be admitted as a part of the new State.
The legislature decided to adjourn in order to go home and learn what the people of the State thought of this proposition. They met again in June at Bennington and voted to re- ceive the towns.
As you might expect, the New Hampshire people were very much upset by this arrange-
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ment. They did not propose to have a whole slice of their State delivered over to Vermont. They immediately made a protest to the Con- tinental Congress at Philadelphia.
Colonel Ethan Allen was sent to Philadel- phia by Governor Chittenden of Vermont to discover how the Congress felt about the matter. Colonel Allen reported back that Congress was very much opposed to the ac- tion of Vermont, but he further reported that he had been told unofficially that Congress would accept Vermont as a new State if they would peacefully give back these towns to New Hampshire.
So the legislature met again and voted that the New Hampshire towns should not be a part of Vermont. As soon as this vote was announced these New Hampshire towns and several Vermont towns on the Connecticut River decided to form an independent State of their own. To add to the trouble, New Hampshire now laid claim to Vermont on the ground that the King of England's edict taking it from New Hampshire and giving it to New York was no longer valid because England was no longer ruler of the colonies.
Vermont had no one to speak for her rights
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in the Continental Congress and it looked as if that body would decide to divide the State in two halves, giving the part east of the Green Mountains to New Hampshire and that west to New York. Then to add to the mix-up, Massachusetts claimed that if the former edicts of the King of England were no longer in force the southern part of Vermont belonged to her.
Here, in the words of the old song, "was a pretty how d'ye do." Vermont claimed she was an independent country, three States claimed all or part of her territory, and part of her people threatened to withdraw and form another new State. To make matters worse, Governor Clinton of New York encouraged the people in southern Vermont who favored New York to resist the Vermont officials. In order to defend her independence Vermont was forced to send a small army to this section under Ethan Allen to put down an insurrec- tion.
Of course these affairs were taken to Con- gress again. Then Congress saw signs of a small war starting in Vermont when all its resources were needed to fight England. It postponed making any decision, and appointed a committee to investigate. The Vermonters
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understood what this delay meant. Congress intended to keep the matter under investiga- tion until after the war with England. Then their State would be divided up, and they would be compelled by the whole United States to surrender their independence. Their case looked hopeless, for surely a few thousand Vermonters could not hope to resist the whole United States.
There was one thing she could do: she could declare herself an English colony and secure the protection of England. Some were in favor of this. They argued that under England they could keep their homes and farms, but if they belonged to New York the Yorkers would come again to take them and this time there would be no England to hold the Yorkers back.
The government of England appreciated the situation. After the defeat of Burgoyne her army had retreated to Canada, but she could raise a new army and invade New York and Vermont again. At this time, 1780, Washing- ton and most of the American army had all they could do keeping one army of the British within New York City and fighting another army in the southern States. Washington would find it very difficult to raise a new army
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to fight them in the north. But the English remembered that the Green Mountain Boys were brave fighters; they did not forget the Battle of Bennington.
If, however, the English could win the Ver- monters over to their side it would be easy to march to Albany. The Green Mountain Boys, instead of fighting them, would help them; in- stead of tearing up the roads, they would clear them; instead of driving away all the cattle and destroying all the grain they could not carry away, they would bring food to the army.
So the English began secretly to send letters to prominent Vermonters. In these letters they promised Vermont an almost free gov- ernment. Now Ethan and Ira Allen and others who knew of these letters knew perfectly well that in spite of all their troubles most of the Vermonters were loyal and would never think of betraying their country. But if they sent back a sharp refusal to England her army might march into Vermont, and with but little hope of help from Washington, they would not be able to keep it back alone. Besides, they thought that, if the members of Congress, who would not admit that there was any State of Vermont and were planning to divide it up
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among its neighbors, realized that Vermont probably held it in its power to give England the victory in the war, they would take the Vermont petitions more seriously. So they sent copies of these letters from the English to Congress and they made replies to England that didn't say that they would or that they would not.
These Vermonters were now treading on very dangerous ground, and it is due largely to the ability of Ira Allen that they succeeded. Ira Allen knew perfectly well that if the people of Vermont thought he was planning to give the State over to the enemy they would de- nounce him as a traitor. On the other hand, he knew that if England became convinced that Vermont would remain loyal to the States her army would at once invade the new repub- lic. It was not only the fate of Vermont that depended on him, but probably the success of the whole war with England. For one year, until the surrender of the British under Corn- wallis at Yorktown, Va., in October, 1781, I believe it is safe to say that no man in America except Washington had a greater responsibility than Ira Allen. After the victory at York- town, Washington could rush his army north,
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Ira Allen. By courtesy of the University of Vermont.
and it was too late for the English army to invade Vermont.
We shall not recount the details of Ira
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Allen's diplomacy. He succeeded. He held the British army back by keeping them un- certain whether Vermont would join them or not. Also he made the Continental Congress realize that Vermont was something more than a few dissatisfied mountaineers.
Vermont made one more bold step at this time. Realizing that when finally the time came for Congress to decide it would be to Vermont's advantage to have something to give up as a compromise, she boldly re-annexed the sixteen New Hampshire towns and also that part of New York State between Vermont and the Hudson River.
And so when the War of the Revolution came to an end the few thousand dwellers in Vermont stood before the nation, not as a handful of dissatisfied people to be put aside without a hearing, but as a strong independent country that had served the United States loyally. And this was done not so much by the sword as by the pen.
CHAPTER VI AFTER THE WAR
In October, 1780, there were about three hundred persons living in the town of Royal- ton. There were two small villages but most of the people lived in farmhouses. Early one morning as the men were leaving to work in the barns and fields, several hundred Indians suddenly rushed out of the woods toward the houses. The men did not have time to get their guns before these Indians were in the houses pulling over everything they contained. They picked out whatever pleased them and then set fire to the houses. Others set fire to the barns and either drove off or killed the live-stock.
The farmers separated from each other and, without guns, realized that they could not drive the Indians away and that to start fighting would only stir the Indians' blood, so that in place of stealing and burning there would be a terrible killing of women and chil- dren. So the Indians were allowed to take what pleased them and with twenty-five pris- oners disappeared again into the woods.
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Of course the alarm was spread to all the farmhouses in that section, and by night there was quite a company of men ready to follow after the Indians. They were able to tell which way the enemy had fled by the burning farm- houses the Indians left behind them. During the second night they came upon the Indians' camp and prepared to attack it. The Indians, however, sent one of their prisoners back to the Vermonters to warn them that if they attacked, all the prisoners would be killed in- stantly.
Many of the Vermonters had brothers, chil- dren and other close relatives among the prisoners. They spent the night discussing what they should do. When morning came the question was decided for them. The In- dians with their prisoners had gone.
The Indians hurried north and were able to reach their boats on Lake Champlain be- fore the pursuing farmers could come up to them. The next summer all the captives ex- cept one, who had died, were allowed to return home, where they arrived safely and none the worse for their experience. Two were killed at the time of the raid and much necessary property was destroyed.
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The Indian trouble soon blew over but Vermont had other troubles that did not show any signs of disappearing. In our last chapter we told how Vermont had annexed -to her territory the New Hampshire towns on the Connecticut River and part of New York State east of the Hudson River. As a result of this, New Hampshire threatened to call out soldiers to drive the Vermont officials out of the towns taken from her. New York went further, and actually raised an army and sent it into the disputed territory. In reply Vermont sent soldiers to meet them, and for a time it looked as if there would be war between New York and Vermont even before the war with Eng- land was finished.
George Washington, commander-in-chief of the American army, realized that here was a most serious situation. He wrote a letter to the Governor of Vermont, Thomas Chittenden, in which he said that he believed that if Vermont would voluntarily give up her claims on the towns that were formerly parts of New York and New Hampshire Congress in turn would recognize Vermont as a new State.
Vermonters were gradually losing faith in the Congress; they had been put off too many
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times, but they did believe in George Wash- ington. So when Governor Chittenden pre- sented Washington's letter to the legislature it was promptly voted to follow his advice and to appoint delegates to ask in return that the State be recognized by Congress. These dele- gates fared no better than the many others who had been sent before. The matter was referred to a committee, and for one reason or another Congress took no action.
The people of Vermont were getting pretty well worked up over this treatment. Although Congress had not admitted them as a part of the United States during the war, they had not hesitated to do their full share toward winning the victory. By their skilful diplomacy they had protected the northern border of the coun- try while Washington had all he could attend to in the South. In order to prevent civil war, they had taken Washington's advice and given up extra territory against the wishes of most of the people who lived in this territory, and in return for all of this they received nothing from Congress.
To make matters worse, a number of York- ers in the southern part of the State thought that because Vermont had given up her claims
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in New Hampshire and New York the govern- ment must be losing its courage. Most of these Yorkers lived in Guilford, which, at that time, was the largest village in the State, having over three thousand people. They agreed among themselves to refuse to obey any Vermont officials and if the Vermonters tried to make them obey they agreed to fight.
This revolt did not last very long. Governor Chittenden promptly sent Ethan Allen, with a company of soldiers, to Guilford, and the Yorkers very soon learned that Vermont had lost none of its courage.
These Yorkers, after their defeat, com- plained to New York, which in turn made complaint against Vermont to the Continental Congress. Then Congress sent a message to Vermont blaming its government for enforcing its own laws and threatening to force it to pay for all damage done to the Yorkers.
This was the last straw. The general opin- ion of Vermonters after this message became known was that they would rather be an inde- pendent State than live under such govern- ment as the Continental Congress. As for the threats, Vermonters knew that, after following his advice, General Washington would not lead
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an army against them, and without Washing- ton they knew Congress could not raise an army.
Here is a most surprising situation. In the darkest days of the Revolutionary War, when Washington's small army was starving and freezing at Valley Forge, when it seemed that in the spring England could easily win the war and would then punish all who had dared resist her, in those dark days Vermont begged to be admitted as one of the rebelling States, willing to stand or fall with the others. Then after the war was won and the English army . had been removed Vermont decided she would rather not be a part of the victorious United States.
To understand the reason for this we must remember that before the war the colonies had very little to do with each other. They were like thirteen little nations and not very friendly nations either. New England, for example, was settled largely by the Puritans who in the old country had fought and hated the Cavaliers. Cavaliers had settled in Vir- ginia. In those days of poor roads and stage- coaches very few persons from one State visited another. As a result the only tie that
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held the colonies together was their determina- tion to be free from the tyranny of England.
In order to fight England the colonies sent delegates to a Continental Congress and made an agreement among themselves called the Articles of Confederation. The chief weakness of the Articles of Confederation was that, while its Congress could make laws, it had no means of enforcing its laws.
After the surrender of the English the tie that held together the colonies, or States, as they were now called, was broken. Each State declared it would run its own affairs . and would not allow any outsider to interfere. The Continental Congress owed millions of dollars and had no money even to pay the sol- diers before they were discharged. It asked the States for money and the States replied that they had debts of their own to pay. The re- sult was that all the paper money Congress had issued became worthless. When any one wanted to emphasize that a thing was of no value he would say "it wasn't worth a conti- nental." Continental was the name given to the money issued by the Continental Congress.
The soldiers who had fought through the war returned to their neglected farms with
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little money. Many had borrowed money ex- pecting to return it out of their pay. The people who had loaned the money demanded it back, and the State put on heavy taxes to pay its debts. In order to collect these taxes and debts the sheriffs, at the orders of the courts, began to take what few things of value the ex-soldiers had left. This action caused many riots. Even in Vermont on two occa- sions a crowd of people surrounded the court- house and tried to break up the court.
But in Vermont things were not as bad as . they were in the rest of the country-in fact, Vermont was prospering. Thousands of good people, disgusted with the quarrels between the States, came to live in this independent country. Taxes were light, the government was economical, and efficient. Little hamlets grew rapidly into large towns, forests were cleared for farms, roads constructed, and money issued. As the Vermonters looked at the conditions in other States they had good reasons to be thankful that they were out of it.
As things grew better in Vermont they grew worse in the States. Not only did they refuse to work together but they even began to fight each other. In western Pennsylvania there
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was actual bloodshed between settlers from Connecticut and the militia of Pennsylvania. New York made farmers from New Jersey just across the river pay a tax in order to sell chickens or garden stuff in the city just as if New Jersey were another country. In Massa- chusetts there was, for a time, a real rebellion against the government led by a man named Shay.
In Europe it was expected that some of the States would soon appeal to England to take them back. And at times some States threat- ened to do this. If the United States tried to make a peace treaty with any other nation, its representatives were asked if there was one nation or thirteen.
However, there were big unselfish men in the United States, and a number of these from all the States finally came together in Phila- delphia. But even of these many were afraid to do anything that might offend the narrow prejudices of the people. In answer to their fears, George Washington rose from his chair and said solemnly :
"If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to
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