USA > Vermont > Vermont in quandary, 1763-1825 > Part 4
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11. Wilbur, op. cit., I, 53.
12. Vermont Historical Society, Ira Allen Papers, Memorial to the Supreme Court of the State of Vermont.
30
THE COMING OF THE ALLENS
are exaggerated. A plaintiff in a suit against Ira in 1802 estimated that between 1773 and 1775 the Onion River Land Company owned 77,622 acres.13 Because the New Hampshire title to these lands was not recognized by New York, the company was founded upon hopes for the future instead of upon the realities of the present.
The company was rent by internal quarrels. Ira relates that he and his associates met in Sheffield, Connecticut, in March, 1775, . to settle accounts. "Some disputes arose and their accounts were not all liquidated, yet they verbally agreed to continue sd. busi- ness & parting without agreeing what share each should have of such land and meet again in March, 1776."14
Meanwhile, the Allens proceeded to advertise the sale of their land in a New England newspaper. On May 29, 1773, an adver- tisement in the Connecticut Courant of Hartford, offered 45,000 acres for sale and enumerated the advantages of purchasing these lands. According to it, the lands afforded good fishing, especially salmon, choice bottom or intervale lands, good wheat land on higher tracts and the great advantage of excellent navigation and market facilities. Despite these vigorous promotional activities, the company did not reap much financial advantage before the Revolution. Nevertheless, the Onion River Land Company con- tributed to the growth of a Champlain Valley economy.
Prior to the Revolution, inhabitants in the Champlain Valley demonstrated that Montreal and Quebec, instead of American commercial towns, were the markets for the valley. As in the Con- necticut Valley, the most important commercial activity was lum- bering. Upon the intervales grew oak, butternut, elm and walnut; upon the "plain land," pine; upon "medium" land, beech, birch and maple; in the swamps, cedar; upon the mountains, hemlock, spruce and fir.15 Before the enforced withdrawal of the French in 1763, the settlers had begun to utilize the timber resources of the valley. As early as 1740, timber had been rafted down the Riche- lieu, whose obstructions had been partly removed by powder
13. Vermont, Office of the Secretary of State, Surveyor-General Papers, XV, 32S-331.
14. Ira Allen Papers, Memorial to the Supreme Court of the State of Vermont.
15. Defebaugh, J. E., History of the Lumber Industry of America ( Chicago, 1906- 1907), 2 vols., II, 149.
31
THE COMING OF THE ALLENS
charges.16 After 1763, this timber trade fell into the hands of Britons and colonials. Before the Revolution, they laid the foun- dations for the great timber and lumber trade of the post-revolu- tionary years. H. J. Cramahé, a Quebec official, reported on No- vember 18, 1771, that the bulk of the oak staves exported from Quebec had been cut in the Champlain Valley, but that the busi- ness was conducted largely by inhabitants of the province who transported the staves down the Richelieu River. He gave as his opinion that oak staves might eventually loom large in the export trade of the province. He stated that during the season of 1771, one hundred and fifty thousand staves had been transported to Great Britain.17 This trade was hampered, however, by lack of shipping and by the failure of the Quebec timber merchants to qualify for the bounty which was offered in 1771 by meeting the specification that staves must be two inches thick along the thin- nest edge.18
To protect timber fit for the use of the British navy, Governor James Murray of Quebec appointed in 1766 Francis Mckay as Surveyor of the Woods in Quebec and as "far as Niagara and Crown Point."19 Mckay found the timber resources of the valley abundant. He reported in 1768 that he had marked in the La- moille River Valley five hundred red pine and cypress and one hundred white pine with the Broad Arrow.
The lawlessness of which Wentworth complained in the Con- necticut Valley, was present also in the Champlain Valley.2º The inspector appointed by Quebec more than once battled timber thieves, many of whom were not apprehended because, when Wentworth appointed his own inspector for the valley, he in- structed him not to seize timber but only to obtain information "what trees are cut and destroyed, when where by whom under what authority to whom sold by whom and in what ship exported and to what place with any other Circumstances and Proof you can collect." 21
16. Innis, Mary Q., An Economic History of Canada (Toronto, 1935), 66-67; Lower, A. R. M., "The Forest in New France," Report of the Canadian Ilistorical Association, 1928, 78-90.
17. Q, VII. 87-S9.
18. Q, VIII, 84-86; C. O. 42, V. 236-237. 19. S, XIII, 55.
20. Quebec Gazette, May 12, 1768; P. A. C., Shelburne Papers, LVII, 693-696.
32
THE COMING OF THE ALLENS
-
The trials of the inspectors are well illustrated by a memorial presented to Governor Carleton of Quebec on July 31, 1767. Mc- Kay had entered into an agreement with a London firm to furnish masts. He procured two hundred yellow pine masts in the Cham- plain Valley and brought them, at the cost of much labor and expense, to Wolfe's Cove at Quebec to be squared and prepared for shipment. He related that his journey had been interrupted by attacks of one Benjamin Price, Daniel Robertson and others, who alleged that the masts had been cut on their property.22
The commercial activities in the Champlain Valley stimulated the inhabitants there and elsewhere to improve the natural routes for trade with the Province of Quebec by the building of roads. These projects fitted into a larger scheme which was proposed to provide a direct and convenient route from the New England sea- board and the Province of New York to Quebec. In the spring of 1769 the Quebec Gazette announced the opening of a road from Skenesborough to the Albany Road near Fort Edward on the Hud- son, and reported that "new bridges are thrown over the Rivers and Creeks in this Road, so as to render it a very safe, easy and convenient Way for Traveling to and from Canada." At Skenes- borough, connection could be made with a Packet-boat which every fortnight made a trip to and from St. Johns on the Riche- lieu.23 By 1774, mails were collected in Montreal every Monday, to be forwarded every Wednesday evening to the Champlain Val- ley and Albany. "For the convenience of all persons who may have concerns on Lake Champlain, or between the Lake and Albany," reported the Quebec Gazette on December 29, 1774, "an office is established at Crown Point, and another at Fort Edward."
An attempt to connect the Grants more closely with Quebec was made in 1770. Samuel Sleeper of Newbury in Gloucester County petitioned Quebec for financial aid to cut a road from Gloucester County to the Lamoille River which empties into Lake Champlain. The situation of Gloucester and the other counties, said Sleeper, made it very arduous and expensive to secure sup-
21. New Hampshire Historical Society, Wentworth Transcripts, Wentworth to John Loring, Jr., July 10, 1767.
22. S. XIII, 53.
23. Quebec Gazette, April 6, 1769.
33
THE COMING OF THE ALLENS
plies in southeastern New England and in New York and very impractical for the settlers to send their products to any but the Quebec market because they were so bulky. "Quebec by nature," he said, "is the Port of Exportation for the produce of the exten- sive settlements above named, and their supplies of Salt, Rum, and all West India commodities, and British manufactures must come from this Province; and as the Inhabitants in those new counties increase in an amazing degree, it may appear very ob- vious to every person, that a communication as above narrated, would tend greatly to the advantage of this Colony as it would have the immediate supplying of the different Counties already mentioned." 24
This petition was favorably received by the merchants of Que- bec because they recognized the benefits of such a road to their commercial interests. Since 1763 these merchants had attained a large measure of prosperity by taking advantage of the commer- cial opportunities afforded by the vast watershed of the St. Law- rence. It made tributary to Montreal and Quebec a great portion of the interior of the continent. The geographic advantages which the French had enjoyed were enhanced after the conquest by the advantages which British traders had always enjoyed in com- manding low cost manufactures. These traders also reaped great benefit by employing French Canadian trappers who were wise in the ways of the Indians and the beaver. After 1763, all of these enabled Montreal to eclipse even further the fur trade based on the Hudson.25 As a result, the beaver trade of much of the interior centered, as had been anticipated, in Montreal. Montreal was the heart of "the Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence."26
The arrival of settlers upon that part of the New England fron- tier lying within or adjacent to the St. Lawrence watershed promised to provide Canadian merchants with a prosperous trade in lumber and farm products, both of which would supplement the already firmly established trade in furs. On November 10, 1770, Sleeper's petition was read in the Council Chamber in
24. Q, VIII, 15-17.
25. See the superb study by Donald G. Creighton, The Commercial Empire of the. St. Lawrence, 1760-1850 (New Haven, 1937), 1-55.
26. Ibid., 7, 11.
-------
--
34
THE COMING OF THE ALLENS
Quebec. The Council decided that it could not legally grant provincial funds for the building of a road outside the province; but it agreed, inasmuch as it might be very beneficial to Canadian trade, to set on foot a subscription to help build that part of the road lying south of the boundary between Quebec and New York.27 The Council's refusal to subscribe public funds was com- mended by Hillsborough who declared that, though the building of roads was very desirable, the funds to be used to build them outside the province must be privately subscribed.28 During the next two months, Canadian merchants responded by contributing about 60£. The road, however, was indefinitely delayed after Sleeper succumbed to smallpox during the winter of 1770-1771.29
The third pre-revolutionary attempt to tie the Grants to Que- bec was made by Jacob Bayley, another but more prominent settler of Newbury. He proposed to cut a road from the Coos . Country of the upper Connecticut Valley to Quebec. Like the Sleeper proposal, Bayley's was still-born.30 But an attempt to connect Skenesborough with Boston by road was successful. On March 8, 1770, the Quebec Gazette reported the opening of a road fit for sleighs and ready for carriages the following spring.
Thus before the Revolution, the rough outlines of the trans- portation routes connecting Quebec and the middle and New England colonies had been sketched; the trade in timber, dry goods and groceries was growing. Clearly, the inhabitants of the valley, during the short time at their disposal before the outbreak of the Revolution, were benefitting from the British occupation of the St. Lawrence. Whether Quebec was under British or French rule, whether the valley was occupied by Indians, French habit- ants or their Yankee equivalents, none ignored the commercial opportunities afforded by geography. It encouraged the settler to trade with Quebec rather than with New York. The geography of the valley, as well as the dispute over land titles, helps to ex- plain the hostile attitude of the Allens, and many other inhabit- ants of the Grants, toward New York.
27. Q, VIII, 12-13.
28. Ibid., 20-21.
29. Ibid., 9-11.
30. V. H. S., Manuscript Collections, Bayley to John Mckesson, Sept. 22, 1772.
CHAPTER FOUR
1774513 Backcountry Versus Seaboard
"Laws and society-compacts were originally designed," declared Ethan Allen, "to protect the subjects in their property."1 The corollary of this doctrine is the right of revolution if property rights are violated. The Allens' appeal to the right of revolution helped them to achieve the leadership of those forces which had already defied New York's authority by rioting.and closing courts. Like so many other patriots who joined the Revolution, they had grown up in a society which believed in liberty and was begin- ning to believe in equality. These beliefs helped prepare the way for conflict not only between the colonies and Great Britain, but also within the colonies. The revolutionary ferment of the times provided the Allens with the political opportunities for which they had been groping. It appears quite clear that there was a distinct correlation between the political democracy which they championed and their more immediate economic objectives.
The foundation of the Allens' resistance to New York was their rejection of New York's interpretation of the Privy Council deci- sion of 1764. They maintained that this decision transferred juris- diction over the Grants from New Hampshire to New York rather than reaffirmed New York's original jurisdiction as granted by the Royal Charter of 1664. They admitted that New Hampshire titles would be null and void if New York had been legally empowered to grant these lands after 1664. If the soundness of the Privy Council decision be granted, it is easy to understand why the Allens were forced to deny all authority exercised by New York and to resort to insurrection in order to protect what they claimed were their rights. Ethan eschewed the legal issues involved. One settler reported that Ethan "swore by himself that the man who should presume to make use of Law-Logick should be cut off from among his People." ?
1. Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont, I, 512.
2. New York State Library, Stevens Miscellaneous, Stephen Jacob to Ezra Stiles, July 7.1780.
-
-
36
BACKCOUNRTY VERSUS SEABOARD
To force acceptance of his interpretation that the decision of 1764 transferred jurisdiction from New Hampshire to New York, Ethan organized a band of insurrectionists known as the Green Mountain Boys. In later years, historians have tended to minimize the violence of their exploits by calling attention to the fact that the band was responsible for surprisingly little bloodshed. One cannot help believing that the leader capitalized on his bluster, swagger and oaths in order to bring settlers to the support of the Onion River Land Company. In this he was successful. He emerged as the one member of the family group capable of capturing the imagination of settlers who were dissatisfied with Yorker control.
His band made its debut in 1772, spreading consternation among Yorkers in the Grants. "One Ethan Allen hath brought from Connecticut," wrote Benjamin Spencer to James Duane, a prominent absentee owner of lands in the Grants, "twelve or fifteen of the most Blackguard Fellows he can get. Double armed in order to protect him and if some method is not taken to subdue the towns of Bennington, Shaftsbury, Arlington, Manchester and those people in Socialborough and others scattered about the woods there as good be an end of government." 3
In the beginning, the purpose of the Allens was to intimidate New York into making substantial concessions to them and other inhabitants of the Grants. They were determined to secure con- firmation of the New Hampshire titles by New York without ex- penditure on their part, or to make it so unpleasant for all Yorkers that New York would be forced to recognize their titles. In pur- suit of this aim, the band descended upon agents of New York speculators and upon settlers on New York grants. A barn was pulled down, and Yorkers were whipped and driven into the woods. Popular hostility to Yorkers was fanned to a white heat.
Nevertheless, these activities failed to achieve their purpose. New York was never willing to meet the minimum demands of the Allens, because the colony did not recognize the legality of their land titles. New York made a proposal in the early seventies to quiet the inhabitants; but the Allens rejected it. They refused to abide by an agreement made in 1772 by Grants settlers and
3. V. H. S., Jones Photostats, Benjamin Spencer to James Duane, April 11, 1772.
37
BACKCOUNTRY VERSUS SEABOARD
New York authorities to maintain the status quo. In June of that year, Stephen and Jonas Fay, two early leaders of the land specu- lators of the Southwest, agreed that in return for New York's suspending all suits and criminal prosecutions until the King made known his pleasure, they would vouch for the good be- havior of the inhabitants of the Grants. Here was a sensible attempt upon the part of the two warring factions to suspend hostilities until clarifying instructions should arrive from Great Britain. Before the Fays left New York, the Allens, thriving on political chaos, broke the truce by driving some Yorkers from their lands on Otter Creek.4
The increased resistance to New York after the coming of the Allens to the Grants did not escape the attention of the govern- ment of New York. Heretofore the resistance of the speculators had been carried on largely by tavern and drawing room argu- mentation, and by political wire-pulling on both sides of the At- lantic. Upheavals in the Grants had resulted largely from the settlers' hostility to the Broad Arrow or to the New York Courts. The Allens in their resistance to New York employed the same tactics to protect their land which had been used by the settlers who had revolted against the New York Courts.
.
As Governor Tryon of New York and his Council were increas- ingly alarmed by the Allens' leadership, they sought means of destroying their influence. Backcountry resistance to the seaboard had been broken by the use of troops before, notably during Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia in 1676 and the Regulators' War in North Carolina in 1771. Governor Tryon, who had quelled the frontier rebellion in North Carolina, faced a similar situation after he became Governor of New York; but he was never able to deal in the same way with the insurrection in the Grants. A short while before the truce of 1772, William Smith had advised sending troops; but Tryon and the other members of the Council over- ruled him.5 Instead, Tryon entered into the truce with the Fays. Not until the truce was broken by the Allens did Tryon see the need to use force.
4. Jones, Vermont in the Making, 300-304.
5. N. Y. P. L., Smith Diary, Oct. 21, 1772.
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38
BACKCOUNTRY VERSUS SEABOARD
Shortly thereafter, he wrote Lord Dartmouth, at this time Sec- retary of State for the Colonies, requesting permission to send troops to the Grants to quell the rioters. Dartmouth refused Tryon's request. He commended him for not having used force without his permission because "His Majesty would have dis- approved such conduct." William Smith was shocked by Dart- mouth's reply. "This is a fatal Blunder of this Minister," he re- corded in his diary, "for the New Hampshire claim's will crowd the Lands to the subversion of our Titles, while at the same time, the Jurisdiction of this Province [is] a meer Idea and the Country re- mains in a worse state than if subjected to New Hampshire."6 The last pre-Revolutionary request to use force was denied in Sep- tember, 1774, when General Gage refused Tryon's second request for troops-"which puts an end," said Smith, "to the intention of forcing Peace in that Quarter."7
New York failed not only to enforce its authority in the Grants, but also to put into effect a proposal by Smith and Tryon which was designed to end the land title dispute. Smith suggested that substantial justice might be done to both parties by New York's. abandoning the collection of quitrents, confirming New Hamp- shire titles where claimed by actual settlers and indemnifying speculators in New Hampshire titles with lands not yet granted in the Province of New York.8 In 1773, on behalf of the British government, Lord Dartmouth made a proposal to solve the dis- pute by vacating all patents on which the stated conditions for settlement had not been fulfilled and by appointing a commission composed of men from the other colonies to arbitrate the con- flicting claims. In order to forestall this intervention of the British government in a manner threatening to the interests of Yorker speculators, Smith composed a letter of protest to Dartmouth which Tryon signed. "I shall only add myself," wrote Smith, "that scarce any Measure can raise a more general Disgust, in this Colony, than a Law to vacate Patents for nonsettlement. . . . " The "dread of a Precedent of this kind," he said, "will unite all the
6. Ibid., Dec. 29, 1773.
7. Ibid., Sept. 29, 1774.
8. N.Y.P.L., Smith Papers, Smith to Carlisle, no date; Smith Diary, 1772-1778, passim.
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