USA > Vermont > Vermont state papers; being a collection of records and documents, connected with the assumption and establishment of government by the people of Vermont; together with the first constitution, and the laws from the year 1779 to 1786, etc > Part 7
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: 4. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if such persons so unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled, or any three or more of them, after proclamation made in mamer aforesaid, shall con- tinue together, and not forthwith disperse themselves, it shall and may be lawful to and for every such justice of the peace, sheriff, under sheriff, coroner, or constable, of any county or township where such assembly shall be ; and to and for such person or persons as shall be com- manded to be assisting unto such justice of the peace, sheriff, under sheriff, coroner, or constable, (who are hereby authorised and im- powered to command all his Majesty's subjects of age and ability, to be aiding and assisting to them therein ;) to seize and apprehend, and they are hereby required to seize and apprehend such persons so unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together, after proclamation made as aforesaid, and forthwith to carry the persons so apprehended, before any one or more of his Majesty's justices of the peace of the said counties of Charlotte or Albany, in order to their being proceeded against for such, their offences according to law.
And that, if the persons so unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously as- sembled, or any of them, shall happen to be killed, maimed, or hurt, in
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the dispersing, seizing or apprehending them, by reason of their resisting the persons so dispersing, seizing, or apprehending, or endeavouring to disperse, seize, or apprehend them ; that then, every such justice of the peace, sheriff, under sheriff, coroner or constable, and all and singular persons aiding and assisting to them, or any of them, shall be freed, dis- charged, and indemnified, as well against the King's Majesty, his heirs and successors, as against all and every other person or persons, of, for, .or concerning the killing, maiming, or hurting of any such person or per- sons, so unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled, that shall happen to be so killed, maimed, or hurt as sforesaid.
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. 5. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That, if any person or persons, within the said counties, or either of them, not being lawfully authorized a judge, justice, or magistrate, shall assume judicial power, or shall try, fine, sentence or condemn any person who shall either be absent, or shall unlawfully or forcibly be seized, taken, or broughit be- fore him or them, for trial or punishment ; or if any person or persons shall aid or assist in such illegal proceedings, or shall enforce, execute or carry the same into effect ; or if any person or persons shall, unlawfully, seize, detain, or confine, or assault and beat any magistrate or civil offi- cer, for, or in the respect of any act or proceeding in the due exercise of his function, or in order to compel him to resign, renounce, or surcease his commission or authority, or to terrify, hinder, or prevent him from performing and discharging the duties thereof ; or if any person or per- sons, either sccretly or openly, shall, unlawfully, wilfully and maliciously, burn or destroy the grain, corn or hay, of any other person, being in any inclosure ; or if any persons, unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously as- sembled together, to the disturbance of the public peace, shall, unlawfully, and with force, demolish or pull down, or begin to demolish or pull down, any dwelling-house, barn, stable, grist-mill, saw-mill, or out-house, with- in either of the said counties ; that then, each of the said offences, re- spectively, shall be adjudged felony, without benefit of clergy ; and the offenders therein shall be adjudged felons, and shall suffer death, as in cases of felony without benefit of clergy.
6. And whereas complaint and proofs have been made, as well before his Excellency the Governor in Council, as before the General As- sembly, That Ethan Allen, some time of Salisbury, in the colony of Con- necticut, but late of Bennington, in the county of Albany, yeoman ; Seth Warner, late of Bennington, in the said county, yeoman ; Remember Baker,late of Arlington, in the said county, yeoman ; Robert Cochran, late of Ruport, in the county of Charlotte, yeoman ; Peleg Sunderland and Silvanus Brown, late of Socialborough, in the same county, yeoman; James Brackenridge, late of Wallumschack, in the county of Albany, yeoman ; and John Smith, late of Socialborough, yeoman ; have been principal ring-leaders of, and actors in, the riots and disturbances afore- said ; and the general assembly have, thereupon, addressed his Excel- lency the Governor, to issue a proclamation offering certain rewards for apprehending and securing the said offenders, and for bringing them and the other perpetrators and authors of the riots to justice : And forasmuch as such disorderly practices are highly criminal and destructive to the
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peace and settlement of the country, and it is indispensably necessary for want of process to outlawry (which is not used in this colony ) that special provision be made for bringing such offenders, in future, to idial and punishment, without exposing the colony to the expence of extraor- dinary rewards and bounties for apprehending such offenders.
Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful to, and for, his Excellency the Governor, or the Governor and Commander in Chief, for the time being, by, and with, the advice of the council, as often as either of the above named persons, or any other per- son, shall be indicted in either of the counties aforesaid, for any offence perpetrated after the passing of this act, made capital by this or any other law, or where any person may stand indicted for any of the offences above mentioned, not made felony by this act, to make his order in council, thereby requiring and commanding such offender or offenders to surrender themselves, respectively, within the space of se- venty days next after the first publication thereof, in the New- York Gazette, and Weekly Mercury, to one of his Majesty's justices of the peace, for either of the said counties respectively, who are hereby requir- ed, thereupon, to commit him or them, without bail or mainprize, to the goal of the City of New-York, or of the City and County, of Aitany, to the end that he or they may be forth-coming to answer the offence or offences, wherewith he or they shall stand charged, according to the or- dinary course of the law ; which order the clerk of his Majesty's Coun- cil, or his deputy, shall cause, forthwith, to be printed and published, in eight successive papers, of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury; the two first of which to be, forthwith, transmitted to the sheriff's of the counties of Albany and Charlotte ; and the said sheriffs, respectively, shall, within six days after the receipt thereof, cause the same printed or- ders to be affixed upon the door of the court house of the county of Al- bany, and upon the door of the dwell-house of Patrick Smith, Esq., where the courts" are now usually held for the said county of Charlotte, and upon the doors of two other public-houses in each of their respective counties. And in case the said offenders shall not respectively surrender themselves, pursuant to such orders of his Excellency the Governor, or of the Governor and Commander in Chief, for the time being, to be made in council as aforesaid ; he or they, so neglecting or refusing to surrender himself or themselves as aforesaid, shall, from the day to be appointed for his or their surrendry as aforesaid, be adjudged, deemed, and (if in- dicted for a capital offence hereafter to be perpetrated) to be convicted and attainted of felony, and shall suffer death, as in cases of persons con- victed and attainted of felony, by verdict and judgment, without benefit of clergy ; and that it shall and may be lawful to and for the supreme court of judicature of this colony, or the courts of oyer and terminer, or general goal delivery, for the respective counties aforesaid, to award ex- ecution against such offend .. or offenders, so indicted for a capital offence perpetrated after the passing of this act, in such manner as if he or they had been convicted or attainted in the said supreme courts of judicature, or before such courts of oyer and terminer, or general goal delivery re- spectively. And if any offender, being indicted for a lesser offence, under
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the degree of felony, shall not surrender himself within the time fixed by such'order, and after such notice aforesaid, he shall thenceforth be deem- ed guilty of the offence for which he may be charged by such indictment ; and it shall be lawful for the court wherein such indictment is found, to proceed to pronounce such judgment against the offender, as might lawfully be done if he was present in court, and convicted in the ordinary course of the law, of the crime wherewith he shall so stand charged as aforesaid. Provided always,
-7. And be it further enacted by the same authority aforesaid, That, if any person, so neglecting to surrender himself as aforesaid, within the said seventy days, shall, at any time after, surrender himself to the sheriff of the City of New-York or Albany, or of the counties of Dutchess or West-Chester, (who are to receive, and safely keep such offenders ) and being actually in custody, shall exhibit reasonable proof, to the satisfact- ion of the judges of the supreme court of this colony, or either of them, that he was not within either of the said counties of Albany or Charlotte, or within either of the counties of Cumberland or Gloucester, at any time after the publication and notices above directed, and before such surren- der of himself as aforesaid ; then such judge before whom such proof is made, shall, forthwith, notify the same in writing, to the sheriff to whom any warrant of execution for the executing such offender, or any other process for any lesser punishment hath been, or may be issued ; and thenceforth such prisoner or offender shall not be liable to suffer death or any other punishment for not surrendering himself-Provided also, that no- thing in this act contained shall be construed to exempt any offender, so surrendering himself after the seventy days as aforesaid, from any punish- ment to which he may be liable for any other crime than for not surren- dering himself within the seventy days as aforesaid ; nor to deprive any person who shall so surrender himself within the seventy days, from being bailed, in cases where he shall be bailable by law ; any thing herein contained to the contrary thereof, in any wise, nothwithstanding.
8. And be it further enacted by the same authority aforesaid, That, all and every person and persons who shall, after the expiration of the time to be appointed, as aforesaid, for the surrender of the respective offenders herein before named, harbour, receive, conceal, abet, or succour such offender, or offenders, knowing him or them to have been required to surrender him or themselves by such order or orders as aforesaid, and not to have surrendered pursuant thereto, shall, upon conviction thereof, in due form of law, suffer the same pains and penalties as are, by this act, inflicted on those who shall continue together to the number of three or more, after they shall be commanded to depart to their habitation or law- ful business, by proclamation as aforesaid.
.9. 'And whereas the said county of Charlotte, hath but lately been set off from the said county of Albany, and there is yet no goal or court-house erected within the same ; and a great part of the said county being in- volved in a state of anarchy . nd confusion, by reason of the violent pro- ceedings of the aforesaid riotous and disorderly people, from whence it must, at present, be extremely difficult, if not impracticable, to bring offenders to justice within the said county.
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CONTROVERSY WITH NEW-YORK;
4
Be it therefore further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all treasons, felonies, crimes, misdemeanors and offences whatsoever, at any time heretofore committed or perpetrated, or hereafter to be committed or perpetrated within the said county of Charlotte, shall and may be pro- ceeded against and presented by any grand jury for the county of Albany, from time to time, to be impanelled and sworn at any court of criminal jurisdiction to be held in and for the said county of Albany ; who shall and may charge any of the said offences to have been committed in any part of the said county of Charlotte ; and all indictments so found by them, shall be adjudged to be good and valid, notwithstanding that the place of perpetrating any of the said offences be in the said indictments alledged to be out of the said county of Albany ; and all such effences and offenders which shall be presented or indicted as aforesaid, shall and may be tried within the county of Albany, and by a jury thereof, and there heard, determined, and punished in the same manner and form as if such treason, felony, crime, misdemeanor or offence, had arisen and been perpetrated within the said county of Albany.
10. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That if, at any time hereafter, the justices to be appointed for holding courts of oyer and ter- miner, and general goal delivery, for the said county of Charlotte, in cases cognizable before them, or the justices of the general session of the peace for the said county of Charlotte, in cases cognizable before them, shall conceive that any prisoner or offender may be safely brought to jus- tice within, and by a jury of, the said county of Charlotte; that then, it shall and may be lawful to and for each of the said courts respectively, to proceed against, and try, such prisoner or offender, having lawful cog- nizance of his cause, within, and by a jury of, the said county of Char- lotte ; and him there to acquit or to sentence, condemn, and punish, as the law directs ; any thing in this act to the contrary thereof notwith- standing.,
11. And be it further enucted by the authority aforesaid, That this act shall be publickly read in every court of general sessions of the peace, to be held in each of the said counties of Albany and Charlotte re- spectively.
12. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this act shall remain and continue in full force and effect, from the passing thereof, until the first day of January, which will be in the' year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six."
With the passage of this law, terminated every prospect of peace, or submission to the claims of New-York. The New-Ilampshire grantees " ·regarded it as originating, solely, in the avarice of a set of speculators, , who coveted their lands with their valuable improvements ; and as de- signed to terrify them into submission. They well knew that the great body of the people of New York felt no interest in enforcing the claims involved in this controversy. On the contrary, the popular sentiment was favorable to the rights of the settlers ; and former experience had
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proved that the militia of that colony could not be brought"to act against them, with any effect.
Under such circumstances, the threatenings of that government, so far from inspiring terror, were regarded with utter contempt ; and instead of palsying, nerved the arm of resistance. Indeed, the idea of submission seems never, for a moment, to have occupied the attention of the hand- ful of brave men against whom these measures were directed. Educated in the school of adversity, and inured to hardship and danger, they met, and sustained the shock, with a firm, unbroken spirit.
The following remonstrance, signed by Ethan Allen and others, pre- sents, it is believed, a fair specimen of the views and feelings of the great. body of the New-Hampshire grantees, at this trying period.
"His Excellency, Governor Tryon, in conformity to the addresses of the general assembly of the colony of New-York, having, on the 9th day of March, 1774, with the advice of his Council, issued his proclamation,' offering, therein, large sums of money for the purpose of apprehending and imprisoning the following persons, viz. Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Remember Baker, Robert Cochran, Peleg Sunderland, Silvanus Brown, James Brackenridge, and James Smith.
:"And whereas his Excellency the Governor, by the same proclamation, hath, strictly, enjoined and commanded all magistrates, justices of the peace, sheriffs, and other civil officers of the counties of Albany and Charlotte, to be active and vigilant in appreliending and imprisoning the persons above-named ; and we, the aforesaid persons, who have here- unto subscribed, being conscious that our cause is good and equitable in the sight of GOD, and all unprejudiced and honest men, are determined, at all events, to maintain and defend the same, till his Majesty's pleasure shall be known concerning the validity of the New-Hampshire grants .- And we now proclaim to the public, not only for ourselves but for the New-Hampshire grantees, and occupants in general, that the spring, and moving cause, of our opposition to the government of New-York, was self- preservation, viz. Firstly, the preservation and maintaining of our pro- perty : and secondly, since that government is so incensed against us, therefore it stands us in hand to defend our lives ; for, it appears, by a late set of laws passed by the legislature thereof, that the lives and pro- perty of the New-Hampshire settlers are manifestly struck at ; but, that the public may righlty understand tlre essence of the controversy, we now proclaim to those law-givers, and to the world, that if the New-York patentees will remove their patents that have been, subsequently, laped anti laid on the New-Hampshire charters, and quiet us in our possessions, agreeable to his Majesty's directions, and suspend those criminal prose- cutions against us for being rioters (as we are unjustly denominated) then will our settlers be orderly a. 1 submissive subjects to government ; but, be it known to that despotic fraternity of law-makers and law breakers, that we will not be fooled or frighted out of our property. They have broke over his Majesty's express prohibitions, in patenting those lands, and when they act in conformity to the regal authority of Great-Britain,
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it will be soon enough for us to obey them. It is well known by all wise and sensible persons in the neighbouring governments, (that have ani- madverted on the controversy) that their pretended zeal for good order and government, is fallacious, and that they aim at the lands and labours · of the grantees and settlers aforesaid ; and that they subvert the good and wholesome laws of the realm, to corroborate with, and bring about their vile and mercenary purposes.
And, inasmuch as the, malignity of their disposition towards us, hath flamed to an immeasurable and murderous degree, they have, in their new-fangled laws, calculated, for the meridian of the New-Hampshire grants, passed the 9th of March, 1774, so calculated them, as to corres- pond with the depravedness of their minds and morals ;- in them laws, they have exhibited their genuine pictures. The emblems of their in- satiable, avaricious, overbearing, inhuman, barbarous, and blood-guilti- ness of disposition and intention is therein portraited in that transparent inage of themselves, which cannot fail to be a blot, and an infamous re- proach to them, to posterity .- We cannot suppose that every of his Majesty's Council, or that all the members of the general assembly were active in passing so bloody and unconstitutional a set of laws. Undoubt- edlý, some of them disapproved thereof ; and it is altogether possible, tliat many that were active in making the law, were imposed upon by false representations, and acted under mistaken views of doing honor to government ; but be this as it will, it appears that there was a majority. And it has been too much the case with that government, for a number of designing schemers, and land-jockeys, to rule the same. Let us take a view of their former narrow and circumbscribed boundaries, and how, that by legerdemain, bribery and deceptions of one sort or other, they have extended 'their domain, far and wide. They have wrangled with, and encroached on their neighbouring governments, and have used all manner of deceit and fraud to accomplish their designs : their tenants groan under their usul
usury and oppression ; and they have gained, as well as merited, the disapprobation and abhorence of their neighbours ; and the innocent blood they have already shed, calls for heaven's vengeance on their guilty leads; and if they should come forth in arms against us, thousands of their injured and dissatisfied neighbours in the several gov- érmments, will join with us, to cut off, and extirpated such an execrable race from the face of the earth !
+ This piece is not supposed to contain a full answer to the new con- structed laws aforesaid ; for such a large two year old, hath never before been seen in America, it being of an enormous and monstrous birth ; nor is it supposed to give the legislators their full characters : but so much inay suffice for the present. To quote the laws, and make remarks thereon, would be matter' sufficient for a volume : however, we will yet make some short observations.
1st. Negatively, it is not a law for the Province of New-York in general, but,
2d. Positively, it is a law but for part of the counties of Charlotte and Albany, viz. such parts thereof as are covered with the New-Hampshire charters ; and it is well known those grants compose but a minor part of
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the inhabitants of the said Province ; and we have no representative in that assembly. The first knowledge we had of said laws, was the com- pletion of them ; which informed us, that if we assembled, three or more of us together, to oppose (that which they call legal) authority, we shall be adjudged felons, and suffer . the pains of death ; and that same fra- ternity of plotters knew, as well as we, and the generalty of the people in the adjacent colonies, that they have, for a number of years last past, endeavored to exercise such a course of what they call law, that had they not been opposed by the people of these grants (called the MOB ) in the executing the same, they would, before this time, have been in possession of that territory, for which the laws aforesaid are calculated. Therefore the case stands thus : If we oppose civil officers, in taking possession of our farms, we are, by these laws, denominated felons ; or if we defend our neighbours who have been indicted rioters, only for defending our property ; we are likewise adjudged felons. In fine, every opposition to their monarchical government is deemed felony, and at the end of every such sentence, there is the word DEATH ! "And the same laws fur- ther impowered the respective judges, provided any persons, to the num- ber ofthree, or more, that shall oppose any Magistrate, or other civil offi- . cer, and be not taken, that after a legal warning of seventy days, if they do not come and yield themselves up to certain officers appointed for the purpose of securing them ; then it shall be lawful for the judges aforesaid, to award execution of DEATH, the same as though he or they had been con- victed or attainted before a proper court of judicature, &c. The candid reader will, doubtless, observe, that the diabolical design of this law, is to obtain possession of the New-Hampshire grants, or to make the people that defend thiem, out-laws, and so kill them whenever they can catch them.
Those bloody law-givers know we are necessitated to oppose their ex- ecution of law, where it points directly at our property, or give up the same : but there is one thing is matter of consolation to us, viz. that print- ' ed sentences of death will not kill us when we are at a distance ; and if the executioners approach us, they will be as likely to fall victims to deatlı as we : and that person, or country of persons, are cowards indeed, if they cannot, as manfully, fight for their liberty, property and life, as villains can do to deprive them thereof. «
The New-York schemers accuse us with many things; part of which are true, and part not .- With respect to rescuing prisoners for debt, it * * is false. As to assuming judicial powers, we have not, except a well-re- gulated combination of the people to defend their just rights, may be called so. As to forming ourselves into military order, and assuming military commands, the New-York possies, and military preparations, oppressions, &c. obliged us to it. Probably Messieurs Duane, Kemp, and Bauyar, of New-York, will not discommend us for so expedient a preparation ; more especially since the decrees of the 9th of March, are yet to be put in execution : and we flatter ourselves, upon occasion, we can muster as good a regiment of mark's-men and scalpers, as America can afford ; and we now give the gentlemen above-named, together with Mr. Brush, and Col. Ten Broeck, and in fine, all the land-jobbers of New-York, an invi-
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