HISTORY OF VERMONT. 2X 



N 



©rty than what hard labor and hard living had 

 procured, destitute of the conveniences and el= 

 egances of life, and having nothing to soften 

 or refine their manners ; roughness, excess, 

 and violence, would naturally mark their pro- 

 ceedings. To deny such people justice, was to 

 prejudice and arm them against it, to confirm 

 all their suspicions and prejudices against their 

 rulers, and to give them an excuse and plea to 

 proceed to outrage and violence. When the 

 government of New York, gave to their pro- 

 ceedings, the names of mobs and riots, abuse 

 and outrage to their officers, it is probable the 

 expressions conveyed pretty just ideas, of the 

 appearance of their conduct, and opposition to^ 

 the laws. But when they called their opposi- 

 tion, felony, treason, and rebellion against law- 

 ful authority, the people of the adjacent pro- 

 vinces, seem to huve believed, that the govern- 

 ment of New York was much more blaiijable, 

 in making and executing such lavvs, as called 

 their titles to their lands in question, than the 

 settlers were, in acting in open and avowed op- 

 position to them. 



In this scene of violence, and opposition ta 

 the proceedings of New- York, Ethan Allen 

 placed himself at the head of the opposition. 

 Bold, enterprising, ambitious, with great con- 

 fidence in his own abilities, he undertook to 

 direct the proceedings of the inhabitants. He 

 wrote and dispersed several pamphlets to dis- 

 play the injustice, and designs, of the New 

 York proceedings : And so oppressive were 

 those measures, that although Allen was a very, 

 indiiferent writer, his pamphlets were much^ 



