HISTORY OF VERMONT. 249 



ing them to receive the banished and make 

 restitution to criminals of the property which 

 had been taken from them by due course of 

 law, for their crimes against the laws and au- 

 thority of the state : They were reminded that 

 they w*ere pursuing the same measures against 

 Vermont, which Britain had used against the 

 American colonies, and which it had been judg- 

 ed necessary to oppose at every risk and hazard : 

 That their proceedings tended to make the lib- 

 erty and natural rights of mankind a mere bub- 

 ble, and the sport of state politicians : That it 

 was of no importance to America to pull down 

 arbitrary power in one form, that they might es- 

 tablish it in another : That the inhabitants of 

 Vermont had lived in a state of independence 

 from the first settlement of the country, and 

 could not now submit to be resolved out of it 

 by the influence which New York, their old ad- 

 versary, had in Congress ^ That they were ia 

 ifull possession of freedom, and would remairi 

 independent, notwithstanding all the power and 

 artifice of New York : That they had no con- 

 troversy with the United States, complexly con- 

 sidered ; but were at all times ready and able 

 to vindicate their rights and liberties, against 

 the usurpations of the state of New York. ,r 

 With regard to that part of the resolves^ 

 which declared " the proceedings of Vermont 

 to be derogatory to the authority of the United 

 States, and dangerous to the confederacy, and 

 such as required the immediate interposition of 

 Congress to relieve the sufferers, and preserve 

 peace," they answer, that it appears like a para-, 

 dox to assert that the exercise of civil law in 

 voL» II G 2 



