Chap. 4. 



CIVIL POLICY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



49 



CONDITION OF THE N. H. GRANTS. 



CONVKNTION AT DORSET. 



mont made common cause with those of 

 other states, and we have therefore not 

 interrupted our account of the great 

 events of the revolution which transpired 

 upon our borders, by any account of our 

 internal policy. We shall, however, pro- 



ceed in the next chapter, to consider more 

 particularly the situation of Vermont, with 

 respect to her internal government, and 

 her relations to the neighboring states, and 

 to the British forces in Canada, durincr 

 the war for Independence. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CIVIL POLICY OF VERMONT DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



Section I. 



From the year 1775, to the Declaration of 

 the Independence of Vermont in 1777. 



Having completed our account of those 

 important events in the American war, in 

 which the people of Vermont were more 

 particularly concerned, we shall now turn 

 our attention to their internal policy, and 

 endeavor to trace the successive steps by 

 which the powers of government were 

 assumed, and their political fabric erect- 

 ed. The New Hampshire grants, having 

 never been recognized by the king as a 

 separate jurisdiction, and having ever re- 

 fused submission to the authority of New 

 York, were, at the commencement of the 

 revolution, nearly in a state of nature, be- 

 ing without any internal organization un- 

 der which the inhabitants could act with 

 system and effect. Their only rallying 

 point and bond of union, was their com- 

 mon interest in resisting the claims and 

 authority of New York. Yet the same 

 interests which drove tliem to resistance, 

 gave the effect of law to the recommen- 

 dations of their committees and the or- 

 ders of their councils of safety, while a 

 few bold and daring spirits, as if formed 

 for the very occasion, gave impulse, and 

 energy, and system to their operations. 



Thus situated were the inhabitants of 

 the New Hampshire grants, when the first 

 scene of the great drama of the revolution 

 was opened at Lexington, and, as all 

 lesser lights are swallowed up in the su- 

 perior sj)lendor of the sun, so were all the 

 minor controversies among the colonists 

 for a while absorbed in the more momen- 

 tous controversy with the mother coun- 

 try. But the partial relief now experi- 

 enced from tiie oppression of New York 

 served only to discover to the inhabitants 

 of the Grants the frailty of tiieir bond of 

 Ft. II. 7 



union, and to convince them of the neces- 

 sity of a better organization, both to ena- 

 ble them to maintain the grounds, which 

 they had assumed in relation to New 

 York, and to put it in their power to ren- 

 der efficient aid to their countrymen in 

 the contest Avith Great Britain. 



Accordingly, in the fall of the year 

 1775, several of tlie leading men in the 

 Grants, repaired to Philadelphia, where 

 the American Congress was then sitting, 

 to procure the advice of that body with 

 regard to the course proper to be pursued, 

 under e.xisting circumstances, by the in- 

 habitants of the Grants. Congress did 

 not act formally upon their request, but 

 on the return of these men to the Grants, 

 tliey spread circulars among the people, 

 setting forth as the opinion of several in- 

 fluential members of that body, that the 

 inhabitants should immediately form a 

 temporary association and adopt such 

 regulations as were rerjuired by the ex- 

 igencies of their situation. 



A convention of delegates from the sev- 

 eral towns was accordingly assembled at 

 Dorset, on tlie Kith of January, 1776. 

 This convention forwarded a petition and ■ 

 address to Congress,* in which, after giv- 

 ing a brief sketch of the controversy with 

 New York, they avowed their unwaver- 

 ing attachment to the cause in which the 

 colonies had unsheathed the sword, and 

 expressed their willingness to bear their 

 full proportion of the burden of prosecu- 

 ting the war. But at the same time, they 

 declared their unwillingness to be consid- 

 ered as in any manner subject to the au- 

 thority, or jurisdiction of New York, or 

 to be called upon, when their services 



*For this petilidn nntl the resolutions of Congre.<;s 

 respectinsr^il, see Slade's State Papers, pn^i^s 0,3 

 and 64. The persons appoinied to present tliis pe- 

 tition, were James Breckenridgc, Heman Alien and 

 Joniis Fay. 



