58 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part II. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE VERMONT LEGISLATURE. 



VERMONT S APPEAL. 



ina; remained for her, but to go onward 

 with firmness and resolution ; and happy 

 was it for her that she possessed states- 

 men endowed with courage and abilities 

 suited to the exigency of her condition ; 

 statesmen who well understood the rights 

 and interests of the community, and were 

 determined that they should not be sacri- 

 ficed by the neighboring states, or by the 

 policy of Congress. 



The foregoing resolutions of Congress 

 had been communicated by express to the 

 Legi.slature of Vermont, then in session 

 at Manchester ; and, on the 16th of Octo- 

 ber, Ethan Allen, Reuben Jones, N. Clark 

 ' and Jonathan Fassett were appointed a 

 committee to report a plan of " defence 

 against the neighboring states, in conse- 

 quence of the late acts of Congress." On 

 the 1 9th, the General Assembly went into 

 committee of the whole on the state of 

 the country, and on the 21st made a re- 

 port, which was unanimously adopted, in 

 which they assert tlieir right and deter- 

 mination to maintain the independence of 

 Vermont, and recommend to the Assem- 

 bly to make grants of the unappropriated 

 lands of the state for the benefit of the 

 same. On the next day, it was resolved 

 that Ethan Allen, Jonas Fay, Paul Spoon- 

 er, Stephen II. Bradley and Moses Robin- 

 son be appointed agents on behalf of the 

 state, to attend the deliberations of Con- 

 gress in February for the purpose of vin- 

 dicating the independence of Vermont, 

 and negotiating for her admission into the 

 Union.* 



On the 28th of October, Governor Chit- 

 tenden, by direction of the Council and 

 General Assembly, wrote to the president 

 of the Council of Massachusetts, inform- 

 ing him that he had been made acquaint- 

 ed with the proceedings of Congress on 

 the 24th of September, and that those 

 proceedings contained the first intimation, 

 which he had received, of the claims of 

 that state over a part of Vermont. In 

 this letter, which v.\is forwarded by Gen. 

 Ethan Allen, Gov. Chittenden vindicates 

 the rights of the people of Vermont to 

 liberty and independence, and expresses 

 a determination, on his part, "to bring 

 about an equitable accommodation of all 

 differences, agreeable to the strict rules 

 of justice and equity." t 



On the 10th day of December, 1779, 

 the governor and council of Vermont, in 

 reference to the foregoing resolutions of 

 Congress, published an appeal to the can- 



* For these proceedings see Siade's Vermont State 

 Papers, page 113. 



t For this Letter see Siade's Vt. State Papers 

 page 114. 



did and impartial world,* in which they 

 declared that 'they could not view them- 

 relves as holden, either in the sight of 

 God, or man, to submit to the execution 

 of a plan, which they had reason to be- 

 lieve was commenced by neigliboring 

 states ; that the liberties and privileges 

 of the state of Vermont, by said resolu- 

 tions, are to be suspended upon the arbi- 

 trament and final determination of Con- 

 gress, when, in their opinion, they were 

 tilings too sacred ever to be arbitrated 

 upon at all ; and what they were bound 

 to defend at every risk : that Congress 

 had no right to intermeddle in the inter- 

 na] policy and government of Vermont ; 

 — that the state existed independent of 

 any of the thirteen United State's,— and 

 was not accountable to them, or to their 

 representatives, for. liberty, the gift of the 

 benevolent Creator ; — 



That the state of V^ermont was not rep- 

 resented in Congress, and could not sub- 

 mit to resolutions passed without their 

 consent, or even knowledge, and which 

 put every thing that was valuable to them 

 at stake; — that there appeared a manifest 

 inequality, not to say predetermination, 

 that Congress should request of their con- 

 stituents power to judge and determine in 

 the cause, and never ask the consent of 

 the thousands whose all was at stake. 

 The}^ also declared tliat they were, and 

 ever had been, read}'^ to bear their ])ropor- 

 tion of the burden and expense of the war- 

 with Great Britain from its commence- 

 ment, whenever they were admitted into 

 the union with the other states. But 

 they were not so lost to all sense and 

 honor, that, after four years of war with 

 Great Britain, in which tliey had expend- 

 ed so much blood and treasure, they 

 should now give up every thing worth 

 fighting for, — the right of making tiieir 

 own laws, and choosing their own form 

 of government, — to the arbitrament and 

 determination of any man, or body of men, 

 under heaven.' 



Congress, as already noticed, had ap- 

 pointed the first day of February, 1780, 

 for considering and determining the mat- 

 ters in question ; but, contrary to the 

 wishes and expectations of all the parties, 

 the subject was not called up. Congress, 

 however, ordered, on the 21 st of March, 

 that, as there were not nine states repre- 

 sented in that body, exclusive of the par- 

 ties concerned, the matters should be, for 

 the present, postponed, but on the 2d of 

 June, resumed the consideration of it. 



* This Appeal was written by the Hon. Stephen 

 K. Bradley, and published in a pamplilet, a copy of 

 which is in the possession of the Hon. Ira H. Al- 

 len, of Irasburgb. 



