Chap. 4. 



CIVIL POLICY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



59 



AGENTS SENT TO CONGRESS 



REMONSTRANCE OF THE AGENTS. 



and among other things, resolved " that 

 the proceedings of the people on the New 

 Hampshire grants, were higlily unwar- 

 rantable and subversive of the peace and 

 welfare of the United States, and that 

 they be strictly required to abstain from 

 all acts of authority, civil or military, over 

 those inhabitants who profess allegiance 

 to other states." The subject was again 

 called up on the 9th of June, and the fur- 

 ther consideration of it postponed to the 

 second Tuesday of September following.* 



The foregoing resolutions and proceed- 

 ings of Congress were communicated to 

 Governor Chittenden, who laid the same 

 before his council; and on the 25th of 

 July, they replied, in a communication 

 addressed to the president of Congress, 

 that " however Congress may view those 

 resolutions, they are considered by the 

 people of this state, as being in their na- 

 ture subversive of the natural rights 

 which they had to liberty and indepen- 

 dence, as well as incompatible with the 

 principles on which Congress grounded 

 their own riglit to ijidependence, and 

 had a natural and direct tendency to en- 

 danger the liberties of America ; that- Ver- 

 mont, being a free and independent state, 

 had denied the authority of Congress to 

 judge of tlieir jurisdiction ; — 



That as they were not included in the 

 thirteen United States, if necessitated to 

 it, they were at liberty to offer or accejit 

 terms of cessation of hostilities with Great 

 Britain, without the approbation of any 

 other man, or body of nien." And they 

 further declared that if Congress and tJie 

 neighboring states persisted m the course 

 they were pursuino-, they could have no 

 motives to continue hostilities with Great 

 Britain, and maintain an important fron- 

 tier for the benefit of a country which 

 treated them as slaves. Yet, notwith- 

 standing the injustice done them, they 

 were induced, by their attuchment to the 

 cause of liberty, once more to offer union 

 with the United Slates, of which Congress 

 "were tiie legal representative body."t 



All parties now anxiously awaited the 

 decision of Congress on the second Tues- 

 day of Septemlier, and, although Vermont 

 denied the autliority of Congress to de- 

 termine the matter, she judged it prudent 

 , to employ Ira Allen and Stephen R. Brad- 

 ley as her agents, to attend the delibera- 

 tions upon the subject. On the M!th of 

 September,! Congress took up the subject 

 of the controversy, and the agents from 

 Vermont were permitted to be present, 



* For these proceedings see Slade's State Tapers, 

 page IJf). 



t For this communication see Slade's State Papersj 

 page IJB. I Ibid, page J22. 



but not as the representatives of any 

 state, or of a people invested with legis- 

 lative authority. New Hampshire and 

 New York now urged, and endeavored to 

 prove, their respective claims to the dis- 

 puted territory, and it soon became evi- 

 dent to the agents that Congress did not 

 regard Vermont as a party in the contro- 

 versy, but that, in attempting to decide 

 tlie dispute between New Hampshire and 

 New York, site was adjudicating upon 

 tlie very existence of Vermont without 

 her consent. 



Alarmed and indignant at these pro- 

 ceedings, the agents withdrew their at- 

 tendance, and on the 22d of September, 

 transmitted a remonstrance* to Congress, 

 in which they declare they can no longer 

 sit as idle spectators, without betraying 

 the trust reposed in them, and doing vio- 

 lence to their own feelings ; that by the 

 mode of trial which was adopted, the 

 stale of Vermont could have no hearing 

 without denying her own existence, and 

 that ihei/ would not take on themselves 

 such humility and self abasement as to 

 lose their political life in order to find it. 

 Tliey expressed the willingness of Ver- 

 mont to submit the dispute to the media- 

 tion and settlement of tije' legislatures of 

 disinterested states, but reprobated the 

 idea that Congress could sit as a court of 

 judicativre, and determine the matter by 

 virtue of authority given them by one 

 only of the parties. They conclude by 

 observing, that, if the present policy be 

 pursued by Congress, they " are ready to 

 appeal to God and the world to say who 

 must be accountable for the awful conse- 

 quences that may ensue." 



On the 27th of September, Congress 

 again resumed the subject of the contro- 

 versy, and, having heard the evidence on 

 the part of New Ham])shire, resolved that 

 the further consideration of the matter be 

 postponed ; and "this was doubtless the 

 wisest course of policy which Congress 

 could pursue under existing circumstan- 

 ces. The contest with the mother coun- 

 try was yet undecided, and its issue 

 doubtful, and the grounds which the sev- 

 eral parties in the dispute had assumed 

 were such, that Congress could not hope 

 to make a decision which would satisfy 

 them all ; and to irritate either of the 

 states concerned to such a degree as to 

 drive them to an abandonment of the 

 common cause, might paralyze tlie efforts 

 of Congress, and prevent the attainment 

 of that liberty and independence for 

 which they were struggling. 



* For this remonstrance see Slade's Slate Papers, 

 p. 124. 



