Chap. 4. 



CIVIL POLICY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



67 



TERMINATION OF THE WAR. 



VINDICATION OF VERMONT' 



disposition towards Vermont in tiie most 

 unequivocal terms, and requesting the 

 people of Vermont, witliout apprehension, 

 to encourage and promote the settlement 

 and cultivation of the country for tlie in- 

 terest and happiness of themselves and 

 tiieir posterity. 



With tliis year terminated the war 

 of the revolution, leaving favorahlc im- 

 pressions on the minds of the British 

 towards Vermont. Of the beneficial ef- 

 fects of the policy pursued, to Vermont 

 and to the union, there can be no doubt, 

 but of the propriety of this course there 

 maybe some question. On the part of the 

 British, the negotiation consisted in re- 

 peated endeavors to persuade the leading 

 men in Vermont to abandon the American 

 cause and declare the state a British prov- 

 ince. To these, the leaders in Vermont 

 returned evasive and ambiguous answers, 

 calculated, indeed, to keej) alive the 

 hopes of the British, but not intended to 

 pledge the government of Vermont. The 

 leading men in Vermont were known to 

 be as firm friends of American indepen- 

 dence, as any individuals on the conti- 

 nent ; but, abandoned as Vermont was by 

 Congress, and exposed to the overwlielm- 

 ing force of the enemy, no other means 

 of security remained but that artful poli- 

 cy, which we have just described; and 

 which kept a powerful Britisli army inac- 

 tive on the northern frontier of the union 

 during three successive campaigns.* 



* It has been asserted, ami has perhiqis to some 

 extent been believed, that a numi)er of the leading 

 men in Vermont, had, for several years previous to 

 the settlement of the controversy with New York, 

 been dissatisfied with the principles of American 

 liberty, and were desirovis of coming affain under 

 the dominion of Great Britain ; and there have been 

 writers in a certain quarter, who have been ready to 

 lend their aid in keeping such an opinion afloat. 

 Of this class is the recent Biographer of the Indian 

 chieftain, Brant. lie has taken much pains to trav- 

 el out of his way in order to meddle with the char- 

 acters of tliose men, who were formerly so i^reat a 

 terror and annoyance to the New York land specu- 

 lators, and has artfully endeavored to revive, and 

 leave upon tlie minds of his readers, an impression 

 unfavoiable. to their reputation for patriotism ; thus 

 misrepresentin;; some of the most indomitable ene- 

 mies of oppression and tyranny and the most ardent 

 and active friends of rational lilierty, which this, or 

 any otiier country has produced. But it is utterly 

 impossible that any unprejudiced person, who is 

 acquainted with the character of these men, and 

 with our early history, should for a sinjjlo moment 

 doubt their patriotism, or entertain the thought 

 that either Ethan or Ira Allen, or Thomas Chitten- 

 den, or either of the Fays or Robinsons, or indeed 

 any of the leading men in Vermont, previous to her 

 admission into the Union, ever seriously contem- 

 plated a return to their allegiance to Great Britain. 

 As a choice of two evils, there is no doulit that they 

 would sooner have submitted to Great Britain than 

 to NewYork, and this they openly declared, because 

 they regarded the latter as the greater tyrant, and 

 a tyrant in America, where the principles of liberty 

 were so generally diffused, was to them as hateful 

 and oven more detestable, than a tyrant in Europe. 



Section VII. 



Indian depredations upon the settlements 

 in Vermont. 



Having now completed our account of 

 the civil policy of Vermont during the 

 war for independence, excepting such 

 parts as relate jiarticularly to tlie admis- 

 sion of Vermont into the federal union, 

 and which are referred to the next chap- 

 ter, we shall here give a brief account of 

 the depredations of the Indians upon our 

 settlements, and notice some other things 

 which have been omitted in the preceding 

 narrative. Previous to the conqiiest of 

 Canada, in 1760, the French and English 

 nations were engaged in almost perpetual 

 war, and in these wars their colonies and 



But it is perfectly obvious tb.at they had no idea of 

 submitting to either, and that their negotiations 

 with the British authorities in Canada, were under- 

 taken for the express purpose of j)reveuting the oc- 

 curreueo of such a disaster, and whether correct 

 o;- not, they always justified themselves in these 

 proceedings, on the ground of self-preservation. 

 That these negotiations served, not only to protect 

 Vermont, but tiic United States, from invasion by a 

 powerful British army for a period of about three 

 years, is undoubted ; and it is, perhaps, equally 

 certain that, by concealing tlie true object of these 

 negotiations from tlie people of the United States, 

 New York was prevented from pressing her claims 

 at that period to the territory of Vermont, and 

 Congress from lending its aid to enforce those 

 claims, lest they should promote, what they al- 

 ready feared might be, a growing disaffection to 

 the American cause, and tlius hasten the event, 

 which these transactions had led them to fear, 

 namely, the return of Vermont to her allegiance to 

 Great Britain. 



Tlie continuance of the correspondence and ne- 

 gotiations between tlie leading men in Vermont and 

 the British authorities, after the close of the war, 

 has been adduced as proof that Vermont was de- 

 desirous of becoming a British province. That 

 such a correspondence was kept up till near the 

 time of the admission of Vermont into the Union, 

 there can be little doubt ; nor is it less doubtful 

 that the leading men in Vermont were very willing 

 tliat the Britisli authorities should deceive them- 

 selves with the expectation that Vermont might 

 yet become a British province, while they them- 

 selves entertained no such thought, except as a 

 dernier resort to save themselves from the clutches 

 of New York. 



When the treaty of peace had relieved the 

 United States from her foreign enemies, it was se- 

 riously appreliended that her arms might be employ- 

 ed in enfiircing the claims of New York to the ter- 

 ritory of Vermont. In that case Vermont resolved 

 to spare no efforts for an eftectual resistance, and 

 she felt it to be ot the utmost importance to her to 

 secure tlie friendship of the British authorises in 

 Canada, that through their connivance, arms and 

 other supplies might be obtained through the mer- 

 chants of Montreal and Q-uebec. This correspon- 

 dence was, therefore, only a continuance of that 

 game which had been so successfully played during 

 the last three years of the war, and it was usually 

 spoken of, by the persons engaged in it in Vermont, 

 as the Haldimand policy. This correspondence, 

 however, embraced other objects, one of which was 

 the construction of a canal along the Riclielieu 

 from lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence, which 

 should open a water communication between Ver- 

 mont and the ocean, over which neither New York 

 nor the United States could havo any control. 



