i O 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part II, 



DISTURBANCES IN AVI-VDHASI COUNTY. 



DISPKRSION OF THE YORKERS. 



his men, were pursued, and all either ta- 

 ken prisoners or dispersed. Those taken 

 were put under bonds for their good be- 

 havior, and were compelled to furnish 

 supplies and quarters for the troops. Un- 

 der Allen's martial law, the constable 

 found no difficulty in the collection of 

 taxes: nor was he very scrupulous about 

 the sum assessed in the tax bill. Produce, 

 horses, cattle and sheep, and whatever 

 else could be found belontjing to the most 

 violent Yorkers, were taken and sold for 

 the benefit of the state. 



During the following winter the distur- 

 bances became still more serious. On the 

 nio^htof the 17th of January, 1784, a party 

 of Yorkers from Guilford, commanded by 

 David Ashcroft and William White, about 

 12 o'clock at night, attacked the inn of 

 Josiah Arms in Braltleborough, which 

 was the quarters of General Farnsworth, 

 Major Boyden, Constable Waters, and 

 Bome others holding offices under the 

 government of Vermont, and demanded 

 the immediate stirrentlcr of Waters), wlio 

 had been guilty of extorting taxes from 

 persons ])rofessing allegiance to j\ew 

 York. Not being in a condition to make 

 an effectual resistance to an armed force, 

 W^aters voluntarily surrendered himself 

 into the hands of the Yorkers, but not till 

 after they had fired about ;]0 balls t!iro>igh 

 the house, and wounded Major Hoyden 

 in the leg, and shot a traveller through 

 the thigh. Waters was carried into Mas- 

 sachusetts, but tlie party being pursued 

 by a few Vermonters, he was released the 

 next day and returned. 



The legislature of Vermont had, at their 

 session in October, " voted to raise 200 

 men for the defence of Windham county 

 against the Yorkers."" After the atfair 

 at Braltleborough, finding the people of 

 Guilford determined to oppose tlie collec- 

 tion of taxes, Colonel S. R. Bradley, at 

 the head of this force, proceeded, January 

 18th, to tjiat town for the purpose of en- 

 forcing the collections. The parties of 

 Yorkers were all dispersed without oppo- 

 sition, excepting one which had collected 

 near the line of ^Massachusetts. This 

 party, consisting of 2o men, fired upon 

 the Vermonters as they advanced, by 

 which one man was severely wounded. 

 The Yorkers then retreated with all pos- 

 sible speed, over the line into JMassachu- 

 setts. Several of the leaders were, how- 

 ever, taken and brought to merited pun- 

 ishment, by whipping, fine, and pillory. f 

 Another skirmish occurred on the 5th of 



* At the February session in 1781, tlie nuiiibar 

 was reduced to 20. 



+ See Col. Stephen R. Bradley's letter published 

 ia Spoonei's Vermont Journal in Feb. 1784. 



March, between a company of Vermon- 

 ters under Captain Knights, and a party 

 of Yorkers, near tlie south part of Guil- 

 ford, in which the latter had one man 

 killed and several wounded; but before 

 the (^lose of the year 1784, the Yorkers 

 found their property mostly confiscated, 

 and themselves so harshly handled by the 

 civil and military authority of Vermont, 

 that they either submitted and took the 

 oath of allegiance to the state, or aban- 

 doned the country, and settled in other 

 places. The greater part of them fled in- 

 to the state of New York, and settled upon 

 lands especially granted by that state for 

 the benefit of these sufferers. This dis- 

 persion of her partisans from the county 

 of Windham terminated the attempts of 

 New York to maintain her authority in 

 Vermont by means of a military force ; 

 and, although she did not readily ac- 

 knowledge the independence of Vermont, 

 she probably, from this jjeriod, relinquish- 

 ed all hope of overthrowing the govern- 

 ment of Vermont, or of preventing the 

 final acknowledgment of her indepen- 

 dence by Congress. 



These disturbances, growing out of the 

 controversy with New York, were fol- 

 lowed by some others of a different char- 

 acter. During the long protracted war 

 with Great Britain, the people had, to a 

 very great extent, neglected their private 

 concerns, and, when that contest was 

 brought to a favorable termination and 

 they were allowed an opportunity to look 

 about them,itwas found that the affairs, not 

 only of individuals, but of the states and 

 the general government, were in a most 

 embarrassed and wretched condition. The 

 public debt of the United States e.xceeded 

 .$40,000,000, and many of the states had 

 contracted debts in carrying on the war, 

 amounting to several millions. The build- 

 ings and farms of individuals had gone to 

 decay, and their business had become de- 

 ranged by neglect, and not a few had been 

 obliged to contract large debts for the sup- 

 port of their families. The creditors, both 

 of the public and of individuals, were be- 

 coming clamorous for their pay ; while 

 the resources of the country were exhaust- 

 ed, the ])aper currency of the country 

 rapidly depreciating, and the aniount of 

 specie in existence being totally inade- 

 quate to meet the demand, the manner in 

 which these debts were to be paid, — these 

 creditors satisfied, — was a subject of deep 

 solicitude. 



In this state of things, taxes were at- 

 tempted to be raised to meet the demands 

 upon the general and state governments, 

 and the courts, which had been to a very 

 great extent suspended from the com- 



