CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part II. 



CONDITION OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 



CONSTITUTION OF UNITED STATES. 



beheld the United States without a cur- 

 rency, without any adequate revenue, 

 while their armies were unpaid and dis- 

 satisfied, their credit gone, and the gov- 

 ernment daily sinking into insignificance 

 and contempt. 



Vermont, on the other hand, in conse- 

 quence of being refused admission into 

 the federal union, was, in a great measure, 

 freed from the difficulties in which con- 

 gress and the confederated states were 

 involved. Her government, having learn- 

 ed wisdom from experience, was moving 

 prosperously onward and was daily in- 

 creasing in firmness and efficiency. The 

 United States had contracted an immense 

 debt in the prosecution of the war, but 

 the calls of Congress upon the people to 

 pay this debt, could not reach into Ver- 

 mont. Vermont, it is true, was obliged 

 to pay the forces which she had raised for 

 her own defence, but these were i'ew, as 

 she had, during much of the war, relied 

 for safety more upon her policy, than her 

 power. And, much of the territory of 

 Vermont being ungranted and at the dis- 

 posal of the legislature, after the close of 

 the war, settlers from other states, invi- 

 ted hither by the mildness and efficiency 

 of the government, the comparative ex- 

 emption from taxes, and the fertility and 

 cheapness of the lands, annually made 

 large accessions to her population and 

 resources, and enabled her, out of the 

 avails of her public lands, to supply her 

 treasury and pay her debts without im- 

 posing oppressive burdens upon the peo- 

 ple. The people of Vermont, observing 

 that their own condition was gradually 

 improving, while that of their neighbors 

 was constantly growing worse, ceased to 

 regard their admission into the union as 

 an event to be desired, or calculated to 

 better their condition. 



In this state of things, many of the 

 leading statesmen and philanthropists in 

 the United States began to be filled with 

 apprehension and alarm at the operation 

 and tendency of public affairs. They 

 perceived that the powers, with which 

 Congress was invested, were totilly in- 

 adequate to the purposes of government, 

 and that a new, more solid and efficient 

 organization was indispensable, in order 

 to secure to the people of the United 

 States, and their posterity, the blessings 

 of that liberty and independence, which 

 they had purchased at the expense of so 

 much blood, and toil, and treasure. At 

 the suggestion of James Madison, of Vir- 

 ginia, and in conformity with a resolution 

 of Congress, a convention of deleu-ates 

 from the several United States assembled 

 at Philadelphia in 1787, which, after ma- 



ture deliberation, adopted a Constitution, 

 which gave and secured to tlie central 

 government all the powers necessary to 

 give it firmness and efficiency. This 

 constitution was ratified by the states, 

 and the first Congress assembled under 

 it, on the 3d of March, 17i:^!t. 



After the adoption of the federal consti- 

 tution, the policy and proceedings of the 

 new Congress were carefully observed by 

 the people of Vermont. During two ses- 

 sions they found the government laboring 

 to restore public confidence by providing 

 for the payment of the public debts, and 

 by the establishment of equal law and 

 justice in every department of the federal 

 government. Their measures appeared 

 to be marked with so much wisdom and 

 prudence, as, in a great degree, to restore 

 to the people of Vermont that confidence 

 in the federal government, which had 

 been nearly destroyed by the evasive and 

 vacillating policy of the old Congress, 

 and to remove the aversion, which tliey 

 had for some time felt, to a confederacy 

 with the United States. 



The ancient difiiculty with New York, 

 however, remained unsettled. That state 

 well knew that Vermont would now re- 

 main a free and independent state, and 

 she probably felt but little anxiety that it 

 should be otherwise. But the former 

 irovcrnors of New York had made grants 

 of large tracts of land in Vermont, the va- 

 lidity of which, the government of Ver- 

 mont refused to admit, and the grantees 

 were constantly complaining to the gov- 

 ernment of New York of the injury done 

 them, in not being permitted to take pos- 

 session of their property. The govern- 

 ment of New York did not conceive that 

 it was under very strong obligation to re- 

 fund what had been extorted for these 

 grants by the cupidity of the royal gover- 

 nors of that province before the war; yet, 

 she manifested a disposition to compro- 

 mise the matter, and have the difficulties 

 adjusted on amicable terms. 



Events also occurred in relation to the 

 federal government, which disposed New 

 York still more, to admit the indepen- 

 dence of Vermont, and to wish her con- 

 federation with the United States. It was 

 perceived that by the exclusion of Ver- 

 mont, the eastern states were deprived of 

 their just representation in Congress, and 

 New York could not but see, that, if their 

 old difficulties could be settled, the inter- 

 ests and influence of Vermont would, in 

 almost every instance, coincide with her 

 own. It therefore soon became apparent 

 that public sentiment in New York was 

 in favor of a reconciliation. ' Vermont, it 

 was said, is in full possession of indepen- 



