106 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part. II. 



DR. YOUNG S LETTER 



TO THE INHABITANTS OF VERMONT. 



" To the, InhahiUints of Vermont, a Free 

 and Independent State, bounding on the 

 Riccr Connecticut and Lake Chaniplain. 



Philadelphia, April 11, 1777. 



Gentlemen, 



Numbers of you are knowing to the 

 zeal with which I have exerted myself in 

 your behalf, from the beginning of your 

 struggle with the New York monopolizers. 

 As the Supreme Arbiter of right has 

 smiled on the just cause of North Ameri- 

 ca at large, you, in a peculiar manner, 

 have been highly favored. God has done 

 by you the best thing comjironly done for 

 our species. He has put it fairly in your 

 power to help yourselves. 



I have taken the minds of several lead- 

 ing members in the Honorable the Conti- 

 nental Congress, and can assure j'ou that 

 you have nothing to do but send attested 

 copies of the lecommendation to take up 

 government to every township in your 

 district, and invite all your freeholders 

 and inhabitants to meet in their respect- 

 ive townships, and choose members for a 

 general convention to meet at an early 

 day to choose delegates for the general 

 Congress, a committee of safety, and to 

 form a constitution for your state. 



Your friends here tell me that some are 

 in doubt whether delegates from your dis- 

 trict would be admitted into Congress. 

 I tell you to organize fairly, and make 

 the experiment, and I will ensure your 

 success, at the risk of my reputation, as a 

 man of honor or common sense. Indeed, 

 they can by no means refuse you ! You 

 have as good a right to choose how you 

 will be governed, and by whom, as they 

 had. 



I have recommended to your commit- 

 tee the constitution of Pennsylvania lor a 

 model, which, with a very little altera- 

 tion, will, in my opinion, come as near 

 perfection as any thing yet concerted by 

 mankind. This constitution has been 

 sifted with all the criticism that a band of 

 despots were masters of, and has bid defi- 

 ance to their united powers. 



The alteration I would recommend, is 

 that all the bills, intended to be passed in- 

 to laws, sho\ild be laid before the execu- 

 tive board for their perusal and proposals 

 of amendment. All the difference, then, 

 between such a constitution and those of 

 Connecticut and Rhode Island in the 

 grand outlines is, that in one case the ex- 

 ecutive power can advise, and in the oth- 

 er compel. For my own part, I esteem 

 the people at large the true proprietors of 

 governmental power. They are the su- 

 preme constituent power, and, of course, 

 their immediate representatives are the 



supreme delegate power ; and as soon as 

 the delegate power gets too far out of the 

 hands of the constituent power, a tyranny 

 is in some degree established. 



Happy are you, that, in laying the foun- 

 dation of a new government, j'ou have a 

 digest drawn from the purest fountains of 

 antiquity, and improved by the readings 

 and observations of the great Dr. Frank- 

 lin, David Rittenhouse, Esq., and others. 

 I am certain you may build on such a ba- 

 sis a system, which will transmit liberty 

 and happiness to posterity. 



Let the scandalous practice of bribing 

 men by places, commissions, «S:c., be held 

 in abhorrence among you. By entrusting 

 only men of capacity and integrity in 

 public affairs, and by obliging even the 

 best men to fall into the common mass of 

 the people every year, and be sensible of 

 their need of the popular good will to sus- 

 tain their political importance, are your 

 liberties well secured. These plans effec- 

 tually promise this security. 



May Almighty God smile upon your 

 arduous and important undertaking, and 

 inspire you with that wisdom, virtue, 

 public spirit and unanimity, which en- 

 sures success in the most hazardous enter- 

 prizes ! I am. Gentlemen, your sincere 

 friend and humble servant, 



Thomas Young. 



April 12, 1777. 



Your committee have obtained for you 

 a copy of the recommendation of Con- 

 gress, to all such bodies of men as looked 

 upon themselves returned to a state of 

 nature, to adopt such government as 

 should, in the opinion of the representa- 

 tives of the people, best conduce to the 

 happiness and safety of their constituents 

 in particular, and America in general. 



You may, perhaps, think strange, that 

 nothing further is done for you at this 

 time than to send you this extract. But 

 if you consider that till you incorporate 

 and actually announce to Congress your 

 having become a body politic, they can- 

 not treat with you as a free state. While 

 New York claims you as subjects of that 

 government, my humble opinion is, your 

 own good sense will suggest to you that 

 no time is to be lost in availing your- 

 selves of the same opportunity your as- 

 suming mistress is improving to establish 

 a dominion for herself and you too. 



.i iDord to the wise is sufficient.'" 



In this letter, it will be seen that Dr. 

 Young not only proposes the constitution 

 of Pennsylvania as a model, but he ex- 

 pressly recommends, that the whole legis- 

 lative power should be vested in the im- 

 mediate representatives of the people — 



