( 362 ) 
they declared Vermont to be an independent state.* In 
1778 the whole machinery of the State Government was in 
operation, and its independence has been ever since main- 
tained. 
When the treaty of 1790 was made, Vermont had for 12 years 
been ‘‘ as independent of New York as of Great Britain.” 
From 1779 to 1781, ten years before this treaty, Vermont had 
formally declared the New York colonial grants to be null 
and void.t Most of the lands not covered by the New 
Hampshire grants, Vermont had granted to other settlers. 
The Kingsland tract, claimed by Columbia, was granted to 
Major Elisha Burton and 64 others on Aug. 8, 1781; and 
there were some earlier settlers there under New Hampshire 
authority.{ The grantees of 1781 thereupon entered on and 
occupied the lands long after the expiration of the 3 years’ 
time allowed to Columbia by the New York patents for settling 
and cultivating the lands granted her.|| Up to 1781, the 
records show no officers or soldiers from that township. 
*H. Hall’s Vt., 229-234, 238, 239, 257, 273 ; N. Y. Assembly’s letter of Aug. 
Il, 1778, to its Delegates in Congress, N. Y. Hist. Mag., May, 1873: p. 294. 
See first Constitution and Preamble for recital of grievances against New 
York, Slade’s State Papers, 241 ; Poor’s ‘‘ Constitutions,” p. 185 
In January, ae a committee of the N. ¥. Conve ntion reported that the 
and thei 
‘ frivolous et Mr. Dawson, N. Y. Hist. Mag., July, 1871, 67, calls 
an lawless 
ruffians’?—the usual Tory description of the Revolutionary patriots. As 
respects Vew York law, the settlers were, of course, ‘“‘lawless,’’ because 
they were sturdy ele against New York authority; but their 
i ry thre inti 
3 ote. 
@ See Vt. Charters, 111-114  Taoneue s Hist. Vt., Part III, 181; N. H. 
State Pap. 26: 728; Henmingway, Vt. Hist. Gaz. 2: 8 
|| Note 2, It does not appear that Columbia obtained actual possession 
of, or settled, or cultivated her grounds, as the patents Peauiree All the 
patents declared that the grant should be zw// and vord “‘if the grantees do 
not within 3 years settle one family to every 1,000 acres, and within 3 years 
plant and effectually cultivate at least three acres for every 50 of such as is 
