CHAPTER XII.
CONCLUSION.
Years elapsed. Hostilities between Great Britain and the American Colonies had ceased; and on the 20th of January, 1783, the preliminary articles of peace were signed, which established the independence of the United States. The adoption of the Federal Constitution followed, which was ratified by the thirteen original States, and the first Congress assembled under it March 3d, 1789. During the period succeeding the peace, Vermont had been pursuing the even tenor of her way, not over-solicitous about an organic union with the States, and without any external foes to dread. But the ancient difference with New York still remained unsettled. A new political generation had come upon the stage, in whose bosoms the bitter feuds of their fathers were not perpetuated.
One difficulty, however, presented itself. New York had aforetime granted large tracts of land in Vermont, and the grantees were loudly complaining of the injustice in not being allowed to take possession of the property, or having its purchase price refunded. New York felt no very strong obligation to refund the money that had been extorted for those grants by royal governors before the war; still she was disposed to favor a compromise. Public opinion and mutual interests called for a reconciliation with Vermont, and her admission into the Confederacy of States, inasmuch as the measure would increase the representation of New England in Congress.
On the 23d of October, 1789, committees from the respective Legislatures of Vermont and New York met to arrange the settlement of the only issue remaining—the amount of compensation the claimants under the New York grants should receive from Vermont. It was agreed that on payment being made to her of $30,000, New York was to consent to the admission of Vermont into the Union, and to give up all claims to jurisdiction within the latter State. On the 18th of February, 1791, Congress, without a dissenting voice or vote, passed an Act “That on the 4th day of March, 1791, the said State, by the name and style of the ‘State of Vermont,’ shall be received and admitted into their Union as a new and entire member of the United States of America.”
The End.