CHAPTER II.
ORIGIN OF THE LAND TROUBLES.
Vermont, as has been well said, was born in the midst of tumult and the clash of arms. No other State, we can safely affirm, came up out of such tribulation. Her experience is that of a people exposed to the avarice and greed of officials who scruple not to use the necessities of their helpless subjects as a means of securing their own selfish ends.
It was in pursuance to instructions from his Britannic Majesty that Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, proceeded, in 1749, to grant lands on the west side of the Connecticut River, in the present State of Vermont, to such persons as would settle and cultivate the same. After the declaration of peace between France and England, Wentworth ordered that a survey be made of the river for sixty miles, and that three tiers of townships be laid out on either side. In 1764 about one hundred and forty townships had been granted to New England settlers.
The lands went under the title of the “New Hampshire Grants,” numbering sixty-eight proprietors, each grant being six miles square, the Governor reserving to himself five hundred acres at the corner of each township. There were also reserved four public rights, viz.: one to the society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts; one for a perpetual glebe to the established Church of England; one for the first settled minister of the Gospel in town; and one for the support of a school. The patentees, that is to say, the possessors, were after ten years to pay ninepence sterling per annum on each hundred acres as quit-rent to his Majesty.
In addition to the five hundred acres at the corner of each township, Governor Wentworth received fees and other emoluments in his official capacity in making these grants. But he was not always to pursue this career of pecuniary prosperity. Other scheming brains, jealous of his rapidly accumulating fortune, sought to deprive him of his monopoly of land giving. This menace lay in the persons of Cadwallader Colden, Lieut.-Gov. of New York, and some associates composed of lawyers and land speculators of New York city.
As an initiative, Lieut.-Gov. Colden issued a proclamation to the settlers on the west bank of the Connecticut, Dec. 28, 1763, arrogating to the government of New York sole jurisdiction over the territory, founding the claim on the grant made by Charles II to the Duke of York in 1664 and 1674, embracing among other parts “all the lands from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of the Delaware Bay.” Colden at once commenced making grants of land in his newly acquired territory, and by the first of November following, his patents covered a large portion of the lands occupied by the settlers who had just paid for their titles to the Governor of New Hampshire.
Gov. Wentworth now issued a counter proclamation intended to inspire confidence in the grants from New Hampshire, and exhorting the people to be diligent in clearing up their lands, and not be intimidated by the threats of New York. The latter province thereupon made application to the Crown for a confirmation of its claims, falsely and fraudulently averring that such an arrangement would meet the wishes of the people of the territory in dispute. These claims were confirmed by Great Britain in July, 1764.
Wentworth complained of this loss of territory, and represented it to be injurious to the peace and prosperity of the country; but he was constrained, by advice of counsel, to recommend to the settlers due obedience to the authority and laws of New York.
Had this royal decree been interpreted by the Yorkers as simply effecting a change of jurisdiction, the inhabitants would have quietly submitted, as it was immaterial to them, other things being equal, whether they lived in New York or New Hampshire. Unfortunately, the private interests of Colden and the land speculators induced another interpretation. They maintained that the decision had a retrospective application; that the Connecticut River had always been the eastern boundary of New York, and hence the grants made by New Hampshire were null and void.
The people of the Grants were now apprised of the true nature of the diplomatic game that was being played, in which they were the parties likely to be the most affected. They now realized that the lands they had duly bought and paid for, and for which they held deeds under the authority of the Crown, were coveted by the land speculators, and, under color of law, the latter purposed to wrest them from their hands.
In 1765, a committee from the Grants waited upon the newly-appointed Governor of New York, Sir Henry Moore, to solicit his protection against the New York patents; but this measure failed of its purpose. The following year an agent was sent to the Court of Great Britain to recount the unjust proceedings against them; and the King in Council, in response thereto, issued an order bearing date of July 24, 1767, requiring of the Governor of New York that he should not, “upon pain of his Majesty’s highest displeasure, presume to make any grant whatsoever of any part of the lands in question, until his Majesty’s further pleasure should be known concerning the same.” This order was obeyed during the administration of Governor Moore; but after his death, which occurred in the fall of 1769, it was wholly disregarded, and grants were made by successive governors up to the Revolutionary period.
After the death of Moore, New York proceeded to carry out its plan by attempting to compel the Vermontese to repurchase their lands, or to abandon them. Many of the settlers did not have the ready funds with which to repurchase their homes, had they been so minded; while the great majority peremptorily refused to submit. This bold opposition was followed by actions of ejectment at Albany, and judgments against the protesting settlers, the original proprietors.
The Governor of New York exercised a little judicious diplomacy by making a partial distinction between the settlers on the east and west sides of the Green Mountains, and, by winning some of the leading characters over to his interest, by that means divided the people. Some settlers on the east side, by yielding up their New Hampshire titles, had new or confirmation grants from New York on payment of half fees. The usual fee of the former colony for granting a township was about three hundred dollars; but under the latter it generally exceeded two thousand dollars.
To promote a further division between the two sections, New York gave civil and military commissions to settlers on the east side. A new county was erected there, and a log court house and jail was built in the wilderness, eight miles distant from any settlement. The Governor, by this stratagem, partially brought the eastern counties to coincide with New York, thus placing the western district in the interior of the government. He hoped in that way to compel their submission; forgetting that men, who had braved every danger and hardship attending the settlement of a wild country, would not tamely submit to be dispossessed. The contest now grew warm and serious. Writs of ejectment were issued and served; some officers were prevented by force from serving their writs; the papers were returned to the Supreme Court at Albany.
Ethan Allen, a proprietor under the Hampshire Grants, accompanied by an eminent barrister of Connecticut named Ingersoll, repaired to Albany to answer in behalf of the Grants. When the first case was brought, Ingersoll answered for the defendant, supporting his plea by the royal orders and instructions to Governor Wentworth to make grants of land in the province of New Hampshire, and also produced the grant and charter to the settlers. The judge would not admit them to be taken as evidence, on which Ingersoll perceived the cause was already prejudged, and withdrew from the defense.