CHAPTER IV.
MANDATORY LAWS OF NEW YORK.
The spirit of opposition and resentment had risen so high because of the events recorded in the preceding chapter, that New York was led to adopt the most stringent measures of coercion. The law which the wisdom of that colony devised to meet the exigencies of the occasion was a curiosity in American Legislation. It enacted that if any person opposed the civil officers of New York, or burned or destroyed property belonging to subjects of that colony, or assembled for riotous purposes, such offenders shall be adjudged guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy, and were to suffer death as felons. The law made it the duty of the Governor to publish the names of offenders indicted for capital offenses, with an order requiring them to deliver themselves up in seventy days; in default of which the courts might award execution against them the same as though they had been tried and convicted—the death penalty to be administered without the benefit of clergy. All crimes, therefore, that had been committed on the Grants, could be tried at Albany, and a neglect to obey summons to deliver one’s person into custody, was equivalent to a conviction. Thus was sought to be evaded the dangerous duty of serving processes on the Green Mountain Boys, and they would convict themselves by refusal to surrender without the inconvenience of a trial.
If this law was remarkable, the answer of the Green Mountain Boys was no less so. Said they: “By legerdemain, bribery and deception, they [the New Yorkers] have extended their dominion far and wide. We are resolved to inflict immediate death on whomsoever shall attempt the apprehension of the persons indicted as rioters. We will kill and destroy any person that shall be presumed to be accessory, aiding or assisting in taking any of us; although they have a license by the law to kill us, and an indemnification for so doing, they have no such indemnification from the Green Mountain Boys. If New York insists on killing us to take possession of our vineyards, let them come on; we are ready for a game of scalping with them.” These sentiments were announced by handbills and in the papers throughout New England, with the design of deterring New York from attempting to enforce the law, as such an attempt would be certain to result in an effusion of blood. The people of Vermont maintained in this that they were merely contending for justice, and that the officers of New York, who were calling upon the inhabitants of Vermont to obey the royal orders, were themselves acting in open violation of the express commands of their King.
A new interest may be awakened when the character of the claimants is considered. The Green Mountain Boys were the actual settlers. Each family had its log house in the midst of the clearing, with luxuriant crops of corn and potatoes growing among the charred stumps. These pioneers had brought nothing into the woods with them except what could be carried on horseback; some even brought in their goods on hand-sleds in winter, the infirm and children being drawn by husbands and brothers. A few cattle, sheep and hogs, shared rude sheds along with the horses. The rewards of industry and thrift were beginning to be realized. Many families lived remote from each other, and weeks might often pass by without meeting a neighbor. There was plenty of room for the Yorkers if they wished to turn farmers, and were willing to carve a home out of the wilderness as others had done. But such was far from their purpose. Besides, a farm ready cleared, with a snug house and barn, is preferable to one in the unbroken wilderness, when either can be had for the taking—and so thought the New York land-jobbers.