Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1852-11-18

| praying luI au dpPFOpfitu tu4JH 10 OQllQ M0nu-
ment at Westminster in memory of WILLIAM
French, the first martyr Of our state and ma
tonal independence, have carefully considered
the same, and now beg leave to present the
following REPORT, to wit;
: Issla7 9nas Of your cJa."irtees -uI&s motives
Of the Petitioners are SO clearly stated in the
petition, and the object is so manifestiy meritor-
Gus, that nothing seems to be left for the Com
mttee, but the inquiry whether it deserves the
action Of the State. To ascertain this, it be-
comes necessary to recur to some portions Of
our early history and on this point the com
mttee are happy to be able to say, that some
manuscript sheets of rough draft of the his
tory of Cumberland County, in which the trans
actions in question occurred, drawn up by
citizen of the State of New,York, from doc
umentary evidence and from contemporaneous
testimony, has been put into their hands so
that as to those transactions that preceded and
attended the tragical event which it is proposed
to commemorate, they feel on safe grounds.
To 90 back however, it is well known that
when the State of New Hampshire, which until
then had no other Chief Magistrate than the
Governor of Massachusetts, came to receive its
full organization by the appointment of Ben.
ming Wentworth as its Governor, that gentle
man showed an extreme avdity to make grants
Of land in the then unsurveyed and almost un-
known wilderness lying between the admitted
limits of NewYork and New. Hampshire. A
few towns on the bank of the Connecticut River,
in the southeast part of the State, had been
peviously granted by the Government of Massa-
chusetts, and some portion of territory, in the
western part, by the State of New-York.
When the great distance from the Home Govern
ment and the consequent difficulty and paucity
Of communication with the Home Ministry,
among whom Wentworth had secured strong
influence, is considered, together with the emolu-
mens to be derived from charter fees and per-
sonal reservations of land, (of which he made
liberal use,) his cupidity is sufficiently accounted
for. When he learned that a competing claim
to make grants OF the same territory which he
had already granted in the Kings name, was
set up by the Governor of New York, he did
not stay his hand, but persisted in issuing these
grants until he had conveyed the principal part
of the territory; and when the Chief Magistrate
Of New York issued his Proclamation insisting
upon his right under the Clown to dispose of
these lands, Wentworth issued his counter
Proc lamation, assuring the settlers of the Sc
curity Of their ttles-lhat the Kings revenue
was daily augmented by the grants he had made,
/, and that, although, as dispute had arisen, he
should wait the decision of the Government at
home, he had no doubt that his grants would be
confirmed to the settlers, whatever arrangements
: might he made about the disputed jurisdiction.
l Euc onraged by these assurance, settlers con-
1 tinued to come in and purchase and occupy the
, territory men not versed in the intricaces of
the law, but honestly believing that, as both
r Governors were the Kings agents, and were
= acting openly, it was of very little consequence
from which of them they obtained their STILES, SO
long as they made payment and remained loyal
and peaceable citizens.
But the NewYork administration soon began
g to make practical assertion Of its claim, by
e dividing the disputed territory into four counties
G Cwo on each side of the Green Mountains) and
calling on the settlers, to come in and surrender
their charters, take grants Of confrmaton and
of course, make new payment This, great
o many who were in comfortable circumstances
lovers of peace or lovers of office, consented to
j. do; but the great bulk of the settlers having
= already exhausted their means by once paying
IS for their lands and the expenses incident to 1
e new sett ement, and perhaps justly alarmed al
d the instability of titles supposed by them to bt
derived from the Crown found themselves un
J. able or unwilling to comply. This gave rise t
D great excitement in the southwestern county
which was near Albany and when governmental
y proceedings and private ejectments were insti
tuted the seizure Of the defendants was resste
Of by Allen Warner and other intrepid men, who's
:" names have become as familiar to Vermonter,
: as household words, and in some instances b
acts of great violence, but in no case resulting
- IN the loss OF lie.
II What would have been The result, if thu
eastern counties had remained quiet, cannot no,
be known. The British King in Council ha
alreadylor some time decided in favor of the New
u; York claim to jursdiction--led to such a cours
e. perhaps as much by the peculiar fitness of tn
lie organization and government OF that province t
&c make it an instrument Of power, as by any sup
ho posed justice of the case. The Governor G
'ir New Hampshire Immediately withdrew his SIP
he port from the settlers, abandoning them to thUl
tie fate, and it was no longer a controversy betwee
in the Two Governors, as has been sometimes sup
he posed and asserted but between the Royo
lot Authorities and the nhAblan.s of the Wcstes
a part Of the territory. In this situation, judgin
ed ron results in other cases of Instruction, the
ST. would probably have been overcome by sui
ay lection or cajoiing. But the Royal Party,
by their greedness to exercise power where hithe
N to it had used only hatery soon commence
IL making its authority felt in the Eastern Counte
nd and many of the inhabitants began to feel Il
in title to their Homesteads becoming precanou
m although no open demonstrations had been mad
n- Besides, it appears that when at a former da
ow the line was established between Massachusset
ys and Connecticut, sundry inhabitants who ha