Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-08-22
WHOLE NO. 1926

met there on the hordrs of the Wal
loomsac gathering Of the settlers of
"the grants" prepared for resistance.
Bennington in town meeting had vo-
ted to take this farm under their pro-
lection, and it was protected. The
Sheriff had met apower greater than
the power of the county, who solved
for him the prophetic riddle of Ethan
Allen. that "the gods ofthe valleys are
not the gods Of the hills, and 'if
they would come to Bennington the
meaning should be made clear" And
so the power of the county evaporat-
ed, and resistance to like attempts in
the future was made the easier, and
their success impossible. 1t has been
we'll and and truly said by that vener.
able gentleman, native of Benning
ton, whose presence graces thia oc-
casion, and who in his long and useful
life of public service has done his age
no better service than by his publica
ton of the "Ear]y History of Yer
mont" that "Here in fact, on the farm
of James Breckenridge, was born the
future State Of Vermont, which, strug.
Cling through the perils of infancy,
had by the commencement of the gen
eral revolution acquired the activity
and strength of adventurous youth
had by its close reached the full stat.
ure of manhood, and which not long
afterwards became the acknowledged
equal of its associate American re.
publics, ,'-ofsping, it may be added,
of what the Tory Governors of New
York were wont to call "the Benniug-
ten mob"
This controversy about the lands of
the settlers, kept up in one way and
another for many years, naturally led
to a denial of,he civil jurisdiction of
New York for any purpose. Except
for this policy of spoliaton, the juris-
dlction of New York would have been
quietly submitted to, Notwithstanding
the difference of blood aud temper,
training and customs of the two peo-
pies, and Vermont would have had no
name in history, nor existence as
State.
This difference was considerably
marked. The settlers of the grants
-,~.- AZ" G..sl"nd>." IL a. .Lo-
New England type, cherishiug the
democratic ideas, and lmbued with the
spirit Of resistance to aggresslons up
on the liberties of individual or people,
which then peculiarly prevailed in
New England, and to which that peo-
pie had been peculiarly schooled anu
trained for generations by the events
connected with the early immigra.
tions, and the institutions OF church
and civil government established by
them, of their free choice. in the
wilderness. What was written of
these settlers by an accomplished loyal
lady of the times though said re-
proachiully, we accept as true, for
giving the reproach They were
fierce republicans, refusing to become
tenants to any one and insisting on
owning the lands they should occupy;
whose whole conversation was tainted
with politics-Cromwellian politics;
who talked about slaves to arbitrary
power and whose Indifference to the
mother country, and illiberal opinions
and manners were extremely offensive
to- all loyal subjects of the King.
Few tories among them at any time
and those few either converted to bet
ter ways by the rough discipline of
the ''twigs of the wilderness. or else
finding more congenial homes in
Canada. 1t was not so along the
Hudson, nor was this the spirit of the
gentry of the New York colony
This difference is conspicuouslv in
dicated in the reply of Gov. Tryon to
the rebuke of the Colonial Secretary
for he manner in which the New
York grants of Vermont lands had
been made. Il conceive it, he says,
"good policy to lodge large tracts OF
land in the hands of gentlemen of
weight and consideration. They will
naturally farm out their lands to ten
ants a method which will ever create
subordlnation, and counterpoise in
some measure the general levelling
spirit that so much prevails in some
of His Majesty's Governments'-an
aristocratic policy, hateful to the
democratic and independent spirit of
the settlers, who would be vassals to
no paltrcon or land baron, but would
own the land they TILED.
And sn waS kent IN this cnIltr0yer-