The Bennington daily banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1877-1877, 1877-08-18


sion and secured victory without conflict,
disarming the foe by the charm of words,
and. by the iinesse Of war, securing to the
common cause the results OF a successtul
campaign and none WHO ever displayed. a
| keener sagacty and skill of polite admins
| tratiOn and management than they who
made the Grants" q State who main
tanned It's Independence rs q separate soy
ereignty for fourteen years, and then put II In
| place as one of the United States of America.
| Upon plain grounds of common justice, the
rebellion of the New Hampshire Grants, 80
| far as 1t was q rebellion, and the forming OF
an independent State, stands justified. The
rebellion was against the injustice OF robbie
~. and the Stare was q necessity as an IN,
strument of resistance. The lands embraced
within the territorial limits of this present
State of Vermont had been understood to be
within the limits and jurisdiction OF the
| Province Of New Hampshire. Upon this I'M
4 Outstanding, the Royal Governor OF that Col
ony, Benning Wentworth, had granted by
/ charter in the Kings name about one hun
i bred and thirty townships of these lands. or
nearly three millions Of acres, in shares to
some eight thousand persons, when ON the
Goth day of July, 1894, without notice TO the
sertlers and plainly against their WISHES. the
/ colonial government of New York succeeded
In obtaining from the King in council an or
der declaring the West bark Of the Connect
icut River to be the boundary line between
4 the two Provinces Of New Hampshire and
NEW lOIks-llub pluCllE bCbtANAo hl,NAi
those Grants, and their lands under the ji-
lisdictiOn of New York. Since the title to
these lands was originally IN the KING ana
the King had granted them, and the pur-
chase price may be saidtO have gone into the
Kings treasury, the Question of rlghtful CO.
lonal jurisdiction hardly seems to touch the
question of legal right to the lands; and, GER
tainly, since the lands had been purchased
and paid for in good faith, it was plain viio,,
lation of equity, on the part of the colonial
,s,,,t Of XnVH Tn tranE Tnngp
grants as void aud the settlers as tresspass-
ers, and to regraut the lands to strangers,
and thus turn ont from their new, made
homes a whole people to beggary ana Vaga-
bondage. Nor does any effect of the order es-
tablishiug the boundary, such as to impair
by retrOaciiOn tine Royal grants already
Il made seem to have been intended by the
Home government. But the New York gov
eminent gave the order this interpretation.
| treating il as the sanction uf their previous
claim Of jurisdiction and right; and so sue
cessive Royal governors of that Colony set to
work granting these lands in large tracts,
upon careful selection and survey OF the best,
tu their retainers and taYorites, regardless
wholly of the rights Of tho settlers under the
New Hampshire charters, This ipjus-
tice had its incentive in the greed
of those Governors to acquire fortunes
for themselves by the extravagant fees de-
handed and paid for such grants, or by
themselves and their favorities becoming
| the lands granted. The injustice of thus DIS
regarding the claims of the settlers WINS so
manifest and gross as to receive the rebuke
of the Home government and repeated pro-
hibitOns; but the loyalty of those Tory
Governors gave way at the point where the
Royal order touched their own emOluments,
and the bad work went on as before; aud 81
| the honest settler became accustomed to sec
surveying parties Of Workers crossing his out
fields, aud clrcling his homestead III their
delineatiOns of manOrs and baIonlcs, and TO
receive their salutatj ions of notice TO quit.
Strange sheriffs appeared for seryipepf process
OF eiectment,, calling him to Albany to an
swer to the plant of some SPECTATOR, dis
guised under the name of John Doe, who
pretended to have bought from under him
the lands he had bought, paid for, cleared
and TILED. and the house which sheltered bis
wife and babes. If he made appearance in
answer to such summons, he found the court
in suspicious accord with the rapaciOus gov
ernOrs and spectators, in treating his grant,
under til" royal seal of New Hampshire, as a
nullity. such decision Of one case was a
precedent for all Others, numbering thous
ands, sud so the alternative was presentedto
every grantee and settler under New
Hampshire charter, to give up his lands ana
home. or buy his peace on impossible terms
of any manipulating stranger who had
schermed to despOil him, or yet fOrclbly to
resist such monstrOus injustice. We arc
wont to applaud the fOrcible resistance made
to the stamp act, and the destruction OF the
tea in Boston harbOT; as patriotic exhibitions
Of rigtful resistance to authority arbitrarily
unjust. What shall we say, then, OF
the resistance of these settlers of the
Grants" to that scheme Of plumber which
would take from a people not merely petty
tax, but their all. the fruits of life of toll
and hardship, and make them a, community
Of paupers, to become the vassals of foreign
landlords, or beg their way back to their old
homes. Resistance to injustice 50 gross
though sought to be covered by the hypoc-
risy of legal forms, and none the less CALLING
on this account, was the instinct CT common
manliness. hardly requiring for its impulse
what exaltation of soul and character which
the call herOism. And 80 it happened, that
When Sheriff Fen Eyck, on the 18th day OF
July, IN. with his posse of some three humid
red armed men, including many of tic gent
ry Of Albany, proceeded in martial array t.
Bennington to take possession by process IN
ejectInent of the farm of james Breaken-
ridge, he met there on the borders of the
WallOomsac gathering OF the settlers of
"the Grants" prepared for resistance. Ben
nimRtOn in town meeting had voted TO take
this farm under their pTOtectiOn,-and 1t was |
protected The Sheriff had met power
greater than the power of the county. who
solved for him the prophetic riddle OF Ethan
Allen that "the rods Of the valley are not
the gods of the hills,"-and IF they would
come to Bennington the meaning should he
made clear" And so the power of the county |
evapOrated, and resistance to like attempts
in the future was made the easier, and their
success impossible. 1t has been well and
truly said by that venerable gentleman,
native of Bennington. whose presence graces
this occasion, and who III his long and use
full life of public service has done his age no
better service than by his publication of
the Early History of Vermont" that Here
IN fact, on the farm of James Breckenridge,
was born the future State of Vermont, which
struggling through the perils of infancy, had
by the commencement of tho general revOlu-
ton acquired the activity aud strength of
adventurous youth had by its close reach
ell the full stature of manhood, and which
not long afterwards became the acknowledge
ed equal of its associate American republics"
Offspring it may be added, of what the
Tory Governors If New York were won't to
call "the Bennington 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 the
civil Jurisdiction Of New York for any pur-
pose Except for this policy oS spOilation
The jurisdiction of New York would have
been quietly submitted to, Notwithstanding
the difference Of blood aud temper, training
and customs of the two peoples, aud Yer
mont would have had no name IN history,
nor existence rs State.
This difference was considerably marked.
The settlers of the Grants were New Eng
landers of the then New England type, cher
islnng the democratic ideas, and imbned with
the spirit of resistance to aggressiOns upon
che liberties of individual or people, which
then prevailed in New England, and to which
that people had been peculiarly schooled aud
trained for generations by the events con-
nected with the early immiRratiOns, and the
institutions of church ndcivil government
established by them. uf their free choice, in
the wilderness. What was written of these
settlers by an accomplished loyal lady of the
times though said reprOachfully, we accept
rs true, fOrgiYIng the reproach;-They were
fierce republicans, refusing TO become ten
ants to any one and insisting on OwDinRtht=
lands they should occupy; whose whole c ON
yaTsation was tainted with politios--CrOm-.
wellian politics; who talked about slavessto
arbitrary power and whose Indifference 10
the mother country, and illiberal opinions
and manners were extremely offensive TO all
among them at any time, and those few,
either converted to better ways by the rough
discipline Of the "twigs of the wilderness"