Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-10-27
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
THE VERMONT LEGISLATURE IN SEES
SION IN VeRGENNeS.
How the Lawmakers of the Period Were
Provided For Ihe "Nergennes
Slaughter House"-Political REM
inisccnces- Cost and Extent
of Legislation.

The following letter from Mr.. John ID.
Smith of Ne:genncs will he read with
general interest:
TO the Editor of the Free Press:
one hundred years ago to-day the Leg
iSlaturc of Vermont was in session
in Vergcnncs with Isaac Tichc-
nor as governor; Paul Brigham.
lieutenant governor; Roswell Hopkins.
mayor of Vergenncs was secretary
of state; Daniel Farrand of Newbury was
speaker of the House; Daniel I. Saund-
ois. who had been recently dismissed as
minister in Ncrgenncs and was then living
in burlington preached the election SER
mon in accordance with Il custom that
prevailed in Vermont till 1888.
NCrgenncs was represented by Amos
Marsh, who was the next year and sew
cral successive years. elected speaker.
In the Legislature of 17gS the federalists
were largely in the majority: party spir-
It ran high Il. that time i'm Vermont and
for the first time in her history the i'm
portant civil officers to be elected ny the
LEGISLATURE were chosen from the dOmi-
nant party exclusively amid great excite
ment.
The chief justice OF the Supreme Court
Israel smith a man in high repute for
his learning and virtue was refused Il re-
election on party grounds merely, which
reused Il violent and bitter telling and
gave rise to the epithet as applied to that
Legislature current for "A long time, the
Nergennes Slaughter House"
I'm. session opened October II, and con-
tinued twenty-nine days. The people OF
Ncrgennes, when the whole population
was but five hundred, with n surprising
librrality and public spirit, built "A new
State House and offered 1t for the use Of
the state free of cost. 1t was occupied
for one year only. The building was well
adapted to the object for which 1t was
designed The main room was large
enough for all. with comfortable benches.
The speakers desk and the seats for gov
crnor and council were so much like those
of our present state House as to suggest
the query. whether they were the model
which has since been followed The sec
ond story was ample for the councillors
and committees.
The House stood on an eminence over
looking the city and the surrounding
country for great distance and the
scenery WAS such as to call forth the fol-
owing enthusiastic description from Or.
Dwight president of Yale college, who
wrote of 1t rs he saw II In l7S saying,
Divine service was celebrated in "A house
built here for the accommodation of the
LEGISLATURE. From tho cupolt of this
building very noble prospect was pre-
scented to us. Eastward we bCheld the
Green Mountains stretching little less
than one hundred miles from north TO
south. Westward three ranges rising III
parallel ridges beyond Lake Cnamplain,
the second higher than the first, and the
third towering above the second, extend
ing in the same direction through dis
lance equally great. The vast length
OF these ranges, the loftiness OF
their elevation: the wild varie-
ty Of their submits, here arched,
there waving now obtusely. now acute
~ concal, and now disdaining all appear
ancc to any regular figure: the gloomy
extent of the forests. which overspread
their bosoms; the valley between them cN-
panding over IA breadth OF thirty, forty
ard fifty miles; and the magnificent lake
at the bottom; constituted scene of
grandeur and sublimity rarely paralleled
on this side of the Atlantic"
! delegation of some of the chiefs of
the seven Indian rations of the Province
of Lower Canada with large escort, one
hundred in all as tradition saith, visited
the legislature at Ncrgennes to press
their claim for compensation for that part
# Vermont lying between Ticondernsa
and Canada line which they claimed the
Indians had never conveyed by treaty 81
otherwise and for which they now asked
to Ice compensated.
Their claim was not admitted but those
Indian chiefs could give Ncrmonters
points in lobbying. however, as they man.
aged to be entertained handsomely at tho
expense of the, State and received a pres
ent of one hundred dollars on their de-
parture.
The Legislature adjourned on the Stl
day Of November and counted twenty-nn,
days service at $3.50 per day and six cents
per nile each way for travel; they founc
that soventy-siX public acts ana forty
three private acts Were all that were nee
cssary. In 1896 three hundred and thirty
min NOT 10 lbnn1llnti1n