Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-01-22
PA1'HFINDERS.

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survivors of those in this state who
voted the elderly Party or anti
slavery ticket, James @. Birney for
president, in 1850?
Their number which afterwards be-
came famous in connection with tn e
growth of the liberty party in Vermont
was 319. They cast no vote at the
state election of that year, and it was
very remarkable that in the few weeks
Intervening to the presidential cleo
ton and the great excitement prevail
ing between the whig and democratic
parties, that they should have polled
the first distinctive anti slavery vote
in O 1r state. With no state organiza
ton, it was really the spontaneous
expression of a few Independent vO-
ters of that day. Among them there
could not have been one who had the
remotest thought that slavery in this
country wonld be abolished in a little
more than two decades. 1t is possible
that the late Hon. Daniel Roberts of
Burlington was the last susvivor. 1t
SO happened that the writer hereof
addressed and mailed a note of in
quiry to Mr.. Roberts on this point,
and, as it proved, the note was writ
ten at the hour of his death. Later
mem Der of his family kindly answered
the note, but could not give the de-
sired information. Nor could the
Hon. T.. Ell. Chittenden of New York,
the former friend and partner of Mr..
Roberts. These circumstances favor
the idea that he may have been one
of the 319. In 1910 he was resident
of Manchester. One vote was cast
for Birney in that town and he was
one of those who had no fear ofvot-
ing alone.
The total official vote of our state
at that election was, Harrison, 80, 40;
Van Buren,, 1907; Birney, 319; and
only scattering. This vote may be
found in Walton's Vermont Register
of 1841, and is the only presidential
vote by towns which I now recall as
ever having been published in Yer
mont register. Apparently there are
some errors as to towns but the official
canvass as to totals is no doubt cor
rect.
More than one third of the Liberty
party vote was polled in the two coun-
ties of Orange and Washington, 7 and
IS, respectively. The largest vote in
any one town was Randolph, %, but
Brookfield gave Is and STAFFORD Is.
In Washington county, Waitsfeld cast
Is, Barre II, Waterbury 10, Fayston s,
and Montpelier 5. In other sections
of the state Dorset gays II, SALISBURY
9, Westford IA, New Haven II, Berk-
shire II, st. Adams 10, Weybridge 10,
Londonderry 9, Waterville 9, Putney
Z, Brookline 4, Mt. Tabor 4, Lowell 8,
Albany 6. Barton 5, Bethel 4, Wood
stock 3, a number of towns 2 to 5 each,
and % towns one each: in all IS towns
were represented.
The growth in our state of the anti
slavery sentiment, or Liberty Party,
as it was called, was rapid, and in the
next year, 1841, they cast 3091 votes
for Titus Hutchinson of Woodstock
for governor, 1922 for Shafter for gov
ernor in 1874, but could not quite reach
that for Birney against Henry Clay,
for whom Vermonters had great ad-
miration. In 1848 there was land
slide in New England and New York
of democrats and some wings to the
Free Soil party, largely caused by the
two democratic factions in the latter
state, known as Hunkers and Barn
Burners, and in that year the Free
Sellers in Vermont polled 13, 1877 votes.
Preceding and following this decade,
such men as John @ uincy Adams of
Massachusetts, William Slade OF Yer
mont, Joshua R. Giddiugs of Ohio and
John P. Hale of New Fl hampshire, we're
fighting the anti slavery battles in
congress on such questions as the
Seminole war in Florida, the Amistad
slave case, the Right of Petition, etc.
have been led to the above inquiry
and "reminiscences by reading the pro-
ceedings of Free Soil reunion held
last August at Greenfield, Mass, for
Franklin county of that state. It ap-
peared that this reunion association
was formed eleven years ago, with
nearly two hundred members, though
only eleven we're present at the last
meeting, and this reminds me that
the first political organization known
as the Free Sellers was formed in this
state, and I refer to it as showing an
other advance step of the anti slavery
sentiment in Vermont. It was in 1S49
that six delegates in the democratic