Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-08-01


perscd, and departed, going across the
State line to White Creek, N. Y.
We quote further from Mr.. Fiske:
During the autumn similar disturb |
ances had occurred in the States to the
northward. AT Exeter In New l1amp- |,
shire aud at Windsor and Rutland in YER |
mont the courts had been broken up by
armed mobs and at Rutland there had
been bloodshed. When the Shays rebel |
lion was put down, Gov. Bowdoin (of Mas
sachusetts) requested the neighborng
states to lend their aid In bringing the in
surgents to justice and all complied ex-
cept Vermont and Rhode Island. The
Legislature of Rhode Island sympathized
with the rebels and refused to allow tho
governor to Issue warrant for their ar.
rest on the other hand the governor of
Vermont issued a proclamatio out of
courtesy toward Massachusetts, but he
caused 1t to be understood that this was
but an empty form, the State of Yer
mont could not afford to discourage i'm
misration!'
The autumn referred to by Mr.. Fiske
was not that of 1887 as might be inferred
from the context. but the autumn of the
previous year. The court at Windsor was
not broken up by the mob. A mob of
thirty assemble cd, but the sheriff read the
riot act and ordered them to dispense
and they dispersed, and the court pro-
ceeded with its session without molesta-
ton. At Rutland the session Of the Coun-
ty Court was interrupted for half day
by mob of $50 men and boys. armed for
the most part with bludgeons. Next morn
ing a force of militia was on hand, under
Col Isaac Clark and Col. stephen Pearl
I,,l, 1i,,,r n MI
built the second framed house In town at
the head of Pearl street which was named
after him). They restored order and dis
pers ID the rioters, thirteen of whom Were
arrested, fined from &C to G25 apiece.
and put under bonds to keep the peace.
The "bloodshed' referred to consisted In
a slight wound perhaps from club, re-
ceivcd ny one OF the militia, and the frac-
turc of an arm of one of the rioters,
whether by gunshot or not does not ap-
pear from the contemporary accounts of
the transaction.
AS regards sympathy with the Shays
rebellion on the part of Vermont. hir.
Fiske conveys an essentially erroneous
and unjust impression. There was I'M
doubtedly considerable sympathy through
out New England with Shays' aVowed OBJ
jcCts, on the part of many men who were
suffering from the hard times then pre-
vailing; but the State authorities of Yer
mont were not wanting in the discharge
of their duties either toward the govern
ment of Massachusetts, or as guardians of
the public peace. We prefer Ira Aliens
account of the matter to Mr. Fiske's. Ira
Allen says:
When the instruction arose in the
neighboring State of Massachusetts,, Mr..
Shays sent Luke Day and Eli Parsons,
two of his officers to Gen. Ethan Allen,
Commandant of the militia of Vermont,
offering him (Allen) the command of the
revolutionary army or insurgents of Mas
saChusrtts which Gen. Allen Contemptu-
ously refused, directing said men to leave
the State of Vermont. General Allen
then wrote to the governor of Massachu-
setts assuring him that no asylum would
be given in the State of Vermont to the
insurgents of the State of Massachusetts.
Ira Allen adds,in his History of Vermont,
that Gen. Lincoln sent me one of his aids h
the Legislature of Vermont, in the Octo-
Dor following, ito confirm these ETHAN
Allen 81 measures and to cultivate a good
understanding between the States of Mas
sachusetts and Vermont, who received
every satisfaction he could have expected
from the (NermonD Legislature" 1t IS
not conceivable that Ethan Allen acted in
this transaction without the knowed2 &c
and direction of Gov. Chittenden. on the
governors part nothing could be squarer
than his proclamation, which Mr.. Fiske
chooses to represent as a sham. 1t or
dered all and every justice of the peace
to arrest Shays, Day and Parsons anC
deliver them to the Massachusetts au
thoritics and most solemnly forbade the
citizens of Vermont to aid or abet the re
/, bcllion with arms, ammunition or other
wise at their peril Moreover, as abov.
related the insurgents who escaped from
, Massachusetts into Vermont were order, {
out of the State, and they went; and TIVE
, Of Shays men, named Durham and Baker
who got as far north as Onion river. wor,
arrested in this quarter, taken to Benning
ton and thence to Massachusetts to b.
delivered to the State authorities. Mr.
Fishe evidently chose to consider the set
tiers of Vermont as little better than out
E laws and robbers; and if the Vermont au
G thorites professed to do anything on tn
side Of Justice law and order, he chose t
couple allusion to it with some false am
I slanderous imputation of insinCerity oil
their part.
4 We will not cite instances of tn
unrcliahiity of Mr. Fiske as a historian
q further than to mention the fact that h
: reproduces in his Critical Period the oil
2 error by which the census OF 1890 wa
made to give is slaves-Mr. Fiske says l
q to Vermont. Twenty years before M.
, Fislle wrote his book, this error had bee
officially corrected. The United States su
. Francis ID. Walker explains in the intro
n duction to the printed report of that cen
sus how the error occurred, by the acCi
!. dental transposition of the footing of tn
column of free blacks" to the adioinin
column of Slaves" No census ever re
turned any slaves in Vermont. The dis
coVery of the error was widely publishe
in the newspapers as well as In the Ger
sus reports; and a careful historian sue
as Mr.. Fiske has been supposed to b,
- should have been sure enough of his fact
- not to reproduce this ancient mistake.
), MANAGEMENT OF LIQUOR AGEN