Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1903-07-24
THE VERMONT PHGNIX BRATTLEBORO, FRIDAY JULY

anu the eStmlnSter militia were III
full force under their commander,
Azariah Wright. Those Wings who
had been imprisoned were liberated.
and the judges and their assistants
and retainers were arrested.
The court room was battered by
bullets and the passages and stairs
were stained with gore. The people
from Putney and Dummerston went
wild in their rage against the inn
prisoned judges. and had it not been
for the GOODNESS and control of Capt.
Bellows, they would doubtless have
suffered violence at the hands of the
Infatuated yeomen.
Robert Cochran came over the
mountain. at the behest of Ethan Al
len. with 40 Green Mountain Boys
armed to the teeth From Massachu-
sets and the southern part of the
county achievements came and by
Thursday morning fully 500 soldiers,
we'll equipped for war, were gathered
on this plain, ready to do battle
against the King and all his Tory sup
porters. A large committee was
chosen, consisting of persons from out
side the county as well as those with
in, to say what should be done with
the Tory prisoners, ard after critical
and impartial examination of the evi-
dence. it was decided that the leaders
in the massacre should be taken to
Northampton Jail. and there confined
until they should have fair trial, and
that those who appeared less guilty
should be placed under bonds to an
swer at the next court in the county.
After Westminster. came LeXing-
ton and Concord and Bunker HILL and
a clearly defined and relentless war;
and our court house was reserved for
high uses still Joined with all the
colonies in resistance to the mother
country. the New Hampshire grants
would not furnish men for the war as
New York troops, but rather on an in
dependent footing. calling them Green
Mountain Boys" and asking that they
might do service in the Continental
army as inhabitants of the New Hamp
shire grants. This could not be al
lowed by Congress without offending
New York. Facing all these and other
complexities, a convention of the in
habitants of the grants was held in
Dorset in 1876, at which resolutions
were adopted looking toward the
formation of a separate district.
This convention was adjourned to
meet at Westminster, and here in our
court house, on the third day of their
deliberations, January II. 1777. the
delegates unanimously adopted a dec
laration of independence, declaring
that the district or territory, com
pretending and usually known by the
name and description of the New
Hampshire grants, of right ought to
be. and is hereby declared forever af-
ter to be considered as a separate,
free and Independent jurisdiction or
state"
Thus the court house in which the
/ first convention in Vermont territory
to oppose the British government had
/ been held. and which had later been
/ consecrated by the blood of innocency
| in freedoms cause. now became to
/ Vermont what Independence Hall in
/ Philadelphia already was TO the new
( nation. birthplace-the birthplace of
/ the State we love.
/ The delegates to the convention
which declared the independence of
Vermont in 1917 We're: From Ben
nington, Nathan Clark. John Burnham,
Nathan Clark. jr.: from Manchester.
Martin Powell; from Castleton, John
/ Hall: from Williston, Thomas Chit
/ tenden; from Colchester. Ira Allen;
/ from Rutland, Joseph Bowker, Heman
/ Allen; from Dummerston. Leonard
Spalding; from Putney. Dennis Lock
land; from Westminster. Nathaniel
Robinson. Joshua Webb; from Town
shend Samuel Fletcher; from Chester
Thomas Chandler; from Rockingham,
Reuben Jones, Moses Wright; from
Windsor, Eben Hoisington: from Hart
ford, Stephen Tilden; from Woodstock,
Benjamin Emmons; from Norwich,
Thomas Moredock, Jacob Barton; and
from Pomfret, Barnard and Royalton
were letters voting for new state.
In June following, a convention was
held at Windsor to adopt a constitu-
4 ton. Vermont was there selected
as the name of the new common
wealth, and provision was made for
the election of legislature or general
/ assembly in December. The first
meeting of the assembly was at Ben
nington in January, 1878, but for sew
eral years ii more frequently met in
the court house at Westminster than
/ elsewhere.
1t must be borne in mind that not
all the inhabitants of the Grants We're
/ Wings. In some towns they hardly
! outnumbered the Tories June 4,
17I7, a convention was held in the
court house, of the adherents TO New
/ York and opponents of the new state,
nine towns being represented by thir-
/ teen delegates. Their meeting was
adjourned to Brattleboro; and in fact
/ for several years, the wealthy towns
of Brattleboro, Springfield and Wealth
/ erstield seem to have sympathiZed
with the Court party rather than with
[ the reslstants.
Nor for many years was there any
/ easy course of empire for the new
state which had declared her indie
/ pendence at Westminster. New York
would not consent that she was free
until 1888, when, by an arrangement,
she paid the next year to that state
100000 to reimburse its citizens for
certain lands which they had pur-
chased in the Grants, but could never
get and the land controversy was
ended. She certainly had no other
fastenings.
She sought admission by Congress
| to the Union of the States, but was re-
fused it. After the national constitu-
ton had been adopted in 1889, how
ever, the country was on firm foun;
dation, and in March, 1871, Vermont
was admitted as the first new state,
under the constitution which she had
adopted in 1777. Till then she had
stood, like the old court house itself,
four suuare to all the winds that