Haldimand Affair The Haldimand Affair ( also called the Haldimand or Vermont Negotiations ) was a series of negotiations conducted in the early 1780s ( late in the American Revolutionary War ) between Frederick Haldimand , then serving as governor of the British Province of Quebec , his agents , and several people representing , or claiming to represent , the independent Vermont Republic . Those involved in the negotiations on Vermont ' s side included Ethan Allen , his brother Ira , Joseph Fay , and Thomas Chittenden , the governor of Vermont . Although the ostensible subject of the negotiations was agreements for the exchange of prisoners , the underlying purpose of the negotiations included the possible establishment of British authority over the Vermont territory , whose residents had been engaged in a long - running dispute with New York over jurisdiction of the territory . The secret nature of the negotiations , which excluded significant portions of Vermont ' s political power structure , led to accusations of treason against some of the negotiators , notably Ethan Allen , when they became more widely known . Background . In 1749 , Benning Wentworth , the British provincial governor of New Hampshire began issuing land grants for territory west of the Connecticut River . This area , now the United States state of Vermont , was also claimed by the Province of New York . In 1764 King George III issued a proclamation resolving the territorial dispute in favor of New York . New York refused to honor the grants issued by Wentworth , who had persisted in issuing grants even after he had agreed to stop issuing them in light of the territorial dispute . Holders of the Wentworth grants , in order to validate their claims , were effectively required to repurchase their grants at higher prices from New York , a situation to which the land - rich and cash - poor grantees objected . Following a pro - forma rejection of the Wentworth grants in 1770 by New York ' s Supreme Court ( which included members who held competing New York grants for some of the territory ) , the area ' s settlers , led by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner , formed the Green Mountain Boys and organized resistance to attempts by New York to assert control over the area . Using methods that stopped shy of lethal force , this resistance at times forcibly removed New York ' s judges , land surveyors , and other figures of provincial authorities , and disrupted efforts by holders of New York land grants to settle their lands . These incidents were reaching a critical point when the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775 . General Frederick Haldimand , in command of British military forces in New York City during some of this time , refused to become involved in the dispute . Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775 , and also participated in the invasion later that year of the Province of Quebec . In this latter effort , Allen was captured following a poorly organized attempt to capture Montreal in September 1775 . Allen was held as a prisoner of war by the British until May 1778 , when he was exchanged for a British officer . During much of this time he lived in New York City on parole , and was , by his own account , approached in late 1776 by a British officer with an offer to join the British side . The Wentworth grantholders , led by Ira Allen and Thomas Chittenden , declared independence from New York , establishing the Vermont Republic in July 1777 . While there was significant anti - New York sentiment in the territory , there was also significant popular support for the Continental Congress , and the republic ' s founders regularly petitioned the Congress for admission as the fourteenth state . However , New York and New Hampshire ' s representatives expressed reservations over its admission until the competing land claims and jurisdictional issues could be resolved , and effectively blocked any actions by Congress . First contact . In 1779 , Lord George Germain , the British Secretary of State for the Colonies , instructed General Sir Henry Clinton , the military commander - in - chief in North America , and Haldimand , then serving as governor of Quebec , to open negotiations with the Vermonters over the possibility of establishing Vermont as a separate British province . By 1780 these instructions included detailed offers to convey , including military commissions to Ethan Allen and Thomas Chittenden . The first documented communication was a letter sent to Ethan Allen in March 1780 by Beverley Robinson , a noted New York Loyalist . Robinson claimed to have heard that many Vermonters still harbored Loyalist sympathies , and suggested that the British would support Loyalist regiments raised in the territory . Because of difficulties in infiltrating an agent into Vermont , Allen did not receive the letter until July . On consultation with the Vermont council , Allen made no response to the letter . Congress took up the subject of the territorial dispute in June , but decided to defer discussion until September due to other pressing concerns . ( While Congress did discuss the issue at length that September , it again postponed taking any sort of action . ) Thomas Chittenden wrote to Congress ' president in July , specifically denying that Congress had the right to adjudicate their claims , and reserving the right of the Vermont administration to negotiate with the British . In August , Chittenden wrote a letter to Haldimand , offering a truce and parley terms to discuss the exchange of prisoners . Haldimand accepted this offer , and appointed Justus Sherwood , a Loyalist from Vermont who eventually became his spy chief , as his principal negotiator . Sherwood in Vermont . On September 26 , Major Christopher Carleton left Quebec on a raiding expedition into the upper Hudson River valley , causing some alarm in Vermont . Fears in the republic were heightened further by a British raid into its territory in October . Sherwood and a small company of men also left Quebec ; these headed up Lake Champlain for Skenesboro ( present - day Whitehall , New York ) . They were eventually met by Vermont militia , and Sherwood was taken to Castleton . There he met openly with Vermont officials to formally discuss prisoner exchanges and arrange a truce , but he also had a private meeting with Ethan Allen . In this meeting Sherwood made offers of allegiance to the Crown . According to Sherwood ' s report , Allen countered by demanding that Vermont be made a separate province with its own military command , and insisted that negotiations on the subject remain secret and end if Vermont is recognized by Congress as a state . While this was going on , word reached Haldimand of the exposure of Benedict Arnold ' s plot to surrender West Point , the latter ' s flight to British protection in New York City , and the hanging of Arnold ' s British co - conspirator , Major John André . As a precaution , Haldimand ordered Carleton , who was preparing to leave Fort Ticonderoga for Quebec , to remain there until Sherwood ' s safety could be assured . Sherwood returned safely to Quebec in late November . Following these meetings , Allen rode Bennington to report to Chittenden and the Vermont legislature . His report to the latter apparently raised more questions than it answered , and suspicious legislators demanded more information . Allen angrily resigned his general ' s commission and stormed out of the session . While the legislature was able to mollify Allen , Chittenden assigned Allen ' s brother Ira and Joseph Fay to lead further negotiations with the British . These two met with Sherwood and George Smyth , a Loyalist doctor who had fled north from Albany . Mutually distrustful , with the British wary over the safety of their agents in light of André ' s hanging , they only agreed that the Vermont representatives were to meet with Haldimand that winter . No such meeting took place . Chittenden wrote to the governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts , suggesting a united defense against British threats if they relinquished claims to Vermont territory . Massachusetts , with only weak claims to that territory , agreed to give up any claims when Vermont was granted statehood . New York Governor George Clinton turned a more demanding letter from Chittenden over to his legislature in February 1781 , noting that it was " insolent in its nature and derogatory to the honor of this state . " The New York Senate , however , expressed concern over the fact that Vermont might ally itself with the British in Quebec , and voted , to the shock of Governor Clinton , to send commissioners to Vermont to negotiate the release of its claims . Clinton , threatening to dissolve the legislature , insisted that the idea be dropped ; it was . New Hampshire ' s response to Vermont ' s proposals was complicated by the desire of communities on either side of the Connecticut River to belong to the same state , either Vermont or New Hampshire . A convention of these communities meeting in Charlestown , New Hampshire in January 1781 voted on one day to join New Hampshire , and the next , following diplomatic concessions by Ira Allen , to join with Vermont . Evasions and acquisitions . In February 1781 Beverley Robinson , having received no response from Ethan Allen to his first letter , sent a second letter , in which he enclosed a copy of the first . Shortly thereafter , Allen ' s friend Seth Warner , who still held a colonel ' s commission in the Continental Army , spoke with him about the ongoing negotiation and his concern that about their potentially treasonous character . In response to ongoing suspicions , Allen sent these letters to Congress , noting that he had never responded to them . Congress , preoccupied with the war , did not deal substantively with the dispute in early 1781 . Also in February 1781 , Lord Germain wrote a letter addressed to Haldimand , in which he seemed to assume the alliance was a done ( or nearly done ) deal , and suggested that Haldimand propose joint British - Vermont actions . This letter was carried aboard a British packet ship that was captured by the French . The letter was delivered to Benjamin Franklin in Paris ; he forwarded it to Congress , where it arrived in July . Haldimand , on the other hand , was somewhat pessimistic about the whole affair , writing to Germain that " Ethan Allen is endeavoring to deceive both the Congress and us " . When the letter was read in Congress on July 31 , it caused an uproar and cries of treason . The often - delayed plan for British and Vermont representatives finally took place in May 1781 . The details of this meeting , which ran from May 7 to 25 and took place at the British fort on Ile - aux - Noix , are primarily recounted from the writings of Justus Sherwood . He found Ira Allen , the principal negotiator for Vermont to be evasive and extremely wary . Allen refused to sign any sort of preliminary agreement , claiming that , although Vermont ' s leaders were disposed toward the idea , the populace was not , and it would have to be convinced first . On May 11 , Sherwood wrote , " My opinion corroborates with the Major ' s that Mr . Allen ' s errand here is to prolong the time and if possible to alarm Congress into a compliance with their demands . " He also felt that Vermont ' s large landowners ( which included the Allens and Chittenden ) might be looking more to their own interests than to those of the people of Vermont . The meeting ended with an oral agreement in which the British promised to not conduct further hostilities against Vermont , while the Vermont authorities would prepare the people for reunion , and try to convince the assembly to appoint commissioners to negotiate an alliance when it met in June . The promises Allen made were never fulfilled , as the Vermont assembly appointed no commissioners . To annoy its neighbors , it voted in the June meeting to extend its borders to the east and west , by adopting New Hampshire towns along the Connecticut River , and some New York towns east of the Hudson . These territories became bargaining chips for Vermont ' s negotiations with Congress . To delay matters with the British , Ira Allen wrote to Haldimand in July , indicating that Vermont was sending representatives to negotiate with Congress , and that public opinion in Vermont would be more favorable once Congress rejected their terms or deferred discussions again . Chittenden also wrote to Haldimand in July , indicating that George Washington was unwilling to release back to him British prisoners that had been captured in Vermont . Justus Sherwood met with Joseph Fay for two weeks in July , with a fruitless outcome that did nothing to relieve British concerns that Vermont ' s delays were intentional . Local suspicions and further evasion . When the Vermont assembly met in August , rumors were swirling about the negotiations , and the assembly insisted on seeing papers relating to them . In response , Ira Allen produced letters that had been exchanged concerning the prisoner exchanges that were the cover for the meetings . Around the same time , Allen extracted from the council the following statement : " [ Allen ] had used his best policy by feigning or endeavoring to make them [ the British ] believe that the State of Vermont had a desire to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain - - thereby to prevent the immediate invasion [ of Vermont ] [ . . . ] We [ . . . ] think it a necessary political maneuver to save the frontiers of this state . " Congress also took up the subject of Vermont statehood in August 1781 . On August 21 it approved a proposal in which statehood for Vermont would be considered if Vermont relinquished all of its claims east of the Connecticut River and west of the western border of Massachusetts . In September Justus Sherwood met again with Joseph Fay and Ira Allen at Skenesboro ( present - day Whitehall , New York ) . Allen suggested that as the makeup of the Vermont assembly had changed , it would take some time to adjust . He suggested to Sherwood that Haldimand prepare a proclamation announcing Vermont ' s new status . The proclamation would be presented to the Vermont assembly after it had discussed and rejected the latest offer from Congress . Sherwood suggested that a lack of definite action the part of the assembly might lead to British military action . This threat was followed up with the movement of British troops under the command of Barry St . Leger to occupy Fort Ticonderoga in October , timed to coincide with the next meeting of the assembly , but sent with the expectation that they would be welcomed into Vermont . Sherwood reported after the meeting his opinion that as much as one third of the Vermont population was unhappy with the rule of Chittenden and the Allens , and was in favor of a change of government . Crisis . When St . Leger arrived at Ticonderoga , Vermont militia under Roger Enos were arrayed across the lake to observe them . St . Leger was instructed to treat any Vermonters his men encountered in a friendly manner . During a scouting expedition , a company of St . Leger ' s men killed one Vermont militiaman and captured five more . Horrified at what happened , St . Leger wrote a letter of apology which unintentionally divulged aspects of the conspiracy . Enos forwarded the letter to the assembly , using as a messenger someone who had long harbored suspicions about the actions of the Allen clan . In addition to delivering the letter , he broadcast his suspicions far and wide . A crowd gathered at the assembly , demanding answers from Ira Allen . He demurred , claiming that Chittenden , who was not present at the time , was in possession of the relevant papers , and would deliver them . A series of more innocuously worded dispatches was then forged and delivered to the assembly to satisfy its demands for information . The assembly considered the offer put forward by Congress , and rejected it on October 16 , although it agreed to consider negotiations over its boundaries . Pro - British factions in Vermont had not done well in the election , and news of a French naval victory on the Chesapeake had dampened Loyalist sentiment . By mid - November news of Cornwallis ' surrender of his army at Yorktown arrived , and St . Leger returned to Quebec . Haldimand , who was of the opinion that the negotiations were conducted in good faith , and some of the Vermonters continued to correspond through the winter , but with the British in a weak position , and Vermont in a position that appeared strong , nothing of substance came of the exchange . Agreements and complications . In 1782 the fractious nature of Vermont ' s internal politics became a problem for the republic ' s quest for statehood . The southeast corner of the republic ( present - day Brattleboro and the surrounding area ) harbored strong political support for rejoining New York . In January , the " east side Yorkers " made another in a series of petitions to Governor Clinton and the Congress , complaining in part about the ongoing " intrigue with Canada " . This led Clinton to call a special meeting of the New York assembly to discuss the " dangerous intercourse " going on between Vermont and the British , in which they decided to forward papers on the matter to Congress , and move to enforce the state ' s authority over the territory . Governor Chittenden also received a letter from George Washington in January . Washington wrote that he was supportive of statehood for Vermont , as long as it adhered to its original boundaries . He also indicated his opinion that its statehood was a virtual certainty , with only details to be negotiated . When Vermont ' s assembly had the letter read in February , it agreed to accept the boundaries proposed by Congress in August 1781 . In response , Congress voted on March 1 to consider Vermont ' s statehood if , within thirty days , Vermont returned full control over the towns it previously claimed to New York and New Hampshire authority . This Vermont did , notifying Congress on March 31 that it had done so . Congress then began consideration of a statehood resolution , but tabled it without further action on April 17 . They may have been influenced by the publication that month of correspondence between Haldimand and Sir Henry Clinton on the matter by a New York newspaper . Publication of the letters led Governor Clinton to comment negatively on the " traitorous correspondence between the leaders of the New Hampshire Grants and the enemy " . In spite of this negative publicity , New York ' s assembly in April passed a bill pardoning the New Hampshire grantees of offenses they may have committed , and recognizing , without requiring additional payment , the New Hampshire grants and those issued later by the Vermont Republic . This appeared to clear the significant legal roadblocks to Vermont ' s statehood , but the east side Yorkers continued to be a persistent problem , with Governor Clinton almost encouraging them to engage in acts of resistance against the Vermont administration , even issuing commissions for New York judicial positions covering the affected area . The situation got bad enough that Ethan Allen , in some secrecy , raised 250 men and marched on the town of Guilford , which was the epicenter of Yorker activity . This resulted in the arrest , trial , and banishment of the Yorker ringleaders in October 1782 , and the seizure of some of their property . This prompted Congress to demand that Vermont compensate the affected individuals . All during this time , there continued to be correspondence with Governor Haldimand in Quebec , particularly by Ethan Allen . In June he wrote to Haldimand , " I shall do everything in my power to render this state a British province " , and made additional scathing commentary on the Congress . However , the ongoing peace negotiations to end the revolutionary war put a damper on the communications , which finally ended in late 1783 . Statehood . With the end of the war , the subject of Vermont ' s statehood remained stalemated in spite of the basic agreement on boundaries . The urge for statehood subsided for a time in Vermont , as it was not burdened by the debts of the war . ( In fact , the Vermont government profited from the sale of the lands seized from Loyalists . ) The subject was finally raised again in 1789 when the new United States Constitution came into force . Vermont ' s leadership was favorably disposed to it , and in the summer of 1789 negotiated terms with New York over their shared border , and agreed to pay $ 30 , 000 in compensation for land grants issued by New York . A Vermont convention voted by an overwhelming landslide in favor of a petition for statehood on January 6 , 1791 . President George Washington presented the petition to the United States Congress on February 9 , and signed the passed legislation on February 18 , making Vermont the first new state to join the Union formed by the original thirteen . Vermont celebrated its statehood in Rutland on March 8 , 1791 .