assembled at Westminster, do make and publish the following Declaration, viz.:

"That we will, at all times hereafter, consider ourselves as a free and independent State, capable of regulating our internal police, in all and every respect whatsoever, and that the people on said grants have the sole and exclusive and inherent right of ruling and governing themselves in such manner and form as in their own wisdom they shall think proper, not inconsistent or repugnant to any resolve of the Honorable Continental Congress.

"Furthermore, We declare by all the ties which are held sacred among men, that we will firmly stand by and support one another in this our declaration of a State, and in endeavoring as much as in us lies, to suppress all unlawful routs and disturbances whatever. Also we will endeavor to secure to every individual his life, peace and property against all unlawful invaders of the same.

"Lastly, We hereby declare, that we are at all times ready in conjunction with our brethren in the United States of America, to do our full proportion in maintaining and supporting the just war against the tyrannical invasions of the ministerial fleets and armies, as well as any other foreign enemies, sent with express purpose to murder our fellow brethren, and with fire and sword to ravage our defenseless country.

'The said State hereafter to be called by the name of New Connecticut."

The convention adjourned to meet at Windsor the fourth day of the following June.

7. Windsor.-Fifth Meeting.-The Windsor meeting was the largest held, consisting of seventytwo delegates, representing forty-eight towns, of

which twenty-one were west of the mountains and the remainder, east. Two towns, one from each side of the mountains, by letter reported acquiescence in the formation of a new State. The convention at this meeting re-affirmed the declaration made in January, changed the name of the new State to Vermont, and added a series. of reasons for the separation from New York.

They recommended to the freeholders and inhabitants of each town in the State to choose delegates to attend a general convention in Windsor on the second day of July, then next, to choose delegates to attend the General Congress, a Committee of Safety, and to form a constitution for the State. They also appointed a committee to go to Ticonderoga and consult with regard to the defense of the frontier, and they appointed a Day of Fasting and Prayer. This was the last meeting of the Convention that declared the independence of Vermont.

8. Constitutional Convention.--First Meeting. A convention of delegates from the towns met at Windsor, July 2, 1777, to form a constitution for the new State. The constitution of Pennsylvania, then recently amended, was presented to the convention as a model, and was adopted with a few changes, some of which were important. Provision was made for an election of State officers and a legislature in the December following, and for the legislature to meet a month later. A committee of safety was chosen to conduct affairs till the new government should be organized.

9. Constitutional Convention.-Second Meeting.—The summer and autumn of 1777 were even more troubled than were those of 1776. While the convention was sitting the evacuation of Ticon

deroga and the battle of Hubbardton occurred. Bennington and Saratoga followed. The people of Vermont bore their full share, both of toil and of suffering, in these events. And in consequence the new constitution was not published and distributed in sea

OLD CONSTITUTION HOUSE, WINDSOR, 1777.

STATE GOVERNMENT ORGANIZED HERE, MARCH 12, 1778.

son for an election in December. Accordingly the convention was called together again, at Windsor, December 24, by the Council of Safety, and the constitution was amended by providing for an election on the 3d day of March and for the first meeting of the legislature, Tuesday, March 12, 1778, at Windsor.

10. The New Government Organized.The election was held and the legislature met according to appointment. The new State was organized with Thomas Chittenden, Governor, and with an able legislature and council. The State was not formed in a time of peace nor with the acquiescence of all men. There had been enemies without and foes within, and so it continued for several years more. Truly the ship was built in a tempestuous season and was launched on a stormy sea.

CHAPTER V.

A STATE, BUT NOT IN THE UNION.

1. Development.-We have seen that the settlers on the New Hampshire Grants refused to re-purchase their lands from the Province of New York. In the maintenance of that refusal they were led to deny the civil jurisdiction of New York. This denial of jurisdiction in its turn led to the formation of a State government.

2. Parties to the Contest.-The contention of the settlers at first was against the Province of New York. Both parties appealed to the King with results already related. At the beginning of the American Revolution, the provincial government of New York was displaced by a revolutionary government. The Province of New York became the State of New York. The State claimed all the territory and all the rights of its predecessor, the Province, including all its authority and rights in the New Hampshire Grants.

3. Appeal to Congress.-Vermont, having organized a government in opposition to that authority, appeared by its agents before the Continental Congress asking for recognition as an independent State. Vermont had been settled chiefly from Massachusetts and Connecticut and was in complete sympathy with their institutions and aspirations. It would find

friends in those States. With New Hampshire the inhabitants of the grants had been on good terms. No opposition was anticipated from that State. The

Green Mountain Boys had done good service in behalf of American independence and were likely to find friends among American patriots everywhere. In the confederacy there were large and small States. New York was a large State which some of the States would willingly see diminished. There were conflicting land claims. Virginia claimed the territory extending from the southern boundary of Kentucky to the Great Lakes and westward to the Mississippi River. New York claimed the same territory and Massachusetts and Connecticut each claimed so much of it as would be found between the northern and southern boundary lines of those States, severally, if they were extended due west to the Mississippi. Maryland demanded that the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains should be surrendered to the Union, and refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation till it should be done. Here were conflicting interests to be set over against one another. The Vermonters argued that by the withdrawal of royal authority they were left without a government, as their annexation to New York had been effected by a royal decree, which was of no effect after the colonies became independent of the King. So there were reasons good and poor for thinking that Congress would at once recognize the claimant State.

4. Obstacles.-But Congress was an assembly of States by their representatives. Each State had become independent by throwing off British rule. They entered the Congress as equals with the boundaries and the possessions they had before held as colonies. New York was in Congress by her delegates. She was an important member of the confederacy and was watchful for the maintenance of her power. The claim that a dissatisfied portion of a State might withdraw from the State at its own will was a dangerous