those to whom Gov. Benning Wentworth made grants of land west of the Connecticut River. A majority of the settlers came hither from Connecticut. More names of townships were taken from Connecticut than from any other colony and Connecticut ideas and ideals were the foundations upon which this commonwealth was builded. The name New Connecticut speedily passed away but the fact remains one of the great outstanding facts of Vermont history-that the influence of Connecticut upon Vermont probably was a greater constructive force than that exerted by all the other American colonies.

This committee reported further that the Continental Congress should be informed of the reasons why New Hampshire Grants had been declared an independent State and that that body be asked to grant said State a Representative in Congress. It was further recommended that a committee of war be appointed on the east side of the mountain range to act in conjunction with a similar committee on the west side; that some temporary policy should be adopted for establishing a system of government and that means should be devised for defraying the expenses of the agents to be sent to the Continental Congress and for printing the proceedings of the Convention. This report was accepted. It was further voted that the Declaration of Independence adopted should be inserted in the newspapers. There being no newspapers in the new State at that time, it was necessary to use those published in the older States, and particularly to use those of Connecticut. Heman Allen, Thomas Chandler and Nathan Clark were ap

pointed a committee to prepare the declaration for publication. Jonas Fay, Thomas Chittenden, Reuben Jones, Jacob Bayley and Heman Allen were appointed delegates to carry the remonstrance and petition of Vermont to the Continental Congress. Heman Allen, Jonas Fay, Joshua Webb and Thomas Murdock were appointed a committee, each member of which was expected to raise one hundred dollars for a fund to defray the expenses of the delegates to Philadelphia. It may be said in passing that there were no millionaires in New Connecticut in those days and that hundred-dollar subscriptions were by no means easy to obtain.

The committee of war appointed for the east side consisted of Thomas Chandler of Chester, Stephen Tilden of Hartford, Ebenezer Hoisington of Windsor, Joshua Webb of Westminster, Dennis Lockland of Putney, Jotham Bigelow of Guilford, Thomas Johnson of Newbury, Elijah Gates of Norwich and Nicholas White of Bradford. It was directed that delegates from Cumberland county should be forbidden to sit in a New York Provincial Congress and the "ardent wish" of the Convention was expressed that each town in the State would send delegates to the next session of the Convention. It was voted to adjourn the Convention until the first Wednesday of June, the session to be held in the meeting house at Windsor.

The declaration and petition to Congress presented to that body April 8, 1777, rehearsed briefly the grievances of the people of the New Hampshire Grants against the government of New York and expressed the fear that their rights were still in danger because the New York

convention held at Harlem the preceding August had voted that all quit rents within the State formerly due and owing to the British crown were due and owing to the Convention, or to such government as might thereafter be established in the State. The statement is made

that when news of the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress reached the petitioners they communicated it throughout the whole of their district.

The Declaration of the Independence of Vermont, prepared for the press by a committee appointed for the purpose, and published in the Connecticut Courant of March 17, 1777, was as follows: "Whereas the Honorable the Continental Congress did, on the 4th day of July last, declare the United Colonies in America to be free and independent of the crown of Great Britain; which declaration we most cordially acquiesce in: And whereas by the said declaration the arbitrary acts of the crown are null and void, in America, consequently the jurisdiction by said crown granted to New York government over the people of the New Hampshire Grants is totally dissolved:

"We, therefore, the inhabitants, on said tract of land, are at present without law or government, and may be truly said to be in a state of nature; consequently a right remains to the people of said Grants to form a government best suited to secure their property, well being and happiness. We the delegates from the several counties and towns on said tract of land, bounded as follows: South on the North line of Massachusetts Bay; East on the Connecticut River; North on Canada

line; West as far as the New Hampshire Grants extend: "After several adjournments for the purpose of forming ourselves into a distinct separate State, being 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 whatsoever. 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 defenceless country.

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

The report of the Convention which opened at Windsor July 2, 1777, is very meagre, being made up of various bits of evidence gathered from several sources. It is unfortunate that there has been left no satisfactory account of this Convention which provided a constitution and frame of government for the new State, and gave to it the name which it bears. Researches made by Rev. Pliny H. White and Leonard Deming indicate that its membership included Alexander Harvey of Barnet, Jonas Fay and Joseph Safford of Bennington, Benjamin Baldwin and Bildad Andrus of Bradford, Thomas Chandler and Jabez Sargent of Chester, Thomas Chittenden and William Gage of Danby, Benjamin Carpenter of Guilford, Joseph Marsh of Hartford, Francis Whitmore of Marlboro, Jacob Bayley and Reuben Foster of Newbury, John Throop of Pomfret, William Ward and Nehemiah Howe of Poultney, Joshua Webb and Reuben Jones of Rockingham, Joseph Bowker of Rutland, Timothy Brownson of Sunderland, Ebenezer Allen and Charles Brewster of Tinmouth and Joseph Williams of Pownal.

To this list E. P. Walton added the names of Thomas Rowley of Danby, John Burnam of Bennington, Ira Allen and Heman Allen of Colchester, and was of the opinion that probably Nathan Clark of Bennington, Benjamin Spencer of Clarendon, Jeremiah Clark of Shaftsbury, Samuel Fletcher of Townshend, William Williams of Wilmington, Leonard Spaulding of Dummerston, Nathaniel Robinson of Westminster, Ebenezer Hoising