magistrates on the charge of attempting to break jail and was returned to prison.

The New Hampshire Legislature thereupon enacted a law, authorizing a committee of safety to issue an order demanding the release from prison of persons arrested under the authority of the "pretended State of Vermont." Gen. Benjamin Bellows, however, informed President Weare that something more effectual than acts of the General Assembly was needed to open prison doors. He had heard that the Vermont authorities could raise six hundred men at short notice, and would "resolutely dispute the ground inch by inch." His advice was to the effect that unless a posse could be raised outside of Cheshire county it would be inadvisable to dispute the ground any longer. Governor Chittenden having been notified by Dr. William Page of Charlestown, the Vermont Sheriff, that military aid was needed to prevent the release of Colonel Hale, directed Lieut. Gov. Elisha Payne to repel force by force if necessary, but to use every means in his power to prevent bloodshed. He was given authority to call out any part or all of the militia east of the Green Mountains if New Hampshire insisted upon hostile measures. A copy of these orders was sent to President Weare by General Payne with a notice that if New Hampshire commenced hostilities that State must be accountable for the consequences. The next step appears to have been an order issued by Gen. Samuel Fletcher, calling out the militia east of the Green Mountains for the defence of the East Union.

The New Hampshire Committee of Safety, on December 27, 1781, ordered Sheriff Robert Smith to arrest certain residents of Cheshire county, including Samuel King and Nathaniel Prentice, members of the Vermont Legislature. King was arrested, but after being conducted for twenty miles, he was rescued at Keene by a party armed with clubs, swords and staves. Gen. Benjamin Bellows informed President Weare that this "mob" abused the persons who aided in King's arrest "in a shameful and barbarous manner," inflicting "all the indignities which such an hellish pack can be guilty of." More than that, he said that they threatened “to kill, burn and destroy the persons and property of all who oppose them."

Col. Ira Allen was sent to New Hampshire on a mission of peace, but accomplished nothing. While he was at Exeter, General Enos and Sheriff Page arrived on a similar errand. The latter was immediately arrested for accepting office from Vermont, and was confined in jail, bail being refused. On January 12, President Weare issued a proclamation giving Vermonters forty days to leave the East Union or acknowledge the jurisdiction of New Hampshire, following an act of the New Hampshire Legislature authorizing the raising of an armed force of one thousand men for the protection of the western portion of the State. It was also voted to notify Congress of the state of affairs.

In Governor Chittenden's letter to General Washington, dated November 14, 1781, in which the negotiations with the British were discussed, he alluded to the relations of the State with New York and New Hampshire.

in which he said that "the cabinet of Vermont projected the extension of their claim of jurisdiction upon the States of New Hampshire and New York, as well to quiet some of her own internal divisions occasioned by the machinations of those two governments, as to make them experience the evils of intestine broils, and strengthen the State against insult."

On New Year's day, 1782, Washington replied to Chittenden, writing not officially, but as one citizen to another, saying that he did not think it necessary to discuss the right of the people of the New Hampshire Grants, now known as Vermont, to the tract of country they occupied. He was willing to assume that their right was good, because Congress by a resolution adopted August 7 admitted that right by implication, and by its action two weeks later appeared willing to confirm it, provided the new State was confined to certain prescribed bounds. In his opinion the only real dispute involved a question of boundaries, and he asked if the recent annexations were not more of a political manoeuvre than an assertion of a justifiable claim.

Expressing his private opinion that Congress should do ample justice to a body of people sufficiently respectable by their numbers and entitled by other claims to be admitted to the Confederation, he called attention to the fact that if the rights of Vermont were acknowledged, that State would be the first to be admitted as a member of the Confederacy, and if encroachments upon ancient boundaries were permitted a bad precedent would be established. To this advice he added a warn

ing concerning the possible necessity of coercion by Congress.

Early in January, 1782, in accordance with a resolution adopted by the Governor and Council, Lieutenant Governor Payne, Bezaleel Woodward, Ethan Allen, John Fassett, Jr., and Matthew Lyon were appointed a committee to prepare a defence of the Eastern and Western Unions, although the author is thought to have been Ethan Allen. The argument is summed up in the closing sentence, which declares that "Vermont does not mean to be so overrighteous as by that means to die before her time; but for the States of New York and New Hampshire, to stand griping their respective claims fast hold of Vermont, and at the same time make such a tedious outcry against the gripe of Vermont upon them, is altogether romantic and laughable.”

The New York Legislature adopted resolutions expressing great alarm at the evident intention of Congress, as a matter of political expediency, to recognize the State of Vermont, in accordance with resolutions adopted on August 7 and 20, 1781, and these resolutions were presented to Congress and ordered to be filed among the archives. Mr. Floyd of New York

moved to amend the records by adding the words “and protesting against any attempt made by Congress to carry into execution their said acts of the 7th and 20th of August last." Five States favored the motion and only one, Rhode Island, voted no, but a majority of the States having failed to vote, the motion was lost.

Letters and papers relating to Vermont were presented to Congress for consideration, and the subject

was debated on January 25 and again on January 28, 1782, after which it was referred to a grand committee. During the month of February various letters and memorials giving the Vermont point of view were presented to Congress. Some of these were signed by Ira Allen and Jonas Fay, while to others was added the name of Abel Curtis of Norwich, who did not arrive in Philadelphia as soon as his colleagues. Allen and Fay presented credentials showing their reappointment, documents relating to the annexation of the Eastern and Western Unions and an appeal for the recognition of her independence and admission to the Federal Union. It was argued by the entire committee that when the power of the royal government in the American Colonies ceased the people were left at liberty to institute such government as might appear to them to be "most conducive to their peace and happiness." Requests were made for copies of papers filed by New Hampshire and New York.

Seth Smith, with the approval of Governor Clinton, presented a "Representation" to Congress on behalf of citizens in the towns of Guilford and Brattleboro, asserting that a very great majority of the people of those towns and three-fourths of the people residing between the Green Mountains and the Connecticut River, desired to return to the jurisdiction of New York.

A committee consisting of Messrs. Livermore of New Hampshire, Partridge of Massachusetts, Cornell of Rhode Island, Law of Connecticut, Floyd of New York, Boudinot of New Jersey, Clymer of Pennsylvania, Rodney of Delaware, Carroll of Maryland, Randolph of