elected Judge of the Supreme Court in the place of Stephen Royce, Jr. declined, but Allen also declined and later, Royce was induced to accept the position. It was this year that the Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company was incorporated, which ever since has been doing a successful business, the managers of which have had the confidence of the people. On Nov. 13, 1827, the House instructed the Vermont delegation in Congress to favor the purposes of the American Colonization Society by government aid.

On Oct. 27, 1832, a resolution was presented in the House by Charles Carron, Jr., the Representative of Isle La Motte, and concurred in by the Council, to effectually protect the citizens of the State engaged in the manufacture of marble from competition. It was the first resolution inviting the attention of the Legislature to one of the most admirable and valuable productions of the State.

At the October session of the Legislature of 1833, Solomon Foot of Rutland, afterwards a distinguished member of the United States Senate, introduced a resolution in the House, "that the Governor be requested to procure a sword, ornamented with devices emblematical of the capture of the Cyane and Levant, by the American Frigate Constitution, and present the same to Lieutenant Horace B. Sawyer, as a testimony of the high sense which the General Assembly entertain for his services and gallantry in that memorable action." This resolution was adopted without division, but rejected by the Governor and Council. In 1834, the House again adopted the resolution, and again

it was rejected by the Council; in 1835, the same resolution failed in the House, but in 1856 both the House and Senate concurred in paying the well deserved compliment. Captain Sawyer reciprocated by presenting to the Governor for the Executive Chamber, an elegant chair, manufactured from the wood of the old frigate Constitution. Captain Horatio Bucklin Sawyer was the grandson of Col. Ephraim Sawyer who commanded a Massachusetts regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and son of Col. James Sawyer, an officer in the War of the Revolution. Captain Sawyer was born in Burlington, Vt., Feb. 22, 1797; he was appointed midshipman in the U. S. Navy in 1812, and commenced service on Lake Champlain; he was captured on the sinking of the sloop Eagle in 1813, and detained for a year at Quebec as a prisoner; and on his release he was assigned to the frigate Constitution under Commodore Stewart, and served with credit in the action which resulted in the capture of the British ships named in_said resolution. While engaged in preserving neutrality, at Derby Line, during the "Patriot Rebellion" in Canada, he was appointed lieutenant commandant in the Navy, and in 1854, received a commission as post captain. He had a long and honorable service in the Navy. He died at the city of Washington, Feb. 14, 1860.

In 1835, there was no election of Governor by the people, but Silas H. Jenison was elected Lieutenant Governor. It had been the practice for the Governor-elect to issue the commissions to the officers elected by the Legislature during the session.

It was a matter of convenience that they should be so issued; and the question arose who should sign the commissions. On Nov. 6, 1835, the following resolution was introduced before the Council: "Resolved, That His Honor the Lieutenant Governor be requested to issue commissions, to the officers elected by the Ceneral Assembly, and other officers entitled to commissions in all cases when it hath been, heretofore usual to issue commissions during the session." A committee was appointed who reported, by George P. Marsh for the committee, to the Lieutenant Governor and the Council, that the Lieutenant-Governor, in their opinion, had the undoubted right to issue the commissions, "whether the late incumbent of the gubernatorial chair be holden to be still in office or not," but referred the question to the Supreme Court. Section XI of the second part of the Constitution then read as follows:

"The Governor, and in his absence, the Lieutenant Governor, with the Council (the major part of whom including the Governor or Lieutenant Governor, shall be a quorum to transact business,) shall have power to commission all officers, and also to appoint officers, except where provision is or shall be otherwise made by law, or this frame of government; and shall supply every vacancy in any office, occasioned by death or otherwise, until the office can be filled in the manner directed by law or this constitution."

Judges Titus Hutchinson and Samuel S. Phelps furnished the Council their opinion of the question involved, the full text of which is too long to be

stated, but the substance of which was that the "Plan or Frame of Government" which declares that the person having the major part of votes to be Governor, for the year ensuing, does not limit the exercise of the powers of Governor to the precise period of twelve calendar months, or one solar year; it is not to be understood that the powers of Governor shall cease before a successor is elected. While the election of Governor is pending in the Legislature, it must be considered, that the powers of the incumbent continue until a successor is elected, and this from the necessity of the case. The expression "the year ensuing" was undoubtedly intended to mean the political year. The court did not decide that the Governor would have any power to act as Governor after the dissolution of the legislative session without electing a successor of the Governor. Undoubtedly if the Legislature should take a final adjournment without electing a governor, in case the people had failed to elect one, the powers of the Governor would cease and the Lieutenant Governor would be the Acting Governor as it was in the year from November 1835, to the next session of the Legislature in 1836, when Silas H. Jenison, elected as Lieutenant, was ex-officio Governor on account of the failure of William A. Palmer, the leading candidate for Governor or other persons, to be elected as Governor.

GHAPTER VII.

BRITISH AGGRESSION AND CAUSE OF THE WAR OF 1812 AND VERMONT'S

ATTITUDE RESPECTING IT.

England has been and is called our mother country and in some respects that is true, and Americans have been willing that that appellation should be applied to them, but for many years after the American Colonies gained their independence England showed anything but a mother's care or respect for them. It was a bitter disappointment for the haughty British nation to surrender all authority over the American Colonies that she had clung to with such unparalleled tenacity, and acknowledge their attempted coercion a failure.

After the separation was accomplished, instead of fostering a just and friendly spirit, a domineering, captious and an illiberal spirit pervaded her dealings with America. Any small unintentional infractions of national law were greatly magnified. She acted as though the colonies that had been wrenched from her grasp, by reason of England's oppressive course, had no rights that Englishmen were bound to respect. This state of feeling was exhibited in their reluctance or refusal to with