•;. •>•* 
 
 i* ..."":•%•;< 
 
 
 
M 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 c 
 
 It 
 
* 
 
 
 
 '■fit 
 
 
 55* 
 
 
 Return this book on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books 
 are reasons for disciplinary action and may 
 result in dismissal from the University. 
 University of Illinois Library 
 
 MAV 1 3 I: 
 
 bb 
 
 L161— O-1096 
 
 
 &to 
 
 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 y t 
 
 
m& 
 
Charter Ibistorp of tbe TIini\>er$it\> of IDermont 
 
 En ©ration 
 
 belivereb upon 
 
 ^be Centennial Hnniversar^ 
 
 of tbe 
 Granting of tbe first Cbarter of tbe inniversit? 
 
 June 24tb, 1891 
 Bi? IRobert ©. BeneMct, & fll>. XX> 2), 
 
 JUN 6 W 
 
 Turlington, tfree press print, 1892 
 
c 
 
 JUNfi 19« 
 
 OMBftlTV OF ILllNO'l 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Corporation, and Ladies 
 and Gentlemen : 
 
 Thirty-seven years ago, in the year 1854, we celebrated 
 the Semi-centennial Anniversary of the University of Ver- 
 mont. The centennial Anniversary, therefore, will properly 
 be held in the year 1904, thirteen years hence. 
 
 • At that Semi-centennial a discourse touching the history 
 of the first fifty years of the institution was delivered by Rev. 
 Dr. John Wheeler, formerly President of the University. 
 To the Centennial Anniversary will belong the narrative of the 
 eventful latter half of the first century of its history. 
 
 It is not within the scope of what I propose to-day, to re- 
 peat the work which was so well done in 1851, or to forestall 
 the work of the historian to whom that future narration shall 
 be committed. This is the Centennial Anniversary of the 
 granting of the first charter of the University, and it is to some 
 matters connected with its charter history that I am to direct 
 your attention. It is a matter of regret to me that the learned 
 and distinguished gentleman to whom that task was allotted 
 was unable to fulfill it. With his abilities and the oppor- 
 tunities at his command, he could not have failed to produce 
 for this occasion something fully worthy of it, and of perma- 
 nent value to the Institution. I have been called to the task at 
 
 87 1 083 
 
a late hour, and I have had no access to stores of material in 
 the State, which would have given added interest and value 
 to a discourse on this subject. As it is, I must bespeak your 
 indulgent judgment. If I shall succeed in bringing before 
 you matter which shall keep your interest for the hour, 1 
 shall have attained all the success for which I dare to hope. 
 
 The Charter of the University of Vermont was granted 
 by the Legislature of the State on the 3d of November, 1791. 
 Consider for a moment what was the condition of the State, 
 politically and otherwise, at the time. The Act of Congress, 
 declaring that the State of Vermont should be " admitted into 
 this Union as a new and entire member of the United States 
 of America ", had been signed by the President, George 
 Washington, on the 18th of February, nearly nine months be- 
 fore. In October of 1790, the long pending controversy be- 
 tween Vermont and New York had been amicably settled by 
 an agreement, under which, in consideration of $30,000, Ver- 
 mont obtained a cession of all the rights which New York had 
 claimed within the limits of Vermont. 
 
 With her outside difficulties thus happily removed, and 
 with the vital relation between herself and the rest of the 
 United States fully established by her admission into the 
 Union, Vermont was at liberty to give her full attention to 
 her internal affairs, and to provide measures for the prosperity 
 and welfare of her people. They were not a numerous peo- 
 
pie. The census of the State, taken in that year 1791, showed 
 a total population of S5,539, * of which, 61,260 were in the 
 four southern counties. Chittenden County had a population 
 of only 7,301. Burlington had a population of 332 — less 
 than Shelburne, which had 389, or Williston, which had 471. 
 But the State was a growing one. t In the twenty years pre- 
 vious its population had increased more than ten fold, and in 
 the twenty years following it nearly trebled. It was not a 
 wealthy population, of course. There was not a Bank in the 
 State, or, so far as I can learn, any moneyed or business corpora- 
 tion of any kind. The ratable property of the township of Burl- 
 ington, in 1791, was put at £1,258. Thirty years later the 
 whole grand list of Burlington was only $25,550 ; and of 
 the 215 townships in the State there were not twenty whose 
 grand list was greater. 
 
 That a people so recently freed from the double burden 
 of the Revolutionary War with England, and the long contest 
 for their homes against the grasping power of Xew York, — a 
 people slender in numbers and resources, should lay the 
 foundation of a University for the higher education of their 
 children, showed that they were not without the spirit of the 
 Puritan settlers who established Harvard College, — the spirit 
 
 * Williams' Hist, of Vt., p. 409. 
 + lb. p. 411. 
 
expressed in these words of one of them: " After God had 
 carried us safe to New England, and we had builded our 
 houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared conven- 
 ient places for God's worship and settled the civil government, 
 one of the next things we longed for and looked after, was 
 to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity." * 
 
 The people of Vermont had not, however, waited till this 
 period of peace before taking measures to advance and per- 
 petuate learning. In the Constitution which they had adopted 
 in 1777, fourteen years before, while the question whether 
 there should ever 'be a State of Vermont was still an open one, 
 having little ground of assurance except the invincible deter- 
 mination of her people, a clause providing for public educa- 
 tion, including a State University, had been inserted. 
 
 It is worth while to consider this constitutional provision 
 for a little, because the action of Vermont as to education dif- 
 fered in some respects from that of all the other colonies. 
 
 The Continental Congress, on the 15th of May, 1776, passed 
 a Resolution recommending "the representative assemblies 
 and conventions of the United Colonies to adopt such govern- 
 ments as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the 
 people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their con- 
 stituents in particular, and of America in general." In pur- 
 suance of this recommendation most of the colonies proceeded 
 
 *Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. 1, p. 242. 
 
to set up forms of government for themselves, by calling con- 
 ventions to prepare new constitutions. Connecticut only 
 passed a law continuing her form of government under her 
 Colonial charter. But New Hampshire, New Jersey, Penn- 
 sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and 
 South Carolina adopted new constitutions in 1776. New York 
 and Georgia did the same in 1777, and Massachusetts in 1780. 
 Rhode Island adopted none till 1842. * Thus at the time of the 
 first Constitutional Convention of Vermont, in November, 1777, 
 ten new constitutions had already been adopted by the Colonies. 
 
 Only three of the Colonies, Pennsylvania, North Carolina 
 and Georgia, had included in their constitutions any provision 
 relating to education. 
 
 The Article in the constitution of North Carolina pro- 
 vided " That a school or schools shall be established by the 
 Legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such 
 salaries to the Masters paid by the public as may enable them 
 to instruct at low jyrices. And all useful learning shall be 
 duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities." 
 It may be doubted whether the idea of having common schools, 
 furnishing free education to all the people, entered into that 
 provision, which seems to look only to the furnishing of such 
 assistance to teachers that they could lessen the prices which 
 
 * Poore's Constitutions of the United States. 
 
they were, of course, to charge. But the idea of State Uni- 
 versities was clearly embodied. 
 
 The constitution of Georgia went farther, in reference to 
 County schools, for it provided that, " Schools shall be erected 
 in each county, and supported at the general expense of the 
 State as the Legislature shall hereafter point out ;" but it made 
 no reference to any University. 
 
 The Constitution which Pennsylvania adopted provided 
 for schools in each county, like Georgia, and for one or more 
 universities, like North Carolina. 
 
 The men of Vermont, who met in 1777 to form a Con- 
 stitution for the independent State, which they had determined 
 to set up between the two conflicting powers by which Ver- 
 mont was claimed on either side, were not men of experience 
 in that kind of business. Thomas Chittenden was the only 
 man in that Convention of 1777 who had ever sat in a Legis- 
 lative body. He had represented the township of Salisbury 
 in the General Assembly of Connecticut for several years be- 
 fore he moved to the New Hampshire Grants, and that experi- 
 ence must have made him an invaluable member of the Conven- 
 tion, coupled as it was with enlightened views and a rare sa- 
 gacity. Ethan Allen said that Gov. Chittenden was " the only 
 man he ever knew who was sure to be right in all, even the 
 most difficult and complex cases, and yet could not tell or seem 
 to know why it was so."* 
 
 * Governor and Council, Vol. 1, p. 119. 
 
The members of the Convention naturally sought to guide 
 themselves by the work which others had done. It is plain that 
 they took for their model the Constitution which Pennsylvania 
 had adopted the year before.* The opening of the preamble is 
 identical, and there are many provisions having the same words 
 in both. But, while following Pennsylvania as a model, they did 
 not hesitate to make changes in her work. Thus, to take a not- 
 able instance, the Constitution of Pennsylvania, as its first 
 Article, had the following, embodying ideas taken, of course, 
 from the opening sentence of the Declaration of Independence: 
 " That all men are born equally free and independent, and 
 have certain natural, inherent and inalienable rights, among 
 which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquir- 
 ing, possessing and protecting property and pursuing and obtain- 
 ing happiness and safety." The men of Vermont placed these 
 same words in the front of their Constitution, but they did not 
 stop there. They made an instant application of them by add- 
 ing : " Therefore, no male person, born in this country or 
 brought from over the sea, ought to be holden by law to 
 serve any person as a servant, slave or apprentice, after he 
 arrives to the age of 21 years ; nor female in like manner after 
 she arrives to the age of 18 years." And by this clause they 
 set up their new State upon the corner stone of freedom, and 
 gave the state of Vermont the proud distinction of having, 
 
 * Vermont Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. l.,p. 63. 
 
10 
 
 from the beginning, prohibited human slavery within her 
 borders. 
 
 So in reference to the matter of education, the men 
 of Vermont went beyond their Pennsylvania model. They 
 embodied in the constitution which they prepared, substantially 
 our present educational system. The 40th section was as 
 follows : " A school or schools shall be established in each 
 town for the convenient instruction of youth with such salaries 
 to the Masters paid by each town, making proper use of school 
 lands in each town, thereby to enable them to instruct youth 
 at low prices. One grammar school in each county and one 
 university in this State ought to be established by direction of 
 the General Assembly." 
 
 Yp.u will note that North Carolina had only provided for 
 " a school or schools " throughout the State ; while Georgia 
 and Pennsylvania had provided for schools to be erected in 
 each county — manifestly intending schools like academies or 
 grammar Schools. North Carolina and Pennsylvania had 
 also recommended one or more universities. But the men of 
 Vermont began at the bottom and put into their constitution 
 the requirements of schools for each town, a grammar school 
 for each county and a university for the State. And with a 
 wise regard for the best interests of the State, instead of pro- 
 viding for " one or more universities " they said: " One 
 
11 
 
 University in this State ought to be established by the General 
 Assembly." 
 
 Mr. Slade, in his State papers, where he prints this 
 Constitution,* adds in a note that "it is worthy of 
 remark that this Constitution was never submitted to 
 the people for their ratification." He perhaps was not 
 aware that there was no difference on this point between 
 Vermont and her predecessors in constitution-making. Xone 
 of the constitutions adopted by the colonies were submitted 
 to the people for ratification, until Massachusetts submitted 
 hers in 1780. The Conventions were authorized, as the Ver- 
 mont Convention was, to form a Constitution ; and they exer- 
 cised the power committed to them, and proclaimed their 
 action to the people and that was the end of it. The people 
 ratified it by acting under it. 
 
 The Constitution contained a provision, which was also 
 adopted from the Pennsylvania model, for the election of a 
 Council of Censors in 1785, who were to have power to call a 
 Convention if there appeared to the Censors " an absolute 
 necessity of amending any article of the Constitution.'^ The 
 amendments proposed were to be published six months before 
 the meeting of the Convention "for the previous consideration 
 of the people, that they may have an opportunity of instruct- 
 ing their delegates on the subject." 
 
 * Slade's State Papers, p. 241. 
 
12 
 
 A Council of Censors was accordingly elected in 1785, 
 which recommended certain alterations in the Constitution, 
 and called a Convention to be held in June, 1786, for their 
 consideration, and in February, 1786, the Council of Censors 
 issued an address to the Freemen of the State of Vermont on 
 the subject. 
 
 Two things are now to be noted : first, that in the new 
 Constitution which the Council of Censors thus recommended 
 to the people, they had stricken out the clause that, "one 
 university in this State ought to be established by direction of 
 the General Assembly," and second, that in the address to the 
 Freemen of the State, not the slightest allusion was made to 
 this important change. 
 
 I cannot believe that any change could have taken place 
 in the minds of the men of Vermont between 1777 and 1786 
 as to the importance or desirability of a university education, 
 for Dr. Williams, the historian of Vermont, in 1794, says : 
 " From the first assumption of the powers of Government, the 
 " Assembly had in contemplation the establishment of a Uni- 
 " versity in the State, and with this view reserved one 
 " right of land, in all the townships which they had granted, 
 " for the use of such a seminary."* And yet the fact remains 
 that the clause of the Constitution recommending one univer- 
 sity was stricken out in 1786, and the act incorporating the 
 
 * Williams' Hist, of Vt., p. 341. 
 
13 
 
 University in 1791 was not passed by reason of any consti- 
 tutional requirement. 
 
 I have not found in any narrative of the founding of the 
 University, of which several have been written, any explana- 
 tion of this fact, or indeed, any mention of the fact itself. 
 How did it happen that that important change in the 
 Constitution was made ( 
 
 If we had the detailed report of the proceedings of that 
 Council of Censors, and of the Convention which acted on 
 their recommendations, we might be able to lind what were 
 the exact reasons which induced the striking out of that clause 
 from the Constitution. Perhaps no such detailed records 
 were kept. Or, perhaps, as was said in reference to the pro- 
 ceedings of the Convention of 1777, "the original documents 
 have long since fallen a prey to the mice, the paper-makers, or 
 some other animals whose special function it is to destroy the 
 sources of history."* In their absence, we are left to con- 
 jecture on this point ; and it has occurred to me that this 
 change might have been due to influences from the direction 
 of Dartmouth College. 
 
 It will be remembered, by those who are familiar with 
 the early history of Vermont, that in the course of the long 
 contest between Vermont and Xew York, there was not only 
 a strong sympathy among the towns on the east side of the 
 
 * Rev. P. H. White's Address ; Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. 1, p. 57. 
 
14 
 
 Connecticut River with their brethren of the New Hampshire 
 Grants on the west side of the River, but a strong inclination 
 among them to cast their own lot in with the new State, which 
 had been there set up. It seemed to some of them that it was 
 by no means certain that the new State would be able to 
 maintain her jurisdiction west of the mountains against the 
 encroachments of her powerful neighbor, New York ; and that 
 if she should not succeed in doing so, and in fact in any event, 
 it would be a good scheme to unite into one State the whole 
 valley of the Connecticut on both sides of the River, on whose 
 waters the capital of a State so formed would naturally be 
 placed, and probably at Hanover. Nor was this plan unac- 
 ceptable to the men on the west side of the River, who might 
 naturally consider the accession of towns from the east side as 
 bringing added weight to Vermont in her contest with New 
 York. And so on the 11th of June, 1778, the General 
 Assembly of Vermont, sitting at the house of Capt. Stephen 
 Fay, in Bennington, acted upon a petition, which had been 
 presented to them by sixteen towns on the east side of the 
 River, praying to be admitted as a part of Vermont, and 
 voted that the union prayed for take place, f And thereupon 
 representatives from ten of those towns took their seats in the 
 General Assembly of Vermont. This action aroused such a 
 
 f Slade's State Papers, p 90. 
 
15 
 
 feeling on the part of New Hampshire, that it very soon be- 
 came apparent that the step had been unwise and must be 
 retracted; and on February 12th, 1779, that union was dis- 
 solved, having existed only eight months. 
 
 The feeling which had led to that union was, however, by 
 no means wiped out, and in 1780 it took on again an active 
 and larger form. In November, 1780, a Convention of towns 
 in the New Hampshire Grants, on both sides of the River, 
 was called to consider the subject. The Convention met in 
 January, 1781, at Charlestown, N. H.* It was attended by 
 delegates from forty-three towns, and resulted in a new appli- 
 cation to the General Assembly of Yermont, then sitting at 
 Windsor, for a union of all the Grants on both sides of the 
 River, under the Government of the State of Vermont. It 
 seems to have been due to the exertions and influence of Ira 
 Allen that that Convention did not resolve to seek a union 
 with New Hampshire instead of Vermont.f The question 
 of union was referred by the General Assembly of Vermont 
 to a popular vote, and, that having resulted in favor of the 
 proposed union, the General Assembly, on the 5th of April, 
 1781, passed a vote establishing the union as prayed for ; and 
 the next day thirty-five representatives from towns east of the 
 
 * State Papers, pp. 128. 
 
 f Allen's Hist, of Vt., pp. 147-8. 
 
16 
 Connecticut took their seats in the General Assembly of Ver- 
 mont. And there being no election of Lieutenant Governor 
 at the following general election, the General Assembly pro- 
 ceeded to fill the place by electing Col. Elisha Payne, of 
 Lebanon, on the east side of the Connecticut, as Lieutenant 
 Governor of the State of Vermont. 
 
 It would take too long to tell all the causes, as a result of 
 which this union shared the fate of its predecessor." Suffice 
 it to say that it appeared that this action of Vermont was a 
 new obstacle in the way of her admission into the United 
 States. And therefore, on the 22d of February, 1782, she 
 again retraced her steps, and this second union with the Xew 
 Hampshire towns was also dissolved, having lasted a little 
 more than ten months only, and Vermont returned to her 
 former and permanent boundaries, a result which has given to 
 the State a backbone of mountains, more appropriate to her 
 history than would have been the watery backbone of the 
 Connecticut River. 
 
 It is of course easy to see that the occurrences connected 
 with these unions had made close relations between the men 
 of Vermont and those of the towns on the east side of the 
 River. Hanover had, on both occasions, been one of the 
 towns united with Vermont ; and John Wheelock, who be- 
 came President of Dartmouth College in 1779, has the repu- 
 
 * See Hall's Early Hist, of Vt., ch. xxxi. 
 
17 
 
 tation of having been the first one to propose the union of 
 Western Xew Hampshire with Vermont. That Dart- 
 month College, as a body, took a very active part in those 
 transactions, is proved by a petition which is extant from cer- 
 tain citizens of the neighboring township of Llandaff to 
 the Governor of Xew Hampshire, in October, 1781, praying 
 for " ade and Protection against the insults and abuses of the 
 Vermont and especely of the Emeserries of the Coledg."* 
 
 While these unions lasted, i. e. for eighteen months in all, 
 Dartmouth College was within the boundaries of Vermont. 
 It was quite natural and proper that she should look out for 
 her own interests in her new relations, and natural that she 
 should receive friendly consideration from the men to whom 
 she had given such assistance. And so it is no matter of sur- 
 prise that four days after the adoption of the union of 177 N 
 the General Assembly of Vermont should have passed a vote 
 
 to take "the incorporated University of Dartmouth under the 
 
 * The whole petition was as follows : 
 
 Landaff, Oct. 3, 1781. 
 
 '•We the inhabitants of sd — Landaff having a Laudebel atachment 
 to the State of New hampshier and Likewise to the thirteen united States 
 of America and as We Live wheir Vermont Claims Jurisdiction have 
 Received so maney insults from that Quarter and are Now inVerry Grate 
 feear of Being insulted by them and Especially from the Emesseries of 
 the Colledge Do humbly Petition to the Honourabel Court of Xew hampi- 
 sher for ade and Protection Against the insults and abuses of theVermont 
 and especely the Emeserries of the Coledg Which your Petitioners in 
 Duty Bound shall ever Pray." 
 
18 
 
 patronage of Vermont ; " or that in June, 1785, on the per- 
 sonal presence and request of President Wheelock, it should 
 have granted 23,000 acres of land, for the benefit of Dart- 
 mouth College and Moor's Charity School in Hanover ; the 
 preamble setting forth as the reason for the grant that the 
 Legislature had a high sense of the importance of the said in- 
 stitution "to mankind at large and to the commonwealth in 
 particular ; its situation and connections being most favorable 
 to diffuse useful knowledge through the same." 
 
 Now it seems to me that the leading minds of Dartmouth 
 College must have seen, as soon as the union which had 
 put that institution within the boundaries of Vermont was 
 dissolved, that the clause in the Constitution of Vermont, 
 which provided that "one University in this State ought to 
 be established by the General Assembly," became a strong, if 
 not an impassable barrier to any further assistance to Dart- 
 mouth College from Vermont, and that it also contained a fore- 
 boding of the establishment of a new institution somewhere 
 within such limits as would endanger rivalry, or at least draw 
 upon resources which would otherwise be available for the ben- 
 efit of Dartmouth. And I cannot but suspect that this quiet 
 dropping out from the proposed new Constitution of Vermont 
 of this clause providing for one University "in this State" was 
 due to influences from the quarter to whose interest it mani- 
 festly was to have the clause removed. 
 
19 
 
 There was also a clause inserted by the Council of Cen- 
 sors, in the Constitution which they proposed to the people of 
 Vermont, the insertion of which seems to me to point in the 
 same direction. Whether the gift of a township of land to 
 Dartmouth was the only legislative grant of the kind or not, 
 attention seems to have been called to the injury which might 
 result to the State from similar grants to corporations of other 
 States, and accordingly the following new section was proposed 
 
 by tiie Censors as the 40th Section of the proposed Constitu- 
 tion :* 
 
 "To prevent this commonwealth being perpetually drained 
 of circulating specie by uses not beneficial to the same, the 
 Legislature ought to prevent corporations and societies in re- 
 mote parts taking or holding any lands lying within this State, 
 and to appropriate grants, which have heretofore been made 
 to such societies or corporations, to the use of literature within 
 this community." 
 
 If this proposed section had stopped here, it would have 
 been an effectual bar to any farther gift to Dartmouth College. 
 But that was not the result intended to be secured, for the sec- 
 tion proceeded as follows : "Provided, on account of the con- 
 tiguity and usefulness of the corporation of Dartmouth College 
 to this State, this section shall not be understood to affect the 
 said Corporation, while the College is maintained in the town 
 where it now stands." 
 
 * Slade's State Papers, p. 529. 
 
20 
 
 These proposed provisions of the Constitution would, 
 therefore, have had this result, if adopted. The requirement 
 that there should be one University "in this State" was abol- 
 ished ; future grants of land to corporations outside the State 
 would be forbidden, except to Dartmouth, and all grants which 
 had been made to other outside corporations, except to Dart- 
 mouth, would be appropriated, to the use of literature "within 
 this community" including Dartmouth. 
 
 If these proposed amendments to the Constitution had 
 their origin in any plan to secure for Dartmouth College privi- 
 leges in Vermont protected by the Constitution of Vermont, 
 the plan did not succeed. 
 
 For, although the Convention, to which these proposed 
 amendments to the Constitution were submitted, did not re- 
 insert the clause providing that "one University in this State 
 ought to be established," it struck out the whole of that sec- 
 tion which would have given special privileges to Dartmouth. 
 
 The men who managed the affairs of Dartmouth were 
 not, however, discouraged by this action of the Constitutional 
 Convention ; and that same year an application was urgently 
 pressed upon the attention of the Legislature of Vermont, by 
 President John Wheelock, requesting the passage of an act 
 which should give to Dartmouth College the lands which had 
 been reserved in the various township grants throughout the 
 State, as well those granted by New Hampshire as those 
 
21 
 
 granted by Vermont. In each of the grants issued by Grov. 
 Went worth, of New Hampshire, (about 130 in number) one 
 share out of seventy had been reserved for the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and one share for 
 a glebe for the Church of England. These were the grants to 
 outside corporations referred to in the clause proposed by the 
 Censors, which I have quoted. In each of the townships 
 granted by Vermont herself, one share was reserved for the 
 use of a Seminary or College. All these rights, thus reserved, 
 it was proposed by President Wheelock's petition to turn over 
 to Dartmouth College, on her agreeing to set up and maintain 
 an Academy in each county and give free tuition to all stu- 
 dents from Vermont at Dartmouth, or at a branch College, to 
 be set up in Vermont if the Legislature should ever think 
 such a thing to be necessary. 
 
 But the union between Vermont and the towns on the 
 east side of the Kiver had been finally dissolved. If the pro- 
 posal to change the Constitution, which I have discussed, had 
 been due to influences favorable to Dartmouth, those influ- 
 ences were fading before the rising feelings of pride and 
 affection for their own State in the hearts of Vermonters. 
 The request of Dartmouth was not granted ; the vote taking 
 Dartmouth under the patronage of the State was allowed to 
 lapse into oblivion ; and the attention of the men of Vermont 
 was turned toward the establishment of their own University. 
 
22 
 
 A proposition which had been made by Elijah Paine in 1785 
 to give £2,000 towards the incorporation of a College, pro- 
 vided it was settled in Williamstown, was renewed in 1787 ; 
 and in 1789 came the offer of Ira Allen to give £4,000 for that 
 object, provided the College was settled at Burlington, which 
 offer was supplemented by other subscriptions for the same 
 purpose, to the amount of £1, 643.12s, three hundred pounds 
 of which was the subscription of the Governor, Thomas 
 Chittenden, the first founder of the town of Williston. And 
 two years later, in November, 1791, the Act was passed which 
 incorporated the University and placed it on this spot. 
 
 Burlington, as you doubtless know, was selected by a clear 
 majority of 52 over all other places, in an assembly of 126. 
 This large vote was due no doubt to the influence of Ira Allen, 
 and the weight of his exceedingly liberal offer. The largest 
 donation received by Harvard, up to 1836, was only half as 
 large. And though, by reason of the unfortunate business re- 
 verses suffered by Ira Allen in after years, a large part of his 
 subscription was never realized, it was, at the time, an exceed- 
 ingly liberal offer, even considering the large wealth which the 
 giver estimated himself to possess ; for in 1809-10 he estimated 
 his lands in the State as being worth a million dollars. He 
 was not by any means the only man who, estimating himself to 
 be wealthy in lands, has been really land poor, and has finally 
 died in poverty. His subscription was by far the largest part of 
 
23 
 
 all the subscriptions ; and the subscriptions were substantially 
 the only foundation of the University. The Legislature in 
 granting the charter did indeed give to it the lands which had 
 been reserved in the various township grants for the use and 
 benefit of a College, which amounted to a little more than had 
 been granted to Dartmouth College. But these grants were 
 of little avail for the expenses of beginning. The trustees de- 
 termined to lease them rather than to sell them, the wisdom 
 of which action is much commended by Ira Allen in his His- 
 tory of Vermont.* It is much to be regretted that the neces- 
 sities of early times compelled the sale of a part of the 50 acres 
 which were originally set off for the site of the College as lands 
 which formed part of Ira Allen's subscription. By reason of 
 that unfortunate necessity the University has been much 
 cramped for the room made necessary by its growth. It is a 
 source of congratulation that by reason of the recent purchase 
 of 100 acres, east of the College buildings, it can look forward to 
 the requirements of the coming century with less uneasiness. 
 As I have said, the Legislative grant of lands was of little 
 avail at first. It was stated in a report made by the trustees to 
 the Legislature in 1804, that the total amount of money which 
 they had actually received from these lands granted by the 
 Legislature had been $79.42, or about $7 a year for the thir- 
 teen years which had passed since the charter was granted. 
 * Allen's History, p. 253. 
 
24 
 
 The University was, therefore, put in motion with funds 
 contributed by individual citizens, and the subscription of Ira 
 Allen may well be considered its corner-stone. That subscrip- 
 tion it was, doubtless, which carried decisive weight in the 
 question of the location of the University here. But aside 
 from the weight of Gen. Allen's subscription, I cannot doubt 
 that the fact to which he referred in his petition, that the loca- 
 tion was u a hundred miles from Dartmouth College," and was 
 a favorable one in respect to " the Province of Quebec and the 
 Northern part of the State of New York, where there are no 
 Colleges," gave added weight to his petition. 
 
 Colleges were not as numerous then as now. There 
 are now in the United States about four hundred; but 
 up to that time only twelve had been chartered in all 
 America, and of these only four were within the bounds of 
 New England. Harvard had been founded in 1636, one 
 hundred and fifty-five years before. Yale had been 
 founded in 1701, ninety years before. Brown University had 
 been founded in 1764, twenty-seven years before, and Dart- 
 mouth in 1771, twenty years before. The will of General 
 Williams had founded the Williams Free-School six years 
 before, and the thought of making a College there was proba- 
 bly already working in the minds of its friends, for the 
 charter of Williams College was obtained only two years 
 later. 
 
25 
 
 With Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth in full existence, and 
 "Williams on the eve of coming into life, what region was there 
 left so favorable for the " one University in this State" which 
 had been recommended by the first Constitution, as the valley 
 of Lake Champlain ? 
 
 The Act of Incorporation of the University, passed in 
 1791, had been drawn up in 1789 by a Committee of five 
 members of the House, viz : Nathaniel Chipman, Israel Smith, 
 Elijah Paine, Samuel Hitchcock and Stephen Jacob, to which 
 the Council added Isaac Tichenor. Elijah Paine, one of this 
 number, is authority for the statement that " in 1784 there 
 were not more than nine persons in the State, excepting 
 clergymen, who had received a College education." The six 
 members of this Committee were of those nine. They 
 were graduates, three of Yale, two of Harvard and one of the 
 College of New Jersey at Princeton. They were men, there- 
 fore, who may be supposed to have known about other College 
 charters; and if, in their work, they varied from other charters, 
 such variance may be supposed to be due to a desire to im- 
 prove upon them. 
 
 There are four points in the Act of Incorporation which 
 they drew, to which I wish to call attention : 
 
 First. Harvard, in addition to a Board of Trustees, had 
 also a Board of Overseers, by whom the orders and rules of 
 the Trustees could be overruled or altered. 
 
26 
 
 Brown University also had two governing boards. 
 
 Yale had only one Board of Trustees. There had been a 
 strong effort in 1763 to have a Board of Overseers added by 
 law, but it had failed. 
 
 Princeton had but one Board of Trustees. Dartmouth 
 had but one. * 
 
 The framers of our Charter made the University agree 
 with Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth, rather than with Har- 
 vard and Brown, and gave its government to a single Board of 
 seventeen Trustees. 
 
 Second. The Charter of Harvard established a relation 
 between the College and the Government of Massachusetts, 
 by providing at first that the twelve Overseers should be chosen 
 by the General Court, "six of the Magistrates and six of the 
 Ministers." But it must be remembered that at that time no 
 one could vote in Massachusetts to elect a magistrate or a 
 member of the General Court, unless he was a member of the 
 Church. So that the difference of class between "Magistrates" 
 and "Ministers" was not as wide as it would otherwise have 
 been. By the Constitution of the State, adopted in 1780, the 
 Governor and Lieutenant Governor, the Council and the Sen- 
 ate were added to the Board of Overseers. 
 
 By the Charter of Dartmouth, the Governor of the 
 Province for the time being was one of the Trustees. But 
 there was no such even formal connection with the State in 
 
27 
 
 the charters of Yale and Brown. In the charter of Prince- 
 ton the proposal to make a more positive connection with the 
 Government than that, was rejected, and although the Gover- 
 nor was named as one of the Trustees, it appears by a letter 
 of Jonathan Edwards, that even this was looked upon with 
 uneasiness by the promoters and friends of the charter.* 
 
 The framers of our charter took Harvard and Dartmouth 
 as their model on this point, instead of Yale and Brown, and 
 provided that the Governor of the State and the Speaker of 
 the House of Representatives for the time being should be 
 ex officio members of the Board of Trustees of the University. 
 
 Third. The charters of the other Colleges made them 
 distinctly denominational, and not only that, but distinctly 
 clerical in their government. 
 
 The charter of Harvard required that among the Over- 
 seers should be the Congregational Ministers in six of the towns, 
 one of which was Boston. This made Harvard distinctly 
 Congregational. 
 
 The charter of Yale provided that any new trustees elected,, 
 must be "Ministers of the Gospel inhabiting within the 
 Colony," which made Yale also distinctly Congregational. 
 
 The charter of Princeton named to be Trustees of the 
 College, the Governor of the Province, ten "gentlemen," and 
 twelve "Ministers of the Gospel," thus giving the Ministers a 
 
 *McLean's Hist, of the Coll. of N. J., Vol. 1, p. 89. 
 
28 
 
 majority over the "gentlemen.'' McLean, in his History of the 
 College, (Yol. 1, p. 88,) says : "The first four persons named 
 as Trustees were members of His Majesty's Council for New 
 Jersey, but they were not Trustees ex officio, but by special 
 designation. There was probably an intense desire on the 
 part of the friends of the College to have these gentlemen for 
 Trustees. But they never would have assented to have their 
 successors in His Majesty's Council to be ex officio their suc- 
 cessors in the Board of Trustees. The College was a Presby- 
 terian College, established by Presbyterians, supported by 
 Presbyterians, and controlled by Presbyterians, and they never 
 would have consented to run the risk that might arise, either 
 to the religious or Presbyterian character of their institution 
 from having so large a number of the Board chosen, not by 
 the other Trustees, but by the Superior Power." 
 
 The conditions were similar among the other Colleges of 
 the land. Columbia, in New York, and William and Mary 
 College in Yirginia and the University of Pennsylvania were 
 under Episcopal control. Dartmouth was Congregational; and 
 the charter of Brown University provided that eight of its 12 
 Fellows, and 22 of its 36 trustees must be Baptists, the other 
 trustees being 5 Episcopalians 5 Quakers and 4 Congregation- 
 alists. 
 
 The question must have presented itself to these six Col- 
 lege Graduates who drew up the charter of our University, 
 
29 
 
 whether or not they would in this regard follow the examples 
 of the earlier charters. They determined not to follow them. 
 And they put in their charter the broad provision that the 
 Trustees might elect, as their successors, "such and so many 
 as they shall think proper," not exceeding 17, without any 
 requirement that they should be either Ministers of the Gos- 
 pel or connected with any denomination whatever. 
 
 Iq thus providing for no denominational control in the 
 University, the Committee were in harmony with the public 
 sentiment of the people of Vermont. 
 
 Dr. Williams, in his History of Vermont, of 1794, uses 
 the following language as to the characteristics of her people:* 
 
 "Some of the people," says he, "are Episcopalians, others are Congregationalisms, 
 others of the Presbyterian and others of the Baptist persuasion and some are Quakers. 
 All of them find their need of the assistance of each other, in the common concerns 
 and business of life. And all of them are persuaded that the Government has nothing 
 to do with their particular and denominational tenets. It is not barely toleration, but 
 equality which the people aim at. Toleration implies either a power or a right in one 
 party to bear with the other, and seems to suppose that the governing party are in 
 possession of the truth, and that the others are full of errors, * * * The body of 
 the people in this community carry their ideas of religious liberty much farther than 
 this." 
 
 This love of religious equality among the peoj^le was 
 doubtless shared by the framers of our charter and led to the 
 non-denominational character of the instrument. The omis- 
 sion of the requirement of the other charters that new Trustees 
 should be "Ministers of the Gospel" was certainly not due to 
 any lack of respect for the clergy. Dr. Williams, in his His- 
 *Williams'Hist.,p. 336. 
 
30 
 
 tory of Vermont, says: "The order of the Clergy appeared 
 to advantage in the colonies." And he naively adds: "among 
 the doctrines which had divided the Christian World, they 
 had almost universally embraced the opinions of Calvin, but 
 were not deficient in inculcating the duties of morality and 
 the maxims of practical truth." Whether this was in spite 
 of their Calvinism, as Dr. Williams seems to think, or not, 
 the fact remains that in Vermont, as well as in the other 
 colonies, the Clergy, to use his words, "appeared to advantage," 
 and were not personally discriminated against. Three of the 
 first trustees named were ministers of the Gospel, one being 
 a Baptist, another an Episcopalian and another a Congrega- 
 tionalism But the framers of the charter did not intend that 
 the University should be under exclusively clerical control or 
 under the control of any denomination. And to make this 
 purpose entirely clear, they provided by a special clause that 
 the by-laws of the University should "not tend to give pre- 
 ference to any religious sect or denomination whatsoever." 
 
 In all the colleges it was provided that variance of relig- 
 ious belief should not exclude from the privileges of the col- 
 lege ; but that was a very different requirement from this. 
 That was toleration. This was equality. 
 
 Fourth. There was one provision which the framers of 
 our charter found in all the other charters, viz., that the trus- 
 tees should have the power to elect their own successors. This 
 
31 
 
 was an essential provision for institutions which were intended 
 to be and remain under denominational and clerical control, 
 as those were, for in no other way could such special control 
 be assured. You will remember how strenuously this was in- 
 sisted upon in the extract which I quoted from the history of 
 the College of New Jersey. 
 
 That reason for adopting such a provision in our charter, 
 did not exist. Sufficient reason for its adoption was doubtless 
 found in the steadiness and unity in educational purposes and 
 plans which would naturally result from it. And on this 
 point our charter was made to agree with those of the other 
 colleges. 
 
 I have called special attention to these four points, because 
 it was about them chiefly that the great controversy raged in 
 New Hampshire in the early years of this century, which gave 
 rise to the famous Dartmouth College case ; and that con- 
 troversy throws a strong side light upon an important part of 
 our own charter-history. 
 
 The Dartmouth College controversy probably had its origin 
 in personal differences between John "Wheelock, the presi- 
 dent, and some of the Board of Trustees. It will always 
 stand as a striking example of the simile of the wise Hebrew, 
 that " the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out 
 water." Whether the personal differences had their origin in 
 matters connected with the church government or with 
 
32 
 
 philosophical teaching, or not, the stream of controversy once 
 started was very soon swelled by religious differences and the 
 " odium theologicum," and this was speedily followed by the 
 wild torrent of party politics. Diverted then into the channel 
 of judicial proceedings, it reached an end in the decision of 
 the Supreme Court at Washington. 
 
 That determination produced results which have been felt 
 throughout the length and breadth of the whole land, and 
 have been a powerful influence, not only in giving security to 
 our collegiate institutions, but in moulding the whole form 
 and character of our nation and its government. 
 
 To write the story of the Dartmouth College case, would 
 require volumes. It would call for a narrative of the great 
 religious controversy in New England of the first part of 
 this century, the controversy between the "Standing Order" 
 as it was called, and the combined forces of other denomina- 
 tions and of irreligion. It would call for a narrative of the 
 political controversy of the same period between Federalist 
 and Anti-Federalist, during which, as Mr. Shirley says in his 
 History of the Dartmouth College Cases, " the Union became 
 an ocean of political passion without a parallel, except that 
 which preceded the late civil war. Partisan fury spared 
 nobody. Life-long friends turned away from each other as 
 they met, and the furnaces of defamation, seventy and seven 
 times heated, flamed incessantly." It would call also for a 
 
33 
 
 narrative of the founding of Dartmouth College and of the 
 personal relations of the Wheelocks, father and son, to the 
 State, the College and their associates in its management. 
 
 A very brief sketch of it will be sufficient for my purpose. 
 Disagreements had arisen between President Wheelock and a 
 majority of the Trustees; and in November, 1814, that 
 majority, ostensibly to relieve the President in the perform- 
 ance of his "very multiplied and arduous duties," "excused" 
 him from hearing the recitations of the senior class in 
 Edwards on the Will, Locke on the Human Understanding 
 and Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind, and ordered that two 
 of the Professors should "jointly supply the pulpit" as they 
 should agree. It is no marvel that President Wheelock should 
 not only have resented, but resisted this limitation of his 
 functions. It is no marvel, if the quarrel had its origin in a 
 difference of theological views, that it should have interested 
 the opposing religious elements; no marvel that in those 
 "feverish times " to use the expression of Judge Story, the 
 contest should have been carried into party politics. A war 
 of pamphlets spread the controversy through the State and 
 made it bitter, and President Wheelock, in 1815, appealed to 
 the Legislature, making a strenuous assault on the trustees 
 and praying for the appointment of a committee to investigate 
 their proceedings. The trustees were not able to prevent 
 
34 
 
 the passage of a resolution for the appointment of the com- 
 mittee, but were able to procure the appointment, by a 
 friendly Governor, of a friendly committee. They were also 
 able to do another thing, which they did, viz., they removed 
 President Wheelock from his office on the 26th of August, 
 1815. 
 
 A prophetic letter is extant from Jeremiah Mason, one of 
 the legal giants of that day and afterwards prominent counsel 
 for the trustees of the College, to his cousin, Charles Marsh, 
 one of the trustees, warning against any such action. He 
 wrote that "such a measure adopted under present circumstan- 
 ces and at the present time, would have a very unhappy effect 
 on the public mind." And he added what gives us a view 
 of the dividing lines of the controversy, as follows : 
 
 " That part of the President's complaint which relates to 
 " his religious grievances addresses itself pretty strongly to all 
 " the prejudices and feelings of all those opposed to the sect 
 " called Orthodox. This comprises all the professed friends of 
 " liberal religion, most of the Baptists and Methodists and all 
 " the Nothingarians. The Democrats will be against you, of 
 " course. All these combined would compose, in this State, a 
 " numerous and powerful body. Any measure adopted by the 
 " Trustees with the appearance of anger or haste will be eagerly 
 "seized on." 
 
 The majority of the trustees disregarded this advice of 
 
35 
 Mason, and what he had predicted followed. The contest 
 became a prominent element in the State election of that Fall. 
 The partisans of President Wheelock throughout the State 
 threw their weight in favor of Plumer, the Anti-Federalist 
 candidate for Governor, whose sympathies were openly on the 
 Wheelock side, and he was elected and with him a majority 
 in the Legislature. Governor Plumer in his first message 
 brought the matter of the College before the Legislature. The 
 situation was simple. The majority of the trustees were 
 opposed to Mr. Wheelock, and as long as they had the right 
 to choose their own successors, a majority would remain op- 
 posed to him. In some way this majority must be transformed 
 into a minority. The power given by the Charter to the 
 trustees to elect their own successors was plainly the key to 
 the situation ; and it was against that that the Governor 
 directed his attack. 
 
 " The Charter," said he, " was granted by John Went- 
 " worth, who was then Governor of Xew Hampshire under the 
 " authority of the British king. As it emanated from royalty. 
 " it contained, as was natural it should, principles congenial to 
 " monarchy. Among others, it established Trustees, made 
 " seven a quorum and authorized a majority of those present 
 " to remove any of its members which they might consider 
 " unfit or incapable, and the survivors to perpetuate the hoard 
 " by themselves electing others to supply vacancies. This last 
 
3G 
 
 " principle is hostile to the spirit and genius of a free govern- 
 " ment. Sound policy, therefore, requires that the mode of 
 " election should be changed, and that Trustees, in future, 
 " should be elected by some other body of men." 
 
 The pretext thus furnished by the Governor was speedily 
 acted upon by his adherents in the Legislature. Within twenty 
 days they passed an Act, the effect of which, if it had been 
 sustained, would have been to destroy the old charter of Dart- 
 mouth College and to establish a new corporation to be called 
 " The Trustees of Dartmouth University." It provided that 
 the University should be governed by a board of Trustees and 
 a board of Overseers, the latter having a supervisory power 
 over the trustees ; that the number of trustees should be 
 twenty-one instead of twelve ; that the board of Overseers 
 should be twenty-five in number, of whom the President of 
 the Senate and Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives of 
 New Hampshire, and the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Vermont should be members ex officio ; that the Governor 
 and Council should appoint the overseers and have power to 
 fill all vacancies in that board ; that the Governor and Council 
 should also complete the present board of trustees by ap- 
 pointing nine new members, and have power to fill all vacan- 
 cies in that board that might occur up to the first meeting of 
 the board of trustees. 
 
37 
 
 It is a very curious fact that it is quite doubtful whether, 
 after all, this proposed Act would have made any change in 
 the power of the trustees to choose their own successors. It 
 set over the trustees a supervisory board of overseers, the 
 members of which and their successors were to be appointed 
 by the Governor and Council. It also increased the number 
 of the trustees, giving the appointment of the new members 
 to the Governor and Council, whose appointments would be 
 sufficient to overpower the then majority in the board ; and 
 it gave to the Governor and Council the power to fill all va- 
 cancies in the board, occurring up to the time of its first meet- 
 ing. But as to how any vacancies arising after such meeting 
 were to be filled, the Act was silent. And inasmuch as it also 
 provided that the new board should have all the powers and 
 rights of the old Board, except so far as they were varied or 
 limited by this Act, and inasmuch as the right and power to 
 elect their own successors had certainly been one of the rights 
 and powers of the old board, I do not see but that the new 
 board of the University, after its first meeting, would have 
 had in its constitution the same monarchical principle which 
 had been so abhorrent to the Anti-Federalist Governor. 
 
 One would have said that, as the Governor had made it the 
 special ground of his assault that the power of electing their 
 own successors was a principle " congenial to monarchy," and 
 
 *% 
 
38 
 
 "hostile to the spirit and genius of a free government," the 
 main thing to be attended to would have been to substitute 
 some other principle. But the main thing in fact was to over- 
 come the majority in the Board, and that being done by the 
 simple process of authorizing the Governor to appoint enough 
 more trustees to put the present majority in the minority, 
 the necessity of providing some new principle of choosing 
 successors, more congenial to the spirit and genius of a free 
 government, was overlooked. 
 
 The Governor's assault upon that principle was in truth 
 nothing but an appeal to prejudice. As Judge Smith said in 
 his argument for the old board of Trustees in the New Hamp- 
 shire Court : — "It never occurred to our wise men of former 
 days that the best way of promoting any charitable design 
 was * * * to deny these corporations the power of per- 
 petuating themselves. It is believed that the colleges, aca- 
 demies, free schools, hospitals, asylums, the theological institu- 
 tion at Andover and charitable institutions generally in New 
 England, and in the other States of the Union, have been in- 
 corporated in that way." 
 
 He might very well have added that there was no reason to 
 fear that any supposed monarchical tendencies had not been 
 burned out by the fires of the Kevolution just as much in the 
 trustees as in the Governor himself. 
 
39 
 
 This action of the Legislature was resisted by the trustees 
 of Dartmouth College as being beyond its constitutional 
 power. The suit, which in the year 1817 they brought to test 
 the question, was decided against them by the Supreme Court 
 of New Hampshire. But on their appeal to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, that court, in 1S19, reversed that 
 decision and sustained the claim of the trustees of the college 
 that the Legislature of New Hampshire had not the power 
 under the Constitution of the United States to take away the 
 rights which had been granted to them by the original charter, 
 without their consent. 
 
 " By this opinion." says Edward Everett, " the law of the 
 " land in reference to college charters was finally established. 
 " Thenceforward our colleges and universities and their 
 " trustees, unless provision to the contrary is made in their 
 "charters of incorporation, stand upon the broad basis of com- 
 " mon right and justice, holding in like manner as individuals 
 " their property and franchises by a linn legal tenure, and not 
 " subject to control or interference on the part of the local 
 "legislature, on the vague ground that public institutions are 
 "at the mercy of the Government." 
 
 I have given this sketch of the Dartmouth College con- 
 troversy, not for the purpose of emphasizing the protection 
 which it gave to the chartered rights of colleges and univer- 
 sities, although the L^niversity of Vermont shares with other 
 
40 
 
 institutions the benefit of that protection, but in order to 
 point out a curious contrast between the histories of the two 
 universities, as to the questions involved in that controversy. 
 
 The Legislature of New Hampshire undertook to make a 
 close relation between the College and the State, and for this 
 end to take away from the governing body of the college the 
 power of perpetuating itself, to make State officers members 
 of such board ex officio and to give the power of election to the 
 State legislature. The trustees of the college refused to 
 allow this to be done. They held that it was their duty as 
 trustees to prevent the making of such a change in the con- 
 stitution of the college. They declared their protest against 
 it, because, said they, " its inevitable tendency is to make the 
 highest seat of literature and science in the State subject to 
 every change and revolution of party, than which nothing can 
 be more destructive to its welfare." And they and their sup- 
 porters made the country ring with their outcries as to the 
 danger to all the institutions of learning in the country, if 
 such action were permitted. As one example of this take this 
 picture, presented by Mr. Webster in his argument before the 
 United States Supreme Court : " What interest," said he, 
 " has the College whose rights these trustees defend, to be 
 " secured here, that every literary institution has not, every 
 " religious corporation, every seminary of learning ? To-day 
 " Dartmouth College falls by the stroke of a New Hampshire 
 
41 
 
 " legislature. The outrage receives the sanction of the highest 
 " and most august tribunal of our country, if this learned and 
 " honorable Court adjudges that a charter gives no rights that 
 " are not at the pleasure of State legislatures and affords no 
 " protection to property in such institutions that may not be 
 " swept away by the violence of popular faction, or the caprice 
 " of annual or semi-annual law-makers. The principle thus 
 " solemnly and deeply established, who shall say what victims 
 " will fall under its destroying power, or in what order of 
 " succession they will be led to death ? " 
 
 It is a noticeable fact, and one which, as we now look 
 back upon such direful anticipations, gives us an impression 
 that they were in truth exaggerated, that, in the history of 
 the University . of Vermont, there had been a very similar 
 change of constitution. In the year 1810 the Legislature 
 passed an Act amending the charter of our University. That 
 Act made a slight increase in the number of trustees, and 
 provided that all vacancies in the board should thereafter be 
 filled by the ballot of the Legislature, five members to be 
 elected every third year. 
 
 This Act did the very thing as to our University which the 
 New Hampshire legislature sought to do for Dartmouth. It 
 took out of the charter the principle which Governor Plumer 
 thought was so hostile to the spirit and genius of a free gov- 
 ernment, that the trustees should choose their own successors. 
 
42 
 
 and placed their succession in control of the Legislature of the 
 State. 
 
 The difference between the two cases is, that in New Hamp- 
 shire the change was sought to be forced upon an unwilling 
 board of trustees, whereas, in Vermont the change appears 
 to have been the result of a movement on the part of the 
 trustees themselves. The preamble to the Act so states it. 
 It says : " Whereas the Board of Trustees of the University 
 have requested this Legislature to take said institution under 
 their more immediate patronage and vary the mode of electing 
 Trustees to fill such vacancies as may happen," &c. 
 
 If that petition of the trustees was other than a verbal one 
 by a committee, I have not been able to find it. But from 
 what appears on the records of the Legislature, and from the 
 surrounding circumstances, I think I am entirely justified in 
 believing that it had its origin in no personal difference, and 
 no party quarrel in the board of trustees ; and that the motive 
 which led to it was no desire to overthrow opponents, but a 
 hearty desire for the future prosperity of the University. 
 The University was but just getting under way. It was very 
 much straitened in circumstances. The report which the 
 Board had, in that year, presented to the Legislature, showed 
 that the cost of the land, the College building and the Presi- 
 dent's house and out-buildings had been $25,458 ; that the 
 College owed $11,408, while there was due to it $14,169, 
 
•43 
 
 making a balance in its favor of the enormous sum of 82,761! 
 always provided that certain lands could be sold at estimated 
 prices. 
 
 The price of tuition was 812 a year, and the number of 
 students appears to have been about 50, making about §600, 
 while the annual rents of leased lands amounted to $1,161 52. 
 Xow $1,750 a year was a small sum, even eighty years ago, on 
 which to keep up the ordinary running expenses of a college of 
 fifty students ; and for all advance it would have to depend, as 
 it had so largely depended up till that time, upon individual 
 liberality. Under such circumstances it is no marvel that the 
 trustees should have sought to make a closer relation with 
 the State, in the hope that the State, taking the University 
 under its special protection, would increase its facilities and 
 means of growth. And it must be borne in mind that the 
 terrors of such a connection with the State had not then been 
 trumpeted forth as they afterwards were by the pamphleteers 
 and orators of the Dartmouth College controversy. It cannot 
 be supposed to have occurred to the minds of the Trustees 
 that this principle of election, which they proposed to have 
 changed, was "contrary to the genius of a free people". That 
 idea was brought to life by the heat of party hostility ; nor did 
 they probably consider the principle which they surrendered 
 as such an inestimable privilege as it was afterwards declared 
 to be. The change did not present itself to them as being a 
 
44 
 
 defeat in a controversy in which every feeling and power had 
 been involved; and thus it did not exhibit to them the terrible 
 features which it wore on the East side of the Connecticut 
 River. They acceded to the change, if they did not them- 
 selves propose it ; and for 18 years the trustees were elected 
 by the ballots of the Legislature. No such grievous results 
 followed as were foreboded in the New Hampshire case. Nor 
 did any such large benefits accrue to the University as it had 
 been hoped that the change would produce. The hindering 
 influences were present, which had already turned the people 
 of the State away from the wise recommendation of the Con- 
 stitution of 1777, that there should be "one University in this 
 State," and divided interests made divided counsels. It 
 appeared in time that the change which had been made was 
 not accomplishing what it was expected to do ; and in 1828 
 the Act of 1810 was repealed and the board of trustees 
 returned to their position and methods under the original 
 charter; and under that they remained till the joining of the 
 State Agricultural College with the University. 
 
 Since that union, in 1864, the system of continuing the suc- 
 cession of the trustees governing this Institution has been a 
 combination of both the other systems, the trustees of the 
 University proper electing their own successors, while the 
 trustees representing the Agricultural College have been 
 elected by the Legislature. 
 
45 
 
 And so during the century we have had in force three sys- 
 tems. The present system seems to combine the advantages of 
 botli the others. By maintaining a close and vital relation 
 between the institution and the State, it secures for public 
 sentiment a due regard, while at the same time it ensures that 
 stability and continuity of purpose and plan which are so 
 necessary for the interests of the best education. 
 
 But my time, and I am afraid your patience, is exhausted. 
 I have but a few words to add. 
 
 In the short time which has been at my command for the 
 preparation of this discourse, my attention and study have 
 been of necessity directed to the early history of this State; 
 and the more I have familiarized myself with it, the higher 
 has my admiration risen for the sagacity and determination 
 and public spirit of the men of Yermont of a hundred years 
 ago. Their ideas, their plans, their purposes, their wishes for 
 Yermont, are entitled to careful consideration at the hands of 
 every Yermonter who loves his native State, as who does not? 
 
 These centennial years should have the effect to give a 
 newer life among the people of to-day to those feelings, born 
 out of the necessities of defence against outside hostility, which 
 made the men of Yermont, in 1777, choose for the motto of 
 the State, the words " Yermont, Freedom and Unity," — Free- 
 dom from domination forced upon the people from outside 
 
40 
 
 the borders of the State, and Unity among the people within 
 its borders. 
 
 And if, in the progress of the century which is upon us, it 
 shall be found that the conflicts of the past century have sub- 
 sided, and their tumults have died into silence ; that the divid- 
 ing influences have become less powerful, and unifying in- 
 fluences more prevailing, until the result shall be that the 
 people of Vermont, in dealing with the great subject of edu- 
 cation, which, as our charter says, " is necessary for the ad- 
 vancement of morality, virtue and happiness,'' have returned 
 to the wisdom of the Fathers who adopted the Constitution of 
 1777, and the day shall come when there shall be " one Uni- 
 versity in this State," — a University established upon broad 
 foundations, embracing and caring for all interests, still furn- 
 ishing to the people of this State, for their sons, an education 
 such as has always made its home here, imbued with a reverence 
 for the past and open to the hopes and possibilities of the 
 future, and sensitive to the requirements of the future — an 
 education which, to use the words of Ira Allen, while seeking 
 to make good men, rather than great scholars, " hopes for the 
 union of both, for that makes the man and the useful citizen " 
 — if the day shall come when there shall be one University in 
 this State and such an one cherished and supported by the 
 State as it should be — that day will be a good day for this 
 University and for the State of Vermont. 
 
£be jfounber of tbe Tllniversitp. of Vermont 
 
 H Centennial ©ration 
 
 on tbc life ano public Services of 
 
 (Seneral Ifra Hllen 
 
 5>elivereo 
 Commencement Bap June 29 1892 
 
 36? prof. 3. £♦ Goobricb 
 
COPYRIGHT 1892 
 J. E. GOODRICH. 
 
Gbe life anfc public Services of 
 (Seneral lira Hllen, 
 
 The early history of the New Hampshire Grants presents 
 few incidents which cannot be paralleled in other American 
 colonies. But from the year 1764, the date of the Order in 
 Council transferring the district to the jurisdiction of New 
 York, the panorama, which hitherto had unrolled itself in 
 quiet and orderly sequence, changes to an exciting drama with 
 rapidly shifting scenes, an intricate plot, and an uncertain 
 issue. So serious and so hazardous are the complications in 
 which the interests both of the nascent state and of the indi- 
 vidual actors are involved, that the feelings of the historical 
 onlooker are stirred with alternate hope and fear as to the out- 
 come. There are points in the unfolding action where the 
 case seems simply desperate, knots which human ingenuity 
 seems incompetent to untie or to cut, obstacles which no vigor 
 or unanimity of effort is likely to evade or to overcome. 
 
 The danger threatens now on the west, and now on the 
 east, and then on both sides at once, and again takes the omin- 
 ous shape of hostile invasion from the north; appears sometimes 
 as intestine dissension or revolt, and again as a spirit of distrust 
 or positive hostility in the Continental Congress. The appeal 
 is made successively to popular argument, to diplomacy, and, 
 these failing, to the musket and the beech seal. 
 
To the spectator, the case seems more than once already 
 decided against the upstart republic. The odds are too great, 
 the enemies of the would-be State too many and too closely 
 united, save for that magnificent courage which was invincible, 
 because it never admitted that it was worsted, whether by 
 logic or by arms. During the more than quarter-century of 
 the travail which ended in the first accession to the original 
 family of thirteen States, the political Lucina sat perversely 
 cross-legged, if so she might possibly thwart the benign pur- 
 pose of liberty and the gracious decrees of fate. ' 
 
 Most of the prominent actors on this stage have been 
 treated with something like justice, and have had a niche 
 accorded them in the temple of history. The prudent soldier- 
 ship of Warner, the firm policy of Chittenden, the solid patri- 
 otism of the Robinsons and the Fays and the Brownsons, 
 Bradley's brilliant career and Baker's untimely death, — these 
 
 1 The case of Vermont was saved, so to say, by the dishonesty and 
 injustice of the New York officials. If New York land jobbers had been 
 less greedy, if New York governors — and Lieut. -Gov. Golden in particu- 
 lar — had not in their hunger for fees recklessly regranted lands in disre- 
 gard of the king's mandate ; if the rulings of New York courts had not 
 been in defiance of law and facts ; if the administration attempted by 
 New York had been characterized by a fair measure of justice and an 
 occasional regard for the chartered rights of the actual settlers ; if Gov- 
 ernor Clinton had not been unreasonably obstinate, — if any of these ifs 
 had been facts, the dwellers between Lake Champlain and the Connecti- 
 cut would to-day be contentedly paying taxes to New York, and rejoic- 
 ing in the fame and power of the Empire State. 
 
should be familiar themes to all Yermonters who care to know 
 their political ancestry. 
 
 Most prominent of the whole group, like a comet moving 
 athwart a constellation, shines the fame of Ethan Allen. Im- 
 pulsive and imperious, prompt in decision and in action, self- 
 confident, courageous even to rashness, he is the best known, 
 if not the most admired, of all the figures of those early days. 
 Indeed his military reputation has served to obscure his 
 undoubted merits as a defender by reason and argument of the 
 chartered rights of the settlers on the Grants. His services 
 as envoy and agent of the State government are by no means 
 to be overlooked in making up his record. He struck as effec- 
 tive blows for the liberties of Vermont with voice and pen 
 sometimes as with the sword. Perhaps history has awarded 
 him his full meed of honor. The American school boy can 
 recite his exploits, and the pilgrim's homage is challenged by 
 column and statue rising yonder above his honored dust, but 
 comparatively few are acquainted with the part played in the 
 same protracted struggle by Ethan's youngest brother. 
 
 The soldier's gaudy uniform attracts all eyes. His unself- 
 ish and absolute offering of life and fortune on his country's 
 altar compels admiration. Yet the victories of the general 
 may be of less moment than those of the diplomatist or the 
 statesman, albeit the latter are won in the seclusion of the cab- 
 inet or the council chamber. 
 
6 
 
 And yet Ira Allen, as well as a third member of this noted 
 brotherhood, was also a soldier. Before he was twenty he had 
 served as a lieutenant with the Green Mountain Boys. At 
 the age of twenty-four in 1775 he assisted Ethan Allen in tak- 
 ing the British garrisons on Lake Champlain, as also General 
 Montgomery in the taking of St. Johns and Montreal. A 
 few weeks later we find him responsible for an important 
 movement in connection with the unsuccessful attack upon 
 Quebec. At the date of the Dorset convention of January, 
 1776, Lieutenant Ira Allen was with the army before Quebec. 
 A month later he leaves the field of arms and the open con- 
 test with Great Britain to defend the imperilled rights of the 
 settlers on the Grants against the aggressions of New York 
 land jobbers, and to concert plans with others for the organi- 
 zation of a new State. In the following July he appears in 
 the convention at Dorset, as delegate from the town of Col- 
 chester, and is assigned a place on important committees. In 
 the September session his name is equally prominent, being 
 associated in responsible duties with those of Jonas Fay and 
 Thomas Chittenden. The declaration having been passed 
 unanimously that the territory of the New Hampshire Grants 
 ought to be free and independent, and the covenant signed, 
 Allen is designated as one of two commissioners to traverse 
 the counties to the east of the mountains, and commend to the 
 minds of the people there the advantages of a separation from 
 
the government of New York. Of the convention held the 
 next October at Westminster, as also of that of the January 
 following, Captain Ira Alien was clerk, and likewise an influ- 
 ential member of the committee selected to propose a plan 
 for further action. ' And once and again in the months which 
 followed, his ready pen was put in motion to defend the con- 
 vention and the people of the district against the arguments 
 and the aspersions of the officers and agents of New York. 
 
 The affairs, civil, military and diplomatic, of the embry- 
 otic State, were directed by the Council of Safety, which ruled 
 the Grants with an absolute yet benign authority, and watched 
 with a sleepless vigilance the movements of British without, 
 and of Tories within, her borders, and was alert to anticipate 
 or to oppose the equally unfriendly attempts of New York 
 politicians and speculators. 
 
 The guiding minds in this council were undoubtedly 
 Thomas Chittenden, nineteen times elected pilot of the newly 
 launched ship of state, and Ira Allen. To estimate the 
 
 1 The intense earnestness which characterized these builders of a new 
 State is very impressively exhibited by a mere list of the dates of their 
 conventions previous to the adoption of the constitution. There were 
 three conventions at Dorset beginning respectively January 16, July 21. 
 and September 25, 1776 ; two at Westminster, October 30, 1776, and 
 January 15, 1777 ; two at Windsor, June 4 and July 2, 1777. Five con- 
 ventions within one year ! In the five years, 1778-82, the assembly held 
 fifteen sessions. New York was allowed to gain nothing by virtue of 
 their inaction. 
 
8 
 
 responsibility resting on these two men, we must recollect that 
 Kemember Baker's promising career had been suddenly closed 
 by an untimely death, that Ethan Allen was at this time a 
 captive in England, and that Seth "Warner and Robert Cochran 
 were serving with the continental army until the close of the 
 Revolutionary war. 
 
 Chittenden was resolute, undaunted, a very rock for firm- 
 ness, a tower of strength for his practical wisdom, qualities 
 which were admirably reinforced by the foresight, the political 
 sagacity, the fertility of resource, of his principal coadjutor. 
 
 An incident in the campaign of 1777 may be cited as in- 
 dicative of the man's quality and influence with the Council. 
 The evacuation of Ticonderoga by the American forces on 
 the sixth day of July had spread consternation throughout 
 New England, and especially through the Grants, which lay 
 directly in the track of the invading army. The Vermont 
 Council of Safety had hastened from Windsor, where, during 
 the progress of that providential thunderstorm, the conven- 
 tion had just adopted the constitution " paragraph by para- 
 graph," to Manchester, that they might take instant and ap- 
 propriate measures for the defence of the frontier. The 
 council assumed that the American generals had, of course, 
 already sent off expresses to the authorities of Massachusetts 
 and New Hampshire for immediate assistance. 
 
 Allen could not accept this view of the case. In this 
 
emergency an hour's delay might bring irretrievable disaster. 
 These same generals, he knew by his own personal observa- 
 tion when an envoy of the State the month before to the gen- 
 eral in command at Ticonderoga, had been strangely, if not 
 culpably, careless in regard to precautions against the enemy, 
 and they might have been equally negligent in the present 
 juncture. He withdrew from the council, wrote despatches 
 to the governors of the states named, signed them as Secre- 
 tary of the Council of State, prepared expresses, advanced 
 money for their necessary expenses, and, this done, showed 
 his letters, and prevailed on the council to authorize their 
 transmission in its name. They proved to be the first official 
 communications received by the authorities of these states. 1 
 
 We all know the sequel. New Hampshire roused her- 
 self to meet the peril. Stark and his men gathered at Num- 
 ber Four 2 and made their forced march to Manchester. A 
 few days later the battle of Bennington had been fought and 
 won under the general and by the aid of the forces which 
 Allen's missive had summoned. 
 
 It is due to Allen's memory to saj further that the in- 
 formation obtained by him, and the counsel given by him to 
 Stark, caused Stark to anticipate the engagement by one day,. 
 
 1 The letter to the governor of New Hampshire, and his reply, niajr 
 be seen in Slade's Vermont State Papers, 79, 80. 
 
 - Now Charles town, N. H. 
 
10 
 
 and attack Baum just before lie was to be reinforced by 1500 
 men. It is idle to conjecture what would have been the issue, 
 but for the timely action of the secretary of the council and 
 his sagacious advice, or if both Stark and the council had not 
 disregarded Schuyler's peremptory orders to have the troops 
 proceed with all haste to Saratoga. This was the first break 
 in a long series of disasters, which began with the fall of 
 Montgomery eight months before. 
 
 It is enough to know that the victory at Bennington re- 
 kindled in the continental army and in the whole country the 
 hope and courage so nearly quenched by repeated reverses ; — 
 that it contributed directly to the surrender of Burgoyne a 
 few weeks later at Saratoga; and that this surrender paved 
 the way to that alliance with France (February, 1778) which 
 went so far to turn the scales at last in favor of the revolted 
 colonies — and further, to remember that this series of mo- 
 mentous consequences connects itself at two critical points 
 with the quick decision of that young secretary of the Council 
 of Safety who would leave nothing to uncertainty and delay. 
 
 The truth of history requires us to connect the name of 
 Ira Allen with another operation which contributed to the 
 surrender at Saratoga. The bold attempt about a month after 
 Baum's defeat, and a month before Burgoyne's capitulation, 
 to cut the British line of communication with Canada, also 
 originated with the Vermont Council of Safety. The secretary 
 
11 
 
 of the council does not hesitate to claim his share in the credit 
 to be given for the taking of Mount Hope and Mount Defi- 
 ance and the posts on Lake George, the liberation of the 
 American prisoners taken at Hubbardton, and the capture of 
 three hundred of the enemy. This movement alarmed the 
 British at Saratoga and set them to intrenching. The project 
 carried into effect by the hands of Colonels Brown and War- 
 ner and Captain Ebenezer Allen, had been entertained first by 
 the agile brain of Ira Allen and accepted by the soldiership 
 of General Lincoln. 
 
 One of the most serious difficulties confronting the infant 
 State was the utter lack of one of the two main sinews of war. 
 Gold they had none, nor could they devise any means to ob- 
 tain it. The Council had not- a shilling of public money, no 
 credit, no power to lay or collect taxes, and were not person- 
 ally able to advance any large sums from their private purses. 
 For a whole day they discussed the situation, but found no 
 light. Just before adjournment a member of the council 
 moved, apparently with a touch of sarcasm, "that Mr. Ira 
 Allen, the youngest member of the council, who insisted on 
 raising a regiment while the majority were for only two com- 
 panies of 60 men each, might be requested to discover ways 
 and means to support a regiment, and to make his report at 
 sunrising on the morrow." When the council convened the 
 next morning, his scheme was ready. He proposed the ap- 
 
12 
 
 pointment of commissioners of sequestration, the seisure and 
 sale at auction of the goods and chattels of all who had [joined] 
 or should join the common enemy, and the payment of the 
 proceeds to the treasurer of the Council of Safety. His 
 measure was adopted by the council and the regimental officers 
 appointed. The effect was instantaneous. The government 
 was at once possessed of all the funds it needed. Bounties 
 were offered and paid at the expense of the enemies of the 
 State of Vermont and of the United States. In a fortnight 
 Vermont had a full regiment of rangers ready to protect the 
 imperilled homes of the young republic. From this time till 
 the close of the war there was no more stringency in the State 
 treasury. 1 It was the resourceful brain of Ira Allen which 
 first in the United States resorted to confiscation of the tories r 
 estates to fill an empty or exhausted treasury. 
 
 No son of Vermont can read without mingled amazement 
 and indignation the detailed history of those perilous years. 
 Congress and its agents were swayed by the councils of New 
 York. No provision was made for guarding the borders of 
 the State. The military frontier was so drawn as to protect 
 Albany, and cover the settlements along the Hudson, leaving 
 
 1 When Ira Allen's accounts as State treasurer were audited in Feb- 
 ruary, 1787, it was shown that, out of a total revenue from March, 1777, 
 to October, 1786, of £327,987, the sum of £190,433 had been received 
 from confiscated property, as against £66,815 for grants of land, and 
 £45,948 from taxes. 
 
13 
 
 Vermont without defence from invasion. Not a gun was left 
 to the Green Mountain Boys, not a pick or spade, of all the 
 munitions of war which their valor had taken at Ticonderoga 
 and Crown Point. Their sole reward for acts of heroism and 
 unfaltering loyalty to the common cause, was desertion and 
 neglect. The more northerly settlements had been abandoned 
 in the spring of 1776. Two years later it was a serious ques- 
 tion whether there should not be a general exodus from all 
 the western half of the district to places within the lines of 
 the continental army. In the beginning of 1780 the dismem- 
 berment of Vermont seemed to be foredoomed. New York 
 claimed everything up to the west bank of the Connecticut. 
 New Hamphsire saw her opportunity, and pressed her claim 
 to so much of the district as Jay to the east of the central range 
 of mountains. Massachusetts, disinclined to be a mere on- 
 looker if the friendless would-be State was to be partitioned, 
 revived her ancient claim to a large section on the south. A 
 British army, 10,000 strong, was hovering on the Canadian 
 border. Escape from so many and so powerful foes seems an 
 impossibility. 
 
 But Vermont was no lamb in the midst of wolves, no 
 maiden frightened into helplessness by the dragons that on all 
 sides wait to devour. How to make reprisals, how to con- 
 found the plots of those who were confederated against her, 
 is the sole study of her leading spirits. Again the fertile 
 
14 
 
 brain of the secretary evolves a scheme to cope with the emer- 
 gency. 1 The New Hampshire Grants assume the aggressive, 
 and the so-called East and West Unions are organized. 
 Twelve districts to the west of the Grants are detached from 
 New York and welded to Vermont by their own deliberate 
 action in convention. New Hampshire is weakened by the 
 voluntary secession of 35 towns which have resolved to cast in 
 their fortunes with the outlaws of the Green Mountains. The 
 political pot is in furious ebullition by reason of this organized 
 revolt of towns which had hitherto been outside the despised 
 and persecuted, but defiant, republic. The war had been 
 pushed into Africa, and with the desired result. Vermont- 
 asserted her claim to all the territory from Mason's line (which, 
 it will be remembered, was drawn at a distance of but sixty 
 miles from the sea) to the Hudson river. Her domain was 
 doubled. Internal disaffection was silenced, and friends out- 
 side were emboldened to aid her now hopeful cause. The 
 
 1 This may have been too positively stated. In a centennial address 
 at Salisbury, Conn., in 1841, Chief Justice Samuel Church said, referring 
 to the East and West Unions and the Haldimand negotiations : "In her 
 dilemma, Vermont's most sagacious men resorted to the councils of her 
 old friends of Litchfield county, and it is said that her final course was 
 shaped, and her designs accomplished, by the advice of a confidential 
 council assembled at the house of [brigadier general, afterward] Governor 
 [Oliver] Wolcott, in the village of Litchfield." It will be remembered 
 that the Aliens, Chittendens, Chipmans, Galushas, Skinner, and other 
 men of prominence in the early days of Vermont, came from Litchfield 
 county, Conn. Gov. and Council of Vt. II. 133. 
 
15 
 
 new accessions were enthusiastic over their change of allegiance. 
 It is true, these Unions lasted less than a year. While Allen 
 was absent on an important mission to the Continental Con- 
 gress, the legislature, in the hope of obtaining immediate 
 admission to Congress by following its rather imperative 
 advice, dissolved both Unions with a haste which was not 
 approved by the projector of this countercheck to the encroach- 
 ments of Vermont's greedy and selfish neighbors. This bit of 
 political strategy had however accomplished the chief object 
 of its author. It had compelled the respect of the contigu- 
 ous States, and raised the struggling commonwealth to a van- 
 tage ground which it never lost. It was a significant step in 
 the difficult advance toward a position of recognized autonomy. 
 
 Naturally enough, this annexation of territory, though 
 effected by peaceful means, was promptly confronted on either 
 border by menaces of war. New Yoik marched 500 men into 
 the disputed territory, who were resolutely faced by as many 
 Vermonters, both parties waiting only for the word that 
 should begin a civil war. Allen was sent to negotiate between 
 the two armies and restore peace if possible. His best endeav- 
 ors proving fruitless, he gained a promise from the Vermont 
 commander to await further orders from the council, where- 
 upon, in accordance with his advice, an additional army of 
 500 mounted men with field pieces appears suddenly on the 
 
16 
 
 field to reinforce the Vermonters, and the New York general 
 deems it prudent to retire, honor safe and no blood spilled. 
 
 A like critical condition of affairs upon the eastern border 
 was met and obviated by the vigor of Chittenden aided by the 
 adroit management of Allien. Time forbids however a 
 recital of the more indirect, but not less clever, expedients by 
 which the threatened collision was obviated. For ticklish and 
 doubtful emergencies Ira Allen seems always to have been the 
 council's, and the governor's, most trusted agent. 
 
 Far the most important however of the diplomatic mis- 
 sions intrusted to him, and the one fraught with the largest 
 results to Vermont and to the United States, is still to be 
 named. 
 
 The isolated condition of the State, the hostility of her 
 neighbors both on the east and west, the contempt with which 
 the Continental Congress had treated her claims to statehood, 
 the serious disaffection within her own borders ; these, in com- 
 bination with the daring and independent spirit which the 
 Grants had always exhibited, and especially of late in estab- 
 lishing the East and West Unions, inspired a hope in the 
 agents of Great Britain that the " Bennington mob" and their 
 adherents might be detached from the league of the colonies, 
 and so Vermont, recovered to her allegiance, form an impor- 
 tant stepping-stone to the reconquest of the insurgent states. 
 Once ranged on the side of the mother country, these Ver- 
 
17 
 
 monters, whom Burgoyne — and he had occasion to know—- 
 had styled "the most active and most rebellions race on the 
 continent," would be powerful allies of the king and a terror 
 to the rebels. 
 
 The state of feeling in the Grants was well known to the 
 British generals through their spies, both in the district and 
 in Congress. If King George was disliked, New York was 
 hated. Every blow struck by Vermonters for the general 
 enfranchisement had served but to hasten the day when the 
 slavery against which for ten years they had contended should 
 be riveted upon them. Great Britain was a distant enemy, 
 and besides, there was in the minds of no inconsiderable frac- 
 tion of the inhabitants a strong affection for the land of their 
 fathers. Life would still be endurable if the sway of the 
 mother country should be reestablished. Her rule took on a 
 mild and maternal aspect, when compared with the exactions, 
 robberies and insults caused or countenanced by the govern- 
 ment of the Province and the State of New York. 
 
 As Allen put the matter in his first interview with the 
 British commissioners : — " He should not deny but principle 
 inclined him and Vermont in general for the success of 
 America, but interest and self-preservation (if Congress con- 
 tinued to oppress them) more strongly inclined them to wish 
 for the success of Great Britain, and to fight like devils against 
 
 their oppressors, be they who they might." 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Ethan Allen had been sounded on the matter in the sum- 
 mer of 1780, and in a letter to the Continental Congress soon 
 after, he had frankly declared : " That Vermont had an in- 
 dubitable right to agree on terms of a cessation of hostilities 
 with Great Britain, if the United States persisted in rejecting 
 her application for a union with them." Plainly, as Allen 
 says, the Vermonters could not be expected to defend the in- 
 dependence of the United States, while at the same time the 
 United States had full liberty to block and ruin the independ- 
 ence of Vermont. 
 
 Negotiations were at once opened with the British author- 
 ities, ostensibly to arrange an exchange of prisoners. The 
 chief agent in the exploiting of this scheme was Colonel Ira 
 Allen, assisted by Major Joseph Fay, though Ethan Allen, 
 and later a few others, were associated with them in the 
 responsibility. 
 
 After a few days' conference with the British commis- 
 sioners on Lake Champlain, to the surprise and mystification 
 of everybody except the few in the secret, the British forces 
 retired to winter quarters in Canada, and the Vermont militia 
 as quietly returned to their fiiesides. This, however, was but 
 a temporary truce. In April of 1781, the British had a force 
 of 10,000 men in Canada, ready to descend upon the frontiers. 
 Vermont was utterly at their mercy. How could she meet 
 the exigency ? Jealousies had already been aroused by the 
 
19 
 
 truce of the previous year, and the spies both of Congress and 
 of the British were everywhere. To avoid suspicion, it was 
 resolved to send but a single commissioner on this delicate 
 and dangerous enterprise, and Ira Allen was the man selected. 
 
 His departure having been delayed for some days for 
 reasons personal and political, Governor Chittenden, General 
 Ethan Allen, and others, were so impressed with the unlikeli- 
 hood of success, and the great hazard attending the venture, 
 that, indispensable though it seemed to the safety, nay, to the 
 very being of the State, they advised and entreated him to 
 abandon the project. All concerned were in peril — governor, 
 councilors, and particularly their emissary, — should any proof 
 of such treasonable negotiations fall into the hands of the 
 spies of New York, New Hampshire, or the American Con- 
 gress. Both property and life were at stake. 
 
 Three times after he had mounted his horse on that criti- 
 cal first of May did Ethan Allen, anxious for his brother's 
 safety, and mindful of his own sufferings in prison, detain him 
 for further converse. The intrepid Ethan, reckless of person- 
 al peril, quailed at the thought of the risks which Ira was now 
 to face. Ira Allen was firm against both doubts and fears. 
 By this effort only was it possible to save the existence of the 
 State. It was the sole remaining means of averting impend- 
 ing ruin. He had faitli that he could find- some means to ac- 
 complish the business intrusted to him. He assured his 
 
20 
 
 friends that he was not afraid of present danger from the 
 British, the United States, or the violence of parties in Ver- 
 mont. He feared rather, as he said, that in case of success, 
 of which he had no doubt, the British government would 
 never forget nor forgive him ; that all his life this powerful 
 and intriguing nation would be against him ; but, as the com- 
 missioner of a sovereign, free and independent State, he would 
 assume all risks in a firm resolve so to conduct the business 
 that no just cause of complaint could ever arise. So, facing 
 an uncertainty and a danger which dismayed even the hero of 
 Ticonderoga, he began his journey to the British camp. 
 
 After private conferences lasting through 17 days, a 
 cartel was arranged and an armistice verbally agreed upon. 
 But no pressure could induce the wary minister of Vermont 
 to set down in writing the terms on which Vermont was to 
 become the favored colony of the crown, though he averred 
 that the people of the State were weary of the war and would 
 sooner submit to the kingi/than to the State of New York. As 
 Governor Chittenden adroitly puts the case in a letter 1 to 
 Washington in the following November, ''Colonel Allen, 
 while negotiating the exchange of prisoners, was treated with 
 great politeness, and entertained with political matters, which 
 necessity obliged him to humor in that easy manner that 
 
 1 From the pen of Ira Allen, if one may judge by internal evidence. 
 
21 
 
 might serve the interests of this State in its extreme critical 
 situation." 
 
 This was in May. The General Assembly met in June, 
 and the air was rife with rumors, and the legislators beset 
 with spies from either side of the line. But all to no purpose. 
 The legislature was as much in the dark as the rest of the 
 world. An investigation of the matter was ordered. Gover- 
 nor Chittenden gravely admitted the arrangement for an ex- 
 change of prisoners, and referred the House to Allen for fur- 
 ther explanation. So dexterous, so apparently unreserved, 
 was his statement, that everybody was satisfied, legislature, 
 council, people, and spies of all parties, and yet the momen- 
 tous secret was not betrayed. 1 
 
 Nor was this the only occasion on which the address and 
 imperturbability of the Vermont plenipotentiary saved this 
 
 1 There seems to have been one exception to the general fidelity of 
 those who were privy to these negotiations. Writing in 1807, Allen says: 
 "When his excellency Isaac Tichenor Esquire was brigade Major in 1781, 
 he was confidentially by his General led into the private negotiations 
 with the British in Canada ; but he, Judas like, betrayed the secrets in- 
 trusted to him by the commandant of the troops of Vermont, in Castle- 
 ton." And he significantly adds : " Surely there are sufficient men of 
 candor and ability, to fill every office in the State of Vermont." Tichenor 
 was at this time a candidate for the highest office in the State. 
 
 Tichenor was governor 1797-1806, and again in 1808, thrice U. S. 
 senator, and five years judge of the Supreme Court. That Allen had no 
 confidence in Tichenor appears elsewhere. 
 
22 
 
 difficult and dangerous negotiation from premature disclosure 
 and wreck. 
 
 The charge of treason to the cause of the colonies was 
 afterward so often brought against all concerned in these 
 transactions that Governor Hall finds occasion again and 
 again 1 to defend even Governor Chittenden and other mem- 
 bers of the Council of Safety from the suspicion of unpatriotic 
 designs. It was indeed a desperate game to play. But Vermont 
 was in peril of annihilation. The issue proved that both the 
 measure and the man were matched to the emergency. 
 Neither bribery nor intimidation — and both were attempted- 
 availed to divert him from his aim. The threatened invasion 
 was prevented, and the day indefinitely postponed when 
 Vermont was to fall a prey to one or all of her enemies. 
 
 Now what were the results of this diplomacy ? Not Ver- 
 mont only, but the whole frontier was for two years saved 
 from the horrors of invasion. One-third of all the British 
 troops in North America were kept inactive and the concen- 
 tration of their forces was prevented. Washington was able 
 to cope with the armies operating in the more southern states , 
 and ere long the surrender of Cornwallis made it unnecessary 
 longer to match diplomacy against a well-equipped and for- 
 midable army. One life only was lost in the two years' con- 
 
 1 In his Early History of Vermont. 
 
23 
 
 test with the agents of King George, a contest maintained by 
 Governor Chittenden and his trusted advisers, and engineered 
 by the wisdom and the wit of Allen. Yet its far-reaching 
 consequences may be traced in the decisive battle of York- 
 town and the peace of 1783. 
 
 I have not attempted to make in the hour assigned me a 
 full exhibition of the services rendered to the beleaguered and 
 struggling State by our distinguished founder. Suffice it to 
 say, by way of partial catalogue, that he was thrice deputed 
 as special commissioner from Vermont to New Hampshire to 
 compose the serious difficulties which had arisen between the 
 two states ; that he was sent on like errands to the states of 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland to present 
 before each the claims of Vermont to freedom and state- 
 hood ; that he was twice delegated to press upon Congress the 
 admission of Vermont as an equal member of the sisterhood 
 of states ; and that on one of these occasions he with Stephen 
 K. Bradley drew up that dignified remonstrance in which they 
 declined to be mere spectators at an ex parte adjudication of 
 their cause, involving as it did, the very life of the State, and 
 thereupon withdrew, with an " appeal to God and the world 
 for the awful consequences that might ensue " if the contro- 
 versy were attempted to be settled by Congress in the manner 
 and upon the terms insisted on by New York. Was it desired 
 to proclaim to New York and New Hampshire the invincible 
 
24 
 
 determination of the Green Mountain boys never to relinquish 
 their rights as self-governing freemen ? It is the pen of Ira 
 Allen which formulates their declaration of rights, and their 
 declaration of independence as well. 1 
 
 For the nine years ending with 1786 the Council of Safety 
 was guided by his alert and provident counsels more than by 
 those of any other mind. 
 
 Eight times between 1783 and 1794 he was chosen Kepre- 
 sentative to the General Assembly from Colchester, and in 
 1791 was a member of the Constitutional Convention. 
 
 For eight years, 1778-85, he was the Treasurer of the com- 
 monwealth, whose coffers were punctually replenished by 
 methods of his own devising. 
 
 1 In the account book of Ira Allen as treasurer of the state occur 
 
 these items among others of similar import : 
 
 1777, Jan'y 17th. To 9 days, part at Westminster, in assisting to 
 write a declaration for a State, and other pieces 
 for the Hartford papers 4 1 00 
 
 1777, Nov . 2. To 15 days going from Salisbury to Williams town 
 
 and there with President Chittenden writing the 
 Preamble to the Constitution, &c. from there to 
 Bennington to confer with the Council respect- 
 ing s'd Preamble — assisting to complete compil- 
 ing from manuscript, the Constitution of the 
 
 State 7 10 
 
 Expense money 3 2 8 
 
 1778, Oct. 23. To 2 days at Windsor drawing a plan for a 
 
 State seal and getting Mr. P. Dean to make it lOsl 
 1778, Dec. 25. To 18 days assisting to revise Vt. Appeal wrote 
 
 byS.R. Bradley Esq. &c -. 9 16 
 
25 
 
 In 1778 lie was appointed Surveyor-general of the State 
 and administered the office till 1787. The original book of 
 charters had been carried to England by Governor Wentworth, 
 but Allen was so far successful in collecting and recording the 
 charters, that new grants of land could be made in 1780 with- 
 out interference with previous grants or with each other, a 
 measure deemed of special importance at that time for reasons 
 both financial and political. In the same capacity he con- 
 ducted surveys and opened roads to facilitate settlement and 
 transportation of stores. ' 
 
 "When in 1790 JSTew York had honorably yielded her 
 claim to jurisdiction, Allen was one of seven commissioners 
 on the part of Vermont to determine the boundary line be- 
 tween the two states. The line, as it was then settled and 
 has ever since remained, was adjusted in exact accord with 
 Allen's own proposition to Congress several years before. 
 
 Allen must be credited also with proposing the terms on 
 which the long pending land controversy was at last satisfac- 
 torily settled. All New York titles were to become null and 
 void upon the payment by Vermont of the small sum of 
 $30,000 into the treasury of New York for the benefit of in- 
 dividual claimants, — a measure by which nearly 5,000,000 
 
 1 His account rendered in 1788 shows an expenditure for surveys of 
 £3018.96. There is a separate account for cutting roads in twenty-nine 
 towns. 
 
26 
 
 acres were freed from the delays, the dangers and the expense 
 of protracted lawsuits. 
 
 In an act passed by the General Assembly in 1785, Allen 
 is somewhat magniloquently but truthfully described as "agent 
 and delegate to Congress, ambassador to sundry of the differ- 
 ent States of America, and special commissioner to the 
 Province of Quebec," — titles which lose their strangeness 
 when we remind ourselves that for fourteen years Vermont 
 existed as an independent and sovereign state, owning and 
 owing fealty to no man or nation on earth, and that this 
 unique position among American states was due to no other 
 man in so large degree as to him whom we seek to honor 
 to-day. 1 
 
 A few details of a more personal nature will be of inter- 
 est at least to the dwellers in this region. Ira Allen was 
 twenty-two years old, when with his cousin Remember Baker 
 and five others he set out in the fall of 1772 from Skeens- 
 borough, now Whitehall, to explore the country lying about 
 the Onion river. Three or four days' hard rowing brought 
 them to the foot of the lower fall at Winooski. Here they 
 found proof that a surveying party from New York had got 
 the start of them. The two men whom they found were 
 
 1 It is a tradition in the Chittenden family that Governor Thomas 
 Chittenden thought Ira Allen had done more good work for the new 
 State than any other two men. 
 
27 
 
 promptly made prisoners, and their boat seized. The next 
 morning two other boats came up the river with six white 
 men and thirteen armed Indians. A fight seemed imminent, 
 but by a happy combination of daring and diplomacy the 
 Indians were made to see that they had no interest in the 
 quarrel, and the New Yorkers surrendered at discretion, and 
 were allowed to depart after a pledge never to enter the region 
 again. His explorations completed, and his supplies reduced 
 to but a single dinner for the party, Allen with four compan- 
 ions crossed the wilderness to Pittsford, seventy miles away, 
 arriving on the fourth day, well-nigh exhausted. 
 
 The next spring Allen and Baker returned to the Falls, 
 the latter bringing his family. Their first step was to con- 
 struct a fort on the north bank of the river, a few rods east 
 of the present iron bridge, on an eminence now mostly washed 
 away. Fort Frederick was built of hewn timbers, two stories 
 high, with 32 portholes in the upper story, and well supplied 
 with the means of defence against the Yorkers, should they 
 molest them. A surveying party from New York was dis- 
 covered that summer at work farther up the river. Allen 
 with three men from the fort went in pursuit of them, but 
 they escaped in safety, never to venture again into so danger- 
 ous a locality. This year the Onion Eiver Company, as they 
 styled themselves, effected an overland connection with the 
 more southern settlements by cutting a road through the forest 
 
28 
 
 from Fort Frederick to Castleton, some seventy miles. Clear- 
 ings and settlements were made in the vicinity of the fort, but 
 in the spring of 1776, in consequence of military reverses in 
 Canada, the defenceless state of the frontier, and the actual 
 attacks of the Indian allies of the British, this and all the new 
 settlements in this region were suddenly abandoned. 
 
 Seven years after, when peace had crowned the struggle 
 for American independence, while that for the independence 
 of Yermont had still eight weary years to run, 1 the fugitives 
 of 1776 returned to their holdings about the Onion river. 
 Allen built a dam at the Falls, two sawmills, 2 one on either 
 hank, a grist mill, two forges with a furnace, where iron ore 
 was converted into millirons, forge hammers and anchors, 
 maintained a ferry above the dam and built a schooner on the 
 river below, and in various directions greatly stimulated the 
 settlement and development of the region. 3 
 
 1 In 1777, a report by a committee of which Allen was a member, 
 styles this "the troublesome and aged conflict." 
 
 2 In 1795 he had seven sawmills in operation on his lands, and owned 
 10,000 acres covered with pine. 
 
 3 Allen's house stood to the east of the road which crosses the bridge, 
 nearly on the site now covered by Winooski block, and Madame Allen's 
 garden, which lay to the east of the mansion and extended down to the 
 river, was a "paradise of fruits and flowers." At this house in 1785 sat 
 the first county court ever held in this county. Mrs. Allen was the 
 daughter of General Roger Enos, and her husband's wedding gift at her 
 marriage had been the township of Irasburgh, 23,000 acres of land, 
 which after his death became a means of support to his family, and 
 later, the source of his son's wealth. 
 
29 
 
 Allen early saw the advantages to Vermont of free com- 
 mercial intercourse with Canada. The St. Lawrence, the 
 Sorelle and Lake Champlain offered almost unimpeded water 
 communication with Europe, and promised at no great ex- 
 pense to make good to the State the lack of a seaport. A ship 
 canal of moderate cost would enable ocean vessels to unload 
 their cargoes at the wharves in Burlington and at other harbors 
 on Lake Champlain. 1 Not only would Allen's landed estate, 
 lying mostly along the lake, of over 200,000 acres, be largely 
 enhanced in value thereby, but the whole western half of the 
 State would find a better market for its products, and pay less 
 for foreign goods, by utilizing Lake Champlain as a commer- 
 cial thoroughfare. 
 
 In the capacity of diplomatic agent, or minister, of the 
 then independent republic of Vermont, Allen had opened 
 negotiations with Canada, with a view to direct trade, imme- 
 diately after the peace of 1783. 
 
 In 1795 he sailed for England to obtain, among other 
 objects, both the authorization and the aid of the British gov- 
 ern ment in constructing the proposed canal. But his efforts 
 proved unavailing, as the finances of England were at this 
 time heavily burdened by the war with France. The project 
 
 1 This project was revived and pushed with some local enthusiasm, 
 as many will remember, some years ago, under the name of the Caugh- 
 nawaga canal. 
 
30 
 
 was never relinquished by Allen, however, being urged by 
 him in every hopeful quarter by tongue and pen for full 
 thirty years. 
 
 He had another object in going abroad, partly commer- 
 cial and partly patriotic. He was the ranking major general 
 of the State, and the militia were but indifferently accoutred 
 and equipped. General Allen declared that he would never 
 review the troops again unless they could be properly armed 
 and uniformed. So he obtained from Governor Chittenden a 
 commission under the seal of the State to purchase abroad 
 such guns and military supplies as were deemed necessary. 1 
 After some overtures to parties in London, he finally closed a 
 contract, on better terms than could be had in England, with 
 the French government for 20,000 stands of arms and an equal 
 number of bayonets and twenty-four four-pound field pieces, 
 most of which were shipped at Ostend on board a neutral 
 ship named the Olive Branch for New York city. These 
 supplies of war were intended for the militia of Vermont and 
 
 1 In 1794 there had been some fear of an outbreak of hostilities be- 
 tween Great Britain and the United States. The Legislature of Ver- 
 mont had repeatedly before this date had the arming of the militia 
 under consideration. In the year named Governor Chittenden made 
 several attempts to obtain arms, both by purchase and by loan from 
 the United States arsenals, but without success. Washington made a 
 requisition on the States for troops May 19, 1794, and on June 21 
 "Governor Chittenden had ordered 2,139 Vermont militia, to be organ- 
 ized, armed, equipped, and held in readiness to inarch at a moment's 
 warning." 
 
31 
 
 northern New York, and were to be disposed of directly to 
 the citizen soldiers,who were responsible to the State for their 
 military outfit. 
 
 Here begins a chapter of losses and misfortunes which 
 ends only with the life of Allen. The Olive Branch with 
 Allen on board was seized by a British cruiser to the west 
 of Ireland and taken into port as a lawful prize. Under the 
 rulings of a judge who cannot be charged with impartiality or 
 even courtesy, the case dragged its slow way through the 
 Court of Admiralty, the Court of Appeal, and the Court of 
 King's Bench, and received final adjudication only in 1804, in 
 spite of all the means employed by Allen to hasten a decision. 
 Not even his fertility in expedients could avail against the 
 prejudice and obstinacy of the old admiralty judge. Unfor- 
 tunately England was at this time apprehensive of a revolt in 
 Ireland, and had been somewhat disturbed by actual insurrec- 
 tion in the province of Quebec. No proof was ever attempted 
 on the plaintiff's side of intent on Allen's part to aid the 
 enemies of England, yet his demand for the restoration of his 
 property was unheeded in spite of treaties, in spite of super- 
 abundant testimony, the. efforts of eminent counsel, of whom 
 Erskine ' was one, and the interference of the American 
 minister. In the course of the long conflict Allen was impris- 
 oned both in London and in Paris, — six months in the latter 
 1 Afterward Lord Erskine. 
 
32 
 
 place, although no information was ever lodged against him. 
 It would take too long to tell the story of the privation and 
 abuse and indignity to which he was here subjected ; of the 
 attempt upon his life, as he believed ; of his sudden release 
 without the shadow of a trial, although he vehemently de- 
 manded a trial under the constitution and laws of France. 
 Finally, after considerable delay and much annoyance, seeing 
 no hope of justice on either side the channel, in 1801 he broke 
 away from France and returned to America. 
 
 But on his return to his beloved Vermont he found in- 
 trigue and greed had made use of the forms of law to dispos- 
 sess him of his large estate and other valuable properties esti- 
 mated to be worth more than $1,000,000. The titles to nearly 
 300,000 acres of valuable land, lying between Ferrisburgh and 
 the Canada line, partly his own and partly held by him for 
 his brothers' heirs, had passed into alien hands by the opera- 
 tion of the tax laws. 1 Vexatious suits were began against 
 him, and counter suits instituted, but the conspiracy — for 
 such he always insisted it was, a conspiracy not unconnected 
 with his diplomatic successes of revolutionary days, but rein- 
 forced by the malice and the avarice of those whom he had 
 
 1 In 1795 Allen held legal titles in his own right to a great part of 
 eleven townships (besides large tracts in other towns). On these had 
 been erected seven sawmills, three corn-mills, iron foundries, houses, etc. 
 In 1801, scarcely an acre could be found which had not been rendered 
 unsalable by "new patched up titles." 
 
33 
 
 opposed in the course of his harassing admiralty suits ; by 
 the jealousies and hatred of rivals or opponents in the long 
 conflict with New York ; as also by the selfish greed of mean 
 souls who saw an easy way to wealth by buying at the con- 
 stable's sale the titles of an absent citizen, — the conspiracy 
 proved too strong for him, and he finally retired from the 
 lands which he had held by an undisputed title in 1795, and 
 from the State 1 whose foundation no man had done more to» 
 
 1 Allen escaped from "Burlington prison" on a Sunday evening in 
 [April ? ] 1803, just as the ice had disappeared in Lake Chaniplain, went 
 by boat to the head of Lake George, where he "purchased a horse, and 
 took a long journey for his health." "It was certain death to remain 
 there," he says, referring to the jail, "nor have I yet regained my health, 
 although for much time constantly in the use of medical aid," — so he 
 writes in 1810. He returned to Burlington in January, 1804. In Oc- 
 tober of the same year he attended the sessions of the Legislature at 
 Rutland for eighteen days, and attempted to get his case and his claims 
 before the assembly. His petition for a year's exemption from arrest in 
 civil suits was refused, though at this same, session like immunity was 
 granted to three other persons for three, four, and five years respective- 
 ly. Later in the session, a resolution was introduced for a bill "author- 
 izing Ira Allen, Esq. , to apply to the President of the United States, to 
 hire Gun-boat No. 1. of the American navy, for the purpose of im- 
 porting arms for the use of the militia composing the alarm list of this 
 State." This bit of sarcasm — for such it appears to be — indicates the tem- 
 per of the house toward Allen. 
 
 The marshall with his posse surrounded his hotel to arrest him in the 
 gray of a Monday morning, only to find in the afternoon, after much 
 search, that he was really gone ! He had exchanged his trunk for 
 saddle bags, and, " his business requiring haste," ridden to Poultney,. 
 where he spent Monday with his " old friends, the Heroes of 1775," and 
 
 3 
 
34: 
 
 establish, to a community which even then had got beyond 
 the barbarism of imprisonment for debt, the very State indeed 
 whose constitution Vermont had twenty-five years before 
 taken for her model. Had Vermont copied also Pennsyl- 
 vania's legislation in regard to the collection of debts, she 
 might have saved herself from what seems to me the darkest 
 page in her history. 
 
 It is pathetic to read the exile's calm, earnest, manly ap- 
 peals from his safe harbor in Philadelphia, that for the space 
 of three years he be granted immunity from the operation of 
 the merciless laws alluded to, in order that he might by just 
 process of law come by his own again, or by bargain and com- 
 promise recover some portion of the property which had been 
 wrested from him. I do not find that either governor or 
 Legislature ever responded to these appeals, backed as they 
 were by arguments of which chapter after chapter in the his- 
 tory of the State were the unimpeachable confirmation. Allen's 
 theory of a conspiracy is the only one which explains this 
 mysterious injustice and ingratitude. It was the day of 
 Allen's enemies, of whom there were man}% and of tax titles, 
 
 on Tuesday took the turnpike for Troy, in order to put the line of the 
 State of New York between him and the "law conjurers of Vermont." 
 
 October 18, 1810, a petition of Ira Allen for an act of suspension was 
 
 read in the House and referred to the committee of insolvency, in which 
 
 • reference the Council concurred. I find no record of any action upon it . 
 
 The committee seems to have taken the responsibility of suppressing 
 
 the petition. 
 
35 
 
 the law in regard to which had been changed, evidently with 
 a purpose, after Allen had sailed for Europe. The unscru- 
 pulous avarice which stole his princely domain, and held it 
 against him by such terms of statute law, in utter disregard of 
 equity, may have found means to blind, or to control, a legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Nor does it afford much consolation to know that Seth 
 Warner, that stalwart soldier and patriot, was in like manner, 
 while risking his life for the liberties of Vermont, cheated out 
 of all his holdings by the same easy process of bidding off tax 
 titles. Thus creatures with the souls of camp sutlers and 
 renegades, under protection of the Legislature and the courts, 
 robbed of their estates the very men whose unselfish devotion 
 had made the State of Vermont, first a hope and a possibility, 
 and then a solid fact. 
 
 I find record of one man who was granted freedom from 
 arrest for five years, and of another who was given the same 
 immunity for life ; but for Ira Allen, I do not discover that 
 any personal friend, or grateful son of the Green Mountain 
 State, so much as suggested in the General Assembly the 
 granting of a like privilege. It is true however that one 
 year's exemption from arrest and imprisonment for most suits 
 of a civil nature, had been voted by the Legislature of 1801. 
 
 The dignified, respectful, solidly reasoned appeals whic^ 
 I have mentioned, as well as Allen's narrative in his own 
 
36 
 
 History of Vermont of such transactions as lie was immedi- 
 ately concerned in, recalls a saying of Tacitus respecting cer- 
 tain worthies of Rome's republican days, who had left behind 
 them accounts of their own share in the movements of their 
 time. " Such writing revealed," says the Roman historian, 1 
 " neither presumption nor arrogance, but rather a just con- 
 fidence in the integrity of their own character." The letters 
 and other autobiographical writings of Allen testify every- 
 where to an honest faith in himself, and challenge from the 
 impartial reader a generous recognition of his honorable pur- 
 pose and of the value of his labors. 2 
 
 Judge Chipman, contrasting the characters of Ethan Allen 
 and Warner, says : " Tt is evident they were far more effec- 
 tive and more useful in defending the New Hampshire Grants 
 than they would have been had they both been Aliens or 
 both Warners," and deems it not extravagant to add that 
 
 1 Vita Agricolae, 1. 
 
 ' 2 Governor Hall, in his Early History of Vermont, criticises Allen 
 for dependence in his history on the earlier work of Dr. Williams. It is 
 quite likely that Allen had with him in London a copy of the first edition 
 of Williams' history, which appeared the year before Allen went to Eng- 
 land. Else he would have had to rely almost solely on his memory for 
 both facts and dates. The real dependence seems to be of Dr. Williams 
 on Ira Allen throughout the whole political section of his work. Allen's 
 history, albeit not without slight lapses from perfect accuracy, is a vig- 
 orous defence of both the State and himself against bitter and unfounded 
 aspersion. By a candid statement of facts he vindicates both Vermont 
 and himself in the view of all who were amenable to reason. 
 
37 
 
 "had either been wanting, the independence of Vermont 
 might not have been achieved." 
 
 A calm survey of the multiform and critical offices dis- 
 charged by Ira Allen will warrant the statement, that but for 
 his shrewd political strategy, his insight into the characters 
 and schemes of the men he had to deal with, and his forecast 
 of the probable issues of every movement on the political 
 chess board, his resourcefulness and his reticence, the more 
 open and prominent parts of Ethan Allen and Warner and 
 Chittenden might have been played in vain. Providence 
 might indeed have raised up some other man to act the role 
 taken by him, but he alone of the men of that day seems to 
 have been fully qualified for its function. The written or 
 the spoken word not seldom weighs more than the sword. 
 The strategy of the cabinet prepares the way for the strategy 
 of the field, or gathers up and conserves its victories. 
 
 The founding of the University of Vermont was but an 
 incident, albeit a most important one, in Allen's con- 
 tribution toward the building of the State. His sagacious 
 mind clearly discerned the true relations between education 
 on the one hand, and patriotism and politics on the other. A 
 complete intellectual independence would tend to strengthen 
 and consolidate that moral and political independence which 
 should characterize a self-governing community. The propo- 
 sal of the Dartmouth authorities, on consideration of certain 
 
38 
 
 grants of land, to supply free collegiate instruction, and super- 
 intend the academies throughout Yermont, though well-meant 
 and honorable, still left something to be desired. Yermont 
 was dependent, and in a sense tributary, so long as her sons 
 were obliged temporarily to expatriate themselves to obtain 
 a well-rounded education. Such dependence upon outside aid 
 touched the sense of manly self-respect, that central virtue in 
 which loyalty and patriotism must be rooted, if they are to 
 abide. That provision in the first constitution for " one gram- 
 mar school in each county, and one university in the State, to- 
 be established by the direction of the General Assembly, " 
 probably came from the hand of Ira Allen, ' though the only 
 thing certainly known about it is, that he put in a claim for 
 his services in drawing up the document as it was submitted 
 to the convention. And this was one of the most significant 
 additions to their model in the constitution of Pennsylvania. 
 Allen's connection with the University was so fully set 
 forth in Mr. Benedict's oration one year ago as to make it 
 superfluous to speak of it in detail to-day. It was his offer in 
 1789 of £4000, twice larger than the munificent offer of Elijah 
 
 1 In an "Address to the Inhabitants of the State of Vermont," 
 November, 1778, Allen writes thus : — " There is ample provision made 
 [in the Constitution of this State] for the propagation of the Gospel, 
 together with proper Seminaries and Schools of learning, which are 
 among the greatest blessings God in his wisdom ever bestowed on the 
 fallen race of man." 
 
39 
 
 Paine, which determined its location at Burlington in 1791. 
 The reasons he presented for the location — the distance from 
 Dartmouth college, and the proximity to the Province of Que- 
 bec and the northern portion of Xew York, were abundantly 
 justified in the earlier history of the institution. An inspec- 
 tion of its catalogues will show that before the founding of 
 McGill and Cornell universities, it drew a good j)roportion of 
 its students from the farther shore of Lake Champlain and 
 from beyond the Canadian border. Harvard college rests 
 upon an original appropriation by the colony of but £400, and 
 its name is a magnificent monument to the man by whose will 
 it received some £800 and a small library. Two years after 
 the University was chartered, Allen offered an additional gift 
 of 1500 acres of land, if the Legislature would allow the name 
 of the institution to be changed. Again, in 1795, he proposed 
 to bestow another £1000 in lands on specified conditions, and 
 £1000 more in books and apparatus, in case the L^niversity 
 should be called by his name. This proposition did not meet 
 with favor in the Legislature, probably on account of certain 
 conditions attached to the gift, though for such christening of 
 the institution there were precedents enough in Xew England. 
 Williams college had been so named but two years before. ' 
 
 1 In January, 1792, Ira Allen sent a memorial to the Governor and 
 Legislature of New York, asking for the grant of a township ten miles 
 square in Clinton County on these grounds : that the University of Ver- 
 
40 
 
 Allen selected as a location for the future University a lot 
 of 50 acres, one of the sightliest in all the Cham plain Valley. 
 Portions of it were alienated in the early days from time to 
 time for reasons which one can recall only with mingled sor- 
 row and indignation, until only an acre and a half remained. 1 
 
 One of the reasons which in 1797 Allen urges for the 
 speedy determination of his suit before the Admiralty Court, 
 was his desire to "erect public buildings for the University of 
 Vermont," the materials for which he had already caused to 
 
 1 It may not be generally known that if the College were again to 
 recover her original domain, she would be possessed of a large section 
 of the park, and of some of the dwellings and gardens to the west of it. 
 
 mont, "established on the East Bank of Lake Champlain" would be 
 "equally Convenient to the Northern Part of the State of New York as to 
 Vermont ;" that previous to establishing a university of her own, Vermont 
 had "granted a township to the Corporation of Dartmouth college sit- 
 uated on the East Bank of Connecticut River ;" and that the Legislature 
 of Vermont, having granted their own lands, have it not in their power 
 to grant a township to their own University; that [taken] "from the 
 width and extent of the government of New York, one township will 
 scarsely be persieved, but when added to the funds of this Infant Institu- 
 tion may make it so respectable that children yet Unborn will Bless the 
 Donors." 
 
 Allen's petition was reinforced by another, dated Rutland, Novem- 
 ber 7, 1792, signed by Thomas Chittenden, President, in behalf of the 
 corporation of the University. The request was presented and favorably 
 reported on, but action was deferred until the following session of the 
 Legislature. I have not learned what disposition was finally made of it. 
 
II 
 
 be prepared. " These are kept," he says, " in a state of ruinous 
 suspense by my absence." 1 
 
 The eldest son of Ethan Allen was placed by him in the 
 University, and in the family of President Sanders. A younger 
 son of Ethan was taken into his own family, and along with 
 his own sons put in the way of preparation for college. 2 Ira's 
 eldest son was a member of the University for the two years 
 1808-10, but withdrew on account of ophthalmic difficulty. 
 This was the Hon. Ira H. Allen of Irasburg, who had the op- 
 portunity to add to his numerous offices and honors that of 
 representative in the national Congress, if he had not unquali- 
 fiedly declined the proposal. The younger son, Zimri, also 
 began a course of study in the University, and read law with 
 the Hon. Charles Marsh of Woodstock, finishing his legal 
 
 1 In their Report to the Legislature, October, 1804, the Trustees of 
 the University say that the subscriptions made in September, 1789, " in- 
 clude $13,333.33, made by Ira Allen, payable $3,333.33 in a lot of land to 
 erect the buildings on and materials for the building, and the remainder 
 in new lands." They report also that they have commenced a suit to 
 recover what is still due from Allen, have "obtained judgment and 
 levied the execution on lands in Plainfield, which will probably secure 
 about $10,000 worth of those lands." His complicated financial embar- 
 rassments seem to have rendered necessary such decision by the courts. 
 
 2 These two young men, Hannibal M. and Ethan H. Allen, were af- 
 terward, without the knowledge of then uncle Ira, removed to a military 
 school, and later became officers in the U. S. Army. 
 
42 
 
 studies at the law school in Litchfield, Conn., but died at the 
 threshold of his profession. 1 
 
 Tradition presents Ira Allen as a man " of middle stature, 
 thick set, a ruddy and lively countenance, large black eyes, a 
 fine form, genteel in manner, and naturally social." His 
 features as represented by an engraving published some years 
 ago, would of themselves suggest the resourcefulness and the 
 power of comprehension and combination which characterized 
 his political and his business enterprises. Those lips can keep 
 the secrets of the state. The calm and thoughtful eyes above 
 have power to penetrate the disguised sympathies and aims of 
 other men. The face indicates the power of vigorous and 
 apt expression, regulated always by a reticence which guards 
 its own counsel, and keeps the initiative, so far as possible, in 
 its own hands. It betokens a quick intelligence, a temper not 
 easily ruffled, a dignity not incompatible with a generous 
 sympathy, and an ambition not limited to personal regards. It 
 gives the impression of reserved power, yet suggests that all 
 powers are held always as in leash for instant and effective 
 service. 
 
 If these serene, thoughtful, almost speaking features 
 could look down upon us from the walls of the Library yonder, 
 
 ] It will be of interest to add that a grand-daughter of Ira Allen is now 
 living in the historic town of Lexington, Mass. , and two great grand- 
 daughters in this State, — one at Irasburg, and one at Derby Line. 
 
43 
 
 in company with those of James Marsh and Joseph Torrey 
 and Frederick Billings, no alumnus could ever gaze upon them 
 without a thrill of personal gratitude toward the man who 
 builded so generously and so wisely for the commonwealth 
 after helping to lay its corner stone, and successive generations 
 of undergraduates would receive inspiration and courage as 
 they lifted their eyes to meet his look of greeting and benedic- 
 tion. We have hope that the family fireside will not long 
 lack a fitting presentment of the man from whom she traces 
 her being and development. A due filial piety calls upon us 
 to make pronrpt amends for long neglect. 
 
 When Allen was sent in April, 1781, in behalf of the in- 
 dependent republic of Vermont, to arrange a cartel for the 
 exchange of prisoners, and a truce with the British forces in 
 Canada, he delayed his departure a little, as I have already 
 said, for reasons partly personal. Whether it was a matter of 
 mere sentiment, or whether there was a touch of superstition 
 in his make-up, he chose to wait for the first day of May, as 
 the most auspicious beginning of an enterprise fraught with so 
 momentous possible issues. This day of good omen was the 
 anniversary of his birth. Thirty years before he had begun 
 his not uneventful ' career. So forth he fared, his heart 
 freighted with glad and grateful memories, and buoyant with 
 the hopes of what he might achieve for the sovereign State of 
 which he was the accredited minister, and for the larger inter- 
 
ests of the struggling, and at this juncture, despondent confed- 
 eracy. Within a few days his diplomacy had gained both its 
 objects. 
 
 If I venture to suggest to the honorable Board of Trus- 
 tees the propriety of ordaining that from this time forward, 
 the first of May, the natal day of Ira Allen, shall be set in the 
 calendar of the University of Vermont as Founder's Day, to 
 be observed as a holiday forever, significant at once of her 
 origin, and of the new life pulsing continually in her veins of 
 perennial and ever bourgeoning prime, I have small fear that 
 any alumnus will enter his protest against the innovation, or 
 that the undergraduate body will petition against such use of 
 one day in the year in grateful recognition of our debt to our 
 earliest benefactor. 
 
 A monument over his ashes we cannot raise, for alas, we 
 know not where they repose. Ungrateful Vermont again and 
 again refused to him the immunity which he so earnestly 
 sought in order to a residence within her borders. The State 
 which he /contributed so much to establish and consolidate 
 virtually banished him in 1804 and turned a deaf ear to his 
 importunate entreaties for permission to return. By her laws 
 she forbade 'him t'o institute the necessary measures whereby 
 he might come by his own again. In hospitable Philadelphia 
 he still planned for the future of his beloved Vermont ; pre- 
 l^ared an enlarged edition of his history of the State, though 
 
45 
 
 never able to publish it ; continued to advocate the construc- 
 tion of the ship canal of which in 1785 he had procured the 
 survey ; and kept up his old interest in the political move- 
 ments on both continents. Here at last, after many years of 
 poverty and distress, kindly death released him from the per- 
 secutions of his enemies and the bitterness of exile, on the 4th 
 of January, 1814, in the 63d year of his age. His dust re- 
 poses in some ancient burial ground of the city of Brotherly 
 Love, but no stone stands above it, and no man can point out 
 the spot. 
 
 We can make no amends for the expatriation and suffer- 
 ings of the closing decade of his life. There is the more rea- 
 son, therefore, that we keep alive his memory, and signalize 
 his eminent services to the Commonwealth and to the Uni- 
 versity, by giving special honors henceforth to the day which 
 gave him to the world. Your wisdom, gentlemen, will deter- 
 mine whether such memorial would be wise and proper. 
 
 TBI IIHWRT OF Tflf 
 JUN6 1934 
 
 UMvavjkiV Of ILLINOIS 
 
At// j 
 
 WM't 
 
 
 »»<" 
 
w* 
 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 
 
 12 111511462 
 
 •■; 
 
 up*