University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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frustrated by connivance of the legislature 5 or rather, by the pernicious influence on the legislators of Allen's enemies, reinforced by the numerous sharpers who had stolen his lands. The temporary exemption from legal process which he repeatedly sought with the hope of regaining some portion of his property Ca favor more than once accorded to other menj was denied to him, and he was forced to spend his later days in exile, though always longing to return to his beloved State. Possibly one reason why Vermonters generally know so little of Ira Allen and his inestimable services, is to be found in the fact that their treatment of him from 1803 till his death in Philadelphia in 1814 forms the blackest page in all their history. Such ingratitude and such neglect are unfor- tunately not without parallel, but Vermonters may well desire to be excused from dwelling on a theme so painful to the reader, and-if we may judge from the scant treatment it has received-painful also to the historian. Not this closing episode only, but the whole public career of Allen, still demands to be set forth at large and impartially. Allen was twenty-two years old when, in the fall of 1772, with his cousin, Remember Baker, he first came from Whitehall by the lake to the Lower Falls of the Winooski River and began his surveys of the sur- rounding country. The next spring they came again, built a strong block fort in what is now Winooski village, and cut a road all the way from the new settlement to Castleton, seventy miles. The events of 1775 gave a new direction to their activities. Before Allen was twenty years old he had served as a lieutenant with the Green Nlountain Boys. l-le aided his brother in reducing the British strongholds on the western shore of Lake Champlain, and was concerned also in the subsequent capt- ure of St. Johns and Nlontreal. ln January, 1776, Lieutenant Allen was with the army before Quebec. Here ends for a time his career as a mil- itary officer, but only that he may begin a service of far greater dimculty, and to the Republic of Vermont, of indispensable importance. From this time till the admission of Vermont to the Union, in 1791, in spite of his youthful years, he is Counsellor, Negotiator, Statesman. Are the schemes of the New Yorkers to be frustrated ? Allen's ready pen and fertile brain are prompt to deal with the exigency. ls the empty treasury of the new state to be filled and systematically replenished ? Allen devises the ways and means in the short hours between two sessions of the Council of Safety. lf an address is to be issued to the inhabitants of 6

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v General gm Gllen The Gliouncler of the Hniversitp of 'Garmont RA ALLEN, Soldier, Diplomatist, Financier, Founder of the Univer- sity ot Vermont, and, in a very solid sense, Co-founder of the State of Vermont, has never yet obtained due recognition for his mul- tiplied and valuable services. His eldest brother, General Ethan Allen, has an assured place in the history of the American Revolution, not less than in that of the Independent Republic of the Green Mountains. He is the schoolboy's hero. His bold words and daring exploits have a place even in the briefest summary of our national story. He has received, perhaps, his full share ot honor. This cannot be said of the youngest of that famous brotherhood. He was less in the public eye. His work was done noiselessly, at the deep foundations of the nascent State, in the council chamber, and in the dip- lomatic conference, with the pen and voice rather than with the sword. Much ot it was necessarily done in secret, and not a little of it in such tangled and ticklish circumstances as to expose him to suspicion from his contemporaries and even his compatriots. And in later days sober historians have affected to believe that such men as Thomas Chittenden and Ira Allen were traitors both to Vermont and to the cause of the Thirteen Colonies. Worse, however, than these implied charges ot treason was the neg- lect and injustice with which Allen was treated in his later years by the representatives of the Commonwealth, which owed its very existence as an independent community to no man more than to himself. Governor Chittenden declared him to have done more for Vermont than any other two men. Yet during his prolonged absence in England and France, from 1795 to 1801, his large estates were mostly wrested from him under forms of law, and all his edorts to regain possession of his property were 5

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the New ,Hampshire Grants, every line of it that does not proceed from his pen is submitted to his criticism before it goes into type. When negotiations with towns to the east of the Connecticut River threaten irretrievable disaster, his shrewd diplomacy averts the danger. He takes a prominent part in critical negotiations with the Continental Congress, and forestalls imminent and final failure by prompt and decisive action. Nothing, however, so taxed his resources as the difficult and dangerous negotiations with the British on the northern frontier. In 1780 every- body was mystihed by the withdrawal of the British from Lake Cham- plain, and the quiet disbanding, at the same time, of the Vermont militia. Ira Allen and Joseph Fay could have given the explanation. But in 1781 was seen a thing still more unaccountable,-a force of ten thousand British troops in Canada, awaiting only the word to sweep southwards by way of Lake Champlain and the New Hampshire Grants, yet strangely hesitant and inactive. Everything for which the Council of Safety had schemed and contended was plainly at stake. Had this army moved there would never have been any State of Vermont. All the pre- vious efforts of the Vermonters would have gone for nothing. Their fortunes and their lives were trembling in the balance. Once more Ira Allen, this time alone, undertakes the perilous office of ambassador. So hazardous is the attempt that even the intrepid Ethan endeavors to dis- suade him. No, he has faith that by some means he can accomplish the all-but hopeless task. Failure may be death, but he will take the risk. On his astuteness and address hang all the hopes of the would-be state, though but a select few are admitted to share the secret. Now what was the result of this daring venture of Vermont's Ambas- sador? The impossible was achieved, and not Vermont only, but the whole frontier was for two years saved from the horrors of invasion. One third of all the British forces in North America was kept from taking part in the struggle. Washington was able to cope with the armies operating in the south, and ere long the decisive victory of York- town made it unnecessary longer to match diplomacy against a well- trained and formidable army. But it is not possible here and now to exhibit even in outline a detailed account of Allen's varied and manifold services to his State and the Nation. Nluch that calls for mention must be passed over in silence. Let it suffice to enumerate some of the important duties with which he was charged by his fellow citizens. 7