University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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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

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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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From 1776 to 1786 the Council of Satety was guided by his prompt and prudent counsels more than by those of any other member, though he was the youngest of them all. From 1778 to 1787 he was the Surveyor-General of the State. Although the original book of Charters had been carried to England, his prompt action made it possible for the State to issue new grants of land in 1780 without interfering with the rights ot previous holders,-a measure then of prime importance for both political and financial reasons. Roads were opened and surveys conducted under his supervision. For eight years, 1778 to 1785, he was the Treasurer of the Common- wealth, whose cotiers, at Hrst empty, were promptly and punctually replenished by methods of his own devising. Between 1783 and 1794 he was eight times chosen Representative from Colchester to the General Assembly, and in 1791 was a member ot the Constitutional Convention. ln 1790 he was one of seven Commissioners on the part ot Vermont empowered to determine the boundary line between the former Grants and New York. He was also the author ot the conditions on which the ancient and troublesome land controversy was at last settled, and the owners ot some tive million acres freed from the dangers and the costs ot protracted lawsuits. ln 1785 the legislature designated Allen as Agent and Delegate to Congress, Ambassador to sundry of the different States ot America, and special Commissioner to the Province of Quebec. These titles will seem unduly grandiloquent to those who do not know that for fourteen years Vermont was a Sovereign State, paying neither obedience nor tribute to any power on earth. And this unique position among American states was due to no other man in so large degree as to him whose wise and tar-reaching plans for the secure building of the State were crowned in 1791 by the Founding of the State University. ln an address to the Inhabitants of the State of Vermont issued in November, 1778, Allen had spoken ot the ample provision made fin the Constitution ot the Statej for the propagation ot the Gospel, to- gether with proper Seminaries and Schools of learning, which are among the greatest blessings God ever bestowed on the race of man. lt was his offer of 54000, first made to the Legislature in 1789, which deter- mined the location of the institution at Burlington, instead of Williams- 8