was made, the delegates of New York moved to postpone another matter which was under consideration, for the purpose of taking up this report, but only the states of New York and New Hampshire voted in favor of the motion.1

This appears to have been the last motion made, and the last vote taken on the Vermont question in the Continental congress. From this time forward, Vermont was allowed to pursue the even tenor of her way, without any interference on the part of the government of the confederation.

With the month of March, 1784, all active opposition to the jurisdiction of Vermont ceased. At the session of the general assembly in October following, many of the disaffected persons presented petitions for relief from the penalties for which they were liable, and an act was passed granting twenty-six of them by name, a free pardon, and ordering any property of theirs which had been seized by the authority of the state, and not disposed of, to be restored to them, on condition that they should within three months appear before some justice of the peace for the county of Windham, and take the oath of allegiance to the state. Of these persons, seven were from Brattleboro, eighteen from Guilford, and one from Marlboro. At the same session, Charles Phelps petitioned the legislature for a pardon, and for a reversal of the sentence of the supreme court, attainting him of treason and confiscating his property. The committee, to whom the petition was referred, reported that the petitioner "had been meritorious in his former opposition to the regranting of lands by New York," and "in opposing the uniting and associating of the people of Cumberland county with New York," and had been " very servicable to his country by procuring and selling, without profit to himself, a quantity of arms, ammunition and salt;" but that "he had been for a number of years past exceedingly obstinate against and troublesome to the state." On the whole the committee, "on account of his former merit, his advanced age and the bad circumstances of his family," recommend that a full pardon be granted him, and that all his estate which had been confiscated, and not disposed of for the use of the state, should be restored to him, on his payment of the sum of thirty-five pounds lawful money "towards defraying the extraordinary cost that the government had been at on account of the exertions of himself and his associates against it." An act was

1

Papers of the old Congress in the state department at Washington, No. 40, vol. 2, p. 465 and No. 186. Jour. of Cong., June 3, 1784.

passed in accordance with this report, and Mr. Phelps continued a peaceable citizen of the state during the remainder of his life, which terminated in April, 1789, in the seventy-third year of his age. His descendants have been numerous and respectable, and some of them have occupied very honorable positions in the state and country.1

The Windham county sufferers in the cause of New York, afterwards petitioned the legislature of that state for compensation for their losses, alleging in substance that they had been occasioned by the confidence they had placed in the assurances of congress and the government of New York, of eventual support and protection against the jurisdiction and authority claimed by the Vermonters, in which they had been disappointed. In 1786, the legislature, in response to their petition, appropriated a township of land eight miles square, for their benefit, situated on the Susquehanna river, since known as the town of Bainbridge, which was divided among more than one hundred claimants, in supposed accordance with their proportionate losses, the largest quantity assigned to any one person being three thousand eight hundred and forty acres, and the smallest ninety acres.

Many of the leading friends of New York removed from Vermont, while others remained and became quiet and peaceable supporters of the government.2

1

1 Jour. Vermont Assembly for Oct. 23, 26, 1784, and Slade, p. 494, 495.

2 Hall's Eastern Vermont, p. 541-546, and Appendix K, p. 757. Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 1014-1022.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

FROM THE PEACE WITH GREAT BRITAIN UNTIL THE ADMISSION OF VERMONT INTO THE UNION.

1784-1791.

Exercises sovereign

Vermont after the peace is practically independent authority from necessity-Such as prescribing a standard of weights and measures, regulating the value of coins, and in the establishment of Post Offices In common with other states, coins copper.-Free from the embarrassments of the confederation, is not anxious to become a member of it — Movements in New York by Hamilton, Jay, Schuyler and others for the admission of Vermont into the Union - After the adoption of the constitution of the United States, commissioners are appointed by New York and Vermont, who agree upon terms, securing the Vermont land titles; and upon an adjustment of the controversy, the state is admitted into the Union in 1791.

BY

Y the definitive treaty of peace, signed at Paris, September 3, 1783, and ratified by congress the following January, Vermont was included in the territory acknowledged by Great Britain to belong to the United States. Though claimed by New York her jurisdiction over it was merely nominal. For all practical purposes Vermont was independent of every other government. The confederated congress could, indeed, be scarcely considered a government. Its powers from the beginning had been almost exclusively of an advisory character, depending for their execution upon the separate will of each individual state. In the early stages of the contest with the mother country, the requirements of congress of the states had been received and treated with respect. But as the war progressed jealousies sprung up among its members and among the states, and its requisitions became continually less and less regarded; and when the pressure from without was withdrawn by the restoration of peace, little or no attention was paid to them. The paper currency which congress had emitted had become worthless, their revenues were exhausted, the public creditors were full of complaints against their proceedings, and they were without resources to answer the numerous demands that were perpetually made upon them. Their wisdom, as well as power, was very generally distrusted, and· incapable of relieving themselves from their embarrassments, congress was daily sinking into insignificance and contempt.

The United States had contracted an immense debt in the prosecution of the war, and congress was making constant, though almost useless calls upon the states and their people to furnish the means for its payment. From these annoying calls Vermont, in consequence of having been refused admission into the union, was exempt. The several states were also deeply in debt. But the government of Vermont, by the disposition of her public lands, the imposition of taxes payable in provisions for the supply of her troops, and by her policy of deluding the enemy into inaction, had come out of the contest with but few outstanding obligations. Much of her territory was yet ungranted, and settlers from other states, invited to her territory by the mildness, as well as the efficiency of her government, the comparative lightness of her taxes, the fertility and cheapness of her public lands, annually made large accessions to her population and resources. The confidence which the people of Vermont originally had in the wisdom and ability of congress, had been greatly impaired by the evasive and vacillating conduct of that body towards the state, and they were now well prepared to share in the general want of respect with which their irregular and imbecile proceedings were viewed. They could not fail to see and feel that while their own condition was gradually improving, that of their neighbors was constantly growing worse. Under these circumstances, it cannot be matter of wonder that their admission into the federal union should cease to be an object earnestly sought after, or even very much desired. On this subject, the people of Vermont became content to remain passive for several years, cultivating a friendly feeling and intercourse with the neighboring states, and ready to unite with them on equal terms in any measure that should promise to be of general public benefit.

A great evil under which the people of Vermont labored at the close of the war grew out of their defective land titles. Until after the organization of the state government in 1779, there was no office in which conveyances of land were recorded, and consequently no place to which a purchaser could resort to ascertain the validity of a title. The New Hampshire charters had then been granted fifteen years or more, during which period numerous frauds had been practiced by base men who had made it a business to obtain the confidence of persons wishing to purchase, and to deed them lands to which they had no manner of claim. By this means very many of the settlers found themselves occupying land of which they could not show a chain of conveyances from original proprietors, but on which they had in good faith made extensive and valuable im

provements. By the common law, formed for a very different state of things, they were liable to be turned out of their possessions by any stranger who could show a legal title, without receiving any compensation for their improvements, although they may have increased the value of the property four or even ten fold. The legal owner had voluntarily, perhaps designedly, neglected to make an early claim to the land, and it would be manifestly in the highest degree unjust, to allow him thus to reap the fruits of the labor and expenditures of another. This was clearly seen, but there was no precedent for a remedy, and the lawyers with a professional bias against change, were not in general disposed to aid in devising one. After several legislative suspensions of all land trials, and the consideration of various projects, a bill by the efficient aid of Nathaniel Chipman, one of the best jurists of his time, was framed for that purpose and enacted into a law at the session of the general assembly in October 1785. By this act a proceeding was pointed out by which after a judgment in ejectment for the plaintiff, any defendant who had purchased a title supposing it to be good in fee, and had entered into possession of the land and made improvements upon it, might have the value of such improvements ascertained by the verdict of a jury, and unless the plaintiff in ejectment should pay for them, he was not to be availed of the benefit of his judgment. This law, though novel in its character, was founded on the clearest principles of natural justice. It has always been popular in the state, and several of our sister states, availing themselves of our invention and experience have adopted the same system. The act concluded with a section declaring that no action whatever for the recovery of lands should be prosecuted, where the cause of action had accrued previous to its passage, unless such action should be commenced within three years from the first day of the preceding July. The whole act was well adapted to the condition of titles and of society at the time of its passage. This act when spoken of in reference to its first provisions, which, secured to the occupant compensation for the improvements he had made in good faith, was usually denominated the Betterment act, and in reference to its latter provision, the Quieting act.

1

The government of Vermont during this period of her independence exercised all the powers of sovereignty which her isolated political situation seemed to require. Among them were those of

1 Slade's State Papers, p. 500, also p. 388, 405, 488, 494, 392, 411, 443. Life of Nathaniel Chipman, by Daniel Chipman, p. 62, 65.