PREFACE. The purpose of the author is to treat more fully than has yet been done by any writer, of the discovery, exploration and settlement of Vermont; of the adverse claims to the lands occupied by the settlers, and of the origin and character of those claims; of the necessity under which the early inhabitants were placed of forming themselves. into a separate and distinct community, in order to maintain their titles and preserve their property; of their earnest and valuable services against the common enemy during the revolutionary war; and of the obstacles they encountered in organizing a new state government, and in establishing and maintaining its independence. His aim is to embody facts, and to state them with his views in intelligible language, without making any pretensions to literary merit. Among those to whom the author is indebted for information and ready access to papers and documents on the subjects of his inquiries, his acknowledgments are specially due to Benjamin H. Hall, Esq., of Troy, author of the History of Eastern Vermont; to E. B. O'Callaghan, LL.D., of Albany; the Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford; the Rev. Pliny H. White of Coventry, President of the Vermont Historical Society; the Hon. Charles Reed, of Montpelier; the Hon. James H. Phelps, of Townshend; Henry Hall, Esq., and Henry Clark, Esq., of Rutland. NORTH BENNINGTON, September, 1868. |