wheat for the reaping of foes,"-but his native energy did not forsake him for a moment. He, with two of his neighbors, immediately repaired to Philadelphia, to ascertain what were the designs of Congress in relation to the defence of the Northern frontier. The result was, that Congress could provide no protection for the inhabitants in that quarter, and hard as it was for him to leave his farm, which was so dear to him, yet, the idea never entered his mind to submit to the enemy to save his property, but he at once prepared to remove to the south part of the Grants. The whole family, including women and children, went on foot, by marked trees, through Middlebury to Castleton, their provisions and clothing being carried on two horses. They arrived safely at Castleton, and proceeded thence to Danby, where Col. Chittenden purchased or rented a farm, in the south part of the town, near the foot of the Mountain. He resided on this farm until Ticonderoga was evacuated, in July, 1777, when he removed to Pownal, where he resided at the time of Bennington battle. Soon after this, he removed to Williamstown, Mass.

The Council of Safety, of which Col. Chittenden was President, held a perpetual session in Benning

ton, from about the middle of July until after the capture of Burgoyne, when he purchased a farm in Arlington, on which he resided until 1787.

It has been justly remarked that, in every important crisis in human affairs, Providence raises up men peculiarly fitted for the exigences of the times. This is strikingly verified in the early history of Vermont. When a people are assailed, and compelled to take arms in defence of their rights, the public and individual interest become identical. Thus, when New York claimed not only jurisdiction over the New Hampshire Grants, but the right of soil—the farms on which the settlers lived-the whole people united, and selected their most able and efficient men for their leaders, Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, and Remember Baker, for their military leaders, and Samuel Robinson, Jonas Fay, and others, to act in concert with them, and they were successful, as a brave and united people ever are, in defence of their rightful possessions. Mankind have ever considered their domicils, their firesides, as sacred, and worthy the protection of the gods, hence the Penates, the household gods of the ancients.

When the Green Mountain Boys had achieved

their independence, they had a far more difficult task to perform. It was necessary for the people to establish civil government, and become submissive to the laws. This was considered at the time, by all intelligent men, as a difficult and hazardous undertaking. The people had, for so long a time, successfully resisted the authority of New York, the only authority attempted to be exercised over them, that they had, in some measure, lost their Puritan habits of submission to lawful authority, and respect for the magistrates.

In this state of things, to form a constitution adapted to the situation, temper, and habits of the people, and to establish a code of laws, shackling them with no more regulations than they would bear, and at the same time calculated to bring them into a habit of submission to lawful authorit, required for a leader, not only a wise patriot, but a man having a peculiar tact in exerting an infence on the minds of men, and inducing them to follow his lead.

At this critical period of our affairs, Col. Chittenden, who, as we have seen, came into the Grants a short time before, just in season to become generally known, was at once selected as a leader in all civil affairs. He was a member of

the convention holden at Dorset in September, 1776, for the purpose of taking into consideration the expediency of declaring Vermont an independent State. And at a subsequent meeting of the convention, at Westminster, he was a member of the committee who drafted the declaration of independence, and also a member of the committee appointed to petition Congress to acknowledge the independence of the State. He was also a leading member of the convention holden at Windsor, on the 2d of July, 1777, which formed the first Constitution of Vermont; and, as we have seen, he was President of the Council of Safety, which was vested with all the powers of Government--executive, legislative and judicial-to be exercised until the government should be organized under the Constitution. Those who personally knew Col. Chittenden perceive that he was the master spirit in that body. His sagacity, humanity, and sound discretion, are conspicuous especially in the disposition of the Tories, their estates, and their. families.

He was elected the first Governor, and was continued in that office, with the exception of one year, until 1797. During the whole course of his public life in Vermont, it appeared that he

had been formed, by nature, and by education, purposely for the different stations in which he was placed.

He seldom took one step in reasoning on any subject, but his perceptions were so keen, and his mind so comprehensive, that he took a clear and full view of any subject, however complex, and made a correct decision, intuitively. Ethan Allen, who published a book entitled "Reason the only oracle of Man", and who subjected everything to the test of his own reasoning, both in the visible and invisible world, used to say of Governor Chittenden, that he 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 he was so. Governor Chittenden being thus entirely practical, pursuing a course dictated by a clear view of the existing state of things, was never misled by any theories in the science of government and law adapted to a people differing in every way from the Green Mountain Boys. Hence he devised the quieting act, an act to secure the settlers in their possessions, and supported the tender acts, judg ing correctly, that they were absolutely necessary to prevent the dissolution of government. He