tlers, on the New-Hampshire grants, had been long put at hazard by the claims of New-York. In face of the royal prohibition of the 24th of July, 1767, the government of that Province had proceeded to convey the lands, occupied under grants from the same royal authority. The Courts at Albany had, uniformly. decided in favor of the New-York grantees. Writs of possession had been issued; the execution of which was regarded by the settlers as nothing less than legalized robbery. They therefore resisted; and, for uniting in this resistance, had been indicted as rioters, and subjected to heavy penalties. Notwithstanding the attempt which had been made to arrest the progress of the controversy, it does not appear that the government of New-York had, at any time, taken measures to restrain the location and settlement of lands under New-York titles. The bone of contention, therefore, still remained; and the failure of an attempted reconciliation had served to embitter the resentment of the contending parties, and produce a state of hostility, more decided and alarming.

The mass of the settlers, on the New Hampshire grants, consisted of a brave, hardy race of men. Their minds, naturally strong and active, had been roused to the exercise of their highest energies, in a controversy, involving every thing that was dear to them. Though unskilled in the rules of logic, they, nevertheless, reasoned conclusively; and having once come to a decision, they wanted not the courage or conduct necessary to carry it into execution.

"Foremost among them, stood ETHAN ALLEN. Bold, ardent, and unyielding; possessing a vigorous intellect, and an uncommon share of self-confidence, he was peculiarly fitted to become a successful leader of the opposition. In the progress of this controversy, several pamphlets were written by him, exhibiting, in a manner peculiar to himself, and well suited to the state of public feeling, the injustice of the New York claims. These pamphlets were extensively circulated, and contributed much to inform the minds, arouse the zeal, and unite the efforts, of the settlers."

"Enjoying, as we now do, the protection of just and equal laws, it is difficult to form a proper estimate of the measures we are reviewing. We shall be less inclined to censure them as unnecessarily severe, if we reflect, that there was no choice left to the New-Hampshire grantees, between an entire surrender of their farms, rescued from the wildness of nature, and made valuable, by their industry; and a determined and persevering resistance by force. Necessity drove them to resistance, and sound policy dictated that it should be of a character to inspire a full belief that it would be made effectual."

"It is difficult to conjecture what would have been the issue of this controversy, had not its progress been suddenly arrested by the commencement of the revolutionary war. The events of the memorable 19th of April, 1775, produced a shock, which was felt to every extremity of the colonies: and "local and provincial contests were, at once, swallowed up by the novelty, the grandeur, and the importance of the contest thus opened between Great Britain and America."

The news of the battle of Lexington determined colonel Allen to engage on the side of his country, and inspired him with the desire of demonstrating his attachment to liberty by some bold exploit. While his mind was in this state, a plan for taking Ticonderoga and Crown Point by surprise, which was formed by several gentlemen in Connecticut, was communicated to him, and he readily engaged in the project. Receiving directions from the general assembly of Connecticut, to raise the green mountain boys, and conduct the enter prise, he collected two hundred of the hardy settlers, and proceeded to Castleton. Here he was unexpectedly joined by colonel Arnold, who had been commissioned by the Massachusetts' committee to raise four hundred men and effect the same object, which was now about to be accomplished. As he had not raised the men, he was admitted to act as assistant to colonel Allen. They reached the lake opposite Ticonderoga on the evening of the 9th of May, 1775. With the utmost difficulty, boats were procured, and eighty-three men were landed near the garrison. The approach of day rendering it dangerous to wait for the rear, it was determined immediately to proceed. The commander in chief now addressed his men, representing that they had been, for a number of years, a scourge to arbitrary power, and famed for their valor; and concluded with saying, "I now propose to advance before you, and in person conduct you through the wicket gate, and you that will go with me voluntarily in this desperate attempt, poise your firelocks." At the head of the centre file he marched instantly to the gate, where a sentry snapped his gun at him, and retreated through the covered way; he pressed forward into the fort, and formed his men on the parade in such a manner as to face two opposite barracks. Three huzzas awakened the garriA sentry, who asked quarter, pointed out the apartments of the commanding officer; and Allen, with a drawn sword over the head of captain De la Place, who was undressed, demanded the surrender of the fort. "By what authority do you demand it?" inquired the astonished commander. "I demand it," said Allen, "in the name of the great Jehovah and of the continental congress." The summons could not be disobeyed, and the fort with its very valuable

son.

stores and forty-nine prisoners, was immediately surrendered. Crown Point was taken the same day, and the capture of a sloop of war soon afterwards made Allen and his brave party complete masters of lake Champlain.

In the fall of 1775, he was sent twice into Canada, to observe the dispositions of the people, and attach them, if possible, to the American cause. During this last tour, colonel Brown met him, and proposed an attack on Montreal, in concert. The proposal was eagerly embraced, and colonel Allen with one hundred and ten men, near eighty of whom were Canadians, crossed the river in the night of the 24th of September. In the morning he waited with impatience for the sig nal of colonel Brown, who agreed to co-operate with him; but he waited in vain. He made a resolute defence against an attack of five hundred men, and it was not till his own party was reduced, by desertions, to the number of thirty-one, and he had retreated near a mile, that he surrendered. A moment afterwards a furious savage rushed towards him, and presented his firelock with the intent of killing him. It was only by making use of the body of the officer, to whom he had given his sword, as a shield, that he escaped destruction.

He was now kept for some time in irons and treated with great severity and cruelty. He was sent to England as a prisoner, being assured that the halter would be the reward of his rebellion when he arrived there. After his arrival, about the middle of December, he was lodged for a short time in Pendennis castle, near Falmouth. On the 8th of January, 1776, he was put on board a frigate and by a circuitous route carried to Halifax. Here he remained confined in the jail from June to October, when he was removed to New York. During the passage to this place, captain Burke, a daring prisoner, proposed to kill the British captain and seize the frigate; but colonel Allen refused to engage in the plot, and was, probably, the means of preserving the life of captain Smith, who had treated him very politely. He was kept at New York, about a year and a half, sometimes imprisoned and sometimes permitted to be on parole. While here, he had an opportunity to observe the inhuman manner, in which the American prisoners were treated. In one of the churches, in which they were crowded, he saw seven lying dead at one time, and others biting pieces of chips from hunger. He calculated, that of the prisoners taken at Long Island and fort Washington, near two thousand perished by hunger and cold, or in consequence of diseases occasioned by the impurity of their prisons.

Colonel Allen was exchanged for colonel Campbell, May 6, 1778, and after having repaired to head quarters, and offer

ed his services to general Washington in case his health should be restored, he returned to Vermont. His arrival on the evening of the last of May, gave his friends great joy, and it was announced by the discharge of cannon. As an expression of confidence in his patriotism and military talents, he was very soon appointed to the command of the state militia. It does not appear, however, that his intrepidity was ever again brought to the test, though his patriotism was tried by an unsuccessful attempt of the British to bribe him to attempt a union of Vermont with Canada. He died suddenly at his estate in Colchester, February 13, 1789.

Colonel Allen possessed a mind naturally strong, vigorous and eccentric, but it had not been improved by an early education. He was brave in the most imminent danger, and possessed a bold, daring, and adventurous spirit, which neither feared dangers nor regarded difficulties. He was also ingenuous, frank, generous and patriotic, which are the usual accompanying virtues of native bravery and courage. He wrote and published a narrative of his sufferings during his imprisonment in England and in New York; comprising also various observations upon the events of the war, the conduct of the British, and their treatment of their prisoners.

ALLEN, EBENEZER, was one of the first soldiers of the revolution. He was in the party that went against Ticonderoga. With forty men he went upon the hill Defiance, and carried the fortress without loss of a man. He also distinguished himself in the battle of Bennington; taking advantage of a breastwork of rocks, he contended with the front of the enemy, till he caused a temporary retreat. He was among those who exerted themselves in making Vermont a separate state, and lived to see not only the wilderness subdued, where he first ploughed the ground, but the places filled with inhabitants. The account of his death is mentioned in the newspapers of the year 1805.

ALLEN, MOSES, minister of Midway, Georgia, and a distinguished friend of his country, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, September 14, 1748. He was educated at the college in New Jersey, where he graduated in 1776, and was licensed by the presbytery of New Brunswick, February 1, 1774, and recommended by them as an ingenious, prudent, pious man. In March following he preached first at Christ's church parish, about twenty miles from Charleston, in South Carolina. Here he was ordained, March 16, 1775, by the Rev. Mr. Zubly, Mr. Edmonds and William Tennent. He preached his farewell sermon in this place, June 8, 1776, and was soon afterwards established at Midway, to which place he had been carnestly solicited to remove.

The British army from Florida under General Prevost dispersed his society in 1778, and burned the meeting house, almost every dwelling house, and the crops of rice then in stacks. In December, when Savannah was reduced by the British troops, he was taken prisoner. The continental officers were sent to Sunbury on parole, but Mr. Allen, who was chaplain to the Georgia brigade, was denied that privilege. His warm exhortations from the pulpit, and his animated exertions in the field exposed him to the particular resentment of the British. They sent him on board the prison ships. Wearied with a confinement of a number of weeks in a loathsome place, and seeing no prospect of relief, he determined to attempt the recovery of his liberty by throwing himself in the river, and swimming to an adjacent point; but he was drowned in the attempt on the evening of February 8, 1779, in the 31st year of his age. His body was washed on a neighboring island, and was found by some of his friends. They requested of the captain of a British vessel some boards to make a coflin, but could not procure them.

Mr. Allen, notwithstanding his clerical function, appeared among the foremost in the day of battle, and on all occasions sought the post of danger as the post of honor. The friends of independence admired him for his popular talents, his courage, and his many virtues. The enemies of independence could accuse him of nothing more, than a vigorous exertion of all his powers in defending what he conscientiously believed to be the rights of his injured country.

ALEXANDER, WILLIAM, commonly called lord Sterling, a major-general in the American army, in the revolutionary war with Great Britain, was a native of the city of New York, but spent a considerable part of his life in New Jersey. He was considered by many as the rightful heir to the title and estate of an earldom in Scotland, of which cantry his father was a native; and although, when he went to North Britain in pursuit of this inheritance, he failed of obtaining an acknowledgment of his claim by government; yet, among his friends and acquaintances, he received by courtesy the title of lord Sterling. He discovered an early fondness for the study of mathematics and astronomy, and attained great eminence in these sciences.

In the battle on Long Island, August 27, 1776, he was taken prisoner, after having secured to a large part of the detachment an opportunity to escape by a bold attack, with four hundred men, upon a corps under lord Cornwallis. In the battle of Germantown, his division and the brigades of Generals Nash and Maxwell, formed the corps de reserve. At the battle of Monmouth he commanded the left wing of the American army.