Vermont Republic

The name Vermont Republic has been applied by historians to Vermont when it was a de-facto independent country from January 1777 until March 1791. During that time it was variously referred to as a "republic," a "commonwealth," a "state," and a "territory," but it most often officially referred to itself as the "State of Vermont."

In 1664, Charles II, King of England, granted lands that became the Province of New York, later the State of New York, to the Duke of York. The grant set the eastern boundary of that province at the west bank of the Connecticut River, so that New York included all of what is now Vermont. In 1741, King George II appointed Benning Wentworth governor of New Hampshire. Wentworth considered the decree defining the border between New Hampshire and Massachusetts to mean that New Hampshire extended as far west as Massachusetts did, so that all of what is now Vermont was a part of New Hampshire.

From 1749 to 1764, Wentworth issued about 130 "grants" offering newly surveyed lands west of the Connecticut River for sale at low prices. Many thousands of people took advantage of the grants and settled in what was later to become Vermont. In those years, that region was a de-facto part of New Hampshire. Wentworth named the city of Bennington after himself. On July 20, 1764, King George III ruled that the disputed territory belonged to New York. Since the ruling followed an ex parte hearing in which the king heard only from representatives of New York, those who disagreed continued to hope that the king might alter the ruling after hearing from other interested parties including the government of New Hampshire. The government of New York began selling lands at auction, in some cases conflicting with Governor Wentworth's grants. In effect, farmers in Vermont were told that they did not own the land on which they had built farms and houses, and lived and worked for 15 years, but they could buy them from the government of New York. In 1767 the Privy Council ordered New York to cease auctioning land in the disputed region, but did not invalidate the titles derived from auctions that had already taken place.

Local governments in the New Hampshire Grants, as the disputed territory was called, made it an offense punishable by public flogging, forfeiture of property, and banishment, to accept a commission as a justice of the peace or a sheriff from the government of New York. Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys, the militia that later captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British in the War of American Independence, was organized for the purpose of resisting attempts by the government of New York to enforce laws in the New Hampshire Grants.

After the Declaration of Independence of July 1776, inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants could no longer hope for justice from the king or the courts of England. Consequently on January 15, 1777, the politicians of the disputed region declared Vermont a separate independent state. The name "Vermont" had been suggested by Dr. Thomas Young, a physician from Pennsylvania who had been one of Ethan Allen's teachers. It is a corruption of a French phrase that means "Green Mountain". The range of mountains occupying the middle of the state has been known as the Green Mountains since the 17th century. They immediately asked the Continental Congress for recognition and representation alongside the original 13 United States. Their petition was denied because of objections from New York and New Hampshire. New York continued for years to object adamantly to the independence of Vermont because it would prevent them from delivering the lands they had sold at auction.

In July 1777 the first Constitution of Vermont was promulgated. It provided that there would be a government whose executive branch was headed by a governor and a governor's council who would serve terms of one year, the members of whose legislative assembly would serve for one year, and which would have a system of courts of law. It also provided for a body called the council of censors, charged with reviewing the constitutionality of legislation and proposing constitutional amendments. While the constitution was being written, the Battle of Hubardton was being fought. That was the only battle of that war that took place in Vermont. (The Battle of Bennington, despite its name, took place in New York, about 20 miles east of Bennington.)

The legislators and the governor were elected in March 1778. Thomas Chittenden was the first governor, and served 11 consecutive one-year terms, and later served six more consecutive terms, followed by a seventh consecutive term during which he died in office.

Because Vermont had been denied representation in the Continental Congress, the governor, legislature, and courts of Vermont took the position that Vermont was not a part of the United States, was not subject to Congress, and was at liberty to enter into separate peace negotiations with the British. Those negotiations were conducted between representatives of Vermont and Frederick Haldimand, British governor of Canada. Vermont expressed a willingness to become a British colony of the British would protect Vermont from New York. One practical result of the negotiations was a number of exchanges of American and British prisoners of war in Vermont.

The question of Vermont's admission to the Union was repeatedly discussed by the Continental Congress during the years 1777 to 1785, without results.

In 1787, Alexander Hamilton, then a member of the legislature of New York, proposed that New York should recognize Vermont and tell its representatives in Congress to support Vermont's admission to the Union. A part of his motivation was that the admission of Kentucky (then still a part of Virginia) was anticipated, and it was felt that a new northern state should be admitted as well, to balance northern and southern interests in Congress.

In 1790, the legislature of New York consented to the admission of Vermont to the Union under two conditions: that the real-estate disputes could be resolved and that Congress decided to admit Vermont to the Union. On March 4, 1791, Vermont became the 14th state.

See also

• Vermont
• Vermont Constitution

Additional reading

• Hall, Benjamin. History of Eastern Vermont. London: Forgotten Books, 2015.
• Mello, Robert A. Moses Robinson and the Founding of Vermont. Barre: Vermont Historical Society, 2014.