CHAPTER XII.
CONCLUSION.
Years elapsed. Hostilities between Great Britain and the American Colonies had ceased; and on the 20th of January, 1783, the preliminary articles of peace were signed, which established the independence of the United States. The adoption of the Federal Constitution followed, which was ratified by the thirteen original States, and the first Congress assembled under it March 3d, 1789. During the period succeeding the peace, Vermont had been pursuing the even tenor of her way, not over-solicitous about an organic union with the States, and without any external foes to dread. But the ancient difference with New York still remained unsettled. A new political generation had come upon the stage, in whose bosoms the bitter feuds of their fathers were not perpetuated.
One difficulty, however, presented itself. New York had aforetime granted large tracts of land in Vermont, and the grantees were loudly complaining of the injustice in not being allowed to take possession of the property, or having its purchase price refunded. New York felt no very strong obligation to refund the money that had been extorted for those grants by royal governors before the war; still she was disposed to favor a compromise. Public opinion and mutual interests called for a reconciliation with Vermont, and her admission into the Confederacy of States, inasmuch as the measure would increase the representation of New England in Congress.
On the 23d of October, 1789, committees from the respective Legislatures of Vermont and New York met to arrange the settlement of the only issue remaining--the amount of compensation the claimants under the New York grants should receive from Vermont. It was agreed that on payment being made to her of $30,000, New York was to consent to the admission of Vermont into the Union, and to give up all claims to jurisdiction within the latter State. On the 18th of February, 1791, Congress, without a dissenting voice or vote, passed an Act “That on the 4th day of March, 1791, the said State, by the name and style of the ‘State of Vermont,’ shall be received and admitted into their Union as a new and entire member of the United States of America.”
THE END.
ACADIA:
A LOST CHAPTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
BY PHILIP H. SMITH.
This is a work of deep interest and great historical value.--American Catholic Quarterly Review.
I thank you for the volume and for the service you have performed for students and readers of American History. Those who peruse your book will better understand Longfellow’s beautiful poem, “Evangeline.”--Benson J. Lossing, LL. D.
It is what it claims to be. “A Lost Chapter in American History,” and should find its way into the library of every student of our country’s history.--Po’keepsie Enterprise.
It is something new, and as a stranger it will be made welcome. It is history as good as romance.--New Orleans Picayune.
The subject itself is explained most thoroughly.... Not the least interesting part of the book are the legends of the Gaspé Coast which are appended to it.--N. Y. Independent.
Price $2. Liberal discount to the trade. Mailed to any address in any quarter of the world.
PHILIP H. SMITH, Publisher, Pawling, N. Y.
HISTORY OF
DUCHESS COUNTY.
BY PHILIP H. SMITH.
For the first time it puts Duchess County before the world in a light of which none of us needs to be ashamed.--Joel Benton in Amenia Times.
The most interesting and instructive events are blended with the whole in a manner calculated to make it entertaining, as well as a valuable book of reference.--Fishkill Jour.
For a long time there has been a general desire that some one should write a history of Duchess County, and at length Mr. Smith has undertaken the work, the result being a handsome volume of 500 pages.--Po’keepsie Eagle.
Price $2, mailed to any address.
PHILIP H. SMITH, Publisher, Pawling, N. Y.
ELIZABETH FRY:
LIFE AND LABORS OF THE EMINENT PHILANTHROPIST, PREACHER, AND PRISON REFORMER.
BY EDWARD RYDER.
“Mr. Harvey, two days ago I saw the greatest curiosity in London, aye and in England too, sir, compared to which Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the British Museum, nay Parliament itself, sink into utter insignificance! I have seen, sir, Elizabeth Fry in Newgate, and have witnessed miraculous effects of true Christianity upon the most depraved of human beings.”--John Randolph.
We shall not look upon her like again! and must try to preserve the impression of her majesty of goodness which it is a great privilege to have beheld.--Baroness Bunsen.
I could wish that your book might be found in every Christian family.--Rev. W. S. Clapp.
389 pp., 8vo., with full page portrait of Elizabeth Fry. Price $1, mailed to any address.
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FOOTNOTES:
[A] In 1763, Rev. Samuel Peters, the first clergyman who paid a visit to the thirty thousand settlers in that country, in the presence of a number of landed proprietors, performed the ceremony of giving a new name to the province, “on the top of a rock standing on a high mountain, then named Pisgah, because it provided the company a clear sight of Lake Champlain to the west, and of the Connecticut River to the east, and which overlooked all the trees and hills in the vast wilderness at the north and south,” ... which new name is “Verd Mont,” in token that her mountains and hills shall ever be green and never die. He then poured the spirits about him and cast the bottle at the rock. The ceremony being over, the company descended Mount Pisgah and took refreshments in a log house, kept by Captain Otley, where they spent the night with great pleasure.--Hist. Mag.
[B] Should read “Beekman’s” Patent, in Duchess County, probably in the present town of Pawling.
[C] An expression signifying an application of the beech rod.
[D] Irving describes Allen as “well-fitted for the enterprise by his experience as a frontier champion, his robustness of mind and body, and his fearless spirit. He had a rough kind of eloquence, also, that was very effective with his followers.” “His style,” says another who knew him personally, “was a singular compound of local barbarisms, scriptural phrases, and oriental wildness: and though unclassic, and sometimes ungrammatical, was highly animated and forcible.” General Washington wrote, “there is an original something in him which commands attention.”
[E] Ira Allen’s History of Vermont.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.