Duane and Kempe were prominent lawyers of New York, and also prominent as advocates of New York's claim to Vermont lands. Duane was the son-in-law of Robert Livingston and Kempe was attorney-general. The idea of their being kidnapped for exhibition at a log tavern in the wilderness was slightly grotesque. But this did not satisfy Allen. He would fain visit the enemy in one of his strongholds.
Albany was emphatically a Dutch city, for it was two centuries old before it had 10,000 inhabitants. In 1772 it might have had half that number. While the country was flooded with proclamations for his arrest, Allen rode alone into the city. Slowly passing through the streets to the principal hotel he dismounted, entered the bar-room, and called for a bowl of punch. The news circulated; the Dutch rallied; the crowd centred at the hotel; the officers of the court, the valiant sheriff, Ten Eyck, and the attorney-general were present. Allen raised the punch-bowl, bowed courteously to the crowd, swallowed the beverage, returned to the street, remounted his horse, rose in his stirrups and shouted "Hurrah for the Green Mountains!" and then leisurely rode away unharmed and unmolested. The incident illustrates Allen's shrewd courage, and sustains Governor Hall's theory that the people of New York sympathized more with the Green Mountain Boys than with their own land-gambling officers.
At the Green Mountain tavern in Bennington was a sign-post, with a sign twenty-five feet from the ground. Over the sign was the stuffed skin of a catamount with large teeth grinning toward New York. A Dutchman of Arlington who had been active against the Green Mountain Boys was punished by being tied in an arm-chair, hoisted to this sign, and there suspended for two hours, to the amusement of the juvenile population and the quiet gratification of their seniors.
[CHAPTER IV.]
ALLEN AND THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS.—NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE NEW YORK AND THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.
During the six years preceding the Revolution, Allen was the most prominent leader of the Green Mountain Boys in all matters of peace, and also in political writing. When the Manchester Convention, October 21, 1772, sent James Breakenridge, of Bennington, and Jehiel Hawley, of Arlington, as delegates to England, perhaps Allen could not be spared, for if any New York document needed answering Allen answered it; if any handbill, proclamation or counter-statement, or political or legal argument was to be written, Allen wrote it; if New England was to be informed of the Yorkers' rascalities, Allen sent the information to the Connecticut Courant and Portsmouth Gazette, Vermont having no newspaper. Rarely was force or threat used or a rough joke played on a Yorker, but Allen was first in the fray. In Bennington County Allen with others told a Yorker that they had "that morning resolved to offer a burnt sacrifice to the gods of the woods in burning the logs of his house." They did burn the logs and the rafters, and told him to go and complain to his "scoundrel governor."
Of all the towns of Western Vermont, Clarendon had been most noted for its Tories and its Yorkers. Settled as early as 1768, its settlers founded their claims to land titles on grants from three different powers: Colonel Lydius, New York, and New Hampshire. The New York patent of Socialborough, covering Rutland and Pittsford substantially, was dated April 3, 1771, and issued by Governor Dunmore. The New York patent of Durham, dated January 7, 1772, issued by Governor Tryon, covered Clarendon. Both were in direct violation of the royal order in council, July, 1767, and therefore illegal and void. The new county of Charlotte, created March 12, 1772, extended from Canada into Arlington and Sunderland and west of Lake George and Lake Champlain. Benjamin Spencer, of Durham, was a justice and judge of the new county; Jacob Marsh, of Socialborough, a justice; and Simeon Jenny, who lived near Chippenhook, coroner. These three officers were zealous New York partisans. The Green Mountain Boys in council passed resolutions to the effect that no citizen should do any official act under New York authority; that all persons holding Vermont lands should hold them under New Hampshire laws, and if necessary force should be used to enforce these resolves.
In the early part of the fall of 1773, a large force of Green Mountain Boys, under Ethan Allen and other leaders, visited Clarendon and requested the Yorkers to comply with these resolutions, informing them if this were not done within a reasonable time the persons of the Durhamites would suffer. Justice Spencer absconded. No violence was used except on one poor innocent dog of the name of Tryon, and Governor Tryon was so odious that the dog was cut in pieces without benefit of clergy. This display of force and the threats that were very freely used, it was hoped, would be enough to secure submission, but the justices still issued writs against the New Hampshire settlers; other New York officials acted, and all were loud in advocating the New York title.