The convention had decreed that no officer from New York should attempt to take any person out of its territory, on penalty of a severe punishment, and it forbade any surveyor to run lines through the lands or inspect them with that purpose. This edict enlarged the powers of the military commanders, and it was their duty to search out such offenders. The Committees of Safety which were chosen were entrusted with powers for regulating local affairs, and the conventions of delegates representing the people, which assembled from time to time, adopted measures tending to harmony and concentration of effort.
May 19, 1772 (the year in which occurred Poland's first dismemberment), Governor Tryon wrote to Bennington and vicinity, inviting the citizens to send delegates to him and explain the causes of their opposition to New York rule. Could anything be fairer or more politic and wise? He promised safety to any and all sent, except four of their leaders, Allen, Warner, Cochran, and Sevil, and suggested sending their pastor, J. Dewey, and Mr. Fay. Dewey answered on June 5:
We, his Majesty's leal and loyal subjects of the Province of New York.... First, we hold fee of our land by grants of George II., and George III., the lands reputed then in New Hampshire. Since 1764, New York has granted the same land as though the fee of the land and property was altered with jurisdiction, which we suppose was not.... Suits of law for our lands rejecting our proof of title, refusing time to get our evidence are the grounds of our discontent.... Breaking houses for possession of them and their owners, firing on these people and wounding innocent women and children.... We must closely adhere to the maintaining our property with a due submission to Your Excellency's jurisdiction.... We pray and beseech Your Excellency would assist to quiet us in our possessions, till his Majesty in his royal wisdom shall be graciously pleased to settle the controversy.
Allen, not being allowed to go to New York, wrote to Tryon in conjunction with Warner, Baker, and Cochran, stating the case as follows:
No consideration whatever, shall induce us to remit in the least of our loyalty and gratitude to our most Gracious Sovereign, and reasonably to you; yet no tyranny shall deter us from asserting and vindicating our rights and privileges as Englishmen. We expect an answer to our humble petition, delivered you soon after you became Governor, but in vain. We assent to your jurisdiction, because it is the King's will, and always have, except where perverse use would deprive us of our property and country. We desire and petition to be reannexed to New Hampshire. That is not the principal cause we object to, but we think change made by fraud, unconstitutional exercise of it. The New York patentees got judgments, took out writs, and actually dispossessed several by order of law, of their houses and farms and necessaries. These families spent their fortunes in bringing wilderness into fruitful fields, gardens and orchards. Over fifteen hundred families ejected, if five and one-quarter persons are allowed to each family.... The writs of ejectment come thicker and faster.... Nobody can be supposed under law if law does not protect.... Since our misfortune of being annexed to New York, law is a tool to cheat us.... Fatigued in settling a wilderness country.... As our cause is before the King, we do not expect you to determine it.... If we don't oppose Sheriff, he takes our houses and farms. If we do, we are indicted rioters. If our friends help us, they are indicted rioters. As to refugees, self-preservation necessitated our treating some of them roughly. Ebenezer Cowle and Jonathan Wheat, of Shaftsbury, fled to New York, because of their own guilt, they not being hurt nor threatened. John Munro, Esq., and ruffians, assaulting Baker at daybreak, March 22, was a notorious riot, cutting, wounding and maiming Mr. Baker, his wife and children. As Baker is alive he has no cause of complaint. Later he (Munro) assaulted Warner who, with a dull cutlass, struck him on the head to the ground. As laws are made by our enemies, we could not bring Munro to justice otherwise than by mimicing him, and treating him as he did Baker, and so forth. Bliss Willoughby, feigning business, went to Baker's house and reported to Munro, thus instigating and planning the attack.... The alteration of jurisdiction in 1764 could not affect private property.... The transferring or alienation of property is a sacred prerogative of the true owner. Kings and Governors cannot intermeddle therewith.... We have a petition lying before his Majesty and Council for redress of our grievances for several years past. In Moore's time, the King forbid New York to patent any lands before granted by New Hampshire. This a supercedeas of Common Law. King notifying New York he takes cognizance and will settle and forbids New York to meddle: common sense teaches a common law, judgment after that, if it prevailed, would be subversive of royal authority. So all officers coming to dispossess are violaters of law. Right and wrong are externally the same. We are not opposing you and your Government, but a party chiefly attorneys. We hear you applied to assembly for armed force to subdue us in vain. We choose Captain Stephen Fay and Mr. Jonas Fay, to treat with you in person. We entreat your aid to quiet us in our farms till the King decides it.[1]
The embassy was successful. The council advised that all legal processes against Vermont should cease. If Bennington was happy in May over the invitation, Bennington was jubilant in August over the kindly advice. The air rang with shouts; the health of governor and council was drunk and cannon and small-arms were heard everywhere. No part of New York colony was happier or more devotedly British. Two years had passed since the New York Supreme Court had adjudged all the Vermont legal documents null and void: one year had passed since New York had sent a sheriff and posse with hundreds of citizens to force Vermont farmers from their farms, but both of these affairs occurred under Governor Clinton. Now perhaps, the Vermonters thought, the new governor was going to act fairly: there would be no more fights; no more watching and guarding against midnight attacks; no more need of fire-arms; and wives and babes would be safe. There would be no more kidnapping of Green Mountain Boys and hurrying them away to Albany jail; no more foreign surveying of the lands they tilled and loved.