Who was the British officer of high rank whom Howe employed to buy up Allen we do not know, but the American whom Clinton employed we do know: Beverly Robinson, a Virginian, made wealthy by marriage with Susanna Phillipse, sister of Mary Phillipse, for whom Washington had an attachment. He was the son of a lieutenant-governor, and an early associate of Washington. In 1780 occurred this third attempt to buy Allen. Robinson was the man selected to make the proposition. Ethan Allen was the man selected to be bribed: not Governor Chittenden; not the soldiers Roger Enos or Seth Warner; not the diplomat, the treasurer, the financier of the State, Ira Allen; not the young lawyers Nathaniel Chipman or S. R. Bradley; but the man who had been tempted in England and tempted in New York, the man whose loyalty had not been shaken by the endurance of British brutality for two and one-half years. The time to hope for success would seem to have been December, 1775, on English soil, when he had reasonable grounds to fear being hung for treason, or in New York, in 1777, when Washington had been driven out of Long Island, out of New York City, and chased across New Jersey. This time chosen was in 1780, when Congress had alienated Vermont by ignoring her claims to federation, and had treated her with such contempt that there was almost no hope of her joining the United States.
Long Island knew of Ethan's temptation before he did. The air was full of it. The contents of Robinson's letter were known to the tories before Allen received it. The letter written in February was delivered in July. Washington heard in July that Allen was in New York selling himself to the British. Schuyler had spies everywhere. They reported Allen in Canada. General James Clinton suspected Allen. The correspondence and flag for cartel smelt of treason. Washington had tried to effect an exchange of prisoners, and failed. His letter to Haldimand was unanswered. Gooch had applied, in July, to Washington, and Allen wrote to Washington at the request of the governor. Washington replied he could not prefer Warner's men to those who had been prisoners longer, but here the correspondence languished.
In the Magazine of American History, published in New York, January, 1887, is an article entitled "A Curious Chapter in Vermont's History," dated Ottawa, Canada, November, 1886, signed J. L. Payne, in which the writer says there are hundreds of manuscripts in the Canadian archives which prove that Vermont narrowly escaped becoming a British province. The chief evidence that he furnishes is extracts from the letters of Capt. Justus Sherwood, commissioner for General Haldimand, Governor of Canada. These letters indicate that on October 26, 1780, Sherwood left Miller Bay with five privates, a flag, drum, and fife. On October 28th he is at Herrick's Camp, a Vermont frontier post of three hundred men. He is blindfolded and taken to Colonel Herrick's room. He tells Herrick that he is sent by Major Carleton to negotiate a cartel for the exchange of prisoners, and that he had dispatches from Governor Haldimand and Major Carleton to Governor Chittenden and Governor Allen. Next Sherwood is at Allen's headquarters in Castleton, and Allen having promised absolute secrecy, Sherwood informs him that:
General Haldimand was no stranger to their disputes with the other States respecting jurisdiction, and that his excellency was perfectly well informed of all that had lately passed between congress and Vermont, and of the fixed intentions of congress never to consent to Vermont's being a separate State. General Haldimand felt that in this congress was only duping them, and waited for a favorable opportunity to crush them; and therefore it was proper for them to cast off the congressional yoke and resume their former allegiance to the king of Great Britain, by doing which they would secure to themselves those privileges they had so long contended for with New York.
Allen is reported by Sherwood as replying that he was attached to the interests of Vermont, and that nothing but the continued tyranny of Congress could drive him from allegiance to the United States; but "Should he have any proposals to make to General Haldimand hereafter, they would be nearly as follows: He will expect to command his own forces. Vermont must be a government separate from and independent of any other Province in America; must chose their own officers and civil representatives; be entitled to all the privileges of the other states offered by the King's commissioners, and the New Hampshire Grants as chartered by Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, must be confirmed free from any patents or claims from New York or other Provinces. He desires me to inform His Excellency that a revolution of this nature must be the work of time.... If, however, Congress should grant Vermont a seat in that Assembly as a separate State, then this negotiation to be at an end and be kept secret on both sides."
On May 7, 1781, Ira Allen visited Canada, and concerning a conference with him Captain Sherwood reports to the governor:
He says matters are not yet ripe. Governor Chittenden, General Allen and the major part of the leading men are anxious to bring about a neutrality, and are fully convinced that Congress never intends to confirm them as a separate State; but they dare not at this time make any separate agreement with Great Britain until the populace are better modelled for the purpose.
A few days later Captain Sherwood reports to the governor:
Those suspicious circumstances, with the great opinion Allen [referring to Col. Ira Allen] seems to entertain of the mighty power and consequence of Vermont, induce me to think they flatter themselves with the belief that, if Britain should invade them, the neighboring colonies rather than lose them as a frontier would protect them, and, on the other hand, should congress invade them, they could easily be admitted to a union with Britain at the latest hour, which they would at the last extremity choose as the least of two evils; for Allen says they hate congress like the devil, and have not yet a very good opinion of Britain. Sometimes I am inclined, from Allen's discourse, to hope and almost believe that they are endeavoring to prepare for a reunion. To this I suppose I am somewhat inclined by my anxious desire that it may be so.