Sir:—I have to acquaint your excellency that I had a long conference with ... count, they declare that Vermont does not and shall not belong to their confederacy. The consequence is, that they may fight their own battles. It is liberty which they say they are after, but will not extend it to Vermont. Therefore Vermont does not belong either to the confederacy or the controversy, but are a neutral republic. All the frontier towns are firm with these gentlemen in the present administration of government, and, to speak within bounds, they have a clear majority of the rank and file in their favor. I am, etc.
N. B.—If it should be your excellency's pleasure, after having conversed with the gentleman who will deliver these lines, that I should wait on your excellency at any part of Lake Champlain, I will do it, except I should find that it would hazard my life too much. There is a majority in congress, and a number of the principal officers of the continental army continually planning against me. I shall do everything in my power to render this state a British province.
Ira Allen, that shrewd politician, says of the letter:
This we consider a political proceeding to prevent the British forces from invading this State.
Our reasons for believing Ethan Allen always a patriot are:
First. His known faithfulness to the American cause in every case.
Second. His hatred of the British and contemptuous rejection of their proffers of honor and emoluments when in their power and in no personal danger if he accepted them.
Third. His natural obstinacy in clinging to a cause he had espoused.
Fourth. The repeated efforts of the Vermont government, in which Allen was engaged, to induce Congress to admit it to the Union continued during the negotiation.