THE ETHAN ALLEN HOUSE
An inn at Dorset, Vermont, where the Revolutionary hero used to stop.
TABLET AT TICONDEROGA
On this rock are the names of Ticonderoga’s heroes, Champlain, Montcalm, Lord Howe, Amherst and Burgoyne.
To tax a man without his consent has always been, since Magna Charta was written, contrary to the liberties of native-born Englishmen. It was therefore contrary also to the liberties of native-born Americans, and as such it was resisted by our ancestors of the revolutionary epoch, as it had been resisted by our ancestors of the colonial era. When, on May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, sword in hand, called upon the king’s ancient fortress of Ticonderoga to surrender, giving as their authority “the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,” they were but putting into striking phrase the political doctrines of Calvinism and seeking to enforce the royal promise that Americans of whatever colony were entitled to “all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities … as if they had been abiding and born, within this, our Realm of England.” And when the great political figures of the Revolution—Adams, Witherspoon, Franklin, Jefferson, and the rest—assembled in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, and signed the Declaration of Independence, while the Liberty Bell pealed forth the notes of freedom, they were but repeating the declaration of the first American charter.
ETHAN ALLEN MONUMENT
Erected at Manchester, Vt., to the daring frontiersman who captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British.