The preamble to the Vermont Declaration of Independence, reciting the grievances of the patriots and their sufferings, entailed by the British government, is a monument to the 72 Vermonters, who again swore fealty to the na tional cause. The Continental Congress, while failing to give them any satisfactory response to numerous petitions, began to recognize its Green Mountain troops as reliable allies, and the mill tary was receptive of honors. Warner had been promoted to colonel, and others prominent in Vermont affairs were possessors of commissions in the Continental line. But the days were dark for the country. Outside the camp of Gen. George Washington, and this circle of Green Mountain patriots, the probability that the American Colonies would become independent of Great Britain was very faint. Gen. John Burgoyne, with an army deemed invincible, was marching southward from Canada. He was met by the Vermonters so aggressively that he likened them to aa gathering storm on my left?' The convention to adopt a constitution for the independent State met in the (Old Constitution HouseD at Windsor 2-8 July 1777 in the shadow of this environment. The constitution had been read and adopted, asection by section,* and was about to be put upon its final passage, when news came, 8 July, of the disastrous situation in the northern department. The result at Hubbardton the previous day was unlcnown, but many families of the representatives lived in the route of Burgoyne's advancing and vic torious army. The motion to immediately ad journ was about to be carried, when the heavens, as if to complete the British general's metaphor, added the artillery of a terrific thunder-storm as a concomitant. The enforced delay caused a sober second-thought, and the business of the convention was completed before the hurried adjournment and departure occurred.
As soon as possible the new State adopted such laws as were needed and means of enforc ing them. For the first time slavery was for ever prohibited, freedom in religious matters, freedom of speech and of the press guaranteed and the right to vote given to every man over 21. Vermont as an independent State was not more liberal than any of the 13.
Vermont in the Revolution.--Ahhough thus independent, Vermont did not shirk such duties as were necessary to the States in the Union. Perhaps the most spectacular event in the Revolutionary history of Vermont is the capture of Ticonderoga 10 May 1775 (on the day the Revolutionary Congress assembled) and the part taken by the "Green Mountain Boys? at Bennington, 16 Aug. 1777. Generalship of this character would not neglect the commissary department, and the Continental storehouse at Bermington, filled with supplies, was a reality.
Its capture by Colonel Bautn's detachment would have enabled G:eneral Burgoyne to re write the entire history of his ill-starred expe dition. Referring again to Ticonderoga and its bloodless capture, there may exist honest doubts as to what honors may have been due to Bene dict Arnold, but there was none as to Ethan Allen and Seth Warner. Supported by Warner and his ((Green Motmtain Boys,D Ethan Allen entered the fortress at the head of the com mand,— ((side by side with Arnold, as he wrote, 11 May 1775,— and the demand for sur render, gln the name of the Great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress,D twice repeated, was made by Allen upon Commandant Delaplace.
Arnold's commission to command these troops had been repudiated. The next day Warner reduced Crown Point. Making peace among themselves, Arnold and Allen swept Lake Champlain of hostile craft, troops from Con necticut occupied the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and American patriots thus ob tztined, within a weck, control or the entire waterway. These events, so quickly following Lexington battle, filled royal governmental cir cles with astonishment. Governor Colden, of New York (who had temporarily returned to power), reported to the British ministry: "The only people of this province who had any hand in this expedition were that lawless people of whom your lordship has heard much under the name of the Bennington mob," referring to the affair of "Breckenridge farm." The "Green Mountain Boys') disbanded and Warner was given the command of a regiment,—composed largely, however, of the same men,—enlisted under the Continental Congress. An "irony of fate" attended its fortunes in that the regiment was mainly engaged in the defense of New York; and yet it should be stated that the State of Vermont, after its organization, paid the entire expenses of these soldiers. Not being recognized as a commonwealth by Congress, the independent State not only defended itself from the British, but,materially assisted the general cause of national independence.
A ((fast)) had been observed 18 June 1777; but disaster following disaster to America, still accompanied the British progress south. Ticon deroga and Crown Point, considered hitherto as commanding Lake Champlain, had fallen, but at Bennington the tide of battle turned. Here the combined forces of Massachusetts (Berkshire County), New Hampshire and Vermont, under Gen. Jolm. Stark, won the day; and it was Warner's regiment fresh from its defeats at the north, and Hubbardton in particular, which ar rived just in time to save the field. Stillwater 19 September and 7 October, subsequently, led up to Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga 17 Oct. 1777. This series of successes, one of Cressey's 15 pivotal points of history, was thus written in favor of liberty.
A plain gray obelislc of limestone marks the site of the Continental storehouse, and com memorates the Battle of Bennington, the field of which forms a portion of the landscape vis ible from its look-out room. It rises from an elevation 250 feet above the Walloornsac River Valley, 301 feet 10.5 inches; base, 37 by 37 feet,— the most imposing strictly battle monument in existence. The cost, $100,000, was contributed by the three States involved in the engagement, by subscription, and $40,000 by the national government; erected 1887-91 A.D., by the Ben nington Battle Monument Association, a Ver mont corporation. In the valley is located the Soldiers' Home of the State.