CHAPTER V.AFFAIR AT WESTMINSTER.
Colonel Allen collected the documents relative to the several grants of the Crown, including that to the Plymouth Colony, to Lord Say and Seal, to the Duke of York, and some other papers, and in 1774 published them in a book. This had the effect of bringing the Vermont troubles into notoriety. The newspapers everywhere were circulating the proceedings, which resulted in stirring up public sentiment against the Crown, as it was supposed the Governor and Council of New York were sustained in their claims by the home government.
Hitherto the opposition to New York had been confined principally to the inhabitants west of the Green Mountains. As already stated, the policyof New York had been to divide the people in their sentiment, by a conciliatory course in respect to those living on the Connecticut River. But now an incident occurred which had the effect of arousing the spirit of opposition throughout the whole extent of the Hampshire Grants.
In September, 1775, a meeting of delegates from the several colonies met at Philadelphia, to consult upon measures for the public safety. This was followed by an almost universal suspension of the royal authority, the courts being closed, or adjourned without doing any business. New York alone refused assent to the patriotic measures recommended by Continental Congress. The court of justice for the County of Cumberland, on the Hampshire Grants, was to be held in March of that year at Westminster. Much dissatisfaction prevailed throughout the county, because of the course adopted by New York, and attempts were made to dissuade the judges from holding the court, without avail.
Early in the morning of the day appointed,the people of Westminster and the adjacent towns took possession of the court house to prevent the officers of the court from entering. The opposing party appeared, armed with guns, pistols and swords, and commanded the people to disperse. This being refused, the judges and their friends retired. About eleven o’clock at night they again appeared and demanded admittance; being again refused, they opened fire, killing one man and wounding several more. The wounded men, and some others, were seized and dragged to prison.
The next day the people flocked in from every part of the country. A coronor’s inquest was instituted on the body of their fallen comrade, and a verdict returned of “willful murder by the Court Party,” some of whom were immediately seized and placed in jail.
The news of this event spread far and wide throughout the Hampshire Giants, and fired the hearts of the stern yeomanry with an irrepressible bitterness and rage against the authorities ofNew York. A meeting of the committees of safety was held at Westminster the following month, at which spirited and patriotic resolutions were passed, among which was a declaration “that it is the manifest duty of the inhabitants, on the eternal and immutable principles of self-preservation, wholly to renounce and resist the administration of the province of New York, until such times as the lives and property of the inhabitants can be secured thereby.” Indeed, such was the state of feeling, that but for the ominous occurrences preceding the American Revolution, which for the time absorbed all minor considerations, New York and Vermont would have been brought to the direful issues of a civil war.