of Government come into, agreeable to the minds of the people of this State, by any Assembly peculiarly chosen for that purpose, since the Colonies were declared independent of the Crown of Great Britain.

Fifthly, Because if a Council is necessary, every elector ought to have a voice in the choice of each Counsellor, and not to be restricted to any particular limits within this State.

For which reasons we protest against a Counsellor being chosen in this County, as directed in the precept.

On the 30th of December, 1776, a joint committee of the house and council of New Hampshire was appointed "to take under consideration the difficulties and grievances subsisting and complained of by sundry towns and people in the County of Grafton, & any other towns, respecting the present form of government," &c., and to make report. The committee on the part of the house consisted of Samuel Gilman, Jun., Jos. Whipple, Benj. Giles, Geo. Gains, Timothy Ellis. Daniel Brainerd, John Wentworth, Jun., Christopher Webber, and Thomas Odiorne. On the part of the council, Geo. King, Jonathan Blanchard, and Ebenezer Thompson. On the 3d of January, 1777, the said committee made report to the house on the affairs of Grafton," in which report conciliatory measures were recommended and adopted, to allay the spirit of discontent among the people; and another committee was appointed to visit the county, and "in the most earnest manner entreat the people to consider the consequences of such internal discords and divisions among ourselves," &c. This latter committee consisted of Hon. Meshech Weare, Benjamin Giles, Esq., and John Wentworth, Jun., Esq. (see State Pap. N. H., vol. VIII, pp. 442, 450), to which committee, subsequently, January 14, Hon. Josiah Bartlett was added (p. 463). What was effected by this committee does not appear; but the condition of the country, in the mean time, seems to have arrested the progress of disaffection in Grafton county, and to have turned attention to measures for their defence against the common enemy. Ticonderoga was surrendered, and Burgoyne's army was on its invading march into the New Hampshire grants. All was alarm and anxiety, so that the border towns east of Connecticut river made earnest application to the New Hampshire

government for help. In the mean time, however, between New York and the people of the New Hampshire grants on the west side of Connecticut river, the controversy was earnestly waged. On the 24th of July, 1776, a convention was held at Dorset, Vt., which consisted of fifty-one members, representing thirty-five towns, which, by adjournment, again met, Sept. 25, 1776, and again, at Westminster, January 15, 1777. At this latter meeting of the convention, it was resolved, no one contradicting, "That the district of land commonly called and known by the name of New Hampshire Grants,' be a new and separate state; and for the future conduct themselves as such." (See documents in Slade's Ver. Pap., pp. 65-88.) Of this important step, due official notice was given to the continental congress. (See, also, N. Y. Col. Documents, under N. H. Grants.) The action of the Westminster convention, Jan. 15, 1777, led to new complications with New Hampshire. The said convention adjourned, to meet at Windsor July 2, 1777; and then a draft of a constitution was presented, read, and adopted. The convention then adjourned again, to meet at Windsor on the 24th of December, when the constitution was revised, and the day for election of officers under it appointed the first day March, 1778. The first assembly of the new state, called VERMONT, was to be held on the second Thursday of the same month.

The documentary papers, relating to the proceedings above referred to, are found in detail in Slade's Vermont State Papers, pp. 21-66; also, in Governor and Council Rec. Ver., vol. I, App., and in the Colonial Doc. Hist. of New York.

Declaration and Petition of the Inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants to Congress, Fan. 15, 1777.

[P. 51.] To the Honble the Continental Congress :

The declaration and petition of the inhabitants of that part of North America, situate south of Canada line, west of Connecticut River, North of the Massachusetts bay and East of a Twenty mile line from the Hudson's River, containing about one hundred and forty-four townships, of the contents of six miles square each, granted your petitioners by the authority of New Hampshire, besides several grants made by the authority of New York, and a quantity of vacant land:

Humbly sheweth-That your petitioners, by virtue of the several grants made them by the authorities aforesaid, have many years since, with their families, become actual settlers and inhabitants of the said described premises, by which it. is now become a respectable frontier to three neighbouring states, and is of great importance to our common barrier Ticonderoga, as it has furnished the army there with much provisions, and can muster more than five thousand hardy

soldiers capable of bearing arms in defence of American liberty:

That shortly after your petitioners began their settlements, a party of land-jobbers in the city and State of New York began to claim the lands, and took measures to have them declared to be within that jurisdiction:

That on the fourth day of July 1764,* the king of Great Britain did pass an order in council, extending the jurisdiction of New York Government to Connecticutt River, in consequence of a representation made by the late Lieuten[P. 52.] ant Governor Colden, that for the convenience of trade and administration of justice, the inhabitants were desirous of being annexed to said State:

That upon this alteration of jurisdiction the said Lieutenant Governor Colden did grant several tracts of land in the above-described limits, to certain persons living in the State of New-York, which were at that time in the Actual possession of your petitioners; and under colour of the lawful authority of said State did proceed against your petitioners as lawless intruders upon the Crown-lands in their province. This produced an application to the King of Great Britain from your petitioners, setting forth their claims under the Government of New-Hampshire, and the disturbance and interruption they had suffered from said post-claimants under New-York. And on the 24th day of July 1767, an order was passed at St. James' prohibiting the Governors of New York for the time being from granting any part of the said described premises on pain of incurring his Majesty's highest displeasure. Nevertheless, the same Lieutenant Gov

*See Prov. Pap. N. H., vol. VII, p. 62.-ED. †The following is a copy of the order referred to: At a court at St. James, the 24th day of July, 1767,

His Majesty taking the said report [a report of the Board of Trade] into consideration, was pleased, with the advice of his private Council, to approve thereof, and doth hereby strictly charge, require and command, that the Governor or commander in chief of his Majesty's Province of New York, for the time being, do not, upon pain of his majesty's highest displeasure, presume to make any grant whatsoever, of any part of the lands described in the said report, until his Majesty's further pleasure shall be known, concerning the same.

A true copy

Attest

WILLIAM SHARPE
GEO. BANYAR, Dep. Se'cry.

ernour Colden, the Governours Dunmore and Tryon have each and every one of them in their respective turns of administration, presumed to violate the said royal order, by making several grants of the prohibited premises, and countenancing an actual invasion of your petitioners to drive them off from their possessions.

These violent proceedings (with the solemn determination of the Supreme Court of the State of New-York that the Charters, Conveyances &c. of your petitioners' lands were utterly null and void, on which they were founded) reduced your petitioners to the disagreeable necessity of taking up arms, as the only means left for the security of their posses[P. 53.] sions. The consequence of this step was the passing of twelve acts of outlawry by the Legislature of NewYork on the ninth day of March 1774, which were not intended for the State in general, but only for part of the Counties of Albany and Charlotte, viz. such parts thereof as are covered by the New Hampshire charters.*

Your petitioners having had no representation in that Assembly when the acts were passed, they first came to the knowledge of them by the publick-papers in which they were inserted. By these they were informed, that 'if three or more of them assembled together to oppose' what said Assembly called legal authority that 'such as should be found assembled to the number of three or more should be adjudged felons; and that in case they or any of them should not surrender himself or themselves to' certain 'officers appointed for the purpose of securing them after a warning of seventy days, that then it should be lawful for the respective judges of the Supreme Court of the Province of New-York to award execution of Death, the same as though he or they had been attainted before a proper Court of Judicatory.' These laws were evidently calculated to intimidate your petitioners into a tame surrender of their rights, and such a state of vassalage as would entail misery to their latest posterity.

It appears to your petitioners that an infringement of their rights is still meditated by the State of New York, as we find that in their General Convention at Haerlem the second day of August last, it was unanimously voted, 'That all the quit-rents formerly due to the Crown of Great Britain within this State are now due and owing to this *See Slade's Ver. Pap., pp. 42-48.-Ed.

Convention, or such future Government as may hereafter [P. 54.] be established in this State.'

By a submission to the claims of New-York your petitioners would be subjected to the payment of two shillings and six pence sterling on every hundred acres annually, which compared with the quit-rents of Livingston's, Phillips's and Ransaeler's manors, and many other enormous tracts in the best situations in the State, would lay the most disproportionate share of the publick expense on your petitioners, in all respects the least able to bear it.

The Convention of New York have now nearly complete a Code of laws for the future government of that State, which, should they be attempted to be put in execution will subject your petitioners to the fatal necessity of opposing them by every means in their power.

When the Declaration of the Honble the Continental Congress of the 4th of July last, reached your petitioners, they communicated it throughout the whole of their District; and being properly apprised of the proposed meeting of delegates from the several Counties and Towns in the District described in the Preamble to this petition, did meet at Westminster in said district, and after several adjournments for the purpose of forming themselves into a distinct and separate State, did make and publish a declaration, 'That they would at all times thereafter consider themselves as a free and independent State capable of regulating their own internal police in all and every respect whatsoever; and that the people in said described district have the sole exclusive right of governing themselves in such manner and form as [P. 55] they in their wisdom should chuse, not repugnant to any resolves of the Honble the Continental Congress;' and for the mutual support of each other in the maintenance of the Freedom and Independence of the said District or separate State, the said delegates did jointly and severally pledge themselves to each other by all the ties that are held sacred among men, and resolve and declare, that 'they were at all times ready in conjunction with their brethren in the United States to contribute their full proportion towards the maintaining and supporting the present just war against the Fleets and armies of Great Britain.'

To convey this declaration and resolution to your Honble Body, the Grand representative of the United States, were we, your more immediate petitioners delegated by the united and