Cents per acre on the Town of Derby," reported the following amendments-That the Bill pass for "Three Cents" instead of "Two Cents," that Luther Newcomb be the Collector instead of Elisha Lyman, that Elisha Lyman be of the Committee in the place of Luther Newcomb, and that the name of Ebenezer Gould be erased and Japhet Benham be inserted; which Report was accepted, and on Motion, Resolved, That the Council concur in said Bill as amended, and Ordered, That Mr. Loomis communicate the reasons of such amendments to the House. A Bill, passed in the House of Representatives, Entitled "An Act uniting certain parts of the Towns of Pomfret and Hartford into one School District," was sent up to Council for revision &c. and being read, it was Resolved, That the Council concur in passing said Bill into a Law. A Bill, passed in the House of Representatives, Entitled "An Act enabling the Inhabitants of the Town of Washington to ratify their former proceedings," was sent up to Council for revision &c. and, on Motion, was amended by erasing after the word "That" in the Second line of the Bill, the whole of the Bill and Inserting in lieu thereof the following: "The several votes and proceedings of said Meeting be and they are hereby ratified and confirmed in as ample a manner as though the said Thomas Porter Esquire had presided in the same until a Moderator and Clerk had been chosen:" and Resolved, That the Council do concur in said Bill as amended, and Ordered, That Mr Wheelock inform the House of the Reasons of such Amendment. The following resolution was received from the House: In General Assembly Feb 6th. 1804. Resolved, The Governor and Council concurring herein, That the unfinished Business now pending before the Council and General Assembly be and the same is hereby referred to the next Session of the Legislature. Extract from the Journals. Att. A. HASWELL Clerk." Which Resolution was read, and Resolved, That the Council concur in the same, and Ordered. That the Secretary communicate it to the House, and also inform the House that the Council are ready to Meet the House in the Representatives' Room, for the purpose of adjourning the Legislature without day. Mr. Potter, from the House, informed the Council the House would now join with Council in the Representatives' Room for the purpose above mentioned. The Governor and Council accordingly proceeded to the Representatives' Room, and after the Throne of Grace was addressed by Mr. [Sidney] Willard, the Chaplain, in prayer, the Two Branches of the Legislature were adjourned without day by the Sheriff of Windsor County. Attest WILLIAM PAGE Jur. Secy. A True Journal. APPENDIX A. VERMONT IN 1791, AS VIEWED BY A VIRGINIAN.-NO SLAVERY. IN the summer succeeding the admission of Vermont into the Union, the State was visited by three Virginians, two of whom ranked among the most distinguished men of the nation, to wit, THOMAS JEFFERSON and JAMES MADISON, who came through Lake George, spent a day and a half on Lake Champlain, sailing about twenty-five miles north of Ticonderoga, when a further advance was prevented by a head wind. Returning, they proceeded to Bennington on the 4th of June, spent the Sabbath there, and on the 6th journeyed on their way to the valley of Connecticut river, and thence by Hartford and New Haven to New York city and Philadelphia. But for Jefferson's detailed account of this journey, altogether unlike that described in the letter which follows, it might be presumed that either Jefferson or Madison was the author of the letter. It is to be assumed rather, from the different route described,-which embraced both eastern and western Vermont and a tour across the State near the northern boundary-that the writer was a third Virginian, whose name has not been ascertained. 1 LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN IN VIRGINIA TO HIS FRIEND IN BENNINGTON. Sir,-Before I left Virginia, I had conceived but a very indifferent opinion of the northern states, and especially of the state of Vermont. I had formed the idea of a rough barren country, inhabited by a fierce, uncivilized, and very unpolished people. I made my tour up Connecticut river, east of the green mountains, near the northern boundary of your state, and returned on the western side, by the lake through Bennington. I must confess I was surprised and astonished beyond measure, to find a fertile luxuriant soil, cultivated by a virtuous, industrious and civilized set of inhabitants; many of whom lived in taste and elegance, and appeared not unacquainted with the polite arts. Randall's Life of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. II, pp. 19 and 20; and Vermont Gazette of June 6 1791. From the Vermont Gazette of Sept. 19, 1791. The rapid progress in popularity [population] and improvement, and the many surprizing incidents that have taken place during the short period of your existence as a state, will furnish material for some able historian, to give the world an history, that shall be both entertaining and instructive. I conversed with men of genius, whose minds had been improved by a liberal education, and appeared to be well acquainted with the arts of state policy. But there was one thing that fell under my observation, which gave me some uneasiness, and which if not remedied in time, may prove fatal to those rights and liberties which you have purchased at so dear a rate. What I have reference to is the manner of electioneering. The using of undue influence in matters of this kind, destroys that freedom of election, which ought to be held dear and sacred by a people who mean to secure their independence, and transmit the blessings of it to posterity. This is an evil under which Great Britain groans to this day, who are compelled to submit to the domination of those elected to office by bribery and corruption, and afterwards taxed to pay the expence. And though it sometimes happens that gentlemen of real worth are brought forward in this way, who honour their appointments, and are a blessing to society of which they are members: yet in how many instances are men promoted, who are altogether unqualified for the higher walks of government into which they are introduced, and steal into office through the mistake of mankind. Had they continued in the more obscure paths of life, they might have proved good citizens as well as useful members of society; but their being placed in a sphere for public action, the business of which they are unacquainted with, proves a real injury to themselves, and entirely frustrates the end of their appointment. There are some who thrust themselves forward by the mere dint of a brazen front, and those low intriguing arts despised by men of sense and honesty, by which they intimidate some and allure others of the lower class; whereas if such designing men were only stripped of their property, and presented in their true light, [they] would soon sink into their original nothingness, and become objects of ridicule and contempt. But I shall remark no farther; to conclude with the words of the poet, In times of general agitation, Some rise like scum in fermentation: Side down to get themselves a-top: And when they've gained their favourite point, For want of strength can't move a joint. As useless as a leaky cask, Or like a furnace out of blast; Who shortly must be laid aside, Like horse, unfit to draw or ride.* The emphasis on the word "furnace" clearly indicated that Matthew Lyon was the object of this censure. He was at that time running both a furnace, at Fairhaven, and the western district for Congress against Israel Smith and Isaac Tichenor.-See A. N. Adams's History of Fairhaven, p. 419. Moreover, he was publicly charged as an adept in two arts "the art of making politics malleable, and the other the art of selling civil offices for proxies.”—See Vermont Gazette of Oct. 17 1791. NOTE BY THE EDITOR.--These lines were adapted from Trumbull's Mc Fingal, Canto III: For in this ferment of the stream The dregs have work'd up to the brim, And by the rule of topsy-turvies, The scum stands foaming on the surface, &c. NO SLAVES IN VERMONT IN 1791. The official printed reports of the Census of the United States, from 1790 until 1870, assigned 16 slaves to Vermont in 1790, all in the county of Bennington; but, in preparing the report of the Census of 1870, a critical examination of each previous Census was made, and one of the results was the discovery of the fact, that the persons charged to Vermont in 1790 as slaves were free blacks, and were so returned by the marshal of the State. This discovery was made by a Vermonter, GEO. D. HARRINGTON, Esq., Chief Clerk in the Census Bureau. It is strange that such an error should have passed uncorrected for eighty years, and the more strange when it is evident that the error was known in Vermont in 1791. The following, from the Vermont Gazette of Sept. 26 1791, is to the point : The return of the marshal's assistant for the county of Bennington states, that there are in the county 2503 white males over sixteen years of age, and 2617 under that age. 5559 white females. 17 black males over and 4 under 16. 15 black females. Total of inhabitants, 12,254. To the honor of humanity NO SLAVES. The foregoing agrees with the census report in the total number of population, and disagrees only in the classification of the blacks. 'The reports of the census give the population of Vermont as of 1790, but the census of Vermont was not taken until 1791. APPENDIX B. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. AMENDMENTS ADOPTED IN 1791. The first Congress, Sept. 25 1789, proposed to the States twelve amendments to the Constitution of the United States, ten of which were ratified by the requisite number of States. These are the first ten amendments now attached to the Constitution. Two of the proposed articles failed. Vermont, however, ratified the whole, by an act passed Nov. 3 1791. The two articles rejected by other States were as follows: Article the first.-After the first enumeration required by the first Article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which, the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons. Article second. No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.-Hickey's Constitution, sixth edition, p. 33. THE ELEVENTH AMENDMENT, ADOPTED JAN. 8 1798. From the Vermont Assembly Journal of Oct. 25 1793: The Governor and Council appeared in the house, when his Excellency made the following communications, viz. A circular letter from his Honor Samuel Adams, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor in and over the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,' dated October 9th, 1793-accompanied with 'Acting Governor, Gov. Hancock having died on the day preceding the date of Mr. Adams's letter. |