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  ETHAN ALLEN
  The Robin Hood of Vermont

  BY
  HENRY HALL

  [Illustration: RUINS OF TICONDEROGA]

  NEW YORK
  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
  1892




  COPYRIGHT, 1892,
  BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.




PREFACE.


At the time of the death of Mr. Henry Hall, in 1889, the manuscript
for this volume consisted of finished fragments and many notes. It
was left in the hands of his daughters to complete. The purpose of
the author was to make a fuller life of Allen than has been written,
and singling him from that cluster of sturdy patriots in the New
Hampshire Grants, to make plain the vivid personality of a Vermont
hero to the younger generations. Mr. Hall's well-known habit of
accuracy and painstaking investigation must be the guaranty that this
"Life" is worthy of a place among the volumes of the history of our
nation.

  HENRIETTA HALL BOARDMAN.




  CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER I.
                                                                 PAGE
  AN ACCOUNT OF ALLEN'S FAMILY,                                      1


  CHAPTER II.

  EARLY LIFE, HABITS OF THOUGHT, AND RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES,          12


  CHAPTER III.

  REMOVAL TO VERMONT.--THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS,                    22


  CHAPTER IV.

  ALLEN AND THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS.--NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN NEW YORK
  AND THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS,                                     32


  CHAPTER V.

  THE RAID UPON COLONEL REID'S SETTLERS.--ALLEN'S OUTLAWRY.--CREAN
  BRUSH.--PHILIP SKENE,                                             46


  CHAPTER VI.

  PREPARATIONS TO CAPTURE TICONDEROGA.--DIARY OF EDWARD
  MOTT.--EXPEDITIONS PLANNED.--BENEDICT ARNOLD.--GERSHOM BEACH,     61


  CHAPTER VII.

  CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA,                                           73


  CHAPTER VIII.

  ALLEN'S LETTERS TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, TO THE NEW YORK
  PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, AND TO THE MASSACHUSETTS CONGRESS,           81


  CHAPTER IX.

  ALLEN'S LETTERS TO THE MONTREAL MERCHANTS, TO THE INDIANS IN
  CANADA, AND TO THE CANADIANS.--JOHN BROWN,                        89


  CHAPTER X.

  WARNER ELECTED COLONEL OF THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS.--ALLEN'S
  LETTER TO GOVERNOR TRUMBULL.--CORRESPONDENCE IN REGARD TO THE
  INVASION OF CANADA.--ATTACK ON MONTREAL.--DEFEAT AND
  CAPTURE.--WARNER'S REPORT,                                        98


  CHAPTER XI.

  ALLEN'S NARRATIVE.--ATTACK ON MONTREAL.--DEFEAT AND
  SURRENDER.--BRUTAL TREATMENT.--ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND.--DEBATES IN
  PARLIAMENT,                                                      110


  CHAPTER XII.

  LIFE IN PENDENNIS CASTLE.--LORD NORTH.--ON BOARD THE
  "SOLEBAY."--ATTENTIONS RECEIVED IN IRELAND AND MADEIRA,          128


  CHAPTER XIII.

  RENDEZVOUS AT CAPE FEAR.--SICKNESS.--HALIFAX JAIL.--LETTER TO
  GENERAL MASSEY.--VOYAGE TO NEW YORK.--ON PAROLE,                 144


  CHAPTER XIV.

  RELEASE FROM PRISON.--WITH WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE.--THE
  HALDIMAND CORRESPONDENCE,                                        162


  CHAPTER XV.

  VERMONT'S TREATMENT BY CONGRESS.--ALLEN'S LETTERS TO COLONEL
  WEBSTER AND TO CONGRESS.--REASONS FOR BELIEVING ALLEN A PATRIOT, 173


  CHAPTER XVI.

  ALLEN WITH GATES.--AT BENNINGTON.--DAVID REDDING.--REPLY TO
  CLINTON.--EMBASSIES TO CONGRESS.--COMPLAINT AGAINST BROTHER
  LEVI.--ALLEN IN COURT,                                           183


  CHAPTER XVII.

  ALLEN AT GUILFORD.--"ORACLES OF REASON."--JOHN STARK.--ST. JOHN
  DE CRÈVECŒUR.--HONORS TO ALLEN.--SHAY'S REBELLION.--SECOND
  MARRIAGE,                                                        191


  CHAPTER XVIII.

  DEATH.--CIVILIZATION IN ALLEN'S TIME.--ESTIMATES OF
  ALLEN.--RELIGIOUS FEELING IN VERMONT.--MONUMENTS,                198




ETHAN ALLEN.




CHAPTER I.

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS FAMILY.


Ethan Allen is the Robin Hood of Vermont. As Robin Hood's life was
an Anglo-Saxon protest against Norman despotism, so Allen's life was
a protest against domestic robbery and foreign tyranny. As Sherwood
Forest was the rendezvous of the gallant and chivalrous Robin Hood,
so the Green Mountains were the home of the dauntless and high-minded
Ethan Allen. As Robin Hood, in Scott's "Ivanhoe," so does Allen,
in Thompson's "Green Mountain Boys," win our admiration. Although
never a citizen of the United States, he is one of the heroes of
the state and the nation; one of those whose names the people will
not willingly let die. History and tradition, song and story,
sculpture, engraving, and photography alike blazon his memory from
ocean to ocean. The librarian of the great library at Worcester,
Massachusetts, told Colonel Higginson that the book most read was
Daniel P. Thompson's "Green Mountain Boys." Already one centennial
celebration of the capture of Ticonderoga has been celebrated. Who
can tell how many future anniversaries of that capture our nation
will live to see! Another reason for refreshing our memories with
the history of Allen is the bitterness with which he is attacked.
He has been accused of ignorance, weakness of mind, cowardice,
infidelity, and atheism. Among his assailants have been the president
of a college, a clergyman, editors, contributors to magazines and
newspapers, and even a local historian among a variety of writers of
greater or less prominence. If Vermont is careful of her own fame,
well does it become the people to know whether Ethan Allen was a hero
or a humbug.

Arnold calls history the vast Mississippi of falsehood. The untruths
that have been published about Allen during the last hundred and
fifteen years might not fill and overflow the Ohio branch of such
a Mississippi, but they would make a lively rivulet run until
it was dammed by its own silt. The late Benjamin Disraeli, Lord
Beaconsfield, fought a duel with Daniel O'Connell, because O'Connell
declared it to be his belief that Disraeli was a lineal descendant
of the impenitent thief on the Cross. Perhaps the libellers of Allen
are descended from the Yorkers whom he stamped so ignominiously with
the beech seal. The fierce light of publicity perhaps never beat upon
a throne more sharply than for more than a hundred years it has beat
upon Ethan Allen. His patriotism, courage, religious belief, and
general character have been travestied and caricatured until now the
real man has to be dug up from heaps of untruthful rubbish, as the
peerless Apollo Belvidere was dug in the days of Columbus from the
ruins of classic Antium.

Discrepancies exist even in regard to his age. On the stone tablet
over his grave his age is given as fifty years. Thompson said his
age was fifty-two. At the unveiling of his statue, he was called
thirty-eight years old when Ticonderoga was taken. These three
statements are erroneous, and, strange to say, Burlington is
responsible for them all, Burlington, the Athens of Vermont, the
town wherein rest his ashes, the town wherein most