BY HENRY HALL NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1892 Copyright, 1892, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY....

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 investig

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 n

EARLY LIFE, HABITS OF THOUGHT, AND RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES. The life of Allen may be divided into four periods: the first thirty-one years before he came to Vermont (1738-1769), the six years in Vermont before his captivity (1769-1775), the two years and eight months of captivity (1775-1778), and the eleven years in Vermont after his captivity (1778-1789). When he was two years old the family moved into Cornwall. There his brothers and sisters were born, there his father died, there Ethan lived unt

REMOVAL TO VERMONT.—THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS. Allen came to Vermont, probably, in 1769, a year memorable for the founding of Dartmouth College and for the birth of four of earth's renowned men: two soldiers, Wellington and Napoleon; two scholars, Cuvier and Humboldt. In the early history of Vermont, one of its prominent judges speculated extensively in Green Mountain wild lands. The aggregate result of these speculations was disastrous. Attending a session of the legislature, the judge was calle

ALLEN AND THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS.—NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE NEW YORK AND THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS. During the six years preceding the Revolution, Allen was the most prominent leader of the Green Mountain Boys in all matters of peace, and also in political writing. When the Manchester Convention, October 21, 1772, sent James Breakenridge, of Bennington, and Jehiel Hawley, of Arlington, as delegates to England, perhaps Allen could not be spared, for if any New York document needed answering Allen

THE RAID UPON COLONEL REID'S SETTLERS.—ALLEN'S OUTLAWRY.—CREAN BRUSH.—PHILIP SKENE. But "best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley." While these negotiations were pending, New Yorkers were quietly doing the necessary work for stealing more Vermont lands. Cockburn, the Scotch New York surveyor, was surveying land along Otter Creek. The Green Mountain Boys heard of it, rallied, and overtook him near Vergennes, and found Colonel Reid's Scotchmen enjoying mills and farms. For three years thes

PREPARATIONS TO CAPTURE TICONDEROGA.—DIARY OF EDWARD MOTT.—EXPEDITIONS PLANNED.—BENEDICT ARNOLD.—GERSHOM BEACH. On March 29, 1775, John Brown, a Massachusetts lawyer, wrote from Montreal to Boston: The people on the New Hampshire Grants have engaged to seize the fort at Ticonderoga as soon as possible, should hostilities be committed by the king's troops. The most minute account of the preparations to capture Ticonderoga is furnished by the diary for April, 1775, of Edward Mott, of Preston, Conn

CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA. In the gray of the morning, Wednesday, May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen with eighty-three Green Mountain Boys crossed the lake. He frankly told his followers of the danger, but every gun was poised to dare that danger. Soon three huzzas rang out on the parade-ground of the sleeping fort. The English captain, De Laplace, not knowing that his nation had an enemy on this continent, asked innocently by what authority his surrender was demanded. Need I repeat the answer? No words in

ALLEN'S LETTERS TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, TO THE NEW YORK PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, AND TO THE MASSACHUSETTS CONGRESS. The Continental Congress, affected by sinister influences, favored the removal of the stores and cannon of Ticonderoga to the south end of Lake George. Allen wrote to Congress a vigorous remonstrance. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut protested, and the project was abandoned. On May 29th, 1775, from Crown Point, Allen addressed the Continental Congress as follows: An a

ALLEN'S LETTERS TO THE MONTREAL MERCHANTS, TO THE INDIANS IN CANADA, AND TO THE CANADIANS.—JOHN BROWN. The letters to the Indians and Canadians to which Allen has referred show still more clearly the vigorous policy and the adroitness which Allen displayed in the preparations for the invasion of Canada. He wrote to the Montreal merchants: St. John's , May 18th. To Mr. James Morrison and the Merchants that are friendly to the Cause of Liberty in Montreal. Gentlemen :—I have the pleasure to acquai

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. On July 27th committees of towns met at Dorset to choose a lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and thus of those Green Mountain Boys for whose organization Allen had been so active and efficient with both the Continental and New York Congresses. Seth Warner received forty-one of the forty-six votes cas

ALLEN'S NARRATIVE.—ATTACK ON MONTREAL.—DEFEAT AND SURRENDER.—BRUTAL TREATMENT.—ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND.—DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT. The story of Allen's captivity is best told in his own vivid narrative as follows: On the morning of the 24th day of September I set out with my guard of about eighty men, from Longueuil, to go to Laprairie, from whence I determined to go to General Montgomery's camp; I had not advanced two miles before I met with Major Brown, who has since been advanced to the rank of a colo

LIFE IN PENDENNIS CASTLE.—LORD NORTH.—ON BOARD THE "SOLEBAY."—ATTENTIONS RECEIVED IN IRELAND AND MADEIRA. Among the great numbers of people who came to the castle to see the prisoners, some gentlemen told me that they had come fifty miles on purpose to see me, and desired to ask me a number of questions, and to make free with me in conversation. I gave for answer that I chose freedom in every sense of the word. Then one of them asked me what my occupation in life had been. I answered him, that i

RENDEZVOUS AT CAPE FEAR.—SICKNESS.—HALIFAX JAIL.—LETTER TO GENERAL MASSEY.—VOYAGE TO NEW YORK.—ON PAROLE. The third day of May we cast anchor in the harbor of Cape Fear, in North Carolina, as did Sir Peter Parker's ship, of fifty guns, a little back of the bar; for there was not depth of water for him to come into the harbor. These two men-of-war, and fourteen sail of transports and others, came after, so that most of the fleet rendezvoused at Cape Fear for three weeks. The soldiers on board the

RELEASE FROM PRISON.—WITH WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE.—THE HALDIMAND CORRESPONDENCE. Allen's narrative in the preceding chapter gives a picture of himself, of the times, and of the treatment of prisoners by the most civilized nation on earth. In January, 1777, with other American officers, he was quartered on Long Island. In August he was sent to the provost jail in New York. May 3, 1778, he was exchanged for Col. Alexander Campbell. Thus he was treated as a colonel, although he had no fixed offi

VERMONT'S TREATMENT BY CONGRESS.—ALLEN'S LETTERS TO COLONEL WEBSTER AND TO CONGRESS.—REASONS FOR BELIEVING ALLEN A PATRIOT. The conduct of Congress in asking New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to empower it to settle Vermont, without allowing her to act as a party but allowing her to look on, dallying and postponing the measure indefinitely, indicated New York's control of Congress, and, as might have been expected, Vermont's prowess and pluck would not submit to organic annihilation wit

ALLEN WITH GATES.—AT BENNINGTON.—DAVID REDDING.—REPLY TO CLINTON.—EMBASSIES TO CONGRESS.—COMPLAINT AGAINST BROTHER LEVI.—ALLEN IN COURT. When Allen bade adieu to Washington at Valley Forge, he rode on horseback to Fishkill with General Gates and suite, arriving at that place on the 18th of May, 1778, the very day his brother Heman died at Salisbury. The six or eight days occupied by the trip across New Jersey seems to have been one of unalloyed enjoyment to the hero of Ticonderoga. He tells us t

ALLEN AT GUILFORD.—"ORACLES OF REASON."—JOHN STARK.—ST. JOHN DE CRÈVECŒUR.—HONORS TO ALLEN.—SHAY'S REBELLION.—SECOND MARRIAGE. In 1782 the rebellious York element in Windham County again called Ethan to the field. In Guilford forty-six men ambushed and fired on Allen's party in the evening. Allen, knowing the terror of his name, entering Guilford on foot, uttered this proclamation: "I, Ethan Allen, do declare that I will give no quarter to the man, woman, or child who shall oppose me, and unless

DEATH.—CIVILIZATION IN ALLEN'S TIME.—ESTIMATES OF ALLEN.—RELIGIOUS FEELING IN VERMONT.—MONUMENTS. In 1787 Allen moved to Burlington, where, for the last two years of his life, he devoted himself to farming. Through a partial failure of the crops in 1789, Allen found himself short of hay in the winter. Col. Ebenezer Allen, who lived in South Hero, an island near Burlington, offered to supply Ethan what he needed if he would come for it. Accordingly, with a team and man, Ethan crossed the ice on t