Key figures: Thomas Chittenden (first Vermont Governor), Ethan Allen (military leader, politician), Ira Allen (politician, surveyor-general, and diplomat), Seth Warner (Continental officer), Levi Allen (diplomat), New York authorities, Continental Congress leadership
Summary
The Vermont Republic, championed by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys militia, occupied a unique political space within the Revolutionary War—a de facto independent state that claimed sovereignty distinct from any of the thirteen united colonies, from Britain, and from New York, whose government disputed Vermont’s territorial claims. Vermont had declared independence on January 15, 1777, and adopted a written constitution at Windsor on July 8, 1777—the first written state constitution in North America and the first to prohibit adult slavery and to extend the vote to all adult men rather than property holders alone. In March 1778, Vermont seated its first elected government under that constitution, with Thomas Chittenden (1743–1824) as Governor, and in May 1778 Ethan Allen returned from nearly three years of British captivity to rejoin the republic’s leadership.
Through 1778 and beyond, Vermont operated as a self-governing state—collecting taxes, raising militia, and conducting its own diplomacy—all while the Continental Congress and New York authorities questioned its legitimacy. Vermont’s independence complicated the formation of the Articles of Confederation, which did not provide for Vermont’s admission, and its status remained unresolved until the constitutional era: Vermont joined the Union in 1791 as the fourteenth state. Its position illustrated a fundamental tension within the Revolution: the thirteen colonies possessed no unambiguous legal framework for union, and new territorial entities—particularly those on contested frontier lands—claimed the right to self-determination independently.
Background: The New York–Vermont Land Dispute
Royal Charters and Conflicting Claims
Vermont’s disputed status originated in conflicting colonial grants. In 1664, King Charles II granted his brother James, Duke of York (later James II), a vast proprietary that New York interpreted as extending east to the Connecticut River. Decades later, the royal governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, claimed his province reached westward well beyond the river, and from 1749 he issued the “New Hampshire Grants”—townships on the land between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain that is present-day Vermont. A 1764 royal order in council awarded the disputed territory to New York, but the settlers who held New Hampshire titles rejected New York’s authority and its demand that they repurchase or confirm their lands.
By the 1760s, as settlers moved into the region, the dispute became urgent. New York, as an established colony with a larger settler population, moved aggressively to extend its authority. It issued its own land grants over the same townships and attempted to compel Vermont residents to confirm their titles under New York law. New Hampshire grantees, holding what they regarded as valid titles, resisted.
The Green Mountain Boys and Resistance
In the early 1770s, a militia organization called the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and his cousin Seth Warner, emerged to resist New York’s attempts to enforce its jurisdiction. The Green Mountain Boys used intimidation and force to prevent New York authorities from dispossessing New Hampshire–title settlers and to eject New York appointees and land agents from the territory. The group became known for direct action, though its members framed their conduct as defense against “tyranny” and “usurpation.” New York’s government responded by outlawing the leaders and offering bounties for their capture.
The Continental Congress’s Equivocation
When the Revolutionary War began, the Continental Congress did not clearly address the New York–Vermont dispute. Congress treated New York as one of the thirteen united colonies, implicitly recognizing its territorial claims. Vermont’s status remained ambiguous: it was neither explicitly admitted as a colony nor recognized as an independent entity. This ambiguity gave the Green Mountain Boys’ leaders an opening to assert separate authority.
Vermont’s Population and Economic Base
By the late 1770s, Vermont’s settled territory supported an estimated 20,000–30,000 inhabitants, concentrated in river valleys along the Connecticut River to the east and the Champlain lowlands to the west. Unlike the established Atlantic seaboard colonies, Vermont’s economy was primarily subsistence farming and small-scale timber trade, with no large mercantile class or plantation agriculture. This relative egalitarianism shaped its political culture: land ownership was broadly distributed, and the men who formed the Green Mountain Boys were freeholders defending their own parcels rather than tenants working aristocratic estates.
Vermont’s position was also strategically significant. The Lake Champlain corridor was the principal invasion route between Canada and the Hudson Valley, and Vermont held the eastern shore of the lake as well as river crossings on the routes toward British-held Canada. This gave the small republic leverage with both the Continental Congress and British commanders far out of proportion to its population. At peak mobilization its militia could field an estimated 2,000–3,000 men for active service, a figure comparable to several larger states’ frontier contingents.
Independence and Constitution (1777)
Declaration of Independence, January 15, 1777
On January 15, 1777, a convention of settlers meeting at Westminster declared the territory of the New Hampshire Grants to be a free and independent state, initially styled “New Connecticut” and soon renamed Vermont. The declaration was a unilateral act, not ratified by the Continental Congress and not recognized by New York. It drew directly on the language and principles of the Declaration of Independence issued the previous summer, asserting the settlers’ right to self-government and their desire to be treated as a sovereign entity.
The Vermont Constitution, July 8, 1777
A convention of delegates met at Windsor on July 2, 1777, and adopted a written state constitution on July 8, 1777. Modeled closely on Pennsylvania’s radical 1776 constitution, the Vermont frame of government was the first written state constitution in North America and contained several landmark provisions. It established:
- A unicameral legislature (the General Assembly) elected annually
- An elected Governor (the constitution’s chief executive) advised by a Governor’s Council
- A Council of Safety to exercise emergency authority until the constitutional government could be seated
- Universal adult male suffrage, extending the vote to all adult men rather than to property holders alone
- A constitutional prohibition of adult slavery—the first such provision in North America. Chapter I, Article I read: “no male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person, as a servant, slave or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years, unless they are bound by their own consent.”
Because Britain’s 1777 northern campaign under General John Burgoyne swept through the Champlain Valley that summer, the first elections under the new constitution were postponed, and the Council of Safety governed Vermont through the emergency until the following spring.
Vermont’s Wartime Government and Diplomacy (1778 and after)
Seating the First Elected Government, March 1778
With Burgoyne’s army defeated at Saratoga in October 1777, Vermont held its first elections under the 1777 constitution in March 1778. Thomas Chittenden, who had presided over the Council of Safety, was chosen Governor “by a great majority,” and the first General Assembly convened to organize the new state government. Chittenden would serve as Vermont’s chief executive through nearly all of the republic’s existence and into its early statehood. The seating of this government in 1778 marked Vermont’s transition from emergency rule to a functioning constitutional republic.
Internal Administration
Under Governor Chittenden and the General Assembly, Vermont operated as a self-governing state throughout the Revolutionary War. It:
- Managed its own treasury and collected taxes
- Raised militia to defend the northern frontier and to operate alongside Continental forces
- Conducted trade and boundary negotiations with New Hampshire, New York, and other states
- Granted land, in part funded by confiscated loyalist estates, to soldiers and settlers
Ethan Allen’s Return, May 1778
Ethan Allen, captured by British forces near Montreal in September 1775, was exchanged on May 3, 1778, after nearly three years in captivity aboard prison ships and in British and colonial confinement. On his release he reported to General Washington at Valley Forge, was breveted a colonel in the Continental Army, and returned to Vermont, where he resumed a leading—if increasingly political—role in the republic’s affairs. His homecoming in 1778 restored Vermont’s most famous figure to its leadership at the moment its constitutional government was taking shape.
Relations with the Continental Congress
Vermont’s relationship with the Continental Congress was strained. Congress did not formally recognize Vermont as an independent state within the Union, but neither did it explicitly reject Vermont’s claims. This ambiguity allowed Vermont to operate independently while cooperating militarily against Britain. Vermont supplied troops and provisions to the American cause and helped defend the northern frontier during the winter of 1777–1778, when the Continental Army wintered at Valley Forge.
Ethan Allen and his younger brother Ira—the republic’s most adept politician, who served as surveyor-general and treasurer—conducted complex negotiations with congressional representatives, advocating Vermont’s admission to the Union and recognition of its territorial claims. Congress, reluctant to adjudicate a territorial dispute that might alienate New York, kept Vermont outside the formal union.
Military Cooperation and Divergence
While Vermont’s government claimed independence, Vermont soldiers fought in alliance with the Continental Army. The most prominent Vermont unit, Seth Warner’s Continental regiment (raised from the Green Mountain Boys), had already distinguished itself at the Battle of Hubbardton on July 7, 1777, fighting a rearguard action against Burgoyne’s advancing army during the American withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga—the fort Allen and Benedict Arnold had seized from the British in May 1775. Vermont militia continued to defend the northern frontier against raids from Canada throughout the war.
At the same time, Vermont did not send voting representatives to the Continental Congress, did not sign the Articles of Confederation (which excluded it), and maintained its own foreign policy. Later in the war, Vermont’s leaders explored secret contacts with British authorities in Canada, illustrating the republic’s willingness to play the contending powers against one another to preserve its autonomy.
Conflicts with New York
New York state authorities periodically attempted to assert jurisdiction over Vermont. In 1779–1780, New York passed laws claiming Vermont’s territory and appointed officials to administer it; Vermont authorities arrested and expelled these officials. Tensions escalated to the brink of armed conflict, but both entities ultimately had reason to cooperate against Britain and to preserve the fragile alliance within the Continental coalition.
Ethan Allen: The Military Leader and Statesman
Early Career: The Green Mountain Boys
Ethan Allen (1738–1789) was born in Connecticut and migrated to the New Hampshire Grants in the 1760s. He became the military leader of the Green Mountain Boys, using direct action to resist New York land agents and officials. His actions made him a folk hero to settlers resisting New York authority but an outlaw in New York’s eyes; the colony issued warrants for his arrest.
Capture and Imprisonment
In May 1775, Allen led an expedition that captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British alongside Benedict Arnold—a victory at the war’s outset that made Allen famous and aligned him with the Continental cause. In September 1775, however, Allen was captured by British forces in an ill-advised attempt on Montreal and held prisoner for nearly three years, treated as a rebel and moved among prison ships and British confinement. He was exchanged on May 3, 1778, and returned to Vermont an acclaimed military figure.
Political Role
Upon his return, Allen became a key figure in Vermont’s political establishment, though his military fame initially outweighed his political skill. His brother Ira emerged as the more adept politician and diplomat, managing Vermont’s negotiations with Congress and other states. Ethan Allen served in Vermont’s government while also pursuing land speculation and business ventures that capitalized on Vermont’s strategic location between New York and Canada.
The Haldimand Negotiations: Chronology and Context
The secret British–Vermont negotiations—named for General Frederick Haldimand (1718–1791), Governor-General of Canada, who initiated them—unfolded over several years and were conducted with the British intention of detaching Vermont from the American cause:
- 1780: Initial exchanges opened through loyalist intermediaries, with the British offering Vermont neutrality and possible provincial status within the British Empire, and Vermont seeking recognition of its independence and protection from New York.
- 1780–1781: Formal exchanges, facilitated by the loyalist intelligence officer Justus Sherwood and Vermont’s Ira Allen, proceeded near the Lake Champlain frontier. Ethan Allen forwarded British overtures to Congress even as the talks continued.
- 1782: The negotiations wound down as American military fortunes improved after the British surrender at Yorktown (October 1781), reducing both Vermont’s incentive to pursue a separate agreement and Britain’s leverage.
The negotiations never produced an agreement, and historians continue to debate whether the Allen brothers intended them as a genuine exploration of independence or as a deliberate tactic to pressure the Continental Congress by demonstrating Vermont’s strategic options. Vermont’s congressional advocates used the talks to argue that Congress must admit Vermont to the Union or risk losing it to Britain.
Post-War Statehood and Legacy
After the war, Vermont sought admission to the Union. The Articles of Confederation (ratified in 1781) did not include Vermont, and the Continental Congress could not force it into the union; New York continued to oppose Vermont’s statehood on jurisdictional grounds. The impasse persisted through the 1780s until New York and Vermont settled their claims and Vermont ratified the new federal Constitution. Vermont was admitted to the Union in 1791 as the fourteenth state—the first to join after the original thirteen—finally gaining recognized sovereignty within the federal union fourteen years after its 1777 declaration of independence.
Significance
Vermont’s assertion of independence illustrated the revolutionary potential embedded in the American Revolution’s logic of popular sovereignty and self-determination. A frontier region with disputed status claimed the right to govern itself, independent of colonial authorities, British power, and even the Continental Congress. Its success in operating as an autonomous state throughout the war—neither conquered by Britain nor forcibly incorporated by New York—vindicated that claim, and the seating of its first constitutional government in 1778 marked the moment the republic became a working state rather than an emergency committee.
Vermont’s example also exposed the ambiguities of the revolutionary project. The Declaration of Independence asserted that peoples have the right to self-government; but when Vermont exercised that right, the other states were reluctant to recognize it fully. The tension between universal principles of self-determination and the practical need for union in wartime was not resolved until after the war’s conclusion, when Vermont’s persistence and negotiating skill finally secured statehood.
Vermont’s 1777 constitution also established enduring precedents. It was the first written state constitution in North America, the first to prohibit adult slavery, and among the first to grant the vote to all adult men rather than property holders alone—provisions that presaged broader democratic and antislavery currents by decades. Its land policies, favoring small holders over aristocratic estates, fostered a more egalitarian society than many other states and helped shape Vermont’s lasting identity as a region of independent-minded, small-property-holding settlers resistant to concentrated authority.
See Also
- Articles of Confederation Ratification (1778) — the Continental Congress’s attempt to formalize union, which excluded Vermont, illustrating Vermont’s ambiguous status
- Franco-American Alliance Nexus — the broader diplomatic context in which Vermont navigated its autonomous position
- Marquis de Lafayette — the French volunteer officer whose service at Valley Forge coincided with Ethan Allen’s return from captivity in 1778
- Britain Declares War on France — the March 1778 escalation that widened the international context in which Vermont maneuvered
- Valley Forge Encampment (1777–1778) — the Continental Army’s winter crisis, after which the newly exchanged Ethan Allen reported to Washington before returning to Vermont
- Clark’s Illinois Campaign (1778) — George Rogers Clark’s parallel assertion of American authority over disputed frontier territory, showing how frontier regions pressed their own claims during 1778
- Treaty of Alliance with the Delaware Nation — the Continental Congress’s September 1778 treaty with the Delaware Nation, another instance of Congress negotiating with a non-member entity during the war
Sources
- Britannica. “Vermont: History.” https://www.britannica.com/place/Vermont
- Wikipedia. “Vermont Republic.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Republic
- Wikipedia. “Constitution of Vermont (1777).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Vermont_(1777)
- Vermont Secretary of State, State Archives. “Vermont Constitution — 1777.” https://sos.vermont.gov/vsara/learn/constitution/1777-constitution
- Williamson, Chilton. Vermont in Quandary: 1763–1825. Vermont Historical Society, 1949.