THE SUPREME COURT OF VERMONT.
By Hon. Russell S. Taft.
I.
THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY COURTS.
Prior to the Revolutionary War the present State of Vermont was included in the limits of the province of New York, the Connecticut River forming the eastern boundary. At the time of the conquest of Canada in 1760, the only white settlements in the State were in the six towns bordering on the Connecticut north of the Massachusetts line, and the number of the settlers was probably about three hundred. After the termination of the French war, and the treaty of Paris, by which Canada passed under the control of the English, settlements were soon made as far north as the valley of the Winooski west of the Green Mountains, and Essex County in the easterly part of the State.
Albany County.
In 1763, before any attempt was made to organize any county within the present limits of the State, Lieutenant-Governor Colden issued a proclamation commanding "all judges, justices, and other civil officers" holding commissions under New York "to exercise jurisdiction in their respective functions, as far as to the banks of the Connecticut River. That it was difficult to execute process, if any issued, is apparent from the petitions for a new county, in which it is stated "there can be no passing from Connecticut River to Albany without going through the province of the Massachusetts Bay; and as soon as the officer gets across the line of the province, his office leaves him, and the delinquent makes his escape."
Many justices of the peace were appointed; but their precepts could not be served, for the reason stated. A meeting of the justices of the peace and quorum was held at Rockingham in February, 1766, and constables were appointed for some of the towns. It required a guard of a dozen men to convey safely a prisoner or a debtor through the woods and over 'the mountains to the jail at Albany. The whole of Vermont was nominally within the limits of Albany County; but it being impossible to execute the process of its courts on the easterly side of the mountains, Cumberland and Gloucester counties were organized in that part of the province, in 1766 and 1770 respectively. After the latter year Albany County embraced only the territory in Vermont west of the mountains. At this time (June, 1770) suits in ejectment against the settlers to recover lands in and near Bennington were brought to trial at Albany. Ethan Allen was appointed by the settlers an agent to defend the suits. He obtained copies of the Royal orders and instructions, by virtue of which Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire had made grants and given patents of the lands in question, and employed Mr. Jared Ingersoll, an eminent barrister of Connecticut, to appear for the settlers. Upon trial the orders and instructions were excluded as evidence, and judgments passed for the plaintiffs. Mr. Kemp, the King's attorney, observed to Mr. Allen that the people "should be advised to make the best terms possible with their landlords, for might often prevailed against right;" when Allen made his noted reply that "The Gods of the valleys are not Gods of the hills." Mr. Kemp asked for an explanation; and Allen replied, that, if he would accompany him to Bennington, the phrase should be explained. Failing to obtain redress in the courts, on Mr. Allen's return to Bennington the "Vermontese"
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