MANDATORY LAWS OF NEW YORK.
The spirit of opposition and resentment had risen so high because of
the events recorded in the preceding chapter, that New York was led
to adopt the most stringent measures of coercion. The law which the
wisdom of that colony devised to meet the exigencies of the occasion
was a curiosity in American Legislation. It enacted that if any
person opposed the civil officers of New York, or burned or destroyed
property belonging to subjects of that colony, or assembled for
riotous purposes, such offenders shall be adjudged guilty of felony,
without benefit of clergy, and were to suffer death as felons. The law
made it the duty of the Governor to publish the names of offenders
indicted for capital offenses, with an order requiring them to deliver
themselves up in seventy days; in default of which the courts might
award execution against them the same as though they had been tried and
convicted--the death penalty to be administered without the benefit of
clergy. All crimes, therefore, that had been committed on the Grants,
could be tried at Albany, and a neglect to obey summons to deliver
one’s person into custody, was equivalent to a conviction. Thus was
sought to be evaded the dangerous duty of serving processes on the
Green Mountain Boys, and they would convict themselves by refusal to
surrender without the inconvenience of a trial.
If this law was remarkable, the answer of the Green Mountain Boys was
no less so. Said they: “By legerdemain, bribery and deception, they
[the New Yorkers] have extended their dominion far and wide. We are
resolved to inflict immediate death on whomsoever shall attempt the
apprehension of the persons indicted as rioters. We will kill and
destroy any person that shall be presumed to be accessory, aiding or
assisting in taking any of us; although they have a license by the law
to kill us, and an indemnification for so doing, they have no such
indemnification from the Green Mountain Boys. If New York insists on
killing us to take possession of our vineyards, let them come on; we
are ready for a game of scalping with them.” These sentiments were
announced by handbills and in the papers throughout New England, with
the design of deterring New York from attempting to enforce the law, as
such an attempt would be certain to result in an effusion of blood. The
people of Vermont maintained in this that they were merely contending
for justice, and that the officers of New York, who were calling upon
the inhabitants of Vermont to obey the royal orders, were themselves
acting in open violation of the express commands of their King.
A new interest may be awakened when the character of the claimants is
considered. The Green Mountain Boys were the actual settlers. Each
family had its log house in the midst of the clearing, with luxuriant
crops of corn and potatoes growing among the charred stumps. These
pioneers had brought nothing into the woods with them except what could
be carried on horseback; some even brought in their goods on hand-sleds
in winter, the infirm and children being drawn by husbands and
brothers. A few cattle, sheep and hogs, shared rude sheds along with
the horses. The rewards of industry and thrift were beginning to be
realized. Many families lived remote from each other, and weeks might
often pass by without meeting a neighbor. There was plenty of room for
the Yorkers if they wished to turn farmers, and were willing to carve
a home out of the wilderness as others had done. But such was far from
their purpose. Besides, a farm ready cleared, with a snug house and
barn, is preferable to one in the unbroken wilderness, when either can
be had for the taking--and so thought the New York land-jobbers.