Formed as an independent republic in 1777, Vermont in the next year
appointed the brothers Alden and Judah Padock Spooner of Connecticut
to be her official printers. Publications under their imprint were
issued at Dresden, before and later named Hanover, in 1778 and 1779;
but in February 1779 this town, along with 15 others east of the
Connecticut River, returned to the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. The
earliest printing from within the present borders of Vermont came
from the town of Westminster, where Judah Padock Spooner and Timothy
Green, son of the State Printer of Connecticut, undertook the official
printing late in 1780.
The Library of Congress possesses three Dresden imprints dated 1779.
The first two listed here name Alden Spooner as printer, while the
third names both brothers. They are Ira Allen's _A Vindication of
the Conduct of the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, Held
at Windsor in October 1778, Against Allegations and Remarks of the
Protesting Members, With Observations on Their Proceedings at a
Convention Held at Cornish, on the 9th Day of December 1778_; Ethan
Allen's _A Vindication of the Opposition of the Inhabitants of
Vermont to the Government of New-York, and of Their Right to Form
into an Independent State. Humbly Submitted to the Consideration of
the Impartial World_; and _Acts and Laws of the State of Vermont, in
America_. The earliest of the three would appear to be Ira Allen's
48-page _Vindication_, known from a printer's bill of February 10,
1779, to have been produced by then in 450 copies.[29] The Library's
rebound copy is inscribed "from y^e author" beneath its imprint
statement, and at the head of the title page is written, "Nath^l
Peabody^s Book." Nathaniel Peabody (1741-1823), a New Hampshire
legislator, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1779
and 1780. His book was ultimately listed in the _Catalogue of Books
Added to the Library of Congress During the Year 1871_.
[Illustration: _Ira Allen (1751-1814), miniature attributed to Edward
G. Malbone, ca. 1795-1798. Courtesy of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum,
the University of Vermont, Burlington._]
The Library holds the other two Dresden imprints in duplicate. A copy
of the _Acts and Laws_ was formerly in the Hazard Pamphlets, acquired
with the collection of Peter Force (see p. 8, above). Ebenezer Hazard
(1744-1817) was an early collector of Americana. The two copies of
Ethan Allen's _Vindication_, both printed on blue paper, are in the
Hazard Pamphlets, volume 47, number 3, and in Colonial Pamphlets,
volume 19, number 6. The latter pamphlet volume originally formed
part of Thomas Jefferson's library, obtained by the Congress in 1815
(see p. 3, above).[30]
The earliest example of printing from present-day Vermont in the
Library is a document printed by Judah Padock Spooner at Westminster
in 1781[31]: _Acts and Laws, Passed by the General Assembly of the
Representatives of the State of Vermont, at their Session at Windsor,
April 1781_. In four pages, it contains only "An Act for the Purpose
of emitting a Sum of Money, and directing the Redemption of the
same." The Act provides for a land tax, stating in justification that
"The Land is the great Object of the present War, and receives the
most solid Protection of any Estate, a very large Part of which has
hitherto paid no Part of the great Cost arisen in defending it, whilst
the Blood and Treasure of the Inhabitants of the State has been spent
to protect it, who many of them owned but a very small part thereof."
The Library of Congress copy bears the following inscription: "Secry's
Office 10^{th} August 1785. The preceding is a true Copy of an Act
passed by the Legislature of the State of Vermont April 14^{th}
1781--Attest Micah Townsend, Secry." Although a loyalist, Micah
Townsend served as secretary of state in Vermont from October 1781
until 1789.[32] The Library's copy also bears the autograph of a
private owner, Henry Stevens of Barnet, Vt., first president of the
Vermont Historical Society. After his death in 1867, his son Henry
Stevens, the bookseller, wrote that he left his home "full of books
and historical manuscripts, the delight of his youth, the companions
of his manhood, and the solace of his old age."[33] To judge from its
present library binding, this thin volume has been in the Library of
Congress collections since the 19th century.
[Footnote 29: See no. 12 in Marcus A. McCorison's _Vermont Imprints
1778-1820_ (Worcester, 1963).]
[Footnote 30: No. 3146 in U.S. Library of Congress, _Catalogue of the
Library of Thomas Jefferson, Compiled with Annotations by E. Millicent
Sowerby_ (Washington, 1952-59). See also no. 498.]
[Footnote 31: Imprint information supplied in McCorison, no. 47.]
[Footnote 32: See Chilton Williamson, _Vermont in Quandary_
(Montpelier, 1949), p. 133. On Townsend's divulging secret
intelligence to the British in April 1781, see J. B. Wilbur, _Ira
Allen_ (Boston and New York, 1928), p. 183-186.]
[Footnote 33: See W. W. Parker, _Henry Stevens of Vermont_ (Amsterdam,
1963), p. 21.]