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 official rank or title beyond that informally bestowed on
him by Montgomery. He was entertained with gentlemanly courtesy for
two days at General Campbell's headquarters on Staten Island, and
then crossed New Jersey amid the acclamations of the people.
For several days he was the guest of Washington at Valley Forge.
Here, eighteen miles northwest of Philadelphia, where the British
army was revelling in luxury, Washington, with three thousand men
suffering from cold and hunger, was praying to God for guidance in
so sore a strait. Baron Steuben was there fresh from the service
of Frederic the Great, disciplining the raw recruits into veteran
soldiers never again to know defeat. There were Gates, attending a
court-martial, and Putnam and Lafayette. These were among Allen's
red-letter days; courteously entertained by some of the best soldiers
of Europe and America, and the favored guest of Washington, could
Heaven reward him better for his long imprisonment? Here he writes a
letter to Congress which Washington forwards inclosed with his own.
Allen began the journey to his Vermont home in company with Gates,
arriving in Fishkill on May 18, and in Bennington just four weeks
after his release from prison.
We now come to a chapter in Allen's life which the biographer must
enter upon with a mind free from prejudice, and with a strong desire
to assimilate the feelings of the age when our little commonwealth
was in process of formation. About the close of the year 1776, Allen
being a prisoner on parole in New York, a British officer of rank
sent for him to come to his lodgings. He told him that his fidelity,
although in a wrong cause, had recommended him to General Sir William
Howe, who wished to make him the colonel of a regiment of tories. He
proposed that Allen in a few days should go to England, be paid in
gold instead of continental rag money, be introduced to Lord George
Germaine and probably to the king, return to America with Burgoyne,
assist in reducing the country, and receive a large tract of land
in Vermont or Connecticut as he preferred. Allen replied: "If by
fidelity I have recommended myself to General Howe, I shall be loath
by unfaithfulness to lose the general's good opinion; besides, I view
the offer of land to be similar to that which the devil offered our
Saviour, 'to give him all the kingdoms of the world to fall down and
worship him,' when the poor devil had not one foot of land on earth."
Mr. B. F. Stevens, an American resident of London, and an
indefatigable collector of documents relating to early American
history gathered from the British archives, furnishes a letter
written by Alexander C. Wedderburn, solicitor-general, on the morning
of December 27, 1775, to William Eden, under-secretary of state. On
the same day at noon a cabinet meeting was to be held at which was
to be considered the disposition to be made of Ethan Allen and other
prisoners who had reached England five days before. The "Lord S."
referred to is Lord Suffolk, secretary of state, and the "Attorney"
is Lord Edward Therlow, attorney-general:
DEAR EDEN:--I shall certainly attend Lord S. at 12 o'clock. My
idea of the Business does not differ much from the Attorney's.
My thoughts have been employed upon it ever since I saw you, and
I am persuaded some unlucky incident must arise if Allen and his
People are kept here. It must be understood that Government does
not mean to execute them, the Prosecution will be remiss and the
Disposition of some People to thwart it very active. I would
therefore send them back, but I think something more might be
done than merely to return them as Prisoners to America. Allen,
by Kay's [William Kay, secret service agent at Montreal] account,
took up arms because he was dispossessed of Lands he had settled
between Hampshire and New York, in consequence of an order of
Council settling the boundary of these two provinces, and had
balanced for some time whether to have recourse to ye Rebels or
to Mr. Carleton [governor-general of the Province of Quebec].
The doubt of being well received by the latter determined him to
join the former, and Kay adds that he is a bold, active fellow. I
would then send to him a Person of Confidence with this Proposal:
that his case had been favorably represented to Government;
that the injury he had suffered was some Alleviation for his
crime, and that it arose from an Abuse of an order of Council
which was never meant to dispossess the Settlers in the Lands in
debate between ye two provinces. If he has a mind to return to
his duty He may not only have his pardon from Gen. Howe but a
Company of Rangers, and in the event if He behaves well His lands
restored on these terms, he and his men shall be sent back to
Boston at liberty; if he does not accept them he and they must
be disposed of as the Law directs. If he should behave well it
is an Acquisition. If not there is still an Advantage in finding
a decent reason for not immediately proceeding against him as a
Rebel. Some of the People who came over in the Ship with him, or
perhaps Kay himself, might easily settle this bargain if it is
set about directly.
Yours ever, A. C. W.
A correspondent of the Burlington _Free Press_, January 7, 1887, adds
this comment:
That it was agreed to in the cabinet appears in the fact that
on the very 27th December, 1775, Lord George Germaine of the
admiralty ordered that Allen and his associates be returned to
General Howe in Boston. Howe evacuated Boston March 16, 1776,
went to Halifax, and thence to New York. Allen followed him round
and was ultimately a prisoner on parole until the 6th of May,
1778, when he was exchanged for Col. Archibald Campbell. While he
was on parole the "Person of Confidence" was found to make the
proposal suggested by Wedderburn, and Allen mentions this in the
narrative of his captivity.
Who was the British officer of high rank whom Howe employed to buy up
Allen we do not know, but the American whom Clinton employed we do
know: Beverly Robinson, a Virginian, made wealthy by marriage with
Susanna Phillipse, sister of Mary Phillipse, for whom Washington had
an attachment. He was the son of a lieutenant-governor, and an early
associate of Washington. In 1780 occurred this third attempt to buy
Allen. Robinson was the man selected to make the proposition. Ethan
Allen was the man selected to be bribed: not Governor Chittenden;
not the soldiers Roger Enos or Seth Warner; not the diplomat, the
treasurer, the financier of the State, Ira Allen; not the young
lawyers Nathaniel Chipman or S. R. Bradley; but the man who had been
tempted in England and tempted in New York, the man whose loyalty
had not been shaken by the endurance of British brutality for two and
one-half years. The time to hope for success would seem to have been
December, 1775, on English soil, when he had reasonable grounds to
fear being hung for treason, or in New York, in 1777, when Washington
had been driven out of Long Island, out of New York City, and chased
across New Jersey. This time chosen was in 1780, when Congress had
alienated Vermont by ignoring her claims to federation, and had
treated her with such contempt that there was almost no hope of her
joining the United States.
Long Island knew of Ethan's temptation before he did. The air was
full of it. The contents of Robinson's letter were known to the
tories before Allen received it. The letter written in February was
delivered in July. Washington heard in July that Allen was in New
York selling himself to the British. Schuyler had spies everywhere.
They reported Allen in Canada. General James Clinton suspected
Allen. The correspondence and flag for cartel smelt of treason.
Washington had tried to effect an exchange of prisoners, and failed.
His letter to Haldimand was unanswered. Gooch had applied, in July,
to Washington, and Allen wrote to Washington at the request of the
governor. Washington replied he could not prefer Warner's men to
those who had been prisoners longer, but here the correspondence
languished.
In the _Magazine of American History_, published in New York,
January, 1887, is an article entitled "A Curious Chapter in Vermont's
History," dated Ottawa, Canada, November, 1886, signed J. L. Payne,
in which the writer says there are hundreds of manuscripts in the
Canadian archives which prove that Vermont narrowly escaped becoming
a British province. The chief evidence that he furnishes is extracts
from the letters of Capt. Justus Sherwood, commissioner for General
Haldimand, Governor of Canada. These letters indicate that on October
26, 1780, Sherwood left Miller Bay with five privates, a flag,
drum, and fife. On October 28th he is at Herrick's Camp, a Vermont
frontier post of three hundred men. He is blindfolded and taken to
Colonel Herrick's room. He tells Herrick that he is sent by Major
Carleton to negotiate a cartel for the exchange of prisoners, and
that he had dispatches from Governor Haldimand and Major Carleton
to Governor Chittenden and Governor Allen. Next Sherwood is at
Allen's headquarters in Castleton, and Allen having promised absolute
secrecy, Sherwood informs him that:
General Haldimand was no stranger to their disputes with the
other States respecting jurisdiction, and that his excellency was
perfectly well informed of all that had lately passed between
congress and Vermont, and of the fixed intentions of congress
never to consent to Vermont's being a separate State. General
Haldimand felt that in this congress was only duping them, and
waited for a favorable opportunity to crush them; and therefore
it was proper for them to cast off the congressional yoke and
resume their former allegiance to the king of Great Britain, by
doing which they would secure to themselves those privileges they
had so long contended for with New York.
Allen is reported by Sherwood as replying that he was attached to the
interests of Vermont, and that nothing but the continued tyranny of
Congress could drive him from allegiance to the United States; but
"Should he have any proposals to make to General Haldimand hereafter,
they would be nearly as follows: He will expect to command his own
forces. Vermont must be a government separate from and independent
of any other Province in America; must chose their own officers and
civil representatives; be entitled to all the privileges of the other
states offered by the King's commissioners, and the New Hampshire
Grants as chartered by Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire,
must be confirmed free from any patents or claims from New York
or other Provinces. He desires me to inform His Excellency that a
revolution of this nature must be the work of time.... If, however,
Congress should grant Vermont a seat in that Assembly as a separate
State, then this negotiation to be at an end and be kept secret on
both sides."
On May 7, 1781, Ira Allen visited Canada, and concerning a conference
with him Captain Sherwood reports to the governor:
He says matters are not yet ripe. Governor Chittenden, General
Allen and the major part of the leading men are anxious to bring
about a neutrality, and are fully convinced that Congress never
intends to confirm them as a separate State; but they dare not at
this time make any separate agreement with Great Britain until
the populace are better modelled for the purpose.
A few days later Captain Sherwood reports to the governor:
Those suspicious circumstances, with the great opinion Allen
[referring to Col. Ira Allen] seems to entertain of the mighty
power and consequence of Vermont, induce me to think they
flatter themselves with the belief that, if Britain should
invade them, the neighboring colonies rather than lose them as
a frontier would protect them, and, on the other hand, should
congress invade them, they could easily be admitted to a union
with Britain at the latest hour, which they would at the last
extremity choose as the least of two evils; for Allen says
they hate congress like the devil, and have not yet a very
good opinion of Britain. Sometimes I am inclined, from Allen's
discourse, to hope and almost believe that they are endeavoring
to prepare for a reunion. To this I suppose I am somewhat
inclined by my anxious desire that it may be so.
Upon Col. Ira Allen's return to Vermont, Captain Sherwood reports:
I believe Allen has gone with a full determination to do his
utmost for a reunion, and I believe he will be seconded by
Governor Chittenden, his brother Ethan Allen and a few others,
all acting from interest, without any principle of loyalty.