ALLEN AT GUILFORD.--"ORACLES OF REASON."--JOHN STARK.--ST. JOHN DE
CRÈVECŒUR.--HONORS TO ALLEN.--SHAY'S REBELLION.--SECOND MARRIAGE.
In 1782 the rebellious York element in Windham County again called
Ethan to the field. In Guilford forty-six men ambushed and fired on
Allen's party in the evening. Allen, knowing the terror of his name,
entering Guilford on foot, uttered this proclamation: "I, Ethan
Allen, do declare that I will give no quarter to the man, woman, or
child who shall oppose me, and unless the inhabitants of Guilford
peacefully submit to the authority of Vermont, I swear that I will
lay it as desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah by God."
In 1784 Allen published a book entitled "Reason, the Only Oracle
of Man: or, A Compendious System of Natural Religion." In this
book Allen endeavored to prove that the Bible was not inspired,
but he declared it a necessity that a future life of rewards and
punishments follow the good and evil of this life. His idea of the
Deity is expressed in these words:
The knowledge of the being, perfections, creation and providence
of God and the immortality of our souls is the foundation of our
religion.
This book contained 487 pages. Fifteen hundred copies were issued,
but most of them were destroyed by the burning of the printing
office. Allen wrote to a friend:
In this book you read my very soul, for I have not concealed
my opinion. I expect that the clergy and their devotees will
proclaim war with me in the name of the Lord.
Sometimes Allen is too profane to be repeated, sometimes too
frivolous for sacred subjects. Speaking of his prospects of being
hung in England, he said:
As to the world of spirits, though I know nothing of the mode or
manner of it, I expected nevertheless, when I should arrive at
such a world, that I should be as well treated as other gentlemen
of my merit.
Among the pleasant friends that Allen formed at this time was John
Stark. The hero of Ticonderoga had never met the hero of Bennington.
Three weeks after Allen's arrival in Bennington, Stark wrote to
him proposing an interview at Albany, where he was stationed as
brigadier-general in command of the northern department. He also
wrote to General Gates:
I should be very glad to have Colonel Ethan Allen command in the
grants, as he is a very suitable man to deal with tories and such
like villains.
Four days later Gates wrote Stark:
I now inclose two letters, one to Colonel Ethan Allen and
one to Colonel Bedel ... it may not be amiss to take Colonel
Allen's opinion on the subject, with whom I wish you to open a
correspondence.
Another pleasant episode in Allen's life was his association with
St. John de Crèvecœur, who was the French consul in New York for ten
years following the revolution. Sieur Crèvecœur married an American
Quakeress, bought a farm which he cleared, wrote a book in English
called "Letters from an American Farmer," and three volumes in French
about upper Pennsylvania and New York. He wrote to Ethan Allen
proposing to have the Vermont state seal engraved in silver by the
king's best engravers, asked for maps of the state, suggested naming
some towns after French statesmen who had befriended America. (St.
Johnsbury was named for Crèvecœur.) He asked Allen for copies of his
"Oracles of Reason" and also for some seeds.
Instances multiply showing the prominence of Ethan Allen in the new
state. During Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts, before attempting to
seize the United States arsenal at Springfield, he sent two of his
principal officers to Ethan Allen offering to him the command of the
Massachusetts insurgents, representing one-third of the population
of that state. Allen rejected the offer with contempt and ordered
the messengers to leave the state. He also wrote to the governor of
Massachusetts and Colonel Benjamin Simmons, of western Massachusetts,
informing them of the efforts made in Vermont by malcontents from
that state, and that Vermont was exerting herself vigorously to
prevent the evil consequences of the insurgents' action, and
promising the most cordial co-operation in the future.
The incidents of Allen's life and his writings are not published
in any one volume, but are scattered through ill-bound primers, are
found in fiction, in addresses, and in huge double-column tomes which
are not accessible to the people.
The story of his second marriage gives a vivid picture of the
rough-and-ready audacious soldier. On the 9th of February, 1784, the
judges of the supreme court were at breakfast with lawyer Stephen R.
Bradley, of Westminster, when General Allen, in a sleigh with a span
of dashing black horses and a colored driver, drove up to the house.
Passing through the breakfast-room, he found in the next room the
spirited young widow of twenty-four summers, Mrs. Frances Buchanan,
who was living in the house with her mother, Mrs. Wall. Dressed in
her morning gown, Mrs. Buchanan was standing on a chair arranging
china and glass on some upper shelves. She amused her visitor with
some witticism about the broken decanter in her hands; a brief chat
ensued, then Allen said: "Fanny, if we are ever to be married, now is
the time, for I am on my way to Arlington."
"Very well," she replied; "give me time to put on my josie."
The couple passed into a third room, where the judges were smoking,
and Allen said:
"Judge Robinson, this young woman and myself have concluded to marry
each other, and to have you perform the ceremony."
"When?"
"Now! For myself I have no great opinion of such formality, and from
what I can discover she thinks as little of it as I do. But as a
decent respect for the opinion of mankind seems to require it, you
will proceed."
"General, this is an important matter, and have you given it serious
consideration?"
"Certainly; but," here the general glanced proudly at his handsome
and accomplished bride, twenty-two years younger than himself,
perhaps also conscious of his own mature, stalwart symmetry, "I do
not think it requires much consideration in this particular case."
"Do you promise to live with Frances agreeably to the law of God?"
"Stop! stop!" cried Allen, looking out of the window. "Yes, according
to the law of God as written in the great book of Nature. Go on! go
on! my team is at the door."
Soon the bride's guitar and trunk were in the sleigh and the bells
jingled merrily as they dashed westward.
Before his second marriage John Norton, a tavern-keeper of
Westminster, said:
"Fanny, if you marry General Allen you will be the queen of a new
state."
"Yes," she replied, "and if I should marry the devil I would be queen
of hell."
The children of the second marriage were three: one daughter who died
in a nunnery in Montreal, and two sons who became officers in the
United States Army and died at Norfolk, Va. Ethan Allen, of New York,
is a grandson of the second wife.