In Commemoration of the 200th
Anniversary of the Birth of
Ethan Allen
On January 10, 1737
Speeches of
Senator Warren R. Austin
of Vermont
In the Senate of the United States
and
Representative Charles A. Plumley
of Vermont
In the House of Representatives
Upon the Occasion of Placing a Wreath on the Statue of
ETHAN ALLEN
In Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington, D. C.
On Monday, January 11, 1937
(Not printed at Government expense)
United States
Government Printing Office
Washington: 1937
125793—13430
ANNIVERSARY OF BIRTH OF ETHAN ALLEN
SPEECH
SENATOR WARREN R. AUSTIN
Mr. AUSTIN. Mr. President, I send to the desk a procla¬
mation issued by the Governor of the State of Vermont,
which I ask to have read.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The clerk will read the procla¬
mation.
The proclamation was read and ordered to lie on the table,
as follows:
State of Vermont—Charles M. Smith, Governor
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas General Ethan Allen was born on the 10th day of Janu¬
ary 1737; and
Whereas the Ethan Allen Bicentennial Commission, appointed
by me in accordance with the provisions of a joint resolution of
the general assembly, has designated the week commencing on the
10th day of January 1937 as a week to be set apart for the observ-
ance of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth: Now, there¬
fore, I, Charles M. Smith, Governor, do hereby call upon the
people of the State of Vermont to commemorate during the afore¬
said week the life and the deeds of Ethan Allen, chieftain of the
Green Mountain Boys, victor at Ticonderoga in the first offensive
action of the American Revolution, who, after enduring the
rigors of British captivity for 2 years, returned to aid in the
preservation of the young Republic of Vermont, wielding his pen
and his sword with courage and daring, unawed by threats, un¬
daunted by failure, never shaken in allegiance to the Vermont that
he loved, the Vermont which, in turn, has, in his own day and
in all the succeeding generations, placed him in the forefront of
those most meriting respect and honor.
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at Mont¬
pelier, this 26th day of December, A. D. 1936, and of the independ¬
ence of the United States the one hundred and sixty-first.
CHARLES M. SMITH, Governor.
By the Governor:
(SEAL)
ELEANOR DANA,
Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs.
Mr. AUSTIN. Mr. President, Ethan Allen served the cause
of liberty at a time when his extraordinary physical and
mental vigor, his versatility, his reckless daring, and his
spectacular leadership were precisely what were needed.
In the successful revolution of the New Hampshire
grantees, which preceded the American Revolution, he was
the colonel commandant of the Green Mountain Boys, a
military organization of woodsmen which provided the sanc¬
tion for the government by conventions under which the
Green Mountain people were then living.
During this period he served in many other capacities
than that of a military leader. At a time when it was
necessary for the settlers of the New Hampshire Grants to
have a representative in the royal court at Albany to meet
and defend actions of ejectment, Ethan Allen appeared there
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(2)
in that capacity and managed the defenses. Descriptive of
his impetuous nature and his extraordinary manner of ex¬
pressing it is the fact that when the judgment of the royal
court excluded from evidence the deeds of title of the original
New Hampshire grantees Ethan shook his great fist at the
attorney general and said to him, “The gods of the hills are
not the gods of the valleys.” Being asked by the attorney
general what he meant by that remark, he said, “Come over
to Bennington Hill and it will all be made manifest unto
you."
When the sheriffs and their aides came to execute the
writs of possession granted by the royal court, they were
met by Ethan and his Green Mountain boys and taken into
the wilderness and there stripped, and what was called "the
beech seal” was applied to their backs in order that they
might always bear with them the evidence of the authority
of the deeds of the original New Hampshire grants.
The repulsion of the King’s troops from Concord and Lex¬
ington by farmers armed with hunting muskets electrified
Ethan Allen’s passion for liberty and excited the execution
of a bold stroke in the general cause which for some time
had been contemplated by him for another cause—the cap¬
ture of Ticonderoga. This important fortress was captured
by surprise and without bloodshed with a force recruited
from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Green Mountains.
Ethan Allen, when asked by what authority he demanded
surrender, shouted, In the name of the great Jehovah and
the Continental Congress.'
Notwithstanding the lack of previous warrant from such
headquarters, the Continental Congress accepted the benefit
of this capture and resolved to employ the Green Mountain
boys in the war under officers of their own choosing.
They had refused and continued to refuse to be articulated
with Continental troops. They were conducting a great
contest for the independence of their own State. The rea¬
son for refusing to be articulated with Continental troops
was because of the possible adverse effect on the independ¬
ence of the State which they were creating.
Then followed a dark period in Ethan’s impetuous career.
He was not elected to any office in the regiment. He had
advocated an early attack on Canada, which was not ap¬
proved. When Congress finally decided to make the north¬
ern campaign Ethan Allen was permitted by General Schuy-
ler to accompany the Army without commission. In Sep¬
tember 1775, while the Army was encamped before St. Johns,
Ethan was sent on a reconnaissance northward. As he pro¬
ceeded toward the St. Lawrence he recruited Canadian
volunteers and arranged to attack Montreal from the north
simultaneously with an attack to be led by John Brown from
the south. While maneuvering to get some signal from
Brown—which he never did get—Ethan’s force was captured
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by the British. For more than a month Ethan was im¬
prisoned in the lowest hold of a ship of war, pinioned with
handcuffs, heavy leg irons, and an 8-foot bar, so that he
must constantly lie on his back. Later he was removed to
Falmouth and imprisoned in Pendennis Castle.
I may say in passing that one of the reasons why Ver¬
mont loves the Irish so well is that throughout Ethan's im¬
prisonment the Irish people, who were great lovers of liberty
and appreciated Ethan’s achievement and who were in¬
trigued by his speeches made while in prison there, afforded
him clothing and food so that he was kept alive to be
paroled when the time came to dispose of him, which ques¬
tion of disposal troubled the British greatly.
During his imprisonment and parole, which ended in May
1778, the constitution of Vermont had been adopted and
the second phase of the revolution of the New Hampshire
grantees had begun with the declaration of independence
of Vermont and the refusal of Congress to recognize the
new State.
Ethan’s return to the Green Mountains, almost 3 years
after his rebuff at the hands of those he described as “the
old farmers on the New Hampshire Grants who do not in¬
cline to go to war”, came at an opportune time. The State
was surrounded by enemies bent upon tearing her to pieces
and appropriating the pieces. Vermont urgently needed
this strong man of such fortitude and firmness that mis¬
fortune, captivity, and sufferings only increased his enthusi¬
astic zeal.
During the 13 years which ended with the recognition
and admission of Vermont into the Union in 1791, Ethan
Allen was the personification of the spirit of the mountains.
Again he commanded the Green Mountain boys—a more
colorful leader than before. Again he was the orator whose
untempered use of vehement expressions, barbarisms, scrip¬
tural phrases, magic wit, and animated, forceful style cap¬
tured the mob and transformed its anger into amusement
or gave it effective direction.
Now he acted as prosecuting attorney or sat in council
with assemblymen. His refusal to take the religious test
oath disqualified him to be assemblyman, but his attendance
and service were invited, and he was even appointed to
committees and commissions.
I call attention in passing to the fact that his constituents
knew his proclivity to dispute and argue on religious mat¬
ters. His profanity and scoffing were his declaration of
emancipation from Puritanism, hell fire, predestination, in¬
fant damnation, and hopeless theology. But his writings,
which contain many well-considered acknowledgments of
the propitious agency of Deity in connection with the his¬
tory of the Revolution and of the development of the State,
lead me to consider that he was religious and believed in
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God, as evidenced through the revelations of nature and
by the Bible, with which he was familiar.
Ethan conceived the idea of banishment of Tories and con¬
fiscation of their property to finance the Revolution, and
acted as one of the commissioners to try persons charged
with conduct inimical, treacherous, or treasonable.
He is pictured with a small clearing in the wilderness for
his courtroom, and some great pine tree for his judgment
seat, condemning guilty Yorkers and Tories alike as “atro¬
cious villians.
The wreath of remembrance laid on his statue in Statuary
Hall by the Vermont delegation in Congress today is of pine,
symbolical of the simplicity and the grandeur of his temple
of justice.
Ethan Allen, with other leaders, had been condemned to
death ex parte and in absentia by the Provincial Congress
of New York in 1774; and Ethan now refreshed and invigo¬
rated his “woods people” by a bombastic, logical, and humor¬
ous pamphlet to counteract a proclamation by the royal
Governor of New York offering to confirm the title of all
land actually settled by New Hampshire grantees provided
Vermont would acknowledge New York’s jurisdiction. He
was a prolific writer and his books, pamphlets, and news¬
paper articles aroused activity at home and sympathetic
interest abroad.
Vermont, being opposed by the Continental Congress, har¬
ried on the north by one-third of the British Army in
North America, and claimed in part or in whole by the
States which bounded her, adopted a policy of aggression
which included annexation of certain towns easterly of the
Connecticut River and westerly to the Hudson River, and
a negotiation with Lord Haldimand which kept the British
troops north of the border for 3 years, until Cornwallis
surrender.
In these activities Ethan acted as an emissary to the
Continental Congress at Philadelphia, as a diplomat steering
a dangerous course among the rocks and shoals of foreign
relations, and as a lobbyist with Governor and council and
assembly at home. In his dramatic career Ethan never ac
complished more for the common cause of liberty or for
the independence of Vermont than he did by the strategy,
dash, and brilliancy of his maneuvers as public relations
counsel in these bold plays.
In 1779 Ethan was elected brigadier general of the Ver-
mont Militia—the Green Mountain Boys. As such, he rode
the hills and valleys, assisting the civil organization to appre¬
hend and bring to trial Yorkers and other trespassers, “set¬
tling discontent among the people,” and concocting pam¬
phlets for the outside world, illustrative of which was a
convincing one edited by him and Jonas Fay bearing the
title, A Concise Refutation of the Claims of New Hampshire
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and Massachusetts Bay to the Territory of Vermont; with
Occasional Remarks on the Long Disputed Claim of New
York to the Same, Written by Ethan Allen and Jonas Fay,
Esqs., and Published by the Order of the Governor and
Council of Vermont.
In 1781 it transpired that the secret negotiations with the
British were known outside the Committee of Safety, where¬
upon General Allen sent two British communications to the
President of Congress by letter showing that Vermont had
protected the northern frontier while her troops were serving
the Continental cause elsewhere, although Congress claimed
“an exclusive right of arbitrating on the existence of Vermont
as a separate government”, and apparently intended to
partition her among the surrounding States, and said:
I do not hesitate to say I am fully grounded in opinion that Ver¬
mont has an indubitable right to agree on terms of cessation of
hostilities with Great Britain, provided the United States persist in
rejecting her application for a union with them; for Vermont, of
all people, would be the most miserable were she obliged to defend
the independence of united claiming States, and they, at the same
time, at full liberty to overturn and ruin the independence of Ver¬
mont. I am persuaded when Congress considers the circumstances
of this State they will be more surprised that I have transmitted
them the enclosed letters than that I have kept them in custody
so long, for I am [as] resolutely determined to defend the inde¬
pendence of Vermont as Congress are that of the United States,
and, rather than fail will retire with hardy Green Mountain Boys
into the desolate caverns of the mountains and wage war with
human nature at large.
Ethan Allen never knew the State which he so effectively
helped to establish as anything other than a Revolutionary
territory and an independent republic, governing its own
people, maintaining a perfect defense against all aggressors,
conducting its own international relations, coining its own
money, naturalizing citizens, and guaranteeing in its earliest
constitution two novel principles—freedom from human
slavery and manhood suffrage not dependent on property.
He died February 17, 1789, 2 years before the State was
admitted into the Union.
John Pell, Ethan Allen’s ablest biographer, to whom we are
indebted, affords the phrase which characterizes his life:
“He was the slave of freedom.'
ETHAN ALLEN
SPEECH
HON. CHARLES A. PLUMLEY
The SPEAKER. Under the special order of the House, the
gentleman from Vermont [Mr. PLUMLEY] is recognized for
5 minutes.
125793—13430
Mr. PLUMLEY. Mr. Speaker, under his hand and the
great seal of the State, on the 26th day of December last, the
following proclamation was issued by the Governor of the
State of Vermont:
State of Vermont—Charles M. Smith, Governor
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas Gen. Ethan Allen was born on the 10th day of January
1737; and
Whereas the Ethan Allen Bicentennial Commission, appointed by
me in accordance with the provisions of a joint resolution of the
general assembly, has designated the week commencing on the 10th
day of January 1937 as a week to be set apart for the observance
of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth: Now, therefore,
I, Charles M. Smith, Governor, do hereby call upon the people
of the State of Vermont to commemorate, during the aforesaid
week, the life and the deeds of Ethan Allen, chieftain of the Green
Mountain Boys, victor at Ticonderoga in the first offensive action
of the American Revolution, who, after enduring the rigors of
British captivity for 2 years, returned to aid in the preservation of
the young Republic of Vermont, wielding his pen and his sword
with courage and daring, unawed by threats, undaunted by fail¬
ure, never shaken in allegiance to the Vermont that he loved, the
Vermont which, in turn, has, in his own day and in all the suc¬
ceeding generations, placed him in the forefront of those most
meriting respect and honor.
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at Mont¬
pelier, this 26th day of December, A. D. 1936, and of the inde¬
pendence of the United States the one hundred and sixty-first.
CHARLES M. SMITH, Governor.
By the Governor:
(SEAL)
ELEANOR DANA,
Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs.
It is eminently fitting, Mr. Speaker, that the Congress of
the United States should take notice of this proclamation
and of the occasion which is sought to be observed.
The leader in thought and action of that group which
with him fought for and maintained the liberties of the peo¬
ple of Vermont as an independent republic for 14 years may
have said of him that within his territorial limitations and
circumscribed environment no man contributed more toward
the establishment of the independence of our country than
did this man Ethan Allen. His reckless courage and daring,
bold defiance of conventions, natural literary and military
genius and ability, and real statesmanship made him and
marked him for all time as an outstanding hero of Revolu¬
tionary times and days.
He was the idol of the intrepid Green Mountain Boys
whom he led and served and of all those who have come
after them. Impetuous in his decisions, inexhaustible in his
energy, brave as a lion, familiar with danger, undaunted of
courage, impatient of restraint, the years only serve to testify
to the respect and appreciation of his countrymen for a
man of such remarkable natural endowments and attain¬
ments as were his.
He was the unyielding advocate of the rights of man and
universal liberty, unconditional and without reserve, and the
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champion of and fearless fighter for the cause of the humble
citizen, as he contended for the rights of individual property
and the equal dispensation of justice.
An enemy to oppression, he was a stranger to fear. Hon¬
est in his conclusions, however erroneous might have been the
premises from which they were deduced, his spirit never
faltered; he never quailed beneath the sneer of the enemy,
no matter how powerful or numerous, nor was he awed by
the threats of insolent authority.
Ethan Allen fought to stand and hold his ground and
yielded it only inch by inch, if and when inadequately sup¬
ported or when stripped or deprived of weapons with which
to meet his adversary.
He possessed the physical courage which despises all dan¬
ger and that moral courage which discounts all opinions.
One is necessary for the camp and the other for the council,
and both are absolutely essential and necessarily found in
such men whom we are pleased to honor and the ages call
great.
Ethan Allen needs no monument, for, as has been so well
said, only those deserve a monument who do not need one;
he raised himself a monument in the minds and memories
of men. He needs no marble statue; no granite mausoleum
or bronze plaque to mark his final resting place or to per¬
petuate his memory.
“Deeds, not stones, are the true monuments of the great.'
Ethan Allen erected to himself a monument more lasting
than brass, more sublime than the pyramids, which neither
the storms of the centuries that waste nor of the years which
succeed each other innumerably with their everlasting flight
of the seasons, shall be able to demolish.
“The very pyramids have forgotten their builders”; but so
long as courage and daring, love of liberty, justice, and coun¬
try shall last, the name of Ethan Allen will be held in the
memories of and be venerated by his appreciative coun¬
trymen.
Brave deeds”, said Napoleon, “are the monuments of
brave men. [Applause.]
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