Part 22 (1/2)

In this, as in many other instances, Ethan Allen, rebel though he was called, outlaw as he was decreed to be, showed the largeness of his heart.

”We shall have to break camp. It is possible others besides those who have been liberated will know of our nearness and profit by it.”

”Where shall we go, colonel?”

”To Middlebury. We will not secrete ourselves, but openly show that we are in the field to oppose New York in its pretensions.”

CHAPTER XII.

THE OPENING OF THE WAR.

The people of Middlebury welcomed Allen and his Green Mountain Boys with enthusiasm.

They knew that their only chance of maintaining their lands--lands which they had reclaimed and made valuable--was by a.s.sisting Allen in his crusade against the pretensions of New York.

Success perched upon his banner, and not only was he able to hold the lands for the people, but he drove the New York settlers out of the district.

He had drafted a pet.i.tion to the English king, asking that Vermont should be a separate colony, having its own governor and its legislature.

But before that pet.i.tion reached England the revolution had broken out.

The Boston Port bill had been pa.s.sed, which enacted that no kind of merchandise should any longer be s.h.i.+pped or landed at the wharves of Boston.

The custom house was removed to Salem, but the people of that town refused the honor conferred on them by the tyrant who ruled the destinies of England and the colonies.

The inhabitants of Marblehead offered the free use of their warehouses to the merchants of Boston. The Colonial a.s.sembly stood by the people.

Then England pa.s.sed an act of parliament annuling the charter of Ma.s.sachusetts. The people were declared rebels, and the governor was ordered to send to England for trial all persons who should resist the royal officers.

A colonial congress was called to a.s.semble at Philadelphia. Eleven colonies were represented, and it was unanimously agreed to sustain Ma.s.sachusetts in her conflict with parliament.

An address was sent to King George, another to the English nation, and a third to the people of Canada.

As soon as England received the addresses an order was made by which the governor was directed to reduce the colonists by force.

So we see that England took the initiative in the war which was to deprive her of her richest colonies.

A fleet and an army of ten thousand men were sent to America to aid in the work of subjugation.

Gov. Gage seized Boston Neck and fortified it. The military stores in the a.r.s.enals of Cambridge and Charlestown were conveyed to Boston, and the general a.s.sembly was ordered to disband.

Instead of accepting their dismissal, the members resolved themselves into a provincial congress, and voted to equip an army of twelve thousand men to defend the colony.

As soon as the people of Boston learned the intentions of the governor, they concealed their ammunition in carts of rubbish and conveyed it to Concord, sixteen miles away.

The wrath of the governor was especially directed against Samuel Adams and John Hanc.o.c.k, who were looked upon as the leaders of the rebellion.

An expedition was sent against Concord, and eight hundred men marched toward the town.