Vermont became a state on March 4, 1791, when it entered the Union as the 14th state under an act of Congress approved on February 18, 1791.1GovInfo. An Act for the Admission of the State of Vermont Into This Union It was the first state admitted after the original thirteen colonies ratified the U.S. Constitution.2Vermont History Explorer. The 14th State The date is deceptively tidy. Vermont had already been governing itself for fourteen years by the time Congress acted, blocked from admission by a land dispute with New York, resistance from Southern states, and its own secret wartime negotiations with the British.
An Independent Republic Before It Was a State
On July 2, 1777, fifty delegates from roughly thirty-one towns met at Windsor and unanimously adopted a constitution establishing the Republic of Vermont. The convention had considered the name “New Connecticut,” but settlers in Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley had already claimed it, so the delegates settled on “Vermont.”3Vermont History. Making the Vermont Constitution General Burgoyne’s army was advancing from the north, and the final vote was pushed through with invasion looming.
A Council of Safety took over governance, with Thomas Chittenden elected as its first president.4Vermont History. Freedom and Unity – Republic of Vermont Chittenden would go on to serve as governor for nineteen of Vermont’s first twenty terms.5Vermont Public. A Glance at Vermont’s Gubernatorial History The first General Assembly elections were held on March 3, 1778, and the legislature convened nine days later. Through the 1780s the republic functioned as an independent nation, coining its own money, negotiating treaties, and providing for its own defense.6North Dakota Law Review. Democracy’s Forgotten Possessions
Why Admission Took Fourteen Years
The underlying problem was a real estate fight that predated the Revolution. Starting in 1749, New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth had chartered 129 towns in the territory west of the Connecticut River, collecting fees from settlers who bought those land grants. In 1764, the British Board of Trade ruled that the territory actually belonged to New York, which then demanded that settlers already holding New Hampshire grants buy new patents at fees roughly ten times what they had originally paid. Settlers refused. New York kept issuing titles anyway, and by 1774 it had passed an anti-rioting law authorizing lethal force against anyone who resisted.7VTDigger. Disputing Land Claims Gave Rise to Vermont Republic
That dispute carried straight into the statehood question. New York insisted on its claims and used its allies in Congress to block Vermont’s admission. Southern states feared that recognizing a breakaway territory would set a precedent for carving up existing states, potentially threatening their own claims to western lands. Adding Vermont would also give the North another Senate vote, which made slaveholding states uneasy. On June 1, 1779, Congress passed a resolution stating that no new state could be formed without the consent of both Congress and any state being divided, leaving Vermont in constitutional limbo.8Vermont History. The Independence of Vermont
The Haldimand Affair
With Congress refusing to act, Vermont’s leaders took a risk. Beginning in the summer of 1780, Ethan Allen, Ira Allen, and Governor Chittenden entered secret negotiations with General Frederick Haldimand, the British governor of Quebec. The British offered Vermont a “separate government under the king and constitution of England,” with validated land titles, if the republic would rejoin the Empire. Vermont’s leaders used the talks partly as leverage, maintaining a truce with British forces on the northern frontier while occasionally passing information to Congress to signal continued loyalty.9Early Canadian History. Hedging His Bets – Ethan Allen and the Haldimand Negotiations
In February 1782, New York Governor George Clinton exposed the secret correspondence before the New York Assembly.10Vermont History. Smith and Haldimand The Continental Congress labeled the negotiations “treasonous.”11Journal of the American Revolution. Ira Allen – A Biography Whether Vermont’s leaders were genuinely considering a return to the British Empire or simply bluffing to protect their territory is still debated by historians, but the British defeat at Yorktown in late 1781 ended the question.
The Eastern Boundary Condition
Vermont had also hurt its own cause by trying to annex towns in New Hampshire east of the Connecticut River. In August 1781, Congress issued resolutions making it an “indispensable preliminary” to admission that Vermont give up all claims to land or jurisdiction east of the west bank of the river. The Vermont Legislature complied on February 22, 1782.12Justia. Vermont v. New Hampshire, 289 U.S. 593 A congressional committee reported in April 1782 that the conditions had been met and recommended recognition, but formal admission was still nearly a decade off.13Cornell Law Institute. Vermont v. New Hampshire, 289 U.S. 593
How the Logjam Finally Broke
The breakthrough came in 1790. On March 6, the New York Legislature passed a resolution formally consenting to Vermont’s admission.12Justia. Vermont v. New Hampshire, 289 U.S. 593 The price was $30,000, paid by Vermont to New York to settle all remaining land claims. The agreement was signed on October 7, 1790. Vermont Supreme Court Associate Justice John Dooley later called the payment “extortion,” and two Vermont historians estimated that, depending on how interest is calculated, the amount could be worth as much as $1.3 billion today.14Cape Cod Times. Vermont, N.Y. Try To Settle Old Debts
Raising the money was painful. The Vermont Legislature levied a statewide property tax described as “particularly steep” during a period when cash was scarce. Some landowners who had just been freed from New York’s competing claims lost their property because they could not afford the tax levied to pay for that freedom. The original payment deadline was January 1, 1794, but Vermont needed an extension and did not fully discharge the debt until October 1799, when Governor Isaac Tichenor declared the claims “happily discharged.”15VTDigger. Vermont Took a Rugged Road to Statehood
With New York’s consent in hand, Vermont delegates met in Bennington on January 10, 1791, to ratify the U.S. Constitution.16Michigan Legislature. U.S. Constitution – Ratification Dates Congress then passed “An Act for the admission of the State of Vermont into this Union,” approved on February 18, 1791, declaring that Vermont would be “received and admitted into this Union, as a new and entire member of the United States of America” effective March 4, 1791.17Yale Law School Avalon Project. An Act for the Admission of the State of Vermont Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, signed the official document declaring Vermont a state.18Vermont History. Freedom and Unity – Fourteenth State
What Vermont’s Admission Meant for the Union
Vermont entered as a free state. The following year, Kentucky was admitted as a slave state, establishing what would become an increasingly important pattern of sectional balance in the Senate. Americans at the time paid little attention to the pairing, but the precedent became a defining feature of antebellum politics, eventually shaping the Missouri Compromise of 1820.19American Yawp. The Sectional Crisis Alexander Hamilton had backed Vermont’s statehood partly out of concern that Britain would try to “cultivate Vermont” and keep a colonial foothold in North America if the republic were left outside the Union.6North Dakota Law Review. Democracy’s Forgotten Possessions