To: nolu chanIn the case of Vermont, I think it is fair to say that it was a foreign country! In 1777, residents of what is now Vermont, created the Independent Republic of New Connecticut. They entered into the Union in 1791.
1,448 posted on 10/25/2003 2:01 AM CDT by capitan_refugio
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For 14 years the Republic of Vermont was a totally separate country which had a postal system, coined money, naturalized citizens from other countries, had a system of laws and legislation and conducted trade and correspondence with foreign governments (including the United States) .
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New York continued to press claims and in March of 1777 a meeting in Windsor produced a Declaration of Independence for a new republic and the name "Vermont" was adopted. The new country guaranteed freedom of religion (although until 1793 included only "those who profess the Protestant religion"), universal manhood suffrage (any man who had reached the age of majority could vote - not just property owners) and in effect abolished slavery.
In the meantime Ethan Allen had led an ill-fated invasion of Montreal and wound up in an English prison until 1778.
In June, 1778, sixteen New Hampshire towns decided to join Vermont. Congress took a dim view of this and in early 1779 the towns were returned to New Hampshire.
All in all, the Republic of Vermont was not held in great favor by Congress and about this time Ethan and Ira Allen began negotiations with England for recognition or perhaps rejoining the British Empire. These were the so-called Haldimand Negotiations.
In February of 1781 some thirty New Hampshire towns joined Vermont and the new republic laid claims to everything in New York east of the Hudson River and north of the line from Massachusetts' northern border. All this chaos led New Hampshire and New York to decide to pull some of their soldiers out of the war so they could come home to deal with upstart Vermont. Congress could not afford to let that happen and offered admission if Vermont would give up its territorial claims on New York and New Hampshire. The Republic of Vermont complied in February of 1782, but Congress did not abide by its part of the bargain, partially because southern states did not want more northern states in the union and with the end of the Revolution, Vermont's position as a barrier against the British was not vital. So, Vermont went back to negotiating with England.
In 1790, Vermont had a population of 85,000; Ethan Allen died (President Ezra Stiles of Yale University note in his diary: "Feb. 13, Gen'l Ethan Allen of Vermont died and went to hell this day." and Vermont Governor Moses Robinson met with George Washington in Bennington to discuss the possibility of Vermont joining the United States.
Agreeing to pay New York $30,000 reparations for the land that had been 'taken', on March 4, 1791, Vermont became the first state to join the original thirteen.
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Republic of Vermont Copper Coins
By Robert W. Hoge, Former Curator, ANA Money Museum
The ANA Museum holds a major collection of the interesting and elusive copper coins of the 18th century Republic of Vermont. This is due in large part to the generous gifts of Mr. Sanborn Partridge, Museum benefactor and serious student of early Vermont issues. Nearly all of the recorded die varieties are present, with the exception of a few of the late, aberrant mulings. Many of the Museum's examples are in an outstanding state of preservation for this series (condition census specimens).
In the 1770s, the sparsely populated, remote region of the Green Mountains--a frontier area contested by the British colonies of New Hampshire and New York--constituted itself as an independent country. In 1785 it began to issue its own coinage, in advance of any of the thirteen newly-independent neighboring American states or their confederation government. The concept was public-spirited and ambitious, but beset by severe manufacturing and economic difficulties almost from the outset.
Popular with collectors, the Vermont coinage has also been a favorite for researchers who have endeavored to sort out and attribute the sequences of issues and die varieties. We know that on June 15, 1785, the Vermont legislature granted an exclusive two-year concession for coining copper to one Reuben Harmon, Jr., of the village of Rupert, in Bennington County. Harmon later negociated a further contract with the state, to extend for eight years from July 1, 1787. By subcontractual agreement, he shared this production work with hardware manufacturer Capt. Thomas Machin, of Newburgh, New York. Through meticulous identification of the planchets, dies and device and letter punches used in the coinage, the products of the two mints of Harmon and Machin and their order of striking have been largely recognized.