REPORT OF THE AUDITOR UPON THE SCHOOL FUND.

The Auditor in the Treasury, having audited the accounts of the Commissioner of the State School Fund, submits the following, as his annual report thereof and of the fund and all matters relating to it.

Said fund now amounts to the sun of.

and is constituted of the following items, to wit: Amount of School Fund, Sept. 30th, 1842, Interest thereon the current year,

Amount received from Bank dividends,

$200,234 95

$184,942 22

10,634 17

3,219 56

1,439 00

200,234 95

$200,234 95

Which is respectfully submitted,

JOSEPII BERRY, Auditor.

September 15th, 1843.

REPORT OF HENRY STEVENS.

To His Excellency, the Governor of the State of Vermont è

Having been appointed by your predecessor, a commissioner to investigate the facts, and ascertain whether this State has a just claim upon the government of the United States for expenses incurred during the Revolutionary War, I reported to him in part, as by the inclosed. I now desire further to report to your Excellency as to my doings, and conclusions to which I have arrived:

Firstly, I call your Excellency's attention to my report made to your predecessor, as to the deficiency in our first records, both on the part of the Council and House of Representatives. When Mr. Fay, Secretary of State A. D. 1788, recorded from manuscripts our first volume of records now in the State Department, blank pages were left, with his certificate assigning a reason why they were not recorded. This deficiency of records, I have recovered, with few exceptions. The year past I visited Hon. Ira H. Allen, and was presented with all the documents and manuscript papers of a public nature, left by his honored father. Among these papers, I found many of the doings of the Council of Safety, previous to the 15th of August A. D. 1777 (of which we have no record,) and afterwards to February A. D. 1779. I also found the pay rolls and manuscript Journals of the Assembly of March, June and October 1778, as well as several manuscript laws, duly certified, of those three sessions, which were never recorded.

I here found many original letters received, and copies sent by the Cabinet of this State, to the President of the Continental Congress, General Washington, Governors of the New England States, and the Governor of New York, as well as the correspondence to and from the British Commanding General in Canada, and his commissioners. Much of this correspondence was of a confidential nature and of the utmost importance, so far as relates to the independence of this State at the time, as well as to the success of the American arms. The Commanding General of the American armies did, upon recommendation of General Benjamin_Lincoln, send his Commissioner to consult with the Cabinet of the Green Mountain Boys as to their ability so to manage as to keep the British army (from seven to ten thousand) in Canada and at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The Commanding General became satisfied of our ability so to do, and was thereby enabled to make such distribution of the continental troops as frustrated the designs of the enemy, and by this negotiation was enabled to draw several regiments from the eastern and northern to the southern department, and was thereby enabled to capture Lord Cornwallis's army A. D. 1781. Strange as it may appear, the Commanding General of the American army, through his Commissioner and General Lincoln, consulted with the Cabinet Council of the Green Mountain Boys at the period alluded to. Yet it is a fact now not to be denied. I am fully

justified when I say this important negotiation, between the Commanding General and the Cabinet Council of this State, was not made known to the Governors or Assemblies of the N. England States or New York, nor the commanding officers of the northern or eastern departments, or to Congress.

This negotiation was pending when the Commanding General was officially informed by distinguished public officers in the eastern department that Concord and Charlestown, New Hampshire, must, under certain contingencies, be made the northern line of defence; and officially informed by commanding officers in the northern department that they must be reinforced, otherwise Albany and Schenectady must be made the northern line of defence. At the same time the Cabinet of this State, on the floor of the Continental Congress, were denounced as rebellious insurgents, as pirates upon the rights of community, and traitors to the Amer

ican cause.

After arranging the papers discovered, I visited the State department at Concord, New Hampshire, Boston, Massachusetts, Hartford, Connecticut, and the State Department, Washington. At these several departments the manuscript papers are bound in volumes, each volume with an index. I selected documents at each department, such as in my opinion had a bearing for or against the claim which we then had against the Colonies, and now have against the General Government; also such documents and correspondence as went directly to show the part the New Hampshire Grants took in the Revolutionary War; also such documents as went to show that the New Hampshire Grants were not subject to the jurisdiction of New York, New Hampshire or Massachusetts; and such documents as go conclusively to show that this Commonwealth was never fairly granted by his Majesty and Council-" That we received our Charter from HEAVEN, and not from man or the will of man."

Í have forwarded all documents put forth on the part of this State, from time to time, approved of by the Governor and Council, and ordered to be published to the world, as to the right of jurisdiction and independence of this State. Also all such documents put forth on the part of New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts as to jurisdiction and claim on the New Hampshire Grants. Also the first printed Journals of the Continental Congress, from Sept. A. D. 1774 to 1778. Also Marshal's life of Washington, Madison's papers, Gov. Morris', John Jay, James Duane, Richard Henry Lee, History of New York, History of Tryon County, Memoirs of General Wm. Heath, Gen. James Wilkinson, Ger. John Štarke, Trial of Gen. Philip Schuyler for evacuating Ticonderoga, General Burgoyne's documents laid before the British Parliament, Reidsel's Letters, Ambury's Travels, (a British officer in America,) Graham's History of Vermont, Gen. Allen's History of Vermont, and a series of pamphlets published by said Gen. Allen at Philadelphia, and journals of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. These interesting documents are all needed in order to sustain certain points connected with the part the New Hampshire Grants took in the Revolutionary War, and thereby will better enable us to sustain our claim, in connection with the documents relating to expenditures in our State Department.

These several documents are herewith transmitted to your Excellency for consideration. I have no hesitancy in expressing it as my decided opinion that the documents herewith transmitted exhibit on the part of this State on account of the expenditures during the Revolutionary War, five hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of interest and value of property

destroyed by the enemy. A large proportion of this expenditure was oc casioned by a request on the part of the Continental Congress, or by request of commanding officers in the northern department, with an assurance of payment. These requests were made by the Cabinet of New Hampshire Grants, as a sovereign and independent community. Numerous are the instances in which the Continental Congress, or officers by them appointed, requested troops to be raised to protect the frontier inhabitants in the northern department, meaning Albany, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and its dependencies in New York. Request was made by the commissary of the northern department, to the General Assembly of this State, to buy provisions in this State for the Continental Troops in the northern department. Application was made by the commanding General of the northern department, to the Cabinet of this State, to arrest deserters from the Continental army. Application was also made by the commissary of provisions in the eastern department, for liberty to pass through this State to Canada, for the purpose of negotiating an exchange of prisoners, as well as many other requests of a similar nature, all of which were promptly granted on the part of this State. The Cabinet of this State, at several times, during the war, made application to the commanding officers in the northern department, for troops to aid in garrisoning our frontier posts, and were denied. We applied on a certain occasion, to buy, or borrow a few barrels of beef, pork and flour, of the commissary of the northern department. We were denied on the ground that he had no authority to furnish troops except those of the thirteen American col onies. We applied to the commissary of prisoners in the northern department to borrow one of the British prisoners (as we had previous to this furnished one thousand one hundred and fifteen British prisoners for the colonies,) in order to complete an exchange of prisoners with the British commander in Canada, but were refused upon the ground that we did not belong to the Union. We were therefore left to negotiate with Gen. Haldimand for the release on parole of such prisoners as belonged to Warner's regiment, and to this State, including the east and west union.

In July, A. D. 1780, we communicated to the President of the Continental Congress a proposition to form a solid union for the defence of the American Colonies against their enemies. We also, on the 12th of December, A. D. 1780, wrote to the Governors of the several New England States, as well as to the Governor of N. York, making the same proposition; but never received an answer from either. I know of no law on the part of Congress, granting any pensions or remunerations, for Revolutionary services done or performed by a citizen of this State, in the militia of the State, during the Revolutionary War, previous to the law, A. D. 1842. By the exertions of a distinguished delegate then in Congress, from this State, an amendment was proposed, whereby the Revolutionary services of the Green Mountain Boys, was for the first time acknowledged by Congress. The numerous officers and soldiers of the Vermont troops, who so faithfully served during the war, never received one acre of land, one dollar of bounty money, nor wages from the thirteen American Colonies. Yet, sir, the documents herewith submitted, will convince you that our troops took from the enemy property to the amount of three hundred thousand dollars, which was generously turned into the common stock for the defence of the colonies. Even the brass cannon taken from the Germans at Bennington are now deposited in the Govern ment Arsenal, in the district of Columbia, as trophies, unpaid for by the

B

General Government, and quietly acquiesced in by the Green Mountain Boys.

I earnestly recommend the arranging of all documents now recovered, with proper indices, in relation to the part the New Hampshire Grants took in the Revolutionary War; also, to complete the copying of all vouchers for revolutionary expenditures and forthwith present our claims to Congress for allowance; also, the official correspondence, in order to show forth the part the New Hampshire Grants took in the revolutionary war. I have no doubt on my mind but what Congress will make us a reasonable remuneration. If not, there will forever remain in the files of the American Congress a true copy of the Revolutionary pay rolls of the Green Mountain Boys, with a true copy of their expenditures, in defending their own firesides, and those of the thirteen American Coloonies. There will remain a full history of the part the Green Mountain Boys took in the American Revolution. These documents will forever wipe away the black stain put upon the Mountain Boys, during the Revolutionary War, by demagogues and sham patriots, on the floor of Congress, and will show forth the sacrifices made for the love of our Green Mountains:-the love and forbearance we manifested towards the Continental Congress, after being threatened with immediate annihilation, and above all, will show the confidence the Commanding General of the American armies placed in the Cabinet of the New Hampshire Grants. Finally, the future historian will speak of our fathers as patriots, as statesmen, as pure and spotless as the snow of our mountains.

All of which is submitted to your Excellency.

HENRY STEVENS.