On 9-May-1781, at the Union Convention, the residents of Cambridge voted to leave New York and join what we today call Vermont. However, in 1781, that land was the independent Republic of Vermont, not part of the 13 colonies that would become the United States. In effect, Cambridge voted to secede from the U.S.
This presentation describes what happened. Here’s a brief overview.
The land between the Connecticut River and Hudson River, what we today call Vermont, was claimed by both New Hampshire and New York. Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys appealed to the Continental Congress to ignore those claims and instead make them the fourteenth colony.
When that failed, on 15-Jan-1777 they created the Republic of Vermont. It was its own country, with its own constitution, with its own government, with its own miliary.
In 1780, the Republic of Vermont began the Haldimand Negotiations, seeking a separate peace treaty with England.
Cambridge, and other nearby communities, lay in no man’s land, created by a poorly defined boundary between the Republic of Vermont and the Hudson River. Were we Cambridge, NY or Cambridge, VT?
On 9-May-1781, after many years of fighting the American Revolution and fighting the land battles among NY, VT, and NH, the Union Convention was held in Cambridge. We voted to secede from New York (and thus from the United States) and join the new country called the Republic of Vermont.
The Revolution was over for us.
But, in Oct-1781 the Siege of Yorktown led to the surrender of a major British army, effectively ending all military operations in the Revolution for the United States.
Oh, oh. Maybe we had acted too quickly. Maybe we shouldn’t have seceded from the United States. So, on 1-Mar-1782, less than one year after seceding from NY and the United States, we undid our secession and asked New York to take us back.
Oh and that’s just the tip of the story. Ken will also talk about New York invading Vermont and the Continental Congress voting to invade Vermont. And you thought all we had to worry about was fighting the British!
