DEATH.—CIVILIZATION IN ALLEN'S TIME.—ESTIMATES OF ALLEN.—RELIGIOUS FEELING IN VERMONT.—MONUMENTS.

In 1787 Allen moved to Burlington, where, for the last two years of his life, he devoted himself to farming. Through a partial failure of the crops in 1789, Allen found himself short of hay in the winter. Col. Ebenezer Allen, who lived in South Hero, an island near Burlington, offered to supply Ethan what he needed if he would come for it. Accordingly, with a team and man, Ethan crossed the ice on the 10th of February. Col. Ebenezer Allen had invited some neighbors, who were old friends and acquaintances, to meet his guest, and the afternoon and evening were spent in telling stories. Ethan was persuaded to stay over night and the next morning started for home with his load of hay. During the journey his negro spoke to him several times but received no reply. On reaching home he discovered that his master was unconscious. He was carried into his house and died from apoplexy in a few hours.

To estimate properly Allen's force of character and large mind, we should appreciate the crude civilization of the early pioneer days of Vermont, when self-culture could only be procured by great qualities. The population was about five thousand, chiefly on the east side of the mountains. The bulk of the people lived in log houses with earthen floors, and with windows made of oiled paper, isinglass, raw hides, or sometimes 6 x 8 panes of glass. Smaller log houses were used to protect domestic animals from wolves and bears, as well as from the inclemency of the weather. It was the life of the frontier in the wilderness, when the struggle for bare sustenance left little time for the acquirement of knowledge, much less of accomplishments.

Allen is not the best representative man of his time, but his experience was so startling, his character so piquant, that a sketch of him better photographs Vermont before her admission to the Union than that of any other man. As a statesman he was infinitely inferior to Chipman or Bradley; as a soldier, Seth Warner, although six years younger, was his superior; Ira Allen was more capable and more accomplished; Governor Chittenden was more discreet in the management of state affairs. As a captive, absent from the state from 1775 to 1778, Allen had nothing to do with the adoption of the constitution or the first organization of our state government; as a member of the legislature he won no reputation. He lacked the scholarly culture and polished suavity of the highest type of gentleman; he was sometimes horribly profane. He delighted in battling with the religious orthodoxy of New England; he wrote a book to disprove the authenticity of the Bible; yet he was energetic in his expressions of veneration for the being and perfection of the Deity, and a firm believer in the immortality of the soul. Thoroughly familiar with the history and law of the New York controversy, his telling exposure of the subtle casuistry of the more learned New York lawyers; his thorough sympathy with the settlers in all their trials and amusements; his geniality, sociability, and aptness in story-telling; his detestation of all dishonesty and meanness; his burning zeal for American freedom; his adroit success, his bitter sufferings, even his one unlucky rashness in attacking Montreal when deserted by the very man who had induced him to undertake it; his numerous writings—all combine to make him the most popular of our state characters.

Washington's masterly knowledge of human nature gives value to his brief portrait of Allen. Immediately on being released from captivity, Allen visited Washington at Valley Forge. Washington wrote to Congress in regard to Allen.

Senator Edmunds says of Allen: "Ethan Allen was a man of gifts rather than acquirements, although he was not by any means deficient in that knowledge obtained from reading and from intercourse with men. But it was the natural force of his character that made him eminent among the worthiest who founded the republic, and pre-eminent among those who founded the state of Vermont."

Col. John A. Graham, who knew Allen well the last two or three years of his life, published a book in England a few years after Allen's death and therein says: "Ethan Allen was a man of extraordinary character. He possessed great talents but was deficient in education. In all his dealings he possessed the strictest sense of honor, integrity, and uprightness."

The Hon. Daniel P. Thompson attributes to him "wisdom, aptitude to command, ability to inspire respect and confidence, a high sense of honor, generosity, and kindness."

Jared Sparks calls him "brave, generous, consistent, true to his friends, true to his country, seeking at all times to promote the best interests of mankind."

Governor Hiland Hall says: "He acquired much information by reading and observation. His knowledge of the political situation of the state and country was general and accurate. As a writer, he was ready, clear, and forcible. His style attracted and fixed attention and inspired confidence in his sincerity and justice."

John Jay speaks of his writings as having "wit, quaintness, and impudence."

In financial skill Ethan was inferior to his brother Ira; as a soldier he lacked the cool judgment of Seth Warner; in administrative ability he had neither the tact nor success of Governor Chittenden; as a statesman he was destitute of the learning and ability of Chipman and Bradley; but as a patriot and friend he was true as a star. No money, no office, could bribe; no insults, no suffering, tame him. As a boon companion he was rollicking and popular. Many are the stories told of his hearty good-will toward all. One instance will show his power to attach the common people to him: Finding a woman in Tinmouth dreading to have a painful tooth drawn, in order to encourage her he sat down and had one of his perfectly sound teeth extracted.

In religion, like Horace Greeley, Allen had reverence for the Deity but none for the Bible. In this he was not alone, for Vermont, in the later eighteenth century, presented a curious mixture of the strictest adherence to the letter of the religious law and absolute free-thinking.

The Universalists in 1785 held their first American convention in Massachusetts. When this doctrine was first introduced into Vermont, John Norton, the Westminster tavern-keeper, said to Ethan Allen: "That religion will suit you, will it not, General Allen?"

Allen, who knew Norton to be a secret tory, replied in utter scorn: "No! no! for there must be a hell in the other world for the punishment of tories."

President Dwight said: "Many of the influential early Vermonters were professed infidels or Universalists, or persons of equally loose principles and morals." Judge Robert R. Livingston wrote Dr. Franklin: "The bulk of Vermonters are New England Presbyterian whigs." Daniel Chipman says: "Great numbers of the early settlers were of the set of New-lights or Separates, who fled from persecution in the New England States and found religious liberty here."

Before Allen took Ticonderoga, Vermont had eleven Congregational and four Baptist churches. For a quarter of a century (1783-1807) towns and parishes could assess taxes for churches and ministers. At the very threshold of Vermont's existence the laws had a Puritanic severity. "High-handed blasphemy" was punished with death; while fines or the stocks were the rewards of profane swearing, drunkenness, unseasonable night-walking, disturbing Sabbath worship, travelling Sunday, gaming, horse-racing, confirmed tavern-haunting, mischievous lying, and even meeting in company Saturday or Sunday evenings except in religious meetings. "No person shall drive a team or droves of any kind, or travel on the Lord's day (except it be on business that concerns the present war, or by some adversity they are belated and forced to lodge in the woods, wilderness, or highways the night before)," then only to next shelter. The wife of the Rev. Sam. Williams was arrested in New Hampshire for travelling on Sunday. No Jew, Roman Catholic, atheist, or deist could take the oath required of a member of the legislature; for that oath professed belief in the Deity, the divine inspiration of both Testaments, and the Protestant religion. The Rev. Samuel Peters, LL.D., sometimes called Bishop Peters, tells us the Munchausen story that he baptized into the Church of England 1,200 adults and children amid the forests of Vermont. In 1790 Vermont was enough of a diocese to hold a convention of eight parishes and two rectors.

Bennington was the early nucleus of Vermont colonization. Samuel Robinson, of that town, had land to sell both in Bennington and the adjoining town of Shaftsbury. It is said he entertained over night the new immigrants; if Baptists, he sold them land in Shaftsbury; if Congregationalists, he sold them land in Bennington.

What visible tokens have we of Vermont's pride in this hero, to whom she is so much indebted for her existence as a state?

The earliest statue of Ethan Allen was by Benjamin Harris Kinney, a native of Sunderland. It was modelled in Burlington and exhibited there in 1852. The Rev. Zadoc Thompson said of it: "All who have long and carefully examined his statue will admit that the artist, Mr. Kinney, our respected townsman, has embodied and presented to the eye the ideal in a most masterly manner." The Hon. David Read says: "The statue was examined by several aged people who had personally known Allen, and all pronounce it an excellent likeness of him." Henry de Puy has an engraving of this statue in his book about Allen in 1853. This statue has never been purchased from Mr. Kinney, and it is still in his possession.

The two statues of Allen made for the state are the work of Larkin G. Mead, a native of Chesterfield, N. H., reared and educated in Brattleboro. One of them, at the entrance of the state-house in Montpelier, is of Rutland marble. The other one, in the Capitol at Washington, is of Italian marble.

The fourth statue was unveiled at Burlington, the 4th of July, 1873. It was made at Carrara, Italy, after a design by Peter Stephenson, of Boston. It is 8 ft. 4 in. high, stands on a granite shaft 42 ft. in height, in Green Mountain Cemetery, on the banks of the Winooski.

"Siste viator! Heroa calcas!"