Ethan Allen

“ Allen was standing on deck looking over the finest harbor in Europe, when his attention was called to a small boat hailing the war ship.
Some men climbed up on deck and asked for Col. Allen, of America.
Allen was so close that he could not help hearing, and he answered that he was Ethan Allen.
John Hays, a merchant of Cork, clasped Allen's hand and tried to speak, but, instead of words, tears flowed down his cheeks and his voice was choked.
When he did master his emotion he exclaimed, with patriarchal fervor:
"Heaven bless you and all brave men like you who are fighting for liberty." ”

“ In this, as in many other instances, Ethan Allen, rebel though he was called, outlaw as he was decreed to be, showed the largeness of his heart.
"We shall have to break camp. It is possible others besides those who have been liberated will know of our nearness and profit by it."
"Where shall we go, colonel?"
"To Middlebury. We will not secrete ourselves, but openly show that we are in the field to oppose New York in its pretensions." ”

“ SOMETHING FURTHER OF ETHAN ALLEN; WITH ISRAEL’S FLIGHT TOWARDS THE WILDERNESS.
Among the episodes of the Revolutionary War, none is stranger than that of Ethan Allen in England; the event and the man being equally uncommon.
Allen seems to have been a curious combination of a Hercules, a Joe Miller, a Bayard, and a Tom Hyer; had a person like the Belgian giants; mountain music in him like a Swiss; a heart plump as Coeur de Lion’s. Though born in New England, he exhibited no trace of her character. He was frank, bluff, companionable as a Pagan, convivial, a Roman, hearty as a harvest. ”

“ Ethan Allen should be given up to Albany, and your secretary added that he hoped to hear that the rebel was hanged quickly."
"It is false!"
"Eben speaks the truth!" hotly retorted Allen. "I would rather believe him than anyone I know. He is a child of nature and knows not how to be false. I am here to tell you, Gov. Wentworth, that we of the mountains are ready to give our lives in defense of the colony, but we will not sell our freedom!" ”

“ Upon this scene of trouble and uncertainty appears Ethan Allen, a farmer, born about thirty years before in Coventry, Conn., large of frame, of great personal strength, and with mental characteristics in harmony with his powerful physique: a tender-hearted giant whose standard of honor and honesty soon measured the injustice of New York's position in the land controversy, and at once sided with the besieged farmers, with whom he had many generalities of sympathy. ”

“ My folks want a good grant somewhere, and I'm looking about for one."
"There aren't many good places now; most have been taken. They do say that a man called Ethan Allen is round stirring up the people so that he may get them their lands free."
"So I have heard."
"But some say that he wants the lands for himself."
"How is that?" asked Eben, innocently.
"Why, I have heard a man say—he came from Fort Ticonderoga—that if Allen can get his way there will be a fight. Then he will surrender and will recognize York, and as a reward will get the best farms." ”

“ That their beloved leader should be displaced by any person–no matter how high his office–was more than distasteful to them. At once they were in revolt.
“Ethan Allen forever!” arose the cry. “We’ll not march without he commands us!” and more than one threw down his arms. Arnold found himself facing the possibility of marching upon Ticonderoga alone, for the mutiny seemed general.
“Sir, sir!” exclaimed Warner, in anxiety, addressing Arnold. “You see the feeling of these true-hearted men. No person can come here and take command of them in this way. We are not regular troops. ”

“ Therefore he was still with the Hardings that day late in April when Ethan Allen, riding out of Bennington into the north to carry a torch which should fire every farm and hamlet with patriotic fervor, reined in his steed at the door of the farmhouse. The children saw the great man coming and ran from the fields with Bolderwood, while the widow appeared at her door and welcomed Colonel Allen. ”

“ Then Ethan Allen broke the surveyor’s compass with his own hands and tossed the fragments away.
“Now,” said he, in an awful voice, “depart, and woe be unto you, Marmaduke Felton and Erastus Graves, if you ever set foot in the land of the Green Mountain Boys. You other men, if you come in peace and on honest business, you shall not have a hair of your heads hurt. But if you ever venture to come on such an iniquitous errand as now brought you, by the Great Jehovah, you shall repent in sackcloth and ashes! ”

“ Colonel Ethan Allen, the author of Oracles of Reason, was the son of Joseph Allen, a native of Coventry, Connecticut, a farmer in moderate circumstances. He afterwards resided in Litchfield, where Ethan was born in the year 1739. ”

“ When the Continental Congress was held Montgomery was a delegate, and he pledged his sword in defense of the popular rights.
No wonder that Ethan Allen should be pleased with the Irishman. They were kindred spirits.
Montgomery asked Allen to tell him of the struggle of the Vermonters against the pretensions of New York.
Allen did so, but somewhat bitterly.
"Nay, my dear Allen, do not let that irritate you. We shall soon make common cause, and instead of the colonies we shall have a nation, and we shall be citizens, not subjects."
"Citizens!" Allen repeated. ”

“ The farmer paused.
"Excuse me, I thought I heard some one at the window. No, I was wrong, and yet I could have sworn I saw a face as I looked up."
"You were saying that your ideal of a man was——"
"Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga. I tell you, he is right all the time. He was right about those land grants. If the land had been of no value New Hampshire might have had all the land, but because it proved rich, of course York coveted it."
"Have you ever seen Ethan Allen?" Warner asked. ”

“ Old Ethan Allen! Would he were alive again! Oh, for one hour of that Dundee! Well, the time will answer its own needs, and this war will not pass by without its man of iron. He cometh! Who is he to be? George McClellan, you have it in you!
Put on steam, and win us the great victory of all time!
Should any man ever collect into a volume all the stories told of the great American showman, we trust that he will not omit the following:
BARNUM'S PIGEON.
Barnum sat in his office. It was a warm summer afternoon, but the B was busy, as usual. ”

“ No matter how secretly a sheriff with a party of Yorkers, as the New York [Pg 292] officers were called, came to a farm in the disputed land, there were sure to be settlers there to meet the Yorkers and drive them away. The settlers had scouts all through the country; every trading-post was a rallying-point.
A military force was organized, and chose Ethan Allen, a rugged, eloquent man, to be its colonel. The governor of New York declared that he would drive these men into the Green Mountains, and when they heard this Ethan Allen's followers took the name of Green Mountain Boys for themselves. ”

“ OF the men of strong energy of thought or action, who arrested public attention during the momentous period of the Revolution, there is scarcely one who assimilates at an to the zealous and erratic, yet firm and indomitable Ethan Allen. He had been schooled in the fierce conflicts in which New Hampshire on the one side, and New York on the other, contended for legal jurisdiction and sovereignty over the present area of Vermont ”

“ But fortunately further bloodshed was averted, and never again did a Tory judiciary hold court in Eastern Vermont.
Enoch went back to Bennington with some of Robert Cochran’s company. News of the Westminster affair had preceded him and the Catamount Inn was thronged with earnest men discussing the matter and various other news-packets which had lately come from other colonies. War with the mother country seemed inevitable and Ethan Allen and men of his stamp looked forward to it not without some eagerness. ”

“ At Castleton, Vermont, Arnold met Ethan Allen and his men, and claimed the leadership of the expedition. But the Green Mountain Boys scouted the idea. They would fight under their own leader or not fight at all, they said, and as Arnold had gathered very few of his four hundred men he had to give way. So instead of leading the expedition he joined it as a volunteer.
This matter settled the little company marched on to Lake Champlain, and in the middle of the night they arrived at the southern end, opposite Fort Ticonderoga. ”

“ Had Ethan not cautioned the boys against loud talking, there would have been a rousing cheer given for the youthful hero.
"Whenever we have to distinguish our hero," said Allen, "we will call him Eben Pike, the hero of Eagle's Bridge." ”

“ Enoch told them, using few words; but the tremor in his voice showed the depth of his feeling. The injury done the settlers–the treachery of the Yorkers–had affected him as it had his mother. Allen listened with marked attention, having dropped back into his wide-armed chair, but he watched the boy’s countenance the while. “Egad!” cried he when the story was done, “there’s a boy after my own heart. He knows when he sees a snake in the brush!” Then he turned instantly to his companions. ”

“ The incident had appealed strongly to the boy and he drew a faithful picture of the scene when the army of Yorkers marched up to the farmhouse door and demanded admission.
“And Mr. Allen was there and spoke to me–he did!” declared Enoch. “He’s a master big man–and so handsome. He asked me if I remembered his coming here once to see father, and he told me to be sure and go to Bennington when the train-band is mustered in. I can, can’t I, mother?”
“And me, too!” cried Bryce. “I can carry Nuck’s musket now’t he shoots with father’s gun. I can shoot, too–from a rest.” ”

“ The boats had left the shore and were no longer to be descried, for a light fog covered the water. There was no retreat. To hide this party on the New York shore of the lake would be impossible. There were too many Tories about. Allen turned to his men. His voice was low, but intense, so that not only those around him, of which Enoch was one, but those at a distance heard every word uttered.
“Friends! we have come here for a single purpose. It is to advance upon yonder fortifications and capture them. We already outnumber the garrison ”

“ There is a council being held in town to-day, I believe, for I suspect that Colonel Allen and Captain Warner have not been deceived by the false promises of Governor Tryon. And this business at the Otter Creek will wake up many of those who would cry ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. Bryce will saddle the horse for you, Enoch,” she added, “and while you eat I will prepare your best breeches and coat. You cannot appear at the inn before the gentlemen in your old clothing.” ”

“ Allen, Ethan, an American revolutionary partisan and general; born 1737, died 1789. He surprised and captured Ticonderoga Fort (1775) ; attacked Montreal, and was captured and sent to England, being exchanged in 1778; wrote against Christianity, Reason, the only Oracle of Man (1784) .—His younger brother, Ira (1751-1814) , was also prominent in the revolutionary era.
Allen, Grant, writer on scientific subjects and novelist, was born at Kingston, Canada, 1848, died in 1899. His earlier education he received in America, but he also studied in France and graduated at Oxford with honours in 1870. ”

“ Allen, the whole thing means that you are exchanged. We have got our man, and we pay for his liberty by giving you yours. Good-day, and may I never see you again—at least under recent conditions."
Allen entered a small boat with Eben, and two stout seamen pulled the boat to the dock, where a carriage was in waiting.
Eben almost pushed the astonished and half-dazed Green Mountain hero into the carriage, and soon the waterside was left far behind and the carriage rolled along the roads to the place where Gen. Washington had made his headquarters. ”

“ I did not know it until I heard it from Montgomery and Schuyler, and so the British looked upon you as an outsider; but they wanted Jameson, and they got him, and you owe your freedom to Pike's pertinacity."
We can easily imagine Allen's feelings as he listened to the account given by Washington.
The pride he had felt in Eben's career was intensified, and he felt that the young Green Mountain scout would become one of the great heroes of the Revolution.
Allen was so broken down by his long and cruel imprisonment that he took a vacation and retired to Bennington to recuperate. ”

“ That Elisha should be so exasperated at the children for calling him bald head, and telling him to go up, was rather a sample of ill breeding; most gentlemen would have laughed at the joke, instead of cursing them, or being instrumental in their destruction, by merciless, wild and voracious beasts. Though the children were saucy, yet a man of any considerable candor, would have made allowance for their non-age, "for childhood and youth are vanity." ”

“ I have generally been denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious I am no Christian, except mere infant baptism make me one; and as to being a Deist, I know not, strictly speaking, whether I am one or not, for I have never read their writings; mine will therefore determine the matter; for I have not in the least disguised my sentiments, but have written freely without any conscious knowledge of prejudice for, or against any man, sectary or party whatever; ”