University of Virginia Library

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.[1]

Dear Sir,—The controversy relating to the district
called Vermont, the inhabitants of which have for
several years claimed and exercised the jurisdiction
of an independent State, is at length put into a train
of speedy decision. Notwithstanding the objections
to such an event, there is no question but they will
soon be established into a separate and Federal State.
A relinquishment made by Massachusetts of her
claims; a despair of finally obtaining theirs on the
part of New York and New Hampshire, the other

claimants, on whom these enterprising adventures
were making fresh encroachments; the latent support
afforded them by the leading people of the New England
States in general, from which they emigrated;
the just ground of apprehension that their rulers were
engaging in clandestine negotations with the enemy;
and lastly, perhaps, the jealous policy of some of the
little States, which hope that such a precedent may
engender a division of some of the large ones, are the
circumstances which will determine the concurrence of
Congress in this affair.