Here's a fine example of why Vermonters are different.
In 1776 Vermont elected to NOT join the union, preferring to wait and see how the experimental union made out; Vermonters have always been skeptical about federalism. In the next fourteen years the economic and social prospects of the fledgling Union appeared promising enough for Vermont to finally decide to join in 1791.
But unlike every other "state", by the time it joined the Union, Vermont had for fourteen years been its own 'country', an independent republic with it's own identity and it's own constitution. The signing of the Constitution for the "Free and Independent Republic of Vermont" took place in Elijah West's Tavern, in Windsor, Vermont, in 1777. The constitution resembled Pennsylvania's, but went further than others had before in that it granted full citizenship to all adult males regardless of property ownership, outlawed slavery, and set the rules for an independent nation which nevertheless contemplated admission to the United States. Of course, after admission, our skepticism about the Union has only grown over the years.
Vermont’s radicalism can be traced back to 1777 when it first became an independent republic prior to joining the Union fourteen years later. Vermont was the only American state which truly invented itself before becoming a part of the United States. Unlike other New England states, Vermont was never an English colony, or any other kind of colony, thus avoiding a period of aristocratic oligarchy. Influenced by some of its earlier Iroquois and Yankee inhabitants, Vermont established an almost casteless society never to be replicated elsewhere in America.
Unfortunately, back in 1791, wealthy land owners in New York State had presumptions of real estate ownership in the Republic of Vermont, and before they would allow the "Republic" to join the "Union" they managed to get crooked politicians in NY to extort the princely sum of $30,000 from Vermont. Now Vermont wants the money back, with interest.
Vermonters want New York to repay Vermont statehood debt
MONTPELIER, Vt. --A Vermont Supreme Court justice wants the state of New York to repay, with interest, a $30,000 payment Vermont made to New York 215 years ago so it would allow Vermont to join the union.
Before Vermont joined the union in 1791, New York argued it was owed the money to repay land claims in what was then the independent Republic of Vermont dating to a 1664 British royal proclamation.
Vermont and New York officials signed a payment agreement on Oct. 7, 1790. The first payment was in 1794. It took Vermont five years to finish paying the debt, said state Archivist Gregory Sanford.
"This money was taken, as far as we're concerned, simply as extortion," Dooley said. "We had to pay it to get into the union, because otherwise if New York opposed we would not become a state." Depending on how the interest on the money is calculated, the $30,000 payment could have grown to as much as $1.3 billion."
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