The Establishment of Legal Structures on the Frontier: The Case of Revolutionary Vermont

Abstract

Inside the small wooden jailhouse in Bennington, Vermont, David Redding waited for frontier justice to exact its price. A Vermont court had found Redding, a New York Tory, guilty of fighting with the British against his fellow Americans and of stealing horses for Gen. John Burgoyne's recently defeated army. But on that very morning, June 4, 1778, John Burnham, the only person in that part of Vermont who could make any claim to knowledge of the law, had pointed out to the governor and his council that a jury of only six men had passed judgment on Redding, whereas English common law required twelve. The embarrassed council ordered a stay of execution. The crowd of angry Vermonters gathered outside the jail, denied the spectacle of a public execution, was calling for vengeance; they had come to hang Redding, not to protect his inalienable rights as a freeborn Englishman. Just as the sheriff was getting nervous and had sent a call for reinforcements, a long-absent but familiar voice was heard clearly shouting above the crowd's din, Attention the whole! After two years as a prisoner of the British, Ethan Allen made his dramatic reentry to Vermont politics, leaping onto a tree stump and immediately obtaining the attention of the crowd in his usual flamboyant fashion. Witnesses reported that Allen made a colorful and amusing speech, quieting the crowd's disappointment and calling on them not to besmirch the fair name of Vermont with any hint of injustice. He closed with the peculiar and unlikely reassurance that by the next day someone would be hanged, if not Redding, then Allen himself. The crowd roared with approval and dispersed to the taverns to toast Ethan Allen. To ensure that his promise to the crowd was fulfilled, Allen had his old friend Gov. Thomas Chittenden appoint him state prosecutor. The fact that Redding's crimes had occurred in New York, which had requested his extradition, was overcome by appointing Allen, in effect, a United States attorney. The proclamation naming him prosecutor read that Colonel Ethan Allen . . . is hereby chosen to act in the Capacity & to do the duty of State Attorney in the cause depending Be-