George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[292] of beech and maple; and, in a word, enjoyed the

chap. XIV.} 1765. June.

flourishing state which springs from rural industry, intelligence, and unaffected piety. They called their village Bennington. The royal officers at New-York, disposed anew of that town, as well as of others near it, so that the king was known to the settlers near the Green Mountains, chiefly by his agents, who had knowingly sold his lands twice over.¹ In this way, the soil of Bennington became a fit battle-ground for independence.

Events like these sowed the seeds of discontent; but still there was no present relief for America, unless union could be perfected. Union was the hope of Otis—union that ‘should knit and work into the very blood and bones of the original system every region, as fast as settled.’ Yet how comprehensive and how daring the idea! The traditions of the Board of Trade branded it as ‘mutinous.’² Massachusetts had proceeded cautiously and almost timidly, naming for its delegates to the proposed Congress, with the patriot Otis, two others who were ‘friends to government.’³

Virginia was ready to convince the world that her people were firm and unanimous in the cause of liberty,⁴ but its newly-elected assembly was not suffered by Fauquier to come together.

New Jersey received the circular letter of Massachusetts on the twentieth of June, the last day of the session of its legislature. The Speaker, a friend to the British government, at first inclined to urge sending delegates to the proposed Congress; but, on