E 340 .HIS H3 Copy 1 1 TBRftRV OF CONGRESS 'ill '.ll'llll'l" '1111 ll'l'' ill 011 838 633 4 l MEMOIR HON. HILAND HALL, LL.D, ^ ^y^.^.^^^^ MEMOIR HON. HILAND HALL, LL.D. HENRY D HALL, Esq. OF NORTH BENNINGTON, VT. Reprinted from the New Eng. Hist, and Gen. Reg. for Janu.iry, 18S7, with additions. BOSTON : PRESS OF DAVID CLAPP & SON. 188 7. MEMOIR OF HON. HILAND HALL, LL.D. '^l^ HE subject of this memoir, Hiland Hall, ex-Ciovcrnor and cx- -5- member of Congress, was born at Bennington, Vermont, July 20, 1795. His parents were of English descent. The emigrant ancestors of each, John Hall of the father Nathaniel Hall, and George Hubbard of the mother Abigail (Hubbard) Hall, after be- ing over fifteen years at Boston and Hartford, became in 1650 the first settlers and large land-holders in INIiddletown, Connecticut, where in its ancient burying-ground may now be found tombstones of some of their early descendants. His father was a quiet, industrious farmer, coming to reside in Bennington in 1779, and marrying at Norfolk, Ct., October 12, 1794, the mother, who ever proved a worthy and efficient help-meet. Both were exemplary members of the Baptist Church, of which he was a deacon, and were respected and esteemed members of society. The boyhood and youth of Hiland Hall were spent on his father's farm. He became interested in reading when f|uite young, and read all the books he could find or bon-ow in the vicinity, his taste naturally being for history or biography. His early education was obtained in the common schools of his neighborhood, with the exception of nearly three months at an academy in Granville, N. Y. ; which undoubtedly would have been rounded out to the full quarter but for sickness. The writer does not remember of hearing him speak of any other sickness in his youthful days, this being impressed upon him as taking largely from the sum total of his educational advantages, though he has told how his good mother, calling him to her side, when on speaking to the children of getting ready for meeting upon Sunday morning, and he making an excuse that he did not feel well, and claiming he ought to be permitted to stay at home, would reach for the " picra bottle," which was very generally kept in those days for worms, wiiich was the usually considered trouble with children. He would generally feel better and soon recover, without taking a dose, so as to make his scanty toilet, and go to hear the sermons of at least an hour or more in length, wliich were preached twice on the Sabbath. jMr. Hall became interested in politics at an early age, favoring the republican in opposition to the federal party. During the war with England, early in September, 1813, a few weeks after he be- came eighteen years old, he was actively engaged in the formation of a young men's society in Bennington for a vigorous prosecution of the war, styled the " Sons of Liberty," and was one of a committee of three to prepare and report a constitution for the Society. The well-bound book of records of the Society is still preserved, the minutes of its proceedings covering over sixty pages of foolscap size. The Society held regular meetings, at which political cjuestions were debated. Among its patriotic acts was the procuring from the ladies in the town and vicinity of 158 pairs of mittens and 42 pairs of socks, whicli in the name of the lady contributors were presented to the lltli Regiment of U. S. soldiers stationed at Plattsburg, N. Y., in January, 1814, which regiment had been largely recruited in Vermont. The Society continued in active life imtil after the close of the war, the last record of its proceedings being an account of its celebration of tlie Fourth of July, 1815, at which there were an address, procession, dinner and eighteen toasts, in accordance with the number of States of the Union at the time. After the close of the war in 1815, there was a lull in party pol- itics, and by 1)S20, the federal party, as a national organization, had ceased to exist, Mr. Monroe, the republican candidate, being elected president by a vote of all the states, the vote of only a single elector in New Ham]ishire being cast against him. At the elections in 1824 and 1828, Mr. Hail, in common with most of the New England republicans, voted for John Quincy Adams. The support- ers of Gen. Jackson, who was elected in 1828, assuming the name of Democrats, their opponents took that of National Eepublicans, which was afterwards changed to Whigs, to which Mr. Hall belonged imtil it became merged in 1856 in the new republican party, a name under whicli he began his early political life. He studied law and was admitted to t!ie bar of Bennington Coun- ty in December, 1819; established himself in practice in his native town, which he represented in the general assembly of the State in 1827. In 1828 he was clerk of the Supreme and County Court for Bennington County, and the year following was elected State Attorney for the County, and reelected the three succeeding years. Mr. Hall being naturally of a generous disposition, and easily turned aside when collecting his own bills, and thinking little of money for its own sake, but using it freely for the necessary comfort of his family, at this time increasing in numbers, as well as answer- ing the claims of the needy and unfortunate; he early became involved in his pecuniary relations, and for years lived in a home which was heavily mortgaged, but wliich lie was enabled to clear up in middle lite, having never settled a debt at less than one hundred cents on the dollar. Another characteristic which tended to lessen his yearly income, was the conscientious expression of his opinion to his clients as to their just and legal claims when advised with as to the bringing of suits, or of continuing litigation after tiiey had been commenced. A strict regard to right and justice often witlilield the prosecution of suits, which in the hands of some would have brought returns in fees, adding much to the income of an attorney ; but it gave confi- dence to those having right upon their side in employing him, as they never had reason to fear tiiat he would be tampered with by opposite counsel, or their cases in any way be jeopardized by him for want of integrity. Thus the opinion obtained, to quite an ex- tent, that the side upon which he was engaged would prevail, from the inherent justice it was undoubtedly possessed of. In after life he had the satisfaction of not being straitened in his pecuniary cir- cumstances, though his magnanimous nature would have found ways to dispose of large possessions in the way of benevolence. In January, 1833, he was chosen a representative in Congress to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. Jonathan Hunt, and took his seat on the 21st of that month, during the extraordinary excitement growing out of Air. Callioun's South Carolina nullification ordinance, and witnessed the failure of that first serious effort at disunion. At the same election Mr. Hall was chosen a member of the 23d Congress, which commenced its first session the following December. The district then comprised the two counties of Ben- nington and Windham, with seven towns in Windsor County, viz., Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish, Chester, Ludlow, Springfield and AV^eston. This district he represented in Congress for ten successive years, receiving as a National Re[)ublican and Whig, five different elections by large majorities. Ilis congressional service terminated the 3d of ilarch, 18 13, he having declined being longer a candidate. In Congress Mr. Hall was a working rather than a talking mem- ber, though he occasionally made political speeches, among them one in 1834 against Gen. Jackson's removal of the govei-nment de- jjosits from the United States Bank, and another in 1836 in favor of the distribution of the jjroceeds of the public lands among the states, which measure was in effect consummated at that session in the distribution of the surplus revenue, by which nearly seven hun- dred thousand dollars were received by the State of Vermont, and added to the school-funds of the several towns. Both these speeches were printed in pamphlets and extensively circulated by his congres- sional associates and otiiers, and the former was reprinted in iVew York prior to the succeeding State election, and circulated as a cam- paign document. But the speaking of Mr. Hall in Congress was in general of a 6 business character, made to influence the votes of members on pend- ing questions, rather than for the country. His work on commit- tees, first on that of the post-office and post-roads, and afterwards on' that of revokitionary claims, was onerous and severe, his printed reports covering several vohmies of pubhc documents. In 183(), while a member of the post-office committee, he presented a report in opposition to tlie message of the President .and the report of the Post-Master General, which had recommended the enactment of a law making it a penal otfence to transmit by mail into any of the southern states, printed matter against the institution of shivery, tenned "incendiary publications." The report, which was by a minority of the committee, was in answer to one that had been made to the Senate by Mr. Calhoun, and of whicli five thousand extra copies had been ordered by that body. Besides siiowing the great difficulty and danger of such legislation, the report of Mr. Hall took tlie ground that it would be an infringement of the liberty of the press, and a violation of the constitution, which had confeiTed no power on congress to look into publications and prescribe what opinions should and what should not be admitted into the mails, or be tlie subject of mail transmission. The report was signed by Mr. Hall and the Hon. George N. Briggs, afterwards governor of JMas- sachusetts, but as the majority of the committee failed to make their report, tliat of the minority did not become a public ducument. It \vas, however, printed in the A'ational Intelligencer at AV^ashington, and in New York and other papers. JNlr. Hall's services were especially important in committees and also in debate, in opposing wasteful and extravagant expenditures. "While on the post-office committee he took an active and prominent part in framing and procuring the passage of the act of July 2d, 1836, which made a radical change in the organization of the post- office department, and provided an effectual system for the settle- ment of its complicated accounts, by wjiieh an alarming series of frauds that had caused a very great drain on the treasury, was bro- ken u)i, and an honest and economical administratian of its affairs inaugui'ated and secured. Mr. Hall's successful efforts in relation to one class of claims de- serves a more particular notice, as well for the large amount involv- ed in them as for the powerful influence and bitter opposition he was obliged to overcome in exposing their unfounded and fraudu- lent chaiactcr. For several years there hail been passing through C(mgress, with little opposition, numerous claims founded on alleged jiromises of the legislature of Vii-ginia, or of the Continental Con- gress, to Virginia officers of the revolutionary army, some of them tlcnominated Commutation Claims, some Half-pay and some Boun- ty-land Claims, l)ut all depending upon similar evidence to sustain them. In satisfaction of these claims there had already been drawn from the treasuiy over three millions of dollars, nearly all of which Imd been paid for supposed services of deceased Virginia officers, and there were still pondinjj before coiiijress claims to the further amount of more tiiau another million, and their number and amount were continually increasing. By a patient and laborious examina- tion of the revolutionary archives in the department at Washington, with some information derived from the public records at Richmond, Mr. Hall became satisfied that the great mass of tlie claims already paid was wholly unfounded, and tliat those that were still pending were, if possible, still more wortiiless. In order to bring the sub- ject fully before congress, he obtained the appointment of a select committee, of which he was made chairman. He prepared a report unfavorable to the claims, which was approved by the committee and presented to the House on the 27th of February, 18.^i), with the usual motion that it be laid on the table and printed. Contrary to the uniform practice in such cases, t'le printing of the report was vehemently opposed by the Virginia delegation. After obstructing the action of the House daring the morning hour of that day, by- dilatory motions and debate, tliey found the members impatient to order the [jrinting under the previous question, upon which, as a last i-csort, Mr. Wise of Virginia called for the reading of the report, which by strict rule he had a right to require before voting upon it. 'I'he reading of the report was commenced, and was continued through the morning houi-s of February 28th and March 1st, with- in two days of the close of the session, when the pressure of other business jirevented its being finished. ^ Mr. Wise's unexampled hostile call for the reading, therefore, had its designed effect of smothering the report for that congress. The next session of congress Mr. Hall became a member of the committee of Revolutionary Claims, and soon afterwards its chair- man. On the 24th April, 1840, he made a report from that committee on the Bounty Land and Commutation Claims of the Virginians, similar to the one which had been suppressed at the close of the previous congress, which showed by authentic documen- tary evidence that every one of those allowances was unfounded. The efforts of the Virginians to obtain revolutionary allowances, especially for officers' bounties under an old law of their state, being still Continued, Mr. Stanly, of North Carolina, on the 10th of June, 1842, offered a resolution directing the committee of Revolutionary Claims to examine and report on their validity, which resolution he afterwards modified by substituting a select committee for that on Revolutionary Claims. This was done on the complaint that Mr. Hall, the chairinan of the standing committee, was unreasonably and unjustly prejudiced, and would not give the claimants a fair hearing. On the 113th of June Mr. Hall, having obtained the floor, sjioke an hour in vindication of his course in regard to the claims, showing l)y undoiilited documentary evidence that they were all, collectively and individually, either wholly fraudulent or clearly 8 unfounded on any revolutionary service to sustain them ; and he closed his remarks by presenting a list of tlie names of sixty-four claimants, whose claims amounted in the whole to over two hundred thousand dollars, and comprised all of the latest of those claims that had been recommended for payment by the executive of Virginia, and were included in the bill then pending in the House. He said every one of them was bad, and offered to abandon his opposition to the claims if aiij' member would satisfy the House tiiat any single claim was well founded. His remarks were commented upon by many of the Virginians, and among them Messrs. Goggin, Goode and Gilmer, in speeches of an hour each, which were all highly laudat(ny of the patriotism of Virginians and her revolu- tionary heroism, but none of them ventured any attempt to show the validity of a single claim. The speech of Mr. Gilmer in par- ticular was of an aggressive and extremely personal character to- wards Mr. Hall, and was sharply replied to by him, in which his attacks were effectually repelletl. He not only made a further exposure of the claims, but showed that Mr. Gilmer, who had been governor of Virginia, had originated them by inducing the legislature of the state to recommend their payment by congress, when they were well known to be entirely worth- less ; that he had as agent of the Half-pay Claimants, whose claims were equally invalid, first presented them to congress, and tliat he was by a law of the state entitled to one per cent, on all that should be paid by the United States, on which he had already received over twelve thousand dollars, and was entitled to a like allowance on all future payments. This debate occupied the morning hours of several days, and having the numerous delegation of Virginia on one side and a single member from another state on the other, and being in a great degree of a personal character, attracted very general attention. The vindication of Mr. Hall, which was full and complete, and overwhelming to his assailants, was listened to with unusual interest, and was also the subject of general newspaper notice and comment. Ex-Prcsident Adams, who was a member of the House at the time, notices the debate in his Diary published by his son, as follows : / June 16th, 1842. Stanly moved the appointment of a select committee to investigate the expenditures on account of Virginia Military Bounty land warrants, from which sprang np a debate, and lliland Hall opened a hideous sin'k of corruption until he was arrested by the expiration of the morning hour. June 2l8t. Gilmer growled an hour against Hall for detecting and exposing a multitude of gross frauds, perpetrated in the claims relating to the Virginia land warrants. June 22d. Goggin scolded an hour against Hiland Hall, and W. O. Goode took the floor to follow him. June 24th. W. O. Goode followed the Virginia pack against Hall. James Cooper moved the previous question, but withdrew it at the request of Hall, to give him opportunity to reply to the Virginia vituperation. June 25th. Ililand Hall took the morning hour to (lay Gilmer and the Virginia Military land warrants. Tliis tlK>roii2:h exposure of tliese claims, and tiic marked rebiifT and discomfiture of tlicir ciiampions, followed as it soon after was hy a full history and condemnation of them in detail in a rejjort by Mr. Stanly's select committee, o[)erated as a final extinguisher of them. Mr. Hall was a member of tiie select committee, and the report had, by direction of the committee, been prejiared and made to the Houso by him. Gov. Gilmer, the leading oluimpiou of the claims, was subsequently Secretary of the Navy under President Tyler, and lost his life, with several others, by tiie bursting of the Stockton cannon on board the Steamer Princeton in February, 1844. By the act of congress, passed in 1832 on the application of the Vir- ginia Assembly, under the lead of Gov. Gilmer, congress had assumed the payment of certain half-pay claims, whicli rested on alleged pro- mises of tliat state to her officers, and had provided for their adjustment by the war department. These are the claims before mentioned, for the allowance of which by the United States Mr. Gilmer was entitled to receive a percentage. They were purely state claims, and there was no legal or equitable ground for making the United States liable for them. Those intended to be provided for had not only been allowed and paid, but the act had been so loosely and inconsis- tently construed by former Secretaries of War, that Mr. Hall, from his examination, felt able to show, beyond doubt, that allow- ances to the amount of several hundred thousand dollars had been made under color of its provisions, wliich the act in no wise warranted, and which were clearly unfounded and unjust. As other claims of like character were still pending in the department, Mr. Hall felt it his duty to call the attention of the then recently appointed secretary to the lax manner in which previous allowances had been made, and he accordingly addressed a letter to him on the subject, in which he respectfully suggested the propriety of his reconsidering the con- struction which should be given to the act. The secretary did not take the suggestion kindly, and rather a spicy correspondence ensued, the purport and spirit of which may be gathered from the two con- cluding letters, which were as follows : Department of War, Feb'y 25th, 1842. Sir : In answer to your lotfer of the 2 Itli, I transmit herewith a copy of your former letter of the 21st inst, as you request; and have to state that I coulil Dot perceive the object of it, if it were not to induce a suppression of operations in .the class of cases to which you allude. I am extremely obliged to you for the information you gave, and will l)e still furtlier obliged if you can point out a mode in which the erroneous construction you sup- pose to have been given can be corrected, without violating tlie indis^Jensa- ble rule of adhering to former decisions. Very Respectfully your obd't Sv't, Ifon. Ililand Hull, J. C. Si'encer. House of Representatives. 10 House of Representatives, Feb'y 26th, 1842. Sir: I thank you for the copy of my letter of the 21st inst., inclosed in yours of yesterday. In your letter you say you are extremely obliged to me for the information I gave you. and will be still further obliged if I can point out a mode in which the erroneous construction I suppose to have been given the act of July Sth, 1882, "can be corrected without violating the indispensable rule of adliering to former decisions." I would be glad to oblige you in this particular, but it is out of my power. Under au indispensable rule to adhere to erroneous decisions, I know of no mode in which they can he corrected. You are doubtless unaware of the amount of labor this " indispensable rule of adhering to former decisions" will save in the adjustment of these half-pay claims. There will be no necessity of reading tlie law or the evi- dence in any case. You may safely allow, without examination, all claims that are presented. I will engage to furnish you a precedent from " for- mer decisions " for any allowance you may make. I am. Sir, very respectfully yours, Hiland Hall. Hon. J. G. Spencer, Secretary of War. For an account of the claims and tlie correspondence in full, see report No. 485, second sec>sion 27tli Congress. It is believed there were few or no further allowances by the department. Mr. Hall was Bank Commissioner of Vermont for four years from 1843, Judge of the Supreme Court for the like period until 1850, when he was appointed Second CcnnptroUer of the United States Treasurj', his duties being to revise and " finally adjust " all accounts with the government of officers and others in the W-xv and Navy departments, after they had been stated and passed upon by the Second, Third and Fourth Auditors. A claim came before him founded on au expenditure that had been ordered by tlie head of a department which he thought was illegal, and the question arose whether he had authority to reject it. It was insisted in behalf of the claimant tluit the secretary being his superior officer and repre- senting tlie President, the comptroller was bound by his approval, and had no power to disallow it. In support of this doctrine a labored written argument was presented, and it appeared to be sanctioned by the published opinion of three former Attorney- Generals. On full examination of the statutes, Mr. Hall came to the conclusion tliat judicial autliority had been designedly conferred on the accounting officers as a check upon lavish expenditures in tlie departments, and it was as much their duty to disallow claims not sanctioned by law, as it was of a court of justice. The question being one of importance, the opinion of the conq)troller was publisiied in pamphlet, and it is imderstood has since Ijcen accepted and fol- lowed in the several departments, as a just exposition of tlie law on tlie subject, and I'ecentl}' a second edition of the Siune has been printed for the use of the Departments. 11 In 1851, at the solicitation of President Fillmore, he accepted tlie office of Land Commissioner for California, his associates Ijcini'- Gen. James Wilson of iS'ew Ilampsliire and Judge Harry I. Thorn- ton of Alabama. The duties of the connnission were to adjust the claims to land under the treaty of Mexico, the titles of the owners as recognized by tiie Jlexican laws having been guaranteed to them by that treaty. Mr. Hall was chairman of the commission, and had charge of its funds, whicii he dislnnscd for its necessary expendi- tures, which amounted to several lumdred thousand dollais ; all of which was duly accounted for at the Treasury Department. The contested land claims brought into full use the fittin;,^ quali- fications wliich his habits of thought and investigation throii<;Ii life had develo|)ed. Among the cases brought before the Connnission, many of which were of great importance, was the famous Mariposa claim of (Jen. J. C. Fremont, involving millions of dollars, and in the adjustment and settlement of whicli tlie application of law in- volved, included almost without exception all points that would be liable to arise in the adjudication of similar claims. The opinion of the Commissioners was in this case written by Mr. Hall, and the points were so fidly and clearly elucidated, that many eminent jurists have written him expressing their admiration of the document. On the accession of President Pierce new commissioners were appointed, and j\lr. Hall, at the solicitation of his son in law, T. W. Park of the firm of Hallcck, Peachy, Billings & Park, then a jirominent law firm in San Francisco, reni:iiried for a time with tiiem as general adviser, and to assist in the preparation of briefs and other important law papers. In the spring of 1854, he returned to Ver- mont, and resuming his residence on the farm in Bennington on wiiich he was born, retirtd from the further practice of his profession. Mr. Hall was a member of the convention which met at Phila- delphia in 1S56 and gave the Pepublican Party a national character, by nominating candidates for the presidency and vicc-prcsiilcncv. In 1858 he was elected by that party governor of the state by a larac majority, and reelected the next year by a similar majority. In his first message, besides calling the attention of the legislature to the local affairs of the state, he spoke in decided condemnation of the then recent attempt of the majority of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, in furtherance of the wishes of President Buchanan and his advisers, to fasten upon the country, bv judicial sanction, the new and extraordinary doctrine that the constitution itself legalized slavery in the territories, and that congress conse- cpiently had no power to prevent its introduction. The language of the message in regard to this assumed action of the com-t was as follows: "With a strong haliitual reverence for judicial authority, when exercised within its api)ropriate sphere for the determination of individual rights, I confess I have not a high regard for it, when sought to be extended to political questions. The history of our 12 parent conntvy fiirnislies many examples of judges, learnecl and eiiiiuent, whose extra-judicial o[)inions were sought and obtained by the government for the pm'pose of crushing out the rising spirit of liberty among the people. Indeed, for the character of the judicial ermine, it is to be lamented that judges, of distinguished legal attain- ments, liave often been found giving countenance to oppression and wrong l)y ingenious and fmciful constructions, and that English liberty lias been fixed u[)oa its present firm foundations, not by the aid of judicial efforts, but by overcoming them. There is reason to hope that the extra-judicial opinions of the judges in tiie Dred Scott case, contrary as they are to the plain language of the constitution, to the facts of history and to the dictates of common humanity, will meet the fate wliich has attended those of the judges in the parent country, and that liberty wall be eventually established in spite of them." In his last message in 1859, he thus announces his deter- mination to retire from further i)ulilic service: "In closing this my last annual message, I cannot witlihold the expression of my grateful thanks to the freemen of the State for the confidence which they have on all occasions so generously manifested towards me ; and I beg to assure them tliat in retiring from public life at the end of the })resent political year, I shall carry with me the warmest and most heartfelt wishes for the continued prosperity of the State, and for the welfare and happiness of its people." He however consented to act as one of the commissioners to the fruitless "Peace Congress," which, on the call of Virginia, assembled at Washington in February, 18()1, on the eve of the rebellion. He was chairman of the delegation from Vermont. On tiie breaking out of the Rebellion in April, ISfil, he felt it his duty to do all in his power to uphold tiie integrity and unity of the government, and his time, energies and means to a large extent were from the first devoted to aid in crushing it. He at once favored the speedy forwarding of men, and assisted in the formation of companies, volunteering assistance to some families which would be left behind in needy circumstances, drawing the pay and taking care of money coming from or being sent to soldiers, and jwhen bounties were paid, in the placing in the safest manner such money that it should best meet the wants of the enlisting party ; all showing a deep interest in the preservation of the Union, the value of which in his estimation, no doubt, was increased by association for a long period in Congress by intimate relations with such states- men as Webster, Clay, Adams, Giddings, Stevens and a host of others, when the doctrine of nullification or disunion was being advocated liy Calhoun and his associates, that Slavery and State liights might be sustained and perpetuated. His anxiety continued during the war, and not until the surrender at Appomattox Court House, did he feel that his or the vigilance of any titlier man should in the least relax. 13 One of his sons, Nathaniel B., was Major of tlic llfh Refrimcnt of Vohintecrs, and was in the battle of Gettyshiirn-. lie sent suh- stitutes for four other sons and himself wiicn the need for men seemed imminent and the bounty had reached four hundred dollars each, besides tiie State pay and bounty. Mr. Hall has always taken a deep interest in American history, especially tiiat connected with the territory and state of Vermdut. He delivered the first annual address tiiat was made before tlie Ver- mont Historical Society ; and for six years from 1851) was its presi- dent, and has since been active in the preparation and arrangement of the materials for the two published volumes of its collections, and in otherwise promoting its usefulness and success. He read several iiistorical paj)ers at the meetings of the society, some of which have been published, — among them one in 18()9 in vindication of Col. Ethan Allen as the hero of Ticonderoga, in refutation of an attempt made in the Galaxy Magazine to rob him of that honor. He has contributed historical papers to tiie Xew York Historical Magazine, to the Vermont Historical Gazetteer, to the Piiiladelphia Historical Record, and also to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. In 1860 he read before tlie New York Historical Society a paper showing " why the early in- habitants of Vermont disclaimed the jurisdiction of New York and established a se])arate government." In 1868 his Early History of Vermont, a work of over .500 pages, was published by J. Munsell, Albany. In it the controversy of its early inhabitants with New York, and their struggle for the estab- lishment of their state independence, as well as their valual)]e ser- vices in tiie cause of their conunon country during tlie revohitionarv war, are largely treated ; and the necessity of their separation from tlie government of New York in order to maintain the title to their lands and preserve their liberty, is very fully and unanswerably shown. Gov. Hall was very prominent in his exertions to have a suitalile centennial celeiiration of the battle of Bennington, and in securing for it the favorable action of the State Legislature, and also in sub- sequently promoting its successful accomplishment. Accordingly, a few days of the week comprising the Kith of August, 1877, was set apart for this object, and devoted to the discussion and presenta- tion of papers on suijjects connected with the revolutionary period of the history of the state, in which the governors and other eminent men of jNIassachusetts, New Hampshire and New York participated, as well as President Hayes and a niunber of his cabinet. Thou- sands of the citizens, among tiieni many military companies, with bands of martial and other music, from Vermont and adjoining states, and in fact from all parts of the union, participated in the services and made it a very remarkable occasion. A few months before the celebration he prepared a clear and full 14 description of the battle, with an acoount of its important conse- quences, vvb.icli was extensively publislied in ne\vspap(!rs and pamph- lets, a copy of wliich bus a place in the official account of the cen- tennial celebration. Mr. Hail was from the first deeply interested in the erection of a pi'oper monument for the commemoration of the b:ittle of Benning- ton. Tlie later years of his life, and especially the last year, bav- ins; reached the nge of ninety, were given to efforts for directing ami educating public opinion as to what kind of a structure would best mark tiiat important event. A report was made in December, 1884, by a committee of the Bennington Battle I\Ionumcnt Associ- ation, on design, recommending "a structure to stand about t,.enty feet squiire on tlie ground, and about fifty feet in clear beiglit, and to be on a. mound ten feet high, making a total heigiit of about sixty feet." This caused surprise and sorrow to Mr. Hall, and early in 1S8.J he published a sliort letter to the association and friends of the enterprise, giving his objections in a condensed form to the design recommended. In June folU)wing he addressed an open letter, printed in a pamphlet of twelve pages, to the members of the asso- ciation, in which he set forth at lengtli his views of monuments and their form, in relation to difl^erent historic events, and reviewed the design of tlie committee i-ecommending the small, low structure, and advised, as his ojiinion, the erection of a tall, large, bold and com- manding shaft, as a proper one to mark the victory. The following are his closing remavks in this letter : "After a few more words by way of apology for the length and earnest- ness of this letter, I will bring it to a close. Uorii witliiii less than tvvent,y vears after the battle, near the field where it was fought, and reared "froai cliililhood anioog those who were engaged in it, 1 early imbibed from tl'.eir lips a taste for its study, and from such study ac(iuired a con- victiou that it was an event of very great importance in the revolutionary liist.ory of our country. This conviction has lasted me through life, and has perhaps grown in strength with increasing years. I was e.-irly in favor of erectiiig a monument to the event; and, as president of the Bennington Historical Society, I took part in fi':nning the bill for the incorporation of the Battle Momnuent Association, attemted the session of the legislature at Mcntpelier in 187G, and gave such ai