The Natural and Political History of the State of Vermont, One of the United States of America

Ira Allen

London : Printed by J.W. Myers, and sold by W. West, 1798

Octavo, 21 cm. vii, 300 pp., lacking folding map not issued with all copies. Modern gilt spine, in a contemporary style over original boards. Library markings. Colonel Thomas Aspinwall's copy, noted by donation bookplate. Pages 215-218 (2 leaves) provided in manuscript. Foxing and toning. Refs: Howes A-142, "b."  Gilman p. 18; Sabin 819; Bassett 45. Provenance: Thomas Aspinwall was a Harvard class of 1807, noted for his valor in the battle of Sackett Harbor and consul to London from 1816-1854. 

Allen's History of Vermont is a vital source on the Haldimand Affair and the Republic of Vermont during the Revolutionary War. Haldimand Affair (also called the Haldimand or Vermont Negotiations) was a series of negotiations conducted in the early 1780s between Frederick Haldimand, the British governor of the Province of Quebec, his agents, and several people representing the independent Vermont Republic, including Ira and Ethan Allen. At issue was Vermont officially joining the British. Just as Haldimand offered generous terms for reunion in 1781, the main British army surrendered at Yorktown, and it was clear that the United States would achieve independence. Vermont, surrounded on three sides by American territory, rejected the British overtures and negotiated terms to enter the United States as the 14th state in March 1791. The secret nature of the negotiations, which excluded significant portions of Vermont's political power structure, led to accusations against some of the negotiators. In Ira Allen's "History," he paints a carefully worded argument that he, his brother Ethan and the other negotiators were attempting to buy time to stave off a British invasion and until American won its independence. Allen's narrative would be the definitive history of this trying period of Vermont's state history. In the 1920s, the historians disputed Ira and Ethan Allen's heroic motives and presented a strong case that they were strongly aligned to rejoin the British Empire for land value and trade opportunities.