Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/83

ALLEN.ALLEN. had not yet convened. With a force of less than one hundred "Green Mountain Boys" the garrison was surprised just at daybreak, aroused, and ordered to surrender "in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." When Congress convened, it tendered Colonel Allen a formal vote of thanks for his gallant exploit. The capture of Ticonderoga was followed by that of Skenesborough, and Crown Point immediately after, and in less than a week the entire country around Lake Champlain was in the possession of the revolutionists. This opened up a direct route to Canada, and Allen on May 29 wrote to Congress: "The Canadians (all except the noblesse), and also the Indians, appear at present to be very friendly with us, and it is my humble opinion that the more vigorous the colonists push the war against the king's troops in Canada, the more friends we shall find in that country." He said with one thousand five hundred men and a proper train of artillery he could take Montreal. Then "there would be no insuperable difficulty to take Quebec and set up the standard of liberty in the extensive province, whose limit was enlarged purely to subvert the liberties of America." He advanced his views with force and had many earnest advocates. He wrote to the Indians, calling them "brothers and friends," asked the merchants of Montreal to open trade with the colonists, and issued a proclamation to the French people of Canada appealing to them not to take up arms against the colonists. He went to Philadelphia and Albany to urge the scheme in the continental and provincial congresses, and the New York congress finally authorized the raising of a regiment of "Green Mountain Boys" to be officered from their own choosing. This called for a meeting of the town's committees to elect officers instead of the soldiers themselves, and much to the chagrin of Allen the choice fell upon Seth Warner by a vote of forty-one to five. General Schuyler immediately after sent Allen on several expeditions to arouse the people of Canada to support the revolutionary cause, and if possible bring about an insurrection. In one of these expeditions he was taken prisoner at Montreal, Sept. 24, 1775, and remained in confinement at Falmouth, England; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and New York, successively. He was paroled in November, 1777, after his arrival in New York, but not exchanged until May 3, 1778, when Colonel Alexander Campbell was released in exchange, and entertained Allen for two days at his home in New York. Allen then went to Valley Forge, where Washington made him his guest, and where he met Putnam, Gates, Lafayette, and other general officers. He was immediately commissioned by Congress brevet brigadier-general, and the legislature of his state made him major-general and commander-in-chief of the state militia. By this time the boundary disputes had broken out again, and he devoted himself to their settlement. As agent to Congress he was the prime factor in forcing upon that body the recognition of Vermont as a state. In this matter his motives and his loyalty to the colonists have been questioned, and were at the time open to reasonable doubt. He, however, appears to have had the confidence of Washington, and whatever lengths he went in way of deceiving the British with promises made to be broken, his whole life and especially his refusals to be bribed by the British when much larger and more alluring offers were held out, fully disproves any taint of treason. He resigned his commission as major-general, at the same time declaring himself ready "to serve the state according to his abilities" if ever necessary. He published his "Narration" in 1779; "Vindication of Vermont and Her Right to Form an Independent State" (1779); "Oracles of Reason," which he called "A Compendious System of Natural Religion," in 1784, and various pamphlets. His life has been written by Jared Sparks, Henry Hall, Hugh Moore, and H. W. DePuy. The legislature of Vermont of 1885 ordered a monument to be erected over his grave, a Tuscan column of granite forty-two feet high and four and one-half feet in diameter. A statue of Vermont marble sculptured by Mead stands in the vestibule of the state house at Montpelier, and another of Italian marble by the same sculptor in the rotunda of the capitol at Washington. A heroic statue designed by Peter Stevenson was unveiled at Burlington, July 4, 1893, and surmounts the monument erected in 1885. He married Mary, daughter of Cornelius and Abigail (Jackson) Brownson of Roxbury, Ct., who died in Sutherland, Vt., about 1783, and was buried at Arlington. On Feb, 9, 1784, he married Mrs. Frances Buchanan, the widowed daughter of Crean Bush, the Tory, who in the New York legislature had been largely instrumental in the passage of the act of outlawry against him. By this marriage one daughter and two sons were born. The daughter, after her father's death, entered a convent in Montreal, and the sons, Hannibal and Ethan A., became officers in the United States navy. He died at Burlington, Vt., Feb. 12, 1789. ALLEN, Harrison, physician, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 1841; son of Samuel and Elizabeth Justice (Thomas) Allen, grandson of David and a descendant in the sixth generation from Samuel Allen of Bristol, England, and Bristol Pa., 1682. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, M.D., in 1861, served in the army, 1861-'65, resigned in 1865