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The Haldimand Affair (also called the Haldimand or Vermont Negotiations) was a series of negotiations conducted in the early 1780s (late in the American Revolutionary War) between Frederick Haldimand, the British governor of the Province of Quebec, his agents, and several people representing the independent Vermont Republic. Vermonters had been battling Indian raids sponsored by the British, as well as engaging in a long-running dispute with New York State over jurisdiction of the territory. 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, was stranded. It negotiated terms to enter the United States as the 14th state in 1791. The secret nature of the negotiations, which excluded significant portions of Vermont's political power structure, led to accusations of perfidy against some of the negotiators, notably Ethan Allen. ==Background== In 1749, Benning Wentworth, the British provincial governor of New Hampshire began issuing land grants for territory west of the Connecticut River. This area, now the United States state of Vermont, was also claimed by the Province of New York.〔Wardner, p. 13〕 In 1764 King George III issued an order-in-council resolving the territorial dispute in favor of New York.〔Wardner, p. 49〕 New York refused to honor the grants issued by Wentworth, who had persisted in issuing grants even after he had agreed to stop issuing them in light of the territorial dispute. Holders of the Wentworth grants, in order to validate their claims, were effectively required to repurchase their grants at higher prices from New York, a situation to which the land-rich and cash-poor grantees objected. Following a pro-forma rejection of the Wentworth grants in 1770 by New York's Supreme Court (which included members who held competing New York grants for some of the territory), the area's settlers, led by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, formed the Green Mountain Boys and organized resistance to attempts by New York to assert control over the area. Using methods that stopped shy of lethal force, this resistance at times forcibly removed New York's judges, land surveyors, and other figures of provincial authorities, and disrupted efforts by holders of New York land grants to settle their lands. These incidents were reaching a critical point when the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775. General Frederick Haldimand, in command of British military forces in New York City during some of this time, refused to become involved in the dispute.〔Kingsford, p. 75.〕 Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775, and also participated in the invasion later that year of the Province of Quebec. In this latter effort, Allen was captured following a poorly organized attempt to capture Montreal in September 1775. Allen was held as a prisoner of war by the British until May 1778, when he was exchanged for a British officer. During much of this time he lived in New York City on parole, and was, by his own account, approached in late 1776 by a British officer with an offer to join the British side.〔Hall, pp. 164–167.〕 The Wentworth grantholders, led by Ira Allen and Thomas Chittenden, declared independence from New York, establishing the Vermont Republic in July 1777.〔Wardner, p. 443.〕 While there was significant anti-New York sentiment in the territory, there was also significant popular support for the Continental Congress, and the republic's founders regularly petitioned the Congress for admission as the fourteenth state. However, New York and New Hampshire's representatives expressed reservations over its admission until the competing land claims and jurisdictional issues could be resolved, and effectively blocked any actions by Congress. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Haldimand Affair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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