Journal of the Senate
[Source of following is: Journal
of the Vermont Senate]
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1996
The Senate was called to order by the President.
Devotional Exercises
Devotional exercises were conducted by the Reverend Wayne
Jones of Northfield.
Pledge of Allegiance
The President then led the members of the Senate in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
Message from the House
A message was received from the House of Representatives by Mr.
Smith, its Second Assistant Clerk, as follows:
Madam President:
I am directed to inform the Senate the House has adopted Joint
Resolutions of the following titles:
J.R.H. 92. Joint resolution relating to the Green
Mountain Boys of the Vermont National Guard. ...
Joint Resolution Referred
Joint resolution originating in the House of the following
title was read the first time and is as follows:
J.R.H. 92. Joint resolution relating to the Green
Mountain Boys of the Vermont National Guard.
Whereas, Benning Wentworth, the first Royal Governor of
New Hampshire, had been told by leading governmental officials in
London that in light of New Hampshire's duty to protect Fort
Dummer, the colony could lay claim to lands west of the
Connecticut River, and
Whereas, based on these legal assurances Governor
Wentworth proceeded to issue his first grant for the town of
Bennington in 1749, and
Whereas, this was the first of many grants that
Wentworth either issued or confirmed consequently sparking an
influx of independent-minded homesteaders into the valleys and
plateaus of the Green Mountains, and
Whereas, so agitated was the colonial government of New
York that its increasingly vociferous complaints to London
resulted in King George III's issuance of the Royal Proclamation
of July 20, 1764, that declared New York's eastern border to be at
the Connecticut River, and
Whereas, the infuriated settlers who had migrated to the
Green Mountains, based on the authority of the Wentworth Grants,
were staunchly determined to remain in the future Vermont, and
Whereas, on June 28, 1770, Ethan Allen, the political
and spiritual forefather of Vermont, unsuccessfully defended,
before a hardly impartial New York Court, the legal rights of
squatters residing in Shaftsbury who claimed that they held a
valid Wentworth grant, and
Whereas, Allen shortly thereafter convened a meeting at
Fay's Tavern in Bennington that led to the formation of an
unauthorized citizen militia dubbed the AGreen Mountain Boys,@ and
Whereas, although Ethan Allen would periodically
redefine his personal political philosophy, the fundamental
justification for the Green Mountain Boys' existence, namely, to
defend the legal legitimacy and property rights of the grants'
settlers never abated, and
Whereas, meeting in convention at Bennington, shortly
after the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Green Mountain Boys’ five
years of self-styled protective defensive measures against the
Yorkers were put aside as this highly unorthodox militia became
the yet-to-be named territory's first official fighting force, and
Whereas, this ragtag ever-changing brigade would emerge
after the Revolutionary War as the foundation of Vermont's own
state militia now officially known as the Vermont National Guard,
and
Whereas, members of the 13th, 14th and 16th regiments of
the 2nd Vermont Brigade, who were fondly known as the Green
Mountain Boys, were called upon by the Commander of the Potomac,
General George Gordon Meade, to reenforce the Union line at
Cemetery Ridge during a crucial moment of the Battle of
Gettysburg, and
Whereas, the lengthy list of military accomplishments by
units, that were referred to as the Green Mountain Boys over the
last 200 years, is undisputed and recognized internationally, and
Whereas, the Green Mountain Boys’ distinctive name is
recognized by all military organizations as a proud and an
unstoppable force when given a mission, and
Whereas, the name Green Mountain Boys still has a very
special, and profound, historical meaning for the members of the
Vermont National Guard, now therefore be it
RESOLVED BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
That the General Assembly strongly urges that the Vermont
National Guard retain the name Green Mountain Boys as a proud and
historic appellation that has served Vermonters well for over two
centuries, and be it further
RESOLVED: That the Secretary of State be directed to
send a copy of this resolution to Governor Howard Dean and to the
Adjutant General of the Vermont National Guard.
Thereupon, the President, in her discretion, treated the joint
resolution as a bill and it was referred to the Committee on
General Affairs and Housing. ...
END OF QUOTED PORTIONS.
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