Vermont

THE STATE OF Vermont in New England was the 14th state to be admitted to the Union, which took place on March 4, 1791, ending the short-lived Vermont Republic, and making the state the first to join after the original 13 colonies. As a counterweight to Vermont as a free state, Kentucky, a slave state, joined soon afterwards. Until 1836, Vermont had a unicam-eral legislature.

Before Vermont joined the Union, it had its own general assembly, elected by freemen, and a democratic tradition. When the issue of joining the United States arose, the assembly called a convention that met at Bennington on January 6, 1791. They eventually voted to join the Union by 105 votes to three, with Nathaniel Chipman and Lewis R. Morris delegated to carry out the negotiations. The U.S. Congress agreed to the final admission unanimously. The Vermont Chronicle of October 18, 1791 detailed the first “election day” in the state of Vermont. The day began with Thomas Chit-tenden, the governor-elect, and Lieutenant Governor Peter Olcott, along with members of the council, meeting some distance from the state capital and then riding into Windsor in their best uniforms. They waited for the official results to be proclaimed, followed by a 15-gun salute. In the late 18th and early 19th century, election day in Vermont was on the first Tuesday in September, with annual elections for legislators, judges, and state officials. The various candidates often established booths offering food and drink to voters as they were heading to the polls. It was also common that as soon as the results were declared, the winning candidate would buy large quantities of food and drink to dispense to the voters.

That Vermont had briefly been an independent Republic (1777–91) led to a certain degree of political free thought in the state, and after Thomas Chittenden, Paul Brigham was elected as their second governor. As Vermont was split geographically by the Green Mountains, there was an informal arrangement by which the governor and the lieutenant governor would come from different sides of the mountains. This held with the choice of U.S. senators and representatives until 1932, when Vermont was reduced to one member in the House of Representatives; it held for governors until 1974.

From 1797 until 1820, Vermont voters supported Federalist and Democratic-Republican governors alternately, with the Democratic-Republicans holding office 1815–26, when Ezra Butler of the National Republicans took office. During the 1826 gubernatorial election campaign, the issue of Freemasonry was actively debated, benefiting Butler as a Baptist elder from Waterbury. He was from east of the Green Mountains, while the early [Page 816]governors were from the west. The nomination of Butler by private citizens circumvented the system of a caucus, and raised concerns about the election of clergymen to state office. With the agrarian population worried that this might lead to domination of the state by the largely town-based merchants, many who were Freemasons, the farmers took up the issue of anti-Masonry By 1827, many voters of Vermont started supporting the Anti-Masonic Party, leading to William A. Palmer's election as governor; he held that office until 1835, managingto win the election, despite campaigning on a single issue. In 1835, Silas H. Jennison of the Whig Party was elected, and the next seven governors were all Whigs. However, in October 1853, John S. Robinson became the first Democratic governor, and the only one until the election of Philip H. Hoff in 1962.

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