Col. John A. Graham, who knew Allen well the last two or three years of his life, published a book in England a few years after Allen's death and therein says: "Ethan Allen was a man of extraordinary character. He possessed great talents but was deficient in education. In all his dealings he possessed the strictest sense of honor, integrity, and uprightness." The Hon. Daniel P. Thompson attributes to him "wisdom, aptitude to command, ability to inspire respect and confidence, a high sense of honor, generosity, and kindness." Jared Sparks calls him "brave, generous, consistent, true to his friends, true to his country, seeking at all times to promote the best interests of mankind." Governor Hiland Hall says: "He acquired much information by reading and observation. His knowledge of the political situation of the state and country was general and accurate. As a writer, he was ready, clear, and forcible. His style attracted and fixed attention and inspired confidence in his sincerity and justice." John Jay speaks of his writings as having "wit, quaintness, and impudence." In financial skill Ethan was inferior to his brother Ira; as a soldier he lacked the cool judgment of Seth Warner; in administrative ability he had neither the tact nor success of Governor Chittenden; as a statesman he was destitute of the learning and ability of Chipman and Bradley; but as a patriot and friend he was true as a star. No money, no office, could bribe; no insults, no suffering, tame him. As a boon companion he was rollicking and popular. Many are the stories told of his hearty good-will toward all. One instance will show his power to attach the common people to him: Finding a woman in Tinmouth dreading to have a painful tooth drawn, in order to encourage her he sat down and had one of his perfectly sound teeth extracted. In religion, like Horace Greeley, Allen had reverence for the Deity but none for the Bible. In this he was not alone, for Vermont, in the later eighteenth century, presented a curious mixture of the strictest adherence to the letter of the religious law and absolute free-thinking. The Universalists in 1785 held their first American convention in Massachusetts. When this doctrine was first introduced into Vermont, John Norton, the Westminster tavern-keeper, said to Ethan Allen: "That religion will suit you, will it not, General Allen?" Allen, who knew Norton to be a secret tory, replied in utter scorn: "No! no! for there must be a hell in the other world for the punishment of tories." President Dwight said: "Many of the influential early Vermonters were professed infidels or Universalists, or persons of equally loose principles and morals." Judge Robert R. Livingston wrote Dr. Franklin: "The bulk of Vermonters are New England Presbyterian whigs." Daniel Chipman says: "Great numbers of the early settlers were of the set of New-lights or Separates, who fled from persecution in the New England States and found religious liberty here."