Early in the morning of the day appointed, the people of Westminster and the adjacent towns took possession of the court house to prevent the officers of the court from entering. The opposing party appeared, armed with guns, pistols and swords, and commanded the people to disperse. This being refused, the judges and their friends retired. About eleven o’clock at night they again appeared and demanded admittance; being again refused, they opened fire, killing one man and wounding several more. The wounded men, and some others, were seized and dragged to prison. The next day the people flocked in from every part of the country. A coronor’s inquest was instituted on the body of their fallen comrade, and a verdict returned of “willful murder by the Court Party,” some of whom were immediately seized and placed in jail. The news of this event spread far and wide throughout the Hampshire Giants, and fired the hearts of the stern yeomanry with an irrepressible bitterness and rage against the authorities of New York. A meeting of the committees of safety was held at Westminster the following month, at which spirited and patriotic resolutions were passed, among which was a declaration “that it is the manifest duty of the inhabitants, on the eternal and immutable principles of self-preservation, wholly to renounce and resist the administration of the province of New York, until such times as the lives and property of the inhabitants can be secured thereby.” Indeed, such was the state of feeling, that but for the ominous occurrences preceding the American Revolution, which for the time absorbed all minor considerations, New York and Vermont would have been brought to the direful issues of a civil war. CHAPTER VI. ATTITUDE OF CONGRESS. It must not be supposed, however, that in the overshadowing event of the great drama of the Revolution, the disputed claims to jurisdiction over Vermont were entirely forgotten. On the contrary, New York improved the very first opportunity to make application to Congress for a recognition of her title to the territory. Then New Hampshire, inasmuch as she had made the original grants of the soil, memorialized Congress for a recognition of her claims. Next Massachusetts, fearing lest the others should proceed to carve up the disputed territory as they could mutually agree, interposed her plea for a portion, as coming rightfully under her jurisdiction. So, while Vermont was battling bravely with the common enemy devastating her borders, she had to contend with the plots and baneful policy of three beleaguering and powerful States; and she only asked of Congress an independent sovereignty and even-handed justice.