For the adjustment of the land claims, it was declared that if the legislature of Vermont should before the 1st of January, 1792, agree to pay to the State of New York the sum of $30,000 on or before the first day of January, 1794, all rights and titles to land granted by the colonial or state government of New York should cease, except those which had been made in confirmation of the grants of New Hampshire. The legislature of Vermont at once acceded to this arrangement, and on the 28th of the same month passed an act directing the state treasurer to pay the sum named to the State of New York, and to accept the line proposed as a perpetual boundary between the two States. Thus peaceably ended the controversy that for more than a quarter of a century had been an almost continual annoyance to the people of this district, and in its later stages a source of danger to the whole country. The Assembly of Vermont called a convention to consider the expediency of joining the Federal Union. This convention met at Bennington, January 6, 1791, and though at first several members were not in favor of union, after a debate of three days the question was decided in the affirmative by a vote of 105 yeas to 3 nays. A few days later the assembly chose Nathaniel Chipman and Lewis R. Morris commissioners to negotiate with Congress for the admission of the State to the Union. The commissioners went immediately to Philadelphia, and laid before the president the proceedings of the legislature and convention. On the eighteenth day of February, 1791, Congress, without debate or one dissenting vote, passed an act declaring that on the fourth day of March next, "the said State, by the name and style of the State of Vermont, shall be received into this Union as a new and entire member of the United States of America." So at last the star, that so long had shone apart, now added its constant ray to the lustre of the constellation. FOOTNOTES: [91] For these resolutions see Slade's _State Papers_, p. 177; also Chittenden's reply, p. 178. [92] _Vermontensium Res Publica._ CHAPTER XVIII. THE NEW STATE. When Vermont had taken her place in the Union, her state government continued to run smoothly in its accustomed lines, still guided by the firm hand and wise counsel of her first governor. With unabated faith in the wisdom, integrity, and patriotism of Thomas Chittenden, the freemen of Vermont again and again reelected him to the chief magistracy of the commonwealth after its admission, as with but one exception they had done in the twelve years preceding that event. Notwithstanding the simplicity of home life in those days, "Election Day" was observed with a pomp and ceremony well befitting the occasion.