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52. Vermont 1807 Lieutenant Governor
53. Vermont 1807 Treasurer
54. Vermont 1808 Council
55. Vermont 1808 Governor
56. Vermont 1808 House of Representatives, Randolph
57. Vermont 1808 House of Representatives, Rutland
58. Vermont 1808 Lieutenant Governor
59. Vermont 1808 Treasurer
60. Vermont 1809 Council
61. Vermont 1809 Governor
62. Vermont 1809 Lieutenant Governor
63. Vermont 1810 Council
64. Vermont 1810 Governor
65. Vermont 1810 House of Representatives, Rutland
66. Vermont 1810 Lieutenant Governor
67. Vermont 1810 Treasurer
68. Vermont 1811 Council
69. Vermont 1811 Governor
70. Vermont 1811 Lieutenant Governor
71. Vermont 1812 Council
72. Vermont 1812 Governor
73. Vermont 1812 House of Representatives, Bennington
74. Vermont 1812 Lieutenant Governor
75. Vermont 1812 Treasurer
76. Vermont 1813 Council
77. Vermont 1813 Council of Censors
78. Vermont 1813 Governor
79. Vermont 1813 House of Representatives, Colchester and Milton
80. Vermont 1813 Lieutenant Governor
81. Vermont 1813 Treasurer
82. Vermont 1814 Constitutional Convention, Windsor
83. Vermont 1814 Council
84. Vermont 1814 Governor
85. Vermont 1814 Lieutenant Governor
86. Vermont 1815 Council
87. Vermont 1815 Governor
88. Vermont 1815 Lieutenant Governor
89. Vermont 1815 Treasurer
90. Vermont 1816 Council
91. Vermont 1816 Governor
92. Vermont 1816 Lieutenant Governor
93. Vermont 1816 Treasurer
94. Vermont 1817 Council
95. Vermont 1817 Governor
96. Vermont 1817 Lieutenant Governor
97. Vermont 1817 Treasurer
98. Vermont 1818 Council
99. Vermont 1818 Governor
100. Vermont 1818 Lieutenant Governor
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Vermont became the fourteenth state in 1791, fourteen years after declaring itself independent from the claims of New York. Vermont adopted its first constitution in 1777. Patterning its constitution after the radical document created by Pennsylvania, Vermont went even further, granting universal male suffrage and prohibiting slavery. Wary of power, the framers denied the veto to the governor and forced him to share executive duties with a twelve-man council. A unicameral assembly held legislative power.
The governor, lieutenant governor, and treasurer were chosen annually in general elections; they needed a majority to gain office. If there was no majority, the winner was chosen by the Joint Assembly (the House, or General Assembly, and the Executive Council). Freemen of each town selected their representative to the General Assembly annually. Members of the Executive Council were elected statewide. United States congressmen were voted on by district, with the exception of the years 1812–1820, when they were chosen statewide. United States senators were chosen by the Joint Assembly. The Council of Censors were the caretakers of the state constitution. Thirteen men, each elected statewide every seven years to a one-year term, were charged with examining legislation for constitutionality and with proposing appropriate amendments. The early years of statehood saw the old political factions of the Arlington Junto (Thomas Chittenden, the Allen brothers, and their followers) and their opponents fade as the Federalist and Democratic-Republican divisions took center stage. Voter participation was initially sparse but inched upward. It took Jefferson's embargo to jolt Vermonters out of their political inertia. Fifty percent more voters cast ballots for governor in 1808 than in 1807. Madison's declaration of war precipitated a similar rise in 1812. The war years contributed the highest voter turnout of the period. The two parties were evenly matched. In the years of 1813 and 1814, their candidates for governor were separated by less than 300 votes, and the parties in the General Assembly were separated by a handful of votes. Vermont's congressmen were elected by the same narrow margins.
Despite such intense party competition, very few men held statewide office. Straying from its Pennsylvania model, Vermont allowed unlimited reelection to state office and multiple office holding. From 1787 to 1825, only eight men sat in the governor's chair. Only seven men served as lieutenant governor. Just two had been elected treasurer. From 1778 to 1825, only 114 different men sat on the Executive Council, out of a possible 588 seats. Because of this, and because of their ability to hold other offices, a small group were able to wield immense influence in the state.
After the end of the war, the Federalist Party slowly dissolved, and with it voter participation. The last Federalist candidate for governor ran in 1817. The two-party system being defunct, Republican statewide candidates were chosen by caucus in the legislature and ran virtually unopposed. With no issues to divide the populace, by 1825 the number of votes for governor had dwindled to its lowest level since 1800.
Bibliography
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Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993. - Brynn, Edward.
"Patterns of Dissent: Vermont's Opposition to the War of 1812." Vermont History, 40 (Winter 1972): 10–27. - Carroll, Daniel P.
"Development of the Unicameral Legislature of Vermont." Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, III (1932): 12–31. - Crockett, Walter Hill.
Vermont, The Green Mountain State. 5 vols. New York: The Century History Company, 1921–1923. - Gilles, Paul S. and D. Gregory Sanford, eds.
Records of the Council of Censors of the State of Vermont. Montpelier: Secretary of State, 1991. - Graffagnino, J. Kevin.
"’I saw ruin all around’ and ‘A comical spot you may depend’: Orcamus C. Merrill, Rollin C. Mallory, and the Disputed Congressional Election of 1818." Vermont History, 49 (Summer 1981): 159–168. - Muller, H. Nicholas III.
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Vermont's Burned-Over District: Patterns of Community Development and Religious Activity, 1761–1850. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, 1991. - Roth, Randolph A.
The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont, 1791–1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. - Shaeffer, John N.
"A Comparison of the First Constitutions of Vermont and Pennsylvania." Vermont History, 43 (Winter 1975): 33–43. - Shalhope, Robert E.
Bennington and the Green Mountain Boys: The Emergence of Liberal Democracy in Vermont, 1760–1850. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). - Sherman, Michael, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash.
Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont. Barre, VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2004. - Smith, Donald Allen.
"Green Mountain Insurgency: Transformation of New York's Forty-Year Land War." Vermont History, 64 (Fall 1996): 197–235. - Walton, Eliakim P., ed.
Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont. 8 vols. Montpelier: J. and J. M. Poland, 1873–1880). - Williamson, Chilton.
Vermont in Quandary: 1763–1825. Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society, 1949.