Basing his narrative almost entirely on original documents, Mr. Pelt
tells r -.mind the manifold achievements of Ethan Allen (Constable, 21s.) the • story of the creation of the State of• Vermont. Allen was one of the most remarkable products of the eighteenth century, at once soldier,-business- man, political " lobbyist," and apostle of liberty in all its forms. He was not in actual fact the creator of Vermont, but it was he who led the Green Mountain Boys against the New Yorkers, who had used every legal and illegal means in the attempt to dis- possess them of their holdings on the New Hampshire Grants ; it was he who defeated the regular British troops in Ticonde- roga ; and it was he who gained' recognition for a State which others had proclaimed by his astute management of a Con- gress many of whose members were under the influence of older established and more powerful States. The story leading up to his eventual success is long and tangled. But Mr. Pell has told it clearly, with a frequent reference to Allen's own works which shows how carefully he has studied his subject; and with a restraint which wisely allows the facts always to speak for themselves. The result is an admirable presentation both of a character who fully deserves the biography he had so far been denied, and of an almost forgotten chapter in the history of the American Revolution.
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