Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/39

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The Green Bag.

lieutenant, in Col. Warner's continental regi and 178 1 he was a member of the Board ment, and in the summer of 1776 was sta of War; in January, 1782, one of the com tioned in command of a few men at a block mittee of the council " to make a draft of fort in Jericho, on the Winooski. The fort the political affairs of this State"; he was was abandoned upon the approach of the one of the eight persons who had knowledge British army from Canada. It was alleged of the correspondence with General Haldiby the officers that the men deserted, but mand, relative to Vermont's becoming a charges were made that the desertion of the British province. He was the first town men was by collusion with the officers, and clerk of Cambridge, its representative in the Fasset and Lyon were arrested at New convention of 1791, which voted to join the Haven on their way south, for deserting the Union, and in the Constitutional Convention post, and taken to Ticonderoga, where they in 1793; he was elected a member of the were tried by a court-martial. They were Governor's Council from 1779 to 1794, in found guilty, deprived of their commissions clusive, but did not always take his seat. and rendered ineligible to reappointment in During several of those years he held a seat the Continental service. The latter part of in the House of Representatives, serving the sentence General Gates annulled, saying some of the time in the House and some of that if anybody was d— d fool enough to the time in the Council. appoint such cowards, they might. The He was included in the first list of justices sentence was subsequently reversed by Gen of the peace; was judge of both special eral St. Clair. Lyon subsequently rendered courts in 1778, and judge of the Superior efficient service in the Continental army. It Court in 1778 to 1782, inclusive. He was was with reference to this affair that he was the only judge of the Superior Court elected taunted by Griswold of Connecticut, when in the first instance at each of the four elec they had an encounter in the House of Rep tions, and served during the existence of resentatives at Washington. that court. When the Supreme Court was established, in 1782, he was elected one of Fasset never re-entered military, but be came prominent in civil life; in 1777 he the assistant judges, and continued in that was one of the Committee of Safety in the court, by annual elections, until October, town of Bennington; with Matthew Lyon 1786; in October 1787, the county of Chit and Thomas Chittenden, then president of tenden was formed and Fasset was elected Chief Judge of the county court, and pre the Council of Safety, he moved to Arling ton, until that time a hotbed of Tories, and sided as such until October, 1794. His was took possession of the confiscated property a singular instance of holding the position of councilor, a member of the House, and in that town. In January, 1778, he was ap pointed Commissioner of Confiscation and judge of the highest court in the State, at served during the war. In 1781 he was the same time, and for many years. one of the committee to issue bills of credit, I find no instance of his having accepted then authorized by Vermont. He repre any official position after 1794, except to sented Arlington in the House, at the Octo represent Cambridge in the House in 1797. ber session, in 1778, 1779 and 1782; in At the time he retired as Chief Judge of the 1784 he removed to Cambridge, of which Chittenden county court, in 1794, he had town he was one of the proprietors, and rep been in the judicial service of the State from resented it in 1787, 1788, 1790, 1791 and the first, except one year; until 1786, in 1797. His wife was Hannah, the daughter the highest court in the State, and after of Deacon Joseph Safford, the first treas 1787, as Chief Judge of the Chittenden urer of the town of Bennington. In 1780 county court. He was then fifty-one years