250 THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT the court house at Fort Edward was under the protection of Colonel Mott with some Connecticut troops the mob abandoned the project. A letter under date of June 5, 1775, from William Duer, covers the same subject.t It was the opinion of Marsh and Rose that the mob was composed of poor debtors. If this conclusion be the correct one and if the motive at Westminster could be inferred from that involved in the Manchester episode, there is little doubt as to the nature of these uprisings against the courts. It is to be noted that Fort Edward was beyond the western limits of the New Hampshire Grants but within the limits of Charlotte County which included Manchester and many other townships that were chartered by Benning Wentworth. Of the real meaning of the Westminster affray, Mr. James Truslow Adams, in his scholarly Revolutionary N w England, has perhaps stated the case better than any predecessor when he says it "has all the familiar ear-marks of an acute economic crisis on any frontier." 2 In the opinion of well­ informed Vermonters it was not considered a part of the Ameri­ can Revolution, for we find a letter written by Jonas Fay and Ira Allen on February 7, 1782, in which they fix Vermont's first participation in the war as "after the Battle of Lexing­ ington." 3 As might be expected Ethan Allen entertained a similar opinion. 4 In a month's reflection on the Westminster Massacre the men of Cumberland County reached their own conclusion as to its meaning, or, at least, what had best be declared as its meaning. They refused to admit that it was an uprising of poor debtors who sought to evade their obligations. They re­ fused to adopt as their own the specious pretext advanced by Doctor Reuben Jones to the effect that the General Assembly of the Province of New York had not endorsed the resolutions of the Continental Congress. They refused to assign the op­ pression of Great Britain as one of the causes. Beset by doubts as to the right or expedient course, embarrassed both by the thoughts of their own conduct and the ferment of impending war, their committee-men (who recorded that they had been 1 Id., 71-72. 1 Revolutionary New England, p. 415. a 2 GOtJ. & Coun., 369. 'lid., p. 467. .