[VERMONT BORDER DISPUTE]
ALLEN, ETHAN and FAY, JONAS. A concise refutation of the claims of New-Hampshire and Massachusetts-Bay, to the territory of Vermont; with occasional remarks on the long disputed claim of New-York to the same. [Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1780. First edition but an imperfect copy. 20th century cloth. 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches (19 x 12 cm); lacks original title (provided in photostat facsimile), paginated 3-29, woodcut headpiece to p. 3, without final blank. Old dampstain to margins touching some text at end, generally a clean copy.
Ethan Allen's and Jonas Fay's commentary on the Vermont border dispute opens dramatically with "This government, astonished at the late extraordinary claims of New-Hampshire and Massachusetts-Bay ... find themselves under the disagreeable necessity of publicly exposing the imbecility, and depravity of those governments ... in their long continued oppressions of the people of this State." Scarce in any condition, the book was described as "excessively rare" at the time of the Brinley sale in 1880 and we trace no copy at auction in recent decades. Evans 16694; Sabin 806.