The Vermonters.
1775. Two hundred and thirty of them were green mountain boys, so called from their residing within the limits of the Green Mountains.—W. Gordon, ‘Hist. of the Am. Revolution,’ ii. 11 (Lond., 1788).
1776. One lieut. Whitcomb, a green mountain boy, who was out with a scouting party, was guilty of a most base, and villainous action, from no other principle than a desire of plunder.—Id., ii. 378.
1777. I shall endeavour to convince you, at the hand of my Green Mountain Boys, that your dominion is temporary.—Maryland Journal, Dec. 16.
1779. Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain men [are] said to have entered into alliance with Clinton.—Thomas Hutchinson, ‘Diary,’ Oct. 6.
1788. The inhabitants [of Vermont] had long no other name than that of Green-Mountain Boys, but thinking this too ignoble an appellation for their new destiny, they translated Green-Mountain into French, which made Verd-mont, and by corruption Vermont.—American Museum, iv. 184/2.
1850. If they must fight, Green Mountain Boys can do that extempore.—Mr. Meacham of Vermont, House of Repr., May 14: Cong. Globe, p. 606, Appendix.
1852. I am a green mountain boy, I was born in the State of Vermont, and plead for my rights, and the rights of this people, upon the broad Constitution of the United States, which we shall certainly maintain, in spite of the poor, rotten, political curses that pretend to enforce the Constitution.—Brigham Young, Aug. 1: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ i. 362.
