User talk:PeterInVT

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Hello, PeterInVT, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome! SchuminWeb (Talk) 01:47, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Potato/Potato, Republic/republic, tomato/tomato, ....

Hi PeterInVT. Your weigh-in was welcome. Are you the same person who had previously left me messages under IP addresses? I am not against there being an organization calling for separation having some voice, but the fact is that Second Vermont Republic is at most 5-10 people, with an axe to grind and near to zero public support. We have an interesting question as to what to call this period. As I see use of the term Vermont Republic (or republic) it is an attempt to identify that period under a name a bit separate from the State of Vermont which clearly evokes a U.S. state, which Vermont wasn't in 1777-'91. That period of independence, first chosen out of a desire not to answer to masters in NY and NH, and continuing independently because the Continental Convention did not immediately invite them in, remains an important part of the state's history and still independent and contrary culture.

Nearly all factions of the men forming Vermont sought, or supported others seeking, union with the other states. It's been better than 5 years since I have read the Reluctant Republic completely in consecutive order. I understand it to be a product of its time, and though not of first caliber largely accurate and not much wreckless conjecture. I didn't find it an enjoyable book so much as interesting. Jim CApitol3 (talk) 21:31, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi Pete, this sounds good, I will think about what other texts you might consider reading. Have you read the catalog to the "Freedom and Unity" exhibition at the Vermont Historical Society's museum in the Pavilion in Montpelier? Another interesting text, though strange at times is Ira Allen's History of the State of Vermont which never uses the word republic! On that subject I would give weight to contemporary writers about Vermont, like John Duffy and William Doyle. Duffy uses the term Vermont Rpublic in his book Vermont an Illustrated History, and has a section titled "A Revolution, A Republic, and Statehood." I believe William Doyle's Vermont Political Tradition does too but I have loaned it out so can't verify just now. So here i guess my point is that it may be a de facto title based on contemporary usage, and could be explained as it presently is. Probably the closest we will find of the time using the word "Republic" is the obverse of the 1785 Vermont copper coins using the passage " VERMONTS. RES. PUBLICA.." Talk more later. Jim CApitol3 (talk) 04:33, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi Peter, got my William Doyle (and a couple other) books back this morning. Doyle also uses the term Republic, and has a section called "The Republic Grows in Strength." (page 51) describing an interlude of peace and relative prosperity (mid 1780s). No question in my mind that they did not call it that in their time, and that from almost day one petitioned for admission to the United States under articles of confederation. Of course, the Roman Republic was not the official name of Rome in the republican period, but is how it is referred to, or Germany's period called the Weimar Republic, or Frances Second Republic, all describe a period not an official name of a nation. Weimar took its name from the small city where the constitution was written and ratified. Perhaps if Vermont's government had stayed put in Windsor it might have been called the Windsor Republic. CApitol3 (talk) 19:51, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree that Res Publica is not a silver bullet of proof, where I have cited it I have mentioned that it could be rendered as commonwealth too. CApitol3 (talk) 19:52, 7 February 2008 (UTC)