Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1866-02-23
IN MEMORY or ABRAHaM LINCOLN
GRAFTON BY GEORGE BANCROFT,
Delivered before the Civil and Military officers
Of the o. S., at WashiRgtor, FeJ ~, 1866

/ Dettpefcd OefOre me CtUtt dftG Mtfdfy OUtcers
Of the y. s., at Wasdiaytor, Feb. ~, 1866
------
Senator'S. Representatives. Of Amsriea
That God rules in the affairs 1f men is as certain
as any truth of physical science On the great
moving Power which is from the beginning hangs
the world Of the senses and the world Of thought
and action. Eternal wisdom marshals the great
procession Of the nations, working in patient con-
tinuty through the ages, never hating and never
abrupt encompassing all evenfs in rs oversight,
and ever e1ecting lis will, though mortals may
slumber in apathy or oppos with madness
Kings are lifted up or thrown down, nations come
and 90, republics flourish and wither, dynasties
pass away like a tale that is told but nothing is
by chance, though men in thair ignorance may
think The deeds Of time are governed, as
well as Judged by the decreet OF eternity. The
caprice Of ileeting existences Bends to the immo-
vable Omnipotence, which plauts It's foot on all
the centuries and has neither change OF purpose
nor repose. Sometimes, like q messenger through
the thick darkness Of nighi. 1feps along myste-
rious ways but when the hotf strikes for a peo-
pie, or for mankind, to pass into a new form of
being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates
OF futurity; an al-subduing influence prepares
the minds Of men for the coming revolution f;
those who plan resistance find themselves in CON
fict with the will Of Providence, rather than with
human devices; aud all hearts and all understand
ings, most Of all the opinions and iuauences Of
the unwilling, are wond 'riully attracted and com
PEELED to bear forward the change which becomes
more an obedience to the law Of universal nature
than submission to the arbitrament Of man
GROWTH or TUE AMEnrcAN REPUBLIC
In the funess OF time a republic rose up in
the wilderness Of America. Thousands Of years
had passed away before this child Of the ages could
be born. From whatever there was of good in the
systems OF former centuries she drew her noursh-
ment; the wrecks Of the past were her warnings.
With the deepest sentiment Of faith fixed in her
inmost nature, she disenthralled religion from
bondage to temporal power, that her worship
might be worship only in spirit aud in truth. The
wisdom which had passed from India through
Greece, with what Greece had added TO her own
the Jurisprudence Of Rome the medpya munich
palities the Teutonic method Of representation
the political experience OF Eugand the benignaut
wisdom Of the eXp0sitors Of the law OF nature and
of the nations in France and Holland, all shed on
her their selectest influence She washed the gold
Of political wisdom from the sands wherever it
found she cleft it from the rocks; she
CLEANED it among ruins. Out Of all the discover
les Of statesmen aud sages. out OF all the expert
encs Of past human life, she compiled perennial
political philosophy, the prmordial principles Of
national ethics. The wise men OF Europe sought
the best government in a mixture of monarch, ar
stocracy, and democracy and America went be
hind these names to extract from them the vital
elements Of social forms, and blend them harmo-
niously in the free commonwealth, which comes
nearest to the illustration Of the natural equality
Of all men. She intrusted the guardianship of es-
tabshed rights to law; the movements of reform
TO the spirit of the people, and drew her force
from the happy reconciliation Of both.
TERRITORIAL EXTENT or THE REPUBLIC.
Republics had heretofore been limited to small
cantons or cities and dependencies; America. do
ing that of which the ike had not before been
lunvvp fha aar+b hnlfaval brs Einrrs and
statesmen to be possible extended her republic
across continent. Under her auspices the vine
Of liberty took deep root and filed the land the
hills were covered with its shadow; its boughs
were like the goodly cedars, and reached unto
both oceans. The fame Of this only daughter of
freedom went out into all the lands of the earth ;
from her the human race drew hope.
PROPHECIES Oh THE CONSEQUENCES or SLAVERY
Neither hereditary monarchy nor hereditary
istocracy planted itself soil the only hered
itary condition that fastened itself upon us was
seryitude. Nature works in sincerity and is ever
true to its law. The bee hives honey. the viper
distlls poison the vine stores its juices and so
do the poppy and the upas. In like manner, every
thought and every action ripens its seed, each in
its kind. In the individual man, and still more
in nation, just idea gives life and progress
and glory false conception portsnds disaster
shame and death. A hundred and twenty years
ago, West Jersey Quaker wrote This trade
of importing slaves is dark gloominess hanging
over the land the consequences will be grievous
to posterity.n At the North the progress Of sla-
very was arrested by natural causes in the regions
nearest the tropics it thr2ve rankly, and worked
itself into the organism of the rising states. Vir
gina stood between the two with soil and climate
and resources demanding free labor yet capable
OF the profitable employment Of the slave. She
was the land Of great statesmen; and they saw
the danger of her being whelmed under the rising
al.
avarice and pride. Ninety-fOur years ago the
Legislature Of Virginia addressed the British king,
saying that the trade in slaves " Of great in-
humanity was opposed 10 the a" security and
happiness of their constituents, " would in time
have the most destructive influence and =" endan-
ger their very existence Aud the king answered
them, that upon pain of hshighest disDleasure
the importation of slaves should not be in any
spect obstructedn " Phaiisaica Britain wrote
Franklin, in behalf Of Virginia, to pride thyself
in setting free single slave that happened 70 land
on thy coasts, while thy laws continue a traffic
whereby so many hundreds OF thousands are drag
ged into slavery that is entailed on their posteri
I tyr A serious view Of this subject said Pat
rick Henry in l773, =" gives a gloomy prospect to
future times In the same year George Mason
wrote to the Legislature OF Virginia: 1.-The laws
OF impartial Providence may avenge our injustice
upon our posterity.n Conforming his conduct to
his convictions, in Virginia aud in the Continen-
tai Congress, Jefferson, with the approval OF Ed
mund Pendleton, branded the slave trade as pra-
cy; and he fixed in the Declaration Of lndepend-
ence the cornerstone of America, " All men are
created equal, with uhahsysble right to liberty
On the first organization OF temporary governments Is
for the continental domain, Jefferson, but for the
default of New Jersey, would, in l7Sf have con-
secrated every part of thas territory to freedom.
In the formation of the national Constitution Vir-
gna, opposed by part of New England, vainly
struggled to abolish the slave trade at once and
forever; and when the Ordinance of 1857 was in
troduced by Nathan Dane, without the clause pro-
hibting slavery it was through the favorable dis
position of Virginia and the South that tire clause
Of Jefferson was restored, and the whole north
western territory-all the territory that then be-
longed to the na,ion--was reserved for the labor
of freemen.
DESPAIR on rnK MEN OF nE REVOLUTION.
The hope prevailed in Virg ala that the aboli-
tion Of the siage trade would bring with il the
gradual abolition OF slavery but the expectation
was doomed to disappointment. In supporting
ncipient measures for emancipation, Jefferson en-
countered difficulties greater than he could over
come and after vain wrestlings, the words tha-
broke from him, Z" tremble for INV country when
| reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot
sleep forever were words of despair. 1t was the
desire of Washngton's heart that Virginia should
remove slavery by public act and as the pros
poets of general emancipation grew more and
more dim he, in utter hOpeessness of the action OF