Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-10-24
The Life. Character and Servi ces
OF SOOlnOn Foot.
I'm .4adress delivered before the Vermont His.
torical Society IN the Representatives Hall,
Montpelier, October 10th, 1866.


toricaI Society in the Represeniatives' Hall,
Montpelier, October 10th, 1866.
BrHoH. ESQ. p IDMuxDs q. s. sHnA,on
The quality of mind which ". call curiosity
is one whence springs many of our great
ACHIEVEMENTS. 1t is the search on which the
visible and apparant present sends the mind
back over the mighty past for the causes and
sntecedents that have, through channels and
by processes more or less direct, but always
logical, produced the results which engage our
wonder, our admiration, our dislike, the
case may be. The fuel it has furnished has
kindled the fires of all nventon, and has
brought to their present wonderful and aim 1st
miraculous state of Advancement, many of
thoss sciences and arts most useful practically,
10 men. And it has no less operated benef
cially IN presenting 10 each succeeding age and
generation, the lives and peculiarisies of noti-
oie men OF times past, whose characters have
IN greater or less degree, impressed themselves
upon the growth of society, and so transfused
| them into the very life of after tmes. From
fountains thus unsealed, the historian deduces
the principles of moral and political economics
and the ust ambition of those who aspire TO
greatness, beholds the process aud the causes
-lvays IN the main consssnt-which have
| lead msn to success or driven them 20 failure.
| Not only, then, as a sweet tribute of respect
TO those who have worthily filed exalted sta
tons among US, but as a means Of positive
! good to society IN the prospects l have men
| toned, do We turn on Fl. occasions, to crafty
our curiosity IN respect TO their lineage and
| lives, and u triss their &C ed and completed
parts on that great stage of the word, where
'' all the men and women players"
In this spirit, therefore, lay before the soci
ETY. some of the facts, Incidents, and charac-
| ho ia.a
Foot, with such brief notics of current events
as eucidates them.
Ths subject of this paper was descended
from English ancestors who emigrated to this
country. and settled in Weathersield, Conn,
early IN the 17.h century.
From this stock has sprung most numer-
GUS posterity, numbering, appears from the
book Of the Foote Gene.logy, in lS40, more
than three thousand persons.
Au amusing record respecting one of his
ancestors exists 10 the early arc nves of New
| Haven. II states that
Al Il & UNITY Court holden at Ne. Haven.
August 4, 1902. Sergeant Nathaniel Foote,
of Bradford, appearing oy summons to this
court, 10 answer the presentment and com
plant of the grand jury against him for hiring
| MS negro servant Cush TO sit In Mr.. NJ althie's
pew the first Sabbath, which they judge TO
be contrary to religion and proclamation of the
Sabbath"
Sergeant Foote pleaded not guilty, and it
was postponed for triai, No further entry ap-
pears.
Thus, at an early day, the stain of the ne
gro was an apple of dscord," as i: is now ;
and it was CONTRARY to religion - that be
should sit in Mr.. Mallhie's pew, at least on tins
d" FIRST Sabbath"
That grand jury, no doubt, got their law
from very early English case, in which 1t was
decided that the action Of trover would lie for
the conversion of number of negroes, the
court saying that mad they been CHRISTIANS, no
action could be maintained for them +; but IN
Asmuch as they appeared to be intidels and the
subjects of an inhdel prince, the court gave
Judgment for the plaintiff.
The family spread over Connecticut and
Massachusetts,, and DR.. Solomon Foot, the
father, removed TO Cornwall! in this S.ate in
1892, where the subJec of this notice was born
on the 10Th day OF November, 1902. His
parents were persons Of staii and hIgnly re
spectacle character, fair examples of the Yer
| mont citizen. From them Mr.. Foot received
those earliest i'm pressions, which generally. or
frequently, become the basis of the traits Of
character which we often class in the nature
| OF instinct.
The father died in 1911, leaving the young
boy to the sole charge of mis- mother, who Is
said TO have been woman OF great kindness
Of heart, and Of highly prudent judgment.
Under her care and lastruc ton he passed sew
eral of those forming years-lt l may so call
them,-In that iIfe which almost every one of
those here present knows 50 well,-and which
We all lock back upon through whatever lights
or slooms surround our lives, with fondest rec
ollections-the sweet, hopeful, visionary life of
a country boy. Then the bounitui face of ma
ture snlIed upon US ike 4 mother and play
| h. nd
OF our young lives, wore, ali of them, the
white robes Of truth AMI bsauty, then the
present round Joy, ihd ms future was
seen only through sate~a5s + gold.
From that distant po.nt the lad saw IN his
Young ambition, a space OF thirty years,
his own place in the National Congress, and
accounted Tor his temporary neg lect OF work
upon farm where he employ ed, by reply
ling, when asked what De was thinking about,
that he WAS thanking what ne should do when
he should come 10 be a Member Of Con-
gress.
AT the early age of fifteen he began his reg
ular studies preparatory to c)l.ege course,
under the instruction. of DR.. Carpenter OF
w hitting, looking with that intuitive judgment
, n this respect so common to ali buys,-and
which sometimes outruns their fatherS-upon
learning and education as the only sure means
to power and usefulness in whatever sphere OF
life be might be placed.
Tne following winter 1SlS he taught a
, common scho i in one of tue back districts OF
Crown Point, N. Y. Here, amid enbarrass-
nlents encountered among people in humble
circumstances, he prosecuted the study of Latin
and Greek, aided only oy mis- grammars and
0 lexicons and his own perseverance,. l am in
: formed on the best authority, that the goo-
q people among whom he 50 boarded round
we're much exercised at these studies, and not
knowing the characters or the sounds thereof
thought he certainly reviving the Black
( Art, or some other fearful evil.
;, The following year he entered Newton Acad
Q emy, and continued his studies under DR.
y Dewey (now of Moriah N. W, who says thai
he remembers him young man of tine
abilities, very studous, and one that seldom
laughed or INDUCED in merrlment.
He entered Middlebury College at the az,
u of nine teen-the intervening time having beer
Il speut in studying, teaching, and preparing him
self for the manly struggles of lie.
5 He graduated with honor in 1926, and i'm
IL nedia,ely became Preceptor OF Castletor
Academy. After year spent IN this labor n
received the high com 2liment-not being al
alumnus of that nstItution-of being appoint
r ed tutor In the University of Vermont. Afte
year spent there, preferrlng more active life
te be returned to the Casteton Academy, wher
he continued its Principal until lS31,-mean
u while studying law, anu devoting himself witt
II all his characteristic earnestness and energy, :
the strengthening of the school and the erec
e ton of spacious and handsome Academ
building in that charming village.
J. He was admitted TO the in Rutian
l. County in 1881, and established himself i
q practice at Rutland.
He was now to begin the chosen business
D. his life. All that had gone before was onl