Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-11-01
RUTLAND HERALD.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 90, 1866,
from our Special Correspondent.l
Letter from Montpelier.
MONTPELIER, Oct. 27.

MONTPELIER, OCt. II.
The hall of the House was under mil
itary occupation Thursday evening, and
very thoroughly occupied too. In my
last letter. the meeting to hear the Sen
ators was said to be the largest of the
season, Ibut that was not so large as this.
This was more than a crowd, it was
lam. The assembly was packed like sar-
dimes in box. OF course they were not
al! military characters, but nearly
three hundred of them had been Of
fcers in Vermont regiments, and the
rest came to see, hear, and applaud
the heroes. Gen. Stannard presided,
Chaplain Brastow offered prayer, and
Col.Wheelock G. Veasey, pronounced an
oration, of which | will attempt to re-
port as the Legislature paid it the great
compliment of voting to print thou
sand copies. The officers, with invited
guests, then adjourned to Washington
hall, where they made long evening of
it, with supper, sentiments, speeches, and
other exercises. 1t deserves to be put
on record, to the credit of class of men,
who have been suspected of a lean
ling toward fast habits, that better be-
having body of men is rarely assembled,
eeyen in Vermont. The champagne
drank during the evening would hardly
average thimble full to a maG, and no
one took'enough Of that or any other
2iquor to be at all affected by it.
The Vermont Historical Society held
special meeting last evening, to hear
Ian address on Vermont by Rev. William
Dr. Lord. 1t was a warm, just, and dis
terminating tribute to the State by one
of its adopted sons. Many passages in
it rose to a high order of eloquence. l
give your readers one of these passages
Jas a specimen of the many.
81 But / have trespassed already too long
Jon your patience, nor have l pointed out
either all our excellencies or half our
defects. If l were writing a history l
ould chronicle many illustrlous,
Ter whose names have graced our
ami q i, R5mes not unworthy of any state
n or age. The demagogues of antiquity
were no greater than some of the heroes
of our prosaic, unsung life. Curtius
may have had more euphonies name,
but he fell into gulfnarrower than that
which Ethan Allen leaped. Leonidas
may have made famous forever the gatest
of ThermopylH but he was not greater
hero than Kilburn who with three 9th
ers fought from morn till{night, on the
banks Of the Connecticut five hundred
Indians on het war-path down that
beautiful valley, and drove back the saw
age horde by the prowess of his single
arms. The Senate OF Rome may have
had its comprehensive statesmen and
Unsurpassed orators, yet that Senate was
not'a whit behind which has known as
peers of the greatest q Phelps, Prem
tiss, a Collamer and FOote so lately
gone to the stars The annals of the
legion of the Imperial city were grand
and tell OF a world girdled with victo-
ries, but there is no boubt that the Yer
mont Brigade could out-march and ont
fght the Roman Legionaries. Still if l
may not boast of what brave men al
ways keep In silence, if may not boast
of these standards all returned from bat
tie with scars on every one of them, not
one left in the hands of the foe, nor
touched with dishonor, though riddled
with bullets, not one of them all ever
given to grace the triumphs of the foe
nor hung up in their halls, as the Ro-
man Standards often graced the camps
OF Spartans or the palaces of Carthage
or the temples of Athens, if may not
boast OF these yet | may for one mo-
ment speak of those who bore them,
whose blood dyed them and whose lives
were laid down under them for the
cause they represented. One word let
me give to the ungarlanded heroes of
Vermont who perlshed bravely amid the
storm of battle and found their graves
uncoffined, unknelled, without PRAYER. or
hymn, where we may not plant flower
nor water them with tear. Over their
unknown graves shall grow the effacing
verdure Of hundred years, and though
no man may tell where they sleep, in
what spot love might rear their memo
rlal, yet many generations shall not see
the end OF that for which they gave their
lives. Escl drop of their blood will
cement our national structure. The
grass OF the sod that covers them shall
grow green and wither. The flowers
which the spring brings on their hidden
graves shall blow and fade, but the
whole land, North and South, shall be
the greener and fairer for their work and
their death. For the thousands of our
brothers and sons who sleep in Gods
care along the deep rivers of the South,
amid tsorange groves, and on the slopes
I q =