Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-08-15
co"'aenesmer. 4, at midd,ebury Col.
lege.
N'S''A -sARY OF THE rHILoMArHEsIAs
SOCIETY.

a procession was formed at the College |
grounds and preceded by Halls band |
Of Boston, moved TO the Congregational
Church. The President of the Philoms-
thesian Society, Mr.. Burke, introduced
to US the orator, Edwin P. whipple of
Boston, the distinguished essayest and
reviewer.
Mr.. Whipple introduced his scholarly
address by saying that soon after the
first gun was fired upon Fort Sumter
there arose class of cormorants TO fol.
low the fortunes OF war, whom he could
characterize by no other name than that
of "knaves," who instead of being i'm
bued with that high sense of patriotism
which ought to make the unselfsh citi-
zen, turned all their abilities to pillgaing
the government land the soldiers, under
the guise Of contractors, from whose
omniferous aud infamous transactions,
word had been coined which had become
the anathema Of the American soldier.
That word was "shoddy."
The word shoddy" in its various APP
plications to life in the business, moral
and intellectual, world may therefore be
announced as the theme Of the address.
1t was descriptive OF substance which
although snowy and firm in its exter-
nal appearance, yet when practically
tested is quickly reduced to its original
rags. Therefore, minds, opinions and
| prt JUDGES that are clothed with the
article are never found to be arrayed in
the we'll woven garments OF principle
as foundation. The spurious!pervades
| gene-alships, literature, ethics, and re-
ligion. 1t entered into our politics in
connection with the war, committing
the bloodiest crimes under the guise
of policy, staggering on until the
the principles which should have guided
US at the outset overshadowed all else
until we were driven to ideas by events,
instead of events foreshadowing ideas.
The disregard Of moral principles had
led the few to cry out no war would
have been carried on had it not been for
the nulliaers OF the South, and the Abo-
litionists of the North that this class
did not stop to consider that the rebel
lion was the perfect logic and result Of
slavery. Calhoun, Mason, Slidell, and
Yancey were but top weeds of the Upas
tree, whose roots underlay the whole
Southern soil, and it was more import
ant to eradicate these roots than that a
Thousand Davises should live, or one
moral principle be lost. The country
should be geographical and political
unit, and the Constitution, whatever in
depreciation might be given to it, had
never prevented the growth Of priGCi
Piles, and written constitutions are only
powerful when they express the infu-
ences of unwritten law. The South had
been giving to the world the conditions
of the constitution and forcing their
ideas into it, and it must be the rule OF
action until all local governments were
founded on the basis of Slavery and
Calhoun predicted that if it persisted at
all it would perish in CONFUSION.
Statesmen could neither produce nor
prevent it. The nation that was homo
geneous under the constitution became
Heterogeneous through the institution of
Slavery. 1t became necessary to remove
what refused to become assimlated.
Sinking at the commencement of the
war was an element of shOddy in Amer
lean politics that would not wear and
bear the fruits of expense. Common
sense is the intellectual bond of the race,
and it's lack had brought to US many a
defeat, and it became certain that a
negro vote was as necessary as the negro
musket. President Lincoln endeavored
to obey the impulse of the popular heart
Meanwhile we were indulging in that
meanest Of all luxuries, the petting Of
our prejudices, and had the government
died its epitaph would have been want
of aotH and brains.
The petting Of the soldiery, comparing
chem with Napoleon, had produced an
other element Of shoddy. The world
had never produced but five frst-class
Generals, among them Alexander, Caesar
Hannibal and Napoleon, but approx
mating to first class general was that
heroic character Commodore Farragut,
the frst,class naval commander Of the
age, who made his mast throne. In
the second class were Grant and Sher.
man whose powers of combination had
given them this rank. Gen. Grant had
shown his strength in the power Of
making great combination and detest
ing small prejudces. The new rush o.
millionaires appearing upon the,fa o.
society, was an element Of Shoddy, and
this verdict of dapdyism should be re.
ceived with caution, for money, when it
it gets into our pockets, breaks out into
ornaments, without giving US culture or
manners The trup shO16V then is tn at