Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1868-10-26
General ScdynicE.

On the DIST inst, the dedication OF
the commemorative Statue of Gen. SedE-
wick took place at West Point, n. Y.
and the following are the closing re-
marks OF George w. Curtis, the Orator
of the occasion.
But with what mournful and plying
eyes did Liberty survey her triumph
bought as all her great triumphs lavt
been, with tears and blood and heart
breaks. How truly sang her poet amid
the CHASTITY tempest of battle:
ave wait beneath the furnace blast,
The pangs of transformation
Not painlossly doth God recast
And mold anew the nation"
From among the happy homes among
the hills and valleys upon the seaside
and the prairie, three hundred thousanC
brave and beloved had marched to the
field and returned no more. Him, also,
whom your hearts recall, whom his
country remembers, who fondly said, as
he stood mt his door look ny out upon
the soft Housatonic landscape, us there
another spot on earth so beautiful as
Cornwall Hollow:r Him whom the
green fields If Cornwall Hallow shall
behold no more. Emerging from the
Wilderness on the 9th of May 1864, tho
army was concentrated around SpOttsyl-
vania Court House, Gen. Sedgwick and
his corps holding the left of the line.
1t was Monday morning, and the Gen
eral was watching his men place the
guns. He was sitting under tree talk
ing with Gen. MacMahOn, his Adju-
tant-General and warm personal friend
one of the Young heroes whom the wal
discovered and developed, and whose
brilliant service and rapid promotion
showed how wisely Sedgwck chose his
men. The General was speaking proud
ly and tenderly of his staff and corps
when, observing some mistake III the
work of his men, he said abruptly
"That's wrong" He and his adjutan
were together, and as they moved to-
ward the working parties the Rebel
sharp-shooters began to fire. The sodi-
ers lodged as the bullets whlstled.
Come, come men! Why, they couldn't
hit an elephant at this distance" "Ah,
General" said one of the men behind &
tree, "I've tried it, and l believe in
lodging" Every well, my man,
J tell you, they can't hit an e .ephaht
here.n He turned, still smiling to con.
tinue the conversation with his adju-
tant, who heard the sharp, low, singing
sound of bullet ending duly, and
Scdgwick sank slowly to the ground
His friend, MacMahOn, vainly tried to
support him. He bent over him and
spoke to i'm with passionate eagernesc
but Sedgwick did not answer. His eyes
were closed; his hands were clasped .
the sweet smile fingered upon his face
A little blood triclle1 down the check
from beneath the left eye. His heart
beat gently for n moment-and was
still. The country heard of his death
as of the loss OF an army. 1t was con-
cealed from his soldiers lest they should
be unnerved in battle. Then from the a
sylvan bower in the old woods of Spott.
syvania, in which it was tenderly laid
that morning, Connecticut, remember
Ing Putnam and Wooster; Connecticut
mother Of the Grants and the Shermans
Of Ellsworth, Winthrop, Ward, ana
Lyon, win had sent her children to
every famous field OF the war, received
with love and sorrow and with perpetu-
nj proud remembrance, the dead body OF
John Sedgwick. Oh the Sunday afte.
he fell, borne by his neigh ors, amid
the tears of silent thousands, anu wrap
ped in the flag, he was buried in Corn
wall Hollow. No military salute was
fired above his grave-but one solitary
PCui VI oiotuht ouDiltucly SuS-
gested the soldiers life and death Sedg-
wick died, but the Victory was won.
What was the victory? 1t was two.
fold. First il was the revelation of an
overpowering national instict as the
foundation OF the Union. 1t is dissipat-
ed old theories. 1t interpreted the Con-
stitutiOn. Plant homogeneous peo.
pie under one Government along the
coast of virgin continent; let them
graduallyoverspread it to the farther sea-
speaking the same language, virtually Oh
the same religious faith, lntermarrying
and chershing common heroic tradi-
tiOns. Suppose them sweeping from end
to end of their vast domains without
passports: the physical perils of their in
creasing extent constantly modified by
science; steam and the telegraph max :
ing Maine and Oregon Eeighbors-
their trade enormous, their pros
perity q miracle, their common
wealth of unsurpassed powerand impor-
lance In the world, and you may theo-
rise of divided sovereignty as you will
but you have supposed an imperial ma
ton which may indeed be power of
evil'vs well as of good, but which, until
1t Is fatally demOralized, can no more re-
cede into Its original elements and local
sou rces than this Astounding river, pour
ing broad and resistless into the sea,
can turn backward to the petty sources
of springs and rills from whence il flows.
mo, no, ;" murmurs the eXultant river,
"when you can take blue out of the sky,
when you can steal heat from fire, when
x,o,, no =, nj cnlanbOr fro,, tho ,,,o,,,