Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-11-18
The Military Record Of Vel

The Military Record Of vsa m
An Grafton pronounced before tho ct
Socity Of Vermont OHcsrs, n aBal
of the House Of RepreseatatteX e.
Thursday euening, Nouembsy A 1869
By GEN. WILLIAM w GRour =
Barton.
Mr.. PREMDENT And CoMRADEs, AND
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
Vermont, the frst-born into the family
Of States, achieved her existence threuGh
the military proves of her people. She
was the legitimate child Of war. This
was true, not only Of her population, at
the time of her admission into the Union,
but was equally true of her territory,
which, from time immemorial, seems to
have been set apart as q species Of martial
arena dedicated to hostile expeditions and
enterprises. The aboriginal tribes even
we're wont to regard it as neutral ground
The fierce Pequots upon the south, the
warlike Iroquois on the west, and the
blood-thirsty Cossucks and wild tribes Of
the St. Francis on the north and north
east, had, for how many centuries, nc
tongue or pen can tell, looked upon these
Green Mountains as sort of charmed YET
fated spot common, as hunting and
battle ground, to all, but safe, as home
for none. Hence, upon the exploration Of
this part Of the continent, the territory o.
Vermont, except narrow strip along
Lake Champlain, was found uninhabited
by human kind-constantly traversed by
the surrounding tribes in their hostile
expeditions against each other, it must
have been the theatre Of the most appalling
Indian conflicts - and had come to be
regarded, or is the brief space between
contending armies, dangerous ground nor
was this condition improved during the
colonial period, but much the same state
Of things was continued
In the early dawn Of the 18th century,
the spirit of adventure and discovery
being at its height in Europe, Sir Jacques
Cartier, the celebrated French navigator
of st. Malo, discovered Canada and the
ST. Lawrence and straightway the
French crown, under the law of nations,
laid claim to all that vast territory drained
by the st. Lawrence and its tributaries,
including, of course, the great chain Of
lakes. Later, the pious Marquette, to
whom, equally with Champlain, " the
salvation of one soul was of more conse-
quence than the conquest of an empire"
bore the cross of the Jesuit fathers west
ward even to the banks of the Mississippi,
the mouths of which were afterwards
discovered by LaSale, another Frenchmen,
which, under the same law, gave the
great valley to the French also. Mean
time, the English had taken possession of
the entire Atlantic seaboard from Maine
to Georgia, and had pushed their settle
ments norlhward into the interior towards
Vermont, as far as Greenfield. With the
French thus upon the north and the
English upon the south, and thay old time
enemies, and not only at war at home, but
from the very first fercely contending for
the supremacy here in the new world, the
territory of Vermont during that series of
Indian and colonial wars, which run
through nearly century and hall, was
still dangerous ground; the pathway of
advancing and retreating armies, and the
lurking place of their savage allies. 1t was
still uninhabited-no set of men had then
been found brave enough to undertake the
work of wrestling from natures grasp these
rugged hillsides and mountain slopes and
it was not until 1859, when, in that deci-
sive " contest for empire on this CONT
nent, before the walls Of Quebec, between
Wolfe and Montcalm, England was
victorious and the treaty of Paris followed,
ceding Canada to Great Britain, that the
territory Of Vermont was relieved of these
dire influences Of war and her colonization
undertaken; chiefly by bold adventures,
who had taken note of the capabilities Of
her soil and climate IN their marches and
counternarches across her territory, during
the wars that had preceded.
These men, under grants from royal
governor, had carved out for themselves
homes in this mountain wilderness and
had here set off in peace.their Lares and
Penates. Suddenly, however, this territory,
which no one during the centuries back,
not even the Indian tribes had dared to
own, so excited the cupidity of outsiders,
that it was deemed common prey for the
surrounding colonies, and was claimed In
part by New Hampshire and Massachu
sets, and wholly by New York. And,
as if this region, SO long Stunned by man
and left to the wild antics of war, would
not, without strife, be subject to civiliza
tion, these claims, which as all know We're
resisted with spirit by the brave men
whose iiresides were at stake, eliminated
IN series of disputes characterized by
violence and bloodshed- and this brings
me to say, that for more than quarter OF
a century before the admission of Vermont
into the Union, her people held the
attitude Of armed resistance to the
-ncroacbmeuts Of AN unwarrantable juris-
iicilon
Whep thr caonlSts first demonstrated
and then recolte1 against the unjust
azactlons of ngland, 1t was no new sub
iect to the hardy iSlependent pioneers
upon the New Hampshire grants. They
had before tia, petltioned the crown and
demonstrated with grasping governors IN
IN vain, and had already DRAM the sword,
and for the maintenance of their rights,
had through their chosen leader, declared
themselves ready 10 retire to the caves
Of the mountains and wage an eternal war
fare against human nature" The spirit
Of resistance to the mother country which
had been " aroused in Massachusetts by
that sanest Of mailman James OTIS, in
Virginia by that bold and frey patriot
Patrick Henry, and in South Carolina by
the lofty, fearless and eloquent Gadsden,' 7
was more than answered in Vermont by
the record then already made, by the in
vincible Allen and his brave Green
Mountain boys, against the New York
Sherifs and Surveyors, as well as against
Col. Reds tenants and the Durhamites.
The very genius Of liberty itself seems
to have been derived by these men from
the pure mountain air. which they breathed,
and from the wild and rugged surroundings
of nature in the midst of which they
dwelt They were from the very first Of
that class of devout disciples of liberty
whose patriotism took a practical turn