Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-10-06

WIN everybody, ana are being educated all
the time, in the cars, at the watering-pIaces
and then they come home, as the bees dc,
having collected something from every
flower, and all to make the hive stronger.
IL Is IN these mountain towns that we look
Tor strength, for defenders, when it is neces-
safy to appeal to arms, and for defenders OF
education, morals, religion, and all that
beauties humanity. These are the best
specimens of republicanism we have, and
these are the true models of republics. And
on these the great Republic of the world
rests.
In laying the walls of the new Capitol at
Albany, the engineer had to take into con-
sIderation how much pressure a single
square foot of ground would bear; then
the weight of the foundations, the weight
of the walls, of the slate roof, the weight of
the timbers, of the books in the libraries,
the weight of the men when the building
should be full, the weight of the snow and
ice that may lie on the roof, and the weight
OF the winds that may press against its
sides and roofl You will not he surprised
to learn that the foundation walls to hold up
all this pressure had to be eighteen feet
thick, and $4,000 tons Of stone put in them,
and the tower has its foun dations of solid
masonry ITO feet square And yet all this
rests upon the little, small stones that I'M
derlie all, unseen and unknown! So this
vast Republic rests upon these little town-re-
publics which underlie the whole, and which
are its real foundation, Don't tell us that
these are not all needed, and all beautiful
precious stones
Another way by which " the mountains
bring peace to the people," is by the men
who are educated IN these towns, and til en-
emigrare all over the land and the world.
We should be surprised to know how many
they are in number, how varied in position,
how strong and beautiful in character.
Thirty years ago one of our Piedmont
counties had sent out 200 colege-eduea ted
men, and of these, eight were representing
as many sections of our country in Congress
at one time, that was then a very growing
country, Follow that stream of young men
who have gone to the great cities, who have
spread themselves over the West and South,
who have had voice in the Senate of the ma
ton, who have been the educators of our
youth, our physicians, to stand between the
living and the dead, our Lawyers and Judges
to protect men in their rights our preachers
of righteousness, to be Pastors of our
Churches, orr Home Missionaries on the
pranie, and our Foreign Missionaries in the
distant and dark places of the earth, and
then tell US, If you can, what fertility and
beauty and blessings this stream of man
hood has carried over the world This is
not wealth that they carried; for all we had,
we put into their heads and hearts, but it
was character intelligence, habits of econO-
my, industry, sef-reliance, temperance, So
briefly and indomitable perseverance. All
this they carried away, and planted the same
again and again, and spread it all through
the land. | don't euogize the gold they
have gathered, the property they have ac-
cumulated, but the success which they
Wrenchcd, often, in the most trying circum-
10 ri
We may dig out the marble and the iron
with which our hills are stored; we may
send the products of our machinery and
spindles even into tho deserts Of Africa !;
we may lay the ends of the earth under con-
tributi0n for what We make; but this is not
the peace that " the mountains bring TO the
people. Our glory is the men that we raise
the character we send forth, the influence
that we dItfuSe, the power that we impress
upon other little communities all over our
country and, indeed, all over the world!
But don't many of these young men make
Undoubtedly. They are so
many individual swimmers where the tides
surge and whirl, where the sharks play and
devOur, aud where men draw each other
under the waves; and IS it any wonder that
n hazards SO great, some, nay smany, must
be euLuHcd and lost? My wonder IS thar
SO many 20 out, in all the ineNpericnce of
'
unspeakahiy great, and mantuNy stand and
come back to us, the pride of their homes,
the admiration Of their friends, and the
honor of their native towns. All that char
acter was planted here, and is the growth
of home culture. And there are heroes too,
who have not risen, it may be, To emiuence !;
but they resisted great temptations and
WreStled with great dangers. The brightest
robes, it may be, will hereafter clOthe those
who have done great deeds; but we are no
less affected by the thought that they wear
white robes" who " have come out of great
And he is hero who has
met and resisted the fires of temptation with
no smell of fire upon his garments.
We are often so mich struck with the
wealth which history throws up in its path j,
that we may forget something better than
this. There has always been wealth in the
world. Old Rome gathered the conquered
wealth of ALI nations. They could spend
the revenues of a kingdom on single sup
per. They had wealth enough, but there
were two difficulties which the gospel, in
the mountain towns in a measure COrrectS.
The first is, it distributes property with Il
good degree of equality. In Rome the pro-
peFty was in few hands; the rest did not
know enough 10 obtain it. Intelligence does
not make the intellects all equal, but it tends
to equality, and i'll proportion as intelligence
proportion is property equally distributed;
and this has been the glory of our noun
taius; that is, they have not created great
wealth, they have held it equally distributed
that is, to Il very good degree But there l.
something better still; and it s,we are learn
ing, as We read our duty under the light OF
the sun of righteousness, the right use of
moneys. Il is our glory, that the boy whom
we educated and sent out, by and by comes
back, not merely grown up man in city
made clothes; not merely a rich man; but
he comes back benevolent man; one vsAo
knows that the highest ends TO which he
can put his money, is to aid humanity, and
do good to man. Il is part of the power
Of mountain town that its wealth at home
IS SO equally distributed that all may be ed
all 20 out, If they choose. carrying
all their example and character, and throw
ing it into other regions, and using what is
acquired for the good of men and the glory
of God. These towns have their represent
atiYes scattered abroad, some manning our
pulplts, the moral pillars of granite, around
which opinions shit and Whlrl like sand in
the winds; some TO be missionaries in the
far-otf regions of earth; some at the west
and south, feet beautiful, because they bring
peace and publish glad tidings. They come
down upon the people as rain upon the
moWn grass, in the form of educators and
teachers, physicians, merchants, ana law
yers, and judges, and legislators. and Sab
bath school teachers, and preachers of the
gospel. The schools and colleges that grow
up all over the land, and even in foreign
lands, have their roots in these mountain
to%ns. The temporal prosperity of our
colocs out of the brain Of our pas
tors, and their Spiritual prosperity OUT Of
their hearts.
[ am not to allow that the mountain
towns are mere feeders OF our cities, that
all oar ttlents and worth emigrate and
flow away into our great eenters | am
not to allow that the wheels of cigitlza-
ton and of wealth move only IN ci'ies,-
and that our youBg men can be anything
unless they go off into crowded city
You might as well say that j young
tree can never grow erect, lofty, or broad
and majestic it it grows out on the hill
side, and is not LOST in the forest, where
the trees are ell alike. [ am not to allow
that the beauty and glory AID strength of
our mountain towns is of no value till
they are poured into the great city and
are lost, as mountain brooks are sometimes