Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-06-07


Yet she can boast of men,-and to spare
and of women, too; not only the talrest |
in the land but sensible enough not to |
want to unsex themselves and contend with !
man at the ballot-bOx and in the slippery
ways of public life Yes Vermont can
boast of men, who, beyond demand, sprang /
to arms and met the hosts of treason.
Fifty years hence, when the events of |
to-day begin to fade into tradition, or if |
preserved, begin to be seen in. the mellow !
light of history, this fact the fact that in |
the rebellion of '61, Vermont was ahead |
of all demands made upon her was ahead
of all the other states in the proportiOnate
number of troops furnished-to say moth
ing here, Of their character, be sing
led out with pride, by those who shall come
after US, and can never be wholly olsen
c4ged from the name of Peter T. Wash
burn; for it was he, who, infusing some
thing of his own enthusiasm into the peO-
pie raised and organized the regiments.
1t was he, who kept the quotas and the
credits, and finally struck the balance and
announced the result. Governor Wash
burn was also, a lifelong believer in a
drilled and disci plined militia; and living
up to that belief was, when the tOcsin of
war sounded, one of the few men in Yer
mont ready for the field. Had the whole
country been as ready, the rebellion had
been nipped in the bud, and billions of
treasure and hundreds of thousands of val
liable lives had been saved. Not alone,
however, upon the military page of Yer
m0nt's history, is his name recorded. His
distinguished civil and professional SER
vices, quite enough for the full measure of
an ordinary life, form no cheap or common
background to the complete portrait OF his
public career "a career, at once, full of
energy and ability full of patriotism,
manliness and honesty; one, of which
Vermontis, and ever will be proud made
up, as it is, of the successful life of the
citizen, the soldier, the lawyer, the legisla
tor, the Adjutant and Inspector General
and the Governor. Let Us, then, comrades,
not forget his grave in this solemn decora
ton ceremOney at the thought of which,
even, a stiffness comes upon our very
hearts.
| might also mention in this connection,
the quite recent death in the same town,
of two other prominent Vermont men,
the Hon. Wm. ". Clapp and the Hon. Law
renee BrainarG the last of whom,-the
most prominent anti Iavery man Vermont
ever had-though not a soldier in uniform,
was, long years ago, a recruit in the same
army with you "a very "JOhn the Baptist
preaching in The Wilderness" in the same
cause for which you fought, and in which
your comrades, who sleep before US, fell =
an urGHt courier fthe grand army of liberty,
whose baptism, when it came, was of blood
and fire: and who not only crushed treason,
/ ,f+
ed Here, truly. is a fruitful character
and fruitful theme; but time and the
/ occasion forbid that should dwell, and l
hasten.
Thus, comrades, have been hastily passed
in review, the names Of some of those who,
! during the year that is gone, have fallen
as leaves before the autumn wind and who,
/ because of their eminent services to the
country in the hour of trial, are entitled to
/ a mourning page in this ceremony; and
/ whose graves, it is fitting, the living should
! ever keep fragrant with the perfume of
I flowers.
ThMgh dead, these men still speak to
us and not these alone, but the myriads,
/ also, who have peopled the earth. but now
slumber in their native mold. From the
/ silent chambers of the dead, comes up q
voice calling to duty, stimulating to pat
riotism, admonishing against the vanities
and tollies of life, and heralding the bright
promise of triumphant resurrection from
the unwecOme grave, to new life and
new hopes beyond. Thus speak the whole
congregation of the dead but with espec-
ial emphasis, do the soldier dead Of all
ages speak to Us. They speak not as idlers
and truants,-but with the voice of those
who died at the post of duty; away from
home and friends, upon 'the finty and
steel couch Of war;" in some hour of great
national agony, when tyrants trembled and
shackles fell; or perchance, when nation
was born TO freedom, on race to liberty
They speak with the voice of the martyrs,
both of the church and the state. They
speak, too, of the destruction of war; OF
its folly and wickedness when waged in
any other cause than that of human rights
Methinks | hear the slaughtered dead
calling out from the trenches at Dresden
and Leipsic, from the ravine before Ligny
and from the sunken road of Ohain, al
Waterloo, asking: what is all this for
and the terse answer comes up from mod
ern French writer, in bitter mockery OF
the dead,-"the result of ten years OF
glory" What a blister is that upon the
memory of Napoleon? Whitening, indeed
is the rebuke thus administered by those
sacrificed upon ambitions altar in wal
waged for glory; or at the shrine of NAM
mon in causeless war, waged for gain
From the graves of those, however, who
fell in defense of truth and for the ad-
vancement of man, can arise neither re-
proachs nor regrets theirs is the voice OF
triumph, theirs the shout of victory.
We stand to-day, my friends, in the din
twilight,-between the dark night of g
fratricidal war, precipitated by the Moloch
of slavery, and the rising splendors of g
new civilization. The dawnings of thi:
era are, indeed, full of promise. Its noon
day, it were idle for me to attempt to fore
show. Our national life, though brief, ha.
been an eventful one, and is replete with
the romance Of war, and the peaceful tri
umphs of art, science and invention
Like the man who has reputation and ;
character established, our past, furnishe;
! ample capital stock for business in the fu
ture. This is no small matter. In TIM
of danger, the rallying power afforded b!
historic deeds Of arms is not easily calcu
lated. To the student of history, it vii
ever remain a problem, whether the lat
!, signal triumph of Prussia over Austria, il
referrible in greater measure to the needl
gun and the alertness of Bismarck, thai
to the traditional glory Of the Prussial
o arms under Frederick the great, who, 70
: forty years, in a series of wars, the mos
stupendous mentioned in history, held Eu
rope in awe, and the whole world in admi
: ration and later under Prince Blucher
who was Napoleon's evil genius. Howeve
! this may be. we at least, now have a his
: 'tory,-the inspiring record of which, ca
- never fail to kindle martial ardor and pat
! riotic devotion to the flag. This, is t
! our advantage.
4 Now that the smoke of battle is cleare
5 away New England, true to her purita
5 antecedents, is planting the waste place
r of the Union, south and west, thickly wit
e school houses; and, when the next genera
ton shall crowd the present off the stage
It we may be reasonably certain of larg
a crop of intelligent freemen. This is wei
;. Physical enterprises, also, will go foI
r ward. Only five years of peace and a
V ready the continent is spanned by that grea
e est work of ancient or modern times
/ railway stretching across vast desert plain
s bridging deep, yawning canons, and climt
i ing the rugged Rockies and snow-cappe
n Sierra Nevadas so that now, the wealt
d of the Indies, coming up through the Cole
- en- Gate of the Pacific is brought to OF
d very doors and the dream of the old work
t. of direct passage to the East, which Cc
V lumbus had, when he set out from Palo
5 four hundred years ago, is at last realized
n though he ran the prows of his vesse
,r against the solid land of this intervenin
IS continent.
l. Under the stimulus of this fresh civi
d ization, the fine arts also, springing int
!; new life flom their own decay, are givin
of promise of new creations to cheer and ell,
he vate. Science is searching earth and SIX
rs and air, and all that in them is, for ne
le discoveries. Inventive genius is turnir
, 1ob o,-o. - II, - l;pp n