The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-01-03
Aeelster
TUESDAY. JAN. 3, 1871.
The ear 1870.

of history made and recorded. in the
lives of individuals and nations and the
worlds bound up in its completeness and
laid away for reference. Its pages are
full of interest to every one of us. 1t is
real history There is a beauty and
pathos never equalled in human narra-
tons. 1t is the enactment OF history,
photographed in letters Of living light.
There is devotion, faith, aspiration, hope,
realization, over against neglect, suffering
disappointment, despair and ruin HUI
man life is largely IA mixture Of comedy
and tragcdy--no sickly scntimcntalsm
which makes its plots and its characters
to suit morbid taste but real and I'M
flinching in its infinitely
Grand in its disregard for the lctters of
conventionalsm and consistency. How
pertect are all the characters How in
Unite all the details How absorbing all
the combinations ! How grand and terri
bile and often unexpected the dcnoue-
ments
Amid the busting activities of bust
ness aud the ccaseless round Of festivity
and pleasure-seeking, we scarcely find
time to pause aud manifest, or feel, regret
that one after another of our companions
in these pursuits and activities have
dronned out from the circle in which they
moved. to be seen here no more forever.
But in these volumes Of the years, they
are all recorded, with their virtues and
vices, wisdom and folly, culture and lack
of culture, their accomplishments for
rood and for evil-indeed all their hopes,
aims. activities and failures, reserved for
that great day when the books shall be
opened in the presence of all the earth.
These individual histories are mostly
sealed to us. and we should not attempt
10 drag their hidden meaning to the
light But the great volumes Of So
cial and national history are written for
our instruction, and happy is the man
who reads and profits by them.
Our own community has, in the main,
been blessed with a peaceful quiet, with
little that is remarkable, and less that is
bad. to characterize its record for the,year.
We have to lament the fall Of several of
our prominent men-men who more
than others enjoyed the confidence and
affection Of the people, around whose
memory we would now weave the chaplet
Of cypress Long and deeply we mourn
cl the loss Of the noble Dugald Stewart,
aud his extended relations caused his loss
to be felt through Il much wider circle
than that Of this community. But the
world moved right on as before. Then
came blow upon blow, and we laid away
quietly to their rest, NJ II. Wclch, and
ii. A. Sheldon, who had but 50 recently
been called to the responsible positions
that they held in the town; and now,
lust before the volume is closed, we are
called upon to pay our last respects to
all that is mortal Of Edwin Hammond
to whom we were accustomed to look for
counsel, and to approach for aid in every
noble enterprise and many others whom
we had learned to love and respect, have
also taken their final departure.
Our national losses include General
George II. Thomas, the veteran Wool,
Generals Hitchcock, Mower,and Farnum,
Admirals Farragut, Dahlgreen, Stewart
and Mead, the brilliant Burlingamt, Geo.
Peabody, and Geo. Ashmun, Judge
Grier. President Lord Of Dartmouth Col
laaq. Robert j. Walker, Amos kep'lall.
Prcutiss, l'itzhugh Ludlow, and our own
beloved Governor Washburn.
Change and enterprise have left their
marks strewn all along the way, building
up and tearing down, creating business
and stimulating prosperity for some, and
destroying property and bighting hopes
for others. And still we whirl along
with increasing velocity each year.
Until days and seasons fit before the mind,
Is fit the snowtlakcs in a winter storm,
Seen rather than remembered
Such is individual life But the re.
cord Of aggregates is only progressive
Since the year opened, the Fifteenth
Amendment has been added to our Con.
stitution, securing in that instrument the
realization of the most sanguine dreams
of progress and amelioration Under it
negro, formerly a slave, has been elevat-
ed to the seat IN the United States Senate
formerly occupied by Jefferson Davis
The states Of Virginia, Mississippi and
Texas have been restored to their places
in the great family Of States, and only
Georgia now remains outside-an exam.
pie of obstinacy and false pride to all fu-
ture generations. Since the year com.
menced the Chinese emigration question
has risen to immense proportions, fright
ching the timid, perplexing all, and has
nearly settled itself by the docilc, pcrsis-
tent, acquiescent course, calculated to al
lay excitement, by the emigrants them
selves. We have had the usual storms,
foods, earthquakes, heat and cold, seed
time and harvest, abundant crops and
Heavens richest blessings.
Outside Of the United States we note
but few events and those which especially
affect us The long continued Para
guayan war has terminated by the death
Of the cruel Lopez, The Cuban war con-
tiuues, but it has ceased to be exciting.
1t has not been without its good effect, as
emancipation has now become a certainty
whatever may be the result of the contest
for supremacy. Great Britain has lost
Charles Dickens and several prominent
statesmen, but none of the exciting events
Of war, tumut, or national revolutions
peaceful or violent, have come to her in
the year. Her positions on the European
complications have diminished her pres
tige, however, in the eyes Of the world.
The Franco Prussian war has been the
absorbing European theme Commence
ed in July by Napoleon, under most
puerile pretext, it at once assumed 81
gantic proportions. The first blood was
shed on the second of August, and since
that time events, successes and defeats,
have crowded upon each other with I'M
precedented celebrity The battle of
Woerth was a Prussian victory on the