Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-08-03
Grand ARMY Lectures.


lures has been delivered before the Grand
Army of the Republic, at their hall in
this village. On the 1st of January 1871,
when the annual election of officers of the
Grand Army was made, Col. w. G. Yea
zey, the new Commander detailed GER
tain members of the order, to prepare and
deliver addresses upon subjects of inter
est to the order and the community. The
first of this course was an interesting and
exhaustive paper on the "Fall of Rich
mond" by comrade Edward H. Ripley,
a report of which was published
in the HERALD. At the February
meeting we'll conceived and highly en-
tertaining account was given of the Or
ganization and services of NEGRO
Troops" by comrade Joseph II. Goulding.
This essay was well and carefully pre-
pared, and was far more instructive and
entertaining, than many of the lectures
which our people have paid their fifty
cents to hear in the Opera House. In
March, Joel @. Baker, delivered dis
course on Miles Surrender of Harpers
Ferry" in 1862, with q full account Of the
incidents of that humilating disaster, and
the general movements of the Federal and
Rebel armies which eliminated in the
battle of Auteitam. This effort was so
well received that by vote of the Post, it
was repeated a month later, at the April
meeting. In Nay aud June, other mat
ters relating to the services of Decoration
Day prevented the continuance of the
lectures, while last Friday evening, COM
rade Walter G. Dunton closed the course
by an address on kansas then and Now"
The Judge is particularly qualified for
the subject given to him. In 1860, he
was an active participant in the exciting
political and social revolutions then going
on in Kansas, and he has this summer
camPed out on his old camping ground,
and visited the scenes of his earlier SER
vices in the cause Of human rights and
progress.
These lectures have been free to all,
and have been announced IS they occurred,
in the daily papers, but the attendance
has been quite small, much smaller than
the merits of the various efforts would
warrant, probably mostly from misun-
deretanding on the part of the people in
regard to their character, and the
Obscure hall in which they were held,
while SOM have been kept away through
prejudice, and may be some would have
attended who have not if they could have
been assured that none but members of
their set would have been present
This last address by Comrade Duntop,
was one that many of our people, espec-
tally our young men, ought to have heard,
as be held up the various inducements for
an emigration to the thriving State of
which he was speaking, side by side with
the motives which should Influence young
men to stay in the east, in an impartial
manner, giving each section all its merits,
and also giving warning of the difficulties
of life to be met with in either place.
The superior state of society OF the new
State of Kansas compared with others OF
the Western States was dwelt upon with
force, and that fratornal feeling which the
members of new and growing commune
ty feel for each other was extoll2d.
1t is undoubtedly true that there is
none of those class distinctions or fawn-
ings at the feet of aristocracy 10 the
West that are SO prevalent in the East
cru States. III Il new community ho1est
merit wins it, reward; honesty, integri-
ty and manly perseverance are 10 ,ked up
on with delight, and are emulated by
those who have aspirations for success
No flmiy or clique have a monopoly of
political or social honors. No church or
ganiz .tion presoribes the social standing
of any of the people. Chicanery, mean
ness and intrigue are not the roads to suo-
cess, and woe be to him who seeks to
travel that way The broad acres of the
West engender broad ideas, and the
brotherhood of the race is recognized in
the economy of common Father. That
Goldfish aristocracy that panders to the
pride of birth and wealth, finds no resting
place in the hearts of this people. The
man or woman who, in the assertion of
the rights of humanity, sskE admittance
- tha social circles of our new States, is
spubbed because ofSplebian dress,
eve. surroundings, but takes his or
ocation Z. NC their merit can sustain
er station WHIT ~ these enlarged So
!. OF course, una. y fashion loses its
ial views. the tyranny o. obliged to.
over, and woman, not bein& rdates
evote her life to obeying the ma -
that tickle goddess, assumes and maj
aims higher positions in the business aud 7
ocial relations of life, and though in :
,ost If the communities of the West she {
not yet recognized as political ele-
lent directly, yet the liberal philanthro-
y which there exists. receives many of its
est Influences and directions from the
Intelligent women of the West, and with !
ne constant progress of intellectual and $
ocial ideas, absolute and unqualified I
quality before the law must soon be
between the sexes there.
The Judge advised young men without
apital, with nothing but their hands with
-hich to carve out fortune, that they
al better remain in the old States where
lbor was better remunerated. He might
ave also said with equal propriety, that
nose young people who desired to live
n the soft side of life, or TO move il, ssris-
,cratic circles, where they could look
own on poorer clothes and turn up their {
seless noses upon humble life, useful la
or or foreign birth, had better keep
'ithin waters where such fish can swim, |
,r th would doubtless find in those free
nd fraternal communities none lower
han themselves to sheer at, and that
THAT in their aristocratic conceptions had
aan q codfi n of large Gjz. here u,nld