Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-01-18

and equality of civic rights are brave
and spirit stirring things and they who,
while under the yoke of despot, had
been no better men of war than
their neighbors, as soon as they were
free, became the foremost men of all ;
for each felt that in fighting for a CON-
monwealth, he fought for himself"
Towards the close of the day, soon af-
ter the council-perhaps on the 18th of
! September-a day on which our fathers
fought both on land and water, almost
within sight of the spot where now
stands this free hall of one of the cities
| of our own free commonWealth-the
Athenian army dashed from its encamp-
ment in the olive and chestnut groves of
the hills, and in an extended line, weak
in the center but strong in its TANKS,
| swept at a run across the curved plain,
upon the hastily forming line of the 100,
| 600 Persians. There were neither can
non nor musketry to make, with their
horrid roar and lurid smoke, new terrOrs
for the front of war, or to dull and soft
en- with their shielding cloud the dread
full majesty of the battle field. But in
the still and open light of the descending
sun the uncertain contest held on. The
Gods indeed, as the Grecian leader had
desired, gave fair play and no favor. "
At last, as the TANKS of the Persian line
were pressed nearly to the sea, the CEN
ter of the tired Greeks gave way and re-
treated to the hills, and after them in
the fatal excitement of fancied victory,
never to be real, poured the great masses
of the Persian center, when instantly,
and under an inspiration like that of a
leader of our Vermont troops at Gettys-
burgh, there turned upon them the battal-
ions of the Grecian wings, and striking
them upon both sides at once, changed
their seeming triumph into rOut. The
invaders fed to their ships.
The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear,
Mountains above, earth's, oceans plain
below,
Death in the front, destruction in the rear,
Such was the scene"
The low surf of the tranquil middle
sea drank of the blood of the wounded
and dying Persians, and its waters bore
the defeated invaders in their half-burncd
vessels, away from land. The spirit of
despotism turned again its batfled wings
backward to the shelter of its barbariC
home.
Think of the sad yet radiant glory of
that autumn evening! The setting sun
shOne alike upon the living and the dead
and gave its soft and purple light equally
to the victor and vanquiShed. Many of
the brave defenders of the liberties of a
hundred generations, had fallen on the
field, but liberty and equal civic rights"
were secured from that total destruction
which must have followed a Persian vic
tory. The Greeian Republics lived long
enough to nOurish into perpetual life
the principles of the right of men to gov
ern themselves, and to equal privileges.
The right as it may well be summarized
freely to labor, and to pray; and to give
in some sense, and to some degree, the
form of those free institutions, which
ROW, wherever they are best developed
and conducted, bless our own fair land.
The next day there arrived at the
Athenian encampment 5000 LacedemO-
MAN allies, who had waited to begin
their movement, for the full moon, and
who had marched $50 miles in three
days; but who, like many others whose
heroic intentions are made to walt for
moons or tides, came day too late.
They asked and received permission to
view the field of this miraculous achieve
ment, covered with the dreadful relics
Of the battle, and having seen the place
of deeds so great, returned to their
homes.
Contrary to Athenian custom, the
bodies of their illustrious dead were, as
mark of highest honor, buried on the
field Of their great exploit and the
mound which contains their bones is,
after a lapse of twenty-five centuries,
still visible to the traveller, on the plain
of Marathon. The Republic for which
they specially fought, has with Its sisters
long since passed away. But the same
sea still sends its free and gentle music
over their sepulchere, and the same sun,
morning and evening, marks by their
monument, as with a dial, the rolling
years upon the plain, making, as were,
a perpetual record Of their patriotism
and their glory
The significance of the decisive COLI
test which have thus imperfectly de-
sCribed, can scarcely be OveT-estimated.
The power of the Persian dcspotism-
itself the eliminating product of many
centuries spent by many tyrants in the
business Of repressing and blotting out
the aspirations Of the human soul for
knowledge, and for that nobility of self
respect which can arise only from q con-
sci0ueness of rights secure and inalien-
able. was turned back upon itself. It's
decadence began: and although in after
years it again cOntended for universal
dominion, at Salamis and Plataea, it
never arrested the downward progress it
had begun. In a few centuries its prov
inces no longer bore its yoke; its armies
We're no more the rude activity of its
people had given place to that Incidence
and inertia, with which the Oriental is
to this day accustomed by his social and
religious condition, to meet the stroke of
the hand of fate. Its cities, which once
witnessed the barbaric splendOr of mill
tary and royal displays, grotesque in
the motley variety Of races, costumes,
and arms of the soldiers, and in their
squadrons of camels and elephants,
bearing speamen and bowmen upon
their backs, have disappeared; and upon
their sites the hyena and jackal disturb
the solitude with their cries.
On the other hand. the Greek Repub-
lies were saved to show to the world the
principle and the practicability of self
government by people to promote edu-
cation, to found philosophy to recognize
the rights Of individual belief and Opin-
ion in matters both secular and religious,
and to form that history without which
we should have now little or no knowl-
edge of those great events, or of their
effect upon the progress of mankind.
But the story Of these little States, the
morning stars of liberty, cleaning in the
far-off east of time and space, need not
be told at length. 1t is familiar to us
all. The lofty spirit and tenacious cOur-
age which had enabled free people to
defend their independence against the
tremendous assaults of a great empire
attacking them from without, turned
against each other, destroyed them all
The steadying and regulating power of
our adequate national government, to
adjust difficulties and repress disorders
among the States, was wanting; and
people who had covered themselves with
immortal renown in defending their lib
critics by united action, became at last
the self-made victims of internal jeal