Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1875-07-30


henceforth be counted disgrace, and
the industrial classes should be crushed,
to build up labor and laborer despis-
ing aristocracy.
In that great moral contest which
followed, and which at last aroused the
long slumbering sense of justice and
right, and led the northern people to
fully comprehend the situation and pre-
sent united front to the common enemy
whose pen was welded more fearlessly
or more effectually in the nations cause
then that of that worthy, selfmade man,
the son of humble farmer, who then
stood at the head of the American press,
Horace Greeley ?
When by cunningly devised schemes
the rebels had robbed the government
of all means of self-defence, and had
gathered around the national capital,
like the coil of the serpent when about
to thrust its fangs into its helpless vic
tim; when traitors in disguise filled
nearly every department of the national
service, prepared to do their deeds of
shame when opportunity should offer !;
when bloody-thirsty assassins at the
south stealthily watched for opportuni-
ties to murder in cold blood those who
ventured to protest against their deeds
of treason, and even thronged the
thoroughfares of the north, awaiting an
opportunity to shed the blood of the
chosen executive of the nation; when
the stoutest hearts palled at the fearful
prospect whose powerful arm lifted
the cloud which hung over US, and with
the might of Hercules bore up the
destinies of the nation? Was it not
the i" rail-splitter," from our ranks, Abra-
ham Lincoln?
Unlearned in the wisdom of the
schools, he carried with him all his hon
est, plebian simplicity. Though he had
chosen the profession of the law, he yet
belonged to the class from which he
sprung and industrial pursuits had
given him that physical development,
that iron nerve, by which he was ena-
bled to endure that fearful mental strain
under which the modern scholar with
his more effeminate education, would
have been hopelessly crushed Though
plebian by birth, what royal lineage can
boast such heroism? What house of
lords of noble descent can furnish an
example of such far-seeing statesman
ship? What epoch in history can pre-
sent such pure and unselfsh patriotism ?
What sanity roll can present a purer
character ? What heroic age can furn-
ish such unblemished honor? 1t was as
if all the noble experiences of the past
had contributed to endow character
worthy of the age and of the crisis in
which the great question of the success
or failure of republicanism was to be
determined.
When our navy, that indispensable
bulwark of defence, was about to be
annihilated and our strongest vessels of
war borne down by that rebel iron-clad,
the Merrimae, and our harbors left prac-
tically defenceless, and our chief cities
exposed to pillage and destruction by
our enemies, what hand unseen insti-
gated one of our brother mechanics to
devise and construct that apparently
insignificant craft, the Monitor, and sent
1t on its mission of salvation to the
nation Like the class to which its
protector belonged, it was ridiculed and
despised by the slave-driving rebels, as
it came steaming up to the conflict.
But how soon were their defiant SCOTS
turned to dismay, when it was found
that the cheese-box," upon its deck,
held those thunder-bolts of war which
were to drive them and their craft with
precipitate haste to the hidden Businesses
from whence they came, and teach them
lesson of respect for mechanical gen.
ius.
When incompetency in our military
leadership had well-nigh ruined our
cause, when in consequence of this our
defenders were dying by thousands, of
disease, in swamps and hospitals, their
ardor dampened by inactivity, with no
military chieftain who could lead them
on to succession of victories, which
their valor properly directed, would
have ensured when murmurings of dis
satisfaction and distrust we're heard on
every hand when division and discord
among US was about to take the place of
united effort, and ensure our final de-
feat whence came that military genius
whose untiring energy, whose unbend-
ing win and unfinching persistency
led our boys to a succession of victories
on the line" which his profound sagac-
ity and military skill had marked out I?
Was he not from the common people, the
tanner, Ulysses S. Grant?
The rank and file of our patriot army