Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-10-13
Extract from Col. IngersOll's Speech at
indianapolis.


The past rises before me like dream.
Again we are in the great struggle for ma
tional life. We hear the sounds Of prepare
tion-the music of the boisterous drums
the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see
thousands Of assemblages, and hear the APP
peals of orators we see the pale cheeks OF
women, and the flushed faces Of men and in
those assemblages We see all the dead whose
dust we have covered with flowers. We
lose sight Of them no more. We are with
them when they enlist in the great army OF
freedom. We see them part from those they
love- Some are walking for the last time in
the quiet woody places with the maidens
they adore. We hear the whsperings and
the sweet VOWS of eternal love as they linger-
ingly part forever. Others are bending
over cradles kissing babies that are asleep.
Some are receiving the blessings Of old men.
Some are parting who hold them and press
them to their hearts again and again, and
say nothing; and some are talking with
wives, and endeavoring with brave words
spoken 10 the old tones to drive from their
hearts the awful fear. We see them part.
We see the wife standing in the door, with
the babe IN her arms,-standing in the sun
light, sobbing,-at the turn of the road a
hand waves,-she answers by holding high
in her loving hands the child. He is gone,
and forever.
We sec them all, as they march proudly
away, under, the Haunting flags, keeping time
to the wild, grand music Of war,-marching
down the streets Of the great cities,-through
the towns and across the praries,-down into
the fields of glory, to do and TO die for the
eternal right, We go with them, one and
all. We are by their side on all the CORY
6elds.-in all the hospitals Of pain,--on all
the weary marches. We stand guard with
them in the wild storm and under the quiet
stars. We are with them in ravines running
with lood,-in the burrows Of old fields.
| We are with them between contondng hosts,
unable to move, wild with thirst, the life eb-
bling slowly away among the withered leaves
We see them pierced by balls and torn with
shells in the trenches, by forts, and in the
whirlwind Of the charge, where men become
iron, with nerves Of steel. We are with
them in the prisons of hatred and famine ;
but human speech can never tell what they
endured. We are at home when the news
comes that they are dead. We see the mai.
den IN the shadow Of her first sorrow. We
sec the silvcred head of the old man bowed
with the last grief.
The past rises before US, and we see four
millions Of human beings governed by the
lash we see them bound, hand and foot ;
we hear the strokes OF cruel whips; we see
the hounds tracking women through tangled
swamps. We see babes sold from the breasts
of mothers Cruelty unspeakable! Outrage
infinite Four million bodies III chains
four million souls in letters. All the sacred
relations of wife, mother, father and child
trampled beneath the brutal feet of might
Aud this was done under our own beautiful
banner of the free.
The past rises before us. We hear the
roar and shrek of the bursting shell. The
broken letters fall These heroes died. We
look. Instead of slaves We see men, and
women, and children. The wand of progress
touches the auctiou-block, the slave.pon, the
whipping post, and we see homes and fire,
sides, and schoolhouses aud books, and where
all was want, and crime, and cruelty, and
letters, we see the faces of the free.
These heroes are dead. They died fol
liberty-they died for us, They are at rest
They sleep in the land they made free, under
the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tear
full willows, aud the embracing vines. They
sleep beneath the shadows Of the clouds
careless alike of the sunshine or Of storm
each in the windowess palace of rest Earth
may run red with other wars-they are a
peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar o.
;. conflict, they found the serenity of death.
A voice-"Glory"l have one sentiment
/, for the soldiers living and dead-cheers fol
, the living, tears for the dead.