The Bennington daily banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1877-1877, 1877-08-18
THE DAILY BANNER
Address of Mr.. Daniel
Roberts.
Sonsof yermont-Niy Brothers:

sion. and the place of our gathering best
BELTS both.
The founding of a State is q great event in
the worlds history, forming an epoch In the
social. civil and governmental reckoning OF
nations. The names of the founders of States
are the great names of history The names
of the founders of free States demand rover
ence and special houoTs for of States free
created, the number is but small, and the
names Of the founders Of such shine but here
and there IN solitary brillancy, too few apd
too scattered - form constitutions IN the
heavens Of history. Since the formation OF
the American Union, the new States, from
time to time added, have, for the most part,
been but ordinary accessiOns to the family OF
States, without special throe Of birth. these,
born to an Inheritance of freedom, received
through infancy and adolescence, u mothers
nOurishment aud care, and emerged into free
self-goyernment through the regular process
of grOwth,-the infant became of age. MOI
so Vermont, which was rather free created
than thus free born; or, | may say developed
into organized life and form from the germ
inal principle of individual freedom and lib
erty of free choice. Nomothers care Graded
or nurtured il, but. rocked by storm and TEN.
pest and nurtured OF the elements. this child
of the forest and the mountains won for IT.
self place, and took it, as q free State, not
all. Save the mercips of God" In this regard,
its case is quite exceptional among the
American States made so through the great
sagacity and indOmtable will OF Il race OF
heroes, as wise as they were brave. Thus
created free State, and having so lived and
flourished for hundred years, it is well that
her children of to-day mark the event and
celebrate il.
IL is well, too, that we meet here for our
festival there in Bennington, the namesake
of the Royal Governor of New Hampshire
who granted this town its charter, the first
nj fha Nov
Hampshire Grants. Here was me, earlieat
principal settlement of the then wilderness.
Here. more. than elsewhere, occurred the
stirring events of our colonial life pregnant
of the future State. Here was the States
cradle, and her early hearth-stone. Here
gods of this, in Council of Safety, and OF
War, for defence against the common enemy
of the infant nation, aud against the special
enemies of the hardy settlers of THE Grants"
those land jObbers and free-booters along
the Hudson. toward whom the catamOunl
from Landlord Fay's tavern sign grinned
angry defiance Here, early in May, IT'D,
mustered that patriot band whose ears had
but lust caught the echo of the first shot at
Lexington, and from here they went forth
under the leadership of Ethan Allen, lin the
name of the Great Jehovah" to the capture
of Fort TicoRderoga; and from here march
ed Stark with his braves and the Green
Mountain Boys. Just across the border. where
they made the 10th of August immortal; and
TO this place they returned, brluglng their
foes captive, and their own dead for burial.
With such "reminiscences of those early days
and associations of place, ! am to speak to
yov, but cursOrily and briefly of what these
suggest,-of the New Hampshire Grants, and
of Vermont, aud how this came TO be State,
and somewhat of its characteristics humid
dred years ago. and since, and now.
This land or ours, which we now call Yer
mont, had before 1850 become extensively
known to the men of New England by ex-
merOus military expeditions. which, starting
from the heart Of New England, had, for sue
cessiYe years during the French aud English
war traversed it. The CessiOn of Canada to
Great Britain and the conclusion OF peace
left these lands open for settlement, undls-
tHrbed by further teTrOrs of French and IN
dams inroads The inducements to immi-
grafton and settlement here, we of this age
should reckon not INVITING There were no
DraiFieS spread out in readiness for the
plough; no open pastures ready prepared for
sheep and oxen no trOpic climate and fruits
inviting to rest from labor ana TO easy irul-
lion; nor vet discovered gold fields to
set on fire the lust of men and draw them, as
BY a sucking whirlwind, from the four cor
lers of the earth, IN o mad rush to fortune
IT grave; but on the contrary, valley and
sides covered with forests which
Kept out the sunlight, and concealed below
their interlaGiug roots the possible meadow,
pasture and cOrnfield, but possibly only to
Lhe sweat of labor and the pain of toll short
summers, with frOsts both late and early
long winters bound in ice and buried i'll
snow. But to men like our Rrand-sires,
trained to labor and hardship, the sons of
generations of men towhose axes the sight OF
tree had been q constant temptation, there
was nothing in climate or savage feature OF
land to deter from following the emigrating
e Il m fIna.Nr
could, in the minds eye, see among the dis
solving forests the comfortable homestead, |
the waving gTainfields, the garden and the |
the school house, the meeting house, |
The mill aud the village, creations of their
industry, they were rather, melted than re-
PEELED by the difficulties which nature nature had
nterpOsed to such frnitiOn, With tue
thought of lettering their condition, in q
mere prosaic sense. the love OF adventure,
Jhe love of the new and untTied to find what
may be in it, love of the free life
If the woods and of o new society,
doubtless. added romance to the movement.
Yet it was no Texas OF California that aluIed
hem
Another reason for this early emigration,
from Massachusetts and Connee-
lieut., and which prevailed to a considerable |
,xtent, partOok of religious character, and
vas AKIN to that which impelled their an
,estors, the Puritans and the, Pilgrims, TO
If founding u church Of their liking and
freedom of worship In the New England
wilderness; for it Is written of these early |
by one of their number, that |
Great numbers of the early settlers on the
New Hampshire Grants were of the sect Of
New Lights, OF Separates, who fled from
in the New England States, and
found an asylum here, where they enjoyed
their religious liberty This persecution |
spoken of, came naturally of the ideas then
prevalent, that one of the functions of gov
was to aid the church in enforcing
upon the whole community conformity Of
doctrines and worship ito the word of God"
that IS, practically. conformity to the pre-
Vailing religious belief, and those standards |
Of belief or profession called orthodox, to b.
found in certain accredited Platforms"
Upon the New Lights in doctrine, and the
Separates from the standing orde it bore |
hard to be compelled by law 10 pay towards |
bhe building of meeting houses which they |
would not attend, and to contribute to the |
support Of ministers to whom they would |
not listen, and this, while sustaining, uDaid-
ed, their own systems of worship and teach
ing; and then, II their own ministers CHANGED
10 be caught preaching outside the limits of
their own parish, without orderly invitation,
10 see them treated as p0acbeTs or tramps
with fines and the stocks The religious lib
eTty which they enjoyed IN this, their asY-
lum, they founded and established They
slaulpeu upon UnelT taIltbI CuuICu TeCOIuh
their population of the doctrine of state
with matters Of religious doc
trine and worship, and made their plan Of
organization rs a church charter Of relig-
Ous hber'y. Thus, in organizing THE
church of Christ in Bennington" December
}. 1862, tho first church organization of the
New Hampshire Grants, it was agreed and
voted TO except, from their adoption of the
cambridge Platform, that part in respect
Il using the evil law to support the gospel"
md also that part lin respect Of the evil
magistrates coeTciYe power"
Whatever else may ne SAID of the relIqioul
customs aud Ohseryances of tn
New England Of that day it can not be denied
hat they trained up a people mighty IN III
Scriptures, schOOled to great acuteness uf in.
perception by study of the meta
physics of theology, practice of its dialects
md clash of discussion Of the mysteries Ci |
'eligiOn and the entanRlements Of creed; and
he study of the questions Of church govern
nent educated them to a knowledge of the |
principles of just government, and thsir APP
llication 10 the affairs of the State. BiROts |
Jhall we call them7 They were indeed reli |
yiOus according to the law and logic of reli-
zion: later than its emotions and Gu thusi-