Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-08-22

enough without it-by the Supreme Court
in 1902, that no inhabitant of this State
can hold slave, and that by becoming an
inhabltant his slave brought from another
State becomes free. (Windsor VS. Jacob,
Tyler's Reports, 1922 The bill of sale
in such case to be effective must, accord
ing to the traditional ruling Of Judge
Theopilus Harrington, be under the hand
and seal of the Almighty. We give our
fathers credit that they did not distort
the logic Of their broad declaration Of hu-
man rights, or attempt to accommodate
an inhexibe truth to the passion ofpower,
or the lust of gain; that they were ready
to award to all men what they claimed for
themselves, and stamped the soil of Yer
mont with the seal of freedom for all, and
forever.
Thus reviewing cursorily the early his
tory of this State, we may safely say that
none has history more romantic in its
incidents, or more illustrious for the he
roism and sagacity Of its chief men; nor
more marked for the sturdy independence
and honesty of it's people, for their cncr-
gy, persistence, will indomitable to de-
fend their rights, and readiness to accord
like rights to others. If we Of to-day
have become spinding and weak. 1t is
not the fault of the fathers. True, we
have not had their personal experience
and training in the hardships of pioneer
life, to teach that practical sagacity which
comes Of necessity; nor yet that school
ing of whole people in civil rights and
law aud craftsmanship, which their long
controversy with New York, New Hamp-
shire, Great Britain and Congress gave
them, during the years Of that great
awakening of thought which preceded,
accompanied and followed the American
Revolution, and made of plain men,
shrewd thinkers and wise judges. But
they have left us their thoughts, their
spirit. their institutions-town organiza-
tions, those little democraccs where all
the inhabitants assembled in common
meeting, discuss and decide all matters OF
local government, distribute the offices
of administration and jury service. by
which, and the official service imposed
upon those esteemed the tittest, the peo'
pie are put to school in the principles OF
government and kept in training for the
duties of civil life, and made at one with
the law which they make and administer
They have left us, too, the school-houSe
and the meeting and foundations
for religious teaching, for the Grammar
School and the University, as well as
cleared fields, roads, bridges and mills
and we have entered into their laborS.
1t is q question which presses upon us
whether the State into subsequent de-
velopment has proved itself worthy its
origin, and whether we of to-day deserve
such ancestry; how far the spirit and the
times of hundred years have impressed
themselves upon the century, and made
its history what it has been, and the peo
pie what they arc. In the way Of partia
answer TO such questionings, it may b'
truthtully said that the age has not passet
beyond the impulse which first set il
motion the State and its institutions; tina
the temper and spirit Of the fathers are
yet traceable in the moral lineamentS o
her postc rity; that the principles upor
which they founded the State lie under i
to-day, undisturbed in place upon lll
bedrock of truth, untouched by decay.
Thus, upon all questions Of human lib
erty, especially in the fierce conflict
which have since been waged between
the absolute right and the eXpedien
wrong, between the doctrine of human
equality and the wild fantasy of propert
in man, Vermont has ever been true tt
her early declaration, and fixed as he
mountains; exhibiting even an aggres
sive zeal for liberty and holy anger agains
slavery, contemptuous of all excuse O
apology for such invasion ofhuman rights
Thus 1t happened that the teachings o
the early Abolitionists seemed to our PEG
pie no new doctrine, but the awakened
echo of the voices Of the fathers who la,
passed into silence, and their appeals fel
upon willing ears and sank into sympa
thizing hearts. 1t was this kinship to tn
spirit Of the fathers which impclled on
people to the verge Of the compromise
of the National Constitution, or beyon
it, in their legislation upon the subject o
; fugitive slaves, and made hostility t
slavery the dominant question of politics
making and unmaking parties, and mould
ing the policy or debating the utterance
Of all parties. This spirit mingled large
ly with the spirit Of nationality which in
spired our people Ito the heroic devotio
displayed in the late civil war, and mad
it, in their esteem, war twice holy
since in its issue was bound up as well til
liberty of the slave as the nations life.
So, if we consider the part taken b
Vermonters in the wars which have arts
en- since the Revolution, it may be claim
ed of them that they have not disgrace
| 81 90 l.
deroga and conquered at Bennington
Thus Lake Champlain and Plattsburg
cheered the rush of the Vermont farmer
to repel the British invasion of 1914
SO in 1861 the gun fired on Sumpter wa
heard in every hamlet in Vermont. TIL
spirits Of the Green Mountain Boys {
''the grants" slumbering in the caves {
their mountains seemed to arouse to