The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-08-17
Ths 8ntIand daily Glube
PRESIDENT BARTLETT's ADDRESS
Delivered Yesterday at bennington.
FRIDAY, AUGUST II, 1877.

looks out on panorama of singular extent
and beauty. Westward the Adirondack,
dim with the distance of q hundred miles
or more, the Helderbergs and Cstskills to
the south, Greylock, Saddle and Bald, the
long Green Mountain wall on the east, and
the Killington Peak, sixty miles away to
the north, outline vast amphitheatre of
hill and vale, of fertile fields and graceful
forests, dotted with thrifty villages and
happy homes. The steam puffs up in sight
from half dozen railway lines, and there
are glimpses of the Hoosac and Walloom-
sac bordered with manufactures. Nestled
invisibly away are schools, and banks and
printing presses, here vane and there a
college. As the day declines, silver stream
lets come ginning forth with reflected sun
beams from the broad expanse, rich of
farming lands a near fountain spreads its
lofty spray upon the air, and at length
there settles down over the whole land
scape that mellow, low and dreamy hue
which makes it seem of some other world.
But this is no dreamland vision. These
things all lie on the soil of these sovereign
states, and they are the substantial tokens
of industry, culture, peace and prosperity,
the ripest fruits Of republican liberty.
On bright morning one hundred years
ence five miles from here looked forth ad-
mlringly on part of this same landscape,
then ripe" he said, "wlth pastoral beauty"
ia wide sweep of stately forests, inter-
rupted at remote intervals by green mea-
dows and fertile corn fields, with here and
there cottage, shed or other primitive
edifice," and Bennington was "a cluster of
poor cottages in wild country" Around
him was n well-appointed military band,
glittering with arms, some of the men in
brass helmets, some in red coats, some in
citizens garb, and dusky forms in war
paint hung upon the outskirts. Two miles
this side of him, hidden from his sight by
another band, alarmed and miscellaneous
ly clad, largely in cloth Of tow or linen
dyed with butternut or maple, and too
deeply absorbed in their day-break prepa-
rations to spend one thought upon the
glory of the earth or sky. Between these
two bodies of troops, and in good measure
on that days struggle, hung pending the
question whether the pastoral beauty of
that time should unfold into all the civil
freedom and blessing OF this.
The natural theme of our thoughts, there
fore, lie, The Place of the Battle of Ben
nington in the History OF our Country.
The early days of August, 1777, we're
eliminating time of gloom and alarm. For
more than twelvemonth the tide of our
prospects had steadily ebbed till the shoals
and reefs were plainly in sight. In the
opening of our great conflict, the FIRST
clash of our arms had carried all before II.
The British army and its favorite generals,
Gage, Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne, were
penned up in Boston. with bitter memories
of Lexington and Concord, then driven
forth to find shelter in Halifax. Lord
Dunmore was expelled from Norfolk, and
took refuge on his fleet. Ticonderoga,
Crown Point, st. Johns and Montreal had
been taken in rapid succession, and Quebec
alone had escaped. From Canada to Vir-
ginia we had made clean sweep.
But change comes. Just before our
Independence was declared the last of our
troops were driven out of Canada, in the
strong but true language of the day, 'dis-
graced, defeated, discontinued, dispirited,
diseased, undisciplined." The day before
that declaration was read to the army on
Broadway Howe landed on Staten Island
the first detachment of twenty-six thousand
troops. Then followed the disastrous bat
lie of Long Island, the execution of New
York, the reverse of White Plains, the
surrender of Fort Lee and Washington,
the chase Of our army through the Jerseys
and the capture of Charles Lee, the second
in command and then the idol of the army,
Just as he was writing to Gates profane
attack upon his chief. And before our
great general retreated grimly southwark,
conspired against by his leading officers,
dstrusted even by John Adams for his
"Fabian policy" chafed by the internal
jealousies of his army and bafiled of every
plan by the incessant changes of his troops,
there came, like some Jobs messenger,
tidings from the north that our fleet of If
teen sail on Lake Champlain was exter-
minated, Grown Point burned and aban-
doned, and our northern army cooped up
in its last stronghold at 1iconderoga.
mas with the Hessians at Trenton. and
paid his New Years compliments to the
British at Princeton. These two flashes
alone tlckered over the sombre scene.
The flush and ardor of transient conflicts
had now given way to the tug and strain
OF protracted war. And what war Of
ten destitute of tents, blankets, medicines,
good clothing and wholesome food, short
OF arms and ammunition, without money
or credit, might almost say, long without
an army. For by short enlistment our
troops continually melted away, sometimes
in the presence of the foe. And short en-
listments were growing difficult; for in
those sparse, new and poor settlements how
could the men be spared from their homes
The camp, too, was as fatal as the battle
field. 1t was invaded by camp fever and
dysentery, and steadily beleagured by the
small pox. Al one time in '76 Schuyler in
three months lost half of his ten thousand
men by death and desertion, and two-fifths
OF the remainder were on the sick list.
Each northern state carried special bur
dens. Vermont was engaged in the long
and gallant strife tor state rights and indi-
vidual osnership of the soil. New York
was overrun with loyalists, of whom num-
bers had been sent to the New England
states for safe keeping-two hundred at
one time in the jails and houses of New
Hampshire. The state of New Hampshire
so intensely patriotic that only seven humid
red and seVenty-three out of her whole
population had, whether tor conscientious
or political scruples, refused to sign the
pledge to visit the foe "with arms, at the
risk OF our lives and our fortunes was
yet distracted with the magnitude and the
multitde Of her efforts. may not weary
you with the long recital. Enough that
when state militia enrolment extended
from the age of sixteen up to fifty and had
alarm list" to sixty-five, and when at
length orders are given TO draft one-half
even OF that alarm list we may be sure that
the strain has reached her vital forces.
The outlook, also, in these earlier months
of the year was torbdding A fearful fleet
lay fouthward a, the center of the nation,
ready to strike at any part of our vast
coast line. They way was well-nigh clear
for an early invasion from the north.
Canadian sympathies were lost. The In
dian tribes, that six months before had re-
fused to mingle in this "quarrel," as they
phrased 1t, "between two brothers and one
blood" Were listening 10 the enemy.