The Bennington daily banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1877-1877, 1877-08-18

time-good out Of evil,--the wrath of man
prasing God. Thus iar. in spirit Of freedom
and seltsaorifioe, in patriotic devotion and
heroic courage, | note no deggneracy. We
are TO bear IN mind. that it is the times and
their necessities that search out the be-
fore undiscovered man for the times; that
the opportunity creates the man for the OPP
portunity and the great occasion makes the
man great for the occasion, who, without
such stress, WOuld have seemed but common
clay, and have died without giving sign of
I the greatness that was potential in him. So
| il is that in the dull times of peace and the
hum-drum quiet of easy life, the shades of
the great men of a heroic past loom high,
and are enlarged to our vision bv the misty
distance that lies between. This is well,
since 1t keeps alive reverence and aspiration,
and kindles divine emulation to be like
| them. But rs there were brave men before
Agamemnon, SO, as think. Vermont has had
heroes like Ethan Allen and Seth Warner;
wise governors since Thomas Chittenden :ac-
complished diplomats since Ira Allen; able
statesmen, Legislators and jurists since Ma
thaniel Chapman, if not as great as he.
Those improved means of Intercourse
among men and reader intercommunicatiO
of thought and knowledge, the result Of novel
inventions aud new applications Of science
which have marked the present century and
affected the civilization of the world have
not passed Vermont by, and her people have
| thereby become less provincial, more cusmo-
politan, less peculiar people, than our faith
ers were. And yet being largely agricultu-
raj people, with no very large Towns or cities
With few milliOnaires and few very poor, and
| little chance to become rich by speculations
we have not been tempted to stray very far
fom our fathers ways of industry, economy
simplicity Of living and providence for
| The future. And since we are gathered
here about the old hearth-s,one, we
may be allowed, in the freedom aud con-
| iid5nce Of the family circle, to telicitate our
| y n 4 NnrUlnnfnlg fnr l,nff mn
fathers were, tor their heroic lives and his
| toric deeds and the Institutions they created
and transmitted to MS, but that their poster
ity have so faithfully guarded, preserved
and wisely improved them, and have so well
| Kept alive the spirit OF those institutions and
the temper of that heroic age that educa-
ton is free, and that we have freedom in re-
| ligiOn, both moving in wider and deeper
channels than aforetime of culture and
Christian chauty;-that greater sOftness
OF manners has not made us effeminate =
that we are in good degree temperate,
sober, self-restrainel people, standing by
good order and obedience to law, cOnserva-
tive and vet progressing, having steadfast-
ness that may be counted on. and will of
our own not having parted with practical
wisdom and common sense. nor vet far de-
parted from the religion Of paying our debts.
From this little hive and nursery of men,
how many have gone forth to the broader
and more inviting fields of the expanding
W.OoNt W AAb Elcdb uluIlS VI
wherever the spirit of adventure has inn
PEELED, or of gain or ambition luTed, carving
with then the temper and training of their
birthplace, and planting in virgin
fields the seed germs they gath
cred in boyhOod upon these
mountain sides, And as we have seen the
emblematic pine tree of our State, come OF
such planting, towering oflimes above the
indigenous trees of the land, with branches
wide spreading. and royal crown of leaves.
singing to the winds the music of its ances-
tIal home, how proudly have we cheered such
vision, crying Grace, Grace unto it.
One hundred years hence, wnen Vermont
shall eel, brate the second centennial year of
her life as II State, when we who to-day com
memOrate the virtues of our historic fathers
snail have long passed into silence, and shall
then, perchance, by search of genealogical
records, be discovered rs the filtbeTs of that
ge,--alas, how few of us will have attained
other historic immOrtality,-whe searcn
among the musty papers of the then Vermont
Historical Society, to fad record of the de-
IN gs of this first centennial year, shall with
draw from oblivion these poor words which
now stir the air. may they, who shall then
gather to look upon tho monuments which
we now rear as memorials of a heroic age,
rs they look back over the field of Vermont
history for two hundred years, and compare
the past with then present, find State and
people softened by culture, yet true to the
spirit of the primeval State and of those who
founded it,--a people free, independent, in
telligent, industrious, sober, honest, cOnseT-
vative of the good. aggressive towards the
wrong, virtuOus, religiOus,-a happy people
whose God Is the Lord.
The earnest eloquence of Mr.. Roberts per-
Grafton visibly impressed his hearers, aud he
sat down amid expressions of lively satisfac-
ton.