St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-12-21

many patriotic songs by the double
quartet, literally sprinkled in all
through the feast of good things which
followed the supper. The occasion
was one of great enjoyment to all con-
cerned.
Military Traditions as Promoters of
Patriotism.
An Address Delivered before the TiUeltth
annual Meeting Of the Reunion Society
of VermOnt Officers, December 18th,
1877: By Ros,oeH Fdrnham, 1t Col.
18th Vermont Volunteers.
Mr.. President, Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
1 call your attention, this evening to the idea
that 1.-THE military traditions of country most
promote patriotism, and should be perpetuated."
The memory of past events adds to the duration
of human existence The hope of the future reaches
forward and snatches from the fleeing years more
of time than is allotted to the natural life of man.
If we read Alright the story of those who have
lived before and forecast the deeds of those who
shall come after we are able to stretch the allotted
three years and ten of life and compel the
very ages of the worlds existence to contribute to
the completeness of our own being.
As he who studies of the worthless of old incor-
porates into his own mental and moral constitution
a portion of their ideas and to that extent makes
past and believes in the future takes to himself not
only the ideas of the past and hopes of the future
but really has longer and larger and fuller ex-
istence.
whatsoever imbues himself thoroughly with the
history of his country, and identifies himself
with her hopes and prospects, becomes more of a
man as well as more of patriot.
The traditions that reach back into the past sus-
tain the soldier upon the battlefield. He is no
longer individual private soldier. to be saugh-
tered as the needs of the contest may require. He
is of the past, with hope of the future, part of
his country; and he stands there before the world
representative of grand idea and if his life is
lost it is but the glorious end of an existence that
shall be sanctifed in the annals and traditions of
his State.
That country whose children know and love to
hear the story of her struggle into life, and who
can repeat in their childhood the achievements of
her founders, is safe from internal broils and as
saults from without. She is filled with patriots
ready to defend her.
The memory of brave deeds incites men to yet
Drawer and nobler actions. The traditions of a
people are more powerful than its laws and if ira
ditiOns of what is noble and good in human action,
they are worth more than all country's material
LET me write the ballads of people, and who
will may make their laws" has been well said.
Among a song.loving people, the ballad contains
all the glorious traditions 1t is the sentiment, not
the form, of words that is used so that the
aphorism better be- LET me make the traditions of
a people, and who will may make their laws"
The good name that our fathers won in the Rev
olution, and which have had some part in
transmitting during the great Rebellion will live
generations drawer and lofter deeds than all the
Accommodations of wealth. advancement In science.
in the most prosperous days of the State of the
Republic
When the call of President Lincoln in 1861, for
rs 900 men, and then for 500 600 more rang through
our valleys, and the SONS of Vermont responded so
nobly and with such glad alacrity, who of all that
number of thinking and patriotic men did not re-
member the pride and glory of the State in the
Green Mountain Boys who first won that name,
and hope that he too, might be worthy of the
same title, and be numbered among the heroes yet
That call appealed to the best motives and the
highest principles of the human heart and struck
a chord in the soul of the true Vermonter ever
sensitive and ready to vibrate to such touch.
The men who responded to 1t were not mercenary.
Patriotism, State pride, the recollection of what
Vermonters had done in the past, spoke louder to
them than the hope of gain the voice of ambition
-twhatever might be true later in the great
struggle)
There are higher motives in the heart of every
man, that may be appealed to accordingly, than
those that prompt most of the actions of every day
life. 1t is to those motives, hidden unstrred for
the most part that the examples of the heroes OF
old appeal in the hearts of the young
In our schools and seminaries of learning our
youth continually melted to thoughts and deeds
and aspirations of the highest purpose by the pre-
cept and example of worthy men of other time.
But alasl how soon does the young man just out
of college and school. learn that the motives and
purposes with which he is imbued from his studies
of good and great deeds, not those that prompt
and move the men that he meets in the business OF
ordinary life.
| Sometimes when this discovery dawns upon
him, startled and half ashamed of his own purity
and integrity of purpose, he diseards entirely 81
lives and examples of heroes and martyrs moi
possible profitable, at the present day, and moi
current of greed and selfish indulgence he takes
the lead in the struggle for whatever is mercenary
base and temporal, and smothers every high aspira
ton that ever moved him. But this is not true OF
all.
The high resolves and deep principles of youth
and early manhood are the firm rock with a sure
foundation against which the waves of selfshness
and everything that is mean dash in vain
The enthusiasm and youth OF some men never
eyes the earth teens with beauty, freshness and
purity. Bright flowers. bursting foliage and the
| songs of birds seem ever about them. Whatever
| fate betide them they are hopeful and exultant
The high purpose formed in youth, nurtursd by the
story Of all the noble lives and deeds of classic
lore and of sacred and profane history buoys them
up and carries them over the meanness and petty
trials of every day life. To them life never loses
its romance. The ideal of manly life formed in
And there are more such noble lives than we
know of.
there is of man, nor disclose all of his motives
and purposes, be they high or low The best in
tents of the heart show themselves not in the socia
chat, nor in the pleasant greeting.
There secrets and purposes and high resolves
only known to the intimate few or only brought t.
| light by the presence of great events.
Among us this night, are men whose deeds ar,
interviewer in the history of our nation and who's,
high purpose and lofty valor upon the battle field
/ mouiu put W piusn 1no clustering couItgo "
many hero of history; yet how few would sus
pect from their gentle and quiet and modest bear
ing what they have suffered and done.
Before the outbreak of the rebellion, the Nortl
was filed with quiet students Industrious artisans
modest farmers
And who then disputed the boast that one South
ernor was match for five of them, in a fight? Blu
how astonished were you and the world to see thes
students, clerks, mechanics and farmers, at tn
very first stride, step into the ranks of the heroe
Of old-not in what they actually accomplished a
hrst for they were ignorant of warfare, but II
what they dared attempt
The memory of Bunker Hill, of Ticonderoga an,
of Bennington spoke to every son of New Englan,
and had already done much to infame the pat
riotism of our people.
No tedious essay, no homily upon our duty to on
country, had done this. 1t was the traditions o
battles fought and of fields won that had stirre,
the hot blood of youth to do and dare again.
The stories that move the hearts of the young ar
always of deeds of daring and personal proves
The victories of the pen, of the ledger of the speca
plea, of the pillow, the loom and the anvil stir no
young blood. The useful drudgery of every da
life appeals not to the imagination. Hearts ar
seldom moved to high endeavor by the sight O
well filled barns and busy machinery. Men becom
, sordid over these.
But sing to them the wondrous tale of Tro
divine Sing the wrath of Peleus' SON. that brough
woes numberless upon the Greeks; tell them o
the bloody struggle of Monmouth and Trenton O
Saratoga and Saltwater, speak to them of the peri
/ Of kindred and country and home, and the bloc
shed in their defence, and you arouse feelings an
appeal to motives that nothing else can reach.
1t is under such impulses that men step from tn
quiet walks of private life and become soldiers
) But they tel us that the achievements Of tn