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

military conquerer are not to be compared with
those of the morast the poet and the philosopher
THE pen is mightier than the sword, say they
that Napoleon and Caesar and Alexander were
great simply military commanders, but that
they do not deserve that title men. This may
be true and not conflict with what has been said.
or the idea that is attempted to be presented to
you.
The private citizen who sacrifices everything
without hope of gain or hope of advancement and
risks his life at his country call is actuated by
altogether different motives from those that move
This is no plea for war. It is only word for
those whom love of country has driven into its
perils and a word for the motives that act1ate
such men and how such motives may be kept alive
in the hearts of our people.
The private citizen who willingly and gladly
steps forward from the duties of civil life into the
ranks of his countrys defenders and does his duty
there, stands out as the highest type of heroic
action. He offers his life that his country may
live. What higher sacrifice, among men, is there
than this?
How many men from these hills in the great
struggle for the nations existense laid down their
lives with feelings of the highest patriotism
1t may be taken as true that the traditions of
the military achievements of founders and pre-
of nations the traditions, that give and
mould those patriotic characteristics of people
that are necessary to its preservation.
We have not yet reached that ideal, golden age,
when all nations shall be at peace with one an
other. and the lion and the lamb lie down together.
We still have within u.s. and not always latent, the
spirit of strife and contest that the Assyrian
the Greek, the Roman and the ancient BT1ton had
ton brought by Christ renews the hearts OF in.
dividuals and is not inherited that each one OF
must begin life alone and for himself. not where
fathers left it, be they good or bad; but where
the average of the race has left it; and that is
where the Assyrian, the Greek, the Roman and
the old Brton found It. full of strife and conflict
History tells us that nations have always been at
war, and some writers claim that warfare is the
normal condition of the man. Certainly some OF
the most warlike races produce the finest spec1-
mems of the human race-witness, the Circassians
and the Montenegrins.
When nations and races cease to be warriors and
become traders, students artisans and husband;
men, they lose the patriotic fervor that animated
their youth in great measure and altogether I'M
less the traditions of what was best of the olden
time still in the hearts of the people. Let us
then cherish the worthy traditions of the past.
Let sons of Vermont, in whatsoever battle of life
they called upon to contend feel that they are
surrounded and reinforced continually by the ira
ditions of noble sres. Let them feel, in whatso-
cline their lot may be cast, that their birth
place and early home is a mother country to them
in every respect. May they be able to look not
only to the fOrest-covered mountains lovely valleys
and sparkling waters of the dear old State, but
may they see the very heavens above her brilliant
Boys of the later well as of the earlier years.
May the word Vermont call into the minds eye
of every child of her green hills in foreign lands
such procession of good and great men, of de-
voted sons and pure daughters, identified and
cleaning all over with the glorious events of her
history, as shall march before the minds eye with
more of pOmp and magnifcence than any triumphal
procession of Caesar or Vespasian ever showed
in the Roman capitol.
What was it that stirred to deeds of highest
daring and made heroes of the young husbandman
of these hills of the students in our schools and
colleges and offices of the clerks the apprentices
unused to the sound of arms for four score years,
but the traditions of our fathers and grandfathers
of IT'S and 17772
What beardless boy, remembering the story of
his grandfather's valor at Concord, or Lexington
or Bennington. did not burn with the glorious fire
from off his cOuntryS altar and long to emulate the
deeds of Allen and Warner, of Bennington and
Ticonderogal
What thoughtful man as he placed his name upon
the roll of his sountrys defenders did not feel that
he performing the highest duty that can fall to
the lot of mani Nay. feel something higher and
him to noble deeds He felt that he was of State
that had history of its own whose traditions had
been his nursery tales in childhood and were part
of the history of the whole countryl
Traditional survives written history oftentimes.
Language is preserved AMI transmitted oftener by
oral tradition than in written books. The games
of our childhood have, some of them, come down to
from the days of King Alfred, unchanged.
Oftentimes single characteristic of a people is
preserved in tradition where written history is I'M
known.
When the first Vermont Regiment, board the
steamer Alabama, entered Chesapeake Bay one
morning in May, 1861, a saucy gun boat, improvis-
ed from steam tug. threw a shot across the bows
of the steamer and as our speed slackened a voice
came over the waters:
The reply went back 1.-The first Vermont Regi-
ment."
For moment there seemed 10 De hesitatioh ana
doubt on board the tug and hurried consultation,
the gun ominOusly reloaded.
Suddenly one in authority, as if a new idea had
struck him, sprang upon the bulwarks and waving
his hand called OUT
Are you Green Mountain Boysf
AYE aye, was the prompt reply.
"An right, go ahead, came eheerily across the
waves and the little tug wheeled away nom us,
while our ponderous wheels again took up their
pulse-like beat upon the green water as we moved
slowly on our way.
Vermont troops were hardly recognized loyal
to the Union cause, but the memory of what Green
Mountain Boys had done for liberty almost cen
tury before, chung in the minds OF men, and was
the passport to the friends of the Union.
And you, my comrades well remember how
often after this during the long and bloody strife
that you passed through, the challenge came, by
day or in the darkness of the night.
Are you Green Mountain Boysi" And how
Spprov vim ~ sd%op n Sou rShro ahead
1t was all right when you were there and you
generally went ahead.
is unique. She stands out alone as the only state
not of the confederacy, yet shedding her blood in
its defense. A few of her men made an indelble
mark upon the times and gave characteristics to
the young state that it retains to this day. The
lustre of their lives has since Illuminated all
her hills and the traditions of those days have
lighted up and warmed to noble aspirations many
a heart among her quiet citizens. The traditions
of what those men did are broader and deeper in
the hearts of the people than any written history
They permeate and mould the feelings and i'm
pulses of the classes whom books do not affect.
No one can tell precisely how it comes about; but
the pride of Vermonter in the title of Green
Mountain Boy and in the renown of Ethan Allen,
Seth Warner, and Remember Baker is simply i'm
measurable.
1t is not written history that has produced it.
1t is tradition-that which is handed down from
father to son. orally.
Set the school boy to learn, as a task the history
of his state and it is drudgery to him. Let some
rustic Homer, with persuasive tongue, at husking
or frolic in camp at the hunt, or at the mimic
warfare of peace, tell the story of Allen and Ii
n RanniOptOu
word and gesture and accent is devoured by the
eager eyes and ears of his listeners.
The veteran. who shoulders his crutch and shows
how fields were won, will make a regiment of pa
triots from the boys of his neighborhood, before
the grave historian, who teaches philosophy by
The seeds of these traditions were sown by the
soldiers who came home from the Revolution.
Fresh from the battle fields that had saved their
country and made their state renowned, they told
their stories in those primitive days, before the
time of lightning presses and telegraph, by the
reside and in the social gathering to the boys and
girls who left everything to listen to the story OF
the battle; and those stories repeated varied
possibly enlarged until the original narrator would
hardly recognize them; yet the flavor of patriotism
and state pride has never left them, the minds
of the listeners but has grown yearly stronger
What those old worthless could do and did do is be-
yond the comprehension of man. What they could
not do one could easily tell upon his fingers. The
Ethan Allen of history and the Allen of tradition
are unlike in stature and endowments as are the
natural man and the heroic statue that adorns the
porticO of our state capitol By tradition men be-
come heroes, heroes uem- gods, ana deml-god Oe
the deities that control the movements of the
universe. But it is heroes and demi-gods in action
that we wish to take our great exemplars of all
that is right.
The traditions of the heroes and demi- gods OF
the revolution and of the struggle with New York
fell upon good soil and took root speedily and al
the outburst of the great rebellion, their fruit had
ripened into that state pride and state love, that
responded so quickly to the call of the President
for the protection of the whole country.
Then was seen the unaccustomed sight of q
peaceful and peaee-lOving population, who had
personally never known war, and were not skilled
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