Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-09-03

country. The strong arm of the nation
must teach them that, if they will not
work, neither shall they forcibly arrest
the honest work of other men. No mob,
though it be 10000 strong, shall trample
on the laws and rights of 4O,oOO,0OO.
And one grand lesson that should sig
nalize the opening of the new century
is that all hostile and violent demonstra-
tions upon peaceful citizens shall be as
thoroughly and as summarily quelled as
they were on this spot one century ago.
When bands Of men patrol our streets
with threats in their mouths and weap-
ons and 6rebrands in their hands, it is
war, and they are enemies. It is no
time for blank cartridges, but for point
blank shot. Next after the riot act and
d WarHin6 ~ 1;-..---~-- -onnane tho ho un.,nt
and the bullet, grapeshot and canister.
At Pittsburg three weeks ago last Sat-
urday and Sunday Oh, for one hour of
Warmers regiment and Stark's brigade.
1t would have cleared the way from New
York to San Francisco. and here on the
borders of that old battlefield and in the
freshness of these glorious memories, let
these noble bands of Green Mountain
boys lift up their hands to heaven and
swear that the descendants of those whom
the best soldiers of Britain and Germany
could not expel from their farms and
their homes, shall never be driven from
their lawful labors for an hour by the
floating scum of Europe and America.
But we are reminded that the same
old enmities are dead or dying. Six
weeks ago I searched in vain on that
Hessian hill for a trace of these intrench-
ments which once blazed with hostile fires.
"Long SILENT too, has been the drum
Suspended by its tattooed marge,
That rolled and ratified to Hessians' charge"
Even four years ago, stood in the old
home of my ancestors in England, whose
occupants century ago were probably
in full sympathy with its government
against whom my American progenitors
were contending with sword and musket,
but l was there welcome guest, and but
just now in the palace where the dement,
ed George was hardening his good-natur-
ed heart against our country, the British
queen received to her home circle our
great captain president, while the whole
nation strove to do him honor. Thank
God that British hands no longer strike
at Ansln-saxnn lives. that English blood
no longer drips from fraticidal wounds,
but on both sides of the wide Atlantic
flows fresh and strong in sympathetic
hearts. We celebrate to-day the valor
that achieved our liberties, without a
thought of bitterness toward those from
whom we inherited and from whom we
wrested them-very Britons from very
Britons.
And let US rejoice also to-day that
these centennial commemorations have
come in to throw veil over the later
and bloodier wounds, that Concord and
Bunker Hill and Bennington are super
imposed upon Antietam and Gettysburg
and the Wilderness. 1t is we'll that by
cones should at length be bygones.
am one of those who thought that, for
their slaughter of million lives and
their assaults upon the nations life, a
dozen chief criminals should have been
hung between the heavens and the earth,
but it was not so done. Another policy
prevailed. This mighty nation of ma
tions of the earth could pardon, and yet
live. The cup was full of bitterness,
but we drank it down; and now we may
throw away the dregs, for southern SOL
diers have strewn their flowers on the
graves of their northern conquerors. and
the southern governor of South Carolina
has pledged protection to the liberated
slaves. AS in 1777 the tide of battle
turned, so in 1877 at length has turned
the tide of peace. This year, for the
first time in our national history, the
work of our earlier and later wars is
accomplished. We dwell at last in q
real and homogeneous Union of free
commonwealth. 1t is one harmonious
republic, where no sovereign state is
joined to its fellows by federal bayonets.
and no fugitive for liberty is remanded
by federal courts to his chains; but
American citizens, free everywhere, free
to govern themselves, we look hopefully
down the broad vista of peace and pros
perity. What tongue dare forshadoV
the tale which, if God will, shall be told
here one hundred years hence?
All honor to the brave and hones
chief magistrate, who, after decade O.
fruitless experiments and smoulderine
strife, had the good manhood to breal
away from all narrow and partisan re
straints, cast himself upon the sount
sense and christian sentiment of tht
American people, and lead off the new
order of centuries, and let the east ant
west and the north and the south say
amen and amen.
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