Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-11-24
1rafrhnian d 1nnrnal.
Address Of Welcome.

The address oil welcome TO the National
Council at St. Louis was given on the after
noon of Thursday by Rev. DIR. T. NJ Post
Of St. Louis. Abiding to the fact that il
was two hundred and sixty years since the
forefathers of the Church and the State set
foot in the New World also to the fact that
the center of our order had moved thousand
miles westward in that time, and that the
National Council at st. Louis was the first
representative assemblage of the principles
policy and government of those fathers that
had met on the west side of the great CEN
trail river, he said:
Brethren, you come here to-day not simply over
a thousand miles, through forests and prairies
hurrying on like the clouds on the path of COM
merce, but from all sides of this great land, from
where Florida thrusts her peninsula far down into
the tropic seas, to where rolls the Oregon,
from "tbe waves Of the bay where the Mayilower
lay" to the Golden Gates, from the valleys OF the
Green and White and the Allegheny Mountains
to those that are overhung by cliffs that glitter
with gold and eternal SHOWS, from savanna and
PRAIRIE and lake and river, from all over this land
you come, and we bid you here to-day welcome,
as representing in some measure the land wherein
we dwell. You do not come as strangers though
dwelling afar; no, we know you rs the children
OF the old mother that old mother that when this
grand inheritance was at first seemingly put into
her hands a garden went bravely to work to take
possession of II by extension of church and mis-
sion, until at last staggering in faith, for the
giants were In the land she was turned back for
her unbelef and wandered more than forty years
In the wilderness, a wanderer and n stranger in
the land of her inheritance, until in 1852, upon
remonstrances uttered by the churches in the far
west, complaining of the neglect of their old
mother and the disluyalty of her children that
m IN these lands and pagapd nv the
churches of her name and her principles, until
upon such n general remonstrance there was gath
cred Council, National Council, at Albany,
that ushered in a new policy gave a new impulse,
whereby their poty and their faith combined in
an organism pushed beyond the self-limtations OF
former times and bore the banner OF the cross
down TO the great gulf, and westward to Pacific
seas. Especially has this general movement been
aided by the institution of Iriennial Council,
at last fixed and stated as corresponding to wants
fixed and stated. No new departure but only
carrying out the principles OF district and State
Association to national interests and national al
fairs. We welcome you to-day to our goodly,
grand city, that within almost a generation, with
its grand and varied industries, its magnificent
achievements and possibilities, and promises still
more magnificent Its school and its manufactures,
its wealth, and its stir of busy and intelligent
civilization, has sprung like an exhaation from
the shores Of this great river well nigh within the
memory of man. Well do remember when COM
ing up that river in 1888 saw the little village,
q
the great river recently mere hamlet stockaded
against the Indians 1t seemed the end of the
world, and wrote to my friends letters that it
took month to carry to the Atlantic border, that
had reached the end of the world for there it
stood amid mighty solitudes, no smoke or noise
in the vast surrounding REGION save here and
there from solitary hut, and with an outlook to-
wards the infinite west over wilderness of
prairie and forest of prairies vast and deserts idle,
through tabled and mythc Sierras where lay CAL
ifornia, more hidden than the sources Of the Nile,
yet undreamed Of her mountains of gold.
WE WELCOME YOU
moreover, to a city Of peace, blessed peace 1t
was not always so. We stand where not long ago
was the border land OF two conflicting civiliza-
tons, the battle-ground Of the great moral and
political conflicts OF ages focusing here. Well do
| remember one morning, when waking, after
years Of blessed peace and trust of looking around
and seeing men glowering on each other-tbose
that had been old friends for long-with eyes of
hate, suspicion and murder terrible epoch
brief through Gods mercy remember following
1t when our streets scowled with assassination and
alleys were treacherous with ambuscade;
when the streets thronged with riot, or resound-
ed to the clank OF the arms OF newly banded men
that were training in the city in the night, were
sometimes slippery with human blood, and the
city was one tremendous cauldron Of wild passion,
of cruel hate and more cruel fear. Right where
we stand right off yonder, was delivered the first
great stroke Of the great war in this part of the
world | remember when throngs Of men, women
and children were hurrying along where we now
Sit their eyes with Wild strange light in them,
hurrying as to some expected battlefield, and
around on these heights thousands of bayonets
were blazing in the sun, and regiments were be-
fore my house, on both sides of it, and all this
place filled with throng OF angry, excited men,
upon whom the ideas Of the age, and its conflict
ing interests, had wrought the madness of the
hour. This right before u.s. then heard, for the
first time, the hurtle of the mimic ball then saw
for the first time human beings and brethren
.hal To-. l.v. IAw IL
era of wild passion and disorder followed till the
tremendous pressure Of military power came in
to give us peace. And this region round was the
camping ground for years OF great armies, and
yonder hills, covered now by beautiful architec-
ture were blazing with the bivouac of large ar
mics that lit up the cold and stormy winter nights
with the fires of their camps. At length the very
air seemed impregnated and filled with the drum
beat as part OF its natural pulse, and the pennons
that were floating in the air seemed to be part OF
the order of nature like the cloud scenery and the
thunder Of the heavens. This was but AS yester
day; it comes up like dream; it seems to me like
a dream coming out of the internal night Sc
strange 1t is, when down in yonder city, hospital
after hospital thronged so terribly with sight
and scenes Of woe, that they seemed more like a
picture from a lost world than scenes under this
sunlit sky. 1t has passed and the clouds are roll
ing away. We can see something OF them yet OF
the distant horizon, but the sun-burst of peace
has come again, and old men and women, ant
little children playing, are seen in the streets o
our city, ana hll tne Dlesseu Industries OF peace
with our systems of schools, and the factors OF {
prosperous and happy
CIVILIZATION AT WORK.
Brethren, we welcome you to free city; an(
this was not always so, But as yesterday tn,
dark genius of slavery pressed down upon thi
city and this land with its promise. Terribl,
hoursl When, for the supposed necessity o
defending social life, antagonism and war agains
free thought free speech, an argus-eyed ant
cruel surveillance noted every heart throb, ant
systsm that hsid ali down ha1ow i, ,ha 49, ~
prises and the thoughts of men, and even mature
herself under its deadly spell. In that darl
period remember that our order the Congrega
tional order held one church, the only one that
know OF, certainly, living In that day, in all tn
slave states for decade of years. as a sort of
stronghold and an outpost into the realms o
slavery Till the great war came we were In
sort of siege AZ IL were not In outward form 10