Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-04-20
Presentation Of Mrs. Hayes Portrait


MISS WIZARDS ADDRESS.
Mr.. President I'VE are here to present
TO the nation through its honored chief a
temperance testimonial from the men and
women, high and low, rich and poor, FORUM
ate and unfortunate, who have loved her
whose pictured presence is now before us,
because they have felt that she was the de-
fender of our homes, because amid the fogs
of time-worn social conservatism she held
steadily aloft the torch of an example safe,
gentle and benignant. We stand in the
presence of one whose utterances and char
acter are known TO all the nation. | do not
forget how, in the tumut and strife of great
political commotion, James A. Garfield of
Ohio said Remember, it is in the house
where the sovereign citizen has his wife and
children gathered around him that God pre-
pares the verdict of the American people,.
do not forget that he reminded the women
of Cleveland, when they came to Mentor
with their congratulations, that in every
army there are three classes,-the scouts,
who go ahead the soldiers, who do the
fighting and within ALL the home guards /;
and that he said, God bless the women /
they are Americas home guards do not
forget that in his inaugural he reminded us
by the sacred words, A little child shall
lead them,' that the tenderness and sweet
ness of childhood had a place in his thought
in that supreme hour and so, standing here,
feel very much at home, as do we all, in
this kind and brotherly presence. Mr.. Pres
ident, whom do we represent? We are a
part of your constituency, and we represent
great deal of earnest hard work done in
the name of God, and home, and native land.
We represent a volume of prayer rising like
incense to God from the very first hour that
we knew the burden which had been laid
upon you; and always have we sought a
blessing also from on high upon her who is
who is the mother of your sons and of
your sweet young daughter, and upon her
who bore and cherished you. We represent
that numberless throng who have right to
be heard in this presence because of all that
they have suffered. We cannot speak to
you of the graves. of the living aud the
graves of the dead that have strewn our
pathway because of the cup that tempts
only to destroy. Our principles and our
endeavor are the inevitable outcome of the
philosophy of our century. Well it is un-
derstood by the scholar president For one
dominant purpose runs through all our
modern civilization. Science spells it out
slowly from the writing in the rocks, from
scattered monuments and fossil languages,
and pronounces it the unity of man. States.
manship discovers that the woes of one ma.
ton are the misfortune of all, and so frames
treaties and forms alliances of mutual de.
fence and service in the name of the solidar.
ity of man; but Christianity, perceiving
the higher significance of all these studies
and their practical results, prays, pleads and
labors for the universal brotherhood of man
Among the applications of this great under
lying principle none is gaining ground more
rapidly than the practice of free and vol
untary total abstinence, for our own and
others sake from those alcoholic drinks
| which have alienated more hearts, dissolved
more homes, poisoned the air with more
cruel words, and moved kind hands to more
hateful deeds than any other agency outside
of pandemonium. Where is thy brother ?
is to-day the central question in that larger
home which we call social life, answered by
thousand kindly charities, but most sig
| nifcantly answered, as we believe, by the
great army of total-abstainers, which in the
present military exigency is calling, all VI
and down the land, for volunteers. We are
| hoio W lvave III your care Tie picture wnicf
| symbolizes so much of hope and glad expec
tation for the future. We are here because
it is women who have given the choicest
hostages to fortune. Beyond the arms tina
hold them long the boys go forth and CONT
not back again, and the mother-heart pray
that society may hedge them round abou
with loving safeguards and restraints, ant
fervent is our hope that a steady signal
light may shine forth from the conspicuou
widows of the presidential mansion A
members of the church Of Christ, we appea
to you to help hasten the time when al
mems veal shall be each mans care, and W,
pray Gods blessing upon you, upon you
wife, and upon those that cluster arouut
you in your home. Well has the Laureat'
said concerning the good time which tn
triumph of the temperance cause shall hell
to usher in
| Ring out old shapes Of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold
| Ring out the thousand wars Of old,
Ring in the thousand years OF peace
"'Ring out sowly-dying cause
And ancient forms Of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life.
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
"Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindler hand;
| Ring out tha dar RI naaa NJ the land