Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-11-23
Thanksgiving.


The subject is trite, but its observance is
not The literary value Of Thanksgiving
day as theme for fresh and original writ
ing long ago disappeared. Socially and
physically the old Puritan festal day shines
with Frightening light in the calendar Of
public days. Its sectionalism has been over
thrown in this progressive age. The hearth
fires which, within the memory Of men who
are still young, were lighted by guberna-
torial proclamation in few only Of the
eastern states acting without concert, are
now kindled in grand accord at the signal
of the national executive. North, south,
east and west down the Atlantic coast,
away over the prsiries, beyond the rocky walls
to the Pacific slope, annually the edict goes
forth for all the people to join in giving thanks
for heavens blessings. The splendor, too,
of the modern festival outshines the humble
light of those frugal feasts over which the
pilgrim fathers hearts sweled with thank
fulness, by as much as the electric light
eclipses in Illuminating power the primeval
pine knot. Whether the time-honored fes-
tival imparts a corresponding increase of
genuine enjoyment is hardly a question.
1t is doubtful whether the richly-spread
boards of the present day gather around
them hearts whose gratitude for Astounding
comforts and luxuries and blessings, and
appreciation of them, is proportionaly
greater than the homely Thanksgiving of
the Indian-harassed Pilgrim for the fact
that he and his family had not actually
persisted by starvation, or that the treacher-
GUS savage had not taken their scalps.
There is even room for a suspicion that the
thanksgiving and the feasting in the lux
urious homes, and by the comfortable fire
sides that in less than three centuries have
spread westward from the bleak shores of
Massachusetts, Bay to the cleaning waters
of the Golden Horn, may lack something of
that stalwart personal spirit of thankfulness
for life preserved that for more than a GEN.
fury sprang from hearts standing constantly
in the presence of imminent and deadly
perils And yet every intelligent patriotic
citizen, though he may not have in these
days of refinement and civilization that
keen sense of thankfulness for protection
from dangers personal and tangible which
was experienced by men in the earlier days
when this festival had its origin, must feel
to-day measure of devout thanksgivi ng
that far exceeds and is entirely outside of
any personal or selfish considerations. This
spirit of thankfulness must regard individ-
ual benefits and blessings as of secondary
Importance and take in first the grand fact
that freedom to worship God, that civil
liberty for which hardships were boldly en-
countered and life itself held not too great
sacrifice, have triumphed and have been
perpetuated in "the best government the
sun ever shone upon" This thankful and
patriotic spirit is intensified and quickened
by the fact that the government, the germ
of which the authors of this Thanks
giving festival planted on this continent,
has weathered all the storms of war and
civil strife, and has escaped destruction by
fratricidal hands. The later fact that assas-
sination and all the powers of political evil
have not prevailed to endanger the govern
ment will be fresh source of thanksgiving
at to.morrow's festival. The sense of thank
full obligation for personal blessings may
never grow dim, but in these Thanksgiving
days it must play part subordinate to our
gratitude that the blessings which affect
Sbn ,,,I, thn
been through the past year and through all
the years which have past so signal and so
signally manifested. Our national pros
perity presents almost boundless reasons
for thanksgiving; but great as they are,
they are secondary to the blessed fact that
free government with all the hopes which
center in it still lives.