The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-13
INDIANA AND VERMONT.

INDIANA AND VERMONT.
Recent Reunions Cause Comparisons To Be
Drawn Between the Two States.
New York Evening Post,
By rather curious coincidence there have
assembled this week in an Eastern and III a
Western State two companies OF men who have
been prominent in their development as com
monweaths At Montpelier have gathered. to
the number of many hundreds, members of the
Vermont Legislature for more than half CEN
fury past, while at indianapolis has been held a
reunion of the survivors of the Constitutional
Convention of I850-51. Each occasion has
brought out food of local "reminiscences. and
each gathering, in its very composition, throws
much light upon the history of the State. The
Simultaneous occurrence of the two reunions
thus serves to portray in striking light the
points of difference and of resemblance between
States which are typical of two very different
methods of development.
Vermont is the nearest which we now have
left to survival of the ancient Puritan common
wealth. Settled almost exclusively by the
original Puritan stock it has ALWAYS retained
large share Of their peculiar character For half
century its growth in population has been
trifng, the increase in each of two decades being
less than 000 and for the whole fifty years from
1880 to 1880, only from $50 652 to 332 2S6 Inc
distribution of the population continues almost
the same as in the earliest period OF New Eng
land, when cities in the modern sense were I'M
known. and the people were th1nly scattered
through the agricultural sections. The largest
place in the State. Rutland. bias only about II
600 people, and there are but nve others Win as
many as 5000 apiece. The for
eien element is very small. and
is chiefly massed in the towns, so that there are
counties where not more shan one in fifteen of
the people were born abroad. The native born
are to a remarkable extent, the descendants of
Vermonters. only fourteen in every hundred
having been born in other States. Nowhere else
in the country can the antiquarian discover so
many communities which preserve, in the clos
ing years of the nineteenth century, so many of
the characteristics which distinguished them at
its beginning.
While Vermont is thus still State Of one
prevailing type, Indiana is good sample OF
composite commonwealth which has grown rap
idly by accretions from all parts of the country
and world. In the half century when the New
England State increased her population less
than one-fftb, the Western one advanced by
leaps and bounds, so that it's 343, OBI people of
1880 had become almost sixfold as numerous
when the ceasus of 1880 disclosed 1873
Indiana has drawn from the older parts
of the country is forcibly shown by the statistics
as to the birthplace of the members Of the con-
vention of 1850 Kentucky heads the list with
90 next come Pennsylvania ana Virginia, each
with 10; then Ohio, with IL. and New York. with
16 while Indiana itself, although admitted to the
Union a full generation before, stood sixth, with
b. followed closely by Maryland and Tennessee,
with apiece. while Massachusetts and South
Carolina each had representatives, and Yer
mont l. Of course, the proportions of the
whole population contributed from these
sources would not agree with these divisions in
the convention. but as such body was re-
cruited from the most prominent men In the
State, the figures give good idea OF the varying
forces which shared in the development of the
State.
Each State has found itself able to learn from
the other 1t is curious illustration of the fact
that a community made up of various elements
is often more open to progressive Ideas than
more homogeneous one, that Indiana as early
1850 saw the wisdom of having the Legislature
meet only once in two years. while the conser-
vatism of Vermont chung to the annual system
until 1860. Indiana on the other hand, took the
New England State for a copy in its provisions
for public education. The Eastern common
school system thus transplanted Immediately
took root and throve finely in Western soil.
While Vermont did not hold its own in
tho matter of illiteracy between 1850 and
1860 the number of adults in Indiana
who could not read and write fell off from
r. no to g. TIC in the decade after the conven-
ton, although the population increased by more
than one-third Ill the same period BY 1880 the
Western State had caught up and passed the
Eastern one, the percentage of persons returned
as unable to read by the last being 40
per cent in Vermont and 48 in Indiana. Much
stress had been laid at Montpelier this week
upon the services of Vermont to the Union dur
ing the war, and it is highly creditable to the
little State that she contributed 80 262 men to
the army out of GO, $50 males of the military age
in 1860. or SO per cent. of all Yet Indiana, de-
spite the large Southern element in her popua
lion did even better 1871 lat out of 265 29S or IA
per cent. her nearness to the scene of military
operations accounting in part for this remark
able showing.
The relative weight of TIE two States in the
government has undergone wonderful change.
Vermont once had six representatives in Con-
gress out OF 181, and Indiana but three. while
now Vermont has only two out of 325 and In
diana thirteen. Tie transformation is only
typical Of that which has befallen New England
as section. In the first years of this century
that part of the country contributed quarter
of The lower house; it sends only twelfth
1t is hard for these older States find themselves
remaining almost stationary in population and
thereby dwindling in political power-unless
they have the shrewdness to arrest the process
by retaining in service, when they can find
them. such. men as Senators Edmunds and
Morrill,. They Inclined. not unnaturally, to
feel that this appare ~ decay of the old stock in
relative influence BODIES i'll for the country. 1t
is WE'LL therefore. that they should realize that
the newer and more heterogeneous States, to
which they have themselves made large contri-
buttons, are keeping pace with them in all that
goes to make successful commonwealth and
that New England may even proftably take an
occasional lesson from the West.