The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-05-17
.hongh. I'D conrse. II is annoYing. Dnr.

ing the winter of 1856, when thor
oughly united band of patriotic citizens
Governor Hall at their head, though OF
account of his great age not so active a
some, commenced in earnest this mon
ument scheme, Major Valentine va
not in the town Of Bennington and wal
not one of the chief movers in ii. WheI
he returned in the spring Of 1876 anC
found such large plans laid out for I
monument and a centennial celebration
he began to oppose, and has kept up hi
opposition, except at rare intervals, evel
since. One of his first moves was to try
to expel me from the Historical Society
He made the motion to that effect, bu
as he was entirely alone in his schem,
he abandoned it, though we had quite {
stormy meeting, naturally. He was also
not entirely alone, | regret to say, in hit
opposition to the monument and cen
tennial, though he had but little sym
pathy in his movements, and has very
generally been as badly defeated in al
his plans for preventing the accomplish
ment of the purposes of the association
as he was in the attempt to force the
Weir Phelps design on us. But for his
opposition, and that which he melted
aided and abetted, the monument enter
prise would long ago have been COM
pleted, as we all know now. 1t would
have been carried out, too, on a much
more extensive scale than it can posi-
bly, be now; for, no matter how grand 6
monument we shall eventually secure
can it be doubted that had all the mem
bers of the association worked together
in the same patriotic spirit that ami
mated the breast of Hiland Hall, and
which pervaded the association gener.
ally, the accomplishment of its ends
would not only have been sooner reached
but that the results desired would have
been Of far greater magnitude, and
therefore more worthy of the event
commemorated and more creditable 10
the association itself2
1t is far from pleasant to review, in
this manner, the work in the associa-
ton of few, and of a very few, men.
had almost said of one man, but be
was not, unfortunately, entirely alone,
though very nearly so, in his warfare on
the monument proJect-a warfare some
times OF the petty nature of this quorum
business, "much ado about nothing" as
one member styles it, "a tempest in a
teapot" another, and sometimes of a
most serious nature, such as the attempt
to surreptItiously force on us the Weir
Phelps design. True, he has been de
feated at nearly all points in this fight,
and no one rejolces more than he that
he has, but these constant defeats have
cost money and time; and that this NAV
be the better understood in the commu
nifty it is necessary to have his course
reviewed as | have done, unpleasant as
the task most certainly is to me.
One would suppose that from his con
slant defeats he would learn wisdom,
but he does not. His warfare, however,
harms no one personally but himself,
and is in this respect much like that Of
another major once read of, and which
is related as follows: "A certain post in
the far West, 20 the story goes, wac in
command of major of artillery who
was constantly lamenting that his favor.
lite arm could not be more frequently
used against the Indians. Finally one
day he took one Of the small howttzers
which defended the fort, and had it Sc
curely strapped to the back of an army
mule, with the muzzle projecting over
the animals tail. With this novel gun
carriage he proceeded in high feather,
with the captain and sergeant, to a
bluff on the bank of the Missouri, near
which was encamped band of friendly
Indians. The gun was duly loaded and
primed, the major remarked something
about the moral effect the exhibition
was likely to produce upon the Indian
allies, and stepped gayly forward and
applied the match.
'The curiosity of the mule was aroused.
He jerked his head around to see what
was fixing away there on the neck, and
the next second his feet were all
punched together and making forty rev.
buttons a minute, while the gun was
threatening with instant destruction
everything under the canopy within the
radius of Its range. The captain Skinned
up the only available tree. The ser
geant threw himself fiat on the ground
and tried to dig a hole with his bayOnet
TO crawl into, while the fat major rolled
over and over i'll agony, alternately in
goking the protection of Providence
and cursing the mule. Finally the ex-
Dlosion came, the ball going through the
roof of the fort, The recoil of the gun
md the wild leap of the terrified mule
carried both over the buff to a safe an
,horage at the bottom of the river. The
iiscomtited party returned safely to the
ort. Shortly after the chief of the In
iians appeared and announced briefly:
'Injun go home"
Questioned as to why, he thus ex-
"Injun very brave; help white
nan. Injun use gun, use bow arrow,
Use knife; but when white man fire off
whole jackass, Injun no understand. no
hink right. lniun no help UNI fight
hat way"
Our own major, having "shot off his
and having thus disclosed the
imilarity of his present warfare with
hat of the major in the story as charac.
erized by the "Injun,' doubtless expects
lie to retire as the "Injun" did. This
hall do, but not because of his warfare
IN me. Its character is too much like
hat of the artillerist to induce me to
cave on account of it. | go because
ny work is accomplished and, regret
o say, so Enthusiastically accomplished. I
wing to the Causes | have named, that J
have no wish to have any further con !
'ection with it, for no good end could
re served thereby.
CHAs. NJ. BLISS.
Bennington, May Is. 1888.