The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-07-10

the settlement OF Calais The town of
Calais and the state of Vermont were fortu-
nate in their ancestry, and Calais was
again fortunate in having the same birth
year as this great and grand republic, the
United States OF America. Some over one
hundred years ago sixty men of the best
Puritan stock of Plymouth and Worcester
counties, Mass, met at Charestown and
formed a company which bought from the
Vermont legislature (then in session at
Arlington) the land comprising the town of
Calais. They settled the town and estab-
lished churches and schools and they and
their descendants have made good record,
both in civil and military life. The sons of
this town fought and died on many battle
fields of the civil war, and Company II,
Thirteenth Vermont Volunteers, recruited
mainly from Calais, and captained by a son
of Calais, fought valiantly at Gettysburg,
and is entitled to full share of the honor
given to the soldiers of the three Vermont
regiments which, on the third day of the
battle, repulsed Pickett's charge. A modest
granite monument with bronze tablets
containing the names of all the soldiers
born in Calais, should be erected in the
near future by the town to their memory.
Calais and the state of Vermont were in
deed fortunate in being settled by sturdy
race of people of English descent from
Connecticut and Massachusetts, the very
flower of Pilgrim and Puritan stock. Here
they lived and hourished, without scarcely
a century or up to the advent of railroads,
in 1913. They raised large families, and
their sons emigrated to, and filled leading
and important positions in, nearly all the
states of this Union. The early settlers of
the town and state were well described by
the Earl of Chatham in parliament when,
defending the acts of the revolutionary
fathers, he said: Divine Providence has
raised up on the shores of the New World
the noblest and the grandest race of men
the earth has ever seem Lowell says of
them that they We're the first men and law
givers to see, proclaim and establish by
law the great moral and political truth that
education should not be dependent on
charity or chance in private schools, but tis
duty and a debt owed by the state to edu-
cate all her children in the public schools.
Aristotle taught, many ages ago, that no
nation can exist long unless her sons are
imbued and in full sympathy with their in
sttutions and form of government. 1t is an
evident truth that on the intelligence of the
voter rests the whole fabric of our govern
ment The state and the United States should
guard with an eagle eye our common public
schools and pass laws requiring all children
of the nation to be educated in the English
language and the history of our government.
These thoughts are forced ON our minds from
the fact that Calais centennial year is the
nations centennial year. While all well
come emigrants who come to this country
to earn an honest living, we can not afford
to welcome or receive the anarchists, social
lists and agitators which the governments of
Europe have for the past fifteen years been
eXpelling from their own countries. Such
men as Herr Most, who travel about lectur-
ing, telling men how to make bombs cheaply
out of old gaS-pipe, are not wanted. Ex-
perience teaches, as rule, that agtators and
lawless men in Europe make bad citizens
here. These men, if they could, would
steer our good old ship of state out of its
true course. These men and all men should
remember that the history of past ages
shows that all attempts of mankind to es-
tablish permanent republic have failed
through the ignorance and lawlessness of
the masses OF the people, and that this great
nation stands pre-eminent and alone in all
the world as the example and champion Of
| free institutions, free thought, free altars
free speech and free men. My hope is that
all people who have come among us to live
will be willing to give up their Old World
! feuds and rejudices-willing to assmilate
and become one homogeneous people in
thought-so that this nation may not perish
| from the earth, but always remain a beacon,
hope for all people who love liberty and
order and are always true to the liberties Of
mankind"
NOTES.
AMONG the large number Of leading citi-
zens who turned out to honor the occasion
! by their presence were the following sons
and descendants of the proprietors and first
settlers OF the town; Ira Kent, Charles ).
Bennett, S. H. Foster, John Hall, Lemuel
Perry, Clarence Dwinell, Joseph A. Slay-
ton, John Morse Elhanan Ormsbee, Jonas
Galusha Ormsbee, Murray Kent and Sidney
Bennett. One of the features of the day
was a large number of ladies dressed in the
costumes of nearly one hundred years ago.
AT the banquet various toasts and re-
sponses were given: The first was Born
in Town" which was responded to by j.
w. E. Bliss This was followed by music
of the olden time by six ladies', in dress of
olden time, who sang The angel of the
Lord came down" Then followed THE
Pedagogue of One Hundred Years Ago."
response by Mahlon Hathaway; The Old
Log Cabin" response by n. G. Bliss; " The
Early Settlers" response by Mrs. Sophronia
Marsh Lafayette Artillery, Old Flood
wood and Cavalry" response by Albion j,
Mower; Woman's Christian Temperance
Union," response by Ardin Martin j." An
Old Resident" response by George j. Slay-
ton of Morrisville; Former Residents" ="
response by Lyman ID. Hathaway of Hard
wick. The toasts and responses were in
terspersed with music and firing of cannon.
The Barre Races.