Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-06-05
DAY IN BRATTLBBORo.
The Lessons of sclf-SacriHcc, Loyalty
and patriOtisms

memory of the brave men who offered their
lives for their country and their countrys
flag. when the thought of all is directed in
especial manner toward patriotism, loyalty,
bravery and self-sacrifce, was appropriate
/ w observed on Saturday by Brattleboro,
/ her veterans and their auxiliary organiza-
| tions citizens, militia and school children.
/ The heavy rain of Friday had frightened
/ the foliage and grass, making everything
! fresh and beautiful and though the morn
! inc of Memorial day was threatening, il
| cleared away and the afternoon was pleas
ant. Before the exercises of the day
opened at o'clock, the hall was filled to
| OVERLOOKING, and many who could not get
seats stood through the entire service. The
! Grand Army. Sons of Veterans. WOman's
Relief corps, Ladies' Aid society OF the
| Sons of Veterans, and large number OF
pupils from the different grades in the
| High school building, escorted by the First
Regiment band, and detachments from the
Estey Guard and Fuller Battery, marched
| to the hall and took the seats reserved for
them. while on the platform were officers
of the Grand Army, disabled veterans,
citizens and clergy and the orator OF the
day. The whole front of the platform was
a mass of flowers, laurel wreaths and hand
some floral designs being tastefully ar
ranged. DR.. b. f. Kctchum presided at
the exercises. which opened with selec-
ton by the band, followed by prayer by the
post chaplain, George +. Selleck. The
! BrattlebOro ladies' quartet gave two selec-
tions very acceptably, and Miss Lulu
Bracket repeated by request the poem
"Gettysburg,n which she gave on former
| similar occasion. her rendering bringing out
admirably the fire and spirit of the piece.
The orator of the day, Gen. Horatio {.
King of Brooklyn, y. Y, was introduced,
and his address was listened to with inter
est In opening he alluded to the fame
which Vermont had won by glorious deeds
of war from the days of Ethan Allen,
Stark and Warner in the Revolution, to
the four years of the Civil war, when the
Green Mountain boys covered themselves
with glory, winning a reputation for cour-
age of the highest type. and always to be
depended upon in an emergency. The
grand work of the Vermont brigade under
Stannard at Gettysburg was pictured anew,
and scenes from that three-days' struggle,
the Confederate Waterloo, were wildly
portrayed.
The speaker chose for his theme those
three great characters. to whom the
thoughts of all turn at this time, who
stand out boldly against the history of the
war period-Lincoln. Grant and Sherman.
If it is true, he said, that circumstances
make men, so it is equally true that God
raises up men to meet special and great
| emergencies. The gentle and yet great
| hearted Abraham Lincoln belongs to both
categories. Like Washington, he pos
sessed an honesty which could not be shak-
en-. an unseltishuess which no ambition
could affect and patriotism that held love
of country and love of God almost co-equal.
| Since Washington, no one ever entered the
presidential Office beset with more perpleX-
ing problems or greater responsibilities.
The country was divided in political senti-
ment, disloyalty ruled alike in the North
and the South, Congress bound highlands
of the President by refusing 20 vote on i'm
portant measures. business was paralyzed,
men were unconcerned. But through the
dark hours Lincoln steered the ship Of
state past every danger. Through all the
war the people leaned on him, never losing
faith, though disaster followed disaster
On the part of the soldiers there was the
deepest faith in him, and no thought of a
| peace which should involve the dsmember-
ment of the nation. AT the zenith of his
fame and glory, Lincoln died a martyr to
the cause for which he had struggled so
long. The darkness of despair fell on the
whole nation. His loss at this critical
juncture cannot be properly estimated,
but we cannot but feel that his death re-
tarded reconstruction and the restoration
of good feeling many years. The whole
nation looked to him for a speedy settle
ment of the difficult problems arising from
the changed condition of the labor question
in the South. 1t has been said that latter
the lapse of 20 years the high estimate of
him that the world appears instinctively to
have formed at the moment of his death
seems to have increased rather than dimin-
ished, as his participation in the great
events of his time has been more thorough
ly studied and understood.
Grant, the second great figure of the
war, the soldier born, the silent man of
destiny required a great emergency to de
velop and bring out his highest characters
tics. He rose by his own energies and ma
tive ability. While others planned and
POndered. he executed. In the hour of
victory he was as magnanimOus to the van
pushed as he was relentless in battle
The one unsetish purpose which he kept
steadily in view, the restoration of the I'm
ion, accomplished, he began forthwith the
rebuilding of the shattered South. The
beaten enemy became the object of his ten
der solicitude The parole which he grant
ed he compelled the government to respect
The nation which trusted him, sustained
him in this critical period. He lived to
see the whole land at peace, and when the
dread messenger came the South mingled
its tears with those of the North at his
tomb. He fought for principle and not for
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. He bound the Union to-
gether with bands of steel. The nation
founded by Washington, and saved by Lin
coin, was cemented and made perpetual by
Grant
Sherman, so recently gone from us. was
laid to rest with a sorrow as of personal
loss by all soldiers. At the opening of the
war Sherman was almost alone in under
standing and foretelling the greatness of
the coming struggle. On being appointed
a colonel he put into the conflict his best
energies and burning zeal, showing him
self fertile in resources, indefatigable in
energy, wonderful in strategy and unhinch-
ing in purpose, and he led his men, who
adored him, to repeated victory, until at
last he pierced the empty shell of the Con-
tederacy and showed how futile was fur
Their resistance to the veteran legions. pa
triotic and invincble; i'm word, the finest
army the world ever saw. Warm-hearted
and generous, his last official act as gener-
al of the army was to anticipate his COM
pulsory retirement by two years i'm order
that Sheridan, who had not the promise of
long life, might the earlier be made com
mander in chief. The speaker drew from