The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-01-08

/ try going through every day from the ig
{ norant and slipshOd methods Of speak
ing and writing which prevail among us
methods which never'can be corrected i
we study only our own or other moder
languages, shifting and changing from
day to day, as they inevitably must dc
under the changes OF modern thought
and life. (Applause.) Accurate and
sound language requires to be referred
to the fixed models of an elder day as
much as the sciences of construction and
calculation need TO be referred to the
fixed abstraction of pure mathematics,
which never will be seen by the eye, but
are actually true to the Thought. All the
physical study and natural history in the
world, boundless, fascinating, useful as
it is; all the study of things never can
replace the study of man-man as he has
lived, man as Le has taught, man as he
has spoken; and thai in,the two impe-
rial races OF the earth, which made the
littl Meditefrapeah peninsulas, in the
course of few ceilfufies, more mighty
to control tile sfeHies OF the world than
whole dark aeenfi4ents through whole
obscure cycles Great applanse.) When
medicine and astronomy and philosophy
cease to trace their unbToken history
back to Greece and the.laws .0f thought
she made; when law ialld government
and warfare cease tefIll tilg
birthplace in. che Sdseh ftillsf Wien
Socrates and Caesar cease to he the ideal
types of the moral sense and the highest
practical energy, then we may cease to
teach our future American citizens Greek
and Latin, but not till then. (Applause.)
OTHER DUTIES TO PERFORM.
But, sir we have other duties TO per-
form. We were not founded, as some
colleges and universities and academies
have been, by men whose sole distinc-
ton was that they did found those uni
versities, and whose name would else
have died. Our foundation was one of
the last public acts of life as already
4 crowded with action and honor, as Illus
tTiOus and beneficent, as any in the his
tory Of our country. (Apglause.) Many
men are now engaged in rewriting the
history of our early days, much rs MOmm-
| sen or BuTgsch rewrites the history of
Rome or Egypt, and are doing their best
to show that our fathers were entirely
different men from what their cOntem-
poraries and descendants have always
supposed them to be. In these investi-
cations John Adams has received com
paratively little alteration, perhaps be-
cause the perfect simplicity and frank
ness of his whole life made it impossible
to tell his story in more than one way,
| The calumnies that hunted him when he
returned from Office passed away before
his death and left him admired and
loved by all his cOuntTymen, from Jeffer-
son down: and no one henceforth will
dare to write the history of our first %
4 years without recognizing him as equal
to any of our founders in energy, in in
dustry, in foresight, In eloquence, in in
tegrity, in devoted patriotism. Zap
1plause) He began his public service as
a school master. (Applause.) He closed
it by founding the academy over which |
have the honor to preside, and woe to
the man who in such position does not
train his pupils to look to the likeness
of John Adams (applause) as their great
inspiration, and to initiate, as far as may
be, those qualities that made him the
blessing and glory of his country. Zap
plause.) Energy and industry perhaps
American boys will be taught anywhere;
the air of America is full of such lessons.
Not, indeed, that most advisers of youth
with us would think of using such very
antiquated words as energy and indus
try; but they are very particular to i'm
press on all young men the need of
''hustling" Qaughter), in order to be sure
that no spark of nobility shall linger in
the fiame OF their ardor and make Il Wis
ionaTy and impractical, The fiery and
persuasive elOquence of Adams, which
forced the timid ones at Philadelphiafn-
to the adoption of the great Declaration,
cannot perhaps be taught unless the
germs are in the boys nature; but we
still keep up. sir, and we are not ashamed
Of-it. tue aldsfasbianeds England
practice of defamation = speaking
pieces; storing our pupils memories
with the standard classic masterpieces of
our language and having them deliver
them with very little reference to the
rules of elocution, and every encourage
mcnt to speak as John Adams did, with
the heart behind every word. ZAP
plause.) BY this means, sir, we trust
when our boys shall have to think and
write for themselves, great thoughts
i'll great words shall come in
stinctively to their tongues, and base
thoughts in base words find that there is
no room for them when they would in
sinuate an entrance. (Applause.) We
cannot impart John Adams almost pro-
phetic foresight, which slw his country S
+. duty and destiny long before many OF his
doubling contemporaries: bat we can
teach our boys that the right and noble
kcouIse is always at hand, always waiting
for the lips of the righteous and noble
imam to speak the word; and that that
Eword which calls the right and noble ac-
tions may be spoken too soon for any
selfish aims of the speaker, but never
can be too soon for his country anu man
kind. Great applause.) But at least
we can teach the spotless integrity and
unbounded patriotism of John Adams
we can make them feel the spirit Of him
whose excitable frame was thrilled to the
4 depths by every call of honorable ambi-
tion, who plunged into the fray Of noble
reuown like the charger that carried
i Sheridan to Winchester, and yet who
4 would not have concealed his true senti-
ments or stopped to base act if the
1 Presidency Of the United States had been
i the crown of the world (applause); and
i We can teach them his patriotism. ZAP
Rlause.) .,- H.t',isf
L. SCHOOL OF AMERICANS. 3D..
Our school, founded by John Adams S
fellow citizens, has from its opening
been attended by pupils fran every part
benches sit year after year boys from
every State Of New. England, from New
York and Pennsylvania, from Albany
and Tennessee, from Ohio and Texas
from illinois and California, Out Of
)every text book from the first year TO the
last, from the History of England to the
Orations of Cicero, we find a chance to
draw the lesson that the name United
States takLs verb in the singular (great
lapplause), and that we are, as long as the
Mississippi runs to the sea, many and
yet one. (Applause) That was the pa
triotism of John Adams; that was the
patriotism of the New England scholars,
her schoolmasteTs and university men.
II ever it has seemed otherwise, II ever
our sister States have fancied that Mas
sachusotts was sectional and notnatiohal,
that we were SO in.lOve with the Hub of
the, Universe that we fancied our nation
al wheel had no radiating spOkes, and no
binding fellOes; it has all been'a momen-
t9ry cloud, passing error Applause J
i lWheneqer the thought Of New England
can make itself felt she will speak out.
She has spoken out with the broadest,
the most sympathetic nationality.
,lTGreat applause Her scholars know
what were the senseless local dissensions
fthat ruined Greece, they know what was
4 the .'over-centralized imperialism that
crushed Rome They have followed the
divisions and the consultations of mod
ern Europe. They see the truth which
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