The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-08-26

New York. Represented neither in con-
gress nor in the Legislature Of Now York
and without means or influence To- make
herself felt in either body, recognition of
her independence and her admission to the
Union were continuously refused and the
title Of her people to the homes they Occtt-
pied denied. The contest of the colonies in
the revolution was against taxation without
representation. That of Vermont, through
the war and for eight years afterwards, was
against cOnliscatiOn without representation.
No oppression charged upon Great Britain
by America approached that sought to be
visited by congress and by New York upon
vermont, while she was fighting side by
side with them, to her last man aud last
dollar, in the struggle for national indie.
pendence. The history Of the early life of
Vermont is grand and ihspiritiug history.
NO words of mine in these brief moments
can justly characterize it. We find itdifticult
at first in trying to understand it., to raise
ourselves TO its plane and to view it in the
light of its time rather than of Ours Ac-
custOmed to see self-nterest predominant
and individual success the universal goal,
we are involuntarily cropping after motives
and springs of action in the builders of our
state, which had no existence among them.
We do not rightly comprehend what they
did until we come gradually to realize the
absolutely unsellish devotion, the genuine
and unalloyed patriotism, the ardent love
of liberty of those plain, unassumiug, up
right, resolute, God-fearng men, who were
striving to the uttermUSt not for place
or distinction or wealth or power, bat
to achieve selfgovernment, to establish
homes, to create civil institutions that
should be truly free, salutary and enduring
The more closely we study their lives and
their works, the greater is our admiration
for their character and their capacity.
After mentioning the date of the signing
OF the act admitting Vermont into the
Union February IL, l79l-Mr. Phelps came
to his final words of eulogy for the past and
aspiration for the future: So came Vermont
AT last, hundred years ago, into the sister
hood of the states-latest of existing COM
monwealths to join it; first accession to the
old thirteen. remnants of colonial mag
nihcence adorned her approach. No trad-
lions of Old-world aristocracy gave distinc-
ton to her presence, or grace to her society
No potency in national politics attracted
the parasites of the hour The uxuries of
wealth We're unknown to her. For the ee-
ganCe of high culture she had found little
opportunity. Rustic and shy, but pictur-
esque, Swallowed by the memories Of "a try
ing experience, uncomfortable in spirit,
proud Of her untarnished history, and half
reluctant to surrender the Independence
that had cost so much and been cherished
so long But she came to rem in She has
sought no divorce from the Union to which
on the altar of the new constitution she
had been among the foremost in creating
that Union and should have been the last
to assail it, yet essayed its destruction, n
600 of her young manhood almost Il 1.-THE
of her people, went ont in its defense. And
in all that widespread and terrible conflict
there was no battle-ground on which her
children are not buried Her life, whether
in peace or in war, through all the century
that now closes upon us, has been not only
in the Union, but for the Union The high
places, the distinctions, the ambitions, the
emoluments of the national government,
have been chiefly for others, not for her.
She has neither claimed them nor sought
them nor desired them-content to stand
and to wait, and when service was demanded
never to be found wanting. Retaining the
primitive simplicity of her institutions, she
has been the nursery of men who have car
ried into other commonwealth the strength
of her hills and have fortified by their in
telligence, their energy and their character
all the states whose gathering stars now
fill to overlooking the field of the national
ensign, II is not on this spot alone that
these memories are revived. Tue sons of
Vermont are not all here. The multitude
that surrounds us is but handful. In all
the cities and hamlets of the western plain,
on savannah, and prairie, and river and
hillside, in fields innumerable, golden with
the harvest, wherever on this continent
there is work to be done or enterprise to he
carried forward, there they are, aud there
will this day and its ceremonies be remem-
bered, and its inspiration felt.
And now, my fellow-ctizens. our task
draws to its conclusion. The public spirit
and the persistent efforts of all these years
have found their reward in the structure
that stands before us. Many, alas how
many, of those who in its foundation have
shared our labors and guided our counsels,
and who looked forward with us hopefullv
tlair
this day, but have gone on before. The cir
Gle that is left % exchange these congratu-
lations is painfully narrowed. But the work
is done. Committing it now to the care of
the state with whose existence we trust il
will be coeVal, our concern with it termi-
Mates and our duty is discharged Its stately
proportions rise away from us into the upper
air. Our monument no longer Not for MS
nor for our time is it henceforth raised on
high. Long before it shall cease to be recll-
oned as young, we and our children will
have disappeared from the scene. 1t is ON
messenger to posterity Here it shall wait
for them while successive generations shall
be born and die. Here it shall wait fol
them through the event rs and the morn.
ings that shall be all the days that are tc
come. Crowned with the SHOWS of count
less winters, beautiful in the sunlight and
the shadows of unnumbered summers com
paniOn OF the mountains which look down
upon it, whose height it emuates, whose
strength it typihes, whose history it declares
The earth is studded with monuments
From the earliest period of recorded time
mankind has striven for a language more du
rable than words, in which human memorie,
might be perpetuated. They have found il
chiefly in the symbolism of monumental
architecture. But for the employment of that
language there must be sentiments to bt
transmitted worthy of its grandeur. In
those lie the appeal to futurity, not in the
medium of expression, however powerful Oh
impressive. And therefore it il that the
most imposing and venerable of such struc
lures known to the world only stand 81
lently over the grave of the dead past
They have no history TO relate, no lesson tC
teach. Solitary relics of race that is eX
tinct, a civilization that has persisted, insti
tutions that have disappeared, cities and
| temples that have returned to the dust, Il
research and to imagination they art
! equally dumb. The desolation of the des
| ert surrounds them. We regard them Will
wonder, but without instruction. Not sucl
the destiny of the memorial we dedicate
here. Its grand silence shall be perpetuallS
eloquent; its teachings shall never cease
| 1t shall carry forward the history of those
early days; of all that made Bennington
heroic and all that Bennington brought tC
/ L.