The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-08-21

| We do not rightly comprehend what they
did, until we come gradually to realize
the absolutely unselfish devotion, the
genuine and unalloyed patriotism, the
ardent love of liberty, of those plain, I'M
assuming, upright, resolute, God fearing
men, who were striving to the uttermost,
not for place or distinction or wealth
or power, but to achieve self govern
ment to establish homes, to Gre
ate civil institutions that should be
truly, free, salutary, and enduring. The
more closely we study their lives and
their works, the greater is our admi-
ration for their character and their
capacity.
In 1901, Vermont's long controversy
reached an end. phe justice of her
cause gradually made itself felt, both in
Congress and in the Legislature of New
York. 1t came to be seen that her
right to self-government ought not to
be denied, nor her institutions over
thrown, nor the lands of her people
taken from them, and that such results
could only be attained by war of eX-
termination. Her demands were finally
conceded. An amicable adjustment
was made with New York, and hun
bred years of unbrOken friendship be-
tween these neighboring States has
long obliterated all trace of the old-time
bitterness. On the 18th of February,
1871, an Act unanimously adopted by
| Congress for the admission of Vermont
to the Union, was signed by the hand of
Washington.
So came Vermont at last, hundred
years ago, into the sisterhood of the
States. Latest of existing common
wealths to join it; first accession to the
old thirteen. No remnants of colonial
magnificence adorned her approach.
! No traditions of old world aristocracy
gave distinction to her presence, or
grace to her society. No potency in
national politics attracted the parasites
of the hour. The luxuries of wealth
were unknown to her, For the ele-
| gance of high culture she had found
! little opportunity. Rustic and shy, but
picturesque, Swallowed by the memo
rieS of trying experience, unconquer-
able 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 remain. She has sought no
divorce from the Union to which on the
altar of the new Constitution she then
plighted her troth. When those who
had been among the foremost in Great
ing that Union, and should have been
the last to assail it, yet essayed its
destruction, thirty-four thousand of her
young manhood, almost 1.-THE of her
people, went out in its defence. And
in all that wide spread and terrible
conflict, there was no battle ground on
which her children are not buried.
Her life, whether in peace or in war,
though all the century that now closes
upon lis, has been not only in the
Union, but for the Union. The high
places, the distinctions, the ambitions,
the emoluments of the National Gov
eminent, 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. Less affluent in
production than lands that lie nearer
the sun, she has been the nursery of
men; who have carried into other COM
mOnwealths the strength of her hills and
have fertilized by their intelligence,
their energy, and their character, all
the States whose gathering stars now
fill to overlooking the field of the
national ensign. 1t is not on this spot
alone that these memories are revived.
The sons of Vermont are not all here.
The multitude that surrounds us is but
a handful. In all the cities and hamlets
of the Western plain, on savannah, and
PRAIRIE and river, and hill sides, in fields
innumerable, golden with the harvest,
wherever on this continent there is
work to be done or enterprise to be car
ried forward, there they are, and there
will this day and its ceremonies be re-
np1 &c
And now my fellow citizens, 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 labours
and guided our cOunsels, and who
looked forward with us hopefully to
their cOnsummation, have not waited for
this day, but are gone on before. The
circle that is left to exchange them
congratulations, is painfully narrowed.
But the work is done. Committing it
now to the care of the State with whose
existence we trust it will be coeval. our
concern with it terminates, and our
duty is discharged. Its stately proper
tons rise away from us into the upper
air. Our monument no longer. Not
for us nor for our time is it henceforth
raised on high. Long before it shall
cease to be reckoned as young, we and
our children will have disappeared from
the scene. 1t is our messenger to pos
terity. Here it shall wait for them
while the successive generations shall be
born and die. Here it shall wait for
them, through the evening and the
mornings that shall be all the days that
are to come. Crowned with the SHOWS
of countless winters; beautiful in the
sunlight and the shadows of unnum-
bered summers; companion of the noun
tains which look down upon it, whose
strength it typifes, whose history it de-
clares.
The earth is studded with monuments.
From the earliest period of recorded
me, it mankind has striven for a language
more durable than words, in which hui
man memories might be perpetuated.
They have found it chiefly in the SYM
bolism of monumental architecture. But
for the employment of that language
there must be sentiments to be trans
mitted, worthy of its grandeur. In those
lie the appeal to futurity, not in the
medium of expression, however power
full or impressive. And therefore it is,
that the most imposing and venerable of
such structures known to the world,
only stand silently over the grave of the
dead past They have no history to re-
late, no lesson to teach. Solitary relics
of race that is extinct, a civilization
that has persisted, institutions that have
disappeared, cities and temples that
have returned to the dust, to research
and to imagination they are equally
dumb. The desolation of the desert sur
rounds them. We regard them with
wonder, but without instruction.