Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-01-21

Have wished me there-the thought that
Has checked that wish; and I have raised
And cried Ia thraldom. to that furious wind
Blow on This is the land Of liberty"
The mountain State of West Virginia has
for her motto, "Montani semper liberi.n
an ountsineers are always freemen." And
/ am inclined to give the mountains OF Yer
mont large measure OF credit for not only
the Drawn but the brain Of the sons she pro-
ducss and for their liberty loving character
istics The pure mountain streams furnish
US our hsalthfu drink. The mountain
brsszes viii oh sweep down through eur val
leys purify the atmosphere we breathe. The
rugged hill-sides teach our children lessons
in perseverance, patience, energy, and freq.
dom, Our sons are "toug hensd into man
hood by the incessant labor Of the farm and
forest and become quick Of apprehension.
fearless In danger, decisive III action, and
tirelsss in endurance" The sons of Vor-
mont to whom we point with most pride to.
day are those who have passed through the
crucial test of Vermont hardship and Ver-
mont toll. In the purity OF their lives they
stand foremost among the best, and in war
as well as peace they have earned the honor
OF being modes of scourage, fortitude and
virtue.
But the influence of our mountains
and our scenery is not only in
MIGRATING but 1t is refining and ennobliug
The Scottish poet George Macdonald, beau
tifully says
"A voice is in the wind do not know;
A moaning on the face OF the high hills
Whose uttcr&nce | can not comprehend;
a sonethin. Is behind thcm: That is God"
Were YOU to name tonight our ablest
constitutional lawyer the statesman ripest
and best informed as to all that pertains to
the political history OF our country for the
last quarter Of a century, it would unques
tionably be Hon. George f. E1munls. Self
reliance independence, and love of freedom
and right are and always have been his pre-
dominating characteristics
Those OF you who have passed along the
valley Of the Winooski will remember that
as you threaded the narrow gorge through
which the river makes its way from the
eastern to the western side OF the mountain,
you saw high up on your right, Cancels
Hump, on your left old Mansfieid Nestled
in between these cloud -capped mountai MS
lies the rough hillside farm, the birthplace
and early home of this liberty loving states
man. He loved those rugged mountains.
| He loved to wonder
'On and up whore Natures heart
Beat, strong amid the hills"
! He loved those mountain streamlets Whose
shallow waters scarce covered the pebbles
on their bottoms, conceaiin., the specified
| trout whose size seemed 10 render it impos-
sibe that it could have found q hiding place
beneath their rippleI surface. Bryant well
says:
40 him who in the love OF nature holds
| Communion with her visible FORMS she
| speaks
A various language
And who shall say that these influences, SO
pure, SO elevating and SO ennobling, did not
have a deep influence in moulding the char
acter OF this great man.
Our own idoli2el Morrill, whose term of
continuous service in Conxress-area1y
reaching 81 years, and if he lives to com
plete his present term will have reached Il
ysars-a record exceeding by several year,
that Of any other American since the form
alton of our Sovernment-ard who during
more than 30 years of that service has beer
an acknowledged authority upon questions
pertaining to the tariff and finance, wa,
horn, and, aside from his residence in Wash.
inston, has spent his life in little hamlet
among our green hills, miles away not only
from railroads, but from any village OF con-
siderable size.
Your own Lincoln, tho statesman, patriot
and martyr has counterpart in his tai
form, his unassufning manner, his quick per
ception of character, end his sterling gooC
sense in our Proctor, than whom no mar
better loves the rugged bills of the GreoI
Mountain state. If there is anywhere a per
feet type of Green Mountaneer in cour
age, seflrelianoe and visor, it is Redhed
Proctor
We have been justly prond of Vermont''
pre-eminsace in the Senate for generation
Allow me to predict that that pre-eminence
will be maintained. A man who can, in
few short years, take u bankrupt marbl,
quarry and by skilful management, by com
bining, enlarging developing, make it by
far the largest of its kind on the face of tn,
earth; man who III less than three year
can, with almost unerring Judgement, DIS
cover and remedy the important defects anC
imperfections pertaining to the manag emen
of that important department of our gov
eminent, the portfolio OF war, must com
mand respect in the councils OF tho nation
Senate.
But timo would fail me tonight to &c
through the long list of distinguished sons
both in Vermont and out, which our Greer
Mountain State has given to the world; mer
VINO owe their success to the rugged energy
the holnely hOnelty, and the healthy viaol
developed OIL her mountain sides. She ha
confcsseily produced more distingui,hsc
public men in proportion to her population
than any other State in tie Union. Tn
population of our country to-day, in rounC
numbers, is approximately G5, 000, 0D0, o
which Vermont has only 35i, 900, or on
one hundreth ninety-ftth part OF the whole
Counting the president OF the Senate, Nor
ton, Senator Pettigrew OF South Oak ota
and the two senators from Wisconsin, Villa
and Sawyer, there are SIX native sons o
Vermont IN that honorable body, or NOR
, than one fifteenth of its entire number.
other words, she is represented there b
more than 10 times the numerical proper
ton to which her population would entitl
her.
Morton was born in Shoreham, Sawye
in Whiting, Villas in Chelsea, Pettsrew i
Ludlow, Proctor in Cavendish, Morrill, i
STAFFORD, Edmunds in Richmond. It is
singular fact that the population of no on,
OF these towns which have the high honor c
. producing these distinguished membsr. of tn
4 Senate exceeds 1910 to-day, with the sin
I sle exception Of Ludlow which has f6S
But do hear some one say, YES, Their
is something phenomenal in the number {
Q distinguished men which Vermont la. give