Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-12-23
FOReFAThERs' DAY.
ANNIVERSARY.


ANNIVERSARY.
The anniversary of the landing of the
Pilgrims was celebrated, on Wednesday
evening at the Congregational church, for
the 50th consecutive year in Middlebury
under the auspices of the Middlebury His
torical society. The occasion was In every
way worthy the event cOmmemorated.
The Grafton proved, as could safely have
been foretold, one of the best of recent
years; the speeches after the supper were
bright and to the point, and the musical
part of the programme, which Mrs. Mi
ner arranged and assisted, as organist
and accompanist, in carrying out, was of
exceptional excellence.
THE GRAFTON.
The public exercises began in the main
audience room of the church at 6 80
O'Clock and were largely attended. Hon.
John w. Stewart presided. The volun-
tary was followed by the singing of the
anthem. "Teach me, o Lord, the way of
thy statutes. Prof. W. w. Eaton made
the invocation and read portion of the
18th Psalm. Then Mrs. Hemans' famil-
lar ode, "The breaking waves dashed
high, was sung, and Rev. Il. G. Lyons,
the Baptist pastor, offered prayer. The
singing of the hymn, "Over the noun
tain wave", concluded the Introductory
service.
Hon. Daniel Roberts of Burlington de-
livered the address. 1t was, it is hardly
necessary to say to those who know
him, scholarly, finely written and in
teresting presentation of his subject. He
first told of the causes which led the
Pilgrims to leave their English home for
Holland and to come thence to the will
derness of this continent. The Pilgrims,
he said, were truly children of the great
reformation of the 10th century. Trac-
ing their history down to their depart
ure from Leyden, and stating the facts
of their persecution in England and their
subsequent dongs largely in the quaint
language of the chronicles they left, the
speaker dwelt at some length upon the
significance of the compact drawn up in
he said, the birth of true civil liberty.
There had been so-called constitutions
before that, but they were merely grants
of immunities or agreements as to the
Limitation of kingly powers. He allud-
ed to the discovery of America by Colum-
bus and compared that event with the
founding of the Plymouth colony,
which latter movement far exceeded, in
Its motive and moral purpose, the
exploits of the GenOese navigator. The
spirit which animated the Pilgrims has
been the inspiration to large extent of
the civil, the educational and the religious
institutions, first, of New England,
thence progressing by immigration and
free association to the West aud meas
urably to the South. The speaker then
referred to the marvellous growth of the
country in population and to the large
influx of foreigners, some of HON he
was not inclined to regard AS desirable
additions. In concluding his address,
of the body of which the foregoing is
but the merest outline, he said:
America has shown great capacity in ASST.
initiating its heterogeneous population and
bringing them to common standard OF
American citizenship and manhood, less pro-
vlncial, more cosmopolitan than the New
Englanders OF early days, and in many re.
spects not the worse. 1t would, indeed, be a
sad thing to be obliged to admit that notwlth.
standing all the advances in science, In the
arts of lite, its industries and education and
all the lnstrumentaitIes OF civilization for
two hundred years past, the American man
has deteriorated or become alien to the prin.
ciples OF the FIRST founders OF our republic.
Pessinism has no place in any scheme or ef-
tort to reform or improve society and raise
the standard of manhood and citizenship to
higher plane OF true and righteous living.
Despair does not belong to American thought,
put great ana inspiring hope, rather, veal |
ing the grand outcome OF the future IN a reign
OF Righteousness and peace of law and of
love. Such hopes are warranted by the law
OF development which prevails in society and |
government, as everywhere In nature from |
the lower TO q higher and perfected type and |
though sometimes there may be downward
movement and n seeming retrOgre ression at |
some point in the cycloidal track OF the wheel |
OF progress, the net result Is still an advance |
The axis OF the revolution Is ever advancing |
along the plane of progress, the terminal |
point OF the downward curve being even the |
starting-point tor new one moving upward
and forward.
This advance is more than theory or the |
conclusion OF any priori reasoning. 1t is
pre- we'd by the facts OF history and observa-
ton OF the occurrences OF daily lite. Thus, in |
the era OF the Pilgrims the belief In witch.
craft was world wide . . So late as l7l6 an
English court sent a witch to the gaIIows: in
l722 one was burned in Scotland; in 1856 one
in Ireland; and in 1873, which was one hun
dred and one years after the last execution
in New England, one was executed in Germa-
ny. II is greatly to the credit OF Plymouth
colony, strongly illustrating their superiority
In enlightenment to the sister colonies that |
only two prosecutions Tor witchcraft were in
stituted there, and these turned out to be mis-
cradle failures. But the days OF witchcraft |
are over and gone, and ugly old women are
no longer hanged or burned up tor consorting
with the devil and tormenting their better
looking neighbors and throwing little child
ren into its; The fires OF the stake have gone
out. The thumb-screw, gallows, whipping
post and stocks, once so active IN their work
OF determination of evil doing and wrong
have almost wholly passed into " in
nocuous desuetude" and hiu themselves out of
sight Small boys are not in these days hung
for stealing an article of the value of IL pence,
as was once the law OF England. Women are
not whipped In public on the bare back or set
exposed In the stocks tor SANDER or scolding
or the like. IL Is now even rare that men are
imprisoned tor being poor and unable To pay
their debts, and the American man is no long
er Obliged or constrained TO make confession
to a prescribed creed, to go to a church not of
his liking or pay tor preaching that does not
suit him. The law and its administration are
In continuing process OF amelloration In their
gSAN lAa tnn nj
combined with prevention OF offenses, rather
than vengeance toward the offender as a
has come to be considered the truer
end OF punitive laws. The rights of the man