The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-05-22
Don DickinSon's Speech.
tFrom Detroit Free Press.l

aspirations vi OldlOtS anu putNs justly
TO praise ar d honor the sacrifices, the
heroism, and the unexampled fighting
qualities of the men who marched and
rode with Grant, and Thomas, and
Sherman, and Sheridan, and Custer,
and legion of others of the men of
'G1-65 on the one side, and with Lee,
and Jackson, and Longstreet, ard the
Johnstons on the other, and still there
are depths of feeling toward you in the
breasts of your fellow countrymen re-
naming unexpressed, and they are be-
You'd expression in words. l will not
undertake that line of thought tonight,
but will try to outline another, leading
different way.
Can you, old soldiers of the Grand
Army, and you, citizen soldiers of the
republic, still hear the bugle call? Nay,
though some of your heads are white,
yet we who meet and pass you daily
note no dimness of eye or dulness of
hearing. However worn your eyes may
be, you note the flag you followed wher-
ever it floats on sea or land, and more,
your sight is go unerring and your hear
ing 80 alert, as that old bunting I'M
furls on the winds of heaven, that you
would mark the absence of the wonted
touch of pride or defiance in any of its
folds, and detect the slightest note of
Difference or humility in the sound of
its tapping.
Our country wants no more wars.
We trust in the providence of God that
the occasion may never come again
when a resort 10 arms may be neces-
sary. Nevertheless, war is always pos
sible, and, while we deprecate it, we do
not fear it. Whatever may come, how
ever, your tasks in the field are over.
But we think of this, that if a conflict
with some encroaching nation is ever
to come in the future, finding us, as our
wars have found us, without standing
army or a trained soldiery, we pray that
it may come so early that you and your
surviving comrades and our living
brethren of the South, the old blue and
the old gray, may still be with us for
guidance, for counsel and direction.
Optimists and some doctfinaires tell us
that the age of war is forever past.
The evidence does not sustain the prop
ositon. The peoples of the whole
world, excepting America only, are
either under arms or on war footing,
and the sinister preparations still 60 on.
In these days more favored trade re
lations and the opening of new mar
kets for commerce are the imperative
and more and more emphatic demands
of the dense and denser populations
and producers of Europe upon their
respective governments. Intrigue, and
war, and conquest, and massacre, and
false pretences, and treachery, are means
to this end in use by the great Compel
ing countries of the Old World in the
strife. 1t is the part of wisdom to con-
slider these things, and in our vigilant
guard Of our country's welfare it is our
patriotic duty to weigh as nothing all
international after dinner sentiment
and friendly professions in the stilted
and stock phrases of diplomacy. In
the present conditions we may indulge
in reciprocity of polite phrasing and
post-prandial exuberance, if our alert
watchmen will meantime keep an eye
on our good friends across the Atlantic,
espe cially when, having appropriated
Africa, the islands and even the rocks
of the sea, and wherever else force or
intrigue may gain footing, they begin
to take an interest, not altogether born
of curiosity or of purely Christianiz-
ing spirit, in this hemisphere.
l repeat, it is the part of wise men
and of wisdom, and not of alarmists
and hysteria, to note the changing con-
ditions of the world, to discuss them
and to study them in the interests of
America and her future. To illustrate,
no one can be 80 innocent, | suppose,
as to believe that the sentiment of rela
tionsbip or friendship of England to the
United States would stand in the way
of the settled policy of Great Britain
anywhere to make Englishmen richer,
and her power greater, even at our cost
If any one 30 believes, he has not read
with attention just little bit of history
only that of one hundred years, only
that of fifty years, only that of thirty
years, only that of two, only that of
one. For her splendid mpionship
of Englishmen, for her unreserved pro-
lection of her sons, whenever and
wherever treated with insult, oppres.
sion, outrage or injustice, England com
mands and receives the admiration o.
mankind. But an impartial civilization
has had no praise for her III her rela
tiona with and treatment of other ma
tons, peoples, and tribes.
Let us be just Her unvarying
policy is first, and last, and always, t.
advance British interests and retair
British supremacy, 10 retain and add tt
British wealth. Her purposes are ma
terial. These ends served, civilization
Christianity, humanity, the general wei
fare of the race, generosity and all the
virtues, may come and receive encour'
agement and promotion at her hands
but never at the expense, never in the
way of, and always subordinated to, thu
material policy have stated. Whoeve
gets in the way of that is the enemy o
England, will be so treated, whether i
be the United States, as great com
mercial rival who may be intrigued
against and encroached upon, and evel
crippled in some time of her distress o
when off guard, or tribe of black me-
in Africa, in the way of her COLOMBIA
ton schemes, who may be safely mas
sacred with machine puns as thei