Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-08-09
The WhIg Convention of $40.
A VERMONTER WHO LISTENED TO DANIEL
WEBsTERs GREAT SPEECH AT THE
NTLIpTNr


A VERMONTER WHO LISTENED TO DANIEL
wEBsrER's GREAT SPEECH AT THE
MEETING.
TO the Editor of the Free Press:
Noticing in your paper of to-day an ar
ticle entitled Another Game Reserve in
Vermont" and the statement that its To-
cation is to be in the town of StrattOn
and not far from the place where Daniel
Webster addressed the big whig conven-
tion of 1910, brought some of the connect
ed incidents to my mind.
1t will be remembered by those con.
versant with political affairs at that time,
and now living, that was the year when
the slogan of the party was "Tippecanoe
and Tyler too" and log cabins and hard
cider caused and constituted much of the
excitement which rocked this broad
and from north to south, and from east
to west in a wild upheaval, as earth
quakes upheave and toss continents, isl.
ands, seas and mountains with their ter
rble commissions.
That gathering on the top of the Green
Mountains was a mighty assemblage of
wings from both sides of Vermont's
backbone, and they came in thrOnging
multitudes from the lovely valley of the
Connecticut on the east and the equally
beautiful one of the Diapdahowe or Bat
tenkill andI adjoining regions of New
York on the west. 1t occurred in mid
summer.
1t was arranged for two days cam
paign, with bivouac session sand.
wiched in between the two days, and
had Daniel Webster and Henry Wilson
as the chief speakers, giving here their
,irrl,t fN
Harrison in the presidential seat of the
Nation.
Your correspondent was then youth,
a member of a band of musicians in the
village of North White Creek (now Cam
bridge village), Washington county, New
York. We had been employed to lead
that procession up the west side of the
Green Mountain to the rendezvous at its
top.
We came to Arlington the preceding
day, through cloud and storm, but when
the morning came every trace of cloud
or storm had vanished and all nature
seemed cleaned and perfumed for gala
| day.
Starting at an early hour on the day
| appointed, we We're followed by log
cabin drawn by eight spans of horses
driven by Charles Hicks, a noted Jehu
of those days, and a vast multitude of
al sorts of cOnyeyances and men on
| horseback and as pedestrians. We were
some hours in making the ascent, the
| giant mountains and dense forests on
every hand responding to the cheers of
the multitude, the roll of drums, the
music of the band, but more often to the
ringing notes of the log cabin charioteer
as he made the valley and hillsides echo
with stirring political song, the chorus
| to each verse of which was:
ITO put him in the capitol
We've found capital way,
o, Well sing a Harrison song by night
And beat his foes by day."
Or, as in seeming penitence of a once
opposing partisan he would wall out his
pretended feelings in another song, the
chorus of each verse being:
"Loco -foco, TOGO loco,
Loco-foco any more
Oh we never will play the
Loco fOco any more
Flags and streamers abounded every
where. banners and badges, decorations
and devices tluttered, and bazed along
the toiling ascent, as the moving multi
tude slowly crawled to the designated
place of gathering, which was reached
about II o'clock a. M, emerging into the
open fields, and were soon met by an
equally enthusiastic multitude crowding
out of the woods from the east.
1t was singular place for a political
gathering, or any other. There were not
more than two or three dwellings in
sight and these were log houses.
There were perhaps hundred acres of
cleared land, that is the trees had been
cut down, but everywhere the stumps re-
| ha or H.,
had never been disturbed by any tillage
of the soil. Nothing in agricultural form
was apparent, and nothing that was need
ed for sustenance for man or beast, but
water, was to be found, while forest
almost unbroken extended around on
every side from 20 to 70 miles.
1t was monster picnic on a magniti-
cent scale, and every form of refresh
ment had to be imported or rather up
ported, except water and sleep. OF the
first there was abundance, for gigantic
fountain burst right out between the
roots of two giant hemlOcks, enough to
meet the wants of our entire city pOpu-
lation, almost as cold as ice water and as
clear and sparkling as crystal; of the
second there was scarcity. 1t could nei-
ther be imported nor manufactured, nor
did it spring up anywhere spontaneously
and the comfortless conditions made the
short summer nights seem to some like
the long drawn hours of some endless
sorrow.
But no unfavorable surroundings nor
lack of sleep nor anything else seemed
to dampen the political enthusiasm of the
immense multitude, whose wit aud wis
dom aud songs and shoutings, and jokes
and repartee sparkled and cracked all
through the night, and was equal to a
morning reveille of continued enthusi-
asm as they listened to a parting charge
from the mighty chieftans present to
bold themselves and their state true to
the purpose of revolutionizing the po-
ltical character of the national govern
ment by placing the hero of Tippecano
land Tyler, too), at the head of the ex-
ecutive department of our republican
nationality. Then the host separated
each portion vending its way whence il
came; one result certainly achieved, fol
one boy went from that gathering with a
/, clearer view of the worth of the Repub'
lican government and a sense of the val
ue and obligations of American citizen
/, ship, and a resolve to be true to Ameri-
can citizenship, manhood, never realized
before and never lost since. And have
: thought many others also bore away like