The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-08-02
80, IDEALS OF THE REVOLUTION

From h.e;;orc the Daughters of the KeV2luuJm
en ,, ,hn Causes and Beginnings Vi '"0
ton" - ,
,r.sb;poton in announcing the con
,:an 81 neace with England ana her
cl.s 'nm;tion of the independence oi
r naaSr;ca 70 the patient and long -suner'
i inc q, army at Ncwburg said:
sHappy. thrice happy shall they De
,ronounccd hereafter who, nave con
tn;hnted ANYTHING in erecting, TINS STU
. nnndo,s fabric OF freedom and empire I;
p Pho have assisted in protecting inc
n % of human nature and establish
~, an asylum for the poor and oppres-
a nni Of ali nations and religions;
In these words were the ideal OF the
parolution. the great thought that
though only half realized had been the
rnaI motive power for the eight years
str,,oole. the conception, even though
onlv seen in dim and imperfect outline
thr1noh the mists and the querulous-
rass and self interest that inevitably
havn their part in human movements,
had IN spite of all and over and above
oil heep the guide and inspiration that
had led the armies and the statesmen
If fine Revolution through all their dim
ments and defeats, wei nigh uneSaih
Med in the worlds history.
That scene at Newburg was eepochal
and the eye of the painter or the pa
triot cannot finger on its surroundings
and antecedents too long or too interest
edly. That army Of war worn veterans,
a large part of whom had served
throughout the war, had been most
wonderfully held together by one OF
the great ideas which bring out the
best in men. The pay of both officers
and soldiers was long in arrears; even
the allowances for rations, forage and
clothing had been partly withheld :
there had been times when the suffer
ing had been intense for want OF food
and of covering for the bodies and feet,
AS through that terrible winter at Val
lev Forge, or when the route taken
for that December nights attack on
Trenton could be traced by the blood
marks of the patriot feet on the snow
and ice: many of the officers and men
had spent their private fortunes in
maintaining themselves in decent com
fort while battling on for the cause ::
when the end came one of them, from
Vermont, spent all there was of his
pay for bowl Of punch and started
ont pennies to win his fortune again
in life. During this last winter the want
had been so extreme that the pay OF
half dollar Il month towards what
was due to them had been received as
a boon hardly 10 be hoped for; at one
time things had been on the point of
explosion, and the soldiers. smarting
under a sense of injustice because of
this treatment. while all the civil OH
GERS of the government were regularly
paid in full. and inflamcd by the ma
of Gates and Armstrong and
of other unpaid creditors of the Con
feleracy. were on the point of UNI
their swords to compel pro
vision to be made for them; but a sin
gle speech from Washington implorlng
them not to lessen the dignity or sui
Is the glory of the record they had
made, quelled the rebelllous meeting
and won from il unanimous vote to
rely upon the honor and good faith of
the country to fulfil its agreements
with them.
In such circumstances the import OF
Washington words in announcing the
peace can be appreciated. The closing
scene of the Revolution was one to
bring into sight for history the great
and purposes back OF 1t, as
from the comparatively
trifling issues of taxation. which had
served on the occasion, the rallylng
point. but far from the causes that
had put mighty moral forces into move
ment.
These forces had been gathering for
$50 wears Ia accomplish. in the phllo-
sophie ,Ietferson's words. resource
tion into new life of the peoples OF
the world ground down by centuries
Of oppression. All the conditions |
natural and artificial, had been favor
able for the development of the Ideas !
which were the essence of the ReVolu- I
ton. In the first place it was pop /
ulation peculiarly suited to leadership |
in the new era for the human KIND To
which the Revolution was the opening
Of the door. The basis was the Anglo /
Saxon stock. blending the blood of the !
Did Ceit or Briton. with the Roman, /
Dane, Saxon and Norman, in fact all
the existing nationalities of Europe /
except the Slavonic, and because OF
these infusions of such diverse ener- /
gies forming the most aggressive and |
people of the world up to
that time. This stock had been fur
ther enriched and diversified in It's
by the Huguenots in Delaware |
and the Carolinas, the Dutch in New
\ ork, and New Jersey the Germans as
we'll as the Quakers in Pennsylvania.
the Swedes as well AS the Dutch in |
New Jersey. with a sprinkling of Irish
and Scotch Irish all over the land, and
some mixture, more than ordinarily