Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1896-11-26
Sons Of American Revolution
IMMENSE ASSEMBLAGE.
Mr.. DEPEW'S GRAFTON.


The members of the Vermont Society,
Sons of the American Revolution, held
their anniversary exercises at the Armory
this afternoon. Hon. Chauncey NJ. Depew
of New York, president of the Empire
Society, S. A. r., orator of the occasion,
arrived on the noon express in DR.. w.
Seward Webb's private car. The line was
formed att the State House at half-past
three o'clock. Members of the Society
and the several chapters of Daughters of
the American Revolution, invited guests,
the judiciary, the governor, lieutenant
governor, and other members of the state
government, the senators and represent
tatves, formed the procession, preceded
! by the Montpelier Military Band and
Differed by Gen. 7. S. Peck. Sergeant-at-
Arms L. c. Phinney, Maj. o. ID. Clark,
Major J. H. Mimms, and Captain A. G..
| Eaton. A detail of twenty-four officers
and men in uniform, from Co. II, v. n. g.,
served as ushers. Fully $500 people were
assembled within the spacious walls of the
Armory.
After prayer by the chaplain, Hon. w.
p. Dillingham; introduced Hon. Mr. Depew
in the following words:
Ladies and Gentlemen 1T has been the
| custom of the Vermont association, Sons
of the American Revolution, since the or
ganiZatOn of the society TO hold an annual
meeting and to have banquet with
speeches by various members. But tins
/ year, meeting as they did early m the
/ summer, they thought they would admit
I the public to the fat things which they
/ have been enjoying for many years. They
accordingly sent out invitations aud il
\ looks as though all the invitations had
/ been accepted. / bid this magnificent au-
! dience welcome aud without further re-
I marks ! take pleasure in presenting the
/ Hon. Chauucey NJ. Depew, president Of
I the New York Society, sons Of the Ameri-
can Revolution.
ADDRESS BY MR.. DEPEw.
Mr., President and Gentlemen:
In no state of our sisterhood of Com
mOnwealths can a celebration winch re-
calls the glorious memories of the Rev
dictionary period be more appropriately
held than IN Vermont Nowhere Is So
Ciety of the SONS of the American Rev
olution more at home. Vermont is as
unique and original in her history as her
mountains and lakes She was never a
British colony, and yet maintained sep
arate government against the great power
i
| Hampshire on the other, and the orders of
/ the English King. Her life began in re-
/ bellion against arbitrary authority and re-
1 sistance 10 royal orders and colonial courts
1 in defense of the rights of her people.
/ They were trained like the border clans OF
I Scotland in the school OF perpetual war for
/ the responsibilities and duties which were
ultimately 10 deVOlve upon them.
In the French and luCian wars New
England and New York could only be
reached by long tedious marches, but the
scattered settlements in the wilderness OF
/ Vermont were the easy prey of the merci-
less savages and their French allies.
/ Every boy grew to manhood trained To
woodcraft and TO arms He learned the
methods of Indian warfare, he became
familiar with the tactics of the regular
soldiery at Louisburg and Quebec, he was
taught to build forts and construct de-
fences, and he knew how TO build boats
and navigate them upon Lake Champlaln
and the st. Lawrence River. THIS people,
thus Injured TO every hardship and familiar
with every form OF danger, learned diplo-
macy and statecratt by resisting the
claiTns of New York to their lands. and
appealing first TO the British government
and then TO the Continental Congress for
a recognition of their rights. The early
/ chronicler says that when a sheriff ana
posse from New York came to disposess
the inhabitants of a frontier settlement,
and met face to face three hundred OF
these determined men fully armed, that
they returned TO New York because they
were not personally interested in the dis
pute. This description always character
lied the authorities of my state in dealing
I with these dangerous malcOntents OF YER
mont. The same chronlcler narrates that
! the sheriff subsequently discovered in one
( of these houses. in n corner, two of the
guns which had frightened him and his
posse from the field. one was loaded
! with powder ahd bullets and the other
with powder and kidney beans. But
when, following the defeat of the sherlifs
posse, the royal government OF the Colony
of New York threatened To levy war upon
the Vermont settlers and to drive them
into the Green Mountains, then was
/ formed that most patriotic, daring and
noble band Of the revolutionary period,
the Green Mountain Boys. They, with
their leader, Ethan Allen, occupy singu-
lar and tavorite place in the story of the
origin of the American Republic.
On the 10th of May l19I, a committee of
correspondents was formed in the city OF
New York To communicate with the differ
ent colonies respecting the increasing ag-
gressons of the British Government upon
popular rights. While little attention was
paid to this communication for "a year, in
most parts of the country, ii was taken up
Immediately by these lighting SONS OF the
! Green Mountains They resolved mt once
! TO make common cause with the other
I colonies, and. To maintain their rights, as
they had always maintained them, with
their lives To prevent a prosecution by
royal authority for this patriotic resolve,
they seized the court house at Westminis-
ter aud held it against the Judge and
royal officers They were farmers intent
upon such vigorous measures rs would pro
tect them in their liberties until an appeal
could he made which should receive
favorable hearing from the Mother Coun-
try. or end in union of the colonies for
self-defence. They were armed only with
sticks and cudgels. While they were as
leep. in the dead of night the enemy came
upon them, fired into them without notice
or marley and two sons of Vermont were
killed. The first blood of the Revolution
was not shed mt Lexington, but at West
minister; the first patriot farmer 10 die
was not the son of MASSACHUSETTS, but the
son of the New Hampshire grants, which
became subsequently the State of Yer
mont.
4 IL is only on occasions like this that we
can embalm in speech and place upon the
records of a patriotic organization the for
/ cotton names of William French and Dam
/ lei Houghton, the first martyrs to Ameri-
can liberty. The blood of these Green