St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-08-20

argument could never settle. The
tragedy was ready. The stage was
ready. There being no trustees to say
him nay, Stevens was ready. The first
shot fred in '61 upon the stars and
stripes rang up the curtain. Stevens
hated slavery with a hatred that verged
on madness. All the years of his politi.
cal life, yes, and his lie in the Caledonia
County Grammar school, had been fit
ting him for this crisis that was upon
the country. While politicians and
statesmen even were looking for a com
promise, he was determined upon the
extinction OF slavery. Every arrow of
ridicule, wit, sarcasm or invcctive from
his twanging bow was aimed straight
at the throat of the black monster.
From the first, Stevens saw what many
of the great leaders did not see, that the
conflict would be protracted, desperate,
bloody and prepared accordingly.
AS chairman OF the ways and means
committee, he wielied more influence,
probably, than any other man in
America. Every morning during those
four red hot years OF wal and grief and
blood, Congress watched to see what
the performance OF the great com
moner was to be. Every evening the
daily papers were scanned here in
Peacham by gray haired men to see
what the ''performance" OF their old
schoolmate "Thad' had been the day
before in Congress.
Knowing perfectly we'll that the war
must be pushed with all vigor until
slavery was %uprooted from the land, he
used the immense resources Of the North
to hurl upon the cohorts of treason and
rebellion the mighty hosts of freedom
until the power of the South was crushed
aud slavery destroyed at Appomattox.
Nor was the play ended even then.
What a spectacle for gods and men to
see the great commoner, now an old,
gray-headed man, feeble, tottering on the
brink of the grave, drag the recreant
Andrew Johnson from the highest posi-
ton on earth to the bar of the American
Senate and there impeach him of high
crimes and mlsdemeanors. His last part
was to see the last three amendments to
the constitution practically assured.
Then the curtain fell. The tragedy was
ended. His Lille work done.
He has been called cruel and hard
hearted. 1t has been said that he forgot
the companions of his youth. He has
been called unsympathetic and ungratetul.
Thaddeus Stevens vas no Puritan. |
do not claim it; but a grateful nation
freed from the curse of slavery, redeemed,
blood-bought, long ago threwthe mantle
Of charity over his faults.
Do you call him cruel and hard-hearted
His executor found 500, 000in notes and
accounts not to be collected because his
debtors needed the money more than he.
Do o say that he forgot the COM
panions of his youth? Visit the Peacham
Juvenile Library society which, he founded
while a boy here in school and endowed
generously at his death, for your answer.
Do YOU say he was u~nsympathetic and
ungrateful ? Read the beautiful tribute he
paid his mother. Witness the money he
bestowed without stint upon her to
crafty her every wish, and then visit
that mothers grave on yonder hill, GOV.
cred with roses and other cheerful
flowers" which her iIlustrious son on,
OF his grateful filial heart has ordained tc
bloom pcrennially so long as Peacham
has a corporate existence.
In a humble cemetery in Lancaster, Penn
sylvania, because open to black men a
well as white, he ordered his grave to b.
made; and in that grave over which NJ
granite shaft can ever be erected firm
enough to typity the solidity Of his char
acter, high enough to transcend hi
rugged virtues, around which no work c
art, fashioned by the cunning hand c
man from purest gold can symbolic tn
boundless affluence of his life, reposes til
mortal form of him who was and is tn
browning glory of Caledonia Count.
Grammar school
After music by the Neapolitan orches
ira the following poem was read by Pro
H. D. Wild of Williams college.
Centennial Poem.
A night Of stars on memorv's lonely shore
Brought songs toone whol Stoned from afal
Sad parting songs, by youthful voices suns
Thus far together had they tasted lie
As life is at the first, and hand in hand
Had wrought and loved. But now at lengt
had come
The time that tries the secret soul tit
Be gold or dust. A sigh, a kiss, a pledge
OF holy faith to shining purposes.
Ana tney nau paSSeu IOTeNtT HOm TIC dih
Where trusting youth enwraps itself wit
youth
J Into the stormy place of larger self.
T As streams that mass their joy throug
pleasant lands,
| Until wide ocean with it's boisterous arms
Breaks them to waves that break on distar
shores.
| But on the morn there came another song
/, Across the waves, clearnoted, joyous now,
With organ peal of action rising to
The diapason of mans conscious strength,
: While suddenly DER all there burst an
swelled
The chorus of reunion and it seemed
A song of Peacham, and it's hills and stream
o pl ace of peace among the hills,
, Where brooks speak gently to the farms
In stir of solitary mills,
!, And vale to vale bends wooded arms,
We greet thee, place of peace!
2 Thy rocks are stern, but rich the green
That covers them. Strong are thy sons,
i But gloried with the soitened mien
Ofbooks, whose culture overruns
Thy longer history.
= Yon cedar grove, where breezes cool
Their painting breath, and August moons
Rock lazily on sedgy pool
: r., stAtanC couch nf r,;Irtpht t1nnnG