Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-06-09

In response to general request the
stirring and patriotic address of Gen. W.
W. Grout at this place on Memorial Day
and which was SO enthusiastically re-
ceived, is here given:
SimonideS the Greek poet placed upon
the rock at Thermopylr, just over the
spot where the Spartan heroes fell, this
inscription: stranger, go tell it IN La
cedamonia that We died here in ohedi-
ence to her laws" With the Spartans
there was no higher duty than obedience.
one could learn how to command he
must first learn how to obey. With them
also the laws governed absolutely and
with sovereign authority; whereas i'll
many of the other Grrcian States the
laws. both in the making and in the eX-
ecution of them, We're left largely to the
caprice of individuals; sometimes to the
arbitrary power of the rulers, but oftemer
to the despotic sway OF the poPulace.
Not so in Sparta where the kings, even.
could exercise 10 will. no authority, eX-
cept in accordance with law; and where
the children. also, from their earliest in-
fancy were accustomed to an entire sub
mission to the laws and to those i'll au-
thority; their education, properly speak
ing, being no more than an apprentice
| ship to obedience. 1t was for this reason
! that AgeSilauS advised Nenephon to send
his children to Sparta as to an excellent
school. 1t was not alone the poor and
ordinary citizens who were thus subject
to the law; but the rich, the powerful,
| the magistrates and even the kings, as
we have seen. And we are told that
| these did not distinguish themselves from
! the others. except i'll more exact ohedl-
ence. Under this system it sometimes
happened that kings We're sent away into
exile This was the fortune of Demar-
atus, who, when surprise was expressed
to him that he should have suffered it to
have been done, said 1T was because
in Sparta the laws We're more powerful
than the kings" With such respect for
the authority of law we should naturally
look for great things from Sparta, and
history tells us that at one time she was
the most powerful of all the ancient Gre
clan States. Not only this, but it seems
that this people, who were the first to
acknowledge the supreme authority Of
the laws under which they lived, away
back in the very gray of the morning of
authentic history, planted at the pass of
Thermopyla the seed whence have sprung
all the heroes of the world from that
time till now. Leonidas and his brave
three hundred were the first martyrs to
the supremacy of law. And the word
which Simonides makes them send back
to Lacedamonia upon the lips of the
viewless stranger - for not one of their
own number was left to tell the story
himself II is the same word which comes
up today from the soldiers graves scat,
tered all over the land, viz: That these
men died in obedience to, and in defence
of the laws of their country. And these
my friends, are the later martyrs to the
supremacy of law.
Does some father or mother, with
whom the shadows have already grown
long, whose son, their stay and support
was brought back to them from the
Wilderness, from Spotsylvania or Cole
Harbor and by them laid away to hi
last rest in some quiet church-yard, dc
they ask today what he died for? Doe
some wife or sister, with laurel and Myl