The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-03-27
ARTHUR ROPES. General Editor.
Early Vermont History.


NAL of Whittier's spirited verses on
Vermont's early struggles has revived
interest in the subject of the States
early history. Webster produced Ad-
ANS supposed speech in the Contin-
entail Congress in favor of the Declare
tion of Independence, a favorite selec-
ton for recitation by the school boys OF
q generation or more ago. Whittier
put into verse q similar service for the
Green Mountain Boys. Why, ii in
in fact he was the author of "Ho, all to
the borders, Vermonters come downP'
he should have practically disowned
the composition, banished it from his
literary household, is difficult to under
stand. 1t is, indeed, as a correspond
ent has suggested, far superior in merit
to Barbara Frietchie, both for its poetry
and its facts. 1t will survive compsr-
ison with anything else the Quaker
Poet wrote, and in respect of boldness
and vigor of expression, beauty of des-
cription, and spirit of stalwart patriot
ism it has no superior among lyrics.
Possibly Whittier's literary executors
may be responsible for its disinheritance,
but if it had dealt with the Boston lea
party and other riotous events in Mass
achusetts which led up to the final rup-
I,,.o ,rslh lho roothar oountru II uOuld
unquestionably have ranked in the
poets published work as companion
piece to "April 10, 1916" when "the
embattled farmers" of the Old Bay
State ''fred the shot heard around the
world" Celebrating the rude homes
and vagabond heroism of hardy race
up among the Green Mountains, it
was perhaps wanting in the blue cast
that gives distinction to the blood
spilled at Concord and Lexington and
later on at Bunker Hill. The perman-
ence of Whittier's poem may sometime
demand that this prodigal be called
home and the fatted calf killed in COM
memoration of the event.
The call for the lyric came from a
Vermonter resident in another State.
Something of search was required to
find publication containing the work.
1t was not discoverable in Kellogg
Hubbard library. Thomas L. Wood,
of the State library, finally unearthed
the production, appearing as a foot
note in an obscure volume on Ethan
Allen and other early Vermont heroes.
Interest in its resurrection is expressed
chiefly by the class of readers of for
mer generation who were the ardent
devotees of "The Green Mountain
Boys" and the other historical novels
of Vermont's Walter Scott, Daniel P.
Thompson. A generation has grown up
which knows not Thompson, and which
apparently knows not-and cares not for
the Vermont of Ethan Allen, Seth
Warner and Remember Baker. 1t is
not a good sign, and it forebodes the
passing, in the rising generations, of
the distinctive and traditional charsc-
istics of the Green Mountain Boys.
How their history has nourished :patri-
otism and been an inspiration to the
sons of Vermont, down to recent times,
when great and courageous deeds were
demanded, is told by Captain Clark,
who had constantly before him, he
says, when he was pushing the Oregon
up the Brazilian coast, an impending
battle in the West Indian waters be-
tween the Spanish aud the American
fleets; and the thought of the great
battleship not arriving on the scene to
help its comrades win the fight, as Seth
Warner with his Green Mountain Boys,
by their timely coming at Bennington,
saved the day and made it one of the
decisive battles of the world, constant
ly impelled him to press on, to brook
no delay, to disregard the suggestion Of
the secretary Of the navy that delay in
a Brazilian port would be approved
The example of his Green Mountain
ancestors was an inspiration.
An illustration of the mastering Of
the Vermonters to resist royal tyranny
and the encroachments of the Workers
is presented in the affair at Westmins.
ter in March, 1775. One Lieut.. Spald.
ing Of Dummerston, in 1774, had styled
George the Third the "Pope of Can
ada" because of an act of Parliament
making the Roman Catholic faith the
religion of that province. The tories
had the lieutenant arrested on the
charge of high treason and he was i'm.
prisoned at Westminster. The Yer
monters were summoned "to the bord
ers." The Jail was forced and Spalding
released. A crisis had come. Judicial
power was invoked to uphold royal au
thority; its opponents prepared to re-