Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-06-02
"Middlebury To Her Soldiers"
Continued from Page 60

= sive part. Vermonters led the blue
column which bore the stars and stripes
through the blazing streets of the Con-
federate capitol, and in the last act of
the bloody drama, Vermont soldiers
were in motion in the last charge at
Appomattox when it was arrested by
the surrender of Lee.
It's well that we ask what it is that
caused the men of 1776, 1912, 81 to '65
to leave the father whose noble example
had ever been their inspiration; to leave
the mother whose love and fostering
care had guarded and nurtured their
developing life; to leave brothers and
sisters at once, their playmates and
friends; to leave side of her whom they
called by that tenderest and most en-
dearing name in language, wife; to
leave the prattling, cooling, innocent
eyed babe; and to go out and gladly
surrender that most highly priced of all
possession, life? You say it was patriot
ism, and you say well. The patriot went
forth to prove his heroism and patriot
ism by his unselfish devotion to a
mighty cause. You Ito the G. A. r.
went out to defend our flag, and Mr..
Prentice has we'll said that "the Ameri-
can patriot is ever a worshipper. He
loves the old flag and wherever that
flag floats on sea or land it is to him
the very shekinah of his political faith
and love, luminous with the presence
of the God who conducted his fathers
across the sea, and through the fires
of the Revolution on to the Pisgah
heights of civil and religious liberty"
To defend our flag is more than duty
it is a coveted privilege akin to that
which nerves the arm and directs the
blow in defense of wife and child. To
insult it is worse than infamy, to make
war upon it is worse than treason.
The patriot is ever an unselfish man.
you veterans were not mercenary soldiers.
You did not fight for pay. The small
pittance allowed you by the government
was scarce enough to supply your own
necessities, and left little to send home
for the support of loved ones. No, the
rank and file were not lured on by the
hope that some day the star of general
would CLEAN upon their shoulders, or
that the thanks of an appreciative Con-
gress would be theirs. They fought for
liberty, for home, for their native land
and God gave them victory.
feel that l would not be doing justice
to this occasion if did not ask "What
has been the outcome of all this hero
ism, suffering and DEATH" The answer
is, Our Country, unified nation. What
a glorious country we have. How choice
our climate is. The tropic of Cancer
cuts India in half; the tropic of Capri
corn cuts Australia in half; the Equa-
tor is like dividing line for Africa.
The whole of Asiatic Russia is north of
our most northerly line. But how
thankful we ought to be that we are far
away from the realm of eternal ice on
the one side, and far away from the
realm of eternal fever on the other.
How wonderful the geographical ex
tent of our country! How fertile our
soil! How apparently inexhaustible our
natural resources. Our coal resources
are simply inexhaustible, when storing
away fuel for the ages, God knew the
work and place for which he had APP
pointed us, and gave us twenty times as
much of this concrete power as to all the
peoples of Europe.
Our mineral resources are of uneoualed
richnsss and variety. The very bowels
of the earth seem to TEEN with gold and
silver and iron in unthinkable abund-
ance. With oil in Pennsylvania and
Texas, with natural gas to serve domestic
and commercial purposes, with wooded
mountains to supply our greatest need,
we appreciate the richness, the unspar-
ingless, the lavish abundance of Gods
material blessings to our nation.
How ideal our form of government.
For the people, of the people, and by
the people," A government that secures
for every loyal citizen, life, liberty,
equality; that protects home, elevates
womanhood, honOrs true manhood, pro-
tects the weak and reverences God.
How far reaching our commercial
prosperity! But what OF tomorrow: We
love our country as ardently as the Swiss
loves his Alps, the Scot his heather, the
Englishman his fireside, the Irishman his
sod, or the German his fatherland; but
because we love her we are fearful lest
the excuses of today become the cardinal
sins of tomorrow. AS patriots we must
recognize that there are certain existent
evils which threaten the continuity of
our nations life, and as patriots it is ours
to watch with jealous care lest these by
propagation, undermine the foundation
so wisely and so heroicly laid by our
fathers.
You ask what are these pernicious
forces? DR.. Strong says political optim-
ism is one of the vices of the American
people" There is - popular belief that
''God takes care Of children, fools and
the United States" We deem ourselves
the chosen people and incline to the be-
lief that the Almighty stands pledged to
our prosperity. Probably not one in