Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1914-11-26
THE WAR TO DATE
Instructed General Lee md Inter
Guarded 81. Adams.

The war to date shows to far-sighted
persons what it's final issue must be-the
arrest of the war policy of the same Ger
man kaiser who turned Bismarck out Of
his Offices because he believed himself to
be wiser al 30 than bismarck at 70 no
body else thought so at the time (March
IS, $500 when | happened to be in Athens,
where his sister had married the crown
prince of Greece, now king there, and
much under the frown of his brother
in-law, who now is said to be threat
encd with dethronemcnt if he ventures ~
renew the war with Turkey. AS your
readers may see by your yesterdays cita-
! ton from bismarck that shrcwd unller
/ of Germany knew he must keep on good
terms with England, as the Prussian mon
/ archs have done for 80 years. lie never
would have trampled Belgium into bloody
mire, in order to get to Paris three weeks
earlier. The kaiser Is no nearer Paris than
he was three months ago, and his chance
/ of getting there at all is now very small
| He vas so blind as not to know that Eng
land must fight against any military pow
cr violating the carefully-arranged neu-
/ trality of that useful little nation The
/ kaiscr's cause is bad and the remark of
/ II private in our Union army to General
/ Lee at Antietam, who had made him pris-
oncr and was about to send him to Rich
mond, is a good prediction of the result
| of bad cause He was an Adams-a
distant cousin of the presidential Ada ms
es ana was a sharrshooter in the 18th
Massachusetts volunteers. His captain
was killed the first day at Antietam and
young Adams, then but % was captured
Iand sent to thu rear of Lees army The
next morning he Was looking for chance
/ to slip back into the Union lines during a
/ lull in the fighting. His pathway led him
near two rebel officers, Lee and Gordon,
as they were sitting on the sunny eide ~
"A wall In the cool September morning
Lee hailed him, Halo, soldier, was Cen
cral Mcclellan wounded Yesterday" 81
never heard of 1t, and don't think so, "
said Adams Then continuing the cor
versation, he said, isn't 1t time for tho
Lees Of Virginia and the Adamses 1t
Massachusetts to get together and put
a stop to this bloody work." II suppose
I you are an Adams, them" said General
Ice. Yes was the bold reply, land let
mo tell YOU, General Lee, that with your
cause you can never succeed" Perhaps
not" was Lees mild answer Adams was
taken on to Richmond in Lees retreat. ami
nearly persisted in the Libby prison; then
was EXCHANGED sent to a hospital at For:
Monroe and there recovered enough t.
enlist again in cavalry battalion at
| Rcadvillc and was sent uD to check 4
Fcnian raid into Vermont. Adams who
had been pupil of mine, and came to
see me yesterday. told me this story. and
added, when heard in April. 1865. that
Lee had surrendered to Grant | was no
] Ia;
said that in Antictam." Lees cause was
SO bad that it could not succeed; and
such is the ka'sors cause now But who
can say when it will collapse, and how?
heard that discussed by military mon
at the Historical society last week \
paper by c. +. Adams was read. in his
absence at Washington. where he spends
his winters; and it was debated. as he
! had wished, by the two Colonies Liver
+ more. Mr.. Rhodes, the historian. ana
Professor Archibald Coolidge. Governor
Long presiding. Mr. As contention SEEM
ed to be that modern wars place tho com
batants under an exhausted receiver. IL
nanCially, and in time the air-pumn If
insolvency puts each one out of the fight.
That, he implied. was the cause of Lees
surrender, and It would bring the pres
ont war Inevitably to an end His mil
itlry critics dlsscnted from this state
mcut about Lee; his army was not eX-
hausted they said it could have fought
months longer, could it have got ont nf
the network which Grants strategy had
thrown round it Johuston's army fought
longer and submitted TO Sherman upon
political considerations. Professor Cool
idgc also dsscnted, but for different
f.I ait
uatiOn, specially in the Lcvant Some
Gentleman said he dislikcd to hold an
opinion at variance with our presidcnt's-
to- which Mr. Long hriskly replied, cite
may change his mind" which struck the