The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-07-13
BABBITT is
AGAIN AT HEAD
Continued from first page)

those dark days preceding the Revolu
ton, beset ON all sides by enemies who
should have been her friends hghting for
her very life-for the individual freedom
Of her people and for the protection OF
the property they had wrought from the
unwilling earth and buildcd with their
own tireless hands. And when the wal
was over, back TO the axe and plowshare
went those sturdy, silent <1en only "a
he compelled 10 take down the rifle again
TO defend themselves against the neigh
bors whose freedom they had helped "a
win.
"The story OF Vermont during the
succeeding II years is the most fascinat'
ing ever written of any state. Surely
history does not record an act more au-
dacious than that OF those determined
men who not only set themselves up as a
free and Independent republic but sue.
cessfully maintained the integrity OF
their government against Congress, New
York, and Canada by force of arms.
There was good fighting in those days,
That We can understand. But how can
we account for the sagacity manifested
by those untutored men who wrote into
their fundamental law an eternal edict
against human slavery Nowhere else
upon this continent had such n statute
been enacted or even suggested. To Yer
mont, not as a vassal Of Great Britain,
not as part of the United States, but
as an independent republic, fell the honor
and the glory OF lighting the torch OF
universal liberty. Fourscore years later
large group of powerful states tried
to fight their way out OF the union TO
quench the burning OF the flame, and
failed. But little Vermont, single hand.
ed and unaided, raising the standard Of
political right and human justice, tried
to fight her way into the union, and sue
ceeded.
"And when the time came 10 save that
union, what state gave freely in proper
ton to her population more sons than
any otherl II was this,-your own Yer
mont. And when within a month there
came from Washington the call to the
colors, how many of the thousands OF
great universities, colleges and schools
throughout the land sent forth fully
equipped companies from their own stu
dent bodiesg Just one. just one-the
University of Vermont, whose ready lads
were actually the first OF all the Ma.
tional Guard to respond.
"Pitiable, indeed, must be the spirit OF
one not proud TO own such common
wealth as his mother state. Seated high
among the beautiful hills she still keeps
alight the torch Of liberty under the law
True as steel to the union she has prov
en-. True may she ever be- But it is
not without a thrill of exultation that
we realize that the flag under which we
sit tonight is her flag the flag of the
free and independent republic of Yer
mont, adopted by the same convention
that abolished slavery, the first flag
made in all the world that guaranteed
universal freedom, the flag that was
maintained for 10 long years against
odds that might have dismayed the he
roes Of Sparta, the flag untarnished, its
blue and gold as pure as the cleaning
snow which rests so long and so lovingly
upon the hills, the meadows and the
little churchyards about which there
cluster memories so precious and 80 sa-
cred that, like the stored Zion to the
Hebrew singer Of old, her very dust to
us is dear"