The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1921-01-20

C42frel where rs nights were con
ocrned and never ready 10 lay II down
til the last bah had left his rife. gen
erous In service for the common good,
believing in the Declaration Of indie
pendenoe as his very gospel, his face
70 the empire in the west, whittier his
restless spirit led him on until he had
stamped his Institutions and his char
acter on the nation whose home he
had won.
In the history Of America the East
has always been fixed term. /, has
denoted, and still denotes, the Atlantic
seaboard, Europe-facing and Europe
thinking, conservative, commercial,
manufacturing, tending to quiet. or
dered ways. guardian Of old-world
culture, nursery Of American litera-
ture, American learning. and Ameri-
can thought. 50 long as America was
confined to the fringe Of colonies on
the Atlantic, the nation remained
economically dependent, European in
thought and culture The nation was
made by lis expansion toward the
west. Its real Observation-Disclosures
tual, spiritual. and personal-was
achieved in the conquest Of the wide
spaces Of the mid-continent. The
American genius was wrought on the
ever-receding frontier.
The first stage Of the march in the
conquest Of the continent was ac-
eomplished by the Green Mountain
Boys. Our glory is not alone in Ply
mouth Rock; it is far more on the
prairies and beneath the Rockies,
where the spirit that awoke first In
the Green Mountain valleys has made
America great. Vermont, first inland
State, first proved the power Of ex-
pansion in the American people. She
was the first State which was never a
COLONY, never in bondage to any man.
Her closest kinship is with the free
American pioneers, not with the old
world colonists. She can never be con-
tent as a minor state of New England,
a dependency Of Boston. The men Of
Vermont started for the west, and, if
they did not get far, they got far
enough to catch the spirit 1t is ig-
norance Of her history and denial Of
her genius that advise her to remain
self-eontered, training her children
toward the occupations which their
fathers happened to choose. Yer
monters are citizens Of great America,
pioneers Of a continent, and we de-
mand IN education toward the life Of
the nation.
Old Vcrmont!-to the hurrying
traveller along her eastern and west
ern highways, a wilderness Of wild
mountains with a narrow foreground
Of meager farms, but to those who
know her defiles and passes a network
Of fertile valleys, smiling in plenty
and content; baptized in struggle and
bred to diplomacy and war, her chill
dren fighters all, yet as true a lover Of
peace as ever lived beside great hills;
cautious, close-mouthed, secretive,
trainedby bitter experience to the
wisdom Of suspicion, yet opening her
heart to her friends with the candor
Of child; excelled by none in unity
and brotherhood when reused TO q
common cause, then lapsing by reac-
ton to jealousy and neighbor hate
when times are tame and dull; never
less defeated than when her case has
gone against her, and always prompt
with q motion TO reconsider; the pas
sions Of two peoples struggling within
her, the stable East and the restless
West; loving her mountain sod with
devotion unsurpassed in any land be- !
side the seven seas, yet thrusting her |
children out to better country
mother Of pioneers prodigal beyond all |
others; brave and self-sacrifcing TO
fault, proud and selfyeliant, yet in
her secret heart an underlying fear
born Of the bitterest disappointments
that ever attended the birth Of q
State; land Of contributions to her
friends from without and to all who
seek to put her genius into words; but
to those who know her and to whom
che accords her love, straightforward
and single in loyalty to her mission:
dear old Vermont
Members of the Class of 1924:
We welcome you this morning to the
college Of Daniel P. Thompson, where
he learned just 100 years ago TO love
the Vermont forests and the story Of
the Vermont pioneers. We hope you
viii come to love them, too, and TO
imhibe as he did the strength Of the
hills. Whether from near or far, you
will look out for four years on the
graceful valley and the glorious
beyond, and. If you view
them with the sympathetic soul, they
viii teach you beyond any power Of