Year: 1877

The Executive Committee of the Ver-
mont Centennial Commission have issued
an appeal to the people of the Green
Mountain State, calling for their CO.
operation in the celebration which is to
take place during the third week in
August, and in which our own State
Executive and Legislature are to par
ticipate. On the 10Th of August will
be commemorated the battle of Benning-
ton, with which the name of General
John Stark is forever to be associated.
A glorious victory it was, said General
Stark, when he sent some trophies of it
to Massachusetts, and he went on to
describe it as one (which ought to be
kept in memory and handed down to
futurity as lasting and laudable ex-
ample for the sons and daughters Of the
victors." His injunction was not for
gotten, and in 1916 he was reminded
by letter that the grateful people Of
Bennington, if no other, had, year by
year, celebrated the achievement of his
troops-an achievement worth thou
sand times as much as the cold student
of military science would value it at.
And since that day-every year, in fact
for a century, John Stark has been re-
membered. Now the State of Vermont
proposes to honor Stark and his brave
men, this summer being the one hum
dredth anniversary of the battle which
gave them a fame which we, in our
careless way, call undying. Perhaps it
is. Why should it not be? And in
the same week Vermont will also cele-
brate an event which, her commissioners
say, no sister commonwealth haS yet
observed-the Tooth anniversary of heI
birth as State. The events were dis.
tant, although their dates were so nearly
alike that two days will cover the cele.
bration of both. To some men one will
seem more important, to some the other
more worthy of being honored. But
what Vermonter, by birth or residence
what New Highlander, who thinks up.
on the struggles and the occasional tri.
umphs on those dark days-what pat.
tiotic citizen, wherever he may have
been born, will hesitate to respond t.
the call of the committee to which VIZ
have referred? T? These events, one mil
itary and the other civil, were two O.
the most important of the then young
revolution. Their effect was bounded
by no geographical lines. The commem
grafton of them should know none
New Hampshire and Massachusetts wer,
as much interested as the State in which
the battle of Bennington was fought il
its results. Molly Stark was not a Yer
monter


The committee ask for, and we hop,
and doubt not they will receive, fron
$4,000 to $4,000 in addition to wha
the State has appropriated. 1t will no
do to fail in an attempt to commenorat,
the birth of State and battle which
perhaps, turned the tide in favor of ou
sorely pressed ancestors. The people o
Vermont certainly will be lacking il
patriotism if they fail to respond to th
appeal: AS Concord and Lexingto
and Bunker Hill, the beginning of th
struggle for liberty in 1775, have bee
worthily commemorated in 1876. as th
signing of the immortal declaration q
Philadelphia in 1775 has been fttingl
honored in 1875, so let the no less in
portant event of Stark's memory in 1T


which has made his own name famou
and that of Bennington historic. be kel


in memory and handed down to futurit


as lasting and laudable example fl


the sons and daughters of the victor


by commemoration in 1877 which sha
be alike worthy of the memory of Il


men of 1777 and their sons and daugl


ters of 1877.-Boston Journal.