USA > New York > Fulton County > The border warfare of New York, during the revolution; or, The annals of Tryon county > Part 24
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" Calm, opposite, the Christian father rose ; Pale on his venerable brow its rays Of martyr light the conflagration throws ; One hand upon his lovely child he lays. * * *
He for his bleeding. country prays to Heaven- Prays that the men of blood themselves may be forgiven."
He survived the massacre but a short time. The misfortunes of that day carried down his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.
Of the brave and determined Captain Robert M'Kean, what shall we say ; of him who knew no danger and feared no man; who challenged to the combat the great chieftain and captain of the Six Na- tions, Joseph Brant Thayendanagea ? What shall we say of the eccentric though fearless Robert Shank- land, who defended his house single-handed, with the exception of his son,* a lad of 14, against a consid-
* The late Thomas Shankland, of Cooperstown.
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erable body of Indians, and who abandoned it only when it was about to be consumed over him by the flames ? Where are they all, with the Gaults and the Dicksons, and the Ramseys and the Wilsons, who first planted here the seeds of civilization ? These are questions of a solemn nature, which crowd them- selves upon our minds upon occasions like the present. The century has rolled away and left its impress for good or for evil. Of the early settlers not one sur- vives. Their children and their children's children occupy the places of some, and the voices of strangers are heard in the dwellings of others. They have all been gathered to their resting-places, and the ashes of most of them sleep quietly in yonder grave-yard. The clods of the valley are upon them, to be removed only at the general resurrection.
"The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from her straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion and the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed."
In the last ten years, what ravages has death made in our little valley ! I miss, amid the scenes of my childhood, many of the familiar faces of those who once greeted my return to the home of my fathers. They are also numbered with the great host of the departed, and their places are fast filling with those who knew them not. Among the leading men we might mention the elder and younger Drs. White, · both eminent physicians ; Col. James Cannon ; Isaac Seelye, Esq., and James O. Morse, Esq., both able lawyers ; Jesse Johnson, Erastus Johnson, William C.
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Dickson, William Story, Alfred Crafts, with many others who but a day since were living, and whose faces it seems as if I ought now to see before me.
James O. Morse, Esq. always took a deep interest in the history of this place, and in the character of its early inhabitants. He was born in Marlboro', in the county of Middlesex, Massachusetts, in 1788, and re- moved with his parents, when five years of age, to the county of Oneida, in this State, and when that county was almost a wilderness. Familiar as he was with the biographies of most of the frontier inhabitants who had in any way distinguished themselves, his conver- sation in relation to such subjects was peculiarly interesting and instructive. Many years ago he spoke to me of this anniversary, and had his life been spared he would have taken a deep interest in the proceed- ings of this day.
Allow me to mention another name connected di- rectly with the first settlement of Cherry Valley ; I mean Deacon John Gault. Humble was his sphere of life. Poverty, and many of the ills which flesh is heir to, sickness and decrepitude, were his portion on the earth. But with a Christian spirit which rose above them all, he drank with cheerfulness the cup given him to drink in life, and looked forward with peace and joy to that better world where sorrow and sighing are no more; where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Who has not observed his cheerful and contented countenance, as he entered the sanctuary on a Sabbath morn, leaning on his staff, his only aid while plodding along over the tedious miles which intervened between his resi-
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dence and that sanctuary ? Who has not listened to his truly eloquent and appropriate prayers? If he was a Christian, he was also a patriot. This day he would have delighted to honor. But he, too, our old and familiar friend, has been gathered to his fathers in peace. His virtues should be imitated, for they were great, and it is but fitting that on this occasion this passing tribute should be paid to his memory.
We miss also many others who commenced with us the race of life. A part of them still live, and are pursuing their various occupations either in our own wide-spread country, or in distant lands. Many of them also have gone the way of all the living. Some died at home in the presence of their friends, and sleep now quietly beside those who gave them being. Others have been cut off in the prime of life, and have fallen far away from their kindred ; and one,* endear- ed to many of us by her talents, her piety, and her moral courage, has recently departed, and her re- mains repose in the cemetery of the Nestorian Chris- tians, within the sacred precincts of the first Christian Church planted by the Magi of Persia, and within the confines of that city in Central Asia, where the far-famed Zoroaster, in ages gone by, first lit up the fires of philosophy.
We might add many other names to the list. As we run over the catalogueof departed relatives and friends, we are forcibly reminded how frail and brittle is the cord which binds us to life. In the morning we see
* Mrs. Grant, adopted daughter of Dr. William Campbell, of Cherry Valley, and late missionary at Oroomiah, Persia.
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our friends around us, and in health, and ere the sun goes down, the golden bowl is broken at the cistern, the dust returns to the dust from whence it was taken, and the spirit unto God who gave it.
Of this large assembly now before me, in all human probability not one will open his eyes upon the morn- ing of the 4th of July, 1940. Long ere that, even the inscriptions upon our tombstones may be obliterated, and our descendants may look in vain for the green hillocks which mark our resting-places.
But as those who gave us being, labored and toiled for our best interests, so our duty is to transmit to those who shall come after us, the inheritance which we have received, of a free government, religious liberty, and all the blessings of civilization. To discharge · that duty successfully, we should, as far as it is in our power, labor to advance the cause of virtue and edu- cation, and in this respect to follow in the footsteps of our fathers.
The age in which we live, is an age of bustle, toil and enterprise. But it is by no means a merely use- ful or a superficial age. The great principles of civil liberty, of the rights of conscience, and of freedom of opinion, were never better understood, or more prac- tically enforced.
It is an age, too, when much is required of us all. Yes, of us, a part and parcel of that great Anglo- Saxon race, which now bids fair to carry our own native language and its literature over a great part of the world. Over all the North American continent -- along the shores of the Pacific, in the West Indies, in Great Britain, over the eastern coast of Africa, at the
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Cape of Good Hope, throughout many of the islands of the Pacific, and along the southern part of Asia, the language which we speak is fast spreading itself, and bids fair to become in these regions the only lan- guage. Like Aaron's rod it is swallowing up the rest.
What changes have been produced during the last hundred years ! Society has been revolutionized throughout the greater part of the civilized world. The political elements of all Europe have been vio- lently agitated, and though the forms of government have not been materially altered, the freedom of the citizen has been in many instances greatly enlarged. In our own country, the changes, as we run over them with a rapid glance, appear to have been magical. Our own Empire State, which in 1740 was an Eng- lish colony, and numbering little more than one hun- dred thousand souls, now tells her children by mil- lions. The scattered English colonies of North America, then feeble, and with some million and a half of people, stretching for thousands of miles along the sea-board, and looking up to England for support and protection, as infant children to a mother, now present the proud spectacle of a united nation, stand- ing in the front rank, with her canvass whitening every sea, with vast resources, with gigantic internal improvements in the separate States, and with nearly twenty millions of freemen reposing in security be- neath the folds of her star-spangled banner.
Could we be permitted to draw aside the curtain which veils futurity and look into coming years- could we cause to pass before us, as a moving pano-
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rama, our country as it will present itself a hundred years hence, what an interesting view should we be- hold ! For myself, I can but believe that we shall continue a united people, that the strong ties of inter- est which have hitherto bound us together, will con- tinue unbroken, and be strengthened by the continu- ally increasing facilities of communication between the distant parts of our widely extended country. In that event this nation, judging from the past, will in all probability occupy the greater part of all North America ; will number at least fifty millions of inhabi- tants, and stand in the van of the civilized nations of the earth.
We are here a small community, and our influence and our efforts may not be widely felt ; but while we live, we can labor in our various circles to promote peace and harmony among the different States of our Union, and, dying, we can leave the injunction to our children. We can urge upon them to look back upon their common descent, to consider their common in- heritance, and to look forward to a common destiny.
And standing here, and looking back upon the cen- tury which has just ended, and upon its history, which is certain ; and looking forward to the century before us, whose history is uncertain ; may I not in the name of this assembly invoke and enjoin the rising genera- tion, our children, and our children's children, to preserve unimpaired the institutions which we com- mit to them, and to maintain unbroken our glorious Union ?
To them I would say, as you enter into possession of this goodly land ; as you walk forth and look upon
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the hill and upon the valley, upon the river rolling in power, and upon the brook that sparkles at your feet ; as you listen to the sighing of the breeze as it moves gently through the forest, and to the music of the feathered songsters, as they warble forth their notes of praise-when the breath of the morning fans you, and you inhale the scented air as it comes to you over the green meadow and the opening flower- remember that these blessings, though in some degree common to all mankind, are no less the special gift to you from your Creator, and that for the same bless- ings your fathers returned thanks to the great Giver of them all.
As you enter upon the glorious inheritance of civil and religious liberty, upon the blessings and enjoy- ments of Christianity and civilization, and behold the proud monuments of your country's greatness, may you remember that in by-gone times your ancestors toiled and sacrificed their property and their lives in the purchase of that inheritance, and that they thus consecrated it by their tears, their prayers, and their blood !
We commit then that inheritance to your keeping. It is your as well as our birthright. And may he who at the close of another hundred years shall be permit- ted to stand up and deliver over to his fellow-citizens the record of that century, be enabled to say, as we can this day, Blessed be the land of our birth, and bless- ed be the memory, and honored be the names of those who have entrusted that inheritance to us !
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