USA > Vermont > Washington County > Montpelier > Addresses delivered before the Vermont Historical Society and the Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society > Part 9
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While the proprietors of good quarries are amply compensated for their investment, there are those who have expended thousands of dollars in opening quarries that were completely worthless ; and . it may not be amiss to give some of the practical hints, that are presented in nature, to guide men in opening quarries.
In selecting a marble quarry care should be taken to secure one where there is a sufficient quantity of sound marble, so situated as to be accessible and easily drained if possible.
In order to form an opinion of the soundness of the marble, the adjacent rocks should be examined, and if they give evidence that there has been such disturbance among them as to cause a shattered structure, the chances are against a good workable quarry ; but where the marble strata are well walled in, with sound rock, there is quite sure to be a corresponding soundness of the marble.
Good marble, of the softer varieties, is rarely found within twenty-five feet of the surface, hence the dip of the strata should be so great as to carry the beds into the ground beyond the influence of atmospheric agencies, unless the opening be made in the side of a hill, where the strata may be horizontal, as they will be protected by the over-lying rock and soil that form the elevation.
Several attempts have been made in Vermont to open quarries where there was a slight dip-not enough to take the bed decp into the earth-but in every case the effort has been attended with failure. A stratum of fine white marble may be found at the surface of the ground, lying horizontal, but it will be unsound in consequence of its exposure, and if it is removed by blasting, or otherwise, the stratum next below it may be marble of an inferior quality, or it may be a silicious limestone, or something else. Unless the edges of the strata can be seen, there is no certainty
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in quarrying, and he who expends much money in blasting out rock that lies in horizontal beds, on level land, expecting to find marble that was never seen, must be a man with " large hope," and too visionary to ever succeed in business. Fruitless attempts have also been made to obtain sound marble near trap dikes.
Dikes are veins, or intruded masses of matter, in the rents or fissures of rocks, and differing essentially in composition from the rocks adjacent.
They are called " black streaks," or " ore veins," by marble workers, in consequence of their black and semi-metallic appear- ance.
They are often met with in Western Vermont, and vary in size from one-fourth of an inch to twenty feet in thickness, and often may be traced to the distance of a mile in length. They always prove injurious, and oftentimes ruinous, to marble quarries that they have penetrated. The marble is much more shattered and jointed near them than elsewhere, and there is this peculiarity about the joints : -- they are usually parallel to the side of the dike. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a sound block of marble near a dike, and yet, strange as it may appear, many of the quarries opened forty years ago were by the side of one. Even within ten years, attempts have been made to blast out, and remove, the unsound rock, hoping to get deep enough into the earth to find it sound ; but when it is known that the marble is jointed when near the dike, and that the origin of the dike is deep-seated, like the lava of an extinct volcano, how futile must be the attempt to get below its influence! As well might man attempt to remove the basaltic lava of Vesuvius ! Before concluding these remarks, I will present a few facts in relation to the position of the marble, and its relation to the other rocks.
It is found that the strata on the South end of Dorset Mountain are nearly horizontal, and this is assumed to be their original position. The base of the mountain is composed of a silicious rock, known to geologists as a granular quartz rock or sandstone ; and immediately above this, and reposing on it, is a silicious Lime- stone, the strata varying in color, structure and composition, gene- rally containing more lime and less silica as it recedes from the quartz rock.
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At the height of about 1263 feet above the village of East Dorset, the valuable quarry known as the " Vermont Italian Marble Quarry " is found, reposing on a silicious or magnesian limestone. This marble is not a pure carbonate of lime, but it contains so much silica as to render it hard to work ; but the hardness, which may be objectionable to those who finish it, adds additional value to it, especially where it is to be placed in exposed situations.
The strata here, as I remarked, are nearly horizontal, and the qnarry now worked has a thickness of about 47 feet of marble. ['The speaker exhibited cubic specimens, 4 inches across; which had been furnished him by Messrs. Holley, Fields & Kent, of East Dorset, and to give the audience an idea of the beds, enumerated the name and thickness of each as follows, commencing at the bottom of the quarry, to wit :-
Ist. Lower Birds Eye. .. . 16 inches.
9th, Upper Dye. 22 inches.
2nd. Cast Iron Tier. 14
10th. Fine White Tier. 20 3rd. Shale Tier 20 11th. Upper Shale. 5 feet.
4th. Lower Dye. 4 feet. 12th. Leopard Tier. 5 ..
5th. Striped Tier 3.5 "
13th. Upper Birds Eye. . . 4 .
6th. Cross Grained Tier. . 3
14th. Striped Tier 2
7th. Sheet Tier. 15 inches. The 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th tiers have, in all a thickness of 9 feet, 8th. Thick White. 20 and afford only a second quality of marble, generally striped.]
Immediately over this quarry there is a slaty formation of lime- stone, about 400 feet thick, upon which rests a coarse friable white marble, which forty years ago was quarried quite extensively at this place, and called the cave quarry, it being near a cave which is found on that mountain at an elevation of 1750 feet. This white marble formation has a thickness of about 100 feet, on top of which rests a blue limestone of about the same thickness. Upon this blue limestone, at an elevation of 1970 feet, a slate occurs, with concretionary masses of quartz in it, and extends to the top of the mountain which is 2468 feet high. [See " Section of Dorset Mountain," on next page.]
There are many places in Vermont where this order of occur- rence is observed, but in no place is it more apparent than in Tinmouth, about one half mile South ofthecenter of the town, where precisely the same order of rocks occur as at Dorset mountain, but instead of being in a horizontal position, those on the West side of Furnace Brook valley dip to the West at an angle of about 40
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degrees, while those on the East side dip to the East at about the same angle, as represented by the diagram :
2468 ft.f
Slate.
1970 ft.
Blue Blaty Limestone.
1800 ft.
Cave and Marble Quarry.
1721 fc.
Blaty Limestone.
Vt. Italian Marble Quarry.
1262.
Magnesian
and
Silicious Limestone.
Quarts Rock
Section of the Dorsa Mountain,
West.
Blate.
Blue Slaty Limestone. Coarse White Marble
Siety Limestone. Drift covering the Rocks
.
D. Gilbert's.
East.
c
Magnesian
and Silicious
Silicious Limestone.
Limestone
Furnace Bronk
Rock
Sastion across Furnace Brook Vally, half a mile South of Tinmouth centre, and ten miles North of Dorset Mountain.
The line of fracture that exists between the rocks dipping East and West, can be traced about ten miles, through Tinmouth and Clarendon, being nearly on a line with Tinmouth or Chipman's Pond and the centre of the valley. The members of the series, com- mencing at the bottom are, quartz or sandstone, then silicious and
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magnesian limestones,-then the white marbles, upon which occur the blue limestones, after which are found the slate forming the high ridges of the mountains on the West of the valley.
I will remark, that the beds corresponding to, and identical with, those of the Italian Marble Quarry, were not seen, but the rocks immediately above, and all those below, did occur, and in the same order that they were found upon Dorset Mountain ; hence it appears but reasonable to suppose that the Italian beds do occur in Tinmouth, and in the South part of Clarendon, but are now hidden from view, by the accumulation of over-lying drift and soil. (*)
Did time permit, I would attempt to show the connection that exists between the Dorset, Danby and Rutland marbles, and des. cribe minutely the several quarries found at these places, and the qualities of their different varieties of marble, as well as those found in Brandon and elsewhere ; but I am admonished that I have already trespassed long upon your patience, and hence, will not enter upon those topics. (+)
'The reputation of the Brandon, Rutland, Danby and Dorset marbles, is fixed, and it would be idle to add a word in their praise. (tt)
As the son of Vermont goes abroad, well may he be proud that he is a Vermonter. He learns that his little State enjoys the envia- ble reputation of producing the best Horses and Sheep in the country, the most intelligent and persevering men and women in the world; and also, that the greatest variety, and the best marble in the market, is from old Vermont.
Since the above was written, G. M. Noble, M. D., the worthy representative from Timnouth, having had his attention called to these facts, made an examination, during the recess of the Legislature, and actually found the bed of Italian Marble alluded to, and obtained a specimen of the marble, which was exhibited to the audience at the time this paper was read.
t I have been requested by several gentlemen to show, in this paper, the relation that exists between the Rutland, Danby and Dorset marbles, and also to give in detail a full history of the excellent varieties found in those places.
As it would necessarily require several diagrams to illustrate the various points, and a long explanation to accompany the same, I decline doing so, but send the paper as originally written, reserving the other facts, to be digested and embodied in the Final Report of the Geology of the State, by Prof. Hitchcock, our able and worthy State Geologist. A. D. H:
t t Specimens were exhibited from the quarries of Messrs. Sheldons & Slason, of West Rutland. J. Adair & Brother, of South Wallingford. E. D. Selden, Esq., of Brandon, Sutherland Falls Marble Co., of Sutherland's Falls, and Messrs. O. & A. D. Canfield, of Arlington.
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We have many valuable beds in the State, that never have been worked,-principally varieties of the ornamental marble.
While we should strive by our acts to have the white and spot- less marble, which is sent abroad, truly emblematic of the purity of our character and institutions, should we not also lend a helping hand to develope and bring forth the latent resources of the State, and use all lawful means to aid those who generously make the effort ?
Should we not, for ornamental marbles, use our own, and by example try to exclude all others ?
Were it not for raising a political question, I would enquire why there should not be greater duties charged upon imported blocks of marble-so as to enable our dealers to send their stock as far as New Orleans, and sell it as cheap as that from Italy ?
Is it necessary to send abroad for the Egyptian marble, when we have such an abundance of beautiful black marble in our own State ? Why send to the Pope's dominions for marble, when we have an article at Sutherland's Falls and Dorset, in many respects supe- rior to the Italian ? Why bring in the Sienna, when it can be obtained at Sudbury and elsewhere ? Why the Brocatella, when the Winooski and other marbles are in every respect superior to it ? And why the fine Florence or Carara marble, when the same thing can be obtained, in perfection, at Brandon and Kutland, and from the unopened quarries of Shelburne ?
Let us encourage home industry, and use the products of our own State.
In the erection of public edifices and private dwellings, we should take occasion to use home products. Were the Architect and Superintendent, in finishing the Senate Chamber and Repre- sentatives Hall of our new State House, to use some of the new and untried varieties of Vermont marble, in the construction of the desks, tables, pillars and pilasters, I think it would be far more appropriate than to send abroad to obtain Mahogany from fillibus- tering Nicaragua or Yucatan. New varieties of marble would thus be brought before the world, and persons from abroad, where such choice varieties are not to be found, would forward orders for them, and thus in many cases the ledges which now disfigure our fields, would become sources of wealth to the proprietors, to the State, and to the nation.
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5 NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
Secession in Switzerland
AND IN THE
UNITED STATES
COMPARED
BEING THE
ANNUAL ADDRESS.
DELIVERED OCT. 20TH, 1863, BEFORE THE
Vermont State ahistorical Society,
IN THE
HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES,
CAPITOL.
MONTPELIER
BY J. WATTS DE PEYSTER
CATSKILL. JOSEPH JOESBURY, PRINTER, "JOURNAL OFFICE." 1864.
العار
. ...
J. WATTS DE PEYSTER,
Major, 1845 ; Colonel, 1846; Brig. Gen., 1851, N. Y. S. M .; Adj't Gen., 1855, S. N. Y. Member of the Netherlandish Literary Association (Maatschappij der Neder- landshe Letterkunde) at Leyden, Holland; Member of the New York and . Pennsylvania Historical Societies; Life Member of the Historical Society of Michigan ; Corresponding Member of the State Hls- torical Societies of Wisconsin and Vermont, and of the New England Historie-Genealogical . Society; Military Agent, S. N. Y., 1851-'3. AUTHOR OF
Reports-1st, on the Organizations of the National Guards and Municipal Military Institutions of Europe, and the Artillery and Arins best adapted to the State Service, 1852; (Reprinted by order of the N. Y. State Legislature, Senate Docu- ments, No. 74, March 26, 1853;) 2d, Organizations of the English and Swiss Mili- tia, the French, Swiss, and Prussian Fire Departments; Suggestions for the Or- ganization of the N. Y. S. Militia, &c., &e., 1853.
LIFE OF (the Swedish) Field Marshal, LEONARD TORSTENSON, (rewarded by Three splendid Silver Medals, &c., by Il. R. M., Oscar, King of Sweden) 1855;
Winter Campaigns, 1862;
Practical Strategy, as iilustrated by the Life and Achievements of a Master of the Art, the Austrian Field Marshal, TRAUN, 1863 ;
Address to the Officers of the New York State Troops, 1858;
The Dutch at the North Pole, and the Dutch in Maine, 1857.
Appendix to the Dutch at the North Pole, &c., 1858;
Carausius, the Dutch Augustus and Emperor of Britain and the MenaplI, &c., 1858 ; The Ancient, Medieval and Modern Netherlanders, 1859 ;
&e., &c.,
&e., :0: &e. &c.
GROSS ERRATA, REQUIRING CORRECTION. Mere Typographical Errors not noted.
REVERSE OF TITLE PAGE .- The COPYRIGHT CERTIFICATE should read "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by J. WATTS DE PEYSTER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court OF THE UNITED STATES for the Southern Distriet of New York."
Page 16, line 13, for " Graian Alps," read " Grecian Alps (Alpes Graic)."
35, 10, for .; HARPER's" read " HARPER'S.'
25. 82,"for "alone should a have worship culte," read " alone should have a worship (Culte)."
40, 6, after " neutrals" insert "ALISON, devoted to the interests of the aristocracy and biased by his political prejudices, furnishes a slightly different numerical proportion. I invite the attention of my hearers to a comparison of his manifest partiality for the Ultramontanists."
white. coura Ft
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, By J. WATTS DE PEYSTER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
10560
SECESSION IN SWITZERLAND.
"The drum was beat; and. lo ! The plough, the workshop is forsaken, all Swarm to the old familiar long loved banners."
"What? shall this ' land ' become a field of slaughter, And brother-killing Discord, fire-eyed,
Be let loose through its ' vales ' to roam and rage ! Shall the decision be deliver'd over To deaf remorseless Rage, that hears no leader ? Here is not room for battle, only for butchery. Well, let it be : I have long thought of it, So let it burst then !"
SCHILLER'S DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN.
History is the School of Princes. It is their duty to derive Instruction therefrom In regard to the Errors of Times Past, in order to avoid them ; to understand that they must form for themselves a System ; to learn to follow that out step by step ; and to know that the Ruler, who has calculated his course of conduct the most wisely, is the only one who can get the better of those who act less in accord- ance with the lesson than he.
FREDERIC THE GREAT.
The History of Foreign Nations is only interesting to us on account of its rela- tions (analogies) with our own, or of the great achievements, whose performance is recorded therein. VOLTAIRE.
A student of history, not satisfied with mere superficial examination but ever urged to a closer and closer compar- ison of analogies, I have often been struck with the pers- picuity of every sentiment of Jewry's wisest monarch .-- The PREACHER-KING seems to have exhausted the subtle- ties of human nature and reduced them to axioms in Ecclesiastes. When he declared that everything was vanity and vexation of spirit ; that there had been, was, and would be nothing new under the sun ; that the great- est services must expect nothing but ingratitude from individuals or communities ; he was merely reducing to
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philosophical sententiousness what Jon, 1227 years before. had experienced, and what 2860 years have demonstrated as unalterable. Ifuman means change, just as the row- galley has been succeeded by the steamboat, and the man- gonel, by the cannon ;- human objects never :-
.
"Men change with fortune, Manners change with climnes." "Tenets with books and Principles with tinice. : " --
nevertheless men's ends are always the same. The progress of human events advances, rolling on in circles, which may have been typified by the wheels-
-".Wheel within wheel undrawn. Itself instinct with spirit"
which EZEKIEL saw in his magnificent vision upon the plains of Chebar. In accordance with this immutable law of progression, those who have read closely and re- flected deeply will see that the events that have occurred in this, our, country are nothing new, but have had their parallels in the Free Governments of Ancient Times, in the Republics of the Middle Ages, in the federal career of the United Provinces of Holland, and, very especially. in the history of the Swiss Confederation. In the case of the last, the similitude is so wonderful that all whose at- tention has been called to the subject; have remarked and noted, almost in the same words, many successive, aston- ishing points of resemblance. Before entering however upon the particular parallel in history, one pertinent con- sideration should never be forgotten. Wherever a free government, invited or permitted foreign interference, that government was overthrown. The MONROE DOCTRINE is nothing more than a recognition of this immutable law. and, if energetically applied, it is an antidote to the poison of foreign intervention in the affairs of this. our continent ; ours by the law of nature, ours by the force of arms, as
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soon as victorious over treason we can give due attention to the intrusion of foreign enemies.
The minds of our youth have not been sufficiently di- rected to the study of history, especially the history of foreign commonwealths. The Rules and Axioms deduci- ble from the Records of Nations, applied with common sense, can be relied with the same security as Experience. Republics however must learn from Republics. Any attempts to draw parallels between Republics and Mon- archies will lead to fallacious results.
At the present time there is, besides the United States, but one real republic in the world. Nominal republics have arisen in abundance in the course of man's history, but the Federation of the Swiss cantons is the only one worthy to be named alongside of the great American ex- periment. The. Spanish-American commonwealths are little better than anarchies. Of the three quasi European republics that existed before the French Revolution, all were extinguished by the arms of the first Napoleon .-- Switzerland, however, still remains to bear witness on the Continent to the principles of self-government and the inextinguishable spirit of liberty.
The failure of former republics or commonwealths, and the occasional license or sporadic excesses of liberal insti- tutions, should neither discourage nor disgust thinking men.
"LIBERTY," says MACAULAY "resembles the Fairy of Ariosto who, by some mysterious law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake. Those who injured her during the period of her disguise, were forever excluded from participation in the blessings which she bestowed. But to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she afterwards revealed herself in the beau-
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tiful and celestial form which was natural to her, accom- panied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love, and victo- ·rious in war. Such a Spirit is LIBERTY. At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall venture to crush her ! And happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her beauty and her glory."
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"There is only one cure for the evils which new acquir- ed freedom produces-and that cure is freedom !"
Again, hear to him !-
"Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The max- im is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim ? If Men are to wait for Liberty till they become wise and good in Slavery, they may indeed wait forever."
Of the three European Republics, Holland, Venice and Genoa, destroyed by the great NAPOLEON, that modern Attila, the fate of the first, Holland, is most sad to con- template.
It would be wise for the people of these United States to reflect upon the results of partisan spirit and intestine conflicts in a country, which, while it occupied an almost imperceptible space upon an ordinary map of the world, but while it was yet TRUE to itself, exercised the influence of a power of the first class, and like the diminutive-bod- ied but powerful polypus, embraced and held fast the richest and remotest regions in the tenacious grasp of its Briarian arms.
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كاتو
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مسحالهادى
Hollands armor of proof was torn open by the violence of her own political factions to receive the foreign thrust which deprived her of existence as a republic.
It is painful even to read what exactions Holland suf- fered, at the hands of those who styled themselves her Emancipators. The result was, that a Commonwealth, which had planted its victorious banners, amid the roar of artillery, within the Arctic circle, when it fought the English off Spitzbergen ; which had blanched the cheeks of London with the broadsides of its triumphant navy, master of the Thames; which had founded a NEW Am- sterdam on this continent, a POLAR Amsterdam in East Greenland, now Spitzbergen, and a JAVANESE Amsterdam in the spice producing East ; which had kept the "Feast of Kings" in Nova Zembla ; which had dotted the globe with its discoveries and acquisitions ; which had heaped a whole town La Cidade or Pavoassan, as a monument, upon the grave of a beloved admiral, under the equator ; which had governed a modern empire, Brazil, as a de- pendent colony ; which had chastised the Barbary Cor- sairs while still a terror to the mightiest monarchies ; which had held at bay the armies, and vanquished the united fleets of France and Britain ; fell from her place of pride and from a mighty republic, the arbitress of Europe, sunk into a third rate monarchy. From her misfortune, DAVIES, the elegant historian of the Dutch nation, deduces the following lesson-a lesson which should be thun- dered in the ears of our people in the public squares, and impressed upon their minds in the private circle-a lesson pregnant with significance to every American at this ter- rible epoch.
"From her place of pride, among nations, Holland has now fallen ; and in the history of her fall, may be read a useful, though melancholy lesson to every free and com-
استالقدرة
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mercial people, to be on the watch lest they mistake the heat of party spirit, for the zeal of patriotism : and lest they seek for national wealth as the END, and not as the MEANS, of national greatness."
Holland's catastrophe is but one additional proof that the disease, fatal to republics, never had its origin in ex- traneous causes, although the mortal blow may have been eventually given from without.
Some free states have perished like fruit, prematurely ripe, or ripe out of season, just as Huss, SAVANAROLA, and other Reformers suffered at the stake, because they were in advance of the age in which they lived, while ZWINGLI, LUTHER and CALVIN survived to see their doctrines flourish having taken the times at the turn of the tide, or at the flood. From the failure of foreign and former republics, men have argued, that freedom in government is incom- patible with human existence, in great aggregations and developments, even as a congeries or family of confedera- ted republics. Switzerland has solved the problem on a small scale. The United States is now solving a similar problem on a grand scale. Woe to mankind, if we, the latter, fail to do our Duty.
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