USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Rutland > Centennial celebration of the settlement of Rutland, Vt., October 2d, 3d, 4th and 5th, 1870, including the addresses, historical papers, poems, responses at the dinner table, etc. > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
Now, let us look at the methods by which the power of a moun- tam town " brings peace to people." It is sometimes thought such a place has no great influence, because it is small, obscure and un- known. But let us not forget the power of example. Let one atrocious murder be committed here-let one horrible deed be con
:
8
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL. -
summated here, and the report shall be transmitted all over the land. Rear a beautiful church, or any other perfect edifice here, and you will have men come from all parts of the land to view the .model. Raise up a skillful surgeon here, and his fame will be known over half the continent. Educate an eloquent preacher here, and hundreds of churches will be turning their eyes towards him. Manufacture any one perfect article here, and it will go over the world (I may mention the name of Fairbanks, as an illustration). Make a model school, or strike out in any direction in that which is valuable to the world, and your town becomes a power. Scores of towns feel the influence, and while they may envy you, are very sure to imitate you.
Another means of power which such a town has, by which to bring "peace to the people," is by slight but frequent contact. Suppose the merchants in such a place are high-minded and fair, that public sentiment frowns on what is mean and contemptible, will it not have an influence far and near? You send upright and intelligent men to your Legislature, to your Congress, to your Con- ventions, to the places where public opinion is created, and laws are enacted, do they not carry and bring back an influence ? Does Congress ask how large the village is in which the man resides who has the power to lead them, and stand or walk with any load cast upon him, whether it be praise or blame ? Then, our people travel everywhere, see everybody, hear everybody, talk with everybody, and are being educated all the time, in the cars, at the watering- places, and then they come home, as the bees do, having collected something from every flower, and all to make the hive stronger. It is in these mountain towns that we look for strength, for defenders, when it is necessary to appeal to arms, and for defenders of educa- tion, morals, religion, and all that beautifies humanity. These are the best specimens of republicanism we have, and these are the true models of republics; and on these the great Republic of the world rests.
In laying the walls of the new Capitol at Albany, the engineer had to take into consideration how much pressure a single square foot of ground would bear ; then the weight of the foundations, the weight of the walls, of the slate roof, the weight of the timbers, of the books in the libraries, the weight of the men when the build-
.
-
9
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL. -
ing should be full, the weight of the snow and ice that may lie on the roof, and the weight of the winds that may press against its sides and roof! You will not be surprised to learn that the founda- tion walls to hold up all this pressure had to be eighteen feet thick, and 50,000 tons of stone put in them, and the tower has its foun- dation of solid masonry 110 feet square. And yet all this rests upon the little, small stones that underlie all-unseen and unknown! So this vast Republic rests upon these little town republics which underlie the whole, and which are its real foundation. Don't tell us that these are not all needed, and all beautiful, precious stones !
Another way by which "the mountains bring peace to the peo- ple," is by the men who are educated in these towns, and then emi- grate all over the land and the world. We should be surprised to know how many they are in number, how varied in position, how strong and beautiful in character. Thirty years ago one of our Piedmont counties had sent out 200 college-educated men, and of these, eight were representing as many sections of our country in Congress, at one time, that was then a very growing country. Fol- low that stream of young men who have gone to the great cities, who have spread themselves over the West and South, who have had a voice in the Senate of the nation, who have been the educa- tors of our youth, our physicians, to stand between the living and the dead ; our lawyers and judges, to protect men in their rights ; our preachers of righteousness, to be pastors of our churches ; our home missionaries on the prairie, and our foreign missionaries in the distant and dark places of the earth, and then tell us, if you can, what fertility and beauty and blessings this stream of manhood has carried over the world! This is not wealth that they carried ; for all we had we put into their heads and hearts, but it was char- acter, intelligence, habits of economy, industry, self-reliance, tem- perance, sobriety and indomnitable perseverance. All this they carried away, and planted the same again and again, and spread it ali through the land. I don't eulogize the gold they have gathered, the property they have accumulated, but the success which they wrenched. often in the most trying circumstances, and amid the. greatest obstacles.
We may dig out the marble and the iron with which our hills are stored ; we may send the products of our machinery and spindles
.
10
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL.
even into the deserts of Africa; we may lay the ends of the earth under contribution for what we make, but this is not the peace that " the mountains bring to the people." Our glory is the men that we raise, the character we send forth, the influence that we diffuse, the power that we impress upon other little communities all over our country, and, indeed, all over the world !
. But don't many of these young men make shipwreck ? Undoubt- sadly. They are so many individual swimmers where the tides surge and whirl, where the sharks play and devour, and where men draw each other under the waves ; and is it any wonder that, in hazards so great, some, nay, many, must be engulfed and lost ? My wonder is that so many go out, in all the inexperience of youth, exposed as they are to temptations unspeakably great, and manfully stand, and come back to us the pride of their homes, the admiration of their friends, and the honor of their native towns. All that character was planted here, and is the growth of home culture. And there are heroes, too, who have not risen, it may be, to emi- nence ; but they resisted great temptations, and wrestled with great dangers. The brightest robes, it may be, will hereafter clothe those who have done great deeds ; but we are no less affected by the thought that they wear " white robes " who "have come out of great tribulation." And he is a hero who has met and resisted the fires of temptation, with no smell of fire upon his garments.
We are often so much struck with the wealth which history throws up in its path, that we may forget something better than this. There has always been wealth in the world. Old Rome gathered the conquered wealth of all nations. They could spend the revenues of a kingdom on a single supper. They had wealth enough, but there were two difficulties which the gospel in the mountain towns in a measure corrects. The first is, it distributes property with a good degree of equality. In Rome the property was in few hands : the rest did not know enough to obtain it. In- telligence does not make the intellects all equal, but it tends to eqality, and in proportion as intelligence and education are equally diffused, in that proportion is property equally distributed ; and this has been the glory of our mountains; that is, they have not created greath wealth ; they have held it, equally distributed-that is, to a very good degree. But there is something better still; and it is :
-
11
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL. -
we are learning, as we read our duty under the light of the sun of righteousness, the right use of moneys. It is our glory that the boy whom we educated and sent out, by and by comes back, not merely a grown up man in city-made clothes ; not merely a rich man ; but he comes back a benevolent man ; one who knows that the highest ends to which he can put his money is to aid humanity, and do good to man. It is a part of the power of a mountain town that its wealth at home is so equally distributed that all may be ed- ucated-all go out, if they choose, carrying all their example and character, and throwing it iuto other regions, and using what is acquired for the good of men and the glory of God. These towns have their representatives scattered abroad, some manning our pul- pits, the moral pillars of granite, around which opinions shift and whirl like sand in the winds ; some to be missionaries in the far-off regions of earth ; some at the West and South-feet beautiful, be- cause they bring peace and publish glad tidings. They come down upon the people as rain upon the mown grass, in the form of edu- cators and teachers, physicians, merchants, and lawyers, and judges, and legislators, and Sabbath School teachers, and preachers of the gospel. The schools and colleges that grow up all over the land- and even in foreign lands, have their roots in these mountain towns. The temporal prosperity of our churches comes out of the brain of our pastors, and their spiritual prosperity out of their hearts.
I am not to allow that the mountain towns are mere feeders of our cities ; that all our talent and worth emigrate and flow away into our great centers. I am not to allow that the wheels of civil- ization and of wealth move only in cities, and that our young men can be anything unless they go off into a crowded city. You might as well say that a young tree can never grow erect, lofty, or broad and nmajestic, if it grows out on the hillside, and is not lost in the forest, where the trees are all alike. I am not to allow that the beauty and glory and strength of our mountain towns is of no value till they are poured into the great city and are lost, as mountain brooks are sometimes swallowed up in great, muddy lakes, sending up miasmas and fevers, and decay and death. I verily believe that, let a young man put forth the same efforts, and make the same self- denial here at home that he is compelled to make when he goes
-
-
12
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL. -
abroad, in nine cases out of ten, in twenty years he would be a broader man, an i have more influence in the world.
Thus "the maintains bring peace to the people." Thus the in- fluence of a sinzie mountain town in New England is great. In- quire where our ablest men were born and educated, men who are princely as merchants, men who adorn the professions, the bar, the pulpit, the halls of legislation, the benches of justice, and you will be utterly amazel to find the early homes of these men. Wealth, in order to roll the wheels of business, gathers together in cities, just as water- gather in clouds, only to be redistributed again, Fashion tries to crowd in and deck itself with some of this wealth. and walk in a vain show ; but the highest glory ever predicted of cities is, " that they shall flourish as the grass of the field." If now you are looking for a young man who is to have broad shoulders, one who is to bear great responsibilities in life, where do you look -in the great city, or in such a mountain town as I am describing ? Which congregation, taking years in succession, requires the most deep, brain-created sermons-that which is in the city, or that which is among the mountains ? I know that it is the latter. Thus these mountain town- are the head-springs of good to the world ; the mountains bring peace to the people. Their mission and power is to affect human character, and to bless every generation. This has ever been so ; and now that communication is so easy and so direct, this power is to be ever increasing. The streams sent out are grow- ing larger and deeper, and more constant. And from the beautiful elms that shade our streets, from the sweet flowers that adorn our homes, from the school-house that receives our children for train- ing, from our churches, on whose tops the morning and setting sun loves to gild; from these Christian homes, which are raising noble sons and beautiful daughters to go out and away in order to bless the world ; from the blue mountains that stand around us under their summer veil or wintery covering, I hear but one voice-" none . of us liveth to himself," for we live to " bring peace to the people."
We do not forget that it was the little hill-town that sent out a Samuel, a great prophet in Israel ; a Joseph, the Savior of a nation ; that it was Bethlehem where David spent his youth, and Nazareth where the Son of God spent his. We do not forget that God has
13
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL.
ever honored the mountains and the hills. And while population and industry and wealth pour into such a town, effacing the old landmarks and creating new powers, we will not forget the past, the unseen, almost unknown power they have been silently exerting upon the world. The mustard seed has been planted here. The leaven has been hidden here ; and God has been walking over these mountains, watching over the people, guarding them in times of darkness, and making them to be a blessing to the world. The rains that have fallen here, the dews that have bathed these hills, and the fertility that has clothed them, have not been used up here. The waters and dews have gone down to lower and drier places, and beautified them ; and still more, we have no doubt that from these mountain hights a great multitude have gone to skies that are never cloudy, to fields that never lose their green, to homes that are never saddened by sorrow, or made gloomy by death ; and we have no doubt that in that loved, deep, sweet song of Heaven, "Worthy is the Lamb," there are many voices that once sang with us in their pilgrimage, and learned the song here.
We change. Under the old regime the church had comparatively little to do except to enjoy her beautiful inheritance, and live in peace and quietness. Her temptations were few. Her children might walk the streets and not be ruined; but now floods roll in upon us. All things are changed, and we must now do where we once could meditate ; we must meet the hurries and excitements of the age by counter-activities. Earth is becoming small, and we are called upon to act, to work; to sympathize with humanity, to use our property, to receive our destiny into that of the human race, as no other times have demanded. Everything is quadrupled-activ- ity traced, books, expenses of all kinds, and so must increase the labors and the charities of the people of God. The reservoirs which you make at the foot of the mountains increase your own business capacities, and so also increase the wealth of others all along to the sea ; so also must we make the mountain towns to be intellectual, spiritual reservoirs to fertilize the land, sending down larger, purer streams as long as streams flow.
Finally, remember that, though the lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage, we want something
:
14
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL. -
better. This is not our best. We want something more abiding, where we shall not walk to-day, and to-morrow be dying-where we and our families shall not be crushed by death. And our text ,tells us that "The mountains shall bring peace to the people ;" that under our own Redeemer, the cold rocky mountain shall send out streams of salvation, and under His great power we may rest for- ever.
The floods may come-but whosoever believeth in Him, shall never be " confounded."
Our building may shake-but whoever believeth in Him shall never " make haste"-to get out of it.
Our earthly building may fall-but whosoever believeth in Him shall never " be ashamed"-because we have built on a false foun- dation.
My dear friends,-Just seventy years ago, wanting one week, there was a man child born in your village. He was carried away in the arms of his father, while an infant ; he was, at a very early day, left an orphan-he has battled with poverty and difficulties ; he early laid himself on the altar of God, to live for the good of humanity ; he has seen many sorrows, but more joys; he has labored in his poor way, and with such talents as God gave him with his might; but, Oh ! the sheaves he has been permitted to lay at the feet of the Master have been too few ; the good he has accomplished has been too small ; the zeal with which he has toiled has been too cold ; but though he can bring you but a few withered leaves to_ night, he is grateful for the privilege of greeting you in your high prosperity, rejoicing with you in what your town has done for humanity, and though only claiming to be one of the humblest sons whom you have sent out, give thanks to God for the honor which no other man can ever have-that of preaching the first Centennial sermon that can ever be preached in Rutland.
The concluding prayer was offered by Rev. James Davie Butler, who invoked the blessing of the Father upon the word spoken, that it might make its impression upon the hearts of the vast audi- ence assembled to do honor to the fathers who planted the insti- tutions of religion and education among these mountains.
The following hymn, read by Rev. James Gibson Johnson, pastor
1
.
I
15
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL. -
of the Congregational church, was then sung by the choir, joined by the congregation:
From all that dwell below the skies, Let the Creator's praise arise ; Let the Redeemer's name be sung, Through every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are thy mercies, Lord; Eternal truth attends Thy word; Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore, Till suns shall rise and set no more.
The congregation was dismissed with the benediction by Rev. Dr. Todd.
SECOND DAY.
Long before the hour of eight o'clock, P. M., the time appointed for the commencement of the exercises, the Opera House was well filled to hear the addresses of Henry Hall, Esq., on the "Early His- tory of Rutland," and of Chauncy K. Williams, Esq., on the "Ecclesiastical History of Rutland." At the hour of opening the exercises the band played a lively air, after which the president of the occasion, Wm. Y. Ripley, Esq., advanced to the front of the platform and introduced to the audience Rev. B. M. Hall, who knelt and offered a fervent and devoted prayer to the Most High, returning thanks for His graciousness in preserving our ancestors through the trials which they had to undergo, and raining His blessings upon them and their posterity.
At the conclusion of the prayer, the president arose and said his voice was so weak as to be inaudible to most of the hearers, but he had prepared a few words of welcome, which he had transcribed to paper, and would have them read. Gen. W. Y. W. Ripley then took the paper and read the welcome address, as follows:
ADDRESS OF WELCOME.
Ladies and Gentlemen : It has been thought fit on this, the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of our good old town of Rutland, to celebrate the event by inviting all the natives and for-
16
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL. -
mer residents who have gone out from among us, with their descendents and our other friends, to meet us on this occasion. We thank you for your presence. We welcome you most cordially to our hearths and our homes. We welcome you to the scenes of your former joys and your former trials. We welcome you to the banks of the Otter, to the shadows of Killington and Pico. We welcome you to the green hills of Vermont, and though you will witness many sad changes, and miss many of the old landmarks, and the familiar faces of loved and dear friends, we trust you will find many changes for the better, and hope that on the recurrence of the second centennial anniversary of the settlement of our town that your great-grandchildren's children may, with the blessing of a good Providence, meet our great-grandchildren's children under the folds of our national banner, spangled with an hundred stars, with our constitution unimpaired, with just and equal laws honestly administered, citizens of the freest, the happiest and the best coun- try on the globe. We again greet you with a hearty and a cordial welcome.
Henry Hall was next introduced to the audience by Gen. Ripley, and proceeded to address them as follows:
THE EARLY HISTORY OF RUTLAND.
On the 2d day of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress voted unanimously in favor of national independence.
John Adams, attributing to this vote the importance which the world has since appropriated to the renowned Declaration of Inde- pendence, adopted two days later, wrote to his wife, on the 3d day of July, as follows:
"The 2d day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be cele- brated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated by solenin acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevrmore."
This notable prophecy expresses the Anglo-Saxon idea of patri- otic celebrations: first, gratitude to Heaven; next, jubilant joyous-
17
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL.
ness. Our national character adds another feature, viz: speechify- ing - sometimes spread-eagle bombast, sometimes commanding eloquence. Town anniversaries add two other features, viz: social family visiting and local historic sketches.
Rutland rejoices in a name illustrious with the ducal coronet- the highest rank of a subject-a name that has for ages flashed along the page of history, in the drama, on the battle-field, and in the councils of a great nation,-a name that was time-honored before William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel.
Different governments, at different times, have claimed the right to rule over our hills and valleys. Once, ere Rutland was, the lillies of France floated supreme on Lake Champlain, asserting and exercising sovreignty over the soil watered by the tributaries of that Lake. For several years the early settlers of Rutland looked fondly to the Lion and the Unicorn as the banner of their pride; for sev- eral years these early settlers shared with England the honor of calling Shakspeare and Milton fellow countrymen. For thirteen years Rutland owed and rendered fealty and allegiance only to the bannered pine of Vermont. And when the Stars and Stripes, Hail Columbia and Yankee Doodle properly became a part of our inheri- tance Rutland was twenty-one years old, and her population 1450.
During the old colonial wars, no white man dwelt within our borders. During our four great national wars, Rutland bore the banner of freedom, full high uplifted against foreign foe and domes- tic traitor, on many a fierce field, from the walls of Quebec to the halls of Montezuma.
Once Rutland was famous for its pipe-clay and linseed oil; to-day Rutland sends her marble westward and southward beyond the grave of De Soto, and eastward to the land of Columbus and Gali- leo, of Raphael and Michael Angelo. Rutland seems a young town, yet she has a newspaper that rivals the London Times in age. Rutland is the grave of the grandfather of one of the nation's great- est thinkers, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Rutland has been the home of eminent men: Nathaniel Chipman, one of the ablest lawyers and statesmen of New England; his brother Daniel, eminent as a lawyer, pre-eminent for conversational power; John A. Graham, the first lawyer located in Rutland, half dandy, half humbug, yet with talent enough to attain notoriety in 2
18
RUTLAND CENTENNIAL.
-
-
England and eminence in New York; Jesse Buel, the founder of the Albany Cultivator; Thomas Green Fessenden, the bearer to England of Rutland's great philosophical blunder. From a London prison he sent forth his Hudibrastic poem; he founded the New England Farmer, and was the friend of Haw- thorne. John Mattocks, the unlearned but capable and eccentric judge; Samuel Williams, the studious philosophier and dignified historian; Gov. Israel Smith, so successful in life, so sad near death ; Charles K. Williams, so able, so learned, so uncorruptible, so charm- ing in conversation, so kind and wise a friend in council; James Davie Butler, the mechanic, the merchant, the scholar, the wit; the great landholder, the energetic, the enterprising Moses Strong, who, it is claimed, married a descendant of Cotton Mather; the shrewd and capable Robert Pierpoint, descended from a favorite officer of William the Conqueror; the very able Robert Temple, of the same family as Lord Palmerston, like Gen. McClellan, a descendant of Gov. Bradford of the Mayflower, also a descendant of the good Godiva, wife of the Mercian Earl Leofric, the Saxon king maker, one thousand years ago; George T. Hodges, the cautious, suc- cessful merchant, polished in his manners and prudent in his habits; William Page, the diligent attorney, the safe and upright cashier; Walter Colton, the popular author, the herald to Christendom of the discovery of California gold; James Meacham, the loveable man, the eloquent preacher; Edgar L. Ormsbee, brilliant with thought, the pioneer of marble and railroad enterprise; Solomon Foot, the prosperous politician, the President of Conventions and Senates; James Porter, the good physician; Jesse Gove, the gentlemanly and genial clerk; Rodney C. Royce, the popular young lawyer; Gershom Cheney, John Ruggles, Edward Dyer, Avery Billings, Samuel Griggs, Benjamin Blanchard, the Meads, Chattertons, Rey- nolds, Purdys, Sheldons, Smiths, Reeds, McConnells, Barns, Greens, Kelleys, Thralls, Wm. Fay, Charles Burt, Benjamin Lord, Nathan Osgood, Osgoods, Greenos, Farmers, and hosts of other noble citi- zens.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.