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 REMARKS OF J. H. BENTON, JR. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE VERMONT 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF BOSTON • AT ITS 
 
 ANNUAL BANQUET . THURSDAY 
 
 JANUARY 12, 1905 
 
From J. H. Benton^ Jr., 
 
 Ames Building, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
REMARKS OF J. H. BENTON, JR. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE VERMONT 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF BOSTON • AT ITS 
 
 ANNUAL BANQUET . THURSDAY 
 
 JANUARY 12, 1905 
 
 BOSTON • PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 
f6o 
 
 The Unitebsitt Pbess, CAMBBrooE, Mass., U. S. A. 
 
 FEB Ci'^l'J 
 
Remarks of J. H. Benton, Jr., President of The 
 Verviont Association of Boston, at its Annual 
 Banquet, Thursday, January 12, 1905. 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, 
 Invited Guests, and Brethren of the 
 A Association, — I welcome you all to this 
 Annual Dinner of the Vermont Association of 
 the City of Boston. 
 
 We began in 1887 with sixty-seven members, 
 and at our first banquet we had an attendance of 
 fifty-six persons. We now have six hundred and 
 fifty-two members, and constant accessions to 
 our membership. We have had an annual dinner 
 every year since our organization, and we were 
 the pioneers in opening rooms for the daily use 
 of a State Association. Our example was eagerly 
 followed by the Sons of New Hampshire, and is 
 now being followed by the Sons of the Pine Tree 
 State, who propose to move into the abandoned 
 nest of the Twentieth Century Club. It is to 
 be hoped they will not adopt all the ideas of the 
 Twentieth Century Club. (Laughter.) 
 
 The tie of birth in a particular place has been 
 said to be one that will not alone hold an Asso- 
 ciation together, because different kinds of people 
 are born in the same State. But the reason 
 that the tie of being born in Vermont holds an 
 
» 
 
 [2] 
 Association together is perfectly obvious. It 
 is because nobody is ever born in Vermont, of 
 the lineage of the Fathers of Vermont, who is 
 not a proper person to be loved and liked and 
 associated with by everybody else. (Laughter 
 and applause.) 
 
 Now, we come here year after year as Ver- 
 monters, as Vermonters living in Massachusetts, 
 as Vermonters who live in the Federal Union, 
 and every year at this gathering we put side by 
 side the flag of our native State and the flag of 
 our adopted State, and on either side of these 
 we place the gorgeous ensign of the Republic. 
 (Applause.) But we come here primarily be- 
 cause we are Vermonters, to pledge ourselves to 
 the ideas for which Vermont stands and always 
 has stood. 
 
 In these days when college professors are 
 teaching that the Revolution which freed the 
 Colonies from the tyranny of England was on 
 the whole a mistake, when so-called "cultivated" 
 people are speaking of patriotism as a "narrow 
 virtue," and of the flag as a mere " piece of tex- 
 tile fabric," a piece of "painted bunting," it is a 
 good thing for the Sons of Vermont to come 
 together and kindle anew their devotion to those 
 principles of liberty and loyalty for which Ver- 
 mont has always stood fast and foremost. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 The early settlers of Vermont were poor in 
 
[3] 
 money, but rich in courage and in strength. 
 They were strong, sturdy, earnest men and 
 women. They were sufficient unto themselves, 
 and by severe and constant toil they took jfrom 
 the soil on which they settled nearly all that 
 was necessary for a plain, simple, healthful life. 
 They had clay for bricks and lime for mortar, 
 and the woods gave them logs and lumber, from 
 which they made their rude but comfortable 
 dweUings and furniture. From the sap of the 
 maple they made delicious sugar, and the hem- 
 lock gave the bark with which to tan the hides of 
 their cattle into excellent leather. From the flax 
 they made durable linen for household use and for 
 summer clothing, and from the wool of their sheep 
 warm blankets and excellent "frocking" and other 
 clothing for wear in winter. The lye leached 
 from the ashes of the clearings made "potash" 
 and "pearl-ash," not only for their own necessi- 
 ties, but for sale in the distant markets of 
 Portland and Boston, where they obtained salt, 
 almost the only necessity of life which Vermont 
 does not produce. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, In- 
 dian corn, and nearly all the other cereals of the 
 temperate zone grew on the hillsides and in the 
 valleys, while the blackberry, raspberry, blue- 
 berry, strawberry, and other healthful and 
 delicious fruits grew wild in the woods and glades. 
 They raised apples, currants, cherries, plums, 
 pears, and other cultivated fruits. Coffee beans 
 
[4] 
 
 made a fair substitute for imported coffee, and 
 they even had from the leaves of various shrubs 
 a substitute for tea. Tobacco, less fragrant but 
 equally as wholesome as that from beyond the 
 sea, was raised in the south, and with care in 
 sheltered places in the north. 
 
 The lakes, rivers, and brooks were filled with 
 bass, pickerel, muskalonge, trout, and other fish, 
 while in the woods bear, deer, raccoon, partridge, 
 and other game were found in abundance. They 
 trapped the otter and the beaver in the streams, 
 and the fox on the hillside. They had geese, 
 turkeys, fowls, and pigeons, while the horses, 
 sheep, and cattle which gi-azed in their pastures 
 and fed on the hay from their meadows were not 
 excelled elsewhere. They built their own carding 
 and fuUing mills and looms, and their own tan- 
 neries. The women spun the yarn, wove the 
 cloth, and made the sheets, blankets, and gar- 
 ments, and the soap for washing, and the candles 
 for light in their own homes. The men tanned 
 the leather, and once a year the travelling shoe- 
 maker set up his bench in the great kitchen with 
 its capacious fireplace, and made the boots and 
 shoes for the family. They had cider from the 
 apple, and wine from the rhubarb, the elderberry, 
 and the wild grape. They needed no butcher or 
 baker, for they baked in their brick ovens and 
 had their beef, mutton, and pork from their own 
 flocks and herds and yards. 
 
[5] 
 
 They put school-houses and meeting-houses on 
 the hillsides, and the teachers taught for small 
 pay and " boarded around " by the scholar, while 
 the ministers were paid mainly in the produce of 
 the farms. They had none of the appliances of 
 modern husbandry. The mowing-machine, the 
 horse-rake, the reaper, the threshing-machine, the 
 improved plough, and the cultivator were un- 
 known. The axe and the crowbar, the beetle 
 and the wedge, the sickle and the scythe, the 
 shovel and the hoe, the flail and the fan, were the 
 simple implements with which they subdued 
 the wilderness, cultivated the soil, and gathered 
 its harvest. They had no eight-hour day, but 
 labored *' from sun to sun." With the exception 
 of the Fourth of July, when they assembled to 
 hear the Declaration of Independence read, and 
 usually to hear an " oration " by the minister, and 
 Thanksgiving, when they worshipped, and fed on 
 the good things they raised, they had no holidays ; 
 labor was so constant and unremitting that it be- 
 came a habit of their lives, and their descendants 
 even now, under better conditions, often feel that 
 a leisure hour is an offence. They were orderly, 
 industrious, frugal. God-fearing, and independent 
 people. They owned the land they tilled, and 
 were the most perfect democracy in America. 
 They sought freedom in the fertile valleys and 
 verdant mountains, and when they were threat- 
 ened by the armies of England on the north. 
 
[6] 
 menaced by the hostility of New York on the 
 west, tormented by the claims of Massachusetts 
 and New Hampshire on the south and east, and 
 refused even recognition by the Continental 
 Congress, they not only protected their homes 
 with their trusty rifles, but they founded the first 
 complete constitutional government on the con- 
 tinent. Their long struggle for the protection of 
 their homes stimulated and strengthened their 
 native love for personal liberty, and the dominant 
 trait in the character of their descendants has 
 been intolerance of oppression and intense devo- 
 tion to personal freedom. 
 
 There is an incident in the life of a Vermont 
 magistrate which I think exemplifies this trait 
 of Vermont character so well that I venture to 
 relate it to you. Theophilus Harrington, whose 
 name I dare say is unfamiliar to most of you, was 
 a judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature of 
 Vermont from 1783 to his death in 1813. There 
 once appeared before him a man claiming to be 
 the owner of a fugitive slave, a black boy who 
 had escaped from bondage, and whom the claim- 
 ant asked to have returned under the Fugitive 
 Slave Law of 1793. Harrington said to him : 
 " Well, put in your title." The claimant then 
 produced and proved the execution of a bill of 
 sale of the boy from a person who had for- 
 merly held him as a slave to the claimant, and 
 proved by affidavits the identity of the boy with 
 
[7] 
 the one named in the bill of sale. The judge 
 then said : " Is that all ? " The claimant re- 
 pHed that would seem to be enough, but finally 
 produced and put in evidence a bill of sale of 
 the mother of the boy from a man who had 
 held her as a slave to the man who made the bill 
 of sale of the boy to the claimant. " Is that all ? " 
 said Judge Harrington. "Why, yes," said the 
 claimant, " I have gone back to the ownership 
 of the mother." " Yes," said the judge, " but you 
 have not gone back to the original proprietor. 
 A bill of sale from God Almighty is necessary to 
 make title to a man in Vermont. The prisoner 
 is discharged." And so the black boy went free. 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 It was of this decision that Senator Sumner, 
 speaking in the United States Senate more than 
 half a century after, said in that sonorous English 
 which he loved so well : '* I know something 
 of the jurisprudence of our country, but I know 
 of nothing in the wisdom of JNIarshall, the learn- 
 ing of Story, or the fulness of Kent which will 
 ripen with time like this honest decree." INIr. 
 Sumner was right. That decree has ripened with 
 time because it was based upon the primary prop- 
 osition upon which all sound government rests, 
 that every man owns himself. The people of 
 Vermont did not forget this honest and fearless 
 magistrate, for in 1884 the legislature made an 
 appropriation for the erection of a monument 
 
[8] 
 to his memory. The monument was erected 
 and dedicated by fitting ceremonies, among 
 which was an address by the Hon. Hoyt H. 
 Wheeler, the present United States District 
 Judge for the District of Vermont, on July 3, 
 1886, and it now stands in the pleasant town of 
 Clarendon, to tell the story of this brave judge 
 of old. 
 
 The principle upon which Judge Harrington 
 rested his decision is the primary principle of 
 Vermont law, and the governing rule of Vermont 
 Hfe. It represents what, to coin a word, may 
 well be called " Vermontism" — devotion to per- 
 sonal liberty, absolute intolerance of anything 
 which interferes with the right of each human 
 being to himself. This was the spirit in which 
 the State of Vermont was founded. It was the 
 spirit which prevailed in the building of the 
 State by the Aliens, the Warners, the Chit- 
 tendens, the Slades, and the long line of 
 patriotic men who founded and built up this re- 
 publican commonwealth. Every law, eveiy cus- 
 tom, every act of the men of Vermont, show their 
 devotion to personal liberty. They inscribe on 
 their State flag — "Unity and Freedom." In 
 their constitution they call themselves, " Freemen 
 of Vermont." Their town meetings have always 
 been known as " Freemen's meetings," and their 
 representatives in the legislature are by the con- 
 stitution termed " Representatives of the Free- 
 
[9] 
 men of Vermont." No sane person has ever 
 been deprived of personal liberty in the State of 
 Vermont except upon due conviction of crime. 
 No slave was ever returned to bondage from the 
 State of Vermont. When the federal govern- 
 ment, controlled by the representatives of the 
 slave-holding States, enacted the infamous Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law of 1852, Vermont promptly met 
 this abominable statute by acts securing to persons 
 claimed as fugitive slaves the right of the writ of 
 habeas corpus and a jury trial, and making it the 
 duty of the State attorneys in the different 
 counties diligently and faithfully to use all 
 lawful means to protect, defend, and procure the 
 discharge of every person claimed as a fugitive 
 slave under the Fugitive Slave Act. (Applause.) 
 
 When the slave-holding States attempted to 
 break up the Union by force of arms in 1861, the 
 love of liberty of the people of Vermont prompted 
 them to the most heroic exertions in behalf of the 
 Union. The story of their deeds is familiar to 
 you all. Indeed, many of us had a part in what 
 was done. It is good for us not only to re- 
 member it, but to talk about it. 
 
 The State had no military organization and had 
 arms hardly sufficient to equip a single regiment, 
 but its Governor was the first to issue a call for a 
 special session of the legislature to aid the federal 
 government, and to raise a regiment of troops for 
 immediate service. 
 
[10] 
 
 On April 25, 1861, the legislature met at 
 Montpelier, and within twenty-four hours by 
 unanimous votes of both House and Senate it 
 appropriated one million dollars for war pur- 
 poses, and also provided for raising six regi- 
 ments for two years' service, being the State's 
 share of an army of 600,000 men, in addition to 
 the one regiment called for by the President for 
 three months' service. It then voted to pay 
 seven dollars a month to each private soldier in 
 addition to the thirteen dollars paid by the gen- 
 eral government, provided that the necessities of 
 the families of all soldiers should be relieved at 
 the expense of the State, laid a war tax of ten 
 cents on the dollar of the grand list, and within 
 forty- two hours after it met it adjourned, having 
 done more for the Union in that brief time than 
 any other State in proportion to its population 
 and resources. 
 
 And the freemen of Vermont never halted or 
 faltered in the great work of saving the national 
 Union. With a total population in 1861 of only 
 315,009 men, women, and children, and but 
 60,719 men subject to military duty, Vermont 
 sent to the Union Army and Navy 35,242 men, 
 or more than eleven per cent of her entire popu- 
 lation. More than one-half of the able-bodied 
 men capable of bearing arms in Vermont volun- 
 teered and served in the defence of the Union. 
 With a total tax valuation of aU the real and 
 
[11] 
 
 personal property of all her people, a little over 
 $85,000,000, she expended nearly $10,000,000 
 for war purposes. (Applause.) More than 5,000 
 of her soldiers were killed in battle, or died in 
 service of wounds and disease ; more than 5,000 
 more were discharged from the service for 
 wounds or disability received in it, making nearly 
 one- third of the whole number. 
 
 It should also be remembered that these 
 troops were not from the ranks of the vagrant 
 and the vicious, or from the surplus and idle 
 population of crowded cities. They were the 
 flower of the young men of the State, nurtured 
 in Christian homes, taught in Christian schools. 
 They came from the farms, the shops, and the 
 professions, and from every walk of industrious 
 and honest hfe. Each was dear to some family 
 circle, where loved ones silently suffered when 
 he fell, and where in many a woman's heart 
 there still rests the shadow of an unending 
 sori'ow. 
 
 The number of Vermont soldiers killed in 
 battle exceeded the ratio killed in the whole 
 army by twenty-five in every thousand ; and taking 
 into account the sons of Vermont killed in action, 
 who served in regiments from other States, more 
 men of Vermont fell in battle for the Union than 
 from any Northern State, in proportion to its 
 population. Its troops fought in the first battle 
 of the war and in the last battle, and in over one 
 
[12] 
 hundred and fifty reported engagements. About 
 one-third of the soldiers from Vermont served in 
 what was known as the " Vermont Brigade," the 
 only brigade in the army that was known by a 
 distinctive name. It was a part of the famous 
 Sixth Corps, and was distinguished as the " fight- 
 ing brigade of the fighting corps." This brigade 
 was engaged in thirty-seven officially reported 
 battles and engagements, or an average of nearly 
 three a month, and it marched over two thou- 
 sand miles in Maryland and Virginia. Its pro- 
 portion of men killed in action and fatally 
 wounded was nearly three times as great as the 
 average in the entire Union Army. It carried 
 the colors of Vermont in the front of many of 
 the bloodiest battles of the war, and brought 
 them all back untarnished and untouched save 
 by the shot and shell and the smoke and blood 
 of battle. (Great applause.) 
 
 And when, on the third day of the battle of 
 Gettysburg, Lee, after concentrating upon the 
 centre of the Union line the fire of one hundred 
 and fifty guns for two hours, hurled against it the 
 flower of his army, under General Pickett, in 
 the most determined assault of the war, it was 
 the 13th and 16th Regiments of the Second Ver- 
 mont Brigade commanded by Stannard, which 
 wheeled from the line and moving at double 
 quick struck the advancing rebel column in the 
 flank, and broke the charge that would otherwise 
 
[13] 
 probably have pierced the Union Hne. It is no 
 wonder that when General Doubleday saw this 
 daring move of General Stannard, and realized 
 what its result would be he shouted, " Glory to 
 God ! glory to God ! See the Vermonters go it." 
 The scene has been often painted in words to 
 which nothing can be added by me, and it will 
 live in story and in song as long as American 
 history endures. (Applause.) 
 
 Time does not permit the tithe of this wondrous 
 story to be told, and yet it would be incomplete 
 without a reference to the men of Vermont who 
 served in the troops of other States. Some idea 
 of how many there were, and of how well they 
 served, is given by the fact that a very incom- 
 plete list of Vermont men holding commissions 
 in the troops of other States comprises the names 
 of six full major-generals, fifteen brigadier-gen- 
 erals, twenty-five colonels, thirteen lieutenant- 
 colonels, forty-five majors, and two hundred and 
 six captains and lieutenants. (Applause.) 
 
 What Vermonter's heart does not throb with 
 pride at these recollections ? We love the soil of 
 our native State — this Sparta of America. From 
 its mountains robed in green and its hilltops 
 crowned with the clustering maples to its val- 
 leys clad in verdure ; from the beautiful Con- 
 necticut winding amid broad and fertile meadows 
 to the romantic Winooski and Missisquoi flowing 
 to the shining Champlain, it is all dear to us. 
 
[14] 
 But more than this we cherish its history and 
 its memories ; the story of its early trials and of 
 its later success, of the lives of its sturdy men 
 and its noble women, of their devotion to free- 
 dom and to personal liberty, of their constancy 
 and their courage, and the sacred memories 
 that cluster about the homes of our childhood, 
 — these are our choicest heritage. (Prolonged 
 applause.) 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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