But if any man is called into public service to the prejudice of his private affairs, he has a right to a reasonable compensation; and whenever an office through increase of fees or otherwise becomes so profitable as to occasion many to apply for it, the profits ought to be lessened by the Legislature."

We have lived to see the prohibition of slavery in the earliest constitution of Vermont become a part of the fundamental law of this nation. May the time be not far off when its declaration against that other and more widespread curse which corrupts and degrades free government shall be likewise put in force by the body of the American people.

One more provision in this instrument may be quoted. From each representative in the Legislature was required, before taking his seat, this declaration:

"You do believe in one God, the Creator and Governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked. And you do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration: and do own and profess the Protestant Religion."

Under this constitution, Vermont, already for thirteen years an independent community, became an independent State, subject to no national jurisdiction. She exercised, from 1777 to 1791, all the powers of sovereignty, and maintained herself against New York, against Congress, and against the Union. She fought through the Revolution on her own account, and, with the help of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, defended herself. The State flag that still flies over us was the flag of that earliest day. No other State in the American Federation, save Texas, ever had

an independent existence. All others were in their beginning either colonies of a foreign power or territories of the United States. Till the very last, both during and after the Revolution, the majority of Congress was against her, swayed by the power and influence of New York. Represented neither in Congress nor in the Legislature of New York, and without means or influence to make herself felt in either body, recognition of her independence and her admission to the Union were continuously refused, and the title of her people to the homes they occupied denied. The contest of the Colonies in the Revolution was against taxation without representation. That of Vermont, through the war and for eight years afterwards, was against confiscation without representation. No oppression charged upon Great Britain by America approached that sought to be visited by Congress and New York upon Vermont, while she was fighting side by side with them, to her last man and last dollar, in the struggle for national independence.

The history of the early life of Vermont is a grand and inspiriting history. No words of mine in these brief moments can justly characterize it. We find it difficult at first, in trying to understand it, to raise ourselves to its plane, and to view it in the light of its own time rather than of ours. Accustomed to see self-interest predominant, and individual success the universal goal, we are involuntarily groping after motives and springs of action in the builders of our State, which had no existence among them. We do not rightly comprehend what they did, until we come gradually to realize the absolutely unselfish devotion, the genuine and unalloyed patriotism, the ardent love

of liberty, of those plain, unassuming, upright, resolute, God-fearing men, who were striving to the uttermost, not for place or distinction, or wealth or power, but to achieve self-government, to establish homes, to create civil institutions that should be truly free, salutary, and enduring. The more closely we study their lives and their works, the greater is our admiration for their character and their capacity.

In 1791 Vermont's long controversy reached an end. The justice of her cause gradually made itself felt, both in Congress and in the Legislature of New York. It came to be seen that her right to self-government ought not to be denied, nor her institutions overthrown, nor the lands of her people taken from them, and that such results could only be attained by a war of extermination. Her demands were finally conceded. An amicable adjustment was made with New York, and a hundred years of unbroken friendship between these neighboring States has long obliterated all trace of the old-time bitterness. On the 18th of February, 1791, an act unanimously adopted by Congress for the admission of Vermont to the Union was signed by the hand of Washington.

So came Vermont at last, a hundred years ago, into the sisterhood of the States. Latest of existing commonwealths to join it; first accession to the old Thirteen. No remnants of colonial magnificence adorned her approach. No traditions of Old World aristocracy gave distinction to her presence or grace to her society. No potency in national politics attracted the parasites of the hour. The luxuries of wealth were unknown to her. For the elegance of high culture she had

found little opportunity. Rustic and shy, but picturesque, shadowed by the memories of a trying experience, unconquerable in spirit, proud of her untarnished history, and half reluctant to surrender the independence that had cost so much and been cherished so long. But she came to remain. She has sought no divorce from the Union to which, on the altar of the new Constitution, she then plighted her troth. When those who had been among the foremost in creating that Union, and should have been the last to assail it, yet essayed its destruction, thirty-four thousand of her young manhood, almost a tithe of her people, went out in its defence. And in all that widespread and terrible conflict there was no battle-ground on which her children are not buried. Her life, whether in peace or in war, through all the century that now closes upon us, has been not only in the Union, but for the Union. The high places, the distinctions, the ambitions, the emoluments of the national government, have been chiefly for others-not for her. She has neither claimed them, nor sought them, nor desired them. Content to stand and to wait, and, when service was demanded, never to be found wanting. Less affluent in production than lands that lie nearer the sun, she has been the nursery of men who have carried into other commonwealths the strength of her hills, and have fertilized, by their intelligence, their energy, and their character, all the States whose gathering stars now fill to overflowing the field of the national ensign. It is not on this spot alone that these memories are revived. The sons of Vermont are not all here. The multitude that surrounds us is but a handful. In all the cities and ham

lets of the Western plain, on savanna, and prairie, and river, and hill-side, in fields innumerable, golden with the harvest, wherever on this continent there is work to be done or enterprise to be carried forward, there they are, and there will this day and its cere monies be remembered, and its inspiration felt.

And now, my fellow-citizens, our task draws to its conclusion. The public spirit and the persistent efforts of all these years have found their reward in the structure that stands before us. Many, alas! how many, of those who in its foundation have shared our labors and guided our counsels, and who looked forward with us hopefully to their consummation, have not waited for this day, but are gone on before. The circle that is left to exchange these congratulations is painfully narrowed. But the work is done. Committing it now to the care of the State, with whose existence we trust it will be coeval, our concern with it terminates, and our duty is discharged. Its stately proportions rise away from us into the upper air-our monument no longer. Not for us nor for our time is it henceforth raised on high. Long before it shall cease to be reckoned as young we and our children will have disappeared from the scene. It is our messenger to posterity. Here it shall wait for them, while the successive generations shall be born and die. Here it shall wait for them, through the evenings and the mornings that shall be all the days that are to come. Crowned with the snows of countless winters; beautiful in the sunlight and the shadows of unnumbered summers; companion of the mountains which look down upon it, whose height it emu