THIRTY-THIRD REUNION.

MONTPELIER, OCTOBER 29, 1896.

The 33d annual business meeting of the Reunion Society was held at the State capitol in the afternoon of October 29, 1896. About 50 members were present. The meeting was called to order by the President, Lieutenant and ex-Lieutenant Governor Henry A. Fletcher. Bennington was decided upon as the place for the next meeting. The following officers were elected for the year ensuing:

OFFICERS FOR 1896-7.

President, Col. J. H. Walbridge of Bennington. First Vice-President, Capt. Frank Kenfield of Morrisville. Second Vice-President, Capt. N. F. Dunshee of Bristol. Secretary and Treasurer, Col. F. E. Smith of Montpelier. Executive Committee, Major A. B. Valentine, Sergt. R. J. Coffey, Lieut. Henry Cushman, all of Bennington.

The annual oration was delivered in the evening in the hall of the House, by Major C. A. Woodruff, U. S. A., (since retired as a brigadier-general), who was a member of Co. A, 10th Vermont volunteers. The audience filled the hall.

MAJOR WOODRUFF'S ORATION.

"WAR AND PEACE.”

Mr. President, Comrades and Ladies and Gentlemen:

"Absence only makes the heart grow fonder." During all the years that have passed since I left Vermont to return only at wide intervals and for a few days each time, my love for our State and my pride in her illustrious history have in

creased and grown. I have again and again proudly recalled the old, old story of how her soldiers bore their part in "working out for humanity.itself a victory unequalled by any former achievement of arms"; have, perhaps been a little vainglorious of the fact that I was a Vermont volunteer; ofttimes, doubtless, made myself a nuisance by telling "how we put down the rebellion," and if I am a little more modest to-night it is because I am talking to those who "know all about it."

The invitation to speak here, at home, on this thirtythird reunion of your society filled my heart with pride and pleasure, mingled with a little fear; fear because year after year for nearly a third of a century you have listened to distinguished orators and soldiers, yet I know that with you my sincerity of spirit will atone for many shortcomings; pleasure, at the thought of meeting comrades of camp and field; pride, for I felt that your committee were honoring my love for Vermont, my veneration for the deeds of her sons, of whom no more honored or honorable names are found than upon the rolls of your society.

As one who was a private soldier I am proud to stand in the Legislative Hall of my native State and speak to those who so grandly led her rank and file on bloody fields of glorious memory, from Big Bethel to Appomattox. As an humble stone in that unyielding wall of manhood which our State sent to the front to uphold its honor and to preserve national unity, I am glad to testify to the generous measures which our fathers promulgated from this throne of the people, for the welfare of their absent boys; aye, more than that, not only did they pour out their hard-earned money for those at the front but they strengthened their arms with loyal support of heart and voice, cared for their families and for the sick and wounded, paid every dollar that was pledged, and their successors have upheld our State's sterling reputation for good honest government.

"War and Peace" presents a target that the most scattered remarks should reach. We all want peace but so long as ambition, avarice and revenge are attributes of human nature so long will there be war; we may cry peace, peace, but until mankind is regenerated, the law of self-preservation will cause us to meet force with force; and as there are no immediate in

dications that the day of man's regeneration is at hand, it behooves us to instil into the minds of the young that spirit of manly patriotism that makes good, honest citizens in peace, and loyal heroic soldiers in war.

While freely admitting that love of country is as necessary in peace as in war, we claim that "the military traditions of a country must promote patriotism" and they should be perpetuated. I shall not contend that military glory represents the highest type of glory but military service in war does represent the highest type of public service; more trying, more exacting and demanding greater sacrifices than any other, and if the cause be just, then the glory of the battlefield shines triumphant above all others. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he giveth his life for another"; greater patriotism hath no man than this, that he giveth his life for his country.

That which was worth fighting for deserves talking about, -not vindictively, not boastingly but reverently and honestly, forever and forever; for the future of our country depends upon its young men and women, and it is well that they should learn the story of how those who preceded them did their duty when the nation demanded the supreme sacrifice. So believing, while speaking for and of these veterans my remarks are, more especially, to the younger generation and, God helping me, I shall utter no words that do not convey healthy American ideas.

Thirty-five years have come and gone since the flag of our country was trailed in the dust of Sumter's battered walls; thirty years and more since the Union soldiers proved that free States could be stable as well as free. To all who are on the youthful side of middle age, the war of the rebellion is a matter of history only; and by too many, unfortunately, its incidents and the principles that actuated the defenders of the government, are as little understood as the ordinary events of ancient history. But to these veterans it is a living reality; its joys and sorrows, its pleasures and hardships, its sufferings, defeats, victories, and final glorious ending, are a part of their very being; and these reunions carry their minds back to the grand national uprising that followed when our flag went down before the guns of slavery and secession. They re

member that the roar of cannon had scarcely died away in Charleston Harbor before the government called upon her loyal sons for help, and the clarion notes of war were sounded in every city, village and hamlet, all over our land wherever the nation's authority was recognized; and their eyes grow brighter as they remember how the hearts of freemen were fired, and loyal citizens of every rank and station, in the days of their young manhood, with the warm blood of youth leaping through their veins, when life was brightest and dearest, rallied at their country's call; and again and again sent those conquering waves of patriotism rolling to the front with the loud refrain:

"We are coming, Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand more."

They love to recall the scenes of war with their lights and shadows, and think of the time when, "in the battle's front they stood, as the fiercest charge was made."

"No cripples, no crutches, no gray beards were there, But valor and youth filled their ranks everywhere."

These reunions carry their minds back to the time when they stood shoulder to shoulder with those comrades who "submitted to the last dread test of patriotism and laid down their lives for their country"; they drank from the same canteen, felt the same scorching sun, stifling dust, and freezing winds, fought and suffered with them; side by side they made the toiling marches, wet and weary; slept in the same bivouacs, forlorn and dreary; with them in prison-pen shared their scanty covering and still scantier food while they watched and prayed for the day that should "open wide the iron door"; stood with them 'midst the clash of battle where the blue and gray contended until there were windrows of dead and dying; their eyes kindle and moisten as they recall the desperate charge where these comrades marched to glory and were halted by death-keeping the "touch of elbow" until their lives were blotted out by the red sea of war.

"Comrades of camp and mess,
Left as they lay to die

In battle's sorest stress.

us.

When the storm swept by,
They lay in the Wilderness-

Ah! Where did they not lie?"

The glorious fruits of their labor and sacrifice remain to

A republic, second to no other government in material strength, wealth, and prosperity; the stability of our nation everywhere recognized; a deep national sentiment, unknown before the war, and worth all it cost in blood and gold; our flag made in very truth "the flag of the free"; and cleansed with the blood of these men, its flaming folds sent around the earth's great circle a flash of light that dispelled the dark clouds of slavery in all civilized lands. My young friends: the veterans realize all this and while the light and warmth of life remain to them, they will uphold the justice of the nation's cause and by voice and ballot maintain the principles for which they fought and which their valor won. But they are growing old; they are fast becoming feeble links in the lengthening chain that binds the present to the past:

"A few years at most and the guard in the rear
Will enter the shadow and for aye disappear;
And with the memory of fields that they won,
And their scars, lie down to sleep, their duty done."

And then to your hands they leave their heritage.

We do not question the present fealty of any State or section; we know that if danger threatened our government the sons of those who fought so gallantly to destroy this Union would with equal valor battle to maintain it; but the courage of those who fought to subvert this government must not blind them or us to the fact that their cause was not just. As patriotic Americans, we can admit no equality of flags-for us all there is but one flag and that the one the United States soldiers bore to complete victory.

As patriotic Americans we can admit no comparison of causes-for us all there is but one cause and that the perpetuity of this Union. The fact that we were victorious does not affect the justice of our cause; right, not might, is eternally right; the flaccid sentimentality that manifests itself in the "God-alone-knows-who-were-right" idea is unworthy of any