interesting occasion, a people plain and hardy, but intelligent and virtuous; industrious cultivators of the earth, but enjoying, on their lofty hills, and in their lowly valleys, comfort and independence. Sincerely attached to the constitution and government of their country, they will never shrink from any sacrifices necessary to support and defend them. And if it may become me, I would add, that their bravery and patriotism have been severely tested, in the darkest hours of peril and dismay, and found firm and immovable, as the mountains which majestically stretch themselves through the midst of them.

"It is, too, a source of no small gratification to me, that they can number among them many of the worthy veterans who served in the same cause, in which you so gloriously distinguished yourself. But if I am so inadequate to express the feelings of others, how far beyond me is it to describe the emotions which must agitate the bosoms of those venerable fathers, on saluting, at this lapse of time, one of their old and beloved Generals, and whom in all probability their eyes are to behold for the last time, on this side of the grave. With their bodies enfeebled by the ravages of many a year, and their locks bleached by the sun of many a summer, their hearts, yet warm as the warmest, and tender as the tenderest, will be lighted up and animated with a blaze, kindled by a spark from the altar of '76, but whose blissful warmth none but they and you can be permitted fully to realize.”

General Lafayette replied as follows:

"The testimonies of esteem and affection bestowed upon me by the people of Vermont and their representative and chief magistrate, are the more gratifying as I had eagerly anticipated the pleasure, in my happy visit through the United States, once more to behold those celebrated mountains, the very thought of which recalls to my mind glorious, patriotic, and endearing associations. From this State, Sir, by a gallant band of patriots, and their worthy leader and prototype, was, for the first time, proclaimed on the ramparts of a British fortress, the name of the Continental Congress. Nor ever did the vicinity of the enemy on the northern frontier, and family difficulties on every other side, one instant cool the ardor of the sons of Vermont to defend the cause of American independence and freedom. Now I have the happiness to see the hardy and the virtuous inhabitants of this State peaceably cultivating their lofty hills and their handsome valleys, with the intelligence and spirit which characterise them; I see them, in common with their sister States, enjoying the blessings of the new American social order, so far superior even to the least exceptionable institutions of Europe. What hitherto was, at best, religious toleration, has been here exchanged for religious liberty and equality— privilege for right-royal charter mock representatives, inefficient compromises between nations and a few loyal and aristocratical families, for the sovereignty of the people, for truly representative and self-government.

"Sir, I most cordially thank you, for the friendly

and flattering manner in which you are pleased to express the feelings of the people of this State; a most gratifying specimen of this goodness I now have the gratification to witness. I thank you for your sympathy, for the delight I feel to see the happy citizens of Vermont enjoying all the blessings of republican liberty, and among them to recognize many of my beloved companions in arms. Be pleased to accept in your own name, and in behalf of the people and representatives of Vermont, the tribute of my respectful devotion and gratitude."

At Woodstock the General was welcomed on behalf of the citizens of the town by Hon. Titus Hutchinson, who said in part that,

"Although one generation and almost a second have passed away, a few patriots of the revolution still survive. Some of these present have marched in defence of their country in obedience to your commands. These all yet live to tell us and their posterity what our liberties cost and how they were attained: nay more, they are the living heralds of your disinterested and efficacious exertions to redeem us from colonial bondage and guarantee to us those free institutions which are at once the glory and happiness of our country, and are extending their benign influence through the world.

"We should rejoice in your longer continuance here if other and higher claims would permit; but we know you must speedily progress on your tour, and we express the sincere desire of our hearts that your path may be strewed with flowers, fra

grant flowers, till you arrive at the blissful horses blissful shortes of immortality."

To which the General made an apt and impromptu reply, and then proceeded to Royalton, where he was welcomed in behalf of its citizens, to the green hills and happy villages of Vermont, by Hon. Jacob Collamer, who said in part that,—

"In the full enjoyment, in common with our splendid cities, of all those privileges and blessings which flow from the liberality of our republican institutions, and surrounded with the light and intelligenee which attend those institutious, we cannot be insensible from whence these blessings flow, or the debt of gratitude which they imply. These are the happy results of your early labors and those of your compatriots. Hence the thrill of pleasure which, at your condescending visit, vibrates with electric rapidity and sympathetic orison to the most obscure and remote extremities of our nation."

To which the General made a happy reply. He was welcomed at East Randolph by Rev. Wilbur Fisk. General Lafayette and his party arrived at Montpelier about 10 o'clock in the evening of June 28th, and was addressed on behalf of the citizens of Montpelier and vicinity by Hon. Elijah Paine, Judge of the U. S. Court for the District of Vermont, and said in part:

"We congratulate you on having nearly completed the tour of the United States in health, and hope you have received great pleasure and satisfaction in witnessing the fruits of your early toils and sacrifices, in the improvement and prosperity

of a widely extended Republic. We believe you have seen a great Nation enjoying the blessings of liberty without licentiousness.

"When you left this country after the war of the Revolution, the State of Vermont had but just begun to have a name. At that time almost the whole State was a wilderness-yet we are proud of some of the feats performed in that war by the arms of Vermont. We count upon ourselves as principals in the capture of a whole British army under Burgoyne, the consequences of which are too well known to you to need a rehearsal.

"The State of Vermont cannot show to you large towns and cities; but it can show to you what is perhaps of as much consequence: it can show to you a sober, substantial, intelligent, and well informed yeomanry." In reply to which Lafayette said:

"The welcome I receive from the citizens of Montpelier, the great number of friends who at this late hour have been pleased to wait my arrival, and the particular gratification to hear their affectionate feelings expressed by you, my dear Sir, fill my heart with the most lively sentiments of pleasure and gratitude.

“Well may I, Sir, acknowledge the patriotic titles of this State, not only as having been the theater of a most important event, the victory of Bennington, and having largely contributed to the happy turns in the north-but also, as having by her devotion to the general cause, and by the gallantry of her hardy sons, constantly taken a great proportionate share in our revolutionary struggle;