tions of this denomination of Christians are now found in all the larger and in many of the smaller towns.

The first Sunday-school in Vermont was held in Greensboro in 1814.

31. Visit of Gen. Lafayette.-An interesting event of this period was the visit of Gen. Lafayette to the State in 1825, in accordance with an invitation of the legislature of 1824. Having participated in the celebration at Boston of the Battle of Bunker Hill on the 17th of June, the General and his suite came to Vermont, entering the State at Windsor, June 28, where he was met by the Governor's staff. He was welcomed by addresses, by the revolutionary soldiers of the vicinity and by crowds of people at Windsor, Woodstock, Royalton, Randolph, Montpelier and Burlington, where he laid the corner stone of the south building of the University of Vermont, and where an elegant reception was prepared by Gov. Van Ness. The gatherings of the old soldiers, the review of the struggles for Independence and the presence of the most popular hero among the European auxiliaries of the rising republic tended strongly to enlarge the view and to nourish the patriotism of our people.

32. Imprisonment for Debt.-One incident connected with the visit of Gen. Lafayette must not be omitted. Gen. William Barton, who, as Lieut.-Col. of militia, with a few men captured the British General Prescott in July, 1777, near Newport, R. I., had become involved in debt in Vermont, and in consequence had been kept in jail at Danville for thirteen years. Gen. Lafayette learned of the condition of his former friend and paid the debt, enabling Gen. Barton to return to his family in Rhode Island.

Imprisonment for debt, quite akin in its spirit to some of the punishments already mentioned as having passed away, was abolished in 1838.

33. Matches.-The history of this period would not be complete without notice of the introduction of friction matches about midway of it. No longer "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day," nor does the "busy house-wife" not sweetly delay her breakfast while the small boy, sent to the neighbors for fire, loiters to pick the luscious raspberry and smears his luckless face with its tale-telling juice. One match is a little thing, but the changes in our mode of life that it has helped to make possible are not small.

34. Farm Machinery.-It was during this period, too, that the threshing machine and horse-rake made their appearance, by the aid of which and of other machines a much smaller number of farm hands than were formerly employed can grow and gather larger crops than were formerly secured.

35. Railroads.-Before 1830, railroads and locomotives had been introduced into the United States. Before 1840, Boston had become a railroad center, and the Vermont legislature had granted a charter for a railroad from Lake Champlain to the Connecticut River. Under this first charter nothing was accomplished and another charter was granted in 1843. Ground was first broken for the road at Windsor in 1845. The first rail was laid at White River Junction in 1847. The first passenger train run in Vermont passed over this road from White River Junction to Bethel, June 26, 1848. The Vermont Central and the Rutland and Burlington railroads were opened to Burlington in 1849.

Within three years from this time railroads were opened from White River Junction to St. Johnsbury, from Essex Junction to Rouse's Point, from Rutland to Bennington, to Whitehall, and to Troy, N. Y.

Rutland at once became the business center for a large part of the State, and is now an incorporated city.

BURLINGTON HARBOR AND RAILROAD YARD BEFORE THE FIRE OF 1894.

Burlington soon renewed its lumber trade, bringing its lumber in rafts through the Richelieu River

and Canal from Canada-pine from the Ottawa Valley and spruce from Quebec-. and distributing it at various stages of manufacture to all parts of the Eastern States.

Every kind of business was affected by the railroads. The produce of the farms and merchandise from the cities were transported more cheaply and more quickly.

Travel was made

easier. The mails

were carried more

swiftly and were

delivered more

frequently. Changes then recent in the postal laws were favorable to a rapid development of the mail

service. The rates of postage in the beginning of our government were very much higher than they are now, The postage on a letter was paid by the receiver and varied according to the distance from which it was brought. Here are the rates for letters established by law in 1816:

Each letter conveyed not more than 30 miles, 6 cents; over 30 miles and not more than 80 miles, 10 cents; over 80 miles and not more than 150 miles, 12.5 cents; over 150 miles and not more than 400 miles, 18.75 cents; over 400 miles, 25 cents.

Private expresses carried much mail matter. They became responsible for its safety, and carried at a less price than the government charged.

In 1845, by act of Congress the following rates were established for letters weighing one-half ounce or less:

Each letter conveyed not over 300 miles, 5 cents; over 300 miles, 10 cents, and the business of carrying the mails was forbidden to private parties.

Two years later the use of adhesive stamps to prepay postage was authorized by act of Congress, and in 1856 their use was made compulsory.

The first postage stamps made in the United States were printed in Brattleboro in 1845.

Four months before the first railroad train was seen in Vermont, a telegraph line had been completed between Troy, N. Y., and Burlington. So was the way preparing for new economical conditions and a new social state.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CIVIL WAR.

1. The Anti-Slavery Vote.-In 1853 the antislavery vote for governor was large enough to prevent an election by the people. In 1854 a vacancy in the senate of the United States was to be filled by the legislature of Vermont, and Lawrence Brainerd, a Liberty Party man of 1841, was unanimously elected. senator. In 1856, the State, by a large majority, chose electors to vote for John C. Fremont, the Republican candidate for President of the United States.

2. Growth of the National Idea.-During the last war with Great Britain the people of Vermont had exalted the authority of the State at the expense of the authority of the nation. Many of them disputed the right of the federal government to call the militia of a State to act beyond the borders of the State, except in certain cases specified in the constitution of the United States. But the near approach of a hostile army aroused their patriotism and dispelled their scruples. Every huzza and bonfire and booming gun for victories on land and lake and ocean, impressed more deeply the thought that the United States is a nation; and the discussions of the tariff laws and of the Missouri compromise, and nullification, and the fugitive slave law, helped to emphasize the thought. Should there come rebellion on account of slavery, the position of Vermont was not doubtful.