^lillllilllililiiilli : . iiiiiif!:;;/ iMiHiiUfiiiiii mm w\\\m \ Patriotic Reader; HUMAN LIBERTY DEVELOPED J. IN VERSE AND PROSE, FROM VARIOUS AGES, LANDS, AND RACES, WITH HISTORICAL NOTES. HENRY B. CAERINGTON, U.S.A., LL.D. AUTHOR OF "BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION," ETC., ETC. IN SIXTEEN PARTS. THE PATRIOT'S CRY.— Psalm CXXXVII. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. fey J13&r ^ Copyrighted, 1887 and 1888, BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON. ^s^ECTv--^-A.---;^5i n- ^ A«fl PREFACE. The " Patriotic Eeader" has for its purpose the use of utter- ances that inspire good citizenship. The youth of America share in the excitements of the day, and, amid all their oppor- tunities for the study of history and science, are tempted to overvalue sensational culture, and postpone until they enter upon the serious duties of active life the real preparation for those duties. No apology is made for selections, or omissions, in this effort to contribute to their reading material. The restora- tion to a more general use of the grand words of our fathers, and those of the earliest and of classical times, is based upon that plain logic of all human history which asserts the love of liberty and love of country to be the yearning desire of the human soul. The trend of forty centuries was toward a " promised country ;" and Jerusalem of old was sacred not only as a shrine " to which the tribes went up," but as a beloved capital. The nineteen fol- lowing centuries only intensify the essential elements of that Hebrew devotion ; and every form of dissent, whether of despot- ism or anarchism, is repulsive to the true interests of society, which find the best happiness of the many through the happiness of each. Mere heroism is not always patriotic, but its purest type is where the general welfare involves sacrifice of self; and the struggles for liberty and country in other lands are as worthy of study as those which are peculiarly American. The efforts of Poland, Hungary, and Ireland have not been failures because of temporary defeat. The very record of sacrifice for country IV PREFACE. quickens and perpetuates patriotic sentiment, and to-day, more than ever before, the principles which actuated great leaders and adorned exemplar lives are more important, in the educa- tion of youth, than are the minute details of memorable battle action. In all true progress, however modified by ignorance or super- stition, there has been the influential sanction of some religious sentiment. The earliest Hebrew life was perfumed by its pres- ence, and prophecy and song still compete with narrative, to exalt the valor of those who made homage to some Superior Being the interfusing force of the best national being. In the United States there has been vouchsafed such a deliver- ance from inherited and antagonizing interests, that the youth of all sections, as never before, can value the utterances which called the nation into life, and as they cherish the fireside divinities of their own homes, no less proudly honor the words and deeds of those who early trod the wine-press, that through their labors the perfected liberty might come forth purified, clear, and wholesome. A single volume for practical use, which seeks to stimulate toward higher citizenship, through patriotic expression and ex- ample, can, at best, only open a door of the temple, and invite a considerate regard for the limited view presented. CONTENTS. PART I. HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. PAGJ4 Introduction 1 The Antiquity of Freedom William Cullen Bryant ... 2 The Equality of Man Cunningham Oeikie 4 Loyalty to Country (b.c. loth century) (Trans- lated from " Pentaur's Egyptian Epio" by E. L. Lushington, anil arranged for Reader by " Egyptologist") Lysander Dicker man .... 6 Hymn to Ammon Ra (Translated from chapter xv. of the Egyptian " Book of the Dead," and arranged for Reader) Lysander Diekerman .... 7 The Memorial Day of the Exodus (b.c. 1491). (From Address : by permission edited for Reader) . Rabbi Raphael Lasher ... 8 Patriotic Song of Moses Special Translation 10 Moses in Sight of the Promised Land (b.c. 1451) Andrew Preston Peabody . . 12 Hebrew Patriotism 13 The Hebrew Jubilee (b.c. 1490) Sylvester Graham 15 Patriotic Song of Deborah and Barak (b.c. 1285) Special Translation 16 The Patriot's Cry (Paraphrase of Psalm cxxxvii.) 20 Gideon the Patriotic Leader (b.c. 1245) 21 The Patriot Citizen's Challenge (Job, chap, xxxi., B.C. 1530) Special Translation 24 The Destruction of Sennacherib (b.c. 710) . . . George Gordon Noel (Lord Byron) 25 The Overthrow of Belsbazzar (b.c. 538) .... Bryan Waller Procter (Harry Cornwall) 25 The Patriotic Maccabees (For the Patriotic Reader) Brooke Her/ord 27 The Hebrew Minstrel's Lament New England Magazine, 1832, p. 60, " Z" 30 PART II. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. Introduction 31 " The Best Omen our Country's Cause" . . . Homer's Iliad, Book XII. . . 32 Self-Sacrifice for Country (Tragedy of Leonidas). Michel Pichat 34 The Spartans' March Felicia Dorothea Hemans . . 35 VI CONTENTS. PAQB The Death of Leonidas George Croly 30 The Greeks' Return from Battle Felicia Dorothea Hemant . . 38 A Country imperilled by Discord Titus Quintius 38 The Rights of the People upheld Oaius Cannleius 41 Pericles and Aspasia .... Walter Savage Landor ... 42 Virtue before Riches Socrates ... 43 Popular Vigilance the Bulwark of the Constitu- tion . Demosthenes 45 Popular Rights above Privilege Cains Gracchus 47 Rome and Carthage locked in Strife Victor Hugo 49 Merit before Birth Cuius Marina 50 The Dignity of Citizenship Marcus Tullius Cicero .... 52 Industry an 1 Integrity the Hope of the State . Marcus Fortius Cato .... 53 Cicero denounces the Traitor Catiline Marcus Tullius Cicero ... 55 The Traitor Catiline's Defiance (Tragedy of Cat- iline) George Croly 56 Virtuous Liberty Priceless (Tragedy of Cato) . Joseph Addison 58 Cassius instigates Brutus against Caesar (Tragedy of Julius Caesar) William Shakespeare .... 60 Antony's Speech over the Body of Caesar (Tragedy of Julius Caesar) William Shakespeare .... 62 Brutus's Speech on the Death of Caesar (Tragedy of Julius Caesar) William Shakespeare .... 65 The Character of Brutus Fisher Ames 66 Caesar crossing the Rubicon James Sheridan Knoioles ... 67 PART III. THE PATRIOTISM OP OUR POUNDERS. Introduction 69 The Landing of the Pilgrims Felicia Dorothea Hemans . . 70 The Founders of our Government William Merchant Richardson 71 Tho Pilgrims Edward Everett 72 Character of the Puritan Fathers Francis William Pitt Green- wood 75 Two Centuries from the Landing of the Pilgrims. Wilbur Fisk Crafts 77 In Memory of tho Pilgrims, 1820 Grenville Mdlcn 78 New England's Dead Isaac McLellan, Jr SO The Pilgrim Fathers, — Whero are They ? . . , John Pierpont 82 The Rock of the Pilgrims George (P.) Empson Morris . . 83 The Song of the Pilgrims Thomas Cogswell Upham . . . 84 The Fathers of New England Charles Sprague 85 The Huguenot Exodus to America William Cain Moragne ... 87 The Landing of the Huguenots William Cain Moragne ... 89 The Friends in New Jersey Henry Armitt Brown .... 90 The Pilgrim's Vision Oliver Wendell Holmes ... 92 CONTENTS. Vll PART IV. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. PAGE Introduction 94 Independence John Pierpont 95 Independence Day James Gillespie Blaine . . 96 Great Britain neglects her Colonies (1765) . . . Colonel Isaac Barre .... 97 Great Britain warned of her Danger (1766) . . William Pitt 93 America resents British Dictation (James Otis). Lydia Maria Child .... 101 The Repeal of Obnoxious Laws demanded (Jan- uary 20, 1775) William Pitt 103 Removal of the Boston Garrison dem in lei . . William Pitt 105 Conciliation or War (March 22, 1775) Edmund Burke 107 "War is actually begun" (March 23, 1775) . . Patrick Henry 109* Paul Revere's Ride (Night of April 17, 1775) . Henry Wadsmorth Longfellow. 112 The Battle of Lexington (April 17, 1775) . John Greenleaf Whittier . . 116 The Revolutionary Alarm George Bancroft 117 The Rising in 1776 Thomas Buchanan Bead . . 118 The Battle of Bunker Hill From " Battles of the Amer- ican Revolution" .... 121 Independence Bell, Philadelphia Anonymous 122 Independence a Solemn Duty Richard Henry Lee .... 12-t \ Independence explained (August 1, 1776) . . . Samuel Adams 126 Great Britain must yield or lose America (May 30, 1777) William Pitt 127 America still Unconquerable (November 18, 1777) William Pitt 130 The Use of Savage Allies denounced William Pitt 132 Continued War with America is Folly (177S) . . Charles James Fox .... 133 Americans will celebrate 1775 as a " Glorious Era" John Wilkes 134 America seated among the Nations (March 5, 1778) Jonathan Mason 136 A Nation born in a Day John Quincy Adams .... 136 Ode for Independence Anonymous 138 PART V. MEMORIALS OP WASHINGTON. Introduction. Including " Washington a Model for Youth" Zcbulon Baird Vance. . . . 139 Washington, the Brightest Name on History's Page Eliza Cook 140 Washington before the Battle of Long Island (August, 1776) 142 Vlll CONTENTS. PAfll ■Washington's Farewell to the Army 143 General Washington's Resignation as Com- mander-in-Chief 144 From President Washington's First Speech in Congress (April 30, 1789) 145 Presi lent Washington's Response to the French Ambassador on Receipt of the Colors of France (1796) 147 From Washington's Farewell Address (1796) 148 The Character of Washington - William Smyth 152 The Memory of Washington Edward Everett 154 The Glory of Washington Henry {Lord) Brougham . . 156 The Attributes of Washington Charles Phillips 157 The Foreign Policy of Washington Charles James Fox .... 159 The Birthday of Washington Rufns Choate 160 The Birthday of Washington ever honored . . George Howland 161 The Washington and Franklin Memorials linked. John Quinsy Adams .... 163 Centennial Birthday of Washington Daniel Webster 164 Memorabilia of Washington From " The Obelisk" . . . 166 The Mount Vernon Tribute Anonymous 168 PART VI. MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. Introduction 169 The Putnam Tablets 172 Fort Moultrie in 1776 and 1876 John Thomas Wightman . . 172 Bunker Hill Monument begun. Its Purpose (1825) Daniel Webster 175 The Bunker Hill Monument completed (1813) . Daniel Webster 176 The Washington Monument begun (1848) . . . Robert Charles Winthrop . . 177 The Washington Monument completed (1885) . Robert Charles Winthrop . . 180 The Perry Monument dedicated (1860) .... George Bancroft 181 The Saratoga Monument begun (1877) .... Horatio Seymour 183 The Saratoga Lesson (1877) George William Curtis . . 185 The Monmouth Monument begun (1878) . . . From " Historical Address" . 187 The Groton Heights Monument (1879) .... John Joseph Copp 189 The Groton Heights Lesson (1879) Leonard Woolsey Bacon . . 192 The Yorktown Monument begun (1881) .... Robert Charles Winthrop . . 194 The Yorktown Lesson (1881) Robert Charles Winthrop . . 196 The Bennington Monument begun (1887) . . . John William Stewart . . . 198 The Jasper Monument dedicated (1881) .... John Brown Gordon .... 200 The Putnam Monument dedicated (1888) . . . Henry Cornelius Robinson . . 202 The Surrender of Burgoyne James Watts De Peyster . . 205 CONTENTS. IX PART VII. DEMANDS OP THE PRESENT AGE. PAGE Introduction 206 T ,. f The Present Age Daniel Webster 206 1Hg i The History of Liberty .... Edward Everett 207 True Glory John Milton 208 God in History George Bancroft 208 The Present an Age of Revolutions Edward Everett 209 What constitutes a State Sir William Jones 211 The Men to make a State Georr/e Washington Doane . 212 Liberty a Solemn Responsibility Orville Dewey 214 True Liberty honors Authority (1645) .... John Winthrop 215 True Liberty measured by Intelligence .... John Caldwell Calhoun . . . 218 Despotism and Democracy Incompatible .... Edmund Burke 219 Socialism and Democracy Incompatible .... Alexis Charles de Tocqueville. 220 Christianity and Democracy harmonize .... Robert Raikes Raymond . . 222 Christian Citizenship Wendell Phillips 223 The Inhumanity of Slavery William Cowper 224 Liberty and Slavery contrasted Laurence Sterne 226 Delayed Liberty is but Mockery Louis Sebastien Mercier . . 227 Popular Government the Most Just Daniel Sharp 228 National Distinction depends upon Virtue . . William Ellery Charming . . 230 Moral Power the Mightiest John McLean 231 Moral Reform the Hope of the Age Lyman Beecher 232 Temperance Reform Most Imperative Edward Everett 234 The Reformer's Trials Henry (Lord) Brougham . . 236 True Patriotism is Unselfish George William Curtis . . . 237 True Patriotism embraces Mankind John Thornton Kirkland . . 238 True Patriotism inculcates Public Virtue . . . Henry Clay 240 Patriotism assures Public Faith Fisher Ames 241 Patriotism Broad as Humanity Increase Cooke 243 Heroic Example has Power Richard Salter Starrs, Jr. . 244 Heroes and Martyrs to be honored Edwin Hubbell Chapin . . . 245 The Nobility of Labor Orville Dewey 246 Labor is Worship Frances Sargent Osgood . . . 247 Idleness a Crime From Magazine " Civics" . . 249 International Sympathies on the Increase . . . Francis Wayland 250 Europe and America have Common Responsibil- ities Daniel Webster 251 The United States of Europe foreshadowed . . Victor Marie Hugo ... 252 The Old World and the New Lewis Cass 254 The Spirit of the Age adverse to War .... John Watrous Beukwith . . 256 The Reign of Peace foreshadowed Charles Sumner 258 Duty to One's Country William Cowper 260 X CONTENTS. PART VIII. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. PA0B Introduction 261 /-Address, July 4, 1787 Joel Barlow 262 Includingj " « " 1793 J. Q. Adams 263 { " " " 1796 John Lath-op 265 Columbia Timothy Dwight 266 Theory of the American Revolution .... Daniel Webster 267 The Example of our Forefathers Jared Sparks 268 The American Experiment James Madison 269 The Government of the People George Bancroft 270 Necessity of the Union John Jay 271 The Nature of the Union Charles Daniel Drake ... 272 \ The Federal Constitution Benjamin Franklin 273 y A Republic the Strongest Government Thomas Jefferson 275 American Liberty is Reasonable and Just . . . Edwin Percy Whipple . . . 276 American Responsibility measured Joseph Story 277 American Liberty on a Permanent Basis . . . George McDuffie 280 American Citizenship and its Duties Levi Woodbury 281 America's True Greatness William Henry Seward . . . 283 America's Intrinsic Strength John Bright 284 America without a Parallel Martin Van Buren 286 America in the Front Rank of Nations .... Daniel Webster 287 America, the Colossus of the Nations Newton Booth 289 America an Aggregate of Nations ....... Martin Farquhar Tupper . . 290 The American Patriot's Hope Thomas Eioing 291 America's Contributions to the World Gulian Crommelin Verplanck. 293 American Enterprise Older than Independence . John Wilkes 294 The Union a Geographical Necessity Alexander Hogg 295 Union linked with Liberty (1833) Andrew Jackson 297 Liberty and Union One and Inseparable .... Daniel Webster 298 The Value of the Union (Battle of New Orleans). Matt. Whitaker Ransom . . 299 Our Country is One Grand Poem Hugh Swinton Legare . . . 301 Vast Territory no Bar to Union John Randolph 302 Internal Improvement a Bond of Union .... John Caldwell Calhoun . . . 302 The Ship of State William Parsons Lunt . . . 304 The South in the Revolution Robert Young Hayne .... 305 America's Greeting to England Washington A Us ton .... 306 America William Cullen Bryant ... 308 PART IX. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. Introduction 309 Great Examples Edward Everett 309 ( Great Examples Lord Byron 310 1 "Webster Still Lives" Boston Courier 310 [ John Adams's supposed Speech . Daniel Webster ..'.... 311 CONTENTS. xi PAOB What makes a Hero ? Henry Taylor 314 Moses the First Liberator Timothy Dwight 314 The Last Hours of Socrates (470-399 B.C.) • . . Epes Sargent 316 Alfred the Great (848-901 a.d.) Charles Dickens 317 William the Silent (1533-1584 a.d.) John Lothrop Motley . ... 318 John Milton gives Eyesight to Liberty (1608- 1674 a.d.) Homer Baxter Sprague . . . 319 William Pitt ("An Ode to Mr. Pitt") Annual Register, 1759 ... 322 William Penn Peter S. Duponeeau .... 324 Jonathan Trumbull Isaac William Stuart .... 325 Benjamin Franklin (June 11, 1790) H. G. Biquetti de Mirabeau. 326 Franklin's Epigrams Benjamin Franklin .... 327 Samuel Adams George William Curtis . . . 328 Revolutionary Veterans honored Daniel Webster 330 Nathan Hale Edward Everett Hale .... 332 Washington's Lament for Lafayette William Bradford 334 Alexander Hamilton and John Jay Francis Lister Hawks . . . 335 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Daniel Webster 337 The Colleagues of John Adams Daniel Webster 339 Death of John Quincy Adams Isaac Edward Holmes . . . 340 Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the Last of the Signers George Lippard 341 Daniel O'Connell Wendell Phillips 343 Marco Bozzaris Fitz-Greene Halleck .... 345 John Caldwell Calhoun Daniel Webster 347 Henry Clay John Jordan Crittenden . . . 348 Daniel Webster John Davis Long 350 Charles Sumner Alexander Hamilton Rice . . 352 Charles Sumner Lucius Qitintus Cincinnatus Lamar 353 William Henry Harrison Ann Sophia W. Stephens . . 355 Zaohary Taylor George Washington Doane . 357 Abraham Lincoln Phineas Dinsmore Gurley . . 358 Oh, why should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud ? . William Knox 359 James Abram Garfield James Gillespie Blaine . . . 361 Ulysses Simpson Grant Henry Ward Beecher .... 363 Victoria of England, Jubilee Ode (1887) . . . . Robert Charles Winthrop . . 365 PAET X. PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. Introduction 367 /- Liberty and Law Reverdy Johnson 367 Including I Ireland Henry Clay 367 l Greece Daniel Webster 368 The Downfall of Poland (1794) Thomas Campbell 369 Xll CONTENTS. PAQC Heroism of the Hungarian People Louis Kossuth 371 Liberty to Athena James Gates Percival .... 372 The Irish Insurrection (1S44) Richard Lalor 8 heil . . . . 373 Home Rule for Ireland William Ewart Gladstone . . 375 Ireland near the Goal William O'Brien 376 The African Chief William (fallen Bryant . . . 378 Melancholy Pate of the Indians Joseph Story 381) The lied Men of Alabama Alexander Beaufort Meek . . 381 The Red Men passing away 383 The Indian Warrior's Last Song J. Howard Wert 384 PART XL PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. Introduction 387 "On, on to the Just and Glorious Strife!" . . . Anonymous 387 Regulus before the Senate of Carthage (255 B.C.) Elijah Kellogg 388 Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua (71 b.c.) . Elijah Kellogg 391 Galgacus to the Caledonians (a.d. 84) Tacitus 393 Alfred the Great to his Men (a.d. 894) .... James Sheridan Knowles . . 394 William Tell'a Address to the Swiss (a.D. L307). Schiller's " William Tell" . . 395 Address of Robert Bruce (a.d. 1314) Robert Hums 397 Rienzi's Address to the Romans (A.n. 1317) . . Mary Russell Mitford . . . 398 Arnold von Winkelried at the Battle of Sempacb (A.D. 1386) Tames Montgomery 400 Henry V. to his Troops (a.d. 1422) William Shakespeare . . . 402 Gustavus Vasa to the Swedes (a.d. 1521) . . . Henry Brooke 403 Story of Logan, a Mingo Cliicf (a.d. 1774) . . T homas Jefferson 404 General Joseph Warren's Address (June 17, 1775) John Pierpont 405 General Francis Marion's Address after sup- pressing Mutiny (a.d. 1780) Francis Marion 406 Charlotte Corday (A.D. 1793) Lamartine's " Girondists" . . 407 The Last Speech of Robespierre (a.D. 1794) . . Epes Sargent 409 Religious Distinctions behind the Age (a.d. 1796) •. . John Philpot Gurran .... 410 Union with England not Ireland's Choice (a.d. 1800) Henry Grattan 411 Emmet's Vindication (a.d. 1803) Robert Emmet 412 ■^Address to the Young Men of Italy (a.d. 1848). Giuseppe Mazeini 414 Justice to Ireland (a.d. 1843) Daniel 0' Council 415 Treason disavowed (A.D. 1848) Thomas Francis Meagher . . 417 Resurgite (a.d. 1877) John Boyle O'Reilly . . . . 41S CONTENTS. Xlll PART XII. PATRIOTIC AND NATIONAL HYMNS, SONGS, AND ODES. PAGE My Country "Hesperian" 420 Love of Country Sir Walter Scott 422 My Native Village John Howard Bryant . . . 422 The Patriot's Elysium .... James Montgomery 423 The Songs of our Fathers Felicia Dorothea Hemans . . 424 Our Native Song Eliza Cook 426 Address to Liberty William Coxcper 427 The Vision of Liberty Henry Ware, Jr 428 " Dulce et decorum est pro Patria inori" . . . . James Gates Percival . . . 431 What's Hallowed Ground? Thomas Campbell 432 The Graves of the Patriots James Gates Percival . . . 433 Columbia, the Land of the Brave David T. Shaxo 435 Hail, Columbia, Happy Land Joseph Hopkinson 436 The Eagle James Gates Percival . ... 437 The American Eagle Charles West Thomson . . . 439 The American Flag Joseph Rodman Drake . . . 441 Our Flag is There American Naval Officer (1812) 442 The Star-Spangled Banner Francis Scott Key 443 Stars in my Country's Sky, are ye all there? . . Lydia Huntley Sigoximey . . 444 Old Ironsides Oliver Wendell Holmes . . . 445 E Pluribus Unum George Washington Cutter . 446 The Battle-Hymn of the Republic Jxdia Ward Howe 448 Keller's American Hymn Matthias Keller 448 The New Song of Freedom Sylvanxis Dnjden Phelps . . 449 The Land of the South Alexander Beaufort Meek . . 451 The Battle of Eutaw William Gilmore Sinxms . . 453 Pulaski's Banner Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 455 Nathan Hale Francis Miles Finch .... 456 Caldwell of Springfield Bret Harte 457 The Lay of Groton Height Leonard Woolsey Barm, . 458 The Soldier's Dream Thomas Campbell 461 Crcscentius Letitia Elizabeth London . . 462 Our Fathers' God : Hymn of the Mountaineers . Felicia Dorothea Hemans . . 463 Union and Liberty Oliver Wendell Holmes . . . 465 Polish War-Song James Gates Percival . . . 466 Bruce and the Spider Bernard Barton 466 Union Song of the Celt William Erigena Robinson . 468 St. Patrick's Day M.J. Barry 469 Marseilles Hymn ... Rouget de Lisle 470 The Spanish Patriots' Song Anonymoxis 471 Viva Italia! Viva il Re ! Charles Dimitry 472 Song of the Greeks (1822) Thomas Campbell 474 Harmosan Richard Chenevix Trench . ±7b XIV CONTENTS. PAOB The German's Fatherland Ernst Moritz Arndt .... 476 The Watch by the Rhine. German National War- Max Schneckenburger. Trans- Song lated by H. W. Ducklen . 478 German Battle-Prayer Karl Theodor Korner ... 479 Prussian Battle-Hymn Karl Theodor Korner ... 480 God Save the King 481 Patriotic Eloquence Porter's Analysis 483 The Patriotic Dead William Collins 485 PART XIII. AMERICA SURVIVES THE ORDEAL OP CONFLICTING SYSTEMS. Introduction. Including Memorial Address of W. H. Fleming 486 Harvest and Vintage Augustine Joseph Hinckley Duganne 488 Gettysburg a Mecca for the Blue and the Gray . John Brown Gordon .... 490 "Wake them in Peace. — God bless them AH" Wellesley Bradshaw .... 491 The Great Question settled. — Through Gettys- burg to a Grander Union George William Curtis . . . 492 No Conflict now Charles Devens 494 The Nineteenth Century ends Slavery Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar 496 Again Brethren and Equals James Willis Patterson . . . 497 "Separate as Billows, but One as tho Sea." — Car- penter's Emancipation Picture unveiled (1878) Alexander Hamilton Stephens. 499 Belligerent Non-Combatants. — " War is the Last Dread Tribunal" William Tecumseh Sherman. 502 All under the Same Banner now, — "its broad folds nnrent, and its bright stars unob- scured" Laicrence Sullivan Boss . . 503 Let us rejoice together George Augustus Sheridan . 505 The Blue and the Gray Francis Miles Finch .... 508 PAET XIV. NATIONAL CENTENNIAL OBSERVANCES. Introduction 510 Centennial Hymn John Greenleaf Whittier . . 510 The Meditations of Columbia (A Cantata) . . . Sidney Lanier 511 Independence Day, 1876. — "Welcome to the Nations" Oliver Wendell Holmes . . . 513 CONTENTS. XV PAGE "Liberty's Latest Daughter" Bayard Taylor 514 " Our National Banner" William Dexter Smith, Jr The Centennial of Constitutional Government . John Adams Kasson . . One Hundred Years a Nation Stephen Grover Cleveland The Principles of our Government Samuel Freeman Miller The New " Hail Columbia" Oliver Wendell Holmes . A Centennial National Hymn Francis Marion Crawford America commended to God's Favor James Gibbons The Ordinance of 1 7S7 noticed Israel Ward Andrews . The Supremacy of Organic Law John Randolph Tucker . The Declaration and the Ordinance George Frisbie Hoar . . " God Save the State" Charles Timothy Brooks PART XV. PATRIOTISM TO BE POSTERED IN THE SCHOOLS. Introduction 532 Including I Address of Su P' t Draper, N.Y 532 I " " Sup't Newell, Md 533 "My Maryland" Robert Cooper McGinn . . . 534 Free Schools inspire Loyalty to Country .... Francis Marion 535 The American School System of the Future. — Character and Patriotism to be inculcated . Josiah Little Pickard . . . 536 Our Education must be American Albert Edward Winship . . 538 Patriotic Training in our Schools James Willis Patterson . . . 540 The Problem of To-Day.— Patriotism the Great School Lesson Richard Edwards 542 Instruction in Civics .as a Patriotic Duty . . . William Evarts Sheldon . . 545 The Patriotic Chautauqua Movement John Heyl Vincent 547 Temperance Education the Patriot's Ally.— Through our Youth the Nation lives . . . Mary Hannah Hunt .... 549 The Nineteenth Century shapes the Twentieth Century. — Patriotism in School and College. Merrill Edward Gates . . . 551 '■' To Thee, Country !" Anna Philipine Eichberg . . 553 PART XVI. THE FUTURE OF AMERICA FORESHADOWED. Introduction 555 f Extracts from papers of Governor - . ,. j Pownall; Ex- President Woolsey g } and Count Schouvaloff; and The [ Neighborhood of the World 556 The Triumphs of our Language James Gilbourne Lyon . . . 558 XVI CONTENTS. PAGE The Anglo-Saxon and the World's Future . . . Josiah Strong 560 The Development of our Country Caleb Sprague Henry . . . 562 The Future of the United States Charles King 564 The Destiny of our Republic George Stillman Hillard . . 565 A Happy Country William Woods Holden . . 566 Our Country. — Practical Hints from General Sherman's Scrap-Book William Tecumseh Sherman . 568 Our Language and Law to be Supreme 568 No more West to hunt for or to hunt in 569 Our Country not big enough to divide 570 Localism 570 E Pluribus Unum 571 General Grant's Outlook for America George Sewall Boutwell . . 572 Our Territorial Growth has marked our Duty and Destiny William Augustus Mowry . . 573 America and Asia in the Future. — America the "Great Pacific Power" . . . . • .... William Elliot Griffis ... 576 Future Generations summoned to witness our Work Daniel Webster 580 America Samuel Francis Smith . . . 581 Acknowledgments 583 Biographical Index 587 Including PATRIOTIC READER, PART I. HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. INTRODUCTION. The identification of long-lost cities, hierarchies, characters, and customs, through deciphered hieroglyphics, papyri, and ex- humed ruins, gives new value to the Old Testament records. The civilized world cannot separate its accepted principles of jurisprudence, nor its highest conception of the history and dignity of man, from the narrative, the philosophy, and the development of those records. That which the brightest states- men, philanthropists, and poets have found to be an inexhaus- tible source of material from which to guide men to better living, cannot be ignored, in a proper outline of patriotic life and ex- pression. Where lofty purpose, sublime self-denial, and a har- monious trend toward enlightenment and universal peace form the predominant element, it is impossible for any one justly to deny its presence and its power. Already we find well-preserved confirmatory memorials that recite the heroic deeds and utterances of Pharaohs who lived and reigned five hundred years before the exodus of the Hebrew from Egyptian bondage, with snatches from epic song that vie with the Song of Deborah in brightness of patriotic fervor, and move with the majestic sweep with which the jubilant outburst of Moses and of Miriam announced, for the benefit of succeeding generations, the First National Independence of a delivered people. Already the " Annals of Thothmes III." minutely de- 1 l 2 PATRIOTIC READER. scribe a battle of his period, which was fought on that remark- able field of Megiddo, whose natural strategic relations were so permanent as to have determining value as late as the days of Napoleon. "The Book of the Dead" is to be read in our own language. Eamses II. delivers to the nineteenth century his narrative of the deliverance of his country from assailing "myriads," and amid his pompous assumptions of mighty per- sonal prowess there is never wanting the glorification of country, with appeals to the people, high and low, that they " honor then- king, as inspired by the Lord of all the gods to be their deliverer and their protector." The essential unity of all history, in its recognition of patriotic service, is thus made manifest through the explorations of science ; imparting new dignity and value to discovery, and crowning with fresh endorsement the historical records which form so large a portion of the Hebrew Bible. The poet Bryant caught the spirit of the past so fully, that his lines may well introduce a record of patriotic expression and struggle which foreshadows the dawning of a universal liberty, when the endearments of a safe home and a free country shall belong to everybody. THE ANTIQUITY OP FREEDOM. Here are old trees, tall oaks and gnarled pines, That stream with gray-green mosses ; here the ground Was never trenched by spade ; and flowers spring up Unsown, and die ungathered. It is sweet To linger here, among the flitting birds, And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks, and winds That shake the leaves, and scatter, as they pass, A fragrance from the cedars, thickly set With pale blue berries. In these peaceful shades, — Peaceful, unpruned, immeasurably old, — My thoughts go up the long dim path of years, Back to the earliest days of Liberty. O Freedom ! thou art not, as poets dream, A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. And wavy tresses gushing from the cap With which the Koman master crowned his slave When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, Armed to the teeth, art thou ; one mailed hand Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword ; thy brow, Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred With tokens of old wars ; thy massive limbs Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has launched His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee ; They could not quench the life thou hast from heaven.' Merciless power has dug thy dungeon deep, And his swart armorers, by a thousand fires, Have forged thy chain ; yet, while he deems thee bound, The links are shivered, and the prison walls Fall outward ; terribly thou springest forth, As springs the flame above a burning pile, And shoutest to the nations, who return Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies. Thy birthright was not given by human hands. Thou wert twin-born with man. In pleasant fields, While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him, To tend the quiet flock and watch the stars, And teach the reed to utter simple airs. Thou by his side, amid the tangled wood, Didst war upon the panther and the wolf, His only foes ; and thou with him didst draw The earliest furrows on the mountain side, Soft with the deluge. Tyranny himself, Thine enemy, although of reverend look, Hoary with many years, and far obeyed, Is later born than thou ; and as he meets The grave defiance of thine elder eye, The usurper trembles in his fastnesses. Thou shalt wax stronger with the lapse of years, But he shall fade into a feebler age; Feebler, yet subtler ; he shall weave his snares, And spring them on thy careless steps, and clap His withered hands, and from their ambush call His hordes to fall upon thee. He shall send PATRIOTIC READER. Quaint maskers, forms of fair and gallant mien, To catch thy gaze, and uttering graceful words To charm thy ear ; while his sly imps, by stealth, Twine round thee threads of steel, light thread on thread, That grow to fetters ; or bind down thy arms With chains concealed in chaplets. Oh ! not yet May'st thou unbrace thy corselet, nor lay by Thy sword ; nor yet, O Freedom, close thy lips In slumber ; for thine enemy never sleeps, And thou must watch and combat till the day Of the new earth and heaven. But wouldst thou rest Awhile from tumult and the frauds of men, These old and friendly solitudes invite Thy visit. They, while yet the forest trees Were young upon the unviolated earth, And yet the moss-stains on the rock were new, Beheld thy glorious childhood and rejoiced. WlHUM CULLEN BRYANT. THE EQUALITY OP MAN. Genesis stands at the head of the literature of the world, the oldest complete book in existence. The earliest writings that compete with it are those recovered in late years from the ruins of Nineveh and the tombs of Egypt ; but neither the Euphrates nor the Nile lias given us anything that will compare in mani- fold value, far less in spiritual grandeur, with this Hebrew relic. The very plan of Genesis is enough to show its superiority to all other primeval literature. It is an introduction to the deal- ings of God with man. Human interests and human occupa- tions of all kinds are touched in the development of this one subject. It gives us glimpses of ancient life more than a thou- sand years before Herodotus, the great father of history, was born, and these are corroborated by every advance of knowl- edge from other sources. Nor is the history given in Genesis like the pompous inscriptions of equal antiquity left in Egypt or HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. Babylon. We have the every-day life of the people, the light and shadow of human hopes and fears, the flesh-and-blood forms of beings like ourselves, though separated from us by forty centuries. Written daring widely different states of society and culture, with men of all ranks, from the Eastern king to the simple husbandman and herdsman, among their authors, all the books introduced by Genesis are linked together in a mysterious har- mony of tone and aim, the last completing what all the rest slowly advance. All other writings of antiquity fail to realize the dignity of man as man, and ignore the existence of the people, except as a mere background to the deeds and glory of the dignified few. In Scripture, however, including its first book, a higher spirit of liberty and respect for man is breathed. If these be found on a throne, its occupant has corresponding notice ; but if they have retired to the tent or the slav£ hut, they are followed thither, and the throne is passed by to reach them. The story of the common people of the chosen race is the great theme begun in G-enesis, and all the subsequent books continue it to its culmination, Anno Domini. Eespect for manhood, as such, colors the whole. From their first simple patriarchal constitutions, by which the community at large is represented through elders chosen from its own members, through the oppressions of Egypt, the wanderings in the desert, and the life in Canaan, till the destruction of the nation by the Eomans, desj)otism never extinguishes this vigor- ous national life. At times the elders are the channels of com- munication between the higher authorities and the people, and then again the community itself is gathered in one vast assem- bly to hear and decide great questions directly ; but in all cases liberty is respected, and the concurrence of the people as a whole is required in all public action. While all the world be- side was sunk in political slavery, the noblest ideas of liberty found a home in the pages of Scripture. These fostered a spirit of national independence which made the Jew invincible ; for, though he might be overpowered, he never submitted. The noblest inspfrations of freedom have ever been found among the populations which have drunk in most of the spirit of the Bible. It has been the charter of human rights from the 6 PATRIOTIC READER. remotest ages, and it still silently protests against every social injustice and oppression. Even in Genesis this lesson is em- phatically taught, that true dignity consists, not in mere out- ward rank or illustrious birth, but in the higher qualities of the intellect and heart. Cunningham Geikie. Note. — Published in two hundred and fifty-six languages ; including Japanese, in 1888. — Ed. LOYALTY TO COUNTRY. Extract from " Pentaur's Egyptian Epic," of about the fifteenth century B.C., giving a description, by Eamses II., of his combat with the army of the Khita ; * probably the Hittites of Old Testament history. The king pierced the lines of the miserable Khita. He was alone. He turned to look behind him, and, lo ! around him were two thousand five hundred chariots of the vile Khita. Each chariot bore three men. The king had with him no chief, no marshal, no captain, no officer. Fled were his troops and his horses ! Then lifted he up his voice to God, and said, " I call on thee, Father Ammon. I am amid unknown multitudes. Na- tions are gathered against me. My numerous soldiers have for- saken me. When I called to them not one listened to my voice. But I think Ammon worth more to me than a million of sol- diers. I have never disobeyed thy word. Lo, have I not glori- fied thee, even to the ends of the earth ?" Ammon heard when I called. He gave me his hand. He called to me, from behind : " Eamses, Miamon, I hasten to thy aid. It is I, thy Father. I am worth to thee more than a hundred thousand men." My prayer was answered. To the right I hurled my arrows. To the left I overthrew mine enemy. I was like Baar f in his fury. The twenty-five hundred chariots encircling me were broken into splinters. Not a Khitan finds a hand to fight with. Their hearts faint within them, and fear palsies their limbs. I tumbled them into the waters like crocodiles. Head first I * In proper names the vowels have the same value as in Continental lan- guages. | Boar, — i.e., the Devil. HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. 7 pitched them over, one after the other. I slew them by thou- sands ! Then called the king to his archers, to his cavalry, to his chiefs who had failed to fight. He said, " Of what profit are such cowards? Is there one among you who has done his duty to his country ? Had I not been given power from above, ye would all have perished. Every day I have made some of you princes. To sons, I have transmitted the honors of their fathers. If any evil has happened to Egypt I have not held you responsi- ble. Whoever has come to me with his complaints, it is I who have administered justice, in person. Never did royal master for his soldiers what I have done for you. Yet you have played the coward, all of you. Not one of you stood by me when I had to fight. What a military deed is this to present at the Theban altar as an offering to Amnion ! What a shame ! What a disgrace, and to my soldiers, and to my cavalry ! Yet the whole world has seen the path of my victory and my might. People saw it, and will repeat my name even in remote and unknown lands. Of the millions who saw me to-day, not one paused in his flight. All dropped their arrows and fled or turned to me in supplication." Lysander Dickerman. HYMN TO AMMON RA. From the fifteenth chapter of the Egyptian epic, " The Home of the Dead. Hail to thee, Ea ! O self-created God ! With crowns of the North and the South on thy head, While on thy brow sits the goddess Ne-bun.* How watchful is she, of thy on-moving bark, And of thy foes, how mighty to punish I All those who dwell in the land of the dead Pay homage to thee, Father of light ; Lo, I bow once more at sight of thy disk, Not hiding from thee in slothful repose, But, renewed and restored by thee each day, * The viper, especially the Egyptian Uraeus. PATRIOTIC READER. Am numbered among thy loved ones on earth. Into this world of ages I entered ; Back to eternity hope to return. Because thou hast said that I am thine own. # * * * * # God ! sublime in thy splendor, Begetter of self, not begotten, Permit my ascent from this earth To dwell evermore with the blest, The spirits complete in Kher Xeter* * %■ ^ %■ * 1 stretch out my hands to thy disk, O thou creator of ages. Gloriously sinking to Xun.f Who in his bosom thee keepeth, Thou grandest, supremest of gods. Oh, glory to Ba, and glory to Turn,} Besplendent with beauty, diadems, power. Ye traverse the heavens, encompass the earth, Gilding the zenith in majesty bright. Before thee, abased, behold the two lands, The gods of the West in thy beauty rejoice, And nations unknown give thee homage and praise, "While kings whom thou hast created and saved, To thee their trophies as offerings bring. From farthest horizon, they homage ascribe, Saying, "Hail to thy coming, O power divine ! O bringer of peace ! O author of life I" Ltsaxder Dickermax. THE MEMORIAL DAY OP THE EXODUS. (About 1491 B.C. " This day shall he a memorial day, throughout your generations." Book of Exodus, chapter xii. v. 14.) The Passover Feast of the Hebrew, symbol of physical, moral, and intellectual freedom, occurs when nature awakens from her long winter sleep, the blossoms appear, the grass decks the meadows, the birds' sweet music is again heard in the land. * Elysium. f Pronounced mxm. j The setting sun: pronounced toom. HEBREW AND RELATED >*AT: 9 and over ail shines the sun in resplendent glory. All utter the _ >f freedom. F: - - echo in every hum an heart. It:-:... -.. - the magic call from the Angels trun. rreetion. a ray own light, penetrating th : - - as, and death, but th-_ Loss of J life, and liberty are but freedom a Every .: _• .are. like the merry lark. : _ rard with - - v feels that foe t is _ .. de- prived of it. mourns the loss and pines he who has - - ;ion can righ:. W e who live in a land ~ - :a harmo:- neneent law - _ " that we enjoy. Ask him who has I be i ttere fell subject to a tyrant's rule, and he will say that freedom :- rd the lips can utter or the mind contain. TL us salute :ih triuni] hymns, for it is the Memorial I - : i r seven years, the oppression of Israel by Midian had been galling and complete. Aroused by the presence of a vast host, which filled the valley of Jezreel. -as locusts and the sand- of the sea. for multitude." Gideon, who commands but thirty-two thousand men. without armor or chariots, reeolvee i - his people. He needs brave, patriotic men. more than numbers, and pub- lishes a General Order. — •• Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return, and depart from Mount Gilead." The official record reads as follows: -And there returned of the p twenty and two thousand, and there remained ten thou- We can conceive the emotions of his men as the lines of the 22 PATRIOTIC READER. depleted regiments were contracted, and they began to measure their chances against a foe so mighty, and anxiously awaited the next command from their trusted leader. Descending into the very midst of the hostile camp, attended by one faithful orderly, or body -servant, Gideon listens to the camp gossip, until, through the recital of a dream by one of the nervous Midianites, he catches an inspiration, Avhich his soldierly wisdom converts into one of the most brilliant strategic move- ments known to history. He resolves upon a night attack, in three divisions. His numbers are too many for a surprise and too few to contend in formal battle-array. The crisis is instant, and a test must be immediate. The thirsty troops are sent to the river, and the great Captain calmly reads character, as they drink. Every man who deliberately dips water with his hand, self-possessed and with conscious benefit, is marked, and these number three hundred. All who dash their faces into the stream with silly haste, as if expecting a javelin or dart to cut short their drink, are summarily discharged. Gideon has applied his test, and is ready for action. The chosen three hundred form three equal bands. Each man has a lamp, in an earthen vessel, one day's rations, a sword, and a trumpet. The three divisions take position, so as best to concentrate the execution of their commander's will. Gideon, in person, leads one division, issuing an order to the two elsewhere assigned. "Look on me, and do likewise, and behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do." Distinct and clear, he makes his Order minute in every detail. His battle-cry rings down the centuries. " At the beginning of the second watch, when they had newly set the watch," Gideon was ready. At such an hour, when in- coming sentries make report, and the new guard goes fresh into the air, for a time hardly conscious of proper beat, or duty, a camp is presumed to be safe. Except that the usual flambeau on the idle chariot before the tent of some chief commander might break the gloom only to intensify the sense of security, profoundest darkness, and silence as that of the grave, enwrap the slumbering invaders of Canaan. HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. 23 In an instant, on three sides, as if universal, there is heard the strange crash of earthen vessels, while flashing signal lights, each to represent a division General, leap out of the black night. These multiply until three hundred flaming torches only intensify the enveloping gloom, as from three hundred trumpets and three hundred unseen trumpeters, each presumed to be responsible to some great leader, a charge is sounded ; and, quick as flash and trumpet note, from three hundred voices, as of so many official heralds, the official War-Cry, fearful watchword, goes through the night air into the very souls of the half-awakened Midianites, — " For Jehovah and for Gideon !" It is no longer the feeble and despised Hebrews who seem to girdle the plain with fire and trumpet and sword. It is the Lord, the despoiler of Pharaoh ! It is the Lord, who divides rivers and seas, and before whose breath the mightiest armies are as gossamer! Every tradition of Hebrew history, every vaguely reported exploit which had marked their early triumphs, must have come fresh to the souls of the disturbed multitude, as the watchword echoed and re-echoed above and around them. As when some building rocks with the quaking earth, or leaping flames enclose some crowded audience-hall, and panic makes men wild to do, they know not what, in delirium of fright, so the paralyzed but struggling Midianites rush for quickest relief from impending doom, cutting, no matter whom, or how, in the madness of the hour. Amid the screech and fury of frenzied camels, dashing driver- less among the writhing mass of men, the destruction goes on, merciless, remediless, complete. Victory is only limited by the endurance of the Hebrews ; for, at the first dawn of day, the men of Israel rally by thousands, to win easy mastery over the bewildered fugitives, who still destroy each other in the lingering tragedy of the night. The triumph is complete. The offer of a crown, with heredi- tary succession, is the spontaneous will of a grateful, liberated people ; while the patriot hero, a model for emulation and honor to latest time, rejects all but thanks, as he replies, " I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you ; but Jehovah, God, He shall rule over you." 24 PATRIOTIC READER. THE PATRIOT CITIZEN'S CHALLENGE. (About 1530 B.C. Book of Job, chapter xxxi. Extract.) Now, what is the portion of Jehovah from above, And the heritage of the Almighty from on high? Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, And disaster to the workers of iniquity ? Doth He not see my ways, and number all my steps ? If I have walked with vanity, And my foot hath hasted to deceit, Let me be weighed in an even balance, That Jehovah may discern my integrity. If my step hath turned out of the way, And mine heart walked after mine own eyes, And if any spot hath cleaved to mine hands, Then let me sow, and another reap. If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or Of my maid-servant, when they contended with me, What, then, shall I do when Jehovah rises up, What, indeed, shall I do when Jehovah ariseth, And when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him? Did not He that made me in the womb, make him ? And did not one fashion us in the womb ? If I have withheld the poor from their desire, Or have caused the widow to fail, Or have eaten my morsel alone, And the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no cover ; If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, Because I saw my power as a judge in the gate,* * Allusions arc frequent, in ancient history, to the custom of hearing causes at law near the principal gate of the city. An accused bore upon his breast, or shoulder, the complaint against him. The writer not only HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. 25 Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, And mine arm be broken from the bone. If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me. Or elated myself when evil overtook him (In truth. I have not suffered my mouth to sin, Xor wished a curse to his soul), If the men of my tent said not, '• Who can find one that hath not been satisfied from his meat V The stranger did not lodge in the street ; But I opened my doors to the traveller. Oh that I had one to hear me. that the Almighty would judge ! Here is my pledge (signature), Would that my accuser would write out his complaint ! Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, And bind it upon me as a crown. I would declare to my accuser the number of trusts I have filled, As a prince I would enter his presence. If my land cry against me, and the furrows thereof complain (weep together), If I have eaten the fruits thereof without return, Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life, Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and noxious weeds instead of barley. THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. (About 710 B.C. See Rullin, vol. i. p. 141. Kings, Book II. chapter xii.) The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold ; demands a full trial and examination of his discharge of duty as a good citizen, but puts in evidence his general character and the offices he has held, especially his fairness when acting officially in the gate. 26 PATRIOTIC READER. And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when summer is gi'een, That host, with their banners, at sunset were seen ; Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host, on the morrow, lay withered and strewn. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed ; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still! And there lay the steed with his nostrils all wide, But through them there rolled not the breath of his pride, And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail ; And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord ! George Gordon Noel (Lord Byron). THE OVERTHROW OP BELSHAZZAR. (About 538 B.C. See Eollin, vol. i. p. 130. Book of Daniel, chapter vi.) Belshazzar is king ! Belshazzar is lord ! And a thousand dark nobles all bend at his board : Fruits glisten, flowers blossom, meats steam, and a flood Of the wine that man loveth runs redder than blood; HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. 27 "Wild dancers are there, and a riot of mirth, And the beauty that maddens the passions of earth ; And the crowds all shout, Till the vast roofs ring, "All praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king I" "Bring forth," cries the monarch, "the vessels of gold Which my father tore down from the temples of old : Bring forth ; and we'll drink, while the trumpets are blown, To the gods of bright silver, of gold, and of stone : Bring forth !" — and before him the vessels all shine, And he bows unto Baal, and he drinks the dark wine ; While the trumpets bray, And the cymbals ring, " Praise, praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king !" Now, what cometh ? — look, look ! — Without menace, or call, Who writes, with the lightning's bright hand, on the wall? What pierceth the king, like the point of a dart ? What drives the bold blood from his cheek to his heart ? " Chaldeans ! magicians ! the letters expound !" They are read ; — and Belshazzar is dead on the ground ! Hark ! — the Persian is come, On a conqueror's wing, And a Mede's on the throne of Belshazzar the king ! Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall). THE PATRIOTIC MACCABEES. Between the closing of the Old Testament and the opening of the New lies a space of about four hundred years. It was a long, weary time of oppressions and misfortunes ; but it is lighted up by one of the noblest incidents of history, the struggle for independence under the heroic Judas Maccabeus, Judea, first a province of Persia, and then of Alexander's vast empire, enjoying peace and prosperity, fell to Syria at his death. The Syrian kings, essentially Greek, — a Greek debased 28 PATRIOTIC HEADER. in language, fashions, and religion, — sought to reduce their new subjects, the Jews, to the same Greek ways. A party, called Sadducees, favored the court, while a sect of Jewish Puritans called Separatists, the historical Pharisees, were zealous mono- theists, and opposed the new ways and manners. Still, Greek dress and methods so prevailed at Jerusalem that it seemed as if the simple Jewish worship of one God, with its sturdy moral law, would silently fade away. The Syrian kings, to hasten the process by force, even inflicted death for the circumcision of a child, or the observance of the Sabbath. The people were forced to eat swine's flesh, and, at last, swine were driven into the temple and their blood was sprinkled upon the Jewish Scrip- tures, wherever they were found. This stirred the people to a frenzy of national feeling and open revolt. Twenty miles from Jerusalem, on a rocky hill-side, in the vil- lage of Modin, dwelt the aged patriarch Mattathias and five strong sons. Here the Syrian officers erected a Greek altar and ordered all to sacrifice. The aged Mattathias not only refused, but slew the officer, as well as a renegade Jew who came to the altar, destroyed the altar itself, and in an hour had chased the Greeks from the village. The great Maccabean movement once begun, numbers joined Mattathias and his sons in the mountains, where they took refuge, and Judas, the ablest and bravest of them, surnamed " Maccab." the Hammer, the hammer of the Gen- tiles, became their leader. A thousand of the patriots were slaugh- tered on one Sabbath, when they would not lift a weapon; but thenceforth they fought, Sabbath or no Sabbath, with ever-in- creasing desperation. It is simply amazing to read what they accomplished. The great Syrian empire was combined against Judea, which was but some thirty miles square. Again and again Judas fell like a thunder-bolt against their armies and routed them. At last, forty thousand foot with seven thousand horse, under three generals, accompanied with Syrian slave- merchants having their gold and silver ready for purchase of the Hebrew prisoners, enforced a crisis. In the spirit of Gideon at an earlier time, Judas bade all of his men who were fearful to go home, and but three thousand remained. By a quick night march he surprised and captured the main body, seized their camp and immense spoil, and then, reinforced by gathering HEBREW AND RELATED NATIONS. 29 numbers, and inspired by the war-cry "Eleazar, the help of God !" overwhelmed the Greeks and Syrians, and for two years the Jews remained quietly masters of their country. Then came the restoration of the temple, which was in ruins, with altar broken, strewed with polluting filth, and the courts overgrown with brush. It was a mighty work to purify it all ; but slowly all was done, and, for a whole week, illuminations, songs, and thank-offerings marked the feast of dedication, which was to be one of their gladdest yearly festivals. A brief truce ensued, for independence had yet to be won. Within three years an army of one hundred and twenty thou- sand men, with elephants, was on its way to crush the national party. Eleazar, the brother of Judas, sacrificed his life to show how the dreaded elephants might be destroyed ; but the little army of Judas, defeated, fled to Jerusalem and took refuge in the fortified temple. Then came one of those surprises of Provi- dence, such as had from time to time in their past history given to the Jews their indomitable confidence. The Syrian general, advised of disturbance at home, on a pledge of the ordinary tribute of subject peoples, left them free to carry out their own laws and religion, and withdrew his army from the land. The clouds had cleared, and Jewish nationality was saved. And still there were years of struggle. Traitors at home, and enemies at the Syrian Court, brought other armies against the new independency. Upon the first, Judas fell in his old dreaded way, lying in ambush with a thousand warriors, and once more the country is saved. With the second invasion came disaster. In spite of divisions in the national party, Judas, with eight hundred faithful warriors, attacking with the old courage, " fight- ing with their hands and praying with their hearts," as the chronicles tell, fought a whole day in vain, and, alas, Judas Maccabeus was among the slain. For a moment it seemed as if all was over ; but Judas had breathed a spirit into his people which was indomitable. Com- pelled once more to fly to caves and mountains, they chose his brother for their captain, and when he was slain, Simon, the last survivor, took up the blood-stained mantle of leadership. And so, by arms, and then by policy, they kept the nation from perishing, until the last of the brethren, 142 B.C., saw Jerusalem 30 PATRIOTIC READER. clear of its foreign garrison, and the little Jewish nation once more established in acknowledged independence. Sixty years passed by, when conquering Korae made of Judea a Eoman province. But those sixty years were enough to gather the national and religious life of the Jews into new action and intensity which were to leave an indelible influence upon the world ever after. Brooke Herford. THE HEBREW MINSTREL'S LAMENT. From the hills of the west, as the sun's setting beam Cast his last ray of glory o'er Jordan's lone stream, While his fast-falling tears with its waters were blent, Thus poured a poor minstrel his saddened lament : " Awake, harp of Judah, that slumbering hast hung On the willows that weep where thy prophets have sung ; Once more wake for Judah thy wild notes of woe, Ere the hand that now strikes thee lies mouldering and lo\ " Ah, where are the choirs of the glad and the free That woke the loud anthem responsive to thee, When the daughters of Salem broke forth in the song, While Tabor and Hermon its echoes prolong ? " And where are the mighty, who went forth in pride To the slaughter of kings, with their ark at their side ? They sleep, lonely stream, with the sands of thy shore, And the war-trumpet's blast shall awake them no more. " O Judah, a lone scattered remnant remain, To sigh for the graves of their fathers in vain, And to turn toward thy land with a tear-brimming eye, And a prayer that the advent of Shiloh be nigh. " No beauty in Sharon, — on Carmel no shade, — Our vineyards are wasted, our altars decayed; And the heel of the heathen, insulting, has trod On the bosoms that bled for their country and God." N. E. Mag., 1832, p. 60, " Z. PART II. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. INTRODUCTION. The leaven of pure patriotism, as the basis of true national success, was the energizing force which gave to the best states- men, leaders, and teachers of Greece and Rome their exemplary place in human history. The grandeur of Homer's verse, writ- ten nearly three thousand years ago, had its true magic, " its best omen," in " Our Country's Cause," as much as in the phys- ical details of heroic battle. The voluntary martyrdom of Leon- idas, b.c. 492, and the contests between the small Grecian States, were marked by a patriotic ardor which was never wholly sup- pressed by the personal uses to which many rulers of Sparta and Athens made the national spirit contributive. Herodotus, born about 484 b.c, recites the argument of Otares before King Darius, in behalf of a Republic, as the best form of government, the one most prolific in patriotic sentiment. Lucius Quinctius (Cincinnatus), drawn from his farm into the public service about 458 b.c, deplored the deadly nature of discord at home, as fatal to a disinterested devotion to country ; and neatly at the same time Canuleius secured the annulment of restraints upon ple- beian advancement. In the contest of Demosthenes and iEschines for the crown of oratorical supremacy, B.C. 320, each alike advocated " popular suffrage," " veneration for the fathers," and a just recognition of "true virtue as the conditions of a happy people." In the same period Socrates " invoked the memory of the fathers," and a conscious " responsibility to some invisible and holy divinity," as his chief allies in teaching the law of true love of country to youth. In 216 b.c, Paulus Emilius enjoined confidence in " well- 31 32 PATRIOTIC READER. selected representatives as the hopeful basis of national glory;" and Scipio, Gracchus, and Marius declared "popular rights to be superior to titled privilege," " merit to be in place of birth," "wealth to be inferior to personal excellence," and that these principles alone secured true national strength. The contest between Home and Carthage, in the second cen- tury B.C., was brilliant in its sacred heroism, notwithstanding the personal ambitions of Hannibal and Scipio ; and the patriot- ism of Regulus (225 B.C.) is immortal. Even the gladiator Spar- tacus developed out of his youthful endurance of outrage the spirit of a genuine aspiration for freedom and national inde- pendence. The closing century b.c, through Cicero, Cato, Caesar, Brutus, Antony, Cassius, Catiline, and their contemporaries, evoked ut- terances which should not be wholly lost to the present gen- eration, if only to assure them that devotion to country has always been the true fulcrum on which to rest effort for national happiness and true liberty. In modern times, the genius of Shakespeare and Addison, and the delineations of Hugo, Croly, Ames, Sargent, and others, have imparted fresh vividness to the scenes and utterances of classic expression, while Bulwer and Miss Mitford have given to the year 1347 a.d., and the career of Rienzi, Last of the Tribunes, the cast of a grand patriotic tragedy. If Byron has imparted to modern Greece the air of struggle to regenerate the glories of a buried past, the monuments to Dante, at Flor- ence and Ravenna, are equally expressive of the devotion of Italy to the memory of one whose whole being was the living principle of patriotic love. 'THE BEST OMEN OUR COUNTRY'S CAUSE. From Homer's Iliad, Book XII. When flying eagle, from the skies above, Dropped from his loosened talons, struggling yet, A serpent great, between the Trojan lines, GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 33 And, shuddering, they beheld the prodigy, Blood-stained, spotted, within their opened ranks (Dread messenger of iEgis-bearing Jove), Polydorus to gallant Hector spoke, As, standing near, he augured ill for Troy : " Hector, ever chiding me in councils, E'en though my words proposed are ever wise ; Too proud to brook that any cross thy path, By sage advice, no less than active war, I will again speak forth, as suits me best : Go not to fight the Grecians for their ships, For thus I venture to divine the end. " An eagle dropped his prey between the ranks, JNTor bore it to his hungry, waiting brood ; So shall we leave our Trojan dead behind, Slain by the Grecians in their fleet's defence. He who has skill this omen to unfold, Would thus its word declare and men obey." To him the stern, erest-tossiug Hector spoke, With quick reply and solemn mien : " Thy words, Indeed, are hateful to my earnest will ; Beside, thou knowest, counsels better far Are in thy power to give, if give thou wilt ; And yet, if serious thou in thy advice, The gods have robbed thee of thy judgment sound, To bid me mind the wide-expanding birds, Whose flight to right or left, to rising sun Or to the darkening west, I care not for. Let us obey the will of mighty Jove, Who mortals and immortals rules alike. One augury, alone, my mind can reach, — The best omen is, 'to fight, for country's cause!' Why dost thou dread the battle shock of war ? Forsooth, if all thy comrades shall be slain, Thy life will not be lost, nor courage thine Suffice to bear thee into heated fight ; 3 34 PATRIOTIC READER. Yet dare withhold thy presence from the test, Or by dissuading word keep back a man Who seeks to do a soldier's worthy part, Then by this spear, and stricken by my hand, Thou shalt as quickly die." SELF-SACRIFICE FOR COUNTRY. Translated from the tragedy " Leonidas," of Michel Pichat, by Epes Sargent, and used by permission. Theme, " Address to the Three Hundred" (b.c. 492). The monument to commemorate the desperate resistance of Leonidas to the mighty army of Xerxes bore the inscription, " Go, traveller, tell at Lacedtemon that we fell here in obedience to her laws." Ye men of Sparta, listen to the hope with which the Gods inspire Leonidas! Consider how largely our death may re- dound to the glory and benefit of our country. Against this bar- barian king, who, in his battle-array, reckons as many nations as our ranks do soldiei's, what could united Greece effect ? In this emergency there is need that some unexpected power should interpose itself; that a valor and devotion, unknown hitherto, even to Sparta, should strike, amaze, confound, this ambitious despot! From our blood, here freely shed to-day, shall this moral power, this sublime lesson of patriotism, proceed. To Greece it shall teach the secret of her strength ; to the Persians, the certainty of their weakness. Before our scarred and bleed- ing bodies we shall see the great king grow pale at his own victory and recoil affrighted. Or, should he succeed in forcing the pass of Thermopylae, he will tremble to learn that, in march- ing upon our cities, he will find ten thousand, after us, equally- prepared for death. Ten thousand, do I say? Oh, the swift contagion of a generous enthusiasm ! Our example shall make Greece all fertile in heroes. An avenging cry shall follow the cry of her affliction. Country! Independence! From the Mes- senian hills to the Hellespont every heart shall respond ; and a hundred thousand heroes, with one sacred accord, shall arm themselves in emulation of our unanimous death. These rocks shall give back the echo of their oaths. Then shall our little band, the brave three hundred, from the world of shades, revisit GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 35 the scene; behold the haughty Xerxes, a fugitive, recross the Hellespont in a frail bark ; while Greece, after eclipsing the most glorious of her exploits, shall hallow a new Olympus in the mound that covers our tombs. Yes, fellow-soldiers, history and posterity shall consecrate our ashes. Wherever courage is honored, through all time, shall Thermopylae and the Spartan three hundred be remembered. Ours shall be an immortality such as no human glory has yet attained. And when ages shall have swept by, and Sparta's last hour shall have come, then, even in her ruins, shall she be eloquent. Tyrants shall turn away from them appalled ; but the heroes of liberty — the poets, the sages, the historians of all time — shall invoke and bless the memory of the gallant three hundred of Leonidas ! Michel Pichat. THE SPARTANS' MARCH. 'Twas morn upon the Grecian hills, where peasants dressed the vines ; Sunlight was on Cithaeron's rills, Arcadia's rocks and pines, And brightly, through his reeds and flowers, Eurotas wandered by, When a sound arose from Sparta's towers, of solemn harmony. Was it the hunter's choral strain, to the woodland goddess poured ? Did virgins' hands, in Pallas' fane, strike the full-sounding chord ? But helms were glancing on the stream ; spears ranged in close array ; And shields flung back a glorious beam to the morn of a fearful day; And the mountain-echoes of the land swelled through the deep- blue sky, While, to soft strains, moved forth a band of men that moved to die. 36 PATRIOTIC READER. They marched not with the trumpet's blast, nor bade the horn peal out, And the laurel-groves, as on they passed, rung with no battle- shout. They asked no clarion's voice to fire their souls with an impulse high, But the Dorian reed, and the Spartan lyre, for the sons of liberty ; And still sweet flutes, their path around, sent forth jEolian breath ; They needed not a sterner sound to marshal them for death. So moved they calmly to the field, thence never to return, Save bringing back the Spartan shield, or on it proudly borne. Felicia Dorothea Hemans. THE DEATH OP LEONIDAS. It was the wild midnight, — a storm was in the sky, The lightning gave its light, and the thunder echoed by; The torrent swept the glen, the ocean lashed the shore, — Then rose the Spartan men, to make their bed in gore. Swift from the deluged ground, three hundred took the shield, Then, silent, gathered round the leader of the field. He spoke no warrior-word, he bade no trumpet blow ; But the signal thunder roared, and they rushed upon the foe. The fiery element showed, with one mighty gleam, Rampart and flag and tent, like the spectres of a dream. All up the mountain-side, all down the woody vale, All by the rolling tide, waved the Persian banners pale. And King Leonidas, among the slumbering band, Sprang foremost from the pass, like the lightning's living brand. Then double darkness fell, and the forest ceased to moan, But there came a clash of steel, and a distant dying groan. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 37 Anon, a trumpet blew, and a fiery sheet burst high, That o'er the midnight threw a blood-red canopy. A host glared on the hill; a host glared by the bay; But the Greeks rushed onward still, like leopards in their play. The air was all a yell, and the earth was all a flame, Where the Spartans' bloody steel on the silken turbans came ; And still the Greeks rushed on, beneath the fiery fold, Till, like a rising sun, shone Xerxes' tent of gold. They found a royal feast, his midnight banquet, there ; And the treasures of the East lay beneath the Doric spear. Then sat to the repast the bravest of the brave ; That feast must be their last, that spot must be their grave. They pledged old Sparta's name, in cups of Syrian wine, And the warrior's deathless fame was sung in strains divine ; They took the rose-wreathed lyres from eunuch and from slave, And taught the languid wires the sounds that freedom gave. But now the morning star crowned GSta's twilight brow, And the Persian horn of war from the hill began to blow :■ Up rose the glorious rank, to Greece one cup poured high, Then, hand in hand, they drank — "To Immortality!" Fear on King Xerxes fell, when, like spirits from the tomb, With shout and trumpet-knell, he saw the warriors come ; But down swept all his power, with chariot and with chai'ge, Down poured the arrowy shower, till sank the Dorian targe. They marched within the tent, with all their strength unstrung ; To Greece one look they sent, then on high their torches flung ; To heaven the blaze uprolled like a mighty altar-fire ; And the Persians' gems and gold were the Grecians' funeral pyre. Their king sat on his throne, his captains by his side, While the flame rushed roaring on, and their prean loud replied. Thus fought the Greek of old ! Thus will he fight again ! Shall not the self-same mould bring forth the self-same men ? George Crolt. 38 PATRIOTIC READER. THE GREEKS' RETURN FROM BATTLE. Io ! they come, they come ! garlands for every shrine ! Strike lyres to greet them home ! bring roses, pour your wine ! Swell, swell the Dorian flute, through the blue, triumphant sky ! Let the cittern's tone salute the sons of victory ! AVith the offering of bright blood they have ransomed hearth and tomb, "Vineyard, and field, and flood. Io ! they come, they come ! Sing it where olives wave, and by the glittering sea. And o'er each hero's grave, sing, sing, the land is free ! Mark ye the flashing oars, and the spears that light the deep ! How the festal sunshine pours, where the lords of battle sweep ! Each hath brought back his shield ; maid, greet thy lover home ! Mother, from that proud field. Io ! thy son is come ! Who murmured of the dead ? Hush, boding voice ! AYe know That many a shining head lies in its glory low. Breathe not those names to-day! They shall have their praise ere long, And a power all hearts to sway, in ever-burning song. But now shed flowers, pour wine, to hail the conquerors home. Bring wreaths for every shrine. Io! they come, they come! Felicia Dorothea Hemaxs. A COUNTRY IMPERILLED BY DISCORD. The Roman historian Livy. introducing the protest of Consul Titus Quin- tius Capitolinus, B.C. 458, against the small jealousies and loea! discord which afflicted Rome at the time, adds, that •■ Moderation is so difficult in uphold- ing liberty that the very attempt to equalize rights leads men to raise them- selves at the expense of others, and. through fear of being imposed upon, do wrong themselves; as if it were necessary either to endure or commit injus- tice." The mortification of the consul that the city was actually harassed by enemies whom it could afi'ord to despise if local feuds were checked, is one of the best features of his patriotic appeal. it ZZZ. fcT TTt^ Eke LTjlS-r " Iz. il- z-i-z., : ±i zzzzz. : -._ _ -__: - 7:7 — ;z_: Li - - 7 . _ — _:r- zr. . t- : : :it -ii- :: :--:: -:::•.:■:.•-:.. 7 : -::- t-:::7 : zj*~t l-.--zz.-zr- I liaa Triea radoeai to prrri^ r^er : adve SKsered ; to deaxk. gjt bmaask. pasrk ±rsi mk m ibe repabSe. 7 z,- -:ri -:•:- "-- :-- ri.~:c :: z_-_ zrz;zzzz~z. : — r — 7ir: «e qnSeiy atr eoasak : •: voar on iaeitoa deesedL Yea hare 40 PATRIOTIC READER. the protection of your tribunes, and the privilege of appeal ; the patricians are subjected to the decrees of the Commons. Under pretence of equal and impartial laws, you have invaded our rights ; and we have suffered it, and we still suffer it. When shall we see an end of discord ? When shall we have one in- terest, and one common country? Victorious and triumphant, you show less temper than we under defeat. When you are to contend with us, you can seize the Aventine hill ; you can pos- sess yourselves of the Mons Sacer. The enemy is at our gates, the Esquiline is near being taken, and nobody stirs to hinder it! But against us you are valiant; against us you can arm with diligence. Come on, then ! besiege the senate-house, make a camp of the forum, fill the jails with our chief nobles; and when you have achieved these glorious exploits, then, at last, sally out at the Esquiline gate, with the same fierce spirit, against the enemy. Does your resolution fail you for this ? Go, then, and behold from our walls your lands ravaged, your houses plundered and in flames, the whole country laid waste with fire and sword. Have you anything here to repair these damages? Will the tribunes make up your losses to you ? They will give you words, as many as you please ; bring impeachments in abun- dance against the prime men in the state; heap laws upon laws; assemblies you shall have without end; but will any of you return the richer from those assemblies ? Extinguish, Romans, these fatal divisions ; generously break this cursed enchantment, which keeps you buried in a scandalous inaction. Open your eyes, and consider the management of those am- bitious men who, to make themselves powerful in their party, study nothing but how they may foment divisions in the com- monwealth. If 3"ou can but summon up your former courage, if you will now march out of Rome with your consuls, there is no punishment you can inflict, which I will not submit to, if 1 do not, in a few days, drive those pillagers out of our ter- ritory. This terror of war, with which you seem so grievously struck, shall quickly be removed from Rome to their own cities. Titus Quiktius. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 41 THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE UPHELD. Two years after the appeal of Titus Quintius had induced the citizens of Rome to unite and put to rout the threatening enemy, the old antagonism between the patricians and common people was revived, and Caius Canuleius, a tribune of the people, secured the passage of a law, respecting intermar- riage, which was intended to remove the obstacles to plebeian advancement. The proposition was also made to make the common people eligible to the consulship, regardless of birth. The result was that within a year tribunes were elected, with consular power. The impetuous appeal of Canuleius in favor of his proposed law is thus presented in " Sargent's Standard Speaker." (See also Livy, Book IV., chapter iii.) This is not the first time, O Romans, that patrician arrogance has denied to us the rights of a common humanity. What do we now demand ? First, the right of intermarriage ; and then, that the people may confer honors on whom they please. And why, in the name of Roman manhood, my countrymen, why should these poor boons be refused ? Why, for claiming them, was I near being assaulted, just now, in the senate-house ? Will the city no longer stand, will the empire be dissolved, because we claim the plebeians shall no longer be excluded from the con- sulship ? Truly these patricians will, by and by, begrudge us a participation in the light of day; they will be indignant that we breathe the same air ; that we share with them the faculty of speech ; that we wear the form of human beings. But I cry them mercy. They tell us that it is contrary to religion that a plebeian should be made consul ! The ancient religion of Rome forbids it ! Ah ! verily ? How will they reconcile this pretence to the facts ? Though not admitted to the archives, nor to the com- mentaries of the pontiffs, there are some notorious facts which, in common with the rest of the world, we well know. We know that there were kings before there were consuls in Rome. We know that consuls possess no prerogative, no dignity, not formerly inherent in kings. We know that Numa Pompilius was made king at Rome, who was not only not a patrician, but not even a citizen ; that Lucius Tarquinius, who was not even of Italian extraction, was made king ; that Servius Tullius, who was the son of a captive woman by an unknown father, was made king. And shall plebeians, who formerly were not ex- 42 PATEIOTIC KEADEK. eluded from the throne, now, on the juggling plea of religious objection, be debarred from the consulship ? But it is not enough that the offices of the state are withheld from us. To keep pure their dainty blood, these patricians would prevent, by law, all intermarriage of members of their order with plebeians. Could there be a more marked indignity, a more humiliating insult, than this ? Why not legislate against our living in the same neighborhood, dwelling under the same skies, walking the same earth ? Ignominy not to be endured ! Was it for this we expelled kings ? Was it for this that we ex- changed one master for many? No. Let the rights we claim be admitted, or let the patricians fight the battles of the state themselves. Let the public offices be open to all ; let every in- vidious law in regard to marriage be abolished ; or, by the gods of our fathers, let there be no levy of troops to achieve victories in the benefits of which the people shall not most amply and equally partake ! Caius Canuleius. PERICLES AND ASPASIA. Plutarch says that " Pericles began his career as the leader of the demo- cratic party" (about 470 B.C.) ; " he kept the public good in his eye, pursued the straight path of honor, and, with admirable dignity of manners, acquired a force and sublimity of sentiment superior to all demagogues." Aspasia, his wife (a foreigner, and therefore not legally a wife), is described by Madame de Stael " as a model of female loveliness, such as Alexander was of heroism." She survived her husband, dying about 429 B.C. ; but a just record, however brief, of true patriotism, could not neglect a tribute to their memory. This was the ruler of the land, When Athens was the land of fame ; This was the light that led the band, When each was like a living flame ; The centre of earth's noblest ring, Of more than men, the more than king. Yet not by fetter, nor by spear, His sovereignty was held, or won ; GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 43 Feared, but alone as freemen fear ; Loved, but as freemen love, alone ; He waved the sceptre o'er his kind By nature's first great title — mind. Eesistless words were on his tongue ; Then eloquence first flashed below ; Full-armed, to life, the portent sprung, Minerva, from the thunderous brow ; And his the sole, the sacred hand That shook her aegis o'er the land. Then, throned, immortal, by his side, A woman sits, with eye sublime, — Aspasia, — all his spirit's bride ; But if their solemn love were crime, Pity the beauty and the sage, Their crime was in that darkened age. He perished, but his wreath was won ; He perished in his height of fame ; Then sank the cloud on Athens' sun, Yet still she conquered in his name. Filled with his soul, she could not die : Her conquest was posterity. Walter Savage Landor. VIRTUE BEFORE RICHES. Socrates before his accusers and judges, B.C. 400. I am accused of corrupting the youth, and of instilling dan- gerous principles into them, as well in regard to the worship of the gods as the rulers of government. You know, Athenians, I never made it my profession to teach ; nor can envy, however violent against me, reproach me with having ever sold my in- structions. I have an undeniable evidence for me in this respect, which is my poverty. My whole employment is to persuade the young and old against too much love for the body, for riches, and all other 44 PATRIOTIC READER. precarious things, of whatever nature they be, and against too little regard for the soul, which ought to be the object of their affection. For I incessantly urge you, that virtue does not proceed from riches, but, on the contrary, riches from virtue ; and that all the other goods of human life, as well public as private, have their sources in the same principle. If to speak in this manner be to corrupt youth, I confess, Athenians, that I am guilty, and deserve to be punished. If what I say be not true, it is most easy to convict me of my falsehood. I see here a great number of my disciples ; they have only to appear. But perhaps the reserve and consideration for a master who has instructed them will prevent them from de- claring against me. At least their fathers, brothers, and uncles cannot, as good relations and good citizens, dispense with their not standing forth to demand vengeance against the corrupter of their sons, brothers, and nephews. But these are the persons who take upon them my defence, and interest themselves in the success of my cause. Pass on me what sentence you please, Athenians ; but I can neither repent nor change my conduct. . . . Should you resolve to acquit me for the future, I should not hesitate to make answer, Athenians, I honor and love you, but I shall choose rather to obey God than you; and to my latest breath shall never renounce my philosophy, nor cease to exhort and improve you according to my custom. . . . Do not take it ill, I beseech you, if I speak my thoughts without disguise, and with truth and freedom. Every man who would generously oppose a whole people, either amongst us or elsewhere, and who inflexibly applies himself to prevent the violation of the laws and the practice of iniquity in a govern- ment, will never do so long with impunity. It is absolutely necessary for him who would contend for justice, if he has any thoughts of living, to remain in a private station and never to have any share in public affairs. For the rest, Athenians, if, in extreme danger as I now am, I do not imitate the behavior of those who, upon less emer- gencies, have implored and supplicated their judges with teai-s, and have brought forth their children, relations, and friends, it is not through pride or obstinacy, or any contempt for you, but GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 45 solely for your honor and for that of the whole city. At my age, and with the reputation, true or false, which I have, would it be consistent for me, after all the lessons I have given upon the contempt of death, to be afraid of it myself, and to belie in my last action all the principles and sentiments of my past life ? I am more convinced of the existence of God than my ac- cusers; and so convinced that I abandon myself to God and you, that you may judge of me as you shall think it best. Socrates. POPULAR VIGILANCE THE BULWARK OP THE CONSTITUTION. (b.c. 330.) You ask, Athenians, " What real advantage have we derived from the speeches of Demosthenes? He rises when he thinks proper ; he deafens us with his harangues ; he declaims against the degeneracy of present times ; he tells us of the virtues of our ancestors ; he transports us by his airy extravagance ; he puffs up our vanity ; and then sits down." But could these, my speeches, once gain an effectual influence upon your minds, so great would be the advantages conferred upon my country that, were I to attempt to speak them, they would appear to many as visionary. Yet still I must assume the merit of doing some service by accustoming you to hear salutary truths. And if your counsellors be solicitous for any point of moment to their country, let them first cure your ears, for they are dis- tempered, and this, from the inveterate habit of listening to falsehoods, to everything rather than your real interests. There is no man who dares openly and boldly to declare in what case our constitution is subverted. But I shall declare it. When you, Athenians, become a helpless rabble, without conduct, without property, without arms, without order, without una- nimity, when neither your general nor any other person hath the least respect for your decrees, when no man dares to inform you of this your condition, to urge the necessary reformation, 46 PATRIOTIC READER. much less to exert his effort to effect it, then is your constitution subverted. And this is now the case; But, oh, my fellow-citizens ! a language of a different nature hath poured in upon us ; false, and highly dangerous to the state. Such is that assertion, that in your tribunals is j-our great security, that your right of suffrage is the real bulwark of the constitution. That these tribunals are our common resource in all private contests, I acknowledge. But it is by arms we are to subdue our enemies, by arms we are to defend our state. It is not by our decrees that we can conquer. To those, on the contrary, who fight our battles with success, to these we owe the power of decreeing, of transacting all our affairs, without control or danger. In arms, then, let us be terrible, in our judicial transactions humane. If it be observed that these sentiments are more elevated than might be expected from my character, the observation, I confess, is just. Whatever is said about a state of such dignity, upon affairs of such importance, should appear more elevated than any character. To your worth should it correspond, not to that of the speaker. And now I shall inform you why none of those who stand high in your esteem speak in the same manner. The candidates for office and employment go about soliciting your voices, the slaves of popular favor. To gain the rank of general is each man's great concern, not to fill this station with true, manlike intrepidity. Courage, if he possess it, he deems unnecessary, for thus he reasons : he has the honor, the renown, of this city to support him ; he finds himself free from oppression and control ; he needs but to amuse you with fair hopes ; and thus he secures a kind of inheritance in your emoluments. And he reasons truly. But do you yourselves once assume the conduct of your own affairs, and then, as you take an equal share of duty, so shall you acquire an equal share of glory. Now your ministers and public speakers, without one thought of directing you faithfully to your true interest, resign themselves entirely to these gen- erals. Formerly you divided into classes, in order to raise the supplies ; now the business of the classes is to gain the manage- ment of public affairs. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 47 The orator is the leader; the general seconds his attempts; the Three Hundred are the assistants on each side ; and all others choose their parties and serve to fill up the several factions. And you see the consequences. This man gains a statue ; this amasses a fortune ; one or two command the state ; while you sit down unconcerned, witnesses of their success, and, for an uninterrupted course of ease and indolence, give up to them those great and glorious advantages which really belong to you. Demosthenes. POPULAR RIGHTS ABOVE! PRIVILEGE. Address of Caius Gracchus* to the Romans (b.c. 128). It is now ten years, O Eomans, since my brother, Tiberius Gracchus, was elected your tribune. In what a condition did he find you! The great mass of the people pined in abject poverty! Thousands, eager to work, without a clod of dirt they could call their own, actually wanted daily bread. A few men, calling themselves "the aristocracy," having enormous wealth, gotten by extortion and fraud, lorded it over you with remorseless rigor. The small land proprietors had disappeared. Mercenary idlers, their fingers actually itching for bribes; tricky demagogues, insatiate usurers, desperate gamblers, all the vilest abettors of lawless power, had usurped the places of men who had been the glory and strength of the Eepublic. What a state of things ! infinite wretchedness to the millions, but riches and prodigality to the hundreds. The rich could plunder the poor at will, for your rulers and judges were cor- rupt, cowardly, and venal, and money could buy them to do anything. Bribery at elections, open, unblushing, flagrant, kept * The mother of Caius and Tiberius Gracchus, a daughter of Scipio Africanus, married Sempronius Gracchus. When a Campanian lady, boast- ing of her jewels, asked to see those of Cornelia, she presented her sons, with the simple answer, "These are the only jewels of which I can boast." A statue to her memory bears the inscription, " Cornelia mater Gracchorum." 48 PATRIOTIC READER. the very men in power who were sucking the life-blood of the country. Do I exaggerate? Oh, no! It is too faint a pic- ture of the woe and degradation of the people, and of the rapacity, arrogance, and depravity of their oppressors. At such a time my brother, Tiberius Gracchus, presented him- self, and Avas elected tribune. His heart had been wrung by your distresses. He resolved to rescue the oppressed and down- trodden people. He defied your tyrants. He swiftly ended the fraud which had robbed you of your lands. No shelter of wealth, no rank or place, could shield from his fiery wrath. In vain did they hurl at him the cheap words "demagogue," " fac- tionist," "anarchist." There was that truth in his tones, that simplicity and nobility in his bearing, that gentle dignity in his very rage at the wrongs done, that carried conviction of his sincerity to every heart. Oh ! how pale with anger were those " aristocrats," as they styled themselves, as their power melted away, as they saw the people resume their rights under the resistless eloquence of that young, devoted spirit ! But he must be silenced, this audacious tribune, this incorruptible critic of the privileged class, this friend and saviour of the people. A bloody revenge must quiet their fears lest they should lose their illegal plunder. Alas! the foul deed was done! In a tumult instigated for the purpose, your tribune, champion of the poor, and friend of the friendless, was slain. Even his bod)' - was refused to his friends; but the sacred Tiber was made more sacred by re- ceiving to its bosom all of Tiberius Gracchus that could perish. And now, men of Rome, if you ask', as those who fear me do ask, why I left my quaestorship in Sardinia without leave of the Senate, here is my answer : I had to come without leave or not at all. Why, then, did I come at all ? To offer myself for the office my brother held, and for serving you in which he was brutally murdered. I have come to vindicate his memory, to re-inaugurate Ins policy, to strip the privileged class of its privileges, to restore popular rights, to lift up the crushed, to break down the oppressor. And, O Romans. 1 come with clean hands, with no coffers tilled with gold wrenched from desolated provinces and a ruined people. I can offer no bribe for votes. I come back poor as I GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 49 went ; poor, indeed, in all but hatred of tyrants and zeal to serve my country. Shall I be your tribune ? Caius Gracchus. ROME AND CARTHAGE LOCKED IN STRIPE. (Translated by Epes Sargent.) Rome and Carthage ! Behold them drawing near for the struggle that is to shake the world ! Carthage, the metropolis of Africa, is the mistress of oceans, of kingdoms, and of nations ; a magnificent city, burdened with opulence, radiant with the strange arts and trophies of the East. She is at the acme of her civilization. She can mount no higher. Any change now must be a decline. Rome is comparatively poor. She has seized all within her grasp, but rather from the lust of conquest than to fill her own coffers. She is demi-barbarous, and has her education and her fortune both to make. All is before her, nothing behind. For a time these two nations exist in view of each other. The one reposes in the noontide of her splendor ; the other waxes strong in the shade. But, little by little, air and space are wanting to each for her development. Rome be- gins to perplex Carthage, and Carthage is an eyesore to Rome. Seated on opposite banks of the Mediterranean, the two cities look each other in the face. The sea no longer keeps them apart. Europe and Africa weigh upon each other. Like two clouds surcharged with electricity, they impend. With their contact must come the thunder-shock. The catastrophe of this stupendous drama is at hand. What actors are met! Two races, that of merchants and mariners, that of laborers and soldiers ; two nations, the one dominant by gold, the other by steel ; two republics, the one theocratic, the other aristocratic. Rome and Carthage ! Rome with her army, Carthage with her fleet ; Carthage old, rich, and crafty, Rome young, poor, and robust; the past and the future; the spirit of discovery, and the spirit of conquest ; the genius of commerce, the demon of war ; the East and the South on one side, the West and the North on the other ; in short, two worlds, — the 4 50 PATRIOTIC READER. civilization of Africa, and the civilization of Europe. They measure each other from head to foot. They gather all their forces. Gradually the war kindles. The world takes fire. These colossal powers are locked in deadly strife. Carthage has crossed the Alps; Eome, the seas. The two nations, per- sonified in two men, Hannibal and Scipio, close with each other, wrestle, and grow infuriate. The duel is desperate. It is a struggle for life. Eome wavers. She utters that cry of anguish, Hannibal at the gates! But she rallies, collects all her strength for one last, appalling effort, throws herself upon Carthage, and sweeps her from the face of the earth. Victor Hugo. MERIT BEFORE BIRTH. Speech of Caius Marius to the Romans (B.C. 157). It is but too common, my countrymen, to observe a material difference between the behavior of those who stand candidates for places of power and trust, before and after their obtaining them. They solicit them in one manner, and execute them in another. They set out with a great appearance of activity, humility, and moderation ; but they quickly fall into sloth, pride, and avarice. It is undoubtedly no easy matter to discharge, to gen- eral satisfaction, the duty of a supreme commander in trouble- some times. You have committed to my conduct the war against Jugur- tha. The patricians are offended at this. But where would be the wisdom of giving such a command to one of their honor- able body ? a person of illustrious birth, of ancient family, of innumerable statues, but — of no experience ! What service would his long line of dead ancestors, or his multitude of motionless statues, do his country in the day of battle? What could such a general do, but, in his trepidatiou and inexperience, have recourse to some inferior commander for direction in difficulties to which he was not himself equal? Thus your patrician general would in fact have a general over him ; so that the acting commander would still be a plebeian. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 51 So true is this, my countrymen, that I have, myself, known those who have been chosen consuls begin then to read the his- tory of their own country, of which till that time they were totally ignorant ; that is, they first obtained the employment, and then bethought themselves of the qualifications necessary for the proper discharge of it. I submit to your judgment, Komans, on which side the advan- tage lies, when a comparison is made between patrician haughti- ness and plebeian experience. The very actions which they have only read, I have partly seen, and partly myself achieved. What they know by reading, I know by action. They are pleased to slight my mean birth j I despise their mean char- acters. Want of birth and of fortune is the objection against me ; want of personal worth, against them. But are not all men of the same species ? What can make a difference between one man and another but the endowments of the mind ? For my part, I shall always look upon the bravest man as the noblest man. If the patricians have reason to despise me, let them likewise despise their ancestors, whose nobility was the fruit of their virtue. Do they envy the honors bestowed upon me ? Let them envy, likewise, my labors, my abstinence, and the dangers I have undergone for my country, by which I have acquired them. But those worthless men lead such a life of inactivity, as if they despised any honors you can bestow ; while they aspire to honors, as if they had deserved tbem by the most industrious virtue. They lay claim to the rewards of activity for their having enjoyed the pleasures of luxury. Yet none can be more lavish than they are in praise of their ancestors. And they imagine they honor themselves by celebrating their forefathers, whereas they do the very contrary ; for as much as their ancestors were distinguished for their virtues, so much are they disgraced by their vices. The glory of ancestors casts a light, indeed, upon their pos terity ; but it only serves to show what the descendants are It alike exhibits to public view their degeneracy and their worth. I own I cannot boast of the deeds of my forefathers but I hope I may answer the cavils of the patricians by stand ing up in defence of what I have myself done. 52 PATEIOTIC READER. Observe now, my countrymen, the injustice of the patricians. They arrogate to themselves honors on account of exploits done by their forefathers, whilst they will not allow me due praise for performing the very same sort of actions in my own person. He has no statues, they cry, of his family. He can trace no venerable line of ancestors. What then ? Is it matter of more praise to disgrace one's illustrious ancestors than to become illustrious by one's own good behavior? What if I can show no statues of my family ? I can show the standards, the armor, and the trappings which I have my- self taken from the vanquished. I can show the scars of those wounds which I have received by facing the enemies of my country. These are my statues. These are the honors I boast of. Not left me by inheritance, as theirs ; but earned by toil, by absti- nence, by valor ; amidst clouds of dust and seas of blood ; scenes of action, where those effeminate patricians, who endeavor, by indirect means, to depreciate me in your esteem, have never dared to show their faces. Caius Marius. THE DIGNITY OP CITIZENSHIP. Part of Cicero's Oration against Verres. What punishment ought to be inflicted upon a tyrannical and wicked praetor, who dared, at no greater distance than Sicily, within sight of the Italian coast, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cofanus, only for his having asserted his privilege of citi- zenship, and declared his intention of appealing to the justice of his country against a cruel oppressor, who had unjustly confined him in prison at Syracuse, whence he had just made his escape ? The unhappy man, arrested as he was going to embark for his native country, is brought before the wicked pr»tor. With eyes darting with fury, and a countenance distorted with cruelty, he orders the helpless victim of his rage to be stripped, and rods to be brought; accusing him, but without the least shadow of evidence, or even of suspicion, of having come to Sicily as a spy. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 53 The bloodthirsty praetor, deaf to all he could urge in his own defence, ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus, fathers, was an innocent Roman citizen publicly man- gled with scourging ; whilst the only words he uttered amidst his cruel sufferings were, " I am a Eoman citizen !" With these he hoped to defend himself from violence and infamy. But of so little service was this privilege to him that, while he was as- serting his citizenship, the order was given for his execution — for his execution upon the cross! liberty! O sound once delightful to every Roman ear! O sacred privilege of Roman citizenship! once sacred, now trampled upon ! But what then ? Is it come to this ? Shall an inferior magistrate, a governor, who holds his power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, torture with fire and red-hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of the cross, a Roman citizen ? Shall neither the cries of innocence expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, nor the fear of the justice of his country, re- strain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster who, in confidence of his own riches, strikes at the root of liberty, and sets mankind at defiance ? 1 conclude with expressing my hopes that your wisdom and justice, fathers, will not, by suffering the atrocious and unex- ampled insolence of Caius Verres to escape the due punishment, leave room to apprehend the danger of a total subversion of authority and introduction of general anarchy and confusion. Marcus Tullitjs Cicero. INDUSTRY AND INTEGRITY THE HOPE OP THE STATE. Address to the Eoman Senate after Catiline's expulsion. I have often spoken to you, fathers, and at some extent, to complain of that luxury and greediness for money, the twin vices of our corrupt citizens, now so prevalent. I have thereby drawn down upon myself the hatred of many enemies. As I 54 PATRIOTIC READER. never palliated my own faults, I was not so easily inclined to favor or overlook the excesses of others. You paid very slight regard to my protests, and yet, in the face of your neglect, the commonwealth bore itself up and subsisted by its own intrinsic strength. But the issue to-day is a different issue. Our manners, whether good or bad, are no longer the vital question, nor how to maintain the glory and lustre of the Eoman Empire, but to determine whether all that we possess and govern, well or ill, shall continue to be ours or be transferred with ourselves to open enemies. At such a time, in such a state of affairs, some talk to us of lenity and compassion. Long ago we lost the right names of things. The commonwealth is in its present deplorable condi- tion simply because we call giving away other people's estates "liberality," and call audacity in crime "courage." Let such men, since they will have it so and it has become the established style, pride themselves upon their liberality at the expense of the allies of the empire, and their lenity to the robbers of the public treasury ; but let them not make a largess of our blood, and to spare a small number of vile wretches expose all good men to destruction. Do not imagine, fathers, that it was by arms that our ances- tors made this commonwealth so great from a beginning so small. If it had been so, we should now see it much more nourishing, since we have more allies and citizens, more horse- and foot-soldiers, than they had. But they had other things that made them great, of which no traces remain among us : at home, labor and industry ; abroad, just and equitable govern- ment; a constancy of soul and an innocence of manners that kept them perfectly free in their councils, unrestrained either by the remembrance of past crimes or by craving appetites to satisfy. In the place of these virtues we have luxury and avarice ; madness to squander, with no madness to gain. The state is poor, while private citizens are rich. We give ourselves up to sloth and effeminacy. "We make no distinction between the good and the bad, while ambition absoi-bs all the rewards of virtue. Do you wonder that dangerous conspiracies are formed? Just so long as you regard nothing, nothing but your private inter- ests, so long as voluptuousness wholly employs you at home, and GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 55 only avidity to rule, or control favor, governs you here, — in this very senate-chamber, — the commonwealth, defenceless, remains exposed to the devices of any person whomsoever, who thinks fit to attack it. Marcus Portius Cato. CICERO DENOUNCES THE TRAITOR CATILINE. How far, O Catiline, wilt thou abuse our patience ? How long wilt thou baffle justice in thy mad career? To what ex- tent will thy unbridled effrontery carry thee? Art thou nothing daunted by the nightly watch set to secure the Pala- tium ? Nothing, by the city guards ? Nothing, by this rally of all good citizens? Nothing, by the assembling of the senate in this fortified place? Nothing, by the averted looks of all here present ? Seest thou not that all thy plots are exposed ? that the wretched conspiracy is laid bare to every man's knowl- edge here in the senate ? that we all know of thy doings last night, of the night before, the place of meeting, the company assembled, the measures adopted ? Alas ! the times ! Alas ! the public morals! The senate understands all this. The consul sees it. Yet the traitor lives! Lives? Ay, truly, and con- fronts us here in council, takes part in our deliberations, and, with his measuring eye, marks out each man of us, for slaughter. And we, all this time, urgent as we are, think we have fully dis- charged our duty to the state if we but avoid this madman's sword and fury ! O Catiline ! the consul ought long since to have ordered thee to execution and brought upon thy head the doom thou hast been planning for others. There was once such virtue in Rome that a vile citizen was held more worthy of a curse than the deadliest foe. Catiline ! we have a law for thee. Think not that we are powerless because forbearing. "We have a decree, though it rests among our archives as a sword in its scabbard, a decree by which thy life would be held as the forfeit of thy crimes. And should I order thee to instant seizure and death, I justly doubt whether all good men would not deem it done too late, than any man count it done too cruelly. But, for good reasons, 56 PATRIOTIC READER. I will still defer the blow so long deserved. When no man is found so lost, so vile, nay, so like thee, but shall confess that it was justly done, I will fix thy doom. While there is one man that dares uphold thee, live ! But thou shalt live so beset, so surrounded, so scrutinized by the vigilant guards that I have girt about thee, that thou shalt not stir a foot against the re- public without my knowledge. There shall be eyes to note thy slightest motion, and ears to catch thy slightest whisper, of which thou shalt not dream. The darkness of night shall not hide thy treason ; the walls of privacy shall not smother its voice. Bafiied on all sides, thy subtlest purposes clear as noon- day, what canst thou have to plan ? Go on, plot, conspire as thou wilt, there is nothing you can contrive, nothing you can propose, nothing you can attempt, which I shall not know, hear, and quickly understand. Soon shalt thou be conscious that I am even more vigilant to provide for the preservation of the state than thou in plotting its destruction. Marcus Tullius Cicero. THE TRAITOR CATILINE'S DEFIANCE. From the Tragedy of " Catiline." Conscript fathers I I do not rise to waste the night in words. Let that plebeian talk ; 'tis not my trade ; But here I stand for right — let him show proofs For Roman right ; though none, it seems, dare stand To take their share with me. Ay, cluster there ! Cling to your master — judges, Romans, slaves I His charge is false ! I dare him to his proofs ! You have my answer. Let my actions speak! But this I will avow, that I have scorned, And still do scorn, to hide my sense of wrong I Who brands me on the forehead, breaks my sword, Or lays the bloody scourge upon my back, Wrongs me not half so much as he who shuts The gates of honor on me, turning out GEECIAN AND EOMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 57 The Eoman from his birthright ; and for what ? To fling your offices to every slave I Vipers, that creep where man disdains to climb, And, having wound their loathsome track to the top Of this huge, mouldering monument of Eome, Hang hissing at the nobler man below ! Come, consecrated lictors, from your thrones, Fling down your sceptres, take the rod and axe, And make the murder, as you make the law. SECOND SELECTION. Banished from Eome ? "What's banished, but set free From daily contact of the things I loathe ? " Tried, and convicted, traitor" ? Who says this ? Who'll prove it at his peril, on my head ? Banished ? I thank you for 't ! It breaks my chain ! I held some slack allegiance till this hour ; But now my sword's my own. Smile on, my lords ! I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes, Strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs, I have within my heart's hot cells shut up, To leave you, in your lazy dignities. But, here I stand and scoff you ! Here I fling Hatred, and full defiance, in your face ! Your consul's merciful ! For this, all thanks. He dares not touch a head of Catiline ! " Traitor" ? I go ; but I return. This, — trial ! Here, I devote your Senate I I've had wrongs To stir a fever in the blood of age, Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel. This day's the birth of sorrow ! This hour's work Will breed proscriptions ! Look to your hearths, my lords ! For there, henceforth, shall sit, for household gods, Shapes hot from Tartarus ; all shames and crimes, Wan treachery, with his thirsty dagger di*awn ; Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup ; Naked rebellion, with the torch and axe, Making his wild sport of your blazing thrones, 58 PATRIOTIC READER. Till anarchy comes down on you, like night, And massacre seals Eome's eternal grave. George Croly. VIRTUOUS LIBERTY PRICELESS. From the Tragedy of " Cato." (Period B.C. 46.) Cato, Lucius, and Sempronius. Cato. Fathers, we once again are met in council ; Caesar's approach has summoned us together, And Rome attends her fate from our resolves. How shall we treat this bold, aspiring man ? Success still follows him, and backs his crimes : Pharsalia gave him Rome, Egypt has since Received his yoke, and the whole Nile is Caesar's. "Why should I mention Juba's overthrow And Scipio's death ? Numidia's burning sands Still smoke with blood. 'Tis time we should decree What course to take. Our foe advances on us, And envies us even Libya's sultry deserts. Fathers, pronounce your thoughts : are they still fixed To hold it out, and fight it to the last ? Or are your hearts subdued at length, and wrought By time and ill success to a submission ? Sempronius, speak. Sempronius. My voice is still for war. Heavens ! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death ! No ; let us rise at once, gird on our swords, And, at the head of our remaining troops, Attack the foe, break through the thick array Of his thronged legions, and charge home upon him. Perhaps some arm, more lucky than the rest, May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage. Rise, fathers, rise ! 'tis Rome demands your help ; Rise, and avenge her slaughtered citizens, GEECIAN AND EOMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 59 Or share their fate ! The corpse of half her senate Manure the fields of Thessaly, while we Sit here, delib'rating in cold debates If we shall sacrifice our lives to honor, Or wear them out in servitude and chains. Eise up, for shame ! our brothers of Pharsalia Point to their wounds, and cry aloud, To battle ! Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow, And Scij)io's ghost walks unrevenged among us. Cato. Let not a torrent of impetuous zeal Transport thee thus beyond the bounds of reason. True fortitude is seen in great exploits That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides. All else is towering frenzy and distraction. Are not the lives of those who drew the sword In Koine's defence intrusted to our care ? Should we thus lead them to the field of slaughter, Might not th' impartial world with reason say, We lavished at our death the blood of thousands To grace our fall, and make our ruin glorious ? Lucius, we next would know what's your opinion. Lucius. My thoughts, I must confess, are turned on peace. Already have our quarrels filled the world With widows and with orphans. Scythia mourns Our guilty wars, and earth's remotest regions Lie half unpeopled by the feuds of Eome. 'Tis time to sheathe the sword and spare mankind. It is not Caesar, but the gods, my fathers ; The gods declare against us, repel Our vain attempts. To urge the foe to battle, Prompted by blind revenge and wild despair, Were to refuse th' awards of Providence, And not to rest in Heaven's determination. Already have we shown our love to Eome ; Now let us show submission to the gods. We took up arms, not to revenge ourselves, But free the commonwealth ; when this end fails, 60 PATRIOTIC READER. Arms have no further use ; our country's cause, That drew our swords, now wrests them from our hands, And bids us not delight in Eoman blood Unprofitably shed. What men could do Is done already. Heaven and earth will witness, If Eome must fall, that we are innocent. Cato. Let us appear nor rash nor diffident; Immoderate valor swells into a fault; And fear, admitted into public councils, Betrays like treason. Let us shun them both. Fathers, I cannot see that our affairs Are grown thus desperate. We have bulwarks round us. Within our walls are troops inured to toil In Afric's heats, and seasoned to the sun. Numidia's spacious kingdom lies behind us, Eeady to rise at its young prince's call. While there is hope, do not distrust the gods, But wait at least till Csesar's near approach Force us to yield. 'Twill never be too late To sue for chains and own a conqueror. Why should Eome fall a moment ere her time ? No ! let us draw our term of freedom out In its full length, and spin it to the last. So shall we gain still one day's liberty ; And let me perish ; but in Cato's judgment A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage. Joseph Addison. CASSIUS INSTIGATES BRUTUS AGAINST CJESAB. From the Tragedy of " Julius Caesar." Honor is the subject of my story — I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life ; but for my single self, I had as lief not be, as live to be In awe of such a thing as I myself. GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 61 I was born free as Caesar ; so were you : We both have fed as well ; and we can both Endure the winter's cold as well as he. For once, upon a raw and gusty day, The troubled Tiber chafing with his shores, Caesar says to me, " Dar'st thou, Cassius, now Leap in, with me, into this angry flood, And swim to yonder point ?" Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, And bade him follow ; so indeed he did. The torrent roared, and we did buffet it With lusty sinews, throwing it aside And stemming it with hearts of controversy. But ere we could arrive the point proposed, Caesar ci'ied, " Help me, Cassius, or I sink." I, as iEneas our great ancestor Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Caesar. And this man Is now become a god ; and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body If Caesar carelessly but nod on him. He had a fever when he was in Spain, And when the fit was on him, I did mark How he did shake ; 'tis true, this god did shake ; His coward lips did from their color 'fly ; And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, Did lose its lustre ; I did hear him groan. Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Eomans Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, Alas 1 it cried, " Give me some drink, Titinius," — As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me, A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world, And bear the palm alone. Brutus and Caesar I What should be in that Caesar? Why should that name be sounded more than yours ? Write them together, yours is as fair a name ; 62 PATRIOTIC READER. Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well ; Weigh them, it is as heavy ; conjure with them, Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Csesar. Now in the names of all the gods at once, Upon what meat doth this our Csesar feed, That he is grown so great ? Age, thou art shamed ; Eome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods. When went there by an age, since the great flood, But it was famed with more than with one man ? When could they say, till now, that talked of Eome, That her wide walls encompassed but one man ? Oh ! you and I have heard our fathers say, There was a Brutus once, that would have brooked The eternal devil to keep his state in Borne, As easily as a king. "William Shakespeare. ANTONY'S SPEECH OVER THE BODY OF CAESAR. From the Tragedy of " Julius Csesar. " (Period, b.c. 44.) Friends, Eomans, countrymen ! Lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them ; The good is oft interred with their bones : So let it be with Csesar ! The noble Brutus Hath told you, Csesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault ; And grievously hath Csesar answered it. Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest (For Brutus is an honorable man, So are they all, all honorable men), Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me ; But Brutus says he was ambitious ; And Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Eome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill ; GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 63 Did this in Caesar seem ambitious ? When that the poor hath cried, Cassar hath wept I Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; And Brutus is an honorable man. You all did see that, on the Lupercal, I thrice presented him a kingly crown ; Which he did thrice refuse : Was this ambition ? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; And sure he is an honorable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke ; But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once ; not without cause ; What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him ? judgment ! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me ; My heart is in the coffin there, with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me. But yesterday, the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world ; now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. .0 masters ! if I were disposed to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, 1 should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, Who, you all know, are honorable men. I will not do them wrong. I rather choose To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, Than I will wrong such honorable men. But here's a parchment, with the seal of Caesar ; I found it in his closet ; 'tis his will. Let but the commons hear this testament (Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read), And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood, Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, And dying, mention it within their wills, Bequeathing it, as a rich legacy, Unto their issue. 64 PATRIOTIC READER. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle; I remember The first time ever Caesar put it on ; 'Tvvas on a summer's evening in his tent, That day he overcame the Nervii. — Look ! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through ; See what a rent the envious Casca made ; Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed ; And as he plucked his cursed steel away, Mark how the blood of Caesar followed itl This, this was the unkindest cut of all. For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms, Quite vanquished him ! Then burst his mighty heart, And in his mantle muffling up his face, Even at the base of Pompey's statue (Which all the while ran blood), great Caesar fell. O, what a fall was there, my countrymen I Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, Whilst bloody treason flourished over us! O, now you weep ; and I perceive you feel The dint of pity. These are gracious drops. Kind souls! What, weep you when you but behold Our Caesar's vesture wounded ? Look you here ! Here is himself, marred, as you see, by traitors. Good friends! Sweet friends! Let me not stir you up To such a sudden flood of mutiny ! They that have done this deed are honorable ! What private griefs they have, alas, I know not, That made them do it ! They are wise and honorable, And will, no doubt, with reason answer you. I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts ; I am no orator, as Brutus is, But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, That love my friend, and that, they knew full well That gave me public leave to speak of him ! For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 65 Action, nor utterance, nor power of speech, To stir men's blood. I only speak right on. T tell you that which you yourselves do know, Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor, dumb mouths, And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus, And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue In every wound of Caesar, that should move The stones of Eome to rise and mutiny. William Shakespbark. BRUTUS'S SPEECH ON THE DEATH OP CAESAR. From the Tragedy of "Julius Caesar." Romans, countrymen, and lovers ! hear me, for my cause ; and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me, for mine honor ; and have respect for mine honor, that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom ; and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say, that Brutus's love to Caesar was no less than his. If, then, that friend demand, why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer ; not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all freemen ? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him ; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There are tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his valor, and death for his ambition. Who is here so base, that he would be a bondman ? If any, speak ; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman ? If any, speak ; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile, that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply 5 66 PATRIOTIC READER. None ? Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar, than you shall do to Brutus. And as I slew my best lover for the good of Eome, I have the same dagger for my- self, when it shall please my country to need my death. William Shakespeare. THE CHARACTER OF BRUTUS. Ask any one man of morals, whether he approves of assas- sination ; he will answer, No. Would you kill your friend and benefactor? No. The question is a horrible insult. Would you practise hypocrisy and smile in his face, while your con- spiracy is ripening, to gain his confidence and to lull him into security, in order to take away his life ? Every honest man, on the bare suggestion, feels his blood thicken and stagnate at his heart. Yet in this picture we see Brutus. It would, perhaps, be scarcely just to hold him up to abhorrence ; it is, certainly, monstrous and absurd to exhibit his conduct to admiration. He did not strike the tyrant from hatred or ambition ; his motives were admitted to be good ; but was not the action, nevertheless, bad? To kill a tyrant is as much murder as to kill any other man. Besides, Brutus, to extenuate the crime, could have had no rational hope of putting an end to the tyranny ; he had foreseen and provided nothing to realize it. The conspirators relied, foolishly enough, on the love of the multitude for liberty ; they loved their safety, their ease, their sports, and their demagogue favorites a great deal better. They quietly looked on, as spectators, and left it to the legions of Antony, and Octavius, and to those of Syria, Macedonia, and Greece, to decide in the field of Philippi whether there should be a republic or not. It was accordingly decided in favor of an emperor ; and the people sincerely rejoiced in the political calm that restored the games of the circus, and the plenty of bread. Those who cannot bring their judgment to condemn the killing of a tyrant must nevertheless agree that the blood of Csesar was unprofitably shed. Liberty gained nothing by it, and humanity lost much ; for it cost eighteen years of agitation GRECIAN AND ROMAN PATRIOTIC EXPRESSION. 67 and civil war, before the ambition of the military and popular chieftains had expended its means, and the power was concen- trated in one man's hands. Shall we be told the example of Brutus is a good one, because it will never cease to animate the race of tyrant-killers ? But will the fancied usefulness of assassination overcome our instinct- ive sense of its horrors ? Is it to become a part of our political morals, that the chief of a state is to be stabbed or poisoned whenever a fanatic, a malecontent, or a reformer shall rise up and call him tyrant ? Then there would be as little calm in despotism as in liberty. But when has it happened that the death of an usurper has restored to the public liberty its departed life ? Every successful usurpation creates many competitors for power, and they suc- cessively fall in the struggle. In all this agitation, liberty is without friends, without resources, and without hope. Blood enough, and the blood of tyrants, too, was shed between the time of the wars of Marius and the death of Antony, a period of about sixty years, to turn a common grist-mill ; yet the cause of the public liberty continually grew more and more desperate. It is not by destroying tyrants that we are to extinguish tyranny ; nature is not thus to be exhausted of her power to produce them. The soil of a republic sprouts with the rankest fertility ; it has been sown with dragons' teeth. To lessen the hopes of usurp- ing demagogues, we must enlighten, animate, and combine the spirit of freemen ; we must fortify and guard the constitutional ramparts about liberty. When its friends become indolent or disheartened, it is no longer of any importance how long-lived are its enemies : they will prove immortal. Fisher Ames. C-ffiSAR CROSSING THE RUBICON. A gentleman speaking of Caesar's benevolent disposition, and of the reluctance with which he entered into the civil war, ob- serves, " How long did he pause upon the brink of the Rubicon !" How came he to the brink of that river ? How dared he cross it ? Shall private men respect the boundaries of private prop- 68 PATRIOTIC READER. erty, and shall a man pay no respect to the boundaries of his country's rights ? How dared he cross that river ? Oh ! but he paused upon the brink ! He should have perished upon the brink before he had crossed it. Why did he pause ? Why does a man's heart pal- pitate when he is on the point of committing an unlawful deed ? Why does the very murderer, his victim sleeping before him, and his glaring eye taking the measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal part ? Because of conscience ! 'Twas that made Caesar pause upon the brink of the Eubicon. Csesar paused upon the brink of the Eubicon! What was the Eubicon ? The boundary of Caesar's province ! From what did it separate that province ? From his country ! Was that country a desert ? No ! It was cultivated and fertile, rich and populous. Its sons were men of genius, spirit, and generosity. Its daughters were pure, lovely, and ingenuous. Friendship was its inhabitant. Love was its inhabitant. Domestic affection was its inhabitant. Liberty was its inhabitant. All bounded by the stream of the Eubicon. What was Caesar, who stood upon the bank of that stream ? A traitor, bringing war and pestilence into the heart of that country. No wonder that he paused. No wonder if, his imagi- nation wrought upon by his conscience, he had beheld blood instead of water, and heard groans instead of murmurs. No wonder if some Gorgon horror had turned him into stone upon the spot. But no: he cried, "The die is cast!" He plunged, he crossed, and Eome was free no more. James Sheridan Knowles. PART III. THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. INTRODUCTION. The centennial year of American Independence, 1876, intro- duced such a memorial review of general and local history as belongs only to countries which have produced men, or have established landmarks, well worthy of notice through successive generations. The world's recognition of our political and mate- rial progress, and the settlement of issues which retarded, if they did not seriously endanger, American liberty, have already done much to restore a waning veneration for the founders of the republic. Monuments, statues, libraries, colleges, and other memorial buildings and institutions have been made tributary to the more distinct and permanent recognition of the great and good men of the past. America is indeed no longer young, but had become so absorbed in the stirring events of these busy times as to be tempted to underestimate the severity of the sacrifices which secured the blessings and glories of to-day. In the enjoyment of exceptional civil and religious freedom, it is well to revive and cherish the associations which reach far behind the actual war for independence, even though they lack the exciting elements of battle on land or sea. Thereby we honor the personal experience of those pioneer settlers whose life was chiefly that of intense soul-struggle, with very faint conceptions of the vast range of prosperity and blessing which would be the result. Our founders, in common with all who seek a foreign shore for a new home, or even for mere adventure, shared the hope that worldly prosperity would be the result, and that escape from the oppressive restraints of the Old World would insure 70 PATRIOTIC READER. a healthy independence of action and the corresponding benefits in the New. The purpose to administer their own government in the interests of both civil and religious liberty was nowhere more distinctly asserted than by the founders of Maryland, but they did not cross the ocean under such an overwhelming pressure of religious obligation as did those who had no alternative but emigration or the surrender of religious convictions. The set- tlers of Maryland had the high privilege of being accompanied by their religious faith, and building for freedom, without the sacrifice of home ties and home endearments. Many of our founders, however, came to these shores because their religious faith was itself exiled, and they followed, rather than abandon or betray it. The Dutch at New York, the Swedes in Dela- ware, and the hardy colonists who first tilled other plantations along the Atlantic coast, alike command our respect and grate- ful tribute. From their varied activities and temperaments we derived much of the force which united all in final resistance to British dictation. But there was a distinctive moral force which shaped our destiny as a nation, never to be slighted or forgotten. It is only by a just appreciation of that class of labor and sacri- fice that our youth can comprehend the magnitude and wisdom of their labors, so as to be just to all, unjust to none. THE LANDING OP THE PILGRIMS. The breaking waves dashed high, on a stern and rock-bound coast, And the woods against a stormy sky their giant branches tossed, And the heavy night hung dark, the hills and waters o'er, When a band of exiles moored their bark on the wild New Eng- land shore. Not as the conqueror comes, they, the true-hearted, came ; Not with the roll of stirring drums, and the trumpet that sings of fame ; THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 71 Not as the flying come, in silence and in fear, — They shook the depths of the desert's gloom with their hymns of lofty cheer. Amidst the storm they sang, and the stars heard, and the sea! And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang to the anthem of the free ! The ocean eagle soared from his nest by the white waves' foam, And the rocking pines of the forest roared, — this was their wel- come home ! There were men with hoary hair amidst that pilgrim band, — Why had they come to wither there, away from their childhood's land? There was woman's fearless eye, lit by her deep love's truth ; There was manhood's brow, serenely high, and the fiery heart of youth. What sought they thus afar ? bright jewels of the mine ? The wealth of seas ? the spoils of war ? — They sought a faith's pure shrine ! Ay, call it holy ground, the soil where first they trod ; They have left unstained what there they found, — freedom to worship God ! Felicia Dorothea Hemans. THE POUNDERS OP OUR GOVERNMENT. The love of liberty has always been the ruling passion of our nation. It was mixed at first with the "purple tide" of the founders' lives, and, circulating with that tide through their veins, has descended down through every generation of their posterity, marking every feature of our country's glorious story. May it continue thus to circulate and descend to the remotest period of time ! Oppressed and persecuted in their native country, the high, indignant spirit of our fathers formed the bold design of leaving 72 PATRIOTIC READER. a land where minds as well as bodies were chained, for regions where Freedom might be found to dwell, though her dwelling should prove to be amid wilds and Avolves, or savages less hos- pitable than wilds and wolves. An ocean three thousand miles wide, with its winds and its waves, rolled in vain between them and liberty. They performed the grand enterprise, and landed on this then uncultivated shore. Here, on their first arrival, they found The wilderness "all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." Their courage and industry soon surmounted all the difficul- ties incident to a new settlement. The savages retired, the forests were exchanged for fields waving with richest harvests, and the dreary haunts of wild beasts for the cheerful abodes of civilized man. Increasing in wealth and population with a rapidity which excited the astonishment of the Old World, our nation flourished about a century and a half, when England, pressed down with the enormous weight of accumulating debts, and considering the inhabitants of these States as slaves, who owed their existence and preservation to her care and protection, now began to form the unjust, tyrannical, and impolitic plan of taxing this country without its consent. The right of taxation, however, not being relinquished, but the same principle under a different shape being pursued, the awful genius of Freedom arose ; not with the ungovernable ferocity of the tiger, to tear and devour, but with the cool, determined, persevering courage of the lion, who, disdaining to be a slave, resists the chain. As liberty was the object of contest, that being secured, the offer of peace was joyfully accepted, and peace was restored to free, united, independent Columbia. William Merchant Richardson. THE PILGRIMS. From the dark portals of the Star Chamber, and in the stern text of the Acts of Uniformity, the pilgrims received a commis- sion more efficient than any that ever bore the royal seal. Their banishment to Holland was fortunate ; the decline of their little THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 73 company in the strange land was fortunate; the difficulties which they experienced in getting the royal consent to banish themselves to this wilderness were fortunate ; all the tears and heart-breakings of that ever-memorable parting at Delfthaven had the happiest influence on the rising destinies of New Eng- land. All this purified the ranks of the settlers. These rough touches of fortune brushed off the light, uncertain, selfish spirits. They made it a grave, solemn, self-denying expedition, and re- quired of those who engaged in it to be so too. They cast a broad shadow of thought and seriousness over the cause, and if this sometimes deepened into melancholy and bitterness, can we find no apology for such a human weakness ? Their trials of wandering and of exile, of the ocean, the winter, the wilderness, and the savage foe, were the final assurances of success. It was these that put far away from our fathers' cause all patrician softness, all hereditary claims to pre-eminence. No effeminate nobility crowded into the dark and austere ranks of the pilgrims. No Carr nor Yilliers would lead on the ill-provided band of despised Puritans. No well-endowed clergy were on the alert to quit their cathedrals and set up a pompous hierarchy in the frozen wilderness. No craving governors were anxious to be sent over to our cheerless El Dorados of ice and snow. No, they could not say they had encouraged, patronized, or helped the pilgrims ; their own cares, their own labors, their own coun- sels, their own blood, contrived all, achieved all, bore all, sealed all. They could not afterwards fairly pretend to reap where they had not strewn ; and as our fathers reared this broad and solid fabric with pains and watchfulness, unaided, barely toler- ated, it did not fall when the favor which had always been withholden was changed into wrath, when the arm which had never supported was raised to destroy. Methinks I see it now, that one solitary, adventurous vessel, the Mayflower of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a future state, and bound across the unknown sea. I behold it pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncertain, the tedious voyage. Suns rise and set, and weeks and months pass, and winter surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the wished-for shore. I see them now scantily supplied with provisions ; crowded almost to suffocation in their ill-stored prison ; 74 PATRIOTIC READER. delayed by calms, pursuing a circuitous route, and now driven in fury before the raging tempest, on the high and giddy waves. The awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging. The laboring masts seem straining from their base ; the dismal sound of the pumps is heard ; the ship leaps, as it were, madly, from billow to billow; the ocean breaks and settles with engulfing floods over the floating deck, and beats with deadening, shiver- ing weight against the staggered vessel. I see them, escaped from these perils, pursuing their all but desperate undertaking, and landing at last, after five months' passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth, weak and weaiy from the voyage, poorly armed, scantily provisioned, depending on the charity of their ship-master for a draught of beer on board, drinking nothing but water on shore, without shelter, without means, surrounded by hostile tribes. Shut now the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers. Tell me, man of military science, in how many months were they all swept off by the thirty savage tribes enumerated within the early limits of New England ? Tell me, politician, how long did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on the distant coast? Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures of other times, and find the parallel of this. "Was it the winter's storm beating on the houseless heads of women and children ? was it hard labor and spare meals? was it disease? was it the toma- hawk ? was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined en- terprise, and a broken heart, aching in its last moments at the recollection of the loved and left beyond the sea ? was it some, or all of these united, that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate ? And is it possible that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope ? Is it possible that from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy, not so much of admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, an expansion so ample, a reality so important, a promise, yet to be fulfilled, so glorious ? Edward Everett. THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 75 CHAEACTER OF THE PURITAN FATHERS. One of the most prominent features which distinguished our forefathers was their determined resistance to oppression. They seemed born and brought up for the high and special purpose of showing to the world that the civil and religious rights of man, the rights of self-government, of conscience and inde- pendent thought, are not merely things to be talked of and woven into theories, but to be adopted with the whole strength and ardor of the mind, and felt in the profoundest recesses of the heart, carried out into the general life, and made the founda- tion of practical usefulness, visible beauty, and true nobility. Liberty, with them, was an object of too serious desire and stern resolve to be personified, allegorized, and enshrined. They made no goddess of it, as the ancients did ; they had no time nor inclination for such trifling ; they felt that liberty was the simple birthright of every human creature ; they called it so ; they claimed it as such ; they reverenced and held it fast as the un- alienable gift of the Creator, which was not to be surrendered to power nor sold for wages. It was theirs as men (without it they did not esteem them- selves men ; more than any other privilege or possession it was essential to their happiness, for it was essential to their original nature), and therefore they preferred it above wealth and ease and country ; and, that they might enjoy and exercise it fully, they forsook houses and lands and kindred, their homes, their native soil, and their fathers' graves. The principles of revolution were not the suddenly acquired property of a few bosoms ; they were abroad in the land in the ages before ; they had always been taught, like the truths of the Bible ; they had descended from father to son, down from those primitive days when the pilgrim, established in his simple dwelling, and seated at his blazing fire, piled high from the forest which shaded his door, repeated to his listening children the story of his wrongs and his resistance, and bade them rejoice, though the wild winds and the wild beasts were howling without, that they had nothing to fear fz^om great men's opposi- tion and the bishops' rage. 76 PATRIOTIC READER. Here were the beginnings of the revolution. Every settler's hearth was a school of independence; the scholars were apt, and the lessons sunk deeply ; and thus it came that our country was always free ; it could not be other than free. As deeply seated as was the principle of liberty and resist- ance to arbitrary power in the breasts of the Puritans, it was not more so than their piety and sense of religious obligation. They were emphatically a people whose God was the Lord. Their form of government was as strictly theocratical, if direct communication be excepted, as was that of the Jews ; insomuch that it would be difficult to say where there was any civil authority among them entirely distinct from ecclesiastical juris- diction. God was their king; and they regarded him as truly and literally so as if he had dwelt in a visible palace in the midst of their state. They were his devoted, resolute, humble sub- jects ; they undertook nothing which they did not beg of him to prosper; they accomplished nothing without rendering to him the praise ; they suffered nothing without carrying up their sorrows to his throne ; they ate nothing which they did not im- plore him to bless. That there were hypocrites among them is not to be doubted ; but they were rare ; the men who voluntarily exiled themselves to an unknown coast, and endured there every toil and hardship for conscience' sake, and that they might serve God in their own manner, were not likely to set conscience at defiance and make the service of God a mockery ; they were not likely to be, neither were they, hypocrites. I do not know that it would be arrogating too much for them to say that, on the extended sur- face of the globe, there was not a single community of men to be compared with them in the respects of deep religious im- pressions, and an exact performance of moral duty. Franois "William Pitt Greenwood. THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 77 TWO CENTURIES FROM THE LANDING OP THE PILGRIMS. If, on this day, after the lapse of two centuries, one of the fathers of New England, released from the sleep of death, could reappear on earth, what would be his emotions of joy and won- der ! In lieu of a wilderness, here and there interspersed with solitary cabins, where life was scarcely worth the danger of preserving it, he would behold joyful harvests, a population crowded even to satiety, villages, towns, cities, States, swarming with industrious inhabitants, hills graced with temples of de- votion, and valleys vocal with the early lessons of virtue. Cast- ing his eye on the ocean which he passed in fear and trembling, he would see it covered with enterprising fleets returning with the whale as their captive, and the wealth of the Indies for their cargo. He would behold the little colony which he planted grown into gigantic stature, and forming an honorable part of a glorious confederacy, the pride of the earth, and the favorite of heaven. He would witness, with exultation, the general prevalence of correct principles of government and virtuous habits of action. How gladly would he gaze upon the long stream of light and renown from Harvard's classic fount, and the kindred springs of Yale, of Providence, of Dartmouth, and of Brunswick ! Would you fill his bosom with honest pride, — tell him of Frank- lin, who made thunder sweet music, and the lightning innocent fireworks ; of Adams, the venerable sage reserved by heaven, himself a blessing, to witness its blessing on our nation; of Ames, whose tongue became, and has become, an angel's; of Perry, — " Blest by his God with one illustrious day, A blaze of glory, ere he passed away ;" and tell him, Pilgrim of Plymouth, these are thy descendants. Show him the stately structures, the splendid benevolence, the masculine intellect, and the sweet hospitality of the metropolis of New England. Show him that immortal vessel, whose name is synonymous with triumph, and each of her masts a sceptre. Show him the glorious fruits of his humble enterprise, and ask him 78 PATRIOTIC READER. if this, all this, be not an atonement for his sufferings, a recom- pense for his toils, a blessing on his efforts, and a heart-expand- ing triumph for the pilgrim adventurer ? And if he be proud of his offspring, well may they boast of their parentage. Wilbur Fisk Crafts. IN MEMORY OP THE PILGRIMS. 1820. Wake your harps' music ! louder ! higher 1 And pour your strains along ; And smite again each quivering wire. In all the pride of song ! Shout like those godlike men of old, Who, daring storm and foe, On this blest soil their anthem rolled Two hundred years ago ! From native shores by tempests driven, They sought a purer sky, And found beneath a milder heaven The home of liberty. An altar rose, — and prayers, — a ray Broke on their night of woe, — The harbinger of Freedom's day, — Two hundred years ago ! They clung around that symbol too, Their refuge and their all, And swore, while skies and waves were blue, That altar should not fall. They stood upon the red man's sod, 'Neath heaven's unpillared bow, With home, a country, and a God, Two hundred years ago I THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 79 Oh, 'twas a hard, unyielding fate That drove them to the seas ; And Persecution strove with Hate To darken her decrees ; But safe above each coral grave Each blooming ship did go : A God was on the western wave Two hundred years ago ! They knelt them on the desert sand, By waters cold and rude, Alone upon the dreary strand Of ocean solitude ! They looked upon the high blue air, And felt their spirits glow, Eesolved to live or perish there, — Two hundred years ago I The warrior's red right arm was bared, His eye flashed deep and wild : Was there a foreign footstep dared To seek his home and child ? The dark chiefs yelled alarm, and swore The white man's blood should flow, And his hewn bones should bleach their shores, — Two hundred years ago ! But lo ! the warriors eye grew dim, His arm was left alone ; The still, black wilds which sheltered him No longer were his own ! Time fled, and on the hallowed ground His highest pine lies low, And cities swell where forests frowned Two hundred years ago ! Oh ! stay not to recount the tale, — 'Twas bloody, and 'tis past ; The firmest cheek might well grow pale To hear it to the last. 80 PATRIOTIC READER. The God of heaven, who prospers us, Could bid a nation grow, And shield us from the red man's curse, Two hundred years ago ! Come, then, great shades of glorious men, From your still glorious grave ; Look on your own proud land again, O bravest of the brave ! We call you from each mouldering tomb, And each blue wave below, To bless the world ye snatched from doom Two hundred years ago ! Then to your harps, — yet louder ! higher ! And pour your strains along ; And smite again each quivering wire, In all the pride of song ! Shout for those godlike men of old, Who, daring storm and foe, On this blest soil their anthem rolled Two hundred years ago ! Grenville Mellen. NEW ENGLAND'S DEAD. New England's dead ! New England's dead On every hill they lie ; On every field of strife made red By bloody victory. Each valley, where the battle poured Its red and awful tide, Beheld the brave New England sword With slaughter deeply dyed. Their bones are on the northern hill, And on the southern plain. By brook and river, lake and rill, And by the roaring main. THE PATEIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 81 The land is holy where they fought, And holy where they fell ; For by their blood that land was bought, The land they loved so well. Then glory to that valiant band, The honored saviors of the land ! Oh ! few and weak their numbers were, — A handful of brave men ; But to their God they gave their prayer, And rushed to battle then. The God of battles heard their cry. And sent to them the victory. They left the ploughshare in the mould, Their flocks and herds without a fold, The sickle in the unshorn grain, The corn, half garnered, on the plain, And mustered, in their simple dress, For wrongs to seek a stern redress ; To right those wrongs, come weal, come woe ; To perish, or o'ercome their foe. And where are ye, O fearless men ? And where are ye to-day ? I call : the hills reply again That ye have passed away ; That on old Bunker's lonely height, In Trenton, and in Monmouth ground, The grass grows green, the harvest bright, Above each soldier's mound. The bugle's wild and warlike blast Shall muster them no more ; An army now might thunder past, And they not heed its roar. The starry flag, 'neath which they fought In many a bloody day, From their old graves shall rouse them not, For they have passed away. Isaac McLellan. Jr. 82 PATRIOTIC READER. THE PILGRIM FATHERS-WHERE ARE THEY? The pilgrim fathers, — where are they ? The waves that brought them o'er Still roll in the bay, and throw their spray As they break along the shore ; Still roll in the bay, as they rolled that day When the Mayflower moored below, When the sea around was black with storms, And white the shore with snow. The mists that wrapped the pilgrim's sleep Still brood upon the tide ; And his rocks yet keep their watch by the deep, To stay its waves of pride. But the snow-white sail, that he gave to the gale When the heavens looked dark, is gone ; As an angel's wing, through an opening cloud, Is seen and then withdrawn. The pilgrim exile, — sainted name ! The hill, whose icy brow Rejoiced when he came in the morning's flame, In the morning's flame burns now, And the moon's cold light, as it lay that night On the hill-side and the sea, Still lies where he laid his houseless head ; But the pilgrim, where is he ? The pilgrim fathers are at rest : When summer's throned on high, And the world's warm breast is in verdure dressed, Go stand on the hill where they lie. The earliest ray of the golden day On that hallowed spot is cast, And the evening sun, as he leaves the world, Looks kindly on that spot last. THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 83 The pilgrim spirit has not fled : It walks in noon's broad light ; And it watches the bed of the glorious dead With the holy stars, by night. It watches the bed of the brave who have bled, And shall guard this ice-bound shore Till the waves of the bay, where the Mayflower lay, Shall foam and freeze no more. John Pierfont. THE ROCK OF THE PILGRIMS. A rock in the wilderness welcomed our sires, From bondage far over the dark-rolling sea ; On that holy altar they kindled their fires, Jehovah 1 which glow in our bosoms for Thee. Thy blessings descended in sunshine and shower, Or rose from the soil that was sown by Thy hand ; The mountain and valley rejoiced in Thy power, And heaven encircled and smiled on the land. The pilgrims of old an example have given Of mild resignation, devotion, and love, Which beams like a star in the blue vault of heaven, A beacon-light hung in their mansion above. In church and cathedral we kneel in our prayer, — Their temple and chapel were valley and hill ; But God is the same, in the aisle or the air, And He is the Rock that we lean upon still. George P. Morris. 84 PATRIOTIC READER. THE SONG OF THE PILGRIMS. The breeze has swelled the whitening sail, The blue waves curl beneath the gale, And, bounding with the wave and wind, We leave old England's shores behind ; Leave behind our native shore, Homes, and all we loved before. The deep may dash, the winds may blow, The storm spread out its wings of woe, Till sailors' eyes can see a shroud Hung in the folds of every cloud ; Still, as long as life shall last, Prom that shore we'll speed us fast. For we would rather never be, Than dwell where mind cannot be free, But bows beneath a despot's rod, Even where it seeks to worship G-od. Blasts of heaven, onward sweep ! Bear us o'er the troubled deep ! Oh, see what wonders meet our eyes ! Another land and other skies ! Columbia's hills have met our view ! Adieu ! old England's shores, adieu ! Here, at length, our feet shall rest, Hearts be free, and homes be blest. As long as yonder firs shall spread Their green arms o'er the mountain's head, As long as yonder cliffs shall stand, Where join the ocean and the land, Shall those cliffs and mountains be Proud retreats for liberty. Now to the King of kings we'll raise The psean loud of sacred praise, THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 85 More loud than sounds the swelling breeze! More loud than speak the rolling seas ! Happier lands have met our view ! England's shores, adieu ! adieu ! Thomas Cogswell Upham. THE FATHERS OP NEW ENGLAND. Behold ! they come, those sainted forms, Unshaken through the strife of storms ; Heaven's winter cloud hangs coldly down, And earth puts on its rudest frown ; But colder, ruder, was the hand That drove them from their own fair land, Their own fair land, — refinement's chosen seat, Art's trophied dwelling, learning's green retreat, By valor guarded, and by victory crowned, For all but gentle charity renowned. With streaming eye, yet steadfast heart, Even from that land they dared to part, And burst each tender tie ; Haunts where their sunny youth was passed, Homes where they fondly hoped at last In peaceful age to die, Friends, kindred, comfort, all they spurned,-^- Their fathers' hallowed graves, — And to a world of darkness turned, Beyond a world of waves. When Israel's race from bondage fled, Signs from on high the wanderers led ; But here — Heaven hung no symbol here, Their steps to guide, their souls to cheer ; They saw, through sorrow's lengthening night, Naught but the fagot's guilty light ; The cloud they gazed at was the smoke That round their murdered brethren broke ; 86 PATRIOTIC READER. Nor power above, nor power below, Sustained them in their hour of woe ; A fearful path they trod, And dared a fearful doom, To build an altar to their God, And find a quiet tomb. Yet, strong in weakness, there they stand, On yonder ice-bound rock, Stern and resolved, that faithful band, To meet fate's rudest shock. Though anguish rends the father's breast For them, his dearest and his best, With him the waste who trod, — Though tears that freeze, the mother sheds Upon her children's houseless heads, — The Christian turns to God ! In grateful adoration now, Upon the barren sands they bow. What tongue of joy e'er woke such prayer As bursts in desolation there ? What arm of strength e'er wrought such power As waits to crown that feeble hour? There into life an infant empire springs ! There falls the iron from the soul ; There liberty's young accents roll Up to the King of kings ! To fair creation's farthest bound That thrilling summons yet shall sound ; The dreaming nations shall awake, And to their centre earth's old kingdoms shake. Pontiff and prince, your sway Must crumble from that day ; Before the loftier throne of heaven The hand is raised, the pledge is given, — One monarch to obey, one creed to own, That monarch, God, — that creed, His word alone. THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 87 Spread out earth's holiest records here, Of days and deeds, to reverence dear. A zeal like this what pious legends tell ? On kingdoms built In blood and guilt The worshippers of vulgar triumph dwell ; But what exploit with theirs shall page, Who rose to bless their kind, Who left their nation and their age, Man's spirit to unbind ? Who boundless seas passed o'er, And boldly met, in every path, Famine and frost and heathen wrath, To dedicate a shore Where piety's meek train might breathe their vow, And seek their Maker with an unshamed brow ; Where liberty's glad race might proudly come, And set up there an everlasting home ? Charles Sprague. THE HUGUENOT EXODUS TO AMERICA. Individuals, led on by an ambitious desire to improve their personal fortunes, have abandoned the home of their fathers. None of these motives prompted the Huguenot ancestors of the people of Carolina to leave the delightful hills and valleys of their native France. They were no instruments in the hands of ambitious princes for the increase of their wealth or power. They did not seek a home in America through mere love of adventure, or the ordinary inducements of pecuniary gain. They sought an asylum from persecution, a home in which they might enjoy, unmolested, the sweets of political and personal liberty. They longed to bear away their altars and their faith to a land of real freedom, a land allowing free scope to the ex- ercise of conscience in worship of their Maker. Their name is synonymous with patient endurance, noble for- titude, and high religious purpose. In reverting to the period when a plain but high-souled, energetic people Avere driven, by persecutions of the Old World, to take refuge in this uncultivated 88 PATRIOTIC READER. wild, we trace the origin of these people, and tread upon the ashes of the pioneers of religion, of domestic peace, and social virtue. To revive the memories of the generous dead, to hold up to praise and emulation ancestral virtue, are grateful tasks, which seldom fail to achieve lasting and beneficial results. We look back to our fathers for lessons of wisdom and piety. We take pleasure in recalling their brave deeds and their exalted virtue. We like to frequent their walks and haunts. With pleasure we sit around the firesides at which they sat, and wor- ship before the altars at which they worshipped; and who will quarrel with this just principle of our nature ? Our Huguenot ancestors came to this country in the complete armor of grown-up, civilized men. They had been raised under the auspices of an old and refined civilization. Their minds and hearts had undergone the severest discipline of an improved- age and of bitter experience. Prohibited from acting in any branch of the learned profession, not even allowed to pursue the calling of any business by which to support their families, taking shelter in deserts and forests, with property confiscated, and religious worship of their choice interdicted, they quit their native land. Quiet and unobtrusive in their manners, faithful to their king, obedient to the civil and political laws of their country, they begged only for freedom in religious worship. No violence, no contempt of their l'ights, no harsh vituperation, could impair their fealty to their sovereign in all things pertaining to the legitimate claims of his station. Over his losses they lamented. He received from them sincere condolence for his misfortunes and fervent prayers for his happi- ness. His heart was steeled against such generous, simple, and truly loyal worship, and their cup of bitterness was full. The fiat of injured nature went forth. Eesolved to endure no longer the oppressions of a home they loved so fondly, they prepared, even as a child still loves a parent who has mercilessly cast him upon the broad bosom of the world, friendless and penniless, to bid adieu to all they loved in their dear, native France, and find in America a now country, a real home.* W. C. Moragne. * From address at Abbeville, S.O., 1886, tbrougb the courtesy of Dr. T. Gaillard Thomas, of New York. THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 89 THE LANDING OP THE HUGUENOTS. We behold in imagination the vessel as it begins to spread its sails to the breeze on the distant voyage. We see the devoted group — the grave husband, the anxious mother, the unconscious babe — as they crowd the deck to gaze for the last time upon the receding shore. The bright sun gilds the distant coast, and behind those vine-clad hills they yet behold their native woods, beloved friends, the soil that gave them birth, with the remem- brance of school-days and the joy of manhood. But soon they turn their vision to the blue heavens above them, arched by the span of hope, and with unwavering courage nerve their hearts to follow the appointments of their heavenly leader. The sufferings of the mind are worse than those of the body, yet this, all this, did our ancestors brave for freedom of con- science ; nay, more, perils by sea and land, with the sickening horror of hope deferred, the pangs of disappointment, and the untold miseries of colonization. We cast our eyes toward them in their new homes and watch the group. There, still, are the resolute husband, the brave- hearted matron, and the trembling infant sheltered in its mother's arms. Casting the eye through the opening forests, they behold, for the first time, the majestic oak. All is new, striking, grand ! Excited by the sublime exhibition of Nature's works, they fall upon the earth, and in tears of gratitude send up the first evan- gelical prayer ever offered in these wilds. From among the thousands who at this time fled from persecu- tion, South Carolina received a noble population, — the Marions, Horries, Legares, Laurens, De Saussures, Manigaults, Hugers, Porchers, Lessesnes, Prioleaus, Gaillards, Mazycks, Eavenels, Du- boses, Couturiers, St. Juliens, and other well-known names; a race of men gifted with every manly virtue, who have breathed a high-souled, chivalric spirit into Carolina character, and have added to her fame. May their memories be ever blessed for their fortitude and their wise resolve to bear that character un- stained to a land of spiritual freedom ! May no blight arise to retard our onward progress or to damp the moral energies of our people ! May generations yet unborn, in dwelling upon the 90 PATRIOTIC READER. virtues of those who have gone before them, find something to respect and admire in the recollection of those times and names I May we acquire a character so distinguished for moral and mental beauty that in ages to come, when collected multitudes shall gather to commemorate the virtues of the fathers, there shall be no dark shade in the fair face of our being to break the bright moral view of the past ! William Cain Moragnb. THE FRIENDS IN NEW JERSEY. I have no time to-day to describe the rise of the Society of Friends. Considered only as a political event, and in its bearing upon the struggle for civil and religious liberty, it is a strange chapter in the history of progress, and it is one of the peculiar glories of those whom the world calls Quakers that without justice to their achievements such a history would be incom- plete. It was in the midst of the stormiest years of the civil war that George Fox, an humble shepherd youth from the fields of Nottingham, began his ministry. A mystery even to himself, and believing that he was divinely appointed, Fox went forth to preach to his countrymen the new gospel, founded on freedom of conscience, purity of life, and the equality of man. The times were ripe for such a mission. The public mind was like tinder, and the fire that came from the lips of the young en- thusiast set England in a blaze. The people flocked to hear him, and his enemies became alarmed. Here was not only a new religious creed, but a dangerous political doctrine. Here was an idea that, once embodied in a sect, would strike a blow at caste and privilege, and shake the very foundations of society. But nothing availed to tie the tongue of Fox or cool the fervor of his spirit. Threatened, fined, beaten, and imprisoned, he turned neither to the left hand nor to the right. At Cromwell's death the Quakers were already a numerous people. At the Restoration they had grown to dangerous pro- portions. Against them, therefore, was directed the vengeance of all parties and of every sect. Under all governments it was THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 91 the same, and the Quaker met with even worse treatment from the Puritan government of New England than he had received from either the stern republican of Cromwell's time or the gay courtier of the Eestoration. Though his hand was lifted against no man, all men's hands were laid heavily on him. He was persecuted, but nowhere understood. His religion was called fanaticism, his frugality avarice, his simplicity ignorance, his piety hypocrisy, his freedom infidelity, his conscientiousness rebellion. But, though they fought no fight, they kept the faith. None can deny that they sought the faith with zeal, believed with sincerity, met danger with courage, and bore suffering with ex- traordinary fortitude. " They are a people," said the Protector, " whom I cannot win with gifts, honors, offices, or places." There were many reasons why our forefathers turned their eyes upon New Jersey. The unrelenting Puritan had shut in their faces the doors of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colony. New York had been appropriated by the Dutch, and the followers of Fox could find little sympathy among the settlers of the Old Dominion. He had travelled across New Jersey two or three years before. It is to be noticed that Penn's connection with the Quaker settlement of Burlington led to the founding of Pennsylvania. James II., in the year 1664, sold what is known as New Jersey to two of his friends, — Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley. Carteret planted settlements in Eastern Jersey, and the city of Elizabeth still perpetuates the name of his accomplished wife ; but as it was in Massachusetts, it was with Pennsylvania and the Jerseys. At last Berkeley, too old to realize his plans, offered the Province for sale. The opportunity was a rare one for the Quaker. Not alone for himself did the Pilgrim embark upon the Mayflower; not for himself alone did the Puritan seek a shelter on the bleak shores of Massachusetts ; not for himself alone did Eoger Williams gather his little colony at the head of Narragansett Bay; and the same faith that he was building in the wilderness a place of refuge for the oppressed forever, led the stern Quaker out of England. This was the faith that sus- tained them without a murmur through all the horrors of a New England winter ; that kept their courage up while the Connecti- 92 PATRIOTIC READER. cut Valley rang with the war-whoop of the Indian ; that raised their fainting spirits beneath the scorching rays of a Southern sun ; that made them content and happy in the untrodden forests of New Jersey. Proud may we justly be, as Americans, of those who laid the foundations of our happiness. I know of no people who can point to a purer and less selfish ancestry; of no nation that looks back to a nobler or more honorable origin. The history of old Burlington has been a modest one, but full of those things which good men rejoice to find in the character of their ancestors; of a courage meek but dauntless, a self-sacrifice lowly but heroic, a wisdom humble and yet lofty, a love of humanity that nothing could quench, a devotion to liberty that was never shaken, an unfaltering and childlike faith in God.* Henry Armitt Brown. THE PILGRIM'S VISION. 1 saw in the naked forest our scattered remnant cast, A screen of shivering branches between them and the blast ; The snow was falling round them, the dying fell so fast ; I looked to see them perish, when, lo I the vision passed. Again mine eyes were opened : the feeble had waxed strong, The babes had grown to sturdy men, the remnant was a throng ; By shadowed lake and winding stream, and all the shores along, The howling demons quaked, to hear the Christians' godly song. They slept, the village fathers, by rivers, lake, and shore, When far adown the steep of Time the vision rose once more ; I saw along the winter snow a spectral column pour, And high above their broken ranks a tattered flag they bore. * From address at Burlington, New Jersey, December 6, 1877, at the two- hundredth anniversary of its settlement by the passengers of the good ship Kent, who landed at Raccoon Creek, August 16, O.S., and laid out the town on Chygoe's Island, "towards y e latter part of y e 8th month, 1677." (By the courtesy of President Richard T. Mott, of the Burlington Library Com- pany, to which the author presented the copies of his address.) THE PATRIOTISM OF OUR FOUNDERS. 93 Their leader rode before them, of bearing calm and high, The light of Heaven's own kindling throned in his awful eye ; These were the nation's champions, her dread appeal to try ! " God for the right !" I faltered, and, lo ! the train passed by. Once more : the strife was ended, the solemn issue tried ; The Lord of Hosts, His mighty arm, had helped our Israel's side; Gray stone and grassy hillock told where her martyrs died, And peace was in the borders of victory's chosen bride. A crash, as when some swollen cloud cracks o'er the tangled trees ! "With side to side, and spar to spar, whose smoking decks are these ? I know St. George's blood-red cross, thou mistress of the seas ; But what is she, whose streaming bars roll out before the breeze ? Ah ! well her iron ribs are knit, whose thunders strive to quell The bellowing throats, the blazing lips, that pealed the Armada's knell ! The mist was cleared ; a wreath of stars rose o'er the crimsoned swell, And wavering from its haughty peak, the cross of England fell ! trembling Faith ! though dark the morn, a heavenly torch is thine ! While feebler races melt away, and paler orbs decline, Still shall the fiery pillar's ray along thy pathway shine, To light the chosen tribe that sought this Western Palestine ! 1 see the living tribe roll on ; it crowns with flaming towers The icy capes of Labrador, the Spaniard's " land of flowers ;" It streams beyond the splintered ridge that parts the northern showers, — From eastern rock to sunset wave the continent is ours. Oliver Wendell Holmes. PART IV. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. INTRODUCTION. In this age of immediate communication with all parts of the civilized world we are not surprised when some leading po- litical sentiment or sympathy is shared in common by different nations, nor even that inventions are so nearly simultaneous in different countries that the original inventor fails to receive full credit. Political revolutions are rarely the result of a single act of oppression or injustice, but the slow development of a passive or restless endurance of wrong which at last finds some special occasion for organized and open resistance. The war for Amer- ican independence was thus begun. The contemporary and nearly simultaneous utterances of the friends of America on both sides of the ocean were as significant of the coming issue, at the date of the battle of Lexington, as if the modern telegraph system had then been in use. Full accord in sympathy and sense of duty, quickened by the obsti- nacy of the British ministry, rendered any other result impos- sible. The speeches of Chatham, Wilkes, Fox, and Burke, in England, and those of Henry, Otis, Quincy, Warren, Lee, and the Adamses, in America, lose much of their significance unless it be remembered that at almost the same hour, and Avithout knowledge of passing events on the other side, the events them- selves were, in fact, anticipated. The lofty and pathetic appeal of Colonel Isaac Barre to the British Parliament in 1765, ten years before war began, was a solemn warning to Great Britain that her ingratitude to the colonies for their service in the French and Indian wars would certainly alienate her subjects and entitle them to the assertion 94 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 95 of their rights by force. His forecast of the future was so prophetic that as soon as armed resistance became inevitable, and actual, nearly all the colonial officers who had served in Canada or in the West Indies joined the American army be- fore Boston. Ward, Putnam, Spencer, Thomas, Schuyler, Mont- gomery, Stark, Wooster, Pomeroy, Gridley, and Prescott were among the veterans who thus espoused the cause of American independence. In 1766 Mr. Pitt followed the example of Colonel Barre, and in the responsive echo from America found new incentive to prosecute his patriotic labors ; until, at last, his very life went out in one final protest against continued war upon American rights. To combine or to alternate the British and American utter- ances of that period gives to the development of American in- dependence the easy flow of responsive readings, until, as early as 1780, Jonathan Mason boldly announced that "America already holds a seat among the nations." The speech of Edmund Burke on the 22d of March, and that of Patrick Henry on the 23d of March, 1775, so closely followed by the battle of Lexington, and the grand words of Eichard Henry Lee, shortly after, are coincident evidence that indepen- dence was assured before the first battle-conflict. INDEPENDENCE . Day of glory, welcome day, Freedom's banners greet thy ray ; See, how cheerfully they play With thy morning breeze, On the rocks where pilgrims kneeled, On the heights where squadrons wheeled, When a tyrant's thunder pealed O'er the trembling seas. God of armies, did thy " stars In their courses" smite his cars, 96 PATRIOTIC READER. Blast his arm, and wrest his bars From the heaving tide ? On our standard, lo ! they burn, And, when days like this return, Sparkle o'er the soldier's urn "Who for freedom died. God of peace, whose spirit fills All the echoes of our hills, All the murmurs of our rills, Now the storm is o'er, Oh, let freemen be our sons, And let future Washingtons Eise, to lead their valiant ones, Till there's war no more. By the patriot's hallowed rest, By the warrior's gory breast, Never let our graves be pressed By a despot's throne ; By the pilgrims' toil and cares, By their battles and their prayers, By their ashes, let our heirs Bow to Thee alone. John Pierpont. INDEPENDENCE-DAY. The United States is the only country with a known birth- day. All the rest began, they know not when, and grew into power, they knew not how. If there had been no Indepen- dence-Day, England and America combined would not be so great as each actually is. There is no " Bepublican," no " Dem- ocrat," on the Fourth of July, — all are Americans. All feel that their country is greater than party. James Gillespie Blaine. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 97 GREAT BRITAIN NEGLECTS HER COLONIES. The year 1765 opened with the matured purpose of George Grenville — a brother-in-law of Lord Chatham, and then at the head of British affairs — to replenish the exhausted royal treasury through a special stamp tax and kindred impost duties at the expense of the American colonies. Charles Townshend, who had been Secretary of State for War under Mr. Pitt in 1761, became the First Lord of Trade in 1763, and shared none of Mr. Pitt's liberality toward tbe colonies when they came under his immediate control. Lord Macaulay says, — " Charles Townshend was a man of splendid talents, of lax principles, and of boundless vanity and presumption, who would submit to no control. He had always quailed before the genius and the lofty character of Pitt ; but when Pitt (becoming Lord Chatham) had quitted the House of Commons and seemed to have abdicated the part of chief minister, Townshend broke loose from all restraint." On the 7th of February, 1765, upon the introduction of the Stamp Act, he took occasion to charge the American colonists with ingratitude toward the mother-country, as follows : " And will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence, until they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, — will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?" Colonel Isaac Barre, who served under Wolfe at Quebec, and knew the American character, replied, — " They planted by your care ? No. Your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then un- cultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed them- selves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and among others to the cruelties of a savage foe the most subtle, and I will take it upon me to say the most for- midable, of any people upon the face of the earth ; and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hard- ships with pleasure compared with those they suffered in their own country from the hands of those who should have been their friends. 7 98 PATRIOTIC READER. "They nourished by your indulgence? They grew by your neglect of them ! As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them, in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members of this House sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them ; men whose behavior, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them ; men promoted to the highest seat of justice ; some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own. " They protected by your arms ? They have nobly taken up arms in your defence ; have exerted a valor, amidst their con- stant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emoluments. " And believe me — remember, I this day told you so — that the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. Heaven knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. "However superior to me in general knowledge and expe- rience the respectable body of this House may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated. But the subject is too delicate. I will say no more." Colonel Isaac Barre. GREAT BRITAIN WARNED OF HER DANGER. On the 17th of December, 1765, the British Parliament was summoned to take action upon tidings from the colonies of open resistance to the enforcement of the Stamp Act passed on the 22d of the previous March. The predictions of Colonel Barre, so solemnly announced at the time of its passage, had AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 99 already become a matter of history. The earnest appeal of Lord Chatham on the 14th of January, 1766, was followed by the introduction of a bill, February 26, for the repeal of the Stamp Act. It was repealed, but accompanied by an act assert- ing the authority of the king and Parliament to make laws which should " bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever." When this " Declaratory Act" reached the House of Lords, Charles Pratt (Lord Camden), a school-mate of Pitt at Eton, endorsed Mr. Pitt's appeal in the Commons by these words : " My position is this ; I repeat it, I will retain it to the last hour: taxation and representation are inseparable. This posi- tion is founded on the laws of nature. It is more. It is in itself an eternal law of nature. For whatever is a man's own is absolutely his own. No man has a right to take it from him without his consent, either expressed by himself or by his repre- sentative. Whoever attempts to do this attempts an injury. Whoever does it commits a robbery. He throws down and destroys the distinction between liberty and slavery." The Declaratory Act was passed, and within one year new taxes were imposed under the direction of Charles Townshend, the advocate of the original Stamp Act, thereby hastening the colonists to open resistance. Lord Chatham's address contained the following appeal : Mr. Speaker, — The gentleman tells us that America is obstinate, — America is almost in open rebellion! I rejoice that America has re- sisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest. I come here, not armed at all points, with the statute-book doubled down in dog's- ears, to defend the cause of liberty. I would not debate a par- ticular point of law with the gentleman. But for the defence of liberty upon a general principle, upon a constitutional princi- ple, it is a ground upon which I stand firm, on which I dare meet any man. There were not wanting some, when I had the honor to serve his Majesty, to propose to me to burn my fingers with an American stamp act. With the enemy at their back, with our bayonets at their breasts, in the day of their distress, perhaps the Americans would have submitted to the imposition ; L. Of % . 100 PATRIOTIC READER. but it would have been taking an ungenerous, an unjust advan- tage. I am no courtier of America. I stand up for the king- dom. When two countries are connected together like England and her colonies, without being incorporated, the one must necessarily govern. The greater must rule the less. But she must so rule it as not to contradict the fundamental principles that are common to both. The gentleman asks, " When were the colonies emancipated ?" I desire to know, when were they made slaves ? The profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies through all its branches is two millions a year. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the last war. You owe this to America. This is the price America pays you for her protection. And shall a miserable financier come with a boast that he can bring a " pepper-com" into the exchequer by the loss of millions to the nation ? A great deal has been said, without-doors, of the power, of the strength, of America. It is a topic that ought to be cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America to atoms. But on this ground, on the Stamp Act, I am one who will lift up my hands against it. In such a cause your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man ; she would embrace the pillars of the state and pull down the constitution along with her. Is this your boasted peace, not to sheathe the sword in its scabbard, but to sheathe it in the bowels of your countrymen ? The Americans have not acted in all things with prudence and temper; they have been wronged, they have been driven to madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness which you have occasioned? Rather let prudence and temper come first from this side. I will undertake for America that she will follow the example. There are two lines in a ballad of Prior's, of a man's behavior to his wife, so applicable to you and your colonies, that I cannot help repeating them : " Be to her faults a little blind ; Be to her virtues very kind." I will beg leave to tell the House what is my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and imme- AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 101 diately. Let the reason for the repeal be assigned that "the Act was founded upon an erroneous principle." At the same time bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever except that of taking money out of their pockets without their consent. William Pitt (Lord Chatham). AMERICA RESENTS BRITISH DICTATION. During the agitation of 1765 concerning the British Stamp Act, a convention of its opponents was assembled in New York City under the name of " The Stamp-Act Congress." Among the most conspicuous of the delegates from the Massachusetts Colony was James Otis. As early as 1761 he protested so ear- nestly against permitting the British officers of the customs to have " writs of assistance" in their enforcement of the British revenue laws, that John Adams, who listened to his argument, thus describes it : " Otis was a flame of fire ! With a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him. Every man of an immense audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take up arms against any 'writs of assistance.' " The all-absorbing sentiment of his life, the wealth of his dic- tion, and the fire of his oratory have been embodied in a form which stands among the best of American classics. In the ro- mance of " The Bebels," Miss Lydia Maria Francis (afterwards Mrs. Child) introduces James Otis as a leading character. After the opening statement, that "there was hurrying to and fro through the streets of Boston on the night of the 14th of Au- gust, 1765," this patriotic American woman shows such a right conception of the power and oratory of Otis, as well as of the actual tone and spirit of his times, that the fragments of her hero's conversation during the story, gathered in the form of 102 PATRIOTIC READER. a speech, have often been mistaken for some actual appeal to the people of his period. The youth of America will do well to keep it fresh in mind, and thereby honor both its author and its subject. JAMES OTIS IN 1765. " England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to fetter the steps of Freedom, more proud and firm in this youthful land than where she treads the seques- tered glens of Scotland or couches herself among the magnifi- cent mountains of Switzerland. Arbitrary principles, like those against which we now contend, have cost one king of England his life, another his crown, and they may yet cost a third his most flourishing colonies. "We are two millions, one-fifth fighting-men. We are bold and vigorous, and we call no man master. To the nation from whom we are proud to derive our origin we ever were, and we ever will be, ready to yield unforced assistance ; but it must not, and it never can be, extorted. " Some have sneeringly asked, ( Are the Americans too poor to pay a few pounds on stamped paper ?' No ! America, thanks to God and herself, is rich. But the right to take ten pounds implies the right to take a thousand ; and what must be the wealth that avarice, aided by power, cannot exhaust? True, the spectre is now small ; but the shadow he casts before him is huge enough to darken all this fair land. " Others, in sentimental style, talk of the immense debt of gratitude which we owe to England. And what is the amount of this debt ? Why, truly, it is the same that the young lion owes to the dam which has brought it forth on the solitude of the mountain, or left it amid the winds and storms of the desert. " We plunged into the wave, with the great charter of freedom in our teeth, because the fagot and torch were behind us. We have waked this new world from its savage lethargy ; forests have been prostrated in our path ; towns and cities have grown up suddenly as the flowers of the tropics ; and the fires in our autumnal woods are scarcely more rapid than the increase of our wealth and population. " And do we owe all this to the kind succor of the mother- AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 103 country ? No ; we owe it to the tyranny that drove us from her ; to the pelting storms which invigorated our helpless infancy ! " But perhaps others will say, ' We ask no money from your gratitude ; we only demand that you should pay your own ex- penses.' And who, I pray, is to judge of their necessity ? Why, the king ! (And, with all due reverence to his sacred majesty, he understands the real wants of his distant subjects as little as he does the language of the Choctaws.) Who is to judge con- cerning the frequency of these demands ? The ministry. Who is to judge whether the money is properly expended? The cabinet behind the throne. " In every instance, those who take are to judge for those who pay. If this system is suffered to go into operation, we shall have reason to esteem it a great privilege that rain and dew do not depend upon Parliament ; otherwise, they would soon be taxed and dried. " But, thanks to God I there is freedom enough left upon earth to resist such monstrous injustice. The flame of liberty is ex- tinguished in Greece and Eome, but the light of its glowing embers is still bright and strong on the shores of America. Actuated by its sacred influence, we will resist unto death. " But we will not countenance anarchy and misrule. The wrongs that a desperate community have heaped upon their enemies shall be amply and speedily repaired. Still, it may be well for some proud men to remember that a fire is lighted in these colonies which one breath of their king may kindle into such fury that the blood of all England cannot extinguish it." Lydia Maria Child. THE REPEAL OP OBNOXIOUS LAWS DEMANDED. In March, 1774, Massachusetts was deprived of her charter, and the port of Boston was closed to commerce. On the 27th of May Lord Chatham denounced a measure providing for quartering troops on the people of Boston, and ridiculed the alleged precautions growing out of the destruction of a cargo of tea on the night of December 18, 1773. On the 9th of 104 PATRIOTIC READER. April Edmund Burke followed iu a severe arraignment of the British ministry for insisting upon its odious and unjust system of taxation. The year 1775 opened with a thorough accord in sentiment on the part of the friends of America on both sides of the ocean. The first Congress, or Conference, at Philadelphia, in 1774, had aroused the admiration of Lord Chatham, and on the 20th of January, 1775, he honored it with his praise, and de- manded the repeal of all oppressive acts, as well as the removal of the garrison from Boston. (Mr. Pitt, in Parliament, January 20, 1775.) "When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider their firmness, decency, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must affirm, declare, and avow that, in all my reading and observation (and it has been my favorite study, for I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master-states of the world), I say, I must declare that, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclu- sion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your lordships that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal. We shall be forced, ultimately, to retract. Let us retract while we can, not when we must. I say we must necessarily undo these violent, oppressive acts. They must be repealed. You will repeal them. I pledge myself for it that you will, in the end, repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed. Avoid, then, this humiliating, disgraceful necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, make the first advances to concord, to peace and happiness ; for it is for your true dig- nity to act with prudence and justice. That you should first concede, is obvious from sound and rational policy. Concession comes with better grace and more salutary effects from superior power. It reconciles superiority of power with the feelings AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 105 of men, and establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude. Every motive, therefore, of justice and of policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America by a removal of your troops from Boston ; by a repeal of your Acts of Parliament ; and by demonstration of an amiable, amicable disposition towards your colonies. On the other hand, every danger and every hazard impend to deter you from perseve- rance in your present ruinous measures. Foreign war hangs over your heads by a slight and brittle thread. France and Spain watch your conduct and wait for the maturity of your errors with a vigilant eye to America, and the temper of your colonies, more than to their own concerns, be they what they may. To conclude, my lords, if the ministers thus persevere in mis- advising and misleading the king, I will not say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from the crown, but I will affirm that they will make the crown not worth his wear- ing ; I will not say that the king is betrayed, but I will pro- nounce that the kingdom is undone. William Pitt (Loed Chatham). REMOVAL OP THE BOSTON GARRISON DEMANDED. (Mr. Pitt, in Parliament, January 20, 1775.) My Lords, — These papers, brought to your table at so late a period of this business, tell us what ? Why, what all the world knew before : that the Americans, irritated by repeated injuries, and stripped of their inborn rights and dearest privileges, have resisted, and entered into associations for the preservation of their common liberties. Had the early situation of the people of Boston been attended to, things would not have come to this. But the infant complaints of Boston were literally treated like the capricious squalls of a child, who, it was said, did not know whether it was aggrieved or not. 106 PATEIOTIC READER. But full well I knew, at that time, that this child, if not redressed, would soon assume the courage and voice of a man. Full well I knew that the sons of ancestors, born under the same free constitution and once breathing the same liberal air as Eng- lishmen, would resist upon the same principles and on the same occasions. What has government done ? They have sent an armed force, consisting of seventeen thousand men, to dragoon the Bostonians into what is called their duty ; and, so far from once turning their eyes to the policy and destructive consequence of this scheme, are constantly sending out more troops. And we are told, in the language of menace, that if seventeen thousand men won't do, fifty thousand shall. It is true, my lords, with this force they may ravage the country, waste and destroy as they march ; but, in the progress of fifteen hundred miles, can they occupy the places they have passed ? Will not a country which can produce three millions of people, wronged and insulted as they are, start up like hydras in every corner, and gather fresh strength from fresh opposition ? Nay, what dependence can you have upon the soldiery, the unhappy engines of your wrath ? They are Englishmen, who must feel for the privileges of Englishmen. Do you think that these men can turn their arms against their brethren ? Surely no. A victory must be to them a defeat, and carnage a sacrifice. But it is not merely three millions of people, the produce of America, we have to contend with in this unnatural struggle ; many more are on their side, dispersed over the face of this wide empire. Every Whig in this country and in Ireland is with them. In this alarming crisis I come with this paper in my hand to offer you the best of my experience and advice ; which is, that a humble petition be presented to his Majesty, beseeching him that, in order to open the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, it may graciously please him that immediate orders be given to General Gage for re- moving his Majesty's forces frorn the town of Boston. Such conduct will convince America that you mean to try her cause in the spirit of freedom and inquiry, and not in letters of blood. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 107 There is no time to be lost. Every hour is big with danger. Perhaps, while I am now speaking, the decisive blow is struck which may involve millions in the consequence. And, believe me, the very first drop of blood which is shed will cause a wound which may never be healed. William Pitt (Lord Chatham). CONCILIATION OR WAR. (Mr. Burke, in Parliament, March 22, 1775.) We are called again, as it were by a superior warning voice, to attend to America, and to review the subject with an unusual degree of calmness. Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none this side the grave. The proposition is peace ; not peace hunted through the medium of war, but peace sought in its natural course, in its ordinary haunts, and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose to restore the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother-country, and reconcile them each to each. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government ; they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it once be understood that your government may be one thing and their privileges another ; that these two things may exist without any mutual relation ; the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything has- tens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign author- ity of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have. The more ardently they love liberty, the more per- fect will be their obedience. 108 PATRIOTIC READER. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But until you become lost to all feelings of youi true interest and your national dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the true Act of Navigation, which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and through them secures to you the wealth of the world. Deny them this participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond which originally made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain so weak an imagination as that your registers and your bonds, your affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your clearances, are what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of office, and your instructions, and your suspending clauses, are the things that hold together the great contexture of this mys- terious whole. These things do not make your government, dead instruments, passive tools as they are ; it is the spirit of the English consti- tution that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English constitution which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to the minutest member. Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in England ? Do you imagine, then, that it is the land tax which raises your revenue ? that it is the annual vote in the committee of supply which gives you your army ? or that it is the mutiny bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline ? No ! surely no ! It is the love of the people, it is their attach- ment to their government from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble and your navy nothing but rotten timber. All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians who have no place among us ; a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and material, and who, there- AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 109 fore, far from being qualified to be directors of the great move- ment of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and master principles, which in the opinion of such men as I have mentioned have no substantial existence, are, in truth, every- thing and all in all. Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom, and a great empire and little minds go ill to- gether. If we are conscious of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our place as becomes our station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on America with the old warning of the church, Sursum corda I* We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire, and have made the most extensive and the only honorable conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness, of the human race. Edmund Burke. "WAR IS ACTUALLY BEGUN." (Mr. Henry, in the Convention of Delegates of Virginia, March 23, 1775, urges that the colony be immediately put in a state of defence.) This, sir, is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great respon- sibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at this time through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my coun- try and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions * Let your hearts rise upward ! 110 PATRIOTIC READER. of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal sal- vation ? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth ; to know the worst, and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And, judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the house ? Is it that in- sidious smile with which our petition has been lately received ? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and recon- ciliation ? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be recon- ciled that force must be called in to win back our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation, the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it ? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies ? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us ; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them ? Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. "We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable, but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication ? What terms shall we find which have not been AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. Ill already exhausted ? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive our- selves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm that is now coming on. We have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have supplicated, we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our peti- tions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult ; our supplications have been dis- regarded, and we have been spumed with contempt from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contend- ing, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight ! I repeat it, sir, we must fight I An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us ! ******** They tell us, sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so for- midable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year ? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house ? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and in- action ? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot ? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the Gk>d of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone ; it is to the vigilant, 112 PATRIOTIC READER. the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery ! Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable, and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come ! It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. The war has actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we here idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! Patrick Henry. PAUL RBVBRE'S RIDE. Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, • On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five : Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, " If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower, as a signal-light, — One, if by land, and two, if by sea ; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country-folk to be up and to arm." Then he said, "Good-night!" and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 113 Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where, swinging wide at her moorings, lay The Somerset, British man-of-war, — A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar, And a huge, black hulk, that was magnified By its own reflection in the tide. Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street Wanders and watches with eager ears, Till, in the silence around him, he hears The muster of men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the grenadiers Marching down to their boats on the shore. Then he climbed to the tower of the Old North Church, By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, To the belfry chamber overhead, And startled the pigeons from their perch On the sombre rafters, that round him made Masses and moving shapes of shade, — By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in the wall, Where he paused to listen, and look down A moment on the roofs of the town, And the moonlight flowing over all. Beneath, in the church-yard, lay the dead In their night encampment on the hill, Wrapped in silence so deep and still That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, The watchful night-wind, as it went, Creeping along from tent to tent, And seeming to whisper, " All is well I" A moment only he feels the spell Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead, For suddenly all his thoughts are bent 8 114 PATRIOTIC READER. On a shadowy something far away, Where the river widens to meet the bay, — A line of black, that bends and floats On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats. Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride On the opposite shore walked Paul Eevere. Now he patted his horse's side, Now gazed on the landscape far and near, Then impetuous stamped the earth, . And turned and tightened his saddle-girth ; But mostly he watched with eager search The belfry tower of the Old North Church, As it rose above the graves on the hill, Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. And lo I as he looks, on the belfry's height, A glimmer, and then a gleam of light ! He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns. A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet : That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the light, The fate of a nation was riding that night ; And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat. * * :;: * * * * It was twelve by the village clock When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. He heard the crowing of the cock, And the barking of the farmer's dog, And felt the damp of the river-fog, That rises after the sun goes down. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 115 It was one by the village clock When he galloped into Lexington. He saw the gilded weathercock Swim in the moonlight as he passed, And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, Gaze at him with a spectral glare, As if they already stood aghast At the bloody work they would look upon. It was two by the village clock "When he came to the bridge in Concord town. He heard the bleating of the flock, And the twitter of birds among the trees, And felt the breath of the morning breeze Blowing over the meadows brown. And one was safe and asleep in his bed Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket-ball. You know the rest. In the books you have read How the British regulars fired and fled, — How the farmers gave them ball for ball, From behind each fence and farm-yard wall, Chasing the red-coats down the lane, Then crossing the fields to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of the road, And only pausing to fire and load. So through the night rode Paul Eevere ; And so through the night went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm, — A cry of defiance, and not of fear, — A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo for evermore ! For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last, 116 PATRIOTIC READER. In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Eevere. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, APRIL 17, 1775. No Berserk* thirst of blood had they, No battle-joy was theirs, who set Against the alien bayonet Their homespun breasts in that old day. ****** Swift as their summons came they left The plough mid-furrow standing still, The half-ground corn-grist in the mill, The spade in earth, the axe in cleft. They went where duty seemed to call, They scarcely asked the reason why ; They only knew they could but die, And death was not the worst of all. ****** Their death-shot shook the feudal tower, And shattered slavery's chain as well ; On the sky's dome, as on a bell, Its echo struck the world's great hour. That fateful echo is not dumb ; The nations, listening to its sound, Wait, from a century's vantage-ground, The holier triumphs yet to come ; The bridal-time of Law and Love, The gladness of the world's release, When, war-sick, at the feet of Peace The hawk shall nestle with the dove ; * Berserk, or Bar-sark, Icelandic name for " careless bravo or freebooter. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED, 117 The golden age of brotherhood Unknown to other rivalries Than of the mild humanities, And gracious interchange of good, When closer strand shall lean to strand, Till meet, beneath saluting flags, The eagle of our mountain crags, The lion of our mother-land. John Greenleaf Whittier. THE REVOLUTIONARY ALARM. Darkness closed upon the country and upon the town, but it was no night for sleep. Heralds on swift relays of horses trans- mitted the war-message from hand to hand, till village repeated it to village ; the sea to the backwoods ; the plains to the high- lands ; and it was never suffered to droop till it had been borne North, and South, and East, and West, throughout the land. It spread over the bays that receive the Saco and the Penob- scot. Its loud reveille broke the rest of the trappers of New Hampshire, and, ringing like bugle-notes from peak to peak, overleapt the Green Mountains, swept onward to Montreal, and descended the' ocean river, till the responses were echoed from the cliffs of Quebec. The hills along the Hudson told to one another the tale. As the summons hurried to the South, it was one day at New York ; in one more at Philadelphia ; the next it lighted a watch- fire at Baltimore ; thence it waked an answer at Annapolis. Crossing the Potomac near Mount Vernon, it was sent forward without a halt to Williamsburg. It traversed the Dismal Swamp to Nansemond, along the route of the first emigrants to North Carolina. It moved onwards and still onwards, through bound- less groves of evergreen, to New-Berne and to Wilmington. " For God's sake, forward it by night and by day," wrote Cor- nelius Harnett, by the express which sped for Brunswick. Pa- triots of South Carolina caught up its tones at the border and despatched it to Charleston, and through pines and palmettos 118 PATRIOTIC READER. and moss-clad live-oaks, farther to the South, till it resounded among the New England settlements beyond Savannah. The Blue Eidge took up the voice, and made it heard from one end to the other of the valley of Virginia. The Allegha- nies, as they listened, opened their barriers, that the " loud call" might pass through to the hardy riflemen on the Holston, the Watauga, and the French Broad. Ever renewing its strength, powerful enough even to create a commonwealth, it breathed its inspiring word to the first settlers of Kentucky; so that hunters who made their halt in the matchless valley of the Elkhorn commemorated the 19th day of April, 1776, by naming their encampment Lexington. With one impulse the colonies sprung to arms ; with one spirit they pledged themselves to each other " to be ready for the extreme event." With one 'heart the continent cried, "Lib- erty or Death 1" George Bancroft. THE RISING IN 1776. Out of the North the wild news came, Far flashing on its wings of flame, Swift as the boreal light which flies At midnight through the startled skies. And there was tumult in the air, The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat, And through the wide land everywhere The answering tread of hurrying feet ; While the first oath of Freedom's gun Came on the blast from Lexington ; And Concord, roused, no longer tame, Forgot her old baptismal name, Made bare her patriot arm of power, And swelled the discord of the hour. ****** Within its shade of elm and oak The church of Berkley Manor stood ; AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 119 There Sunday found the rural folk, And some esteemed of gentle blood. In vain their feet, with loitering tread, Passed 'mid the graves where rank is naught : All could not read the lesson taught In that republic of the dead. How sweet the hour of Sabbath talk, The vale with peace and sunshine full, Where all the happy people walk, Decked in their homespun flax and wool ! Where youths' gay hats with blossoms bloom ; And every maid, with simple art, Wears on her breast, like her own heart, A bud whose depths are all perfume ; While every garment's gentle stir Is breathing rose and lavender. ****** The pastor came : his snowy locks Hallowed his brow of thought and care ; And calmly, as shepherds lead their flocks, He led into the house of prayer. The pastor rose ; the prayer was strong ; The psalm was warrior David's song ; The text, a few short words of might, — " The Lord of hosts shall arm the right !" He spoke of wrongs too long endured, Of sacred rights to be secured ; Then from his patriot tongue of flame The startling words for Freedom came. The stirring sentences he spake Compelled the heart to glow or quake, And, rising on his theme's broad wing, And grasping in his nervous hand The imaginary battle-brand, In face of death he dared to fling Defiance to a tyrant king. 120 PATRIOTIC READER. Even as he spoke, his frame, renewed, In eloquence of attitude, Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher ; Then swept his kindling glance of fire From startled pew to breathless choir ; When suddenly his mantle wide His hands impatient flung aside, And, lo ! he met their wondering eyes Complete in all a warrior's guise. A moment there was awful pause, — When Berkley cried, " Cease, traitor ! cease ! God's temple is the house of peace !" The other shouted, " Nay, not so, When God is with our righteous cause ; His holiest places then are ours, His temples are our forts and towers That frown upon the tyrant foe ; In this, the dawn of Freedom's day, There is a time to fight and pray!" And now before the open door — The warrior-priest had ordered so — The enlisting trumpet's sudden roar Eang through the chapel, o'er and o'er, Its long-reverberating blow, So loud and clear, it seemed the ear Of dusty death must wake and hear. And there the startling drum and fife Fired the living with fiercer life ; While overhead, with wild increase, Forgetting its ancient toll of peace, The great bell swung as ne'er before. It seemed as it would never cease ; And every word its ardor flung From off its jubilant iron tongue Was, " War ! War ! War !" "Who dares?" — this was the patriot's cry, As striding from the desk he came. — AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 121 " Come out with me, in Fi-eedom's name, For her to live, for her to die ?" A hundred hands flung up reply, A hundred voices answered, "77" Thomas Buchanan Read. THE BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. (Extract from " Battles of the American Revolution.") The advance of the British army was like a solemn pageant in its steady headway, and like a parade for inspection in the completeness of its outfit. It moved forward as if by the very force of its closely-knit columns it must sweep away every bar- rier in its path. Elated, sure of victory, with firm step, already quickened as the space of separation lessens, there is left but a few rods of interval, a few steps only, and the work is done ! But right in their way was a calm, intense, and energizing love of lib- erty, represented by men of the same blood and of equal daring. A few shots impulsively fired, but quickly restrained, drew an innocent fire from the advancing column. But the pale men behind the scant defence, obedient to one will, answered not ; and nothing to the audible commands of the advancing mass, — wait- ing still. The left wing is near the redoubt. It surely is nothing to surmount a bank of fresh earth but six feet high ; and its sands and clods can almost be counted, it is so near, so easy, sure ! Short, crisp, and earnest, low-toned, but felt as an electric pulse from redoubt to river, are the words of a single man, Prescott. Warren, by his side, repeats them. The word runs quickly along the inpatient line. The eager fingers give back from the waiting trigger. " Steady, men ! Wait until you see the white of the eye ! Not a shot sooner ! Aim at the hand- some coats ! Aim at the waistbands ! Pick off the officers ! Wait for the word, every man ! Steady !" Already those plain men, so patient, can count the buttons, can read the emblems on the belt-plate, can recognize the officers and men whom they have seen at parade on Boston Common. Features grow more and more distinct. The silence is awful ! 122 PATRIOTIC READER. These men seem breathless, — dead I It comes, that word, the word waited for, — " Fire !" That word had waited behind the centre and the left wing, where Putnam watched, as it lingered behind breastwork and redoubt. Sharp, clear, and deadly, in tone and essence, it rings forth, — " Fire !" From redoubt to river, along the whole sweep of devouring flame, the forms of men wither as in a furnace heat. The whole front goes down. For an instant the chirp of the grass- hopper and the cricket in the freshly-cut grass might almost be heard ; then the groans of the suffering ; then the shouts of im- patient yeomen, who leap over obstacles to pursue, until recalled to silence and to duty. Staggering but reviving, grand in the glory of their manhood, heroic in the fortitude which restores self-possession, with a steady step, in the face of fire and over the bodies of their dead, the remnant dare to renew battle. Again the deadly vollej^ ; and the shattered columns, in spite of entreaty or command, move back to the place of starting, and the first shock of battle is over. A lifetime when it is past seems but as a moment. A moment sometimes is as a lifetime. Onset and repulse I Three hundred lifetimes ended in twenty minutes 1 INDEPENDENCE BELL, PHILADELPHIA. Inscription, " Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof." July 4, 1776. There was a tumult in the city, In the quaint old Quaker town, And the streets were rife with people Pacing restless up and down, — People gathering at corners, Where they whispered each to each, And the sweat stood on their temples With the earnestness of speech. As the bleak Atlantic currents Lash the wild Newfoundland shore, AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 123 So they beat against the State-House, So they surged against the door ; And the mingling of their voices Made a harmony profound, Till the quiet street of Chestnut "Was all turbulent with sound. " Will they do it ?" " Dare they do it ?" " Who is speaking ?" " What's the news ?" " What of Adams ?" " What of Sherman ?" " Oh, God grant they won't refuse !" " Make some way, there !" " Let me nearer !" " I am stifling !" " Stifle, then ! When a nation's life's at hazard, We've no time to think of men !" So they beat against the portal, Man and woman, maid and child ; And the July sun in heaven On the scene looked down and smiled : The same sun that saw the Spartan Shed his patriot blood in vain, Now beheld the soul of freedom, All unconquered, rise again. See ! See ! The dense crowd quivers Through all its lengthy line, As the boy beside the portal Looks forth to give the sign ! With his little hands uplifted, Breezes dallying with his hair, Hark ! with deep, clear intonation, Breaks his young voice on the air. Hushed the people's swelling murmur, List the boy's exultant cry ! u Ring f he shouts, "ring! grandpa, Ring ! oh, ring for Liberty!" Quickly at the given signal The old bell-man lifts his hand, 124 PATRIOTIC READER. Forth he sends the good news, making Iron music through the land. How they shouted ! What rejoicing ! How the old bell shook the air, Till the clang of freedom ruffled The calmly gliding Delaware ! How the bonfires and the torches Lighted up the night's repose, And from the flames, like fabled Phoenix, Our glorious Liberty arose ! That old State-House bell is silent, Hushed is now its clamorous tongue ; But the spirit it awakened Still is living, — ever young ; And when we greet the smiling sunlight On the Fourth of each July, We Avill ne'er forget the bell-man Who, betwixt the earth and sky, Rung out, loudly, "Independence;" Which, please God, shall never die! Anonymous. INDEPENDENCE A SOLEMN DUTY. The time will certainly come when the fated separation be- tween the mother-country and these colonies must take place, whether you will or no, for it is so decreed by the very nature of things, by the progressive increase of our population, the fertility of our soil, the extent of our territory, the industry of our countrymen, and the immensity of the ocean which sepa- rates the two countries. And if this be true, as it is most true, who does not see that the sooner it takes place t\m better? — that it would be the height of folly not to seize the present occasion, when British injustice has filled all hearts Avith indignation, in- spired all minds with courage, united all opinions in one, and put arms in every hand ? And how long must we traverse three AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 125 thousand miles of a stormy sea to solicit of arrogant and inso- lent men either counsel, or commands to regulate our domestic affairs? From what we have already achieved it is easy to presume what we shall hereafter accomplish. Experience is the source of sage counsels, and liberty is the mother of great men. Have you not seen the enemy driven from Lexington by citizens armed and assembled in one day? Already their most cele- brated generals have yielded in Boston to the skill of ours. Already their seamen, repulsed from our coasts, wander over the ocean, the sport of tempests and the prey of famine. Let us hail the favorable omen, and fight, not for the sake of know- ing on what terms we are to be the slaves of England, but to secure to ourselves a free existence, to found a just and inde- pendent government. Why do we longer delay? why still deliberate? Let this most happy day give birth to the American Republic. Let her arise, not to devastate and conquer, but to re-establish the reign of peace and the laws. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us ; she demands of us a living example of freedom that may con- trast, by the felicity of her citizens, with the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace and the persecuted repose. She entreats us to cultivate a propitious soil, where that generous plant which first sprang up and grew in England, but is now withered by the poisonous blasts of Scottish tyranny, may revive and flourish, sheltering under its salubrious and interminable shade all the unfortunate of the human race. This is the end presaged by so many omens ; by our first victories ; by the present ardor and union ; by the flight of Howe, and the pestilence which broke out among Dun- more's people ; by the very winds which baffled the enemy's fleets and transports, and that terrible tempest which engulfed seven hundred vessels upon the coast of Newfoundland. If we are not this day wanting in our duty to our country, the names of the American legislators will be placed, by pos- terity, at the side of those of Theseus, of Lycurgus, of Romu- lus, of Numa, of the three Williams of Nassau, and of all those whose memory has been and will be forever dear to virtuous men and good citizens. Kichard Henry Lee. 126 PATEIOTIC READER. INDEPENDENCE EXPLAINED. (Delivered in Philadelphia, August 1, 1776, twenty-seven days after the Declaration of Independence.) My countrymen, from the day on which an accommodation takes place between England and America on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date the ruin of this country. "We are now, to the astonishment of the world, three millions of souls united in one common cause. This day we are called on to give a glorious example of what the wisest and best of men wei-e rejoiced to view only in speculation. This day presents the world with the most august spectacle that its annals ever unfolded, — millions of freemen voluntarily and deliberately form- ing themselves into a society for their common defence and common happiness. Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, and Sidney! will it not add to your benevolent joys to behold your posterity rising to the dignity of men — evincing to the world the reality and expediency of your systems, and in the actual enjoyment of that equal liberty which you were happy when on earth in delineating and recommending to mankind ? Other nations have received their laws from conquerors ; some are indebted for a constitution to the sufferings of their ances- tors through revolving centuries; the people of this country alone have formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and, with open, uninfluenced consent, bound them- selves into a social compact. And, fellow-countrymen, if ever it was granted to mortals to trace the designs of Providence and interpret its manifestations in favor of their cause, we may, with humility of soul, cry out, Not unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name be the praise. The confusion of the devices of our enemies, and the rage of the elements against them, have done almost as much towards our success as either our counsels or our arms. The time at which this attempt on our liberties was made, — when we were ripened into maturity, had acquired a knowledge of war, and were free from the incursions of intestine enemies, — the gradual advances of our oppressors, enabling us to pre- pare for our defence, tbe unusual fertility of our lands, the AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 127 clemency of the seasons, the success which at first attended our feeble arms, producing unanimity among our friends and com- pelling our internal foes to acquiescence, — these are all strong and palpable marks and assurances that Providence is yet gra- cious UNTO ZlON, THAT IT WILL TURN AWAY THE CAPTIVITY OP Jacob ! Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of con- science direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum. Let us cherish the noble guests ! Let us shelter them under the wings of universal toleration! Be this the seat of unbounded Eeligious Freedom ! She will bring with her in her train, Industry, Wisdom, and Commerce. Our union is now complete. You have in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force of your enemies. The hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom. Go on, then, in your generous enterprise, with gratitude to heaven for past success, and confidence of it in the future ! For my own part, I ask no greater blessing than to share with you the com- mon danger and the common glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and a Montgomery, it is, that these American States MAY NEVER CEASE TO BE FREE AND INDEPENDENT ! Samuel Adams. GREAT BRITAIN MUST YIELD, OR LOSE AMERICA. (Mr. Pitt, in Parliament, May 30, 1777, ridicules the idea of conquest, at the same time warning against the attitude of France.) My Lords, — This is a flying moment ; perhaps but six weeks left to arrest the dangers that surround us. The gathering storm may break ; it has opened, and in part burst. It is difficult for government, after all that has passed, to shake hands with the defiers of the king, defiers of the Parliament, defiers of the people. I am a defier of nobody, but if an end is not put to this war, there is an end to this kingdom. I do not trust my judgment in my pres- ent state of health ; this is the judgment of my better days ; the 128 PATRIOTIC READER. result of forty years' attention to America. They are rebels ! but what are they rebels for? Surely not for defending their unquestionable rights ! What have these rebels done hereto- fore? I remember when they raised four regiments on their own bottom, and took Louisbourg from the veteran troops of France. But their excesses have been great! I do not mean their panegyric ; but must observe, in extenuation, the erroneous and infatuated counsels which have prevailed. The door to mercy and justice has been shut against them. But they may still be taken up upon the grounds of their former submission. I state to you the importance of America. It is a double market ; a market of consumption and a market of supply. This double market for millions, with naval stores, you are giving to your hereditary rival. America has carried you through four wars, and will now carry you to your death if you do not take things in time. In the sportsman's phrase, when you have found yourselves at fault you must " try back." You have ransacked every corner of Lower Saxony ; but forty thousand German Boers never can conquer ten times the number of British freemen. They may ravage ; they cannot conquer. But you would conquer, you say. Why, what would you conquer ? The map of America ? I am ready to meet any general officer on the subject. What will you do out of the protection of your fleet? In the winter, if together, they are starved, and if dispersed, they are taken off in detail. I am experienced in spring hopes and vernal promises. I know what ministers throw out ; but at last will come your equinoctial disappointment. They tell you what? That your army " will be as strong as it was last year," when it was not strong enough. You have gained nothing in America but stations. You have been three years teaching them the art of war. They are apt scholars ; and I will venture to tell your lordships that the American gentry will make officers enough fit to command the troops of all the European powers. What you have sent there ai-e too many to make peace, too few to make war. If you conquer them, what then ? You cannot make them respect you; you cannot make them wear your cloth. You will AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 129 plant an invincible hatred in their breasts against you. Coming from the stock they do, they can never respect you. If minis- ters are correct in saying there is no sort of treaty with France, there is still a moment left ; the point of honor is still safe. France must be as self-destroying as England to make a treaty while you are giving her America, at the expense of twelve mil- lions a year. The intercourse has produced everything to France ; and England, poor old England, must pay for all. I have at different times made different propositions, adapted to the circumstances in which they were offered. The plan con- tained in the former bill is now impracticable. The present motion will tell you where you are, and what you have now to depend upon. It may produce a respectable division in America and unanimity at home. It will give America an option. She has yet made no option. You have said, "Lay down your arms," and she has given you the Spartan answer, "Come and take them !" I will get out of my bed on Monday to move for an imme- diate redress of all their grievances, and for continuing to them the right of disposing of their own property. This will be the herald of peace ; this will open the way for treaty ; this will show that Parliament is sincerely disposed. Yet still much must be left to treaty. Should you conquer this people, you conquer under the cannon of France ; under a masked battery, then ready to open. The moment a treaty with France appears, you must declare war, though you had only five ships of the line in England ; but France will defer a treaty as long as possible. You are now at the mercy of every little German chancery ; and the pretensions of France will increase daily, so as to be- come an avowed party in either peace or war. We have tried for unconditional submission ; let us try what can be gained by unconditional redress. Less dignity will be lost in the repeal than in submitting to the demands of German chanceries. We are the aggressors. We have invaded them. We have invaded them as much as the Spanish Armada invaded England. Mercy cannot do harm ; it will seat the king where he ought to be, — throned on the hearts of his people ; and millions at home and abroad, now employed in obloquy or revolt, would then pray for him. William Pitt (Lord Chatham). 130 PATRIOTIC READER. AMERICA STILL UNCONQUERABLE. 1777. The birth of a princess and universal congratulations on the one hand, and the presence of American ambassadors at the French Court, unresented by the British ministry, evoked from the great orator one of his most impassioned tributes to the patriotic colonists, on the 18th of November, 1777. As if the government had not sufficiently debased the credit of Great Britain as a Christian state, Lord Suffolk proposed to employ Indians as allies in the prosecution of the war in America, upon the specious plea that they " had the right to use all the means that God and nature had placed in their hands to conquer America." As among the last utterances of the great friend of the rising American republic, both speeches are worthy of perpetual remembrance by its youth. Lord Chatham's protest against the use of barbarous allies has been repeatedly adopted by humane statesmen in other lands where similar measures have been proposed. (From Address, November 18, 1777.) I rise, my lords, to declare my sentiments on this most solemn and serious subject. ..." But yesterday, and England might have stood against the world ; now, none so poor as to do her reverence." 1 use the words of a poet ; but, though it is poetry, it is no fiction. It is a shameful truth that not only the power and strength of this country are wasting away and expiring, but her well-earned glories, her true honors, and substantial dignity are sacrificed. The ministers and ambassadors of those who are called rebels and enemies are in Paris. In Paris they transact the reciprocal interests of America and France. Can there be a more mortify- ing insult ? Can even our ministers sustain a more humiliating disgrace ? Do they dare to resent it ? Do they even presume to hint a vindication of their honor and the dignity of the State by requiring the dismissal of the Plenipotentiaries of America ? Such is the degradation to which they have reduced the glories of England. The people whom they affect to call rebels, but whose grow- ing power has at last obtained the name of enemies ; the people AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 131 with whom they have engaged this country in war, and against whom they now command our implicit support in every meas- ure of desperate hostility ; this people, despised as rebels, are acknowledged as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with every military store, their interests consulted, and their ambassadors entertained by your inveterate enemy. And our ministers dare not interpose with dignity and effect. Is this the honor of a great kingdom? Is this the indignant spirit of England, who but yesterday gave law to the House of Bour- bon ? The dignity of nations demands a decisive conduct in a situation like this. The desperate state of our arms abroad is in part known. I love and I honor the English troops. No man thinks more highly of them than I do. I know they can achieve anything except impossibilities ; and I know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You cannot, I venture to say, you cannot conquer America. Your armies in the last war effected everything that could be effected, and what was it ? It cost a numerous army, under the command of a most noted general, now a noble lord in this House, a long and laborious campaign, to expel five thousand Frenchmen from French America. My lords, you cannot conquer America ! What is your present situation there ? We do not know the worst, but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. We shall soon know, and in any event have reason to lament, what may have happened since. As to conquest, my lords, I repeat, — it is impossible! You may swell every expense and every effort, still more extrava- gantly; pile and accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow ; traffic and barter with every little, pitiful German prince who will sell his subjects to the shambles of a foreign power ! Your efforts are forever vain and impotent ; doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely. For it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your enemies to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting ihem and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop remained in nry country I never would lay down my arms ; NEVER, NEVER, NEVER. WlLLIAM PlTT (LORD CHATHAM.) 132 PATRIOTIC READER. THE USE OP SAVAGE ALLIES DENOUNCED. (In Parliament, November 18, 1777.) My Lords, — I am astonished to hear such principles confessed! I am shocked ! to hear them avowed in this House, or in this country, — principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian ! My lords, I did not intend to have encroached again on your attention ; but I cannot repress my indignation. I feel myself impelled by every duty. My lords, we are called upon as members of this House, as men, as Christian men, to protest against such notions standing near the throne, polluting the ear of Majesty. " That God and nature put into our hands" ! I know not what ideas that lord may entertain of God and nature; but I know that such abominable principles are equally abhor- rent to religion and humanity. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife ! to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating — literally, my lords, eating — the mangled victims of his barbarous battles I Such horrible notions shock every precept of religion, divine or natural, and every generous feeling of humanity. And, my lords, they shock every sentiment of honor ; they shock me as a lover of honorable war and a detester of murderous barbarity. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that Eight Eeverend Bench, those holy ministers of the gospel, and pious pastors of our Church : I conjure them to join in the holy work, and vindicate the religion of their God. I appeal to the wisdom and the law of this learned bench to defend and support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their laws ; upon the learned judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this pollution. I call upon the honor of your lordships to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national character. I invoke the genius of the constitution. Spain armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 133 wretched natives of America ; and we improve on the inhuman example even of Spanish cruelty. We turn loose these savage hell-hounds against our brethren and countrymen in America, of the same language, laws, liberties, and religion ; endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity. My lords, this awful subject, so important to our honor, our constitution, and our religion, demands the most solemn and effectual inquiry. And I again call upon your lordships and the united powers of the state to examine it thoroughly and decisively, and to stamp upon it an indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. And I again implore those holy prelates of our religion to do away these iniquities from among us. Let them perform a lustration; let them purify this House and country from this sin. My lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more ; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor re- posed my head on my pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence of such preposterous and enormous principles. William Pitt (Lord Chatham). CONTINUED WAR WITH AMERICA IS FOLLY. (Address in Parliament, 1778.) You have now two wars before you, of which you must choose one, for both you cannot support. The war against America has hitherto been carried on against her alone, unassisted by any ally whatever. Notwithstanding she stood alone, you have been obliged, uniformly, to increase your exertions and to push your efforts to the extent of your power without being able to bring it to an issue. You have exerted all your force hitherto with- out effect, and you cannot now divide a force found already inadequate to its object. My opinion is for withdrawing your forces from America entirely, for a defensive war you can never think of there. A defensive war would ruin this nation at any time, and, in any circumstances, offensive war is pointed out as proper for this 134 PATRIOTIC READER. country. Our situation points it out, and the spirit of the nation impels us to attack rather than defend. Attack France, then, for she is our object. The nature of these wars is differ- ent. The war against America is against our own countrymen ; you have stopped me from saying against your fellow-subjects. That against France is against an inveterate foe and rival. Every blow you strike in America is against yourselves. It is against all idea of reconciliation, and against your own interest, even though you should be able, as you never will be, to force them to submit. Every stroke against France is of advantage to you. America must be conquered in France. France never can be conquered in America. The war of the Americans is a war of passion. It is of such a nature as to be supported by the most powerful virtues, — love of liberty and love of country, — and at the same time by those passions in the human heart which give courage, strength, and perseverance to man, — the spirit of revenge for the injuries you have done them, of retaliation for the hardships you have in- flicted on them, and of opposition to the unjust powers you have exercised over them. Everything combines to animate them to this war ; and such a war is without end. Whether it be called obstinacy or enthusiasm, under the name of religion or liberty, the effects are the same. It inspires a spirit which is uncon- querable, solicitous to undergo difficulty, danger, and hardship. So long as there is a man in America, — a being formed as we are, — so long will he present himself against you in the field. What has become of the ancient spirit of this people ? Where is the national spirit that ever did honor to this country? Charles James Fox. AMERICANS WILL CELEBRATE 1775 AS A "GLO- RIOUS ERA." (From Speech in Parliament, 1780.) Mr. Speaker, — It ill becomes the duty and dignity of Parliament to lose itself in such a fulsome, adulatory address to the throne as that now proposed. We ought rather to approach it with sound AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 135 and wholesome advice, and even with remonstrances against the ministers who have precipitated the British nation into an unjust, ruinous, murderous, and felonious war. I call the war with our brethren in America an unjust and felonious war, be- cause the primary cause and confessed origin of it is to attempt to take their money from them without their consent, contrary to the common rights of all mankind and to those great funda- mental principles of the English constitution for which Hamp- den bled. I assert that it is a murderous war, because it is an effort to deprive men of their lives for standing up in the defence of their property and their clear rights. Such a war, I fear, will draw down the vengeance of heaven upon this kingdom. Sir, is any minister weak enough to flatter himself with the conquest of America ? You cannot, with all your allies, with all the mercenary ruffians of the North, you cannot effect so wicked a purpose ! The Americans will dispute every inch of territory with you, every narrow pass, every strong defile, every Thermopylae, every Bunker Hill ! More than half the empire is already lost, and almost all the rest is in confusion and anarchy. We have appealed to the sword, and what have we gained? Are we to pay as dear for the rest of America ? The idea of the conquest of that immense country is as romantic as it is unjust. But " the Americans have been treated with lenity" ! Will facts justify the assertion ? Was your Boston " Port Bill" a measure of lenity ? Was your Fishery Bill a measure of lenity ? Was your bill for taking away the charter of Massachusetts a measure of lenity ? I omit your many other gross provocations and insults by which the brave Americans have been driven to their present state. Whether that state is one of rebellion or of fit resistance to unlawful acts of power I shall not declare. This I know : a successful resistance is revolution, not a rebellion. Rebellion, indeed, appears on the back of a flying enemy, but revolution flames on the breastplate of the victorious warrior. Who can tell whether, in consequence of this day's action, the scabbard may not be thrown away by them as well as by us, and, should success attend them, whether in a few years the in- dependent American may not celebrate the glorious era of the Revolution of 1775 as we do that of 1688 ? John Wilkes. 136 PATRIOTIC READER. AMERICA SEATED AMONG THE NATIONS. (From Oration at Boston, March 5, 1780.) The rising sun of this Western Hemisphere is already an- nounced, and she is summoned to her seat among the nations of the earth. We have publicly declared ourselves convinced of the destructive tendencies of standing armies. We have acknowl- edged the necessity of public spirit and the love of virtue to the happiness of any people, and we profess to be sensible of the great blessings that flow from them. Let us not act unwor- thily of the reputable character we now sustain. Let integrity of heart, the spirit of freedom, and rigid virtue be seen to actuate every member of the commonwealth. The trial of our patriotism is yet before us, and we have reason to thank heaven that its principles are so well known and dif- fused. Exercise towards each other the benevolent feelings of friendship, and let that unity of sentiment which has shone in the field be equally animating in our councils. Remember that prosperity is dangerous ; that, though successful, we are not in- fallible. Let this sacred maxim make the deepest impression upon our minds, that if avarice, if extortion, if luxury and political cor- ruption are suffered to become popular among us, civil discord and the ruin of our country will be the speedy consequence of such fatal vices. But while patriotism is the leading principle, and our laws are contrived with wisdom and executed with vigor; while industry, frugality, and temperance are held in estimation, and we depend upon public spirit and the love of virtue for our social happiness, peace and affluence will throw their smiles upon the brow of individuals, our commonwealth will flourish, our land will become a land of liberty, and America an asylum for the oppressed. Jonathan Mason. A NATION BORN IN A DAY. The Declaration of Independence! The interest which in that paper has survived the occasion upon which it was issued, the interest which is of every age and every clime, the interest AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPED. 137 which quickens with the lapse of years, spreads as it grows old, and brightens as it recedes, is in the principles which it pro- claims. It was the first solemn declaration, by a nation, of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the cor- ner-stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all govern- ments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the inalienable sov- ereignty of the people. It proved that the social compact was no figment of the imagination, but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union. From the day of this declaration the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere. They were no longer children, appealing in vain to the sympathies of a heartless mother ; no longer sub- jects, leaning upon the shattered columns of royal promises, and invoking the faith of parchment to secure their rights. They were a nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence. A nation was born in a day. " How many ages hence Shall this, their lofty scene, be acted o'er In states unborn, and accents yet unknown?" It will be acted o'er, fellow-citizens, but it can never be re- peated. It stands, and must forever stand, alone ; a beacon on the summit of the mountain, to which all the inhabitants of the earth may turn their eyes for a genial and saving light, till time shall be lost in eternity, and this globe itself dissolve, nor leave a wreck behind. It stands forever, a light of admonition to the rulers of men, a light of salvation and redemption to the op- pressed. So long as this planet shall be inhabited by human beings, so long as man shall be of a social nature, so long as government shall be necessary to the great moral purposes of society, so long as it shall be abused to the purposes of oppres- sion, so long shall this declaration hold out to the sovereign and to the subject the extent and the boundaries of their respective rights and duties, founded in the laws of nature and of nature's God. John Quincy Adams. 138 PATRIOTIC READER. ODE FOR INDEPENDENCE. When Freedom, 'midst the battle-storm, Her weary head reclined, And round her fair, majestic form Oppression fain had twined, Amid the din, beneath the cloud, Great Washington appeared, With daring hand rolled back the shroud, And thus the sufferer cheered : " Spurn, spurn despair I be great, be free ! With giant strength arise ; Stretch, stretch thy pinions, Liberty, Thy flag plant in the skies ! Clothe, clothe thyself in Glory's robe, Let stars thy banner gem ; Rule, rule the sea, — possess the globe, — Wear Victory's diadem ! " Go and proclaim a world is born, Another orb gives light ; Another sun illumes the morn, Another star the night ; Be just, be brave ! and let thy name, Henceforth, Columbia be ; And wear the oaken wreath of fame, The wreath of Liberty." He said, and lo ! the stars of night Forth to her banner flew ; And morn, with pencil dipped in light, Her blushes on it drew ; Columbia's eagle seized the prize, And, gloriously unfurled, Soared with it to his native skies, And waved it o'er the world. Anonymous (Raymond 's Patriotic Reader). PART V. MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. INTRODUCTION. Modern history, oratory, and poetry are so replete with tributes to the memory of Washington, that the entire progress of the civilized world for more than a century has been shaped by the influence of his life and precepts. The memorial shaft at the national capital, which is the loftiest of human structures, and is inner-faced by typical expressions of honor from nearly all nations, is a fit type of his surmounting merit. The ceremonies which attended the corner-stone consecration and signalized its completion are no less an honor to the distinguished historian and statesman who voiced the acclamations of the American people than a perpetual testimonial worthy of the subject honored by the occasion and by the monument. When the world pays willing tribute, and the most ambitious monarch on earth would covet no higher plaudit than that he served his people as faithfully as Washington served America, it is difficult to fathom the depths of memorial sentiment and place in public view those which are the most worthy of study and apprecia- tive respect. The national life itself throbs through his trans- mitted life, and the aroma of his grace is as consciously breathed by statesmen and citizens to-day as the invisible atmosphere which secures physical vitalitjr and force. Senator Yance, of North Carolina, thus earnestly commends to the youth of America the brightness and beauty of the great example : " Greater soldiers, more intellectual statesmen, and profounder sages have doubtless existed in the history of the English race, perhaps in our own country, but not one who to great excellence in the threefold composition of man, the physical, intellectual, and moral, has added such exalted integrity, 139 140 PATRIOTIC READER. such unaffected piety, such unsullied purity of soul, and such wondrous con- trol of his own spirit. He illustrated and adorned the civilization of Chris- tianity, and furnished an example of the wisdom and perfection of its teach- ings which the subtlest arguments of its enemies cannot imp 'aeh. That one grand, rounded life, full-orbed with intellectual and moral glory, is worth, as the product of Christianity, more than all the dogmas of all the teachers. The youth of America who aspire to promote their own and their country's wel- fare should never cease to gaze upon his great example, or to remember that the brightest gems in the crown of his immortality, the qualities which up- hold his fame on earth and plead for him in heaven, were those which charac- terized him as the patient, brave, Christian gentleman. In this respect he was a blessing to the whole human race no less than to his own countrymen, to the many millions who annually celebrate the day of his birth." Such sentiments fitly illustrate the controlling element of character which made the conduct of Washington so peerless in the field and in the chair of state. His first utterances upon assuming command of the American army before Boston, on the 2d of July, 1775, were a rebuke of religious bigotry and an impressive protest against gaming, swearing, and all immoral practices which might forfeit divine aid in the great struggle for national independence. Succeeding orders, preparatory to the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, breathe the same spirit, — that which transfused all his activities, as with celestial fire, until he surrendered his commission with a devout and public recognition of Almighty God as the author of his success. WASHINGTON. The Brightest Name on History's Page. Land of the West ! though passing brief the record of thine age, Thou hast a name that darkens all on history's wide page ! Let all the blasts of Fame ring out,— thine shall be loudest far ; Let others boast their satellites, — thou hast the planet star. Thou hast a name whose characters of light shall ne'er depart; 'Tis stamped upon the dullest brain, and warms the coldest heart ; A war-cry fit for any land where freedom's to be won ; Land of the West! it stands alone, — it is thy Washington! MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 141 Eome had its Caesar, great and brave, but stain was on his wreath ; He lived the heartless conqueror, and died the tyrant's death. France had its eagle, but his wings, though lofty they might soar, Were spread in false ambition's flight, and dipped in murder's gore. Those hero-gods, whose mighty sway would fain have chained the waves — Who flashed their blades with tiger zeal to make a world of slaves — Who, though their kindred barred the path, still fiercely waded on, Oh, where shall be their " glory" by the side of Washington ! He fought, but not with love of strife ; he struck but to defend ; And ere he turned a people's foe, he sought to be a friend ; He strove to keep his country's right by reason's gentle word, And sighed when fell injustice threw the challenge sword to sword. He stood the firm, the wise, the patriot, and the sage ; He showed no deep, avenging hate, no burst of despot rage; He stood for Liberty and Truth, and daringly led on Till shouts of victory gave forth the name of Washington. No car of triumph bore him through a city filled with grief; No groaning captives at the wheels proclaimed him victor-chief; He broke the gyves of slavery with strong and high disdain, But cast no sceptre from the links when he had rent the chain. He saved his land, but did not lay his soldier trappings down To change them for a regal vest and don a kingly crown. Fame was too earnest in her joy, too proud of such a son, To let a robe and title mask her noble Washington. England, my heart is truly thine, my loved, my native earth, — The land that holds a mother's grave and gave that mother birth ! Oh, keenly sad would be the fate that thrust me from thy shore, And faltering my breath that sighed, " Farewell for evermore !" 142 PATRIOTIC READER. But did I meet such adverse lot, I would not seek to dwell "Where olden heroes wrought the deeds for Homer's song to tell. " Away, thou gallant ship !" I'd cry, "and bear me safely on, But bear me from my own fair land to that of Washington." Eliza Cook. WASHINGTON BEFORE THE BATTLE OP LONG ISLAND, AUGUST, 1776. The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves ; whether tbey are to have any property they can call their own ; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and them- selves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of a brave resistance or the most abject submission. "We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or to die. Our own, our country's honor, calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion ; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us, then, rely on the goodness of our cause and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us ; and we shall have their blessings and praises if. happily, we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny medi- tated against them. Let us, therefore, animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a freeman contend- ing for liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mer- cenary on earth. Liberty, property, life, and honor are all at stake. Upon your courage and conduct rest the hopes of our bleeding and insulted country. Our wives, children, and parents expect safety from us only ; and they have every reason to believe that heaven will crown with success so just a cause. The enemy will endeavor to intimidate by show and appearance ; but remember they have been repulsed on various occasions by a few brave Americans. MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 143 Their cause is bad, — their men are conscious of it ; and, if op- posed with firmness and coolness on their first onset, with our advantage of works and knowledge of the ground, the victory is most assuredly ours. Every good soldier will be silent and attentive, wait for orders, and reserve his fire until he is sure of doing execution. WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL TO THE ARMY. (Dated at Kocky Hill, near Princeton, New Jersey, November 2, 1783.) It is universally acknowledged that the enlarged prospects of happiness, opened by the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, almost exceed the power of description. And shall not the brave men who have contributed so essentially to these inestimable acquisitions, retiring from the field of war to the field of agriculture, participate in all the blessings which have been obtained ? In such a republic, who will exclude them from the rights of citizens and the fruits of their labors ? To those hardy soldiers who are actuated by the spirit of adventure, the fisheries will afford ample and profitable employ- ment, and the extensive and fertile regions of the West will yield a most happy asylum to those who, fond of domestic employment, are seeking personal independence. Little is now wanting to enable the soldier to change the mil- itary character into that of a citizen but that steady and decent behavior which has distinguished not only the army under his immediate command, but the different detachments and separate armies through the course of the war. To the various branches of the army the general takes this last and solemn opportunity of professing his inviolable attachment and friendship. He can only again offer in their behalf his recommendations to their grateful country and his prayers to the God of armies. May ample justice be done them here, and may favors, both here and hereafter, attend those who, under the divine auspices, have secured innumerable blessings for others 1 With these wishes and this benediction the commander-in- 144 PATRIOTIC READER. chief is about to retire from service. The curtain of separation will soon be drawn, and the military scene to him will be closed forever ! GENERAL WASHINGTON'S RESIGNATION AS COM- MANDER-IN-CHIEF. Mr. President, — The great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sover- eignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfac- tion the appointment I accepted with diffidence ; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union, and the patron- age of heaven. The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations, and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence and the assistance I have received from my coun- trymen increases with every review of the momentous contest. While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge, in this place, the peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gen- tlemen who have been attached to my person (hiring the war. It was impossible the choice of confidential officers to com- pose my family should have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in particular those who have continued in the service to the present moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress. I consider it as my indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them, to His holy keeping. MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 145 Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action ; and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the em- ployments of public life. G. Washington. December 23, 1783. FROM PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S FIRST SPEECH IN CONGRESS, APRIL 30, 1789. Fellow-Citizens op the Senate and of the House op Repre- sentatives, — Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notifica- tion was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country — whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love — from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predi- lection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years : — a retreat which was ren- dered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interrup- tions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust, to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but over- whelm with despondence one who, inheriting inferior endow- ments from nature, and unpractised in the duties of civil ad- ministration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own de- ficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is, that if, in executing this task, I have been too much 10 146 PATRIOTIC READER. swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to tbis transcendent proof of tbe confidence of my fellow-citizens, and bave tbence too little con- sulted my incapacity, as well as disinclination, for tbe weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives whicb misled me, and its consequences be judged by my country witb some share of the partiality in which they originated. Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the uni- verse, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose provi- dential aids can supply every human defect, that his benedic- tion may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument em- ployed in its administration, to execute with success the func- tions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisi- ble hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of tbe United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to bave been distinguished by some token of providential agency. And in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude, along with a humble anticipation of the future bless- ings which the past seems to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none, under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free govern- ment can more auspiciously commence. MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 147 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RESPONSE TO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON RECEIPT OP THE COLORS OP PRANCE, 1796. Born, sir, in a land of liberty, having early learned its value, having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it, having, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure it a permanent establishment in my own country, my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom. But above all, the events of the French Kevolution have produced the deepest solicitude as well as the highest admiration. To call your nation brave were to pro- nounce but common praise. Wonderful people ! Ages to come will read with astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits. I rejoice that the period of your toils and of your immense sacrifices is approaching. I rejoice tbat the interesting revolu- tionary movements of so many years have issued in the forma- tion of a constitution designed to give permanency to the great object for which you have contended. I rejoice that liberty, which you have so long embraced with enthusiasm, liberty, of which you have been the invincible defenders, now finds an asylum in the bosom of a regularly organized government ; a government which, being formed to secure the happiness of the French people, corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States by its resemblance of their own. On these glorious events accept, sir, my sincere congratulations. In delivering to you these sentiments, I express not my own feelings only, but those of my fellow-citizens, in relation to the commencement, the progress, and the issue of the French Revo- lution ; and they will cordially join with me in purest wishes to the Supreme Being that the citizens of our sister republic, our magnanimous allies, may soon enjoy, in peace, that liberty which they have purchased at so great a price, and all the happiness which liberty can bestow. I receive, sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol of the triumphs and of the enfranchisements of your nation, the colors of France, which you have now presented to the United 148 PATRIOTIC READER. States. The transaction will be announced to Congress, and the colors will be deposited with those archives of the United States which are at once the evidences and the memorials of their freedom and independence. May these be perpetual ; and may the friendship of the two republics be commensurate with their existence ! FROM WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. September 17, 1796. Friends and Felloav-Citizens, — The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be em- ployed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender of service which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to tho opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives, which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last elec- MEMOBIALS OF WASHINGTON. 149 tion, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you ; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompati- ble with the sentiment of duty or propriety ; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that in the present circumstances of our country you will not disapprove my determination to retire. The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust I will only say that I have, with good intentions, con- tributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience, in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admon- ishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriot- ism does not forbid it. . . . Let me warn you most solemnly against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists, under different shapes, in all govern- ments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which, in different ages and countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The dis- orders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of 150 PATRIOTIC READER. men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual ; and, sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality ai-e indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined educa- tion on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric ? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institu- tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. Observe good faith and justice towards all nations ; cultivate peace and harmony with all : religion and morality enjoin this conduct ; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 151 any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The ex- periment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. In looking forward to the moment which is intended to ter- minate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of grati- tude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me ; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed, of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services, faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, as an in- structive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead ; amidst appearances sometimes dubious ; vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging ; in situations in which, not un- frequently, want of success has countenanced the spirit of criti- cism ; the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its benefi- cence ; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual ; that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands, maybe sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a pres- ervation and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have com- mitted many errors. Whatever they may be, I ferver tly beseech 152 PATRIOTIC READER. the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence ; and after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service, with an upright zeal, that the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticij>ate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws, under a free government ; the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. THE CHARACTER OP WASHINGTON. To the historian few characters appear so little to have shared the common frailties and imperfections of human nature as that of "Washington. There are but few particulars that can be men- tioned even to his disadvantage. Instances may be found where, perhaps, it may be thought that he was decisive to a degree that partook of severity and harshness, or even more ; but how in- numerable were the decisions which he had to make ! — how difficult and how important, through the eventful series of twenty years of command in the cabinet or the field ! Let it be considered what it is to have the management of a revolution, and afterwards the maintenance of order. Where is the man who, in the history of our race, has ever succeeded in attempting successively the one and the other? — not on a small scale, a petty state in Italy, or among a horde of bar- barians, but in an enlightened age, when it is not easy for one man to rise superior to another, and in the eyes of mankind, — " A kingdom for a stage, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene." MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 153 The plaudits of his country were continually sounding in his ears ; and neither the judgment nor the virtues of the man were ever disturbed. Armies were led to the field with all the enter- prise of a hero, and then dismissed with all the equanimity of a philosopher. Power was accepted, was exercised, was resigned, precisely at the moment and in the way that duty and patriotism directed. Whatever was the difficulty, the trial, the temptation, or the danger, there stood the soldier and the citizen, eternally the same, without fear and without reproach, and there was the man who was not only at all times virtuous, but at all times wise. The merit of Washington by no means ceases with his cam- paigns ; it becomes, after the peace of 1783, even more striking than before; for the same man who, for the sake of liberty, was ardent enough to resist the power of Great Britain, and hazard everything on this side the grave, at a later period had to be temperate enough to resist the same spirit of liberty, when it was mistaking its proper objects and transgressing its appointed limits. The American revolution was to approach him, and he was to kindle in the general flame : the French revolution was to reach him, and to consume but too many of his countrymen ; and his "own ethereal mould, incapable of stain, was to purge off the baser fire victorious." But all this was done : he might have been pardoned though he had failed amid the enthusiasm of those around him, and when liberty was the delusion ; but the foun- dations of the moral world were shaken, and not the understand- ing of Washington. As a ruler of mankind, he may be proposed as a model. Deeply impressed with the original rights of human nature, he never forgot that the end, and moaning, and aim of all just gov- ernment was the happiness of the people ; and he never exercised authority till he had first taken care to put himself clearly in the right. His candor, his patience, his love of justice, were unexampled ; and this, though naturally he was not patient, — • much otherwise,' — highly irritable. He therefore deliberated well, and placed his subject in every point of view, before he decided ; and, his understanding being correct, he was thus rendered, by the nature of his faculties, his 154 PATRIOTIC READER. strength of mind, and his principles, the man, of all others, to whom the interests of his fellow-creatures might, with most confidence, be intrusted ; — that is, he was the first of the rulers of mankind. William Smyth. THE MEMORY OP WASHINGTON. To us, citizens of America, it belongs above all others to show respect to the memory of Washington, by the practical defer- ence which we pay to those sober maxims of public policy which he has left us, — a last testament of affection in his Farewell Address. Of all the exhortations which it contains, I scarce need to say to you that none are so emphatically uttered, none so anxiously repeated, as those which enjoin the preservation of the Union of these States. On this, under Providence, it depends in the judgment of Washington whether the people of America shall follow the Old World example, and be broken up into a group of inde- pendent military powers, wasted by eternal border wars, feeding the ambition of petty sovereigns on the life-blood of wasted principalities, — a custom-house on the bank of every river, a fortress on every frontier hill, a pirate lurking in the recesses of every bay, — or whether they shall continue to constitute a federal republic, the most extensive, the most powerful, the most prosperous in the long line of ages. No one can read the Farewell Address without feeling that this was the thought and this the care which lay nearest and heaviest upon that noble heart ; and if — which heaven forbid — the day shall ever arrive when his parting counsels on that head shall be forgotten, on that day, come it soon or come it late, it may as mournfully as truly be said that Washington has lived in vain. Then the vessels as they ascend and descend the Potomac may toll their bells with new significance as thoy pass Mount Yernon ; they will strike the requiem of constitutional liberty for us, — for all nations. But it cannot, shall not be; this great woe to our beloved MEMORIALS OP WASHINGTON. 155 country, this catastrophe for the cause of national freedom, this grievous calamity for the whole civilized world, it cannot, shall not be. No, by the glorious 19th of April, 1775 ; no, by the precious blood of Bunker Hill, of Princeton, of Saratoga, of King's Mountain, of Yorktown ; no, by the undying spirit of '76 ; no, by the sacred dust enshrined at Mount Vernon ; no, by the dear immortal memory of Washington, — that sorrow and shame shall never be. A great and venerated character like that of Washington, which commands the respect of an entire population, however divided on other questions, is not an isolated fact in history to be regarded with barren admiration, — it is a dispensation of Providence for good. It was well said by Mr. Jefferson, in 1792, writing to Washington to dissuade him from declining a renomi- nation, "North and South will hang together while they have you to hang to." Washington in the flesh is taken from us ; we shall never behold him as our fathers did ; but his memory remains, and I say, let us hang to his memory. Let us make a national festival and holiday of his birthday ; and ever, as the 22d of February returns, let us remember that, while with these solemn and joyous rites of observance we celebrate the great anniversary, our fellow-citizens on the Hudson, on the Potomac, from the Southern plains to the Western lakes, are engaged in the same offices of gratitude and love. Nor we, nor they alone ; — beyond the Ohio, beyond the Mis- sissippi, along that stupendous trail of immigration from East to West, which, bursting into States as it moves westward, is al- ready threading the Western prairies, swarming through the portals of the Eocky Mountains and winding down their slopes, the name and the memory of Washington on that gracious night will travel with the silver queen of heaven through sixty degrees of longitude, nor part company with her till she walks in her brightness through the Golden Gate of California, and passes serenely on to hold midnight court with her Australian stars. There and there only, in barbarous archipelagoes, as yet untrodden by civilized man, the name of Washington is un- known, and there, too, when they swarm with enlightened millions, new honors shall be paid with ours to his memory. Edward Everett. 156 PATRIOTIC READER. THE GLORY OF WASHINGTON. How grateful the relief which the friend of mankind, the lover of virtue, experiences when, turning from the contempla- tion of such a character as Napoleon, his eye rests upon the greatest man of our own or any age, — the only one upon whom an epithet, so thoughtlessly lavished b}' men, to foster the crimes of their worst enemies, may be innocently and justly bestowed ! This eminent person is presented to our observation clothed in attributes as modest, as unpretending, as little calculated to strike or to astonish, as if he had passed unknown through some secluded region of private life. But he had a judgment sure and sound ; a steadiness of mind which never suffered any passion, or even any feeling, to ruffle its calm ; a strength of understanding which worked rather than forced its way through all obstacles, — removing, or avoiding, rather than overleaping them. If these things, joined to the most absolute self-denial, the most habitual and exclusive devotion to principle, can con- stitute a great character, without either quickness of apprehen- sion, remarkable resources of information, or inventive powers, or any brilliant quality that might dazzle the vulgar, — then surely Washington was the greatest man that ever lived in this world, uninspired by divine wisdom and unsustained by super- natural virtue. His courage, whether in battle or in council, was as perfect as might be expected from this pure and steady temper of soul. A perfectly just man, with a thoroughly firm resolution never to be misled by others, any more than to be by others overawed ; never to be seduced or betrayed, or hurried away by his own weaknesses or self-delusions, any more than by other men's arts; nor ever to be disheartened by the most complicated difficulties, any more than to be spoilt on the giddy heights of fortune ; — such was this great man. Great he was, pre-eminently great, whether we regard him sustaining, alone, the whole weight of campaigns all but desper- ate, or gloriously terminating a just warfare by his resources and his courage; presiding over the jarring elements of his political council, alike deaf to the storms of all extremes, or directing the formation of a new government for a great people, the first time that so vast an experiment had ever been tried by MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 157 man ; or, finally, retiring from the supreme power to which his virtue had raised him over the nation he had created, and whose destinies he had guided as long as his aid was required, — re- tiring with the veneration of all parties, of all nations, of all man- kind, in order that the rights of men might be conserved, and that his example never might be appealed to by vulgar tyrants. This is the consummate glory of Washington : a triumphant warrior where the most sanguine had a right to despair; a suc- cessful ruler in all the difficulties of a course wholly untried ; but a warrior whose sword only left its sheath when the first law of our nature commanded it to be drawn ; and a ruler who, having tasted of supreme power, gently and unostentatiously desired that the cup might pass from him, nor would suffer more to wet his lips than the most solemn and sacred duty to his country and his God required ! To his latest breath did this great patriot maintain the noble character of a captain the patron of peace, and a statesman the friend of justice. Dying, he bequeathed to his heirs the sword which he had worn in the war for liberty, and charged them " never to take it from the scabbard but in self-defence, or in defence of their country and her freedom ;" and commanded them that, " when it should thus be drawn, they shonld never sheathe it, nor give it up, but prefer falling with it in their hands to the relinquishment thereof," — words, the majesty and simple eloquence of which are not sur- passed in the oratory of Athens and Eome. It will be the duty of the historian and the sage, in all ages, to let no occasion pass of commemorating this illustrious man ; and, until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of "Washington ! Henry (Lokd) Brougham. THE ATTRIBUTES OF WASHINGTON. No matter what may have been the immediate birthplace of such a man as Washington ! No clime can claim, no country can appropriate him: the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, his residence creation. Though it was 158 PATRIOTIC READER. the defeat of our arms and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered and the earth rocked, yet when the storm passed how pure was the climate that it cleared ! How bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet it revealed to us ! In the pro- duction of Washington it does really appear as if nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances, no doubt, there were; splendid exem- plifications of some single qualification, — Csesar was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient, — but it was re- served for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit in one glow of associated beauty the pride of every model and the perfec- tion of every master. As a general, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran and supplied by discipline the absence of experience. As a states- man, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most com- prehensive system of general advantage ; and such was the wisdom of his views and the philosophy of his counsels that to the soldier and the statesman he almost added the character of the sage. A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood ; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of ti-eason ; for aggres- sion commenced the contest, and a country called him to the command; liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, vic- tory returned it. If he had paused here, history might doubt what station to assign him, whether at the head of her citi- zens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowned his career and banishes hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having freed a country, resigned her crown, and retired to a cottage rather than reign in a capitol ! Immortal man ! He took from the battle its crime, and from the conquest its chains ; he left the victorious the glory of his self-denial, and turned upon the vanquished only the retribu- tion of his mercy. Happy, proud America 1 The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy ! The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism ! Charles Phillips. MEMORIALS OP WASHINGTON. 159 THE FOREIGN POLICY OP WASHINGTON. How infinitely superior must appear the spirit and principles of General Washington, in his late address to Congress, compared with the policy of modern European courts! Illustrious man! — deriving honor less from the splendor of his situation than from the dignity of his mind ! Grateful to France for the assist- ance received from her in that great contest which secured the independence of America, he yet did not choose to give up the system of neutrality in her favor. Having once laid down the line of conduct most proper to be pursued, not all the insults and provocations of the French minister, Genet, could at all put him out of his way or bend him from his purpose. It must, indeed, create astonishment that, placed in circumstances so critical, and filling a station so conspicuous, the character of Washington should never once have been called in question ; that he should in no one instance have been accused either of im- proper insolence or of mean submission in his transactions with foreign nations. It has been reserved for him to run the race of glory without experiencing the smallest interruption to the bril- liancy of his career. The breath of censure has not dared to impeach the purity of his conduct, nor the eye of envy to raise its malignant glance to the elevation of his virtues. Such has been the transcendent merit and the unparalleled fate of this illustrious man ! How did he act when insulted by Genet? Did he consider it as necessary to avenge himself for the misconduct or madness of an individual by involving a whole continent in the horrors of war ? No ; he contented himself with procuring satisfaction for the insult by causing Genet to be recalled, and thus at once con- sulted his own dignity and the interests of his country. Happy Americans! while the whirlwind flies over one quarter of the globe, and spreads everywhere desolation, you remain protected from its baneful effects by your own virtues and the wisdom of your government. Separated from Europe by an immense ocean, you feel not the effect of those prejudices and passions which con- vert the boasted seats of civilization into scenes of horror and bloodshed. You profit by the folly and madness of the contend- ing nations, and afford, in your more congenial clime, an asylum 160 PATRIOTIC READER. to those blessings and virtues which they wantonly contemn, or wickedly exclude from their bosom! Cultivating the arts of peace under the influence of freedom, you advance by rapid strides to opulence and distinction; and if by any accident you should be compelled to take part in the present unhappy contest, — if you should find it necessary to avenge insult or repel injury, — the world will bear witness to the equity of your sentiments and the moderation of your views ; and the success of your arms will, no doubt, be proportioned to the justice of your cause. Charles James Fox. THE BIRTHDAY OP WASHINGTON. The birthday of the " Father of his Country" ! May it ever be freshly remembered by American hearts ! May it ever re- awaken in them a filial veneration for his memory; ever re- kindle the fires of patriotic regard to the country which he loved so well; to which he gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy during the perilous period of the early Indian warfare ; to which he devoted his life, in the maturity of his powers, in the field ; to which again he offered the counsels of his wisdom and his experience as president of the convention that framed our Constitution ; which he guided and directed while in the chair of state, and for which the last prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up when it came the moment for him so well, and so grandly, and so calmly, to die ! He was the first man of the time in which he grew. His memory is first and most sacred in our love ; and ever hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last American heart, his name shall be a spell of power and might. Yes, gentlemen, there is one personal, one vast felicity which no man can share with him. It was the daily beauty and tower- ing and matchless glory of his life which enabled him to create his country, and, at the same time, secure an undying love and regard from the whole American people. "The first in the hearts of his countrymen" 1 Yes, first! He has our first and most fervent love. Undoubtedly there were brave and wise and MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 161 good men, before his day, in every colony. But the American nation, as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun before 1774. And the first love of that young America was Washington. The first word she lisped was his name. Her earliest breath spoke it. It still is her proud ejaculation ; and it will be the last gasp of her expiring life ! Yes ! Others of our great men have been appreciated, — many admired by all. But him we love. Him we all love. About and around him we call up no dissentient and discordant and dis- satisfied elements, no sectional prejudice nor bias, no party, no creed, no dogma of politics. None of these shall assail him. Yes ! When the storm of battle blows darkest and rages highest, the memory of Washington shall nerve every American arm and cheer every American heart. It shall re-lume that Prome- thean fire, that sublime flame of patriotism, that devoted love of country, which his words have commended, which his ex- ample has consecrated. " "Where may the wearied eye repose When gazing on the great, Where neither guilty glory glows Nor despicable state ? Yes, — one, the first, the last, the best, The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeathed the name of Washington To make man blush, there was but one." — Byron. Kuftjs Choate. THE BIRTHDAY OP WASHINGTON EVER HONORED. Welcome, thou festal morn ! Never be passed in scorn Thy rising sun, Thou day forever bright With Freedom's holy light, That gave the world the sight Of Washington. 11 162 PATRIOTIC READER. Unshaken 'mid the storm, Behold that noble form, — That peerless one, — With his protecting hand, Like Freedom's angel, stand, The guardian of our land, Our Washington. Traced there in lines of light, Where all pure rays unite, Obscured by none ; Brightest on history's page, Of any clime or age, As chieftain, man, and sage, Stands Washington. Name at which tyrants pale, And their proud legions quail, Their boasting done, While Freedom lifts her head, No longer filled with dread, Her sons to victory led By Washington. Now the true patriot see, The foremost of the free, The victory won, In Freedom's presence bow, While sweetly smiling now She wreathes the spotless brow Of Washington. Then, with each coming year, Whenever shall appear That natal sun, Will we attest the worth Of one true man to earth, And celebrate the birth Of Washington. George Howland. MEMORIALS OP WASHINGTON. 163 THE WASHINGTON AND FRANKLIN MEMORIALS LINKED. The sword of Washington ! The staff of Franklin ! Oh, sir, what associations are linked in adamant with these names! Washington, whose sword, as my friend has said, was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and never sheathed when wielded in his country's cause! Franklin, the philosopher of the thunderbolt, the printing-press, and the ploughshare ! What names are these in the scanty catalogue of the benefactors of human kind ! Washington and Franklin ! What other two men, whose lives belong to the eighteenth century of Christendom, have left a deeper impression of themselves upon the age in which they lived and upon all after-time ? Washington, the warrior and the legislator ! In war, contend- ing, by the wager of battle, for the independence of his country and for the freedom of the human race ; ever manifesting, amidst its horrors, by precept and example, his reverence for the laws of peace and for the tenderest sympathies of humanity; in peace, soothing the ferocious spirit of discord among his country- men into harmony and union ; and giving to that very sword, now presented to his country, a charm more potent than that attributed, in ancient times, to the lyre of Orpheus. Franklin ! The mechanic of his own fortune ; teaching, in early youth, under the shackles of indigence, the way to wealth, and, in the shade of obscurity, the path to greatness; in the maturity of manhood, disarming the thunder of its terrors, the lightning of its fatal blast, and wresting from the tyrant's hand the still more effective sceptre of oppression ; while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic Ocean, braving, in the dead of winter, the battle and the breeze, bearing in his hand the Charter of Independence, which he had contributed to form, and tendering, from the self-created nation, to the mightiest monarchs of Europe, the olive-branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace, on the pathless ocean, from the inexorable cruelty and merciless rapacity of war. And, finally, in the last stage of life, with fourscore winters 164 PATRIOTIC READER. upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, return- ing to his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted commonwealth, after contributing by his counsels, under the presidency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of devout prayer, invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the authority of which we are here assembled, as the representatives of the North American people, to receive, in their name and for them, these venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founders of our great con- federated republic, — these sacred symbols of our golden age ! May they be deposited among the archives of our government ! and every American, who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Euler of the uni- verse, by whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved, through all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world, and of prayer for the continuance of these bless- ings, by the dispensations of Providence, to our beloved country, from age to age, till time shall be no more I John Qdincy Adams. CENTENNIAL BIRTHDAY OP WASHINGTON. A century from the birth of Washington has changed the world. The country of Washington has been the theatre on which a great part of that change has been wrought ; and Wash- ington himself a principal agent by which it has been accom- plished. It was his extraordinary fortune, that having been intrusted, in revolutionary times, with the supreme military command, and having fulfilled that trust with equal renown for wisdom and valor, he should be placed at the head of the first government in which an attempt was to be made on a largo scale to rear the fabric of social order on the basis of a written constitution and of a pure representative principle. The principles of his administration are not left doubtful. They are to be found in the Constitution itself, in the great measures recommended and approved by him, in his speeches to Congress, and in that most interesting paper, his Farewell Address to the People of the United States. To commanding MEMORIALS OP WASHINGTON. 165 talents, and to success, he added a disregard of self, a spotless- ness of motive, a steady submission to every public and private duty, which threw in the shade all the whole crowed of the vulgar great. The object of his regard was the whole country. No part of it was large enough to fill his enlarged patriotism. He had no favorites ; he rejected all partisanship ; and acting honestly for the universal good, he received what he had so richly deserved, the universal love. The maxims upon which Washington conducted our foreign relations were few and simple. The first was an entire and in- disputable impartiality, and in the next place he maintained true dignity and unsullied honor in all communications with foreign states ; nor was there a prince or potentate of his day, whose personal character carried with it, into the intercourse of other states, a greater degree of respect and veneration. His single- ness of purpose, his disinterested patriotism, were evinced by the manner in which he filled places of high trust. He sought for men fit for office ; not for offices which might suit men. The whole country was the field of his selection. He was, indeed, most successful, and he deserved success, for the purity of his motives, the liberality of his sentiments, and his enlarged and manly policy. There was in the breast of Washington one sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly uppermost, that no proper occasion escaped without its utterance. He regarded the union of these States less as one of blessing, than as the great treasure-house which contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was the great magazine of all our means of prosperity, and here are deposited all our solid hopes for future greatness. A hundred years hence, other disciples of Washington will celebrate his birth. When they shall meet to do themselves and him that honor, so surely as they shall see the blue summits of his native mountains rise in the horizon, so surely as they shall behold the river on whose banks he lived, and on whose banks he rests, still flowing on towards the sea, so surely may they see, as we now see, the flag of the Union floating on the top of the Capitol ; and then, as now, may the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country I Daniel Webster. 166 PATRIOTIC READER. MEMORABILIA OP WASHINGTON. Born February 22 (February 11, O.S.), 1732. Surveyor of lands at sixteen years of age, 1748. Military inspector and major at nineteen years of age, 1751. Adjutant-general of Virginia, 1752. Commissioner to the French, 1753. Colonel, and commanding the Virginia militia, 1754. Aide-de-camp to Braddock in his campaign, 1755. Again commands the Virginia troops, 1755. Resigns his commission, 1758. Married, January 6, 1759. Elected member of Virginia House of Burgesses, 1759. Commissioner to settle military accounts, 1765. In First Continental Congress, 1774. In Second Continental Congress, 1775. Elected commander-in-chief, June 15, 1775. In command at Cambridge, July 2, 1775. Expels the British from Boston, March 17, 1776. Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776. Masterly retreat to New York, August 29, 1776. Gallant, at Kipp's Bay, September 15, 1776. Battle of Harlem Heights, October 27, 1776. Battle near White Plains, October 29, 1776. Enters New Jersey, November 15, 1776. Occupies right bank of the Delaware, December 5, 1776. Clothed with " full power," December 12, 1776. Plans an offensive campaign, December 14, 1776. Battle at Trenton, December 26, 1776. Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777. British driven from New Jersey during July, 1777. Marches for Philadelphia, July 13, 1777. Battle of Brandy wine, September 11, 1777. Offers battle at West Chester, September 15, 1777. Battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777. Winters at Valley Forge, 1778. Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. British again retire from New Jersey, 1778. MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON. 167 Again at White Plains, 1778 * At Middlebrook, New Jersey, and New Windsor, 1779. Winters at Morristown, New Jersey, 1780. Confers with Eochambeau as to plans, 1781. Threatens New York in June and July, 1781. Joins Lafayette before Yorktown, 1781. Surrender of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781. Farewell to the army, November 2, 1783. Occupies New York, November 25, 1783. Parts with his officers, December 4, 1783. Eesigns his commission, December 23, 1783. Presides at Constitutional Convention, 1787. Elected President of the United States, March 4, 1789. Inaugurated at New York, April 30, 1789. Ee-elected for four years, March 4, 1793. Farewell to the people, September 17, 1796. Eetires to private life, March 4, 1797. Appointed commander-in-chief, July 3, 1798. Died at Mount Yernon, December 14, 1799. * On the return of Washington to White Plains, after an absence of two years, he took occasion to contrast the two periods thus, writing, " The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligation." 168 PATRIOTIC READER. THE MOUNT VERNON TRIBUTE. THE DEFENDER OP HIS COUNTRY, THE FOUNDER OF LIBERTY, THE FRIEND OF MAN. HISTORY AND TRADITION ARE EXPLORED IN VAIN FOR A PARALLEL TO HIS CHARACTER. IN THE ANNALS OF MODERN GREATNESS, HE STANDS ALONE, AND THE NOBLEST NAMES OF ANTIQUITY LOSE THEIR LUSTRE IN HIS PRESENCE. BORN THE BENEFACTOR OF MANKIND, HE UNITED ALL THE QUALITIES NECESSARY TO AN ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER. NATURE MADE HIM GREAT; HE MADE HIMSELF VIRTUOUS. CALLED BY HIS COUNTRY TO THE DEFENCE OF HER LIBERTIES, HE TRIUMPHANTLY VINDICATED THE RIGHTS OF HUMANITY, AND ON THE PILLARS OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF A GREAT REPUBLIC. TWICE INVESTED WITH THE SUPREME MAGISTRACY, BY THE UNANIMOUS VOICE OF A FREE PEOPLE, HE SURPASSED IN THE CABINET THE GLORIES OF THE FIELD. AND VOLUNTARILY RESIGNING THE SCEPTRE AND THE SWORD, RETIRED TO THE SHADES OF PRIVATE LIFE. A SPECTACLE SO NEW AND SO SUBLIME WAS CONTEMPLATED WITH THE PROFOUNDEST ADMIRATION; AND THE NAME OF WASHINGTON, ADDING NEW LUSTRE TO HUMANITY, RESOUNDED TO THE REMOTEST REGIONS OF THE EARTH. MAGNANIMOUS IN YOUTH, GLORIOUS THROUGH LIFE, GREAT IN DEATH. HIS HIGHEST AMBITION THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND, HIS NOBLEST VICTORY THE CONQUEST OF HIMSELF, BEQUEATHING TO POSTERITY THE INHERITANCE OF HIS FAME, AND BUILDING HIS MONUMENT IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN, HE LIVED THE ORNAMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, AND DIED REGRETTED BY A MOURNING WORLD. The author of this inscription is not known. It has been transcribed from a manuscript copy written on the back of a picture-frame, in which is set a miniature likeness of Washington, and which hangs in one of the rooms of the mansion at Mount Vernon, where it was left some time after Washing- ton's death. PART VI. MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. INTRODUCTION. On the 1st of January, 1801, an appropriation was made of two hundred thousand dollars for the erection of a "Washington Monument. An equestrian statue to his memory had been ordered on the 9th of August, 1783, and Major L'Bnfant, a gallant French officer who had served under Washington, se- lected for a site the very place now occupied by the completed obelisk. Both projects were neglected until James Buchanan, then " a young man, something of a sophomore, with all the ardor of youth," as he described himself, appealed to Congress to redeem its pledge. In 1833, Chief-Justice John Marshall became president of "The Washington Monument Society," and President John Madison succeeded him. On the 3d of January, 1818, Congress secured the present grounds, of more than thirty acres; Mr. Eobert Mills completed an accepted design; Mr. Thomas Syraonton, of Baltimore, donated a massive corner-stone block, of more than twelve tons' weight, and on the 4th of July, following, the corner-stone was placed in position, with imposing ceremonies suited to the occasion. It was not until 1876 that Congress deliberately entered upon the completion of the monu- ment, under the immediate direction of Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey, of the United States Engineer Corps. Previously, the Bunker Hill and Groton Monuments had been the highest of American memorial structures. The Perry Monument was dedicated at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 10th of September, 1860 ; the State authorities of Ehode Island, the Providence Light Infantry and Marine Artillery (both historical organizations) acting as escort to survivors of 169 170 PATRIOTIC READER. the Perry family from New York, Ehode Island, and Massachu- setts, who, with the surviving sailors of Perry's fleet, attended the dedication ceremonies. Governor William Dennison and staff, of Ohio, Ex-Governor Salmon Portland Chase, the militia of the State, civic societies in great numbers, and public men from many States, participated. A sham battle on the lake, within near view from the bluff's, between vessels as nearly as possible similar to those that took part in the battle of Lake Erie, made the occasion memorable. The corner-stone of the Saratoga Monument was laid October 17, 1877 ; the Ancient Company of Governor's Foot Guards, of Hartford, Connecticut, and the Park Guards, of Bennington, Vermont, uniting with the New York National Guard, Knights Templar, and other civic orders in the ceremonies at Schuyler- ville. Governor Robinson was absent on account of illness. William L. Stone, Secretary of the Monument Association, de- livered an historical address. Generals James Grant Wilson and J. Watts De Peyster, with others, as well as the orators of the day, took part. The corner-stone of the Monmouth Monument was laid June 28, 1878, at Freehold, New Jersey, Governor George B. Mc- Clellan and staff, Ex-Governors Parker, Bedell, and Newell, the entire militia of the State, the Masonic Order, officially, and all the leading civic societies of New Jersey, being in at- tendance. The corner-stone ceremonies at Yorktown, Virginia, October 18, 1881, were officially endorsed by the United States, after an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for the monu- ment and twenty thousand dollars for the contingent expenses of entertaining the guests of the nation. The President of the French republic; its army and navy; the families of Lafayette, Rochambeau, and of others who served with Washington ; each of the States and Territories; the American army and navy; and the militia and benevolent societies of many Stales, were represented in the great military and civil pageant of the day. The initiative of the celebration was taken by Governor Frank W. M. Hollida}', of Virginia, who called a meeting of the governors of the " Original Thirteen States," for October 18, 1879, at Car- penters' Hall, Philadelphia, where arrangements were consum- MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 171 mated for the event ; John Goode, of Virginia, President of the Yorktown Monument Association, lending his aid in the full development of the design. All the States invited were repre- sented ; and the Legislatures of other States made appropria- tions to secure proper representation. Vermont, the first State admitted to the Union under the Constitution, was also the first, by her Legislature, to provide for the presence of her governor and a fitting escort. The corner-stone of the Bennington Monument was laid August 17, 1887, at Bennington, Vermont; Governor Ebenezer J. Orms- bee and staff, Governor Charles H. Sawyer and Ex-Governor B. F. Prescott, of New Hampshire, Governor Oliver Ames, of Massachusetts, and large numbers from adjoining States, impart- ing spirit to the occasion, which called together delegations from every town in the Commonwealth, in addition to its militia and civic societies. The Fort Moultrie Centennial, June 28, 1876, was the occasion of a very earnest appeal to all the States to share the hospitality of Charleston and renew a common devotion to the republic. The Jasper Monument was dedicated at Savannah, Georgia, February 22, 1888, Governor John Brown Gordon and staff, Colonel J. H. Estill, Chairman of the Monument Association, Mayor Lester, and numerous military, civic, and benevolent associations, participating, as well as Federal and State authori- ties generally. The concurrent visit of the President of the United States, and a memorable Industrial Exposition, added dignity to patriotic observances which occupied three days. The Putnam Monument, erected by the State of Connecticut, was dedicated June 14, 1888, at Brooklyn, Windham County, where General Israel Putnam was buried, June 14, 1790. Gov- ernor Phineas C. Lounsbury, the Third Regiment of the Con- necticut National Guard, the Putnam Phalanx, the First Ancient Company of Governor's Foot Guards, and military delegations from Boston, Providence, and New York, were present. The tablets on the monument bear the original inscriptions of Put- nam's tombstone, which were written by President Timothy D wight, of Yale College, grandfather of the present President Timothy Dwight, who offered prayer on the occasion. 172 PATRIOTIC READER. THE PUTNAM TABLETS. Sacred be this Monument to the memory of Israel Putnam, Esq., Senior Major-General in the Armies of the United States of America, who was born at Salem, in the Province of Massachusetts, on the 7th day of January, A.D.1718, and died on the 29th of May, A.D. 1790. Passenger, if thou art a soldier, drop a tear over the dust of a hero, who, ever attentive to the lives and happiness of his men, dared to lead where any dared to follow. If a patriot, remember the distinguished and gallant services rendered this country by the patriot who sleeps beneath this marble ; if thou art honest, generous and worthy, render cheerful tribute of respect to a man whose gen- erosity was singular, whose honesty was proverbial, who raised himself to univers- al esteem, and oflSces of eminent dis- tinction, by personal worth and a useful life. FORT MOULTRIE IN 1776 AND 1886. Just where the ocean laves Columbia's feet, Within a broad expanse of waters blue, Two leagues from shore, reposed a city near the sea,- Queen of the sunny South, pet of Britannia's crown, And by its royal patron christened Charles Town, — Heir of his wealth, and haven of his fruitful ships. Around the neck of this fair city lay MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 173 Islands of flowers, Edens of beauty and of wealth, Blighter than pearls on fair Cleopatra's breast ; Hither the royal Briton came, and Teuton bold, Sons of old Scotia and of Erin's emerald isle, The lily and the rose of France, exiled from Gallia's soil, — All brave men, good and true, who settled there ; All Carolina's sons, chivalric, and to honor pledged Their altars and their homes to moat with blood Should e'er a tyrant's foot their soil invade. But on the Northern shore that foot first pressed, And on the neck of Boston placed its iron heel. " Help, brethren, help !" the guns of Bunker Hill resound, And down the whole Atlantic coast the echo rolled. Each State sprang up, and Carolina cried, " No cent for tribute, but millions for defence !" Liberty was dearer than the patronage of kings, — She dashed the crown in fragments at her feet, — Her heart took fire as came that ringing cry for help, And all her islands bristled quickly for defence. Where should the British king strike next but at the head Of his fair child, the Queen of sunny South, — the Queen, Eebel to the kingdom of her royal sire ? His squadron ploughed the sea, three hundred guns ; A fleet so heavy-armed had never yet before Atlantic's surface crossed to scourge Columbia's shore ; But on yon island front, just at the sea-gate pass, All in a night, upsprang a wall of stout palmetto logs, — Weak to the eye, " a very slaughter-pen," said Lee, " Of pasteboard made," compared with ribs of English oak ; But Moultrie with his Spartan band was there ! At morn the sea was white with glistening sails, And, frowning as a bursting tempest-cloud, The ships' black hulls bore swiftly down, Launching their dread armament of mighty guns 'Grainst that proud fort that dared defy the king. Back from its waiting walls, like swords of gleaming gold, Bright flames leaped forth from fifty guns, Bridging the sea with a span of living fire, Heaping the oaken decks with Britain's slain ! 174 PATRIOTIC READER. All day the battle raged ; but with the setting sun Moultrie his stout defences held, — the victory won ! Once, in the hottest of the fight, the flag went down, Shot from the rampart to the reddened strand below, But Jasper, leaping through the eddying flame and fire, On gunner's staff upreared its folds again ! A century has passed since set that battle sun ; Again from Moultrie's ramparts sounds the patriot's call, " Ye sons of Northern climes, whose cause the South espoused, Come, kneel with us, and by this early altar of the free Reconsecrate ourselves to truth and liberty ! Here come, as willing pilgrims to a Mecca come, Hence go, to spread the reign of love and charity !" Then Charleston will to Boston shout, And cities clap their hands along the shore ; The Western mountains to the Eastern nod ; The peaceful valleys sing a hymn of joy ; Old ocean ripple, all along the coast, From North to South, the common anthem of the free. And then this mighty commonwealth of States, The golden valleys of the West, and fertile slopes, Our splendid cities, villages, and quiet homes, In one grand brotherhood unite, — " No North ! no South ! no East ! no West !" Great Sovereign of unnumbered worlds, Father of nations, Lord of earth ! On this Centennial Day we Thee invoke ! Dost Thou not purify the gold by flames ? Is not grim War a messenger of Thine for good ? Are not the elements but servants at Thy feet ? Come, bid the waiting fields return Thy loving glance; Stir all the energies of wealth to bless our land ; Make liberty our right, our rulers pure, our laws divine ; Unite, cement, and bind in one the nation's plans ; Oh, keep our people ever free, and pure, and great, Until the lamp of day be quenched by Time's concluding night. John Thomas Wightman. MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 175 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT BEGUN. ITS PURPOSE. (From Address delivered June 17, 1825.) We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions is most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of mankind. We know that if we could cause this structure to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it pierced them, its broad surfaces could still contain but part of that which, in an age of knowl- edge, hath already been spread over the earth, and which history charges itself with making known to all future times. We know that no inscription on entablatures less broad than the earth itself can carry information of the events we commemo- rate where it has not already gone; and that no structure, which shall not outlive the duration of letters and knowledge among men, can prolong the memorial. But our object is, by the edifice, to show our deep sense of the value and importance of the achievements of our ancestors ; and, by presenting this work of gratitude to the eye, to keep alive similar sentiments, and to foster a constant regard for the prin- ciples of the Revolution. Human beings are composed not of reason only, but of imagination also, and sentiment ; and that is neither wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated to the pur- pose of giving right direction to sentiments and opening proper springs of feeling in the heart. Let it not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate national hostility, or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. We consecrate our work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest upon it forever. We rear a memorial of our conviction of that un- measured benefit which has been conferred on our own land, and of the happy influences which have been produced by the same events on the general interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished where the first great battle of the Revolution was fought, We wish that this structure may pro- claim the magnitude and importance of that event to every class 176 PATRIOTIC READER. and every age. We wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and that wearied and withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish that labor may look up here and be proud in the midst of its toil. We wish that in those days of disaster, which, as they come on all nations, must be expected to come on us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the foundations of our national power still stand strong. We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may con- tribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of depend- ence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object on the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his return to it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and glory of his country. Let it rise till it meet the sun in his coming ; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit. Daniel Webster. THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT COMPLETED. (From Address delivered June 17, 1843.) The Bunker Hill Monument is finished. Here it stands. Fortunate in the natural eminence on which it is placed, higher, infinitely higher, in its objects and purpose, it rises over the land and over the sea ; and visible, at their homes, to three hun- dred thousand citizens of Massachusetts, it stands a memorial of the last, and a monitor to the present and all succeeding genera- tions. I have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose. If it had been without any other design than the creation of a work of art, the granite of which it is composed would have slept in its native bed. It has a purpose ; and that purpose gives it character. That purpose enrobes it with dignity and moral grandeur. That well-known purpose it is which causes us to look up to it MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 177 with a feeling of awe. It is itself the orator of this occasion. It is not from my lips, it is not from any human lips, that that strain of eloquence is this day to flow most competent to move and excite the vast multitudes around. The potent speaker stands motionless before them. It is a plain shaft. It bears no inscriptions, fronting to the rising sun, from which the future antiquarian shall wipe the dust. Nor does the rising sun cause tones of music to issue from its summit. But at the rising of the sun, and at the setting of the sun, in the blaze of noonday, and beneath the milder effulgence of lunar light, it looks, it speaks, it acts, to the full comprehension of every American mind, and the awakening of glowing enthusiasm in every Amer- ican heart. Its silent but awful utterance ; its deep pathos, as it brings to our contemplation the 17th of June, 1775, and the consequences which have resulted to us, to our country, and to the world, from the events of that day, and which, we know must continue to rain influence on the destinies of mankind to the end of time ; the elevation with which it raises us high above the ordinary feelings of life, surpass all that the study of the closet, or even the inspiration of genius, can produce. To-day it speaks to us. Its future auditories will be through successive generations of men, as they rise up before it and gather round it. Its speech will be of patriotism and courage ; of civil and religious liberty; of free government; of the moral improve- ment and elevation of mankind ; and of the immortal memory of those who, with heroic devotion, have sacrificed their lives for their country. Daniel "Webster. THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT BEGUN. (Prom Oration at the laying of the corner-stone, July 4, 1848.) Other monuments to this illustrious person have long ago been erected. By not a few of the great States of our Union, by not a few of the great cities of our States, the chiselled statue or the lofty column has been set up in his honor. The highest art of the Old World— of France, of Italy, and of England — has 12 178 PATRIOTIC RP]ADER. been put in requisition for the purpose. Houdon for "Virginia, Canova for North Carolina, Sir Francis Chant rey for Massa- chusetts, have severally signalized their genius by portraying the form and features of the Father of his Country. The mas- sive and majestic figure which presides over the precincts of the Capitol, and which seems almost in the act of challenging a new vow of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union, is a visible testimony, and one not less grateful to an American eye as being the masterly production of a native artist, that the government of the country has not been unmindful of what it owes to Washington. One tribute to his memory is left to be rendered. One monu- ment remains to be reared. A monument which shall bespeak the gratitude, not of States, or of cities, or of governments ; not of separate communities or of official bodies, but of the people, the whole people of the nation ; a national monument, erected by the citizens of the United States of America. The people themselves are here, in masses such as never before were seen within the shadows of the Capitol, — a crowd of witnesses, — to bring their heart-felt testimony to the occasion. From all the States of the Union, from all political parties, from all profes- sions and occupations, men of all sorts and conditions bow, as lending the chief ornament and grace to every scene of life. The people have come up this day to the temple gates of a common and glorious republic to fraternize with each other in a fresh act of homage to the memory of the man who was, and is, and will forever be, " first in the hearts of his countrymen." Welcome, welcome, Americans all! The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity (I borrow the words of Washington himself), must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local dis- criminations. Yes, to-day, fellow-citizens, at the very moment when the ex- tension of our boundaries and the multiplication of our territo- ries are producing, directly and indirectly, among the different members of our political system so many marked and mourned centrifugal tendencies, let us seize this occasion to renew to each other our vows of allegiance and devotion to the American Union; and let us recognize, in our common title to the name MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 179 and the fame of Washington, and in our common veneration for his example and his advice, the all-sufficient centripetal power, which shall hold the thick-clustering stars of our confederacy in one glorious constellation forever ! Let the column which we are about to construct be at once a pledge and an emblem of perpetual union! Let the foundations be laid, let the super- structure be built up and cemented, let each stone be raised and riveted, in a spirit of national brotherhood! And may the earliest ray of the rising sun — till that sun shall set to rise no more — draw forth from it daily, as from the fabled statue of antiquity, a strain of national harmony, which shall strike a responsive chord in every heart throughout the republic ! Proceed, then, fellow-citizens, with the work for which you have assembled ! Lay the corner-stone of a monument which shall adequately bespeak the gratitude of the whole American people to the illustrious Father of his Country! Build it to the skies : you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles ! Pound it upon the massive and eternal rock : you cannot make it more enduring than his fame ! Constimct it of the peer- less Parian marble : you cannot make it purer than his life ! Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of ancient and of modern art : you cannot make it more proportionate than his character! Nor does he need even this. The republic may perish ; the wide arch of our ranged union may fall ; star "by star its glories may expire; stone after stone its columns and its capitol may moulder and crumble; all other names which adorn its annals may be forgotten ; but as long as human hearts shall any- where pant, or human tongues shall anywhere plead, for a sure, rational, constitutional liberty, those hearts shall enshrine the memory, and those tongues shall prolong the fame, of George Washington ! Robert C. Winthrop. 180 PATRIOTIC READER. THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT COMPLETED. (From Address delivered February 21, 1885.) Finis coronat opus. The completion crowns the work ! To- day that work speaks for itself, and needs no other orator. Assembled in these Legislative Halls of the Nation, to signalize the long-delayed accomplishment of so vast a work, it is upon him in whose honor it has been upreared. and upon the incom- parable and inestimable services that he has rendered to his country and to the world, that our thoughts should be con- centred at this hour. Eighty-five years ago to-morrow, his sixty-eighth birthday, was solemnly assigned by Congress for a general manifestation of that overwhelming national sorrow, and for the commemora- tion, by eulogies, addresses, sermons, and religious rites, of the great life which had thus been closed. But long before that anniversary arrived, and one day only after the sad tidings had reached the seat of government in Philadelphia, President John Adams, in reply to a message of the House of Eepresenta- tives, had anticipated all panegyrics, by a declaration, as true to-day as it was then, that he was " the most illustrious and beloved personage which this country ever produced ;" while Henry Lee, of Virginia, through the lips of John Marshall, had summed up and condensed all that was felt, and all that could be, or ever can be, said, in those imperishable words, which go ringing down the centuries, in every clime, in every tongue, till time shall be no more, — " First in War, First in Peace, and First in the hearts of his Countrymen." The character of Washington ! Who can delineate it worthily ? Who can describe that priceless gift of America to the world, in terms Avhich may do it any sort of justice, or afford any degree of satisfaction to his hearers, or to himself? That character stands apart and alone. But of mere mortal men, the monument we have dedicated to-day points out the one for all Americans to study, to imitate, and, as far as may be, to emulate. Keep his example and his character ever before you in your hearts ! Live and act as if he were seeing and judging your personal conduct and your public career ! Strive to approximate that MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 181 lofty standard, and measure your integrity and your patriotism by your nearness to it, or your departure from it. Yes, to the young men of America, under God, it remains, as they rise up from generation to generation, to shape the destinies of their country's future ; and woe unto them if, regardless of the great example which is set before them, they prove unfaith- ful to the tremendous responsibilities which rest upon them ! Our matchless obelisk stands proudly before us to-day, and we hail it with the exultations of a united and glorious nation. It may, or may not, be proof against the cavils of critics; but nothing of human construction is proof against the casual- ties of time. The storms of winter must blow and beat upon it ! The action of the elements must soil and discolor it ! The lightnings of heaven may scar and blacken it ! An earthquake may shake its foundations ! Some mighty tornado, or resistless cyclone, may rend its massive blocks asunder and hurl huge fragments to the ground ! But the character which it commem- orates and illustrates is secure ! It will remain unchanged, and unchangeable, in all its consummate purity and splendor, and will more and more command the homage of succeeding ages in all regions of the earth. God be praised, that character is ours forever I Kobert Charles Winthrop. THE PERRY MONUMENT DEDICATED. (From Address delivered September 10, 1860.) Men op Ohio, Fellow-Citizens op the United States, — The defence of our country is not a burden to be shunned, but an inalienable right which we are to assert, and a sacred duty which we are to fulfil. The heroic deeds of those who, in manly battle, have stood up for the moral existence of the nation, and given the greatest proof of their love for it by perilling their lives in its defence, deserve to be commem- orated by works of art, that the evidence of their virtue may 182 PATRIOTIC READER. be ever present to the eye of the people. By our willing sym- pathy with their efforts we make their glory our own ; by con- templating their actions with love we renew in our own breasts the just courage with which they glowed, and gain the ennobling consciousness that we too have the power within us to imitate their example. The inhabitants of this Commonwealth are allied, by their descent of common blood, with nearly all the older United States and all the most highly civilized countries of the world. The homes of their ancestors are to be found in the Old Dominion and all the States to the north of it, in the British Isles and Ireland, in the Iberian peninsula, in France, in Italy, and in all the Continental states, especially of Germany, so that in addi- tion to the mysterious affinity of human nature with truth and freedom, no word can be uttered in any pai*t of the civilized world, but you may claim in it, a family interest of jour own. Citizens of Cleveland, cheered by the patriotic zeal of an artist, a native of the State, have raised the monument now dedicated to the Union, in the name of the people of Ohio. Ohio, a Commonwealth j'ounger in years than he who now addresses you, not long ago having no visible existence but in the emigrant wagons, now numbers almost as large a population as that of all England when it gave birth to Baleigh and Bacon and Shakespeare, and began its work of colonizing America. In the very heart of the temperate zone of this continent, in the land of corn, of wheat and the vine, the eldest daughter of the Ordinance of 1787, already the mother of other Common- wealths that bid fair to vie with her in beauty, rises in her loveliness and glory, crowned with cities, and challenges the admiration of the world. This anniversary of the great action of Oliver Hazard Perry is set apart for inaugurating a monument to his fame. Forty- seven years ago, the young hero, still weak from a wasting fever, led his squadron to battle. Ever in advance, almost alone, for two hours fighting his ship, till it became a wreck, with more than four-fifths of his crew around him wounded or killed, he passed in a boat to the uninjured Niagara, unfurled his Hag, bore down wit bin pistol-shot of his enemy, poured into them broadsides starboard, and broadsides port, and while the sun was still high MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 183 the horizon, left no office to be done but that of mercy to the vanquished. Nor may you omit due honors to the unrecoi'ded dead ; not as mourners who require consolation, but with a clear conception of the glory of their end. To die, if need be, in defence of country is a common obligation ; it is granted to few to exchange life for a victory so full of benefits to their fellow-men. These are the disinterested unnamed martyrs, who, without hope of fame or gain, gave up their lives in testimony to the all-pervading love of country, and left to our statesmen the lesson, to demand of others nothing but what is right, and to submit to no wrong. " We have met the enemy," were the words of Perry, as he reported the battle, " and they are ours." The men who honor the memory of Perry will always know how to defend the domain of their country. So, then, our last words shall be for the Union. The Union will guard the fame of its defenders, will keep alive for mankind the beacon-lights of popular liberty and power; and its mighty heart will throb with delight at every true advance in any part of the world towards republican happiness and freedom. George Bancroft. THE SARATOGA MONUMENT BEGUN. (From Address delivered October 18, 1877.) One hundred years ago, on this spot, American independence was made a great fact in the history of nations. Until the Bur- render of the British army under Burgoyne, the Declaration of Independence was but a declaration. It was a patriotic purpose asserted in bold words by brave men, who pledged for its main- tenance their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. But here it was made a fact, by virtue of armed force. It had been regarded by the world merely as an act of defiance, but it was now seen that it contained the germs of a government which the event we celebrate made one of the powers of the earth. Here rebellion was made revolution. Upon this ground, that which had in the eye of the law been treason, became 184 PATRIOTIC READER. triumphant patriotism. At the break of day, in the judgment of the world, our fathers were rebels. When the echoes of the evening gun died away along this valley, they were patriots who had rescued their country from wrong and outrage. We had passed through the baptism of blood, and gained a name among the nations of the earth. Before the Bevolution the people of the several colonies held but little intercourse. They were estranged from each other by distance, by sectional prejudices, by differences of lineage and religious creeds. But when the men of Virginia went to Massa- chusetts to rescue Boston, when the men of the East and South battled side by side with those from the Middle States, when Greene and Lincoln went to the relief of the Southern colonies, all prejudices not only died away, but more than fraternal love animated every patriotic heart from the bleak forests of New England to the milder airs of Georgia. And now that a hundred years have passed, and our country has become great beyond the wildest dreams of our fathers, will not the story of their suf- ferings revive in the breast of all the love of our country, of our common country, and all who live within its boundaries? It was the most remarkable fact of the Eevolutionary war and of the formation of State and national governments, that although the colonists were of different lineages and languages, living under different climates, with varied pursuits and forms of labor, cut off from intercourse by distance, yet, in spite of all these obstacles to accord, they were from the outset animated by common views, feelings, and purposes. When the indepen- dence was gained, they were able, after a few weeks spent in consultation, to form the constitution under which we have lived for nearly one hundred years. There can be no stronger proof that American institutions were born and shaped by Amer- ican necessities. This fact should give us new faith in the last- ing nature of our government. Monuments make as well as mark the civilization of a people. The surrender of Burgoyue marks the dividing line between two conditions of our country : the one the colonial period of dependence, and the other the day from which it stood full-armed and victorious here, endowed with a boldness to assert its inde- pendence, and endowed with a wisdom to frame its own system MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 185 of government. We are told that during more than twenty- centuries of war and bloodshed, only fifteen battles have been decisive of lasting results. The contest of Saratoga is one of them. Shall not some suitable structure recall this fact to the public mind? Neither France, nor Britain, nor Germany could spare the statues or works of art which keep alive the memory of patriotic services or of personal virtues. Such silent teachers of all that ennobles men, have taught their lessons through the darkest ages, and have done much to save society from sinking into utter decay and degradation. If Greece or Eome had left no memorials of private virtues or public greatness, the prog- ress of civilization would have been slow and feeble. If their crumbling remains should be swept away, the world would mourn the loss, not only to learning and arts, but to virtue and patriot- ism. It concerns the honor and welfare of the American people that this spot should be marked by some structure which should recall its history and animate all, who look upon it, by its grand teachings. No people ever held lasting power or greatness who did not reverence the virtues of their fathers, or who did not show forth this reverence by material and striking testimonials. Let us, then, build here, a lasting monument, which shall tell of our gratitude to those who, through suffering and sacrifice, wrought out the independence of our country. Horatio Seymour. THE SARATOGA LESSON. (Prom Address delivered October 17, 1877.) The drama of the Revolution opened in New England, cul- minated in New York, and closed in Virginia. It was a happy fortune that the three colonies which represented the various territorial sections of the settled continent were each, in turn, the chief seat of war. The common sacrifice, the common struggle, the common triumph, tended to weld them locally, politically, and morally together. Doubtless there were conflicts of provin- cial pride and jealousy and suspicion. In every great crisis of 186 PATRIOTIC READER. the war, however, there was a common impulse and devotion, and the welfare of the continent obliterated provincial lines. It is by the few heaven-piercing peaks, not by the confused mass of upland, that we measure the height of the Andes, of the Alps, of the Himalaya. It is by Joseph Warren not by Benja- min Church, by John Jay not by Sir John Johnson, by George Washington not by Benedict Arnold, that we test the quality of the Revolutionary character. The voice of Patrick Henry from the mountains answered that of James Otis by the sea. Paul Bevere's lantern shone along through the valley of the Hudson, and flashed along the cliff's of the Blue Bidge. The scattering volley of Lexington green swelled to the triumphant thunder of Saratoga, and the reverberation of Burgoyne's fall- ing arms in New York shook those of Cornwallis in Virginia from his hands. Doubts, jealousies, prejudices, were merged in one common devotion. The union of the colonies to secure libertjr, foretold the union of the States to maintain it, and wherever we stand on Revolutionary fields, or inhale the sweet- ness of Revolutionary memories, we tread the ground and breathe the air of invincible national union. So, upon this famous and decisive field, let every unworthy feeling perish ! Here, to the England that we fought, let us now, grown great and strong with a hundred years, hold out the hand of fellowship and peace ! Here, where the English Bur- goyne, in the very moment of his bitter humiliation, generously pledged George Washington, let us, in our high hour of triumph, of power, and of hope, pledge the queen ! Here, in the grave of brave and unknown foemen, may mutual jealousies and doubts and animosities lie buried forever! Henceforth, revering their common glorious traditions, may England and America press forward side by side, in noble and inspiring rivalry to promote the welfare of man ! Fellow-citizens, with the story of Burgoyne's surrender, the Revolutionary glory of the State of New York, still fresh in our memories, I am glad that the hallowed spot on which wc stand compels us to remember not only the imperial State, but the national Commonwealth, whose young hands here together struck the blow, and on whose older head descends the ample benediction of the victory. On yonder height, a hundred years MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 187 ago, Virginia and Pennsylvania lay encamped. Beyond, and further to the north, watched New Hampshire and Vermont. Here, in the wooded uplands at the south, stood New Jersey and New York, while across the river to the east, Connecticut and Massachusetts closed the triumphant line. Here was the symbol of the Eevolution, a common cause, a common strife, a common triumph ; the cause, not of a class, but of human nature ; the triumph, not of a colony, but of united America. And we who stand here proudly remembering, we who have seen Virginia and New York, the North and the South, more bitterly hostile than the armies whose battles shook this ground, we who mutually j>roved in deadlier conflict the constancy and courage of all the States, which, proud to be peers, yet own no master but their united selves, we renew our heart's imperisha- ble devotion to the common American faith, the common Amer- ican pride, the common American glory ! Here Americans stood and triumphed. Here Americans stand and bless their memory. And here, for a thousand years, may grateful generations of Americans come to rehearse the glorious story, and to rejoice in a supreme and benignant American nationality ! George William Curtis. THE MONMOUTH MONUMENT BEGUN. (From Historical Address delivered June 28, 1878.) The battle of Monmouth exhibited a bold offensive return by a retreating army against an equal or superior force in pur- suit. A strong naval detachment had sailed from France to aid America. Its arrival in the Delaware would render the British retention of Philadelphia impossible, as no reinforcements could be supplied from New York, and the British Ministry had al- ready decided to transfer active operations to the Southern colonies. To reach New York, with the least possible loss, was the greatest possible success remaining to General Clinton. The attempt induced the battle of Monmouth. It has been asserted that his evacuation of Philadelphia, on the 18th of June, 1778, 188 PATRIOTIC READER. surprised the American commander-in-chief. On the contrary, the occupation of the American capital by General Howe, in 1777, had been at the cost of Burgoyne's army ; and its reten- tion by Clinton had been deemed so unwise, as a purely military measure, that, as early as May 19, General Washington seriously entertained the purpose of dislodging the British garrison by force. After the arrival of Baron Steuben at the Valley Forge camp, February 27, 1778, the discipline of the American army assumed exactness and rigor. Plans for an offensive campaign were as freely discussed as if the entire theatre of war had become open for choice of movement. This fact alone illustrates the habitual purpose of Washington to follow his own convictions of duty in all great crises, and the wisdom of his calm independence of all councils of war on grave occasions. He readily courted sug- gestions, but never divided command or avoided responsibility. The battle of Monmouth was deliberately forced by Wash- ington against the opinion of a majority of his general officers, Charles Lee included. He clearly understood the impetus which offensive operations on his part would give to the cause of liberty. Trenton and Germantown had previously vindicated his course, at times when the best strategy had been proved to be the boldest execution of movements least anticipated by his enemy. His faith never wavered ! He held his army as in his very brain, and expected it to obey and execute his will as truly as his war- horse minded the rein. The military career of George Wash- ington gained honor and shone with splendor on this same field of Monmouth ! Historians of that day rendered tribute ; and a century of liberty, to a people enfranchised through his valor, has only deepened the purpose to honor his name forever. People of New Jersey, you do well to honor the battle of Monmouth by the story-telling monument! Your soil for five years, five terrible years, was one constant field of plunder and bloodshed. It was the central, the constant battle-ground of the Eevolution. There was no rest for your fathers ; there was no home for your mothers ; there was no sanctuary inviolate ! You occupied the highway between the North and the South ; between New York and the national capital. How marvellous were the patience, the temper, and the faith MONUMENTAL MEMOEIALS HONORED. 189 among your people ! New Jersey women exemplified the per- fection of woman-kind ! The militia of New Jersey could neither be bought nor crushed ! Grateful for your summons to share this daj^'s honors and contribute, so far as I may, to an abiding record of the events you commemorate, I would once again repeat those prophetic words, already realized, with which Washington pronounced the war for American independence ended : "Happy, thrice happy, shall they be pronounced, hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have performed the mean- est office in erecting this stupendous fabric of empire on the broad basis of independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature and establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions." THE GROTON HEIGHTS MONUMENT. (From Historical Sketch, September 6, 1879.) The battle of Groton Heights must be viewed in its relations to other events of the Eevolution. It was not a single and isolated event. It was a scene in the great act which closed at Yorktown in the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. Groton Heights stands connected with Yorktown. Had there been no siege of Yorktown there would have been no battle of Groton Heights, and no burning of New London. During the summer of 1781 the Continental government had been informed that a fleet and a body of troops was about to arrive from France, under Count de Grasse, to co-operate with the American forces against the British. Washington and Eochambeau had held an interview, and resolved to lay siege to New York and wrest it from the British. General Clinton, commander-in-chief of the British forces, began to bend everything to the defence of this strong- hold. While these preparations were going on for the defence of New York, Washington changed his purpose, and determined upon the more feasible plan of laying siege to the army of Corn- wallis in Virginia. So effectually did he conceal his ultimate design that he marched his forces around New York, crossed 190 PATRIOTIC READER. the Hudson, made rapid marches through the State of New Jersey, and was well on his way towards the head of Chesa- peake Bay before General Clinton suspected that his movements had any other end in view than the siege of New York. The British general aimed to draw him back, and for that purpose planned a diversion into Connecticut, the colony that had fur- nished the largest quotas to the Continental army, the com- monwealth of Washington's dear friend and faithful supporter, Jonathan Trumbull. Benedict Arnold, "that infamous traitor," had just returned from an expedition into Virginia, in which he marked his path with conflagration and slaughter. Great preparations were made. At ten o'clock, Thursday morning, September 6, 1781, the British troops landed in two divisions, of about eight hundred men each, on either side of the river; that on the New London side, under the traitor Arnold ; that on the Groton side, under Lieutenant-Colonel Eja'e. Cap- tain Adam Shapley having only twenty-three men at Fort Trumbull, a mere water-battery, open from behind, spiked his guns, and with sixteen men crossed the river to Fort Griswold. There were now one hundred and sixty men in that fort. To the impudent demand of the British officer, Captain Beckwith, Colonel William Ledyard, in command, replied that " he would defend the fort to the last." It was now between eleven and twelve o'clock. Arnold stood on the tomb of the Winthrops, in the old burying-ground, and, with his field-glass, surveyed the scene. What conflict of emotion boiled in the breast of the arch-traitor as he cast his eye around the happy scene of his early life which he was now ravishing with sword and torch, Ave may not know. His official report reads, "After a most obstinate defence of forty minutes the fort was carried by the superior bravery of our battalions." It was the hour of noon. The battle had begun. Colonel Ayre led one regiment and Major Montgomery the other to the assault. With gleaming guns and nodding plumes they extend a long and fiery wave from north to south and fill the field. Wiih shouts and yells they rend the air; over walls and rocks, over fields of ripening corn, through upland pastures, on they come like madmen. Time would fail to tell how Captain Elias llalsey with an eighteen-pounder swept twenty red-coats down, MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 191 how Captain Shapley wounded Colonel Byre, how Gordon Free- man, Ledyard's colored man, ran a boat-pike through brave Major Montgomery, and he fell lifeless back. Stephen Hemp- stead with his pike, bis left hand wounded, cleared a breach. Samuel Edgcwood raised great cannon-balls and smote the as- sailants in the ditcb below. Park Avery, in the hottest of the fight, cheered his son, a lad of seventeen, and the next moment saw him bite the dust. Belton Avery, a gentle, pious boy, fell on the ramparts and went up to heaven. With gun-sticks, pikes, and cannon-balls they fought in hand encounter, one against five. The dead, the dying, and the wounded that lay in the trenches and fields around, the work of the stout-hearted little garrison, made a total of one hundred and ninety-three, — thirty- three more than were in the garrison. Surely, our brave sires were not the only sufferers that 6th of September, 1781 ! Stephen Hempstead says " they had attacked twice with great vigor, and were repulsed with equal firmness," when a shot cut the flag from the halyards. Until this moment our loss had been only six or seven killed and eighteen wounded. The enemy, supposing the flag to have been struck, rushed with re- doubled impetuosity, carried the southwest bastion by storm, crossed the parade, and unbarred the gates. A British officer shouted, "Who commands this fort?" " I did, sir," was Colonel Ledyard's reply, as he tendered his sword, " but you do now." His sword was thrust through his body by the hand that re- ceived it. This was the signal for indiscriminate slaughter. Blood flowed over all the area and hid the greensward. They trod in blood! There was blood in the magazine and in the barracks ; blood was on the platform ; blood was everywhere ! There they lay in heaps, fallen one upon another, scarce twenty, out of one hundred and thirty able-bodied men when the British entered, able to stand upon their feet. There they lay, as brave a band as fought with Leonidas at Therrnopyke. At sunset Arnold set sail for New York. Deplorable and costly as it was to the British, as a strategic movement it was an utter failure. Washington scarcely deigned to notice it. Instead of sending troops into Connecticut, he drew them all into Virginia, and Yorktown decided the campaign. John Joseph Copp. 192 PATRIOTIC READER. THE GROTON HEIGHTS LESSON. (From Address delivered September 6, 1879.) Two facts, illustrated to the eye, must be held as characteristic of the State of Connecticut in its relation to the War of Inde- pendence. The first is, that bloodiest and most atrocious deed of all the war, which is commemorated by the lofty obelisk beside us. The other is, that this should be the only battle- monument within the State, — and the State itself without battle- fields of later date than the war with the Pequot savages, if we except the skirmish at Danbury, in 1777, and the invasion of New Haven, in 1779. These instances are the only ones in the history of two hundred years in which an armed force of an enemy remained over-night upon her soil. In Connecticut there never was a revolutionary war ! She entered the struggle for inde- pendence complete, with her governor, and council, and the whole machinery of the colonial government. In other colonies there was more or less revolution. "We, in Connecticut, fought, not for the achieving of new liberties, but for the defence of the old. . . . As early as 1778, Governor Trumbull wrote to the Tory Tryon, " The barbarous inhumanity which has marked the prosecution of the war on your part, the insolence which displays itself on every petty advantage, and the cruelties exercised on those whom the fortune of war has thrown into your hands, are inseparable bars to the very idea of any peace with Great Britain on any other conditions than the most perfect and absolute independence." At length it seemed that History had completed her dramatic preparations, and that the curtain was ready to rise upon such a scene of slaughter. Arnold, once the most brilliant officer in the Continental service, was a traitor in disgrace, fleeing from the sight of honorable and patriotic men and loathed by those who had bought him and were ready to use him on the base business, unworthy of the name of war, to which they had now resolved to stoop. Only a brief rehearsal of his part, by the burning of Richmond and the devastation of other parts of Vir- ginia, and Arnold was ready, one year from the date of his treason, to disembark, in the bright daylight of the morning of September 6, 1781, with his band of foreign incendiaries and assassins, take his stand on the tomb of the Winthrops, and direct the destruction of the town and the slaughter of his fel- low-citizens and neighbors. . . . MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 193 There is a curious superficial resemblance to be observed be- tween the battle of Groton Heights and the battle of Bunker Hill. In each case there was the storming of a hill-top fort by a vastly superior force of regular troops, against a scanty garrison of untrained militia. In each case the successful storm was ac- companied by burning the neighboring town. In each case the military event is commemorated by a granite obelisk, and the memory of it is cherished proudly as more precious than the memory of many victories. Even as the brave fighting of the farmers of Bunker Hill committed the people to the commence- ment of the war, so the more heroic suffering and dying of the martyrs of Groton Heights made it thenceforth impossible to think of compromises and concessions, which the British gov- ernment had been offering to the American people on condition of their renewed allegiance. After the death of Ledyard and his neighbors there could be no end of the war but in victory. The victory was not far away, indeed, for the glory of York- town was nigh at hand. But there was need, nevertheless, for the horror of Groton Heights. The blood of all these mar- tyrs was not spilled in vain ! . . . fellow-citizens of Connecticut, and especially men of Groton, children of these martyred heroes, be proud of the stock from which you are descended — proud, with that worthy and honest pride which "shall lead you to emulate the virtues of the race from which you are sprung ! You do well to build your school- house in the shadow of this lofty obelisk, and to let this arena of the bloody struggle be trodden, year by year, in the happy sports of boys and girls. But think what a shame it would be before the world if the children of such ancestors should prove recreant to their glorious name ! Think what a legacy of glory and ennobling responsibility has come down to you, to be kept and handed down, unimpaired and enhanced, to your children after you ! " Guard well your trust, — The faith that dared the sea, The truth that made them free, Their cherished purity, Their garnered dust." Leonard Woolsky Bacon. 13 194 PATRIOTIC READER. THE YORKTOWN MONUMENT BEGUN. (Extract from Centennial Address, October 18, 1881.) Yes, it is mine, and somewhat peculiarly mine, perhaps, not- withstanding the presence of the official representatives of my native State, to bear the greetings of Plymouth Kock to James- town ; of Bunker Hill to Yorktown ; of Boston, recovered from the British forces in '76, to Mount Vernon, the home in life and death of her illustrious Deliverer; and there is no office within the gift of Congresses, Presidents, or People, which I could dis- charge more cordially and fervently. . . . Our earliest and our latest acknowledgments are due this day to France for the inestimable services which gave us the crown- ing victory of the 19th of October, 1781. It matters not for us to speculate now whether American independence might not have been ultimately achieved without her aid. We all know that, God willing, such a consummation was certain in the end, as to-morrow's sunrise, and that no earthly potentates or powers, single or conjoined, could have carried us back into a permanent condition of colonial dependence and subjugation. Nor need we be curious to inquire into any special inducements which France may have had to intervene thus nobly in our behalf. . . . Nearly two years before the treaties of Franklin were nego- tiated and signed, the young Lafayette, then but nineteen j^ears of age, a captain of French dragoons, stationed at Metz, at a dinner given by the commandant of the garrison to the Duke of Gloucester, a brother of George III., happened to hear the tidings of our Declaration of Independence, which had reached the duke that very day from London. It formed the subject of animated and excited conversation, in which the enthusiastic young soldier took part, and before he had left the table an in- extinguishable spark had been struck and kindled in his breast, and his whole heart was on fire in the cause of American liberty. Kegardless of the remonstrances of his friends, of the ministry, and of the king himself, in spite of every discouragement and obstacle, he soon tears himself away from a young and lovely wife, leaps on board a vessel which he had provided for himself, MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 195 braves the perils of a voyage across the Atlantic, then swarming with cruisers, reaches Philadelphia by way of Charleston, South Carolina, and so wins at once the regard and confidence of the Continental Congress by his avowed desire to risk his life in our service, at his own expense, without pay or allowance of any sort, that, on the 31st of July, 1777, before he was yet quite twenty years of age, he was commissioned a major-general in the army of the United States. It is hardly too much to say that from that dinner at Metz, and that 31st of July, in Philadelphia, may be dated the train of influences and events which culminated four years afterwards in the surrender of Cornwallis to the allied forces of America and France. Presented to our great Virginian commander-in- chief a few days only after his commission was voted by Con- gress, an intimacy, a friendship, an affection grew up between them almost at sight. Invited to become a member of his mili- tary family, and treated with the tenderness of a son, Lafayette is henceforth to be not only the beloved and trusted associate of Washington, but a living tie between his native and his almost adopted country. Eeturning to France in January, 1779, after eighteen months of brave and valuable service here, during which he had been wounded at Brandywine, had exhibited signal gallantry and skill at Monmouth, and had received the thanks of Congress for important services in Ehode Island, he was now in the way of appealing personally to the French minis- try to send an army and fleet to our assistance. He did appeal ; and the zeal and force of his arguments at length prevailed. The young marquis, to whom alone the decision of the king was received, hastens back with eager joy to announce the glad tidings to Washington, and to arrange with him for the recep- tion and employment of the auxiliary forces. Accordingly, on the 10th of July, 1780, a squadron of the ships of war brings Eochambeau with six thousand French troops into the harbor of Newport, with instructions "to act under Washington, and live with the American officers as their brethren," and the American officers are forthwith desired by Washington, in General Orders, — "to wear white and black cockades as a symbol of affection for their allies." Nearly a full year, however, was to elapse before the rich 196 PATRIOTIC READER. fruits of that alliance were to be developed, — a year of the great- est discouragement and gloom for the American cause. The war on our side seemed languishing. As late as the 9th of April, 1781, Washington wrote to Colonel John Laurens, who had gone on a special mission to Paris, " If France delays a timely and powerful aid in the critical juncture of our affairs, it will avail us nothing should she attempt it hereafter. We are at this hour suspended in the balance. In a word, we are at the end of our tether, and now or never our deliverance must come." God's holy name be praised, deliverance was to come, and did come, now! On the 3d of September, 1781, the united armies reached Philadelphia, where, Congress being in session, the French army " paid it the honors which the king had ordered us to pay," as we are told in the journal of the gallant Count William de Deux Ponts. ... On the 19th of October the arti- cles were signed by which the garrisons of York and Gloucester, together with all the officers and seamen of the British ships in the Chesapeake, " surrender themselves prisoners of war to the combined forces of America and France." Robert Charles Winthrop. THE YORKTOWN LESSON. (Closing passage from Centennial Address, October 18, 1881.) Fellow-Citizens op the United States, — Citizens of the old Thirteen of the Eevolution, and citizens of the new Twenty-five, whose stars are now glittering with no inferior lustre in our glorious galaxy, — yes, and Citizens of the still other States which I dare not attempt to number, but which are destined at no distant period to be evolved from our imperial Texas and Territories, — I hail you all as brothers to- day, and call upon you all, as you advance in successive genera- tions, to stand fast in the faith of the fathers, and to uphold and maintain unimpaired the matchless institutions which are now ours ! " You are the advanced guard of the human race ; you have the future of the world," said Madame de Stael to a distinguished American, recalling with pride what France had done for us at Yorktown. Let us lift ourselves to a full sense MONUMENTAL, MEMORIALS HONORED. 197 of such a responsibility for the progress of freedom, in other lands as well as in our own. Next, certainly, to promoting the greatest good of the greatest number at home, the supreme mission of our country is to hold up before the eyes of all man- kind a practical, well-regulated, successful system of Free, Con- stitutional government, purely administered and loyally sup- ported, giving assurance and furnishing proof that true Liberty is not incompatible with the maintenance of Order, with obedi- ence to Law, and with a lofty standard of political and social Yirtue. . . . We cannot escape from the great responsibility of this great intervention of American Example; and it involves nothing less than the hope or the despair of the Ages ! Let us strive, then, to aid and advance the Liberty of the world, in the only legitimate way in our power, by patriotic fidelity and devotion in upholding, illustrating, and adorning our own free institutions. " Spartam nactus es : Hanc exorna !" There is no limit to our prosperity and welfare if we are true to those institutions. We have noth- ing now to fear except from ourselves. We are One by the configuration of nature and by the strong impress of art, — inex- tricably entwined by the lay of our land, the run of our rivers, the chain of our lakes, and the iron network of our crossing and recrossing and ever-multiplying and still advancing tracks of trade and travel. We are One by the memories of our fathers. We are One by the hopes of our children. We are One by a Constitution and a Union which have not only survived the shock of Foreign and of Civil war, but have stood the abeyance of almost all administration, while the whole people were wait- ing breathless, in alternate hope and fear, for the issues of an execrable crime. With the surrender to each other of all our old sectional animosities and prejudices, let us be One, henceforth and always, in mutual regard, conciliation, and affection ! " Go on, hand in hand, O States, never to be disunited ! Be the praise and the heroic song of all posterity !" On this aus- picious day let me invoke, as I devoutly and fervently do, the choicest and richest blessings of Heaven on those who shall do most, in all time to come, to preserve our beloved country in UNITY, PEACE, and CONCORD. Robert Charles Winthrop. 198 PATRIOTIC READER. THE BENNINGTON MONUMENT BEGUN. (From Address delivered August 16, 1887.) We gather on this anniversary day to lay the corner-stone of a monument which shall fitly commemorate the great event known in our history as the battle of Bennington. The story has been often told by sire to son, and by grandsire to wondering grandchildren gathered at his knee. It was from these homes about us that so many went out to meet and stay the invader. It is in many of these peaceful homes that their kindred and descendants now live. At each recurring anniversary the story has been rehearsed anew, a theme fruitful of impassioned ora- tory, an inspiration to the poet, and embalmed by the historian. The summer of 1777 was a season of gloom and depression in the American colonies. They were scattered, incoherent, with- out funds and appliances to cope with the rich and powerful mother-country. The Tories were exultant. The timid were halting between two. The leaders, even, were despondent. On the 6th of July Burgoyne captured Ticonderoga, and on the next day, at Hubbardton, routed the rear-guard of our re- treating army. At this critical moment the Council of Safety, then the provisional government of Yermont, appealed to Mas- sachusetts and New Hampshire for aid. Eight nobly did they respond, and " Ho. to the borders !" rang through the hills of New Hampshire and echoed along the valleys of Berkshire and Worcester. John Stark with stalwart men from the granite hills came marching across the moun- tains. Colonel Simonds rallied the men from Berkshire, and Warner, Herrick, Williams, and Brush, with their Vermonters, came also. Probably few, if any, of those engaged in the battle began to measure the momentous consequences which hung upon its issue. Our fathers " builded better than they knew." The moral qual- ity of their action lies in their ready, unselfish loyalty to a perilous duty and their prompt response to its call at the risk of life itself. Did time serve, I might dwell upon the personal characteristics of the men who then dwelt in this region, of their manly fortitude MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 199 in time of trial, of the wisdom and moderation which marked their deliberations, of the courage with which they confronted all adversaries, of their respect for rightful authority, and their hatred of its abuse. I might tell how they braved the dangers of the frontier forest and subdued it to the uses of advancing civili- zation, how civil order prevailed while yet there was no organ- ized power, legislative, executive, or judicial, by which those functions could be exercised, and yet, such was the self-governing capacity of those pioneers, for the most part plain farmers, that without the ordinary appliances for the maintenance of private rights, public rights, and public order, they held them secure, gave of their scanty means, without stint, and offered themselves a ready sacrifice in support of the common cause. Of all this, Ticonderoga, Hubbardton, Bennington, and Saratoga will stand as witnesses forever. They were no carpet-knights nor plumed cavaliers playing fantastic tricks of knight-errantry. They were grim fighters, and they fought in their every-day clothes. Every patriot bullet was winged and instinct with the loftiest inspiration of a cour- age born of faith in God and in His eternal principles of justice, and in deathless devotion to country. That word country meant far more to them than it did to the Greeks at Marathon. To them, country stood for the people, secure in all natural rights, and all the social and civil free institutions essential to their preservation. They were living epistles of a new faith. They were yeomen, warriors, statesmen. They were fit founders of a new system of government, so well epitomized by the immortal Lincoln as a " government of the people, for the people, by the people." In this faith they lived, and for its triumphant estab- lishment they fought and conquered on yonder hill-side. The honor of their grand achievement is the glorious inheritance of the three New England States represented here to-day, from whose valleys and hill-sides their patriotic sons so swiftly rallied at the call of country. The fruits of their victory are the com- mon heritage of the whole country for all time to come. Their heroic example is for all time. The heroic life or heroic death in a just cause, though apparently hopeless, will some time bear rich harvest in reconversion into successful heroic action inspired by example. We begin now the erection of a majestic and en- 200 PATEIOTIC READER. during memorial which shall in some degree symbolize our con- ception of an event fraught with great results. Let it rise majestic here, girt by these grand mountains and overlooking the graves of the heroic dead. And so may it stand a mute but eloquent witness and memorial to all coming generations, of the battle of Bennington, and of the valor and virtue of the men who crowned the day, whose anniversary we celebrate, with glorious victory. John W. Stbwart. THE JASPER MONUMENT DEDICATED. (From Address delivered February 22, 1888.) Perhaps no comparatively obscure name has ever gathered about it, after the lapse of a century, so general and tender an interest as that of Sergeant William Jasper. There was nothing in Jasper's birth, education, or circumstances, as far as these are known, calculated to arrest the attention or impress the "imagi- nation. He was born in our sister State of South Carolina, of humble parentage, and died an unpretending soldier in the non- commissioned ranks of a rebel army, and died, too, in the very hour of disastrous defeat. Yet there stands not upon this, or any other continent, one monument more worthily erected than the granite column and bronze statue which we are here to unveil. At Fort Moultrie, on June 28, 1776, he leaped through an embrasure, under furious fire, and recovered, with its shattered staff, the fallen flag of South Carolina. In Georgia, on outpost duty, he released prisoners from the enemy's hands, and dis- tinguished himself by deeds of extraordinary daring. His life was a noble illustration of all the characteristics that adorn the soldier and the patriot. It was an exhibition of all the boasted virtues of the knighthood of olden times. His courage was of the most heroic and elevated type. Patriotism burned with a steadfast aud undying flame in his breast. His modesty was as conspicuous as his splendid and unselfish valor. He little thought, when with his dying breath he said, "Tell Mrs. Elliott that I saved the flag she gave me, though I lost my life," that MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 201 he was placing in the hands of the historic muse, one of the rarest gems of chivalry that ever sparkled upon her bosom. Indeed, his modest worth, his lofty courage, his self-sacrifice, his disinterestedness, and his touching reverence for womanhood, in the hour of danger and of death, constitute the very essence and glory of chivalry. They illustrate the truth, that genuine greatness of soul is independent of rank, of titles, of station. You have raised this monument not only to Jasper, but to that vast army of unpretending heroes who, in all armies, have fought and suffered, and without the hope of distinction have forgotten self, braved dangers, faced death unblanched, torn flags from the enemy's hands, and placed their own on hostile breastworks, or gone down to unlettered graves, in the crash and carnage of war. But, again, this monument will become another bond of sympathy between Ireland and America. Let us regard it, in some sense, as a memorial of the heroic and pathetic struggle waged for self-government by Jasper's father-land, that Niobe of the nations, "songful, soulful; sorrowful Ireland," the echoes of whose woes are in the very heart of Christendom, whose genius and courage have enriched and ennobled every land, and whose irrepressible passion for liberty, growing stronger through centuries of oppression, is the great phenomenon of history. Lastly, I interpret the purpose of your monument to be the commemoration of those noble attributes of character which Jasper so beautifully illustrated in his life and death. " God save liberty and my country I" was his exclamation as he rescued the flag at Fort Moultrie. And as he closed his eyes upon his struggling country, he desired that his father might be assured that his son had died with a steadfast faith in an immortal life beyond the grave. My countrymen, the occasion which convenes us allures us to the contemplation of a future of greater concord and more perfect unity. On the heights of Bunker Hill, the gratitude of the North has raised an imposing memorial to the heroes who fell there, in defence of liberty. Here, after the lapse of a cen- tury, on the lowlands of Georgia, on the birthday of Washing- ton, we dedicate this monument to another martyr who fell in the cause of our country's independence. Erected on the same 202 PATRIOTIC READER. continent, by the shores of the same ocean, to heroes of the same war, whose services and blood were a part of the price paid for our common freedom, these monuments should stand as effectual protests against sectional animosities, forever appealing, in their impressive silence, for a republic of concordant hearts as of equal States. John Brown Gordon. THE JASPER TABLET IN MADISON SQUARE, SAVANNAH. To the Heroic Memory of SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER, "Who, Though Mortally Wounded, Rescued the Colors of his Regiment, In the Assault On the British Lines about the City, October 9th, 1779. A Century Has Not Dimmed the Glory Of the Irish-American Soldier Whose Last Tribute to Civil Liberty Was His Noble Life. 1779-1879. THE PUTNAM MONUMENT DEDICATED. (From Address delivered June 14, 1888.) Ninety-eight years ago the wasted form of an old soldier, scarred by tomahawk and bullet, was laid to rest in yonder graveyard. His epitaph was written by the foremost scholar of our State* And here, to-day, above a handful of ashes, all that remains of that stalwart frame which in life was the inspiration of colonists, the hate of Frenchmen, the fear of Englishmen, and the awe of Indians, late, but not too late, a grateful State has built a seemly and enduring pedestal, has placed upon it his war-horse, and called again to his saddle, with his bronzed features saluting the morning, the Connecticut hero of the Eevolution. . . . Blessed is the State which has a history I Its present is the natural evolution of its past. Thermopylae was a perpetual * The Putnam Tablet, page 172, ante. MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 203 legacy to the sons of Sparta ; the atmosphere of the Academy was an everlasting inheritance to the men of Athens. The children of Israel sing the songs of Miriam and David, study the philosophy of Moses, and Ezra, and Hillel, fight over the battles of Saul and the Maccabees, and rightly say, they are all ours. The wars are over, the wisdom is written, the lyrics are sung, the laws are written on papyrus, are cut in stone, are printed on paper, but the lesson of them all is as fresh as a bubbling spring. . . . A nation's characters may be read in its heroes. If men of blood and ambition are the ideals of a nation, we find a nation of warriors ; if patriots are the heroes, be they on the battle-field or in the council-chamber, we find a nation proud of its nation- ality. It is not military greatness that we honor to-day ; it is loyalty to manhood and to truth and to country. Salem had the honor of his birth, in 1718, and well did he repay the obligations of his Massachusetts nativity, by the defence and deliverance which he brought to her territory. He was of sturdy English blood, and, curiously enough, the family crest was a wolf's head. Like Washington and Hale, in his youth he was a conspicuous leader in athletic sports. When he visited the city of Boston for the first time, and his rural appearance excited uncompli- mentary comment from a city youth of twice his size, who chaffed him in a way to which the country boy was not accus- tomed, the young Israel proceeded to amuse the Boston people by a thorough, if not a scientific, pounding of his antagonist. He was first married at twenty-one years of age, and at once removed to Pomfret. • Here occurred the wolf's-den incident, a stoiy which will be told to reverent and admiring boys as a classic as long as boys admire pluck and bravery, which may it be as long as grass grows. . . . In the French and Indian War, beginning as a captain in 1753, he served until 1762. As an Indian-fighter Putnam had qualifi- cations which have not been excelled in the long story of our conflicts with the red man. His career in these earliest wars was as romantic as the journeys and battles of iEneas, and as real as martyrdom. In the forests and swamps and fields, in rapids and creeks, and on the lakes, by night and by day, in rec- onnoitre, or bush-fight, or battle-line, as scout or as a company 204 PATRIOTIC READER. leader, in charge of a battalion or in single combat, he was tire- less in action, fertile in expedients, absolutely insensible to fear, and almost invariably a victor. . . . For the next twelve or more years he remained at home, was honored by civil office, and enjoyed the hearty esteem of the colo- nists. He had an intuition of the coming independence which few, even of the most radical of the fathers, dared hope for. When British officers reasoned with him on the folly of colonial resistance, and asked him " if he had any doubt that five thou- sand veterans could march through the continent?" " No doubt," said he, " if they behaved civilly and paid well for everything they wanted ; but," he continued, " if in a hostile manner, though the American men were out of the question, the women, with ladles and broomsticks, would knock them all on the head before they could get half through." Putnam expected to fight the mother-country and expected to win! The call came soon. It found him in the field. Leaving his oxen unloosened, and mounting his horse, he rode to Boston, to the fight which he saw had come, and had come to stay until it should be forever settled upon principles of freedom and right. It was but a few weeks from Lexington to Bunker Hill. The story of Putnam's career, from Bunker Hill until his paralysis in the winter of 1779-80, is deeply interesting. He had his share, and no more, of the ill fortunes of the campaigns, and he had his full share of success. . . . Putnam's bravery was the bravery of thoughtfulness ; his courage was of the kind that thinks. He was as sensitive to the sufferings of others as a mother. He -guarded the honor of woman with the chivalry of a knight. He loved war, for the sake of peace and freedom, and the camp, because he saw through and beyond its tents the peace of home. He was a military leader rather than a great general, and his leadership was marked by enthusiasm and faith, by daring, and tenacity, and endurance. And he was, in every fibre of his being, a true mailj — kind, honest, pure, conscientious, devout. He loved good- ness, and good men, and good things ; he hated jealousies, and envies, and bitterness, and injustice. The fibres of his being were neither by nature nor by culture delicate or refined ; but his heart beat and his nerves thrilled with a patriotism as MONUMENTAL MEMORIALS HONORED. 205 pure and true as the on-rushing waters of Niagara. If there was no place in his garden for tropical flowers, there was no room there for poisonous grasses. If he had little conception of the great universe of stars and planets, he knew there was to be a new day, and he stood and waited for the dawn with his sword in hand. "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind ? " But what went ye out for to see ? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft raiment are in kings' houses. " But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet." Henry Cornelius Kobinson. THE SURRENDER OP BURGOYNE. (Extract from Centennial Poem, read October 17, 1877.) Brothers, this spot is holy! Look around! Before us flows our memory's sacred river, Whose banks are Freedom's shrines. This grassy mound, The altar, on whose height the Mighty Giver Gave Independence to our country ; when, Thanks to its brave, enduring, patient men, The invading host was brought to bay, and laid Beneath " Old Glory's" new-born folds, the blade, The brazen thunder-throats, the pomp of war. And England's yoke, broken for evermore. * * * # # * # Yes, on this spot, — thanks to our gracious God, — Where last in conscious arrogance it trod, Defiled, as captives, Burgoyne's conquered horde ; Below, their general yielded up his sword ; There, to our flag bowed England's, battle-torn ; Where now we stand, th' United States was born. James Watts de Peyster. PART VII. THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. INTRODUCTION. If it were not for the mighty armaments which are still main- tained by Continental powers, it would seem that the peoples of all civilized countries are rapidly approaching the period when patriotism and humanity will honor their rightful demand, and bless them with genuine freedom and wholesome peace. But even where the draft of industrial labor from shop and field into idle and costly armies has almost broken up natural homes and repressed individual ambition, the rulers themselves have be- come very careful to assert that this vast diversion and waste of human capacity and treasure have, as inducement, the better safety of those homes and the assured integrity of the State. Dynastic changes no longer overawe the growing sentiment of humanity, and force nations, as once, into foolish and hurtful wars ; but an invisible, supreme law of moral constraint is con- verting selfish ambition, itself, into a means of lightening bur- dens and preparing the way for universal liberty. At a time when the number of the United States was but Twenty-four, and the population but twelve millions, Daniel Webster thus gave expression to his appreciation of THE PRESENT AGE. " We live in a most extraordinary age ! Events, so various and important that they might crowd and distinguish centuries, are in our times compressed within the compass of a single life. When has it happened that history has had so much to record in the same term of years as since the 17th of June, 1775 ? Our own Revolution, which, under other circumstances, might itself have heen expected to occasion a war of half a century, has heen achieved, 206 THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 207 and a general government established, so safe, so free, so practical, that we might well wonder its establishment should have been accomplished so soon, were it not for the greater wonder that it should have been established at all. The great forests have been prostrated beneath the arm of successful industry. The dwellers on the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi have become the fellow-citizens and neighbors of those who cultivate the hills of New Eng- land. We have revenues adequate to all the exigencies of government, and peace with all nations, founded on equal rights and mutual respect. " Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a mighty revolu- tion, which, while it has been felt in the individual condition and happiness of almost every man, has shaken to the centre her political fabric, and dashed against one another thrones which had stood tranquil for ages. On this, our continent, our example has been followed, and colonies have sprung up to be nations. Unaccustomed sounds of liberty and free government have reached us from beyond the track of the sun ; and at this moment the do- minion of European power in this continent, from the place we stand, to the South Pole, is annihilated forever. " In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has been the general progress of knowledge, such the improvements in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and, above all, in liberal ideas and the general spirit of the age, that the whole world seems changed." It is in the swift spread of forces mightier than the sword, and invulnerable to its thrusts, that the youth of America are borne along toward a higher attainment than ever could be reached before to-day ; and the only retarding element, now or ever, is the failure to realize that " Peace on earth and good-will to men" is the crowning wish of the Creator, for all his children, everywhere. Edward Everett, in his " History of Liberty," declares that " The real history of man, rational, immortal man, is the history of struggle to be free ; the theme is one ; tne free of all climes and nations are themselves one people. Let us resolve that our children shall have cause to bless the memory of their fathers as we have cause to bless the memory of ours." 208 PATRIOTIC READER. TRUE GLORY. They err, who count it glorious to subdue By conquest far and wide, to overrun Large countries, and, in field, great battles win, Great cities, by assault. What do these worthies But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave Peaceable nations, neighboring or remote ? Made captive, yet deserving freedom more Than those, their conquerors, who leave behind Nothing but ruin, wheresoe'er they rove, And all the flourishing works of peace destroy ; Then swell with pride, and must be titled gods, Great benefactors of mankind, deliverers, Worshipped with temples, priest, and sacrifice. But if there be in glory aught of good, It may, by means far different, be attained, Without ambition, war, or violence : By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent, By patience, temperance. Who names not now, with honor, patient Job ? Poor Socrates (who next more memorable ?) By what be taught, and suffered, for so doing, For truth's sake suffering death, unjust, lives now, Equal in fame to proudest conquerors. John Milton. GOD IN HISTORY. That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science. On the great moving power, which is from the beginning, hangs the world of the senses, and the world of thought and action. Eternal wisdom marshals the great pro- cession of the nations, working in patient continuity through the ages, never halting and never abrupt, encompassing all its events in its oversight, and ever effecting its will, though mortals THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 209 may slumber in apathy, or oppose with madness. Kings are lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go, republics nourish and wither, dynasties pass away like a tale that is told ; but nothing is by chance, though men in their ignorance of causes may think so. The deeds of time are governed, as well as judged, by the decrees of eternity. The caprice of fleeting ex- istences bends to the immovable Omnipotent, which plants its foot on all the centuries, and has neither change of purpose nor repose. Sometimes, like a messenger through the thick dark- ness of night, it steps along mysterious ways, but when the hour strikes for a people, or for mankind, to pass into a new form of being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity ; an all-subduing influence prepares the minds of men for the coming revolution ; those who plan resistance find themselves in conflict with the will of Providence rather than with human devices ; and all hearts and all understandings, most of all the opinions and influences of the unwilling, are wonderfully at- tracted and compelled to bear forward the change, which be- comes more an obedience to the law of universal nature than submission to the arbitrament of man. George Bancroft. THE PRESENT AN AGE OP REVOLUTIONS. The pi*esent age may be justly described as the age of revo- lutions. The whole civilized world is agitated with political convulsions, and seems to be panting and struggling in agony after some unattained — perhaps unattainable — good. From the commencement of our Revolution up to the present day we have witnessed in Europe and America an uninterrupted series of important changes. The thrones of the Old World have been shaken to their foundations. On our own continent, empires that bore the name of colonies have shaken or are shaking off the shackles of dependence. What is the object of all these desperate struggles ? The object of them is to obtain an extension of individual liberty. Established institutions have lost their influence and authority. 14 210 PATRIOTIC READER. Men have become weary of submitting to names and forms which they once reverenced. It has been ascertained — to use the language of Napoleon — that a throne is only four boards covered with velvet, that a written constitution is but a sheet of parchment, There is, in short, an effort making throughout the world to reduce the action of government within the nar- rowest possible limits, and to give the widest possible extent to individual liberty. Our own country, though happily exempt — and God grant that it may long continue so ! — from the troubles of Europe, is not exempt from the influence of causes that produce them. We, too, are inspired, and agitated, and governed by the all-per- vading, all-inspiring, all-agitating, all-governing spirit of the age. What do I say ? We were the first to feel and act upon its in- fluence. Our Revolution was the first of the long series that has since shaken every corner of Europe and America. Our fathers led the van in the long array of heroes, martyrs, and confessors who had fought and fallen imder the banner of liberty. The institutions the}- bequeathed to us. and under which we are living in peace and happiness, were founded on the principles which lie at the bottom of the present agitation in Europe. We have realized what our contemporaries are laboring to attain. Our tranquillity is the fruit of an entire acquiescence in the spirit of the age. We have reduced the action of gov- ernment within narrower limits, and given a wider scope to individual liberty, than any community that ever flourished before. We live, therefore, in an age, and in a country, where positive laws and institutions have comparatively but little direct force. But human nature remains the same. The passions are as wild, as ardent, as ungovernable, in a republic as in a despotism. What, then, is to arrest their violence ? What principle is to take the place of the restraints thai were formerly imposed by time-honored customs, — venerable names and forms, — military and police establishments, which once maintained the peace of society, bul which are last losing their influence in Europe, and which have long since lost il in this country? 1 answer, in one word. Religion. Where the direct influence of Power is hardly felt, the indirect influence of Religion must be proportionally THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 211 increased, or society will be converted, into a scene of wild con- fusion. The citizen who is released in a great measure from the control of positive authority, must possess within his own mind the strong curb of an enlightened conscience, a well- grounded, deeply felt, rational, and practical piety ; or else he will be given over, without redemption, to the sins that most easily beset him, and, by indulging in them, will contribute, so far as he has it in his power, to disturb the harmony of the whole body politic. Edward Everett. WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE. (An Ode in imitation of Alcjeus.) What constitutes a State ? Not high-raised battlements or labored mounds, Thick wall or moated gate ; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned ; Not bays and broad-armed ports, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; Not starred and spangled courts, Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No : — MEN, high-minded men, With powers as far above dull brutes endued, In forest, brake, or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; Men, who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain : — These constitute a State ; And sovereign law, that State's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate Sits Empress, crowning good, repressing ill ; 212 PATRIOTIC READER. Smit by her sacred frown, The fiend Discretion like a vapor sinks; And eon the all-dazzling Crown Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks. Such was this heaven-loved isle, Than Lesbos fairer, and the Cretan shore. No more shall Freedom smile ? Shall Britons languish and be MEN no more ? Since all must life resign, Those sweet rewards which decorate the brave, 'Tis folly to decline, And steal inglorious to the silent grave. Sir William Joxes. Aberoavxnnt, March 31, 1781. THE MEN TO MAKE A STATE. The men, to make a state, must be intelligent men. The right of suffrage is a fearful thing. It calls for wisdom, and dis- cretion, and intelligence, of no ordinary standard. It takes in, at even exercise, the interests of all the nation. Its results reach forward through time into eternity. Its discharge must be accounted for among the dread responsibilities of the great day of judgment. Who will go to it blindly? Who will go to it passionately? Who will go to it as a sycophant, a tool, a slave ? How many do ! These are not the men to make a state. The men, to make a state, must be honest men. I do not mean men that would never steal. I do not mean men that would scorn to cheat in making change. I mean men with a single face. I mean men with a single eye. I mean men with a Bingle tongue. 1 mean men that consider always what is right, and do it at whatever cost. I mean men whom no king on earth can buy. Men that are in the market for the highest bidder; men that make politics their trade, and look to office for a living; men that will crawl, where they cannot climb, — these are not the men to make a state. The men. to make a state, must be brave men. I mean the THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 213 men that walk with open nice and unprotected breast. I mean the men that do, but do not talk. I mean the men that dare to stand alone. I mean the men that are to-day where they were yesterday, and will be there to-morrow. I mean the men that can stand still and take the storm. I mean the men that are afraid to kill, but not afraid to die. The man thai calls hard names and uses threats; the man that stabs, in secret, with his tongue or with his pen; the man that moves a mob to deeds of violence and self-destruction ; the man that freely offers his last drop of blood, but never sheds the first, — these are not the men to make a state. The men, to make a state, must be religious men. To leave God out of states, is to be atheists. I do not mean that men must cant. I do not mean that men must wear long faces. I do not mean that men must talk of conscience, wbile they take your spoons. I speak of men who have it in their heart as well as on their brow. The men that own no future, the men that trample on the Bible, the men that never pray, are not the men to make a state. The men, to make a state, are made by faith. A man that has no faith is so much flesh. His heart is a muscle ; nothing more. He has no past, for reverence; no future, for reliance. Such men can never make a state. There must be faith to look through clouds and storms up to the sun that shines as cheerily, on high, as on creation's morn. There must be faith that can afford to sink the present in the future ; and let time go, in its strong grasp upon eternity. This is the way that men are made, to make a state. The men, to make a state, are made by self-denial. The willow dallies with the water, draws its waves up in continual pulses of refreshment and delight ; and is a willow, after all. An acorn has been loosened, some autumnal morning, by a squirrel's foot. It finds a nest in some rude cleft of an old granite rock, where there is scarcely earth to cover it. It knows no shelter, and it feels no shade. It asks no favor, and gives none. It grapples with the rock. It crowds up towards the sun. It is an oak. It has been seventy years an oak. It will be an oak for seven times seventy years ; unless you need a man-of-war to thunder at the foe that shows a flag upon the 214 PATRIOTIC READER. shore, where freomen dwell : and then you take no willow in its daintiness and gracefulness ; but that old, hardy, storm-staj'-ed and storm-strengthened oak. So are the men made that will make a state. The men, to make a state, are themselves made by obedi- ence. Obedience is the health of human hearts: obedience to God; obedience to father and to mother, who are, to children, in the place of God ; obedience to teachers and to masters, who are in the place of father and of mother; obedience to spiritual pastors, who are God's ministers; and to the powers that be, which are ordained of God. Obedience is but self-government in actiou ; and he can never govern men who does not govern first himself. Only such men can make a state. George Washington Doane. LIBERTY A SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITY. Liberty is a solemn thing, a welcome, a J03-OUS, a glorious thing, if you please, but it is a solemn thing. A free people must be a thoughtful people. The subjects of a despot may be reckless and gay, if they can. A free people must be serious; for it has to do the greatest thing that ever was done in the world, — to govern itself. That hour in human life is most serious when it passes from parental control into free manhood ; then must the man bind the righteous law upon himself more strongly than father or mother ever bound it upon him. And when a people leaves the leading-strings of prescriptive authority and enters upon the ground of freedom, that ground must be fenced with law ; it must be tilled with wisdom; it must be hallowed with prayer. The tribunal of justice, the free school, the holy church, must be built there, to intrench, to defend, and to keep the sacred heritage. Liberty, I repeat, is a solemn thing. The world, up to this time, has regarded it as a boon, not as a bond. And there is nothing, in the present erisis of human affairs, there is no point in the great human welfare, on which men's ideas so much need THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 215 to be cleared up, — to be advanced, — to be raised to a higher standard, as this grand and terrible responsibility of freedom. In the entire universe there is no trust so awful as moral free- dom, and all good civil freedom depends upon the use of that. But look at it ! Around every human, every rational being, is drawn a circle. The space within is cleared from obstruction, or, at least, from all coercion ; it is sacred to the being himself who stands there; it is secured and consecrated to his own re- sponsibility. May I say it? God himself does not penetrate there with any absolute, any coercive power. lie compels the winds and the waves to obey him. He compels animal instincts to obey him ; but he does not compel men to obey. That sphere he leaves free. He brings influences to bear upon it ; but the last, final, solemn, infinite question between right and wrong he leaves to the man himself. Ah ! instead of madly delighting in his freedom, I could well imagine a man to protest, to complain, to tremble, that such a tremendous prerogative is accorded to him. But it is accorded to him ; and nothing but willing obedience can discharge that solemn trust ; nothing but a heroism greater than that which fights battles and pours out its blood on its country's altar, — the heroism of self-renunciation and self-control. Come that liberty ! I invoke it w T ith all the ardor of the poets and philosophers of freedom. With Spenser and Milton, with Hampden and Sidney, with Eienzi and Dante, with Hamilton and Washington, I invoke it ! Come that liberty ! come none that does not lead to that ! Come the liberty that shall strike off every chain, not only of iron and iron law, but of pain- ful construction, of fear, of enslaving passion, of mad self-wdll ; the liberty of perfect truth and love, of holy faith and glad obedience. Orville Dewey. TRUE LIBERTY HONORS AUTHORITY. I suppose something may be expected from me upon this charge that is befallen me : yet I intend not to intermeddle in the proceedings of the court, or with any of the persons con- 216 PATRIOTIC READER. cerned therein. Only I bless God that I see an issue of this troublesome business. I was publicly charged, and I am publicly and legally acquitted, which is all I did expect or desire. And though this be sufficient for my justification before men, yet not so before God, who hath seen so much amiss in my dispensa- tions as calls me to be humble. Give me leave, upon this special occasion, to speak a little more to this assembly. It may be of some good use, to inform and rectify the judgments of some of the people. The great questions that have troubled the country are about the authority of the magistrates and the liberty of the people. It is yourselves who have called us to tbis office, and being called by you, we have our authority from God, in way of an ordinance, such as hath the image of God eminently stamped upon it, the contempt and violation whereof hath been vindicated with examples of divine vengeance. I entreat you to consider, that when you choose magistrates you take them from among yourselves, men, subject to like passions, as you are. Therefore when you see infirmities in us, you should reflect upon your own, and that would make you bear the more with us, and not be severe censurers of the failings of your magistrate, when you have continual experience of the like infirmities in yourselves, and others. We account him a good servant who breaks not his covenant. The covenant between you and us is the oath you have taken of us, which is to this purpose, that we shall govern you and judge your causes by the rules of God's laws, and our own, according to our best skill. For the other point, concerning liberty, I observe a great mis- take in the country about that. There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil, or fed- eral. The first is common to man, with beasts, and other creat- ures. By this, man, as he stands in relation to man, simply, hath liberty to do what he lists. It is a liberty to evil as well as to good. This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent with authority, and cannot endure the least restraint of the most just authority. The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil, and, in time, to be worse than brute beasts ; — omnes sumus licentia deteriores. This is that great enemy of truth and peace, that wild beast, THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 217 which all the ordinances of God are bent against, to restrain and subdue it. The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal. It may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitu- tions among men themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it ; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, with the hazard not only of your goods but of your lives, if need be. Whatsoever crosseth this is not authority, but a distemper thereof. This liberty is the proper end maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority. It is of the same kind of liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. On the other side, ye know who they are that oomplain of this yoke, and say, " Let us break their bands asunder ; we will not have this man to rule over us." Even so, brethren, it will be between you and your magistrates. If you stand for your natural corrupt liberties, and will do what is good in your own eyes, you will not endure the least weight of authority, but will murmur and oppose, and be always " striving to shake off that yoke;" but if you will be satisfied to enjoy such civil and lawful liberties, such as Christ allows you, then will you quietly and cheerfully submit unto that authority which is set over you, in all the administrations of it, for your good. Wherein if we fail at any time, we hope we shall be willing, by God's assistance, to hearken to good advice from any of you, or in any other way of God ; so shall your liberties be preserved in upholding the honor and power of authority among you. John Winthrop. (1645.) Note.— John Winthrop, deputy-governor of Massachusetts, under John Endicott, in 1641, was re-choseu, when Thomas Dudley became governor, in 1645. A local contest in the town of Hingham as to choice of captain and lieutenant made a wonderful stir in the colony as to the rightful action of the deputy in adjusting the controversy. When com- plaint was made, the deputy, waiving his position, appeared before the General Court, which had approved his action, and in the spirit of the conscientious man he was, took occasion to make what he called " his little speech." The historian Grahame says, " In the wisdom, piety, and dignity that it breathes it resembles the magnanimous vindica- tion of a judge of Israel." Tocqueville quotes from it as "a fine definition of lib- erty." In the " Modern Universal History" it is compared to " the best of antiquity, whether as coming from a philosopher or a magistrate." Mr. Winthrop was chosen governor every year after as long as he lived. 218 PATRIOTIC READER. TRUE LIBERTY MEASURED BY INTELLIGENCE. Society can no more exist without government, in one form or another, than man without society. It is the political, then, which includes the social, that is his natural state. It is the one for which his Creator formed him, into which he is impelled irresistibly, and in which only his race can exist, and all his fac- ulties be fully developed. Such being the case, it follows that any, the worst form of government, is better than anarchy ; and that individual libert}', or freedom, must be subordinate to what- ever power may be necessary to protect society against anarchy within, or destruction from without ; for the safety and well- being of societjr are as paramount to individual liberty as the safety and well-being of the race are to that of individuals ; and, in the same proportion, the power necessary for the safety of society is paramount to individual liberty. On the contrary, government has no right to control individual liberty beyond what is necessary to the safety and well-being of society. Such is the boundary which separates the power of government and the liberty of the citizen, or subject, in the political state, which, as I have shown, is the natural state of man, the only one in which his race can exist, and the one in which he is born, lives, and dies. It follows from all this that the quantum of power on the part of the government, and of liberty on that of individuals, instead of being equal in all cases, must, necessarily, be very unequal among different people, according to their different con- ditions. For, just in proportion as a people are ignorant, stupid, debased, corrupt, exposed to violence within and danger without, the power necessary for government to possess, in order to pre- serve society against anarchy and destruction, becomes greater and greater, and individual liberty less and less, until the lowest condition is reached, when absolute and despotic power becomes necessary on the part of the government and individual liberty extinct. So, on the contrary, just as a people rise in the scale of intelligence, virtue, and patriotism, and the more perfectly they become acquainted with the nature of government, the ends for which it was ordered, and how it ought to be adminis- THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 219 tered, and the less the tendency to violence and disorder within and danger from abroad, the power necessary for government becomes less and less, and individual liberty greater and greater. Instead, then, of all men having the same right to liberty and equality, as is claimed by those who hold that they are all born free and equal, liberty is the noble and highest reward bestowed on mental and moral development, combined with favorable cir- cumstances. Instead, then, of liberty and equality being born with man, instead of all men, and all classes and descriptions, being equally entitled to them, they are high prizes to be won, and are, in their most perfect state, not only the highest re- ward that can be bestowed on our race, but the most difficult to be won, and, when won, the most difficult to be preserved. John Caldwell Calhoun. DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY INCOMPATIBLE. No man can lawfully govern himself according to his own will ; much less can one person be governed by the will of an- other. We are all born in subjection, — all born equally, high and low, governors and governed, in subjection to one great, immutable, pre-existent law, prior to all our devices, and prior to all our contrivances, paramount to all our ideas and to all our sensations, antecedent to our very existence, by which we are knit and connected in the eternal frame of the universe, out of which we cannot stir. This great law does not arise from our conventions or com- pacts ; on the contrary, it gives to our conventions and compacts all the force and sanction they can have ; — it does not arise from our vain institutions. Every good gift is of God : all power is of God ; — and he who has given the power, and from whom alone it originates, will never suffer the exercise of it to be practised upon any less solid foundation than the power itself. If, then, all dominion of man over man is the effect of the divine disposition, it is bound by the eternal laws of him that gave it, with which no human authority can dispense ; neither he that 220 PATRIOTIC READER. exercises it, nor even those who are subject to it ; and, if they were mad enough to make an express compact, that should re- lease their magistrate from his duty, and should declare their lives, liberties, and properties dependent upon, not rules and laws, but his mere capricious will, that covenant Avould be void. Law and arbitrary power are in eternal enmity. Name me a magistrate, and I Avill name property ; name me power, and I will name protection. It is a contradiction in terms, it is blas- phemy in religion, it is wickedness in politics, to say that any man can have arbitrary power. In every patent of office the duty is included. For what else does a magistrate exist ? To suppose, for power, is an absurdity in idea. Judges are guided and governed by the eternal laws of justice, to which we are all subject. We may bite our chains, if we will ; but we shall be made to know ourselves, and be taught that man is born to be governed by law ; and he that will substitute will in the place of it is an enenry to God. Edmund Burke. SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY INCOMPATIBLE. Democracy ! — Socialism ! Why profess to associate what, in the nature of things, can never be united? Can it be, gen- tlemen, that this whole grand movement of the French Revo- lution is destined to terminate in that form of society which the socialists have, with so much fervor, depicted ? — a society marked out with compass and rule, in which the state is to charge itself with everything and the individual is to be noth- ing ; in which society is to absorb all force, all life ; and in which the only end assigned to man is his personal comfort ? What ! was it for such a society of beavers and of bees, a society rather of skilful animals than of men free and civilized, — was it for such that the French Revolution was accomplished ? Not so ! It was for a greater, a more sacred end ; one more worthy of humanity. But socialism professes to be the legitimate development of democracy. I shall not search, as many have done, into the true etymology of this word democracy. I shall not, as gentle- men did yesterday, traverse the garden of Greek roots to find THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 221 the derivation of this word. I shall point you to democracy where I have seen it, living, active, triumphant; in the only country in the world where it truly exists, where it has been able to establish and maintain, even to the present time, some- thing grand and durable to claim our admiration, — in the New World, — in America. There shall you see a people among whom all conditions of men are more on an equality even than among us ; where the social state, the manners, the laws, everything is democratic ; where all emanates from the people and returns to the people ; and where, at the same time, every individual enjoys a greater amount of liberty, a more entire independence, than in any other part of the world at any period of time ; a country, I repeat it, essentially democratic ; the only democracy in the wide world at this day ; and the only republic, truly democratic, which we know of in history. And in this republic you will look in vain for socialism. Not only have the theories of the socialists gained no possession there, of the public mind, but they have played so trifling a part in the discussions and affairs of that great nation, that they have not even reached the dignity of being feared. America is at this day that country, of the whole world, where the sovereignty of democracy is most practical and com- plete ; and it is at the same time that, where the doctrines of the socialists, which you pretend to find so much in accordance with democracy, are the least in vogue; the country, of the whole universe, where the men sustaining those doctrines would have the least chance of making an impression. For myself personally, I do not see, I confess, any great objection to the emigration of these proselyting gentlemen to America; but I warn them that they will not find there any field for their labors. No, gentlemen, democracy and socialism are the antipodes of each other. While democracy extends the sphere of individual independence, socialism contracts it. Democracy develops a man's whole manhood ; socialism makes him an agent, an in- strument, a cipher. Democracy and socialism assimilate on one point only, — the equality which they introduce ; but mark the difference : democracy seeks equality in liberty, while socialism seeks it in servitude and constraint. Alexis Charles de Tooqtjeville. 222 PATRIOTIC READER. CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY HARMONIZE. Here, then, behold the creed of Freedom and its great high- priest. Ought not he who would be a true disciple of the demo- cratic faith to worship also at the altar of Christianity ? Behold its essential fundamental law and spirit, — "None of us liveth to himself." Animated by such a principle, derived from the great fountain of all holy impulse, let us go forth to bear the ark of Freedom through the world. Be it ours not merely to abolish the disheartening barriers of social caste, to dismiss the hireling soldier, to spike the cannon, to strike the come from the slave, but to disenthrall the mind from ignorance and vice, and raise the free soul's longing to the skies ! In this glorious enterprise are harmonized our religious and our civic duties. It allies us to all the glorious family of the truly free in earth and Heaven. Lo! they wait for us, they watch for us, — that mighty cloud, of witnesses! They crowd the circumambient sky ! O ! glorious brotherhood of liberty ! They bend from their starry thrones ! They beckon us ! Ay, and God is with us. He will set his King upon his holy hill of Zion. To this do all the revolutions of the nations tend. "Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown : exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it : . . . until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him." He unrolls the blazing scroll of prophecy, and this is its golden inscription : " For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron : I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. " Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. " Thy people also shall be all righteous : they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation : I the Lord will hasten it in his time." Happy association ! Christ and the Genius of Liberty, pa- THE DEMANDS OF THE PEESENT AGE. 223 triotism and evangelic zeal, the cause of country and the cause of universal man. The cause is heaven-born; the blessed in- fluences of the universe are pledged to its success. KOBERT KaIKKS EaYMOND. CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP. Ephesus was upside down. The manufacturers of silver boxes for holding heathen images had collected their laborers together to discuss the behavior of one Paul, who had been in public places assaulting image-worship, and consequently very much damaging their business. There was a great excitement in the city. People stood in knots along the street, violently gesticu- lating and calling one another hard names. Some of the people favored the policy of the silversmiths ; others the policy of Paul. Finally they called a convention. When they assembled they all wanted the floor, and all wanted to talk at once. Some wanted to denounce, some to resolve. At last the convention rose in a body, all shouting together, till some were red in the face and sore in the throat, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! Great is Diana of the Ephesians !" Well, the whole scene reminds me of the excitement we wit- ness at the autumnal elections. While the goddess Diana has lost her worshippers, our American people want to set up a god in place of it, and call it political party. While there are true men, Christian men, standing in both political parties, who go into the elections resolved to serve their city, their State, their country, in the best possible way, yet in the vast majority it is a question between the peas and the oats. One party cries, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians !" and the other party cries, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians !" when in truth both are crying, if they were but honest enough to admit it, " Great is my pocket-book !" What is the duty of Christian citizenship ? If the Norwegian boasts of his home of rocks, and the Siberian is happy in his land of perpetual snow ; if the Eoman thought the muddy Tiber was the favored river of heaven, and the Chinese pities every- 224 PATRIOTIC READER. body born outof the Flowery Kingdom, shall not we, in this land of glorious liberty, have some thought and love for country? There is a power higher than t he ballot-box, the gubernatorial chair, or the President's house. To preserve the institutions of our country, we must recognize this power in our politics. See how men make every effort to clamber into higher posi- tions, but are cast down. God opposes them. Every man, every nation, that proved false to divine expectation, down it went. God said to the house of Bourbon, " Eemodel France and estab- lish equity." It would not do it. Down it went. God said to the house of Stuart, "Make the people of England happy." It would not do it. Down it went. He said to the house of Haps- burg, "Eeform Austria and set the prisoners free." It would not do it. Down it went. He says to men now, " Eeform abuses, enlighten the people, make peace and justice to reign." They don't do it, and they tumble down. How many wise men will go to the polls high with hope and be sent back to their firesides ! God can spare them. If he could spare Washington, before free government was tested; Howard, while tens of thousands of dungeons remained un visited; Wil- berforce, before the chains had dropped from millions of slaves, then Heaven can spare another man. The man who, for party, forsakes righteousness, goes down, and the armed battalions of God march over him. Wkndell Phillips. THE INHUMANITY OP SLAVERY. On for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumor of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more! My ear is pained, My soul is sick with every day's report Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled. There is no flesh in man's obdurate hearl ; It does not feel for man. The natural bond THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 225 Of brotherhood is severed, as the flax That falls asunder at the touch of fire. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not colored like his own ; and, having power T' enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey. Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other. Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else, Like kindred drops, been mingled into one. Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys ; And, worse than all, and most to be deplored, As human nature's broadest, foulest blot, Chains him and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes, that Mercy, with a bleeding heart, Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast. Then what is man I And what man seeing this, And having human feelings, does not blush And hang his head, to think himself a man ? I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earned ! No : dear as freedom is, and in my heart's Just estimation prized above all price, I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. We have no slaves at home, — then why, abroad ? And they, themselves, once ferried o'er the wave That parts us, are emancipate and loosed. Slaves cannot breathe in England : if their lungs Eeceive her air, that moment they are free ; They touch our country, and their shackles fall. That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud And jealous of the blessing. Spread it, then, And let it circulate through eveiy vein Of all your empire : that where Britain's power Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too. William Cowpeb. 15 226 PATRIOTIC READER. LIBERTY AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery ! still thou art a bitter draught ; and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account. It is thou, Liberty ! thrice sweet and gracious goddess, whom all, in public or in private, worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till nature herself shall change. No tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, or turn thy sceptre into iron. With thee to smile upon him, who eats his crust, the swain is happier than his monarch, from whose court thou art exiled. Gracious heaven ! grant me but health, thou great bestower of it, and give me but this fair goddess for my companion ; and shower down thy mitres, if it seem good unto the divine Providence, upon those heads which are aching for them ! Pursuing this idea, I sat down close by my table, and, leaning my head upon my hand, I began to figure to myself the miseries of confinement. I was in a right frame of it, and so I gave full scope to my imagination. I was going to begin with the millions of my fellow-creatures born to no inheritance but slavery ; but, finding, however affect- ing the picture was, that I could not bring it nearer me, and that the multitude of sad groups in it did but distract me, I took a single captive, and having first shut him up*in a dungeon, I then looked through the twilight of his grated door, to take his picture. I beheld his body half Avasted away with long expectation and confinement, and felt what kind of sickness of the heart it was which arises from hope deferred. Upon looking nearer, I saw him pale and feverish ; in thirty years the western breeze had not once fanned his blood ; — he had seen no sun, no moon, in all that time ; nor had the voice of friend or kinsman breathed through his lattice. His children But here my heart began to bleed, and I was forced to go on with another part of the portrait. He was sitting upon the ground, upon a little straw, in the farthest part of his dungeon, which was alternately his chair and bed ; a little calendar of small sticks was laid at the head, THE DEMANDS OP THE PEESENT AGE. 227 notched all over with the dismal days and nights he had spent there ; — he had one of these little sticks in his hand, and with a rusty nail he was etching another day of misery to add to the heap. As I darkened the little light he had, he lifted up a hope- less eye towards the door, then cast it down, shook his head, and went on with his work of affliction. I heard his chains upon his legs, as he turned his body to lay his little stick upon the bundle. He gave a deep sigh, — I saw the iron enter his soul. I burst into tears, — I could not sustain the picture of confinement which my fancy had drawn. Laurence Sterne. DELAYED LIBERTY IS BUT MOCKERY. Upon the accession of Louis XVI. to the throne of France many prisoners were set free from the thick and cold stone walls of the Bastile. An old man, whose locks, white, thin, and scattered, had almost acquired the rigidity of iron, had groaned in confinement for forty-seven years. One day the narrow door of his tomb turned upon its grating hinges and opened, — not, as usual, by halves, but wide, — and an unknown voice bade him depart, — at liberty. As in a dream, he hesitated. At length he rose, walked forth with trembling steps, amazed at the space he traversed. Stairs, halls, court, seemed immense ! He stopped, like a bewildered traveller, and gazed around. His vision with difficulty took in the light of day. Stupefied with newly-ac- quired power, limbs and tongue alike refused, in spite of effort, to do their office. Once through the formidable gate, as he felt the motion of the carriage which had been ordered to take him to his home, he screamed, unable to bear the new motion, and was obliged to descend. Supported by a benevolent arm, he sought the old street ; but no trace of his old home remained. A public edifice occupied its site. The houses of neighbors, fresh in memory, had all changed. Terrified, he stopped, and fetched a long sigh. What if the city was peopled with living creatures? None were alive to him ! He was unknown to the world, — he knew 228 PATRIOTIC READEK. nobody ; he wept, — he regretted his dungeon. At the word " Bastile," which he repeated, as his asylum, his only home, the crowd gathered in curiosity and pity ; but none remembered the incidents of his sad story. At length a superannuated domestic, who did not remember his old master, remembered how the wife had gone to the grave thirty 3^ears before, how the children had gone abroad to dis- tant climes, and that no relation or friend remained. The miser- able man groaned, and groaned, alone. Bowing down before the minister who gave him his liberty, he could only say, " Bestore me to the prison from whicb you have taken me. I cannot sur- vive the loss of relations, friends, and, in one word, of a whole generation. While secluded I lived with myself, but here I can neither live with myself nor witb a new race, to whom my an- guish and despair appear only as a dream." The minister was melted ! He caused the old domestic to wait upon him ; but the chagrin and mortification of meeting no person who could say to him, "We were formerly known to each other." soon put an end to his existence. Arranged from Louis Sebastien Mercier. POPULAR GOVERNMENT THE MOST JUST. The real glory and prosperity of a nation does not consist in the hereditary rank or titled privileges of a very small class in the community ; in the great wealth of the few and the great poverty of the many ; in the splendid palaces of nobles and the wretched huts of a numerous and half-famished peasantry. No ! such a state of things may give pleasure to proud, ambi- tious, and selfish minds, but there is nothing here on which the eye of a patriot can rest with unmingled satisfaction. In his deliberate judgment, — " 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay ; Princes and lords may flourish or may fade : A breath can make them, as a breath has made; THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 229 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, "When once destroyed can never be supplied." It is an intelligent, virtuous, free, and extensive population, able, by their talents and industry, to obtain a competent support, which constitutes the strength and prosperity of a nation. It is not the least advantage of a popular government that it brings into operation a greater amount of talent than any other. It is acknowledged by every one that the occurrence of great events awakens the dormant energies of the human mind and calls forth the most splendid and powerful abilities. It was the momentous question, whether your country should be free and independent, and the declaration that it was so, which gave to you orators, statesmen, and generals, whose names all future ages will delight to honor. The characters of men are generally moulded by the circum- stances in which they are placed. They seldom put forth their strength without some powerfully exciting motives. But what motives can they have to qualify themselves for stations from which they are forever excluded on account of plebeian extrac- tion ? How can they be expected to prepare themselves for the service of their country, when they know that their services would be rejected, because, unfortunately, they dissent from the established religion and have honesty to avow it ! But in a country like ours, where the most obscure individuals in society may, by their talents, virtues, and public services, rise to the most honorable distinctions and attain to the greatest offices which the people can give, the most effectual inducements are presented. It is indeed true that only a few who run in the race for political honor can obtain the prize. But, although many come short, yet the exertions and the progress which they make are not lost, either on themselves or society. The suitableness of their talents and characters for some other impor- tant station may have been perceived ; at least the cultivation of their minds, and the effort to acquire an honorable reputation, may render them active and useful members of the community. These are some of the benefits peculiar to a popular government ; benefits which we have long enjoyed. Daniel Sharp. 230 PATRIOTIC READER. NATIONAL DISTINCTION DEPENDS UPON VIRTUE. The great distinction of a nation, the only one worth possess- ing, and which brings after it all other blessings, is the preva- lence of pure principle among the citizens. I wish to belong to a state in the character and institutions of which I may find a spring of improvement, which I can speak of with an honest pride ; in whose records I may meet great and honored names, and which is fast making the world its debtor by its discoveries of truth, and by an example of virtuous freedom. Oh, save me from a country which worships wealth and cares not for true glory ; in which intrigue bears rule ; in which patriotism bor- rows its zeal from the prospect of office ; in which hungry syco- phants throng with supplication all the departments of state ; in which public men bear the brand of private vice, and the seat of government is a noisome sink of private licentiousness and public corruption! Tell me not of the honor of belonging to a free country. I ask, Does our liberty bear generous fruits ? Does it exalt us in manly spirit, in public virtue, above countries trodden under- foot by despotism ? Tell me not of the extent of our country. I care not how large it is, if it multiply degenerate men. Speak not of our prosperity. Better be one of a poor people, plain in manners, reverencing God, and respecting ourselves, than belong to a rich country which knows no higher good than riches. Earnestly do I desire for this country that, instead of copying Europe with an undiscerning servility, it may have a character of its own, corresponding to the freedom and equality of our institutions. One Europe is enough. One Paris is enough. How much to be desired is it that, separated, as we are, from the Eastern continent by an ocean, we should be still more widely separated by simplicity of manners, by domestic purity, by inward piety, by reverence for human nature, by moral inde- pendence, by withstanding the subjection to fashion and that debilitating sensuality which characterize the most civilized portions of the Old World ! Of this country I may say, with peculiar emphasis, that its happiness is bound up in its virtue ! William Ellery Channing. THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 231 MORAL POWER THE MIGHTIEST. If there be any one line of policy in which all political parties agree, it is that we should keep aloof from the agitations of other governments ; that we shall not intermingle our national concerns with theirs ; and much more, that our citizens shall abstain from acts which lead the subjects of other governments to violence and bloodshed. These violators of the law show themselves to be enemies of their country, by trampling under- foot its laws, compromising its honor, and involving it in the most serious embarrassment with a foreign and friendly nation. It is, indeed, lamentable to reflect that such men, under such circumstances, may hazard the peace of the country. If they were to come out in array against their own government, the consequence to it would be far less serious. In such an effort they could not involve it in much bloodshed, or in a heavy ex- penditure, nor would its commerce and general business be ma- terially injured. But a war with a powerful nation, with whom we have the most extensive relations, commercial and social, would bring down upon our country the heaviest calamity. It would dry up the sources of its prosperity and deluge it in blood. The great principle of our republican institutions cannot be propagated by the sword. This can be done by moral force, and not physical. If we desire the political regeneration of oppressed nations, we must show them the simplicity, the gran- deur, and the freedom of our own government. We must recommend it to the intelligence and virtue of other nations by its elevated and enlightened action, its purity, its justice, and the protection it affords to all its citizens, and the liberty they enjoy. And if, in this respect, we shall be faithful to the high bequests of our fathers, to ourselves, and to posterity, we shall do more to liberate other governments and emancipate their subjects than could be accomplished by" millions of bayonets. This moral power is what tyrants have most cause to dread. It addresses itself to the thoughts and the judgments of men. No physical force can arrest its progress. Its approaches are un- seen, but its consequences are deeply felt. It enters garrisons most strongly fortified, and operates in the palaces of kings and 232 PATRIOTIC READER. emperors. We should cherish this power as essential to the pres- ervation of our own government, and as the most efficient means of ameliorating the condition of our race. And this can only be done by a reverence for the laws, and by the exercise of an ele- vated patriotism. But if we trample under our feet the laws of our country, if we disregard the faith of treaties, and our citizens engage without restraint in military enterprises against the peace of other governments, we shall be considered and treated, and justly, too, as a nation of pirates. John McLean. MORAL REFORM THE HOPE OP THE AGE. The crisis has come. Ity the people of this generation, by ourselves probably, the amazing question is to be decided, whether the inheritance of our fathers shall be preserved or thrown away ; whether our Sabbaths shall be a delight or a loath- ing ; whether the taverns, on that holy day, shall be crowded with drunkards, or the sanctuary of God with humble worship- pers ; whether riot and profaneness shall till our streets, and poverty our dwellings, and convicts our jails, and violence our land, or whether industry, and temperance, and righteousness shall be the stability of our times ; whether mild laws shall re- ceive the cheerful submission of freemen, or the iron rod of a tyrant compel the trembling homage of slaves. Be not deceived. Human nature in this state is like human nature everywhere. All actual difference in our favor is adventitious, and the result of our laws, institutions, and habits. It is a moral influence which, with the blessing of God, has formed a state of society so eminently desirable. The same influence which has formed it is indispensable to its preservation. The rocks and hills of New England will remain till the last conflagration. But let the Sabbath be profaned with impunity, the worship of God aban- doned, the government and religious instruction of children neglected, and the streams of intemperance be permitted to flow, and her glory will depart. The wall of fire will no more surround her, and the munition of rocks will no longer be her defence. THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 233 If we neglect our duty, and suffer our laws and institutions to go down, we give them up forever. It is easy to relax, easy to retreat, but impossible, when the abomination of desolation has once passed over New England, to rear again the thrown- down altars, and gather again the fragments, and build up the ruins of demolished institutions. Another ISTew England nor we nor our children shall ever see, if this be destroyed. All is lost irretrievably when the landmarks are once removed and the bands which now hold us are once broken. Such institu- tions, and such a state of society, can be established only by such men as our fathers were, and in such circumstances as they were in. They could not have made a New England in Holland. They made the attempt, but failed. The hand that overturns our laws and altars, is the hand of death unbarring the gate of Pandemonium and letting loose upon our land the crimes and the miseries of hell. If the Most High should stand aloof, and cast not a single ingredient into our cup of trembling, it would seem to be full of superlative woe. But He will not stand aloof. As we shall have begun an open controversy with Him, He will contend openly with us. And never, since the earth stood, has it been so fearful a thing for nations to fall into the hands of the living God. The day of vengeance is in His heart, the day of judgment has come ; the great earthquake which sinks Babylon is shaking the na- tions, and the waves of the mighty commotion are dashing upon every shore. Is this, then, a time to remove foundations, when the earth itself is shaken ? Is this a time to forfeit the protec- tion of G-od, when the hearts of men are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth ? Is this a time to run upon His neck and the thick bosses of His buckler, when the nations are drinking blood, and faint- ing, and passing away in His wrath? Is this a time to throw away the shield of faith, when His arrows are drunk with the blood of the slain ? To cut from the anchor of hope, when the clouds are collecting, and the sea and the waves are roaring, and thunders are uttering their voices, and lightnings blazing in the heavens, and the great hail is falling from heaven upon men, and every mountain, sea, and island is fleeing in dismay from the face of an incensed God ? Lyman Heecher. 234 PATRIOTIC READER. TEMPERANCE REFORM MOST IMPERATIVE. (From Address delivered at Salem, Massachusetts, June 14, 1833, upon the following resolution, introduced hy the speaker, and having perpetual force as the most imperative demand of the present age : " Resolved, That while we behold with the highest satisfaction the success of the efforts which have been made for the suppression of intemperance, we consider its continued prevalence as affording the strongest motives for per- severing and increased exertion.") EXTKACTS ARRANGED FROM ADDRESS. The maxims of temperance are not new ; they are as old as Christianity, as old as any of the inculcations of personal and social duty. The vice of intemperance, through the social circle, the stated club, the long-protracted sitting at the board on public occasions, and the midnight festivities of private assemblies, is social in its origin, progress, and aggravation, and authorizes us, by every rule of reason and justice, in exerting the whole strength of the social principle in the way of remedy. The law had done something, the press had done something, but all had done but little, and intemperance had reached a most alarming degree of prevalence. At length societies were formed, addresses made, information collected, pledges mutually given, hearts warmed by comparison of opinion, until the aspect of many entire communities has been changed, and an incalculable amount of vice and woe has been prevented. But when we con- template intemperance in all its bearings and effects on the con- dition and character of men, we shall come to the conclusion that it is the greatest evil which, as beings of a compound nature, we have to fear, because striking directly at the ulti- mate principle of the constitution of the man. Our life exists in a mysterious union of the corporeal and intellectual principles ; an alliance of singular intimacy as well as of strange contrast between the two extremes of being. In their due relation to each other, and in the rightful discharge of their respective functions, I do not know whether the ethereal essence itself (at least as far as we can comprehend it, which is but faintly) ought more to excite our admiration than this most wondrous compound of spirit and matter. When I contrast the THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 235 dull and senseless clod of the valley in its unanimated state, with the curious hand, the glowing cheek, the beaming eye, the discriminating sense which dwells in a thousand nerves, I feel the force of that inspired exclamation, " I am fearfully and won- derfully made !" When I consider the action and reaction of soul" and body on each other, the impulse given to volition from the senses, and again to the organs by the will ; when I reflect how thoughts, so exalted that, though they comprehend all else } the laws of their own existence are incomprehensible, are yet able to take a shape in the material air, to issue and travel from one sense in one man to another sense in another man, so that, as the words drop from my lips, the secret chambers of the soul are thrown open and its invisible ideas made manifest, I am lost in wonder ! If I add to this the reflection, how the world and its affairs are governed, the face of nature changed, oceans crossed, continents settled, families gathered and kept together for generations, and monuments of power, wisdom, and taste erected, which last for ages after the hands that reared them have turned to dust, and all this by the regency of that fine intellectual principle which sits modestly concealed behind its veil of clay and moves its subject organs, I find no words to ex- press my admiration Of the union of mind and matter by which these miracles are wrought. The vice of intemperance, which aims directly to destroy this organization, is the arch-abomina- tion of our natures, assuring the triumph of the low, base, sen- sual, and earthly, over the heavenly and pure ; converting this curiously-organized frame into a crazy, disordered machine, and dragging down the soul to the slavery of grovelling lusts ! Such and so formidable is its power ! Public opinion in all its strength is enlisted against it. Men that agree in nothing else unite in this. Eeligious divisions are healed and party feuds forgotten in this good cause. Individuals and societies, private citizens and the government, have joined in waging war against intemperance; and above all, the press, the great engine of reform, is thundering with all its artillery against it. It is a moment of great interest, and also of considerable deli- cacy. That period in a moral reform in which a great evil, that has long passed comparatively unquestioned, is overtaken by a sudden bound of public opinion, is somewhat critical. Indi- 236 PATRIOTIC READER. viduals, as honest as their neighbors, are surprised in pursuits and practices, sanctioned by the former standard of moral senti- ment, but below the mark of reform. Tenderness and delicacy- are unnecessary to prevent such persons, by mistaken pride of character, from becoming enemies of the cause. In our denun- ciations of the evil we must take care not to include those w'hom a little prudence might bring into cordial co-operation with us in its suppression. Let us mingle discretion with our zeal, and the greater will be our success in this pure and noble enterprise. Edward Everett. THE REFORMER'S TRIALS. The Fate of the Reformer, 1830. I have heard it said that, when one lifts up his voice against things that are, and wishes for a change, he is raising a clamor against existing institutions, a clamor against our venerable es- tablishments, a clamor against the law of the land ; but, " Where THERE IS ABUSE THERE OUGHT TO BE CLAMOR; BECAUSE IT IS BETTER TO HAVE OUR SLUMBER BROKEN BY THE PIRE-BELL THAN TO PERISH, AMIDST THE FLAMES, IN OUR BED." I have been told, by some who have little objection to the clamor, that I am a timid and a mock reformer ; and by others, if I go on firmly and steadily, and do not allow myself to be driven aside by either one outcry or another, and care for neither, that it is a rash and dangerous innovation which I propound ; and that I am taking, for the subject of my reckless experiments, things which are the objects of all men's veneration. I disregard the one as much as I disregard the other of these charges. " False honor charms, and lying slander scares, Whom, but the false and faulty?" It has been the lot of all men, in all ages, who have aspired at the honor of guiding, instructing, or mending mankind, to have their paths beset by every persecution from adversaries, by every misconstruction from friends ; no quarter from the one, — no charitable construction from the other! To be miscon- THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 237 strued, misrepresented, borne down, till it was in vain to bear down any longer, has been their fate. But truth will survive, and calumny has its day. I say that, if this be the fate of the reformer, — if he be the object of misrepresentation, — may not an inference be drawn favorable to myself? Taunted by the enemies of reform as being too rash, by the over-zealous friends of reform as being too slow or too cold, there is every reason for presuming that I have chosen the right course. A reformer must proceed steadily in his career ; not misled, on the one hand, by panegyric, nor discouraged by slander, on the other. He wants no praise. I would rather say, "Woe to him when all men speak well of him !" I shall go on in the course which I have laid down for myself; pursuing the footsteps of those who have gone before us, who have left us their instructions and suc- cess, — their instructions to guide our walk, and their success to cheer our spirits. Henry (Lord) Brougham. (1833.) TRUE PATRIOTISM IS UNSELFISH. Eight and wrong, justice and crime, exist independently of our country. A public wrong is not a private right for any citizen. The citizen is a man bound to know and do the right, and the nation is but an aggregation of citizens. If a man should shout, " My country, by whatever means extended and bounded ; my country, right or wrong !" he merely repeats the words of the thief who steals in the street, or of the trader who swears falsely at the custom-house, both of them chuckling, " My fortune ; however acquired." Thus, gentlemen, we see that a man's country is not a certain area of land, — of mountains, rivers, and woods, — but it is prin- ciple ; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. In poetic minds and in popular enthusiasm, this feeling be- comes closely associated with the soil and symbols of the country. But the secret sanctification of the soil and the symbol, is the idea which they represent ; and this idea, the patriot worships, through the name and the symbol, as a lover kisses with rapture 238 PATRIOTIC READER. the glove of his mistress and wears a lock of her hair upon his heart. So, with passionate heroism, of which tradition is never weary of tenderly telling, Arnold von AVinkelried gathers into his bosom the sheaf of foreign spears, that his death may give life to his country. So Nathan Hale, disdaining no service that his country demands, perishes untimely, with no other friend than God and the satisfied sense of duty. So George Washington, at once comprehending the scope of the destiny to which his coun- try was devoted, with one hand puts aside the crown, and with the other sets his slaves free. So, through all history from the beginning, a noble army of martyrs has fought fiercely and fallen bravely for that unseen mistress, their country. So, through all history to the end, as long as men believe in God, that army must still inarch and fight and fall, — recruited only from the flower of mankind, cheered only by their own hope of humanity, strong only in their confidence in their cause. George William Curtis. TRUE PATRIOTISM EMBRACES MANKIND. Self-love is in alliance with principle to endear a home, a native land, to every human heart ; to give us an interest in a society with which we must rise and fall ; to engage our attach- ments to the spot where we first drew our breath, and where our tender infancy was reared ; with which are associated all the soothing remembrances of early years, and all our hopes of quiet and serenity in the evening of our days. The sympathies and affections that grow out of the near rela- tions of private life, constitute elements of the love of country. It presents itself to our thoughts with the recollection of a mother's smile, a father's revered image; with the loved idea of a spouse and child, a brother and sister, a benefactor and friend ; and, from this connection, has a power over our feelings that makes patriotism an instinct. A common interest in ancestral worth promotes this affection. THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 239 We love our country for the sake of those who have loved and served it in former and later periods ; honored worthies, whose labors have subdued her fields, and wisdom guided her coun- cils, and eloquence swayed her assemblies ; whose learning and talents have exalted her name ; whose piety has sustained her churches, and valor defended her borders. Religious sentiments and emotions hallow the feelings that unite us to our own land and to one another. Here is the church of the Most High, and here the houses of our solem- nities, in which we are accustomed to seek the favor and cele- brate the praises of the God of our fathers, the God of our salvation. The marks of divine favor shown to our nation, the striking interpositions of divine Providence in our behalf, cannot fail to enliven the patriotic sentiments of a pious mind. There is no want of arguments and motives to cultivate in ourselves and others public spirit. Truly the Maker of our frame and the Disposer of our lot requires us to regard the advantage and honor, to feel for the dangers and sufferings, to wish well to the inhabitants of the country which we call our own. All should care for all, bound together as they are by strong and tender ties, with interests blended, and, though various, not opposite. Geographical divisions must not be suffered to limit the walk of our benevolence ; nor shades of difference in religion, man- ners, state of society, to make us aliens ; nor should the passions produced by competition for influence, nor even the sense of unfriendly conduct in one section towards another, countervail, though they cannot but impair, the force of the incentives to sympathy and expanded patriotism. It is right to feel a pecu- liar and intimate concern for the smaller divisions and commu- nities to which we immediately belong. For members of a great confederacy to have no country but their state, of a state to be indifferent to all but their town or district, is miserable narrow- ness, or overweening self-love. To be destitute of local attach- ment, on the other hand, and to have proximity and distance alike to our feelings, is against nature, and truth, and reason. John Thornton Kirkland. 240 PATRIOTIC READER. PATRIOTISM INCULCATES PUBLIC VIRTUE. There is a sort of courage to which — I frankly confess it — I do not lay claim; a holdness to which J dare not aspire; a valor which I cannot covet. I cannot lay myself down in the way of the welfare and happiness of my country. That, I cannot, I have not the courage to do. I cannot interpose the power with which I may be invested — a power conferred, not for m}^ per- sonal benefit or aggrandizement, but fur my country's good — to check her onward march to greatness and glory. I have not courage enough ; I am too cowardly for that ! I would not, I dare not, lie down and place m} r body across the path that leads my country to prosperity and happiness. This is a sort of courage widely different from that which a man may display in his private conduct and personal relations. Personal or private courage is totally distinct from that higher and nobler courage which prompts the patriot to offer himself a voluntary sacrifice to his country's good. Apprehensions of the imputation of the want of firmness sometimes impel us to perform rash and inconsiderate acts. It is the greatest courage to be able to bear the imputation of the want of courage. But pride, vanity, egotism, so unamiable and offensive in private life, are vices which partake of the charac- ter of crimes, in the conduct of public affairs. The unfortunate victim of these passions cannot see beyond the little, petty, con- temptible circle of his own personal interests. All his thoughts are withdrawn from his country and concentrated on his con- sistency, his firmness, himself! The high, the exalted, the sublime emotions of a patriotism which, soaring towards heaven, rises far above all mean, low, or selfish things, and is absorbed by one soul-transporting thought i>1' (he good and glory of one's country, are never felt in his impenetrable bosom. That patriotism which, catching its inspi- ration from on high, and leaving at an immeasurable distance below all lesser, grovelling, personal interests and feelings, ani- mates and prompts to deeds of self-sacrifice, of valor, of devo- tion, and of death itself, — that is public virtue; that is the noblest, the sublimest of all public virtues! Henry Clay. THE DEMANDS OF THE TEESENT AGE. 241 PATRIOTISM ASSURES PUBLIC FAITH. To expatiate on the value of public faith, may pass, with some men, for declamation ; to such men I have nothing to say. To others I will urge, can any circumstance mark upon a people more turpitude and debasement, than the want of it ? Can any- thing tend more to make men think themselves mean, or degrade to a lower point their estimation of virtue, than such a standard of action ? It would not merely demoralize mankind ; it tends to break all the ligaments of society, to dissolve that mysterious charm which attracts individuals to the nation, and to inspire, in its stead, a repulsive sense of shame and disgust. What is patriotism ? Is it a narrow affection for the spot where a man was born ? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this ardent preference because they are greener? No, sir, this is not the character of the virtue ; and it soars higher for its object. It is an extended self-love, mingling with all the enjoyments of life and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honor. Ever} r good citizen makes that honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious, but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defence, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable, when a state renounces the principles that constitute their security ? Or if his life should not be invaded, what would its enjoyments be, in a country odious in the eyes-of strangers and dishonored in his own ? Could he look with affection and veneration to such a country, as his parent? The sense of having one would die within him; he would blush for his patriotism, if he retained any, and justly ) for it would be a vice. He would be a banished man in his native land. I see no exception to the respect that is paid among nations to the law of good faith. If there are cases in this enlightened period, when it is violated, there are none when it is decried. It lb 242 PATRIOTIC READER. is observed by barbarians : a whiff of tobacco-smoke, or a string of beads, gives not merely binding force, but sanctity, to treaties. Even in Algiers, a truce may be bought for money ; but when ratified, even Algiers is too wise, or too just, to disown and annul its obligation. Thus we see, neither the ignorance of savages, nor the principles of an association for piracy and rapine, permit a nation to despise its engagements. If, sir, there could be a resurrection from the foot of the gallows, if the victims of justice could live again, collect together, and form a society, they would, however loath, soon find themselves obliged to make jus- tice, that justice under which they fell, the fundamental law of their state. They would perceive it was their interest to make others respect, and they would therefore soon pay some respect themselves to the obligations of good faith. It is painful, I hope it is superfluous, to make even the sup- position that America should furnish the occasion of this oppro- brium. No, let me not even imagine that a republican gov- ernment sprung, as our own is, from a people enlightened and uncoiTupted, a government whose origin is right, and whose daily discipline is duty, can, upon solemn debate, make its option to be faithless, can dare to act what despots dare not avow, what our own example evinces the states of Barbary are unsuspected of. No ; let me rather make the supposition that Great Britain refuses to execute the treaty after we have done everything to carry it into effect. Is there any language of reproach pungent enough to express your commentary on the fact? What would you say, or rather what would you not say ? Would you not tell them, wherever an Englishman might travel, shame would stick to him, he would disown his country? You would exclaim, England, proud of your wealth and arrogant in the possession of power, blush for these distinctions, which become the vehicles of your dishonor. Such a nation might truly say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. We should say of such a race of men, their name is a heavier burden than their debt. Fisher Ames. THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 243 PATRIOTISM BROAD AS HUMANITY. It is the ojrinion of many, that self-love is the grand impelling spring in the human machine. This sentiment is either utterly false, or the principle, as distinguished in some actions, becomes so exceedingly refined, as to merit a more engaging name. If the man who weeps in secret for the miseries of others and privately tenders relief, who sacrifices ease, property, health, and even life, to save his country, be actuated by self-love, it is a principle only inferior to that which prompted the Saviour of the world to die for man, and is but another name for perfect disinterestedness. Patriotism, whether we reflect upon the benevolence which gives it birth, the magnitude of its object, the happy effect which it produces, or the height to which it exalts human character, by the glorious action of which it is the cause, must be considered as the noblest of all the social virtues. The patriot is influenced by love for his fellow-men and an ardent desire to preserve sacred and inviolate their natural rights. His philanthropic views, not confined to the small circle of his private friends, are so extensive, as to embrace the liberty and happiness of a whole nation. That he may be instrumental, under heaven, to main- tain and secure these invaluable blessings to his country, he devotes his wealth, his fame, his life, his all. Glorious sacrifice ! What more noble ! To the honor of humanity, the histories of almost every age and nation are replete with examples of this elevated charac- ter. Every period of the world has afforded its "heroes and its patriots; men who could soar above the narrow views and grovelling principles which actuate so great a part of the human species, and drown every selfish consideration in the love of their country. But we need not advert to the annals of other ages and nations, as the history of our own country points with so much pleasure, veneration, and gratitude to the illustrious Washington. Before him the heroes of antiquity, shorn of their beams, like stars before the rising sun, hide their heads with shame. Uniting in his character the enterprising spirit of Hannibal, the prudent wisdom of Fabius, the disin- 244 PATRIOTIC READER. terestedness of Cincinnatus, and the military talents of the Scipios, he could not fail to succeed in the glorious undertaking of giving libert}' and happiness to a people who dared to be free. Whilst he lived, he proved a rich blessing to his country, a bright example to the dawning patriotism of the Old World, the terror of despotism, and the delight and admiration of all mankind. Increase Cook. (1796.) HEROIC EXAMPLE HAS POWER. We must not forget the specific and invaluable influence exerted on the spirit of a people by those examples of signal heroism and chivalrous devotion for which a magnanimous war gives occasion, and which it exalts, as peace cannot, before men's minds. Almost five centuries ago, under the tumbling walls of Scm- pach, where Leopold stood with four thousand Austrians to crush the fourteen hundred Swiss who dared to confront him, one, springing upon the foe with wide-spread arms, gathered into his breast a sheaf of spears, and made a way above his body for that triumphant valor which pierced and broke the horrid ranks, and set a new and bloody seal to the rightful autonomy of the mountain republic. The hardy Switzers will not forget the daring deed and magic name of Arnold Winkelried ! Before Herodotus wrote his history, before JSTehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem, before Cincinnatus was dictator at Rome, under the shadow of Mount iEtna, a thousand men, Spartans and Thes- pians, fell, to a man, unwilling to retreat before the invader. It is not even irreverent to say, that, save one cross, beneath which Earth herself did shiver, no other hath lifted its head so high, or flung its arms so wide abroad to scatter inspiring influence, as did that cross on which the Persian nailed, in fury, the dead Leonidas! . . . Such examples as these become powers in civilization. History hurries from the drier details, and is touched with enthusiasm as she draws near to them. Eloquence delights to rehearse and THE DEMANDS OF THE PEESENT AGE. 245 impress them! The songs of a nation repeat their story, and make their triumph sound again through the silver cymbals of speech. Legends prolong and art commemorates them. Lan- guage itself takes new images from them ; and words, that are themselves " half battles," are suddenly born at their recital. The very household life is exalted ; and the humblest feels his position higher, and expresses his sense of it in a more daunt- less bearing, as he sees that heroism still lives in the world ; that men of his own race and stuff, perhaps of his own neighbor- hood, even, have faced, so calmly, such vast perils, Kichard Salter Storrs, Jr. (1863.) HEROES AND MARTYRS TO BE HONORED. Heroes and martyrs ! They are the men of the hour. They are identified with the names that live upon the lips of millions! Our heroes ! Named in the homes of all who have left home and occupation, comfort and kindred, and stood in the midst of battle; presented to us in glorious clusters on many a deck and field ! But where the hero stands, there also the martyr dies. With the chorus of victory blends the dirge, mournful, and yet ma- jestic too. The burden of that dirge, as it falls from the lips of wives and mothers, of fathers and children, is sad and tender, like the strain of David for those who fell upon G-ilboa! That burden is still mournful, but as time passes on, and it re-issues from a nation's lips, it swells also into exultation and honor, — that same burden, "How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle !" Some of us, perhaps, have read of that company whom their brave officer had so often led to victory, and who would never part with their dead hero's name. Still, day by day, it is called aloud. The generation that loved him has passed away, but their sons and their sons' sons will ever and always love the honored name ! " Cornet Latour d'Auvergne," still first of the brave band, is summoned ; and ever and always a brave soldier steps from the front rank to reply, "Dead, on the field of honor." 246 PATRIOTIC READER. "Dead, on the field of honor!" This, too, is the record of thousands of unnamed men whose influence upon other genera- tions is associated with no personal distinction, but whose sacri- fice will lend undying lustre to the nation's archives, and richer lustre to the nation's life. Go visit the mourning homes of the land ; homes of wealth and plenty, some of them, but richer now by the consecration of sacrifice. Many are homes of toil and obscurity, from which the right hand of support has been taken, or the youthful prop. Poor and obscure; but these, the unknown fallen, have names and riches of solemn and tender memory. And what heralding on palatial wall, more glorious, than the torn cap and soiled uniforms that hang in those homes where the dead soldier comes, no more I Sleep, sleep in quiet graves, grassy graves, where the symbols that ye loved so well shall cover and spread over you, by day, the flowers of the red, white, and blue, and by night, the con- stellated stars, while out of those graves there grows the better harvest of the nation and of times to come ! Edwin Hubbell Chapin. (1864.) THE NOBILITY OP LABOR. I call upon those whom I address to stand up for the nobility of labor. It is heaven's great ordinance for human improve- ment. Let not that great ordinance be broken down. What do I say? It is broken down; and it has been broken down for ages. Let it, then, be built up again ; here, if anywhere, on these shores of a new world, of a new civilization. But how, I may be asked, is it broken down ? Do not men toil? it may be said. They do indeed toil ; but they too generally do it, because they must. Many submit to it as, in some sort, a degrading neces- sity; and they desire nothing so much on earth as escape from it. They fulfil the great law of labor in the letter, but break it in the spirit; fulfil it with the muscle, but break it with the mind. To some field of labor, mental or manual, every idler should fasten, as a chosen and coveted theatre of improvement. But THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 247 so he is not impelled to do, under the teachings of our imperfect civilization. On the contrary, he sits down, folds his hands, and blesses himself in his idleness. This way of thinking is the heritage of the absurd and unjust feudal system under which serfs labored, and gentlemen spent their lives in fighting and feasting. It is time that this opprobrium of toil were done away. Ashamed to toil, art thou ? Ashamed of thy dingy workshop and dusty labor-field ; of thy hard hand, scarred with service more honorable than that of war; of thy soiled and weather-stained garments, on which Mother Nature has em- broidered, midst sun and rain, midst fire and steam, her own heraldic honors? Ashamed of these tokens and titles, and envious of the flaunting robes of imbecile idleness and vanity ? It is treason to nature, it is impiety to heaven, it is breaking heaven's great ordinance. Toil, I repeat, toil, either of the brain, of the heart, or of the hand, is the only true manhood, the only true nobility. Ortille Dewey. LABOR IS WORSHIP. Pause not to dream of the future before us ; Pause not to weep the wild cares that come o'er us ; Hark, how Creation's deep, musical chorus, Unintermitting, goes up into heaven. Never the ocean-wave falters in flowing ; Never the little seed stops in its growing ; More and more richly the rose-heart keeps glowing, Till from its nourishing stem it is riven. " Labor is worship !" the robin is singing ; "Labor is worship!" the wild bee is ringing; Listen ! that eloquent whisper upspringing Speaks to thy soul from out Nature's great heart. From the dark cloud flows the life-giving shower ; From the rough sod blows the soft-breathing flower ; From the small insect, the rich coral bower ; Only man, in the plan, ever shrinks from his part. 248 PATRIOTIC READER. Labor is life ! Tis the still water faileth ; Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth; Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth ; Flowers droop and die in the stillness of noon. Labor is glory ! — the flying cloud lightens ; Only the waving wing changes and brightens ; Idle hearts only the dark future frightens ; Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune. Labor is rest from the sorrows that greet us, Best from all petty vexations that meet us, Eest from sin-promptings that ever entreat us, Eest from world-sirens that lure us to ill. Work — and pure slumbers shall wait on thy pillow ; Work — thou shalt ride over Care's coming billow ; Lie not down wearied 'neath Woe's weeping- willow ; Work with a stout heart and resolute will ! Labor is health ! Lo, the husbandman reaping, How through his veins goes the life-current leaping! How his strong arm, in its stalwart pride sweeping, True as a sunbeam the swift sickle guides ! Labor is wealth ! In the sea the pearl groweth ; Kich the queen's robe from the frail cocoon floweth ; From the fine acorn the strong forest bloweth ; Temple and statue the marble block hides. Droop not, though shame, sin, and anguish are round thee : Bravely fling off the cold chain that hath bound thee; Look to yon pure heaven smiling beyond thee ; Best not content in thy darkness — a clod. Work for some good, be it ever so slowly; Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly ; Labor ! all labor is noble and holy ; Let thy great deeds be tby prayer to thy God. Frances Sargent Osgood. THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 249 IDLENESS A CRIME. Patriotism i8 an active principle, exacting of its subject full acceptance of the fact that the aggregate of national good de- pends upon the fullest possible meed of individual good. Indi- vidual support at the expense of society, without a contributive return, is robbery. Protection in life's work demands that con- tributive share of aid to protect others. Just as optional obe- dience to law is a senseless paradox, so is the assumption of any, " I will be idle if I please to be idle." At that instant the idler forces others to do for him, unrequited, what he is bound to do for himself. This is not a matter of ethics or morals mei'ely, but of social peace. Labor that enters into the aggregate of national industry is an obligation as well as a necessity. The liability to military service, or to help preserve the peace, is only a part of the obligation which fastens upon voluntary vagrancy, in the non-self-supporting sense, the character of crime. Even a professed readiness to take the consequences of the infraction of law or obligation does not convert the wrong to right. Delay or temporary suspension of work incident to the changing relations of labor and product, pending a fair ad- justment of terms and conditions, is legitimate and reasonable ; but in its arbitrary exercise may prove not only suicidal to the individual, but ruinous to the rights of society at large, which are secured only through the contributed and balanced industry of all. Innocent idleness, irrespective of the adjustments, from time to time needed, is impossible. Not to rescue a drowning man is to drown him ! There is no negative idleness! It tears down, but does not rebuild. It is not only irrational to expect support without a contributive return, but is at the expense of, and works violence to, the rights of all faithful workers. Even if the popular fallacy that a man may work, or not, at his pleasure, had a technical basis of merit, it loses all recognition when it asserts a claim to suspend or paralyze other labor than its own. Mental faculties and physical activities will not lie dormant. The industrious will save. The improvident will waste. Re- move the incentive to labor for worthy ends, and at once all 250 PATRIOTIC HEADER. the lower animal elements which are harmonized, softened, and wisely subjected, through legitimate exercise, will assert their presence for harm. The motive to industry must be acquisition for proper use, and the good of society as well, or human life becomes more abject than that of instinct. Free, honest, and patient labor develops the highest types of domestic and social good ; and the principle of patriotism cannot obtain where voluntary idleness is tolerated, or condoned. An uncertain and changeable wage-rate is inevitable, in all kinds of labor, mental or physical ; but emotional love of country will be measured by the zeal with which the citizen enters into his work, and finds, in his own success, a corresponding appreciation of all the values which make both home and country his joy and pride. INTERNATIONAL SYMPATHIES ON THE INCREASE. In many respects, the nations of Christendom, collectively, are becoming somewhat analogous to our own Federal republic. Antiquated distinctions are breaking away, and local animosities are subsiding. The common people of different countries are knowing each other better, esteeming each other more, and at- taching themselves to each other, by various manifestations of reciprocal good will. It is true, every nation has still its separate boundaries and its individual interests; hut the freedom of com- mercial intercourse is allowing those interests to adjust them- selves to each other, and thus rendering the causes of collision of vastly less frequent occurrence. Local questions are becoming of less, and general questions of greater, importance. Thanks be to God, men have at last begun to understand the rights, and feel for the wrongs, of each other ! Mountains interposed, do not so much make enemies of nations. Let the trumpet of alarm be sounded, and its notes are now heard by every nation, whether of Europe or America. Let a voice borne on the feeblest breeze tell that the rights of man are in danger, and it floats over valley and mountain, across continent and ocean, until it has vibrated on the ear of the remotest dweller in Christendom. Let the arm of Oppression be raised to crush the feeblest nation on THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 251 earth, and there will be heard everywhere, if not the shout of defiance, at least the deep-toned murmur of implacable dis- pleasure. It is the cry of aggrieved, insulted, much-abused man. It is human nature waking in her might from the slumber of ages, shaking herself from the dust of antiquated institutions, girding herself for the combat, and going forth conquering and to conquer ; and woe unto the man, woe unto the dynasty, woe unto the party, and woe unto the policy, on whom shall fall the scath of her blighting indignation ! Francis Wayland. EUROPE AND AMERICA HAVE COMMON RESPON- SIBILITIES. In many respects the European and the American nations are alike. They are alike Christian states, civilized states, and commercial states. They have access to the same common foun- tains of intelligence ; they all draw from those sources which belong to the whole civilized world. In knowledge and letters, in the arts of peace and war, they differ in degrees ; but they bear, nevertheless, a general resemblance. On the other hand, in matters of government and social insti- tutions, the nations on this continent are founded upon principles which never did prevail, in considerable extent, either at any other time, or in any other place. There has never been pre- sented to the mind of man a more interesting subject of contem- plation, than the establishment of so many nations in America, partaking in the civilization and in the arts of the Old World, but having left behind them those cumbrous institutions which had their origin in a dark and military age. Whatsoever European experience has developed favorable to the freedom and happiness of man ; whatsoever European genius has invented, for his improvement or gratification ; what- soever of refinement or polish the culture of European society presents, for his adoption and enjoyment, — all this is offered to man in America, with the additional advantage of the full power of erecting forms of government, on free and simple principles, without overturning institutions suited to times long past, but 252 PATEIOTIC READER. too strongly supported, either by interests or prejudices, to bo shaken without convulsions. This unprecedented state of things presents the happiest of all occasions for an attempt to establish national intercourse upon improved principles; upon principles tending to peace and the mutual prosperity of nations. In this respect America, the whole of America, has a new career before her. If we look back on the history of Europe, we see how great a portion of the last two centuries her states have been at war for interests connected mainly with her feudal monarchies ; wars, for particular dynas- ties; wars, to support or defeat particular successions; wars, in fine, to enforce or to resist religious intolerance. What long and bloody chapters do these not fill, in the history of European politics ! Who does not see, and who does not rejoice to see, that America has a glorious chance of escaping, at least, these causes of contention ? Who does not see, and who does not rejoice to see, that, on this continent, under other forms of government, we have before us the noble hope of being able, by the mere influence of civil liberty and religious toleration, to dry up these outpouring fountains of blood, and to extinguish these consuming fires of war ? The general opinion of the age favors such hopes and such prospects. There is a growing disposition to treat the intercourse of nations more like the useful inter- course of friends. Philosophy, just views of national advantage, good sense, the dictates of a common religion, and an increasing conviction that war is not the interest of the human race, — all concur to increase the interest created by this new accession to the list of nations. Daniel Webster. THE UNITED STATES OP EUROPE FORE- SHADOWED. (From Address before the Peace Congress, at Paris, 1849.) A day will come when you, France, — you, Russia, — you, Italy, — you, England, — you, German}^, — all you nations of the Con- tinent, shall, without losing your distinctive qualities and your THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 253 glorious individuality, blend in a higher unity, and form a Euro- pean fraternity, even as Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Lor- raine, Alsace, all the French provinces, blended into France. A day will come when war shall seem as impossible between Paris and London, between Petersburg and Berlin, as between Pouen and Amiens, between Boston and Philadelphia. A day will come when bullets and bombs shall be replaced by ballots, by the universal suffrages of the people, by the sacred arbitrament of a great Sovereign Senate, which shall be to Europe what the Parliament is to England, what the Diet is to Germany, what the Legislative Assembly is to France. A day will come when a cannon shall be exhibited in our museums, as an instrument of torture is now, and men shall marvel that such things could be. A day will come when we shall see those two immense gi*oups, the United States of America and the United States of Europe, in face of each other, extending hand to hand over the ocean, exchanging their products, their commerce, their industry, their art; their genius clearing the earth, colonizing deserts, and ameliorating creation under the eye of the Creator. And, for that day to arrive, it is not necessary that four hun- dred years should pass ; for we live in a fast time ; we live in a current of events and of ideas, the most impetuous that has ever swept along the nations, and an epoch when a year may some- times effect the work of a century. And to you I appeal, French, English, Germans, Eussians, Sclaves, Europeans, Ameri- cans, what have we to do to hasten the coming of that great day ? Love one another ! To love one another, in this immense work of pacification, is the best way of aiding God. For God wills that this sublime end should be accomplished. And see, for the attainment of it, what, on all sides, he is doing. See what discoveries he causes to spring from the human brain, all tending to the great end of peace ! What progress ! What simplifications ! How does nature, more and more, suffer her- self to be vanquished by man ! How does matter become, more and more, the slave of intelligence and the servant of civiliza- tion! How do the causes of war vanish with the causes of suffering! How are remote nations brought near! How is distance abridged ! And how does this abridgment make men more like brothers I Thanks to railroads, Europe will soon be 254 PATRIOTIC READER. no larger than Franco was in the Middle Ages! Thanks to steamships, we now traverse the ocean more easily than we could the Mediterranean once ! Yet a few yeai-s more, and the electric thread of concord shall encircle the globe and unite the world ! When I consider all that Providence has done for us, and all that politicians have done against us, a melancholy considera- tion presents itself. Europe spends annually the sum of five hundred millions of dollars to maintain armies. If, for the last thirty-two years, this enormous sum had been expended in the interests of peace, know you what would have happened ? The face of the world would have been changed. Isthmuses would have been cut through ; rivers would have been channelled, mountains tunnelled. Eailroads would have covered the two continents. The merchant tonnage of the world would have increased a hundred-fold. There would be nowhere barren plains, nor moors, nor marshes. Cities would be seen where now all is solitude. Harbors would have been dug where shoals and rocks now threaten navigation. Asia would be raised to a state of civilization. Africa would be restored to man. Abun- dance would flow forth from every side, from all the veins of the earth, beneath the labor of the whole family of man, and misery would disappear. And with misery, what would also disappear ? Eevolutions ! Yes, the face of the world would be changed. Instead of destroying one another, men would peace- fully people the waste places of the earth. Instead of making revolutions, they would establish colonies. Instead of bringing back barbarism into civilization, they would carry civilization into barbarism. Victor Marie Hugo. THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. What American can survey the held of battle at Bunker Hill, or at New Orleans, without recalling the deeds which will render these names imperishable? Who can pass the islands of Lake Erie without thinking upon those who sleep in the waters below } and upon the victory which broke the power of the enemy and THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 255 led to the security of an extensive frontier ? There no monu- ment can be erected, for the waves roll and will roll over them. But he who met the enemy and made them ours, and his de- voted companions, will live in the recollections of the American people while there is virtue to admire patriotism, or gratitude to reward it. I have stood upon the Plain of Marathon, the battle-field of Liberty. It is silent and desolate. Neither Greek nor Persian is there, to give life and animation to the scene. It is bounded by sterile hills on one side, and lashed by the eternal waves of the iEgean Sea on the other. But Greek and Persian were once there, and that dreary spot was alive with hostile armies, who fought the great fight which rescued Greece from the yoke of Persia. And I have also stood upon the Hill of Zion, the City of Jeru- salem, the scene of our Eedeemer's sufferings, and crucifixion, and ascension. But the sceptre has departed from Judah, and its glory from the capital of Solomon. The Assyrian, the Egyptian, the Greek, the Eoman, the Arab, the Turk, and the Crusader, have passed over this chief place of Israel, and have reft it of its power and beauty. Well has the denunciation of the prophet of misfortune been fulfilled, when he declared that " the Lord had set his face against this city for evil, and not for good," when he pronounced the words of the Most High, " I will cause to cease from the city of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride : for the land shall be desolate." In those regions of the East where society passed its infancy it seems to have reached decrepitude. If the associations which the memory of the past glory excites are powerful, they are mel- ancholy. They are without joy for the present, without hope for the future. But here, we are in the freshness of youth, and can look forward with national confidence to ages of progress in all that gives power and pride to man, and dignity to human nature. No deeds of glory hallow this region ! But nature has been bountiful to it in its best gifts, and art and industry are at work to extend and improve them. You cannot pierce the barrier which shuts in the past, and separates you from the great high- 256 PATRIOTIC READER. way of nations. You have opened a vista to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. From this elevated point two seas are before us, which your energy and perseverance have brought within reach. It is better to look forward to prosperity than backward to glory. To the mental eye no prospect can be moi*e magnificent than here meets the vision. I need not stop to de- scribe it. It is before us in the long regions of fertile land which stretch off to the east and the west, to the north and the south, in all the advantages that Providence has liberally bestowed upon them, and in the changes and improvements which man is making. The forest is fading and falling, and towns and vil- lages are rising and flourishing. And, better still, a moral, intel- ligent, and industrious people are spreading themselves over the whole face of the country, and making it their own and their home. And what changes and chances await us ! Shall we go on increasing, and improving, and united, or shall we add another to the list of republics which have preceded us, and which have fallen the victim of their own follies and dissen- sions? My faith in the stability of our institutions is enduring, my hope is strong ; for they rest upon public virtue and intelli- gence. Lewis Cass. THE SPIRIT OP THE AGE ADVERSE TO WAR. War will yet cease from the whole earth, for God himself has said it shall. As an infidel I might doubt this, but as a Christian I cannot. If God has taught anything in the Bible, he has taught peace ; if he has promised anything there, he has promised peace, ultimate peace, to the whole world ; and unless the night of a godless scepticism should settle on my soul, I must believe on, and hope on, and work on, until the nations, from pole to pole, shall beat their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning-hooks, and learn war no more. I see, or think I see, the dawn of that coming day! I see it in the new and better spirit of the age ! I see it in the press, the pulpit, and the school ! I see it in every factory, and steamship, and rail-car ! I see it in every enterprise of Christian benevolence and reform ! I see it in all the means of general improvement, in all the good influences THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 257 of the age, now at work over the whole earth ! Yes, there is a spirit abroad that can never rest until the war-demon is hunted from the habitations of men, — the spirit that is now pushing its enterprises and improvements in every direction ; the spirit that is unfurling the white flag of commerce on every sea and bar- tering its commodities in every port ; the spirit that is laying every power of nature, as well as the utmost resources of human ingenuity, under the largest contributions possible for the general welfare of mankind ; the spirit that hunts out from your cities' darkest alleys, the outcasts of poverty and crime, for relief and reform, — nay, goes down into the barred and bolted dungeons of penal vengeance and brings up its callous, haggard victims into the sunlight of a love that pities even while it smites ; the spirit that is everywhere rearing hospitals for the sick, retreats for the insane, and schools that all but teach the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, and the blind to see ; the spirit that harnesses the fire-horse in his iron gear, and sends him, panting with hot but unwearied breath, across empires, and continents, and seas ; the spirit that catches the very lightning of heaven and makes it bear messages, swift almost as thought, from city to city, from country to country, round the globe ; the spirit that subsidizes all these to the godlike work of a world's salvation, and em- ploys them to scatter the blessed truths of the gospel, thick as leaves of autumn or dew-drops of morning, all over the earth ; the spirit that is, at length, weaving the sympathies and interests of our whole race into the web of one vast fraternity, and stamp- ing upon it, or writing over it, in characters bright as sunbeams, these simple yet glorious truths : the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man ! Is it possible for such a spirit to rest, until it shall have swept war from the earth forever ? John Watrotjs Beckwith. THE REIGN OP PEACE FORESHADOWED. That future which filled the lofty visions of sages and bards of Greece and Rome, which was foretold by prophets and her- 17 258 PATRIOTIC READER. aided by the evangelists, when man. in happy isles or in a new paradise, shall confess the loveliness of peace, may be secured, by your care, if not for yourselves, at least for your children. Believe that you can do it, and you can do it ! The true golden age is before you, and not behind you. If man has been driven once from paradise, while an angel with naming sword forbade his return, there is another paradise, even on earth, which he may form for himself by the cultivation of knowledge, religion, and the kindly virtues of life ; where the confusion of tongues shall be dissolved in the union of hearts, and joyous nature, bor- rowing prolific charms from the prevailing harmony, shall spread her lap with unimagined bounty, and there shall be a perpetual jocund spring, and sweet strains borne on " odoriferous wing of gentle gales,"' through valleys of delight more pleasant than the vale of Tempe, richer than the garden of the Hesperides, with no dragon to guai'd its golden fruit. Let it not be said that the age does not demand this work. The robber conquerors of the past, from their fiery sepulchres, demand it ; the precious blood of millions unjustly shed in war, crying from the ground, demands it ; the voices of all good men demand it ; and the conscience, even of the soldier, whispers, " Peace." There are considerations springing from our situation and condition, which fervently invite us to take the lead in this work. Ilere, should bend the patriotic ardor of the land, the ambition of the statesman, the efforts of the scholar, the per- suasive influence of the press, the mild persuasion of the sanct- uary, the early teachings of the school. Here, in ampler ether and diviner air, are untried fields for exalted triumphs, more truly worthy the American name than any snatched from rivers of blood. War is known as the last reason of kings. Let it be no reason of our republic. Let us renounce and throw off for- ever, the yoke of a tyranny more oppressive than any in the annals of the world. As those standing on the mountain-tops discern the coming beams of morning, let us. from the vantage- ground of liberal institutions, firsl recognize the ascending sun of the new era. Lift high the gates and let the king of glory in, and the king of true glory. — of peace! It is a beautiful picture in Grecian story, that there was at least one spot, the small island of Delos, dedicated to the g^^^- THE DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 259 and kept at all times sacred from war. No hostile foot ever sought to press this kindly soil, and the citizens of all countries here met in common worship beneath the segis of inviolable peace. So let us dedicate our beloved country, and may the blessed consecration be felt in all its parts, everywhere through- out its ample domain ! The Temple of Honor shall be surrounded here, at last, by the Temple of Concord, that it may never more be entered through any portal of war ; the horn of abundance shall overflow at its gates; the angel of religion shall be the guide over its flashing steps of adamant ; while within its enrap- tured courts, purged of violence and wrong, Justice, returned to the earth from her long exile in the skies, with mighty scales for nations, as well as for men, shall rear her serene and majestic front ; and by her side, greatest of all, Charity, sublime in meek- ness, hoping all and enduring all, shall divinely temper every righteous decree, and with words of infinite cheer shall inspire those good works that cannot vanish away. And the future chiefs of the republic, destined to uphold the glories of a new era, unspotted by human blood, shall be " the first in peace, and the first in the hearts of their countrymen." Eut while seeking these blissful glories for ourselves, let us strive to tender them to other lands. Let the bugles sound the truce of God to the whole world, forever. Let the selfish boast of the Spartan women become the grand chorus of mankind, — that they have never seen the smoke of an enemy's camp. Let the iron belt of martial music which now encompasses the earth be exchanged for the golden cestus of peace, clothed with all celestial beauty. History dwells with fondness on the reverent homage that was bestowed by massacring soldiers upon the spot occupied by the sepulchre of our Lord. Vain man ! to restrain his regard to a few feet of sacred mould. The whole earth is the sepulchre of the Lord ; nor can any righteous man profane any part thereof. Let us recognize this truth, and now, on this Sabbath of our country, lay a new stone in the grand temple of universal peace, whose dome shall be as lofty as the firmament of heaven, as broad and comprehensive as the earth itself. Charles Sumner. 260 PATRIOTIC READER. DUTY TO ONE'S COUNTRY. Our country is a whole, my Publius, Of which we all are parts ; nor should a citizen Regard his interests as distinct from hers ; No hopes or fears should touch his patriot soul But what affect her honor or her shame. E'en when in hostile fields he bleeds to save her, 'Tis not his blood he loses, 'tis his country's ; He only pays her back a debt he owes. To her he's bound for birth and education, Her laws secure him from domestic feuds, And from the foreign foe her arms pi'otect him. She lends him honors, dignity, and rank, His wrongs revenges, and his merit pays ; And, like a tender and indulgent mother, Loads him with comforts, and would make his state As blessed as nature and the gods designed it. Such gifts, my son, have their alloy of pain, And let the unworthy wretch, who will not bear His portion of the public burden, lose The advantages it yields ; let him retire From the dear blessings of a social life, And from the sacred laws which guard those blessings ; Renounce the civilized abodes of man; With kindred brutes, one common shelter seek In horrid wilds, and dens, and dreary caves, And with their shaggy tenants share the spoils ; Or, if the shaggy hunters miss their prey, From scattered acorns pick a scanty meal, Far from the sweet civilities of life ; There let him live, and vaunt his wretched freedom, While we, obedient to the laws that guard us, Guard them, and live or die, as they decree. William Cowpkr. PART VIII. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. INTRODUCTION. The history of the United States since the achievement of national independence has, in an extraordinary degree, verified the wisdom of the men who founded the government and framed its Constitution. Every important domestic or foreign issue which that history has unfolded, was clearly anticipated. The debates in Congress, State legislation, the expansion or acquisi- tion of territory, the changing relations of slavery, the develop- ment of the fisheries, the revenue changes, the reciprocal and specific relations or obligations of the Federal and the State gov- ernments, have been legitimate developments of well-appreciated and fully-anticipated principles and wise forethought. These developments have realized the hopes of the fathers, and escaped the dangers which they most anxiously dreaded. The republic has accepted the expressed will of the majority, and patiently re-submitted to the people all matters which seemed of doubtful wisdom, in the successive changes of administration or policy. It has been found that the people are ever in advance of the poli- ticians, and that an inherent sense of what is truly patriotic and best for home-life will rightly shape the national life. Apart from the development of independence during the Eevolutionary War, and separate from the succession of public utterances which il- lustrate the nation's growth, are other addresses, which may well be given a place, as early expressions of the satisfaction of the fathers with their work and its early progress. On the 4th of July, 1787, the year of the adoption of the Constitution, and a few days before the passage of the " Ordi- 261 262 PATRIOTIC READER. nance of '87," Joel Barlow, of Connecticut, eminent as states- man and poet, addressed the " Society of the Cincinnati," at Hartford, Connecticut, and stated the philosophy of the Eevo- lution in words of permanent value. ADDRESS OF JOEL BARLOW. (July 4, 1787.) On the anniversary of so great an event as the birth of the empire in which we live, none will question the propriety of passing a few moments in contemplating the various objects suggested to the mind by the important occasion ; and while the nourishment, the growth, and even the existence of our empire depend upon the united efforts of an extensive and divided people, the duties of this day ascend from amusement and congratulation to a serious patriotic employment. We are assembled, not to boast, but to realize, not to inflate our national vanity by a pompous relation of past achievements in the council or the field, but, from a modest retrospect of the truly dignified part already acted by our countrymen, from an accurate view of our present situation, and from an anticipation of the scenes that remain to be unfolded, to discern and familiarize the duties that still await us as citizens, as soldiers, and as men. Revolutions in other countries have been effected by accident. The faculties of human reason and the rights of human nature have been the sport of chance and the prey of ambition. When indignation has burst the bands of slavery, to the destruction of one tyrant, it was only to impose the manacles of another. This arose from the imperfection of that early stage of society, the foundations of empires being laid in ignorance, with a total inability of foreseeing the improvements of civilization, or of adapting government to a state of social refinement. On the western continent a new task, totally unknown to the legislators of other nations, was imposed upon the fathers of the American empire. Here was a people, lords of the soil on which they trod, commanding a prodigious length of coast, and an equal breadth of frontier, a people habituated to liberty, professing a mild and benevolent religion, and highly advanced in science and civilization. To conduct such a people in a revolution, the address must be made to reason, as well as the passions. In what other age or nation has a people, at ease upon their own farms, secure and distant from the approach of fleets and armies, tide-waiters and stamp-masters, reasoned, before they had felt, and, from the dictates of duty and conscience, encountered dangers, distress, and poverty, for the sake of securing to posterity a government of independence and peace? Here was no Cromwell to inflame the people with bigotry and zeal ; no Caesar to re- ward his followers with the spoils of vanquished foes ; and no territory to be acquired by conquest. Ambition, superstition, and avarice, those universal torches of war, never illumed an American field of battle. But the perma- nent principles of sober policy spread through the colonies, roused the people SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 263 to assert their rights, and conducted the revolution. Those principles were nohle, as they were new and unprecedented in the history of human actions. The majority of a great people, on a subject which they understand, will never act wrong. Our duty calls us to act worthy of the age and the country that gave us birth. Every possible encouragement for great and generous exertions is presented before us. The natural resources are inconceivably various and great. The enterprising genius of the people promises a most rapid improve- ment in all the arts that embellish human nature. The blessings of a rational government will invite emigrations from the rest of the world and fill the empire with the worthiest and happiest of mankind ; while the example of political wisdom and sagacity, here to be displayed, will excite emulation through the kingdoms of the earth, and meliorate the condition of the human race. On the 4th of July, six years later, at Boston, John Quincy Adams, with equal wisdom and faith, placed on record his own convictions as to the value of the results, realized and prospec- tive. ADDRESS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. (July 4, 1793.) Americans ! let us pause for a moment to consider the situation of our country at that eventful day when our national existence commenced. In the full possession and enjoyment of all those prerogatives for which you then dared to adventure upon " all the varieties of untried being," the calm and settled moderation of the mind is scarcely competent to conceive the tone of heroism to which the souls of freemen were exalted in that hour of perilous magnanimity. Seventeen times has the sun, in the progress of his annual revolutions, diffused his prolific radiance over the plains of independent America. Millions of hearts, which then palpitated with the rapturous glow of patri- otism, have already been translated to brighter worlds ; to the abodes of more than mortal freedom. Other millions have arisen, to receive from their parents and benefactors the inestimable recompense of their achievements. A large proportion of the audience, whose benevolence is at this moment listening to the speaker of the day, like him, were at that period too little advanced beyond the threshold of life to partake of the divine enthusiasm which inspired the American bosom ; which prompted her voice to proclaim defiance to the thunders of Britain ; which consecrated the banners of her armies ; and finally erected the holy temple of American Liberty over the tomb of departed tyranny. It is from those who have already passed the meridian of life ; it is from you, ye venerable assertors of the rights of mankind, that we are to be informed what were the feelings which swayed within your breasts and 264 PATRIOTIC READER. impelled you to action ; when, like the stripling of Israel, with scarcely a weapon to attack, and without a shield for your defence, you met and, undis- mayed, engaged with the gigantic greatness of the British power. Untutored in the disgraceful science of human butchery ; destitute of the fatal materials which the ingenuity of man has combined to sharpen the scythe of death ; unsupported by the arm of any friendly alliance, and un- fortified against the powerful assaults of an unrelenting enemy, you did not hesitate at that moment, when your coasts were infested by a formidable fleet, when your territories were invaded by a numerous and veteran army, to pronounce the sentence of eternal separation from Britain, and to throw the gauntlet at a power, the terror of whose recent triumphs was almost co- extensive with the earth. The interested and selfish propensities which, in times of prosperous tran- quillity, have such powerful dominion over the heart, were all expelled, and in their stead the public virtues, the spirit of personal devotion to the com- mon cause, a contempt of every danger, in comparison with the subserviency of the country, had assumed an unlimited control. The passion for the public had absorbed all the rest, as the glorious lumi- nary of heaven extinguishes, in a flood of refulgence, the twinkling splendor of every inferior planet. Those of you, my countrymen, who were actors in those interesting scenes will best know how feeble and impotent is the language of this description, to express the impassioned emotions of the soul with which you were then agitated. Yet it were injustice to conclude from thence, or from the greater preva- lence of private and personal motives in these days of calm serenity, that your sons have degenerated from the virtues of their fathers. Let it rather be a subject of pleasing reflection to you that the generous and disinterested energies which you were summoned to display, are permitted, by the bounti- ful indulgence of heaven, to remain latent in the bosoms of your children.. From the present prosperous appearance of our public affairs, we may admit a rational hope that our country will have no occasion to require of us those extraordinary and heroic exertions, which it was your fortune to exhibit. But from the common versatility of all human destiny, should the pros- pect hereafter darken, and the clouds of public misfortune thicken to a tem- pest ; should the voice of our country's calamity ever call us to her relief, we swear, by the precious memory of the sages who toiled and of the heroes who bled in her defence, that we will prove ourselves not unworthy of the prize which they so dearly purchased ; that we will act as the faithful disciples of those who so magnanimously taught us the instructive lesson of republican virtue. On the twentioth anniversary of American independence John Lathrop delivered an oration at Boston, drawing even a brighter picture of the future, and a clearer outline of the struggle which the day honored. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 265 EXTRACT FROM ADDRESS OF JOHN LATHROP. (July 4, 1796.) In the war for independence America had hut one object in view, for in independence are concentrated and condensed every blessing that makes life desirable, every right and privilege which can tend to the happiness, or secure the native dignity, of man. In the attainment of independence were all their passions, their desires, and their powers engaged. The intrepidity and magnanimity of their armies, the wisdom and inflexible firmness of their Congress, the ardency of their patriotism, their unrepining patience when assailed by dangers and perplexed with aggravated misfortunes, have long and deservedly employed tbe pen of panegyric and the tongue of oratory. Through the whole Revolutionary conflict a consistency and systematic regularity were preserved, equally honorable as extraordinary. The unity of design and classically correct arrangement of the series of incidents which completed the epic story of American independence, were so wonderful, so well wrought, that political Hypercriticism was abashed at the mighty pro- duction, and forced to join her sister, Envy, in applauding the glorious composition. On the last page of Fate's eventful volume, with the raptured ken of prophecy, I behold Columbia's name recorded, her future honors and happi- ness inscribed. In the same important book, the approaching end of tyranny and the triumph of right and justice are written, in indelible characters. The struggle will soon be over ; the tottering thrones of despots will quickly fall, and bury their proud incumbents in their massy ruins. " Then Peace on earth shall hold her easy sway, And man forget his brother man to slay. To martial arts shall milder arts succeed ; Who blesses most shall gain th' immortal meed. The eye of pity shall be pained no more With Vict'ry's banners stained with human gore. Thou glorious era, come ! Hail, blessed time When full-orbed Freedom shall unclouded shine ; When the chaste Muses, cherished by her rays, In olive grove shall tune their sweetest lays ; When bounteous Ceres shall direct her car O'er fields now blasted by the fires of war, And angels view, with joy and wonder joined, The golden age returned to bless mankind." 266 PATRIOTIC READER. COLUMBIA. Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise ; The queen of the world and the child of the skies ; Thy genius commands thee ; with rapture behold, While ages on ages thy splendoi-s unfold. Thy reign is the last and the noblest of time, Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime ; Let the crimes of the East ne'er encrimson thy name, Be freedom, and science, and virtue, thy fame. To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire, Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire ; Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend, And triumph pursue them, and glory attend. A world is thy realm : for a world be thy laws, Enlarged as thine empire, and just as thy cause ; On freedom's broad basis thy empire shall rise, Extend with the main, and dissolve with the skies. Fair Science her gates to thy foes shall unbar, And the east see thy morn hide the beams of her star: New bards, and new sages, unrivalled shall soar To fame unextinguished, when time is no more ; To thee, the last refuge of virtue designed, Shall fly from all nations the best of mankind ; Here, grateful to heaven, with transport shall bring Their incense, more fragrant than odors of Bpring. Nor less shall thy fair ones to glory ascend, And genius and beauty in harmony blend ; The graces of form shall awake pure desire, And the charms of the soul ever cherish the fire ; Their sweetness unmingled, their manners refined, And virtue's bright image, enstamped on the mind, With peace, and soft rapture, shall teach life to glow, And light up a smile in the aspect of woe. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 267 Thy fleets to all regions thy power shall display, The nations admire, and the ocean obey ; Each shore to thy glory its tribute unfold, And the East and the South yield their spices and gold. As the day-spring unbounded, thy splendor shall flow, And earth's little kingdoms before thee shall bow, While the ensigns of union, in triumph unfurled, Hush the tumult of war and give peace to the world. Thus, as down a lone valley, with cedars o'erspread, From war's dread confusion I pensively strayed ; The gloom from the face of fair Heaven retired ; The winds ceased to murmur; the thunders expired; Perfumes, as of Eden, flowed sweetly along, And a voice, as of angels, enchantingly sung, " Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world and the child of the skies." Timothy Dwight. THEORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. The Parliament of Great Britain asserted a right to tax the colonies in all cases whatsoever; and it was precisely on this question that they made the Revolution turn. The amount of taxation was trifling, but the claim itself was inconsistent with liberty ; and that was, in their eyes, enough. It was against the recital of an Act of Parliament, rather than against any suffer- ings under its enactments, that they took up arms. They went to war against a Preamble. They fought seven years against a Declaration. They poured out treasure and their blood like water, in a contest in opposition to an assertion which those less sagacious and not so well schooled in the principles of civil liberty would have regarded as barren phraseology or mere parade of words. They saw in the claim of the British Parlia- ment a seminal principle of mischief, the germ of unjust power ; they detected it, dragged it forth from underneath its plausible disguises, struck at it, nor did it elude either their steady eye or 268 PATRIOTIC READER. their well-directed blow, till they had extirpated and destroyed it, to the smallest fibre. On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Eome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared ; a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her posses- sions and military posts; whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth daily with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. Daniel Webster. THE EXAMPLE OP OUR FOREFATHERS. The instructive lesson of history, teaching by example, can nowhere be studied with more profit, or with a better promise, than in the Revolutionary period of America ; and especially by us, who sit under the tree our fathers planted, enjoy its shade, and are nourished by its fruits. But little is our merit, or gain, that we applaud their deeds, unless we emulate their virtues. Love of county was, in them, an absorbing principle, an undi- vided feeling ; not of a fragment, a section, but of the whole country. Union was the arch on which they raised the strong tower of a nation's independence. Let the arm be palsied that would loosen one stone in the basis of this fair structure, or mar its beauty; the tongue mute that would dishonor their names by calculating the value of that which they deemed without price ! They have left us an example already inscribed in the world's memory; an example portentous to the aims of tyranny in every land; an example that will console, in all ages, the droop- ing aspirations of oppressed humanity. They have left us a written charter, as a legacy, and as a guide to our course. But every day convinces us that a written charter may become powerless. Ignorance may misinterpret it ; ambition may assail and faction destroy its vital parts-, and aspiring knavery may SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 269 at last sing its requiem on the tomb of departed liberty. It is the spirit which lives ; in this are our safety and our hope, — the spirit of our fathers ; and while this dwells deeply in our re- membrance, and its flame is cherished, ever burning, ever pure, on the altar of our hearts, — while it incites us to think as they have thought, and do as they have done, — the honor and the praise will be ours, to have preserved unimpaired the rich in- heritance which they so nobly achieved. Jared Sparks. THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT. Why is the experiment of an extended republic to be re- jected merely because it may comprise what is new? Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other na- tions, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lesson of their own experience ? To this manly spirit posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example, of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre in favor of private rights and public happiness. Had no im- portant step been taken by the leaders of the Revolution for which a precedent could not be discovered, — no government established of which an exact model did not present itself, — the people of the United States might, at this moment, have been numbered among the melancholy victims of misguided councils ; must, at best, have been laboring under the weight of some of those forms which have crushed the liberties of the rest of mankind. Happily for America, — happily, we trust, for the whole human race, — they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared the fabric of governments which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great confederacy, which it is in- cumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate. If 270 PATRIOTIC READER. their works betray imperfections, we wonder at the fewness of them. If they erred most in the structure of the Union, this was the most difficult to be executed ; this is the work which has been new-modelled by the act of your Convention, and it is that act on which you are now to deliberate and to decide. James Madison. THE GOVERNMENT OP THE PEOPLE. The sovereignty of the people is the basis of our system. With the people the power resides both theoretically and practi- cally. The government is a determined, uncompromising democ- racy, administered immediately by the people, or by the people's responsible agents. In all the European treatises on political economy, and even in the state papers of the Holy Alliance, the welfare of the people is acknowledged to be the object of govern- ment. We believe so too ; but as each man's interests are safest in his own keeping, so, in like manner, the interests of the people can be best guarded by themselves. If the institution of mon- archy were neither tyrannical nor oppressive, it should at least be dispensed with as a costly superfluity. We believe the sovereign power should reside equally among the people. We acknowledge no hereditary distinctions, and we confer on no man prerogatives or peculiar privileges. Even the best services rendered the state cannot destroy this original and essential equality. Legislation and justice are not hereditary offices ; no one is born to power, no one dandled into political greatness. Our government, as it rests for support on reason and our interests, needs no protection from a nobility ; and the strength and ornament of the land consist in its industry and morality, its justice and intelligence. The States of Europe are all intimately allied with the Church and fortified by religious sanctions. We approve of the influence of the religious principle on public not less than on private life ; but wo hold religion to be an affair between each individual con- science and God, superior to all political institutions and inde- pendent of them. Christianity was neither introduced nor re- SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 271 formed by the civil power ; and with us the modes of worship are in no wise prescribed by the State. Thus, then, the people governs, and solely ; it does not divide its power with a hierarchy, a nobility, or a king. The popular voice is all-powerful with us ; this is our oracle, and this, we acknowledge, is the voice of God. Invention is solitary, but who shall judge of its results? Inquiry may pursue truth apart, but who shall decide if truth be overtaken ? There is no safe criterion of opinion but the careful exercise of the public judgment; and in the science of government, as elsewhere, the deliberate convictions of mankind, reasoning on the cause of their own happiness, their own wants and interests, are the surest revelations of political truth. George Bancroft. NECESSITY OP THE UNION. Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government; and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers. It is well worthy of consideration, therefore, whether it would conduce more to the interest of the people of America that they should, to all general purposes, be one nation, under one federal government, than that they should divide themselves into sepa- rate confederacies, and give to the head of each the same kind of powers which they are advised to place in one national gov- ernment. It is worthy of remark, that not only the first but every suc- ceeding Congress, as well as the late Convention, have invariably joined with the people in thinking that the prosperity of America depends on its Union. To preserve and perpetuate the Union was the great object of the people in forming that Convention ; and it is also the great object of the plan which the Convention has advised them to adopt. 272 PATRIOTIC READER. With what propriety, therefore, or for what good purposes, are attempts at this particular period made by some men to de- preciate the importance of the Union ? or why is it suggested that three or four confederacies would be better than one ? I am persuaded in my own mind, that the people have always thought right on this subject, and that their universal and uni- form attachment to the cause of the Union rests on great and weighty reasons. Those persons who promote the idea of substituting a number of distinct confederacies, in the room of the plan of the Conven- tion, seem clearly to foresee that the rejection of it would put the continuance of the Union in the utmost jeopardy. That certainly would be the case ; and I sincerely wish that it may be as clearly foreseen by every good citizen, that when- ever the dissolution of the Union arrives, America will have reason to exclaim, in the words of the poet, " Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness !" John Jat. (1788.) THE NATURE OP THE UNION. Our fathers were, by every circumstance surrounding their homes, by their relations to each other, and by their own ex- pressed assent, one people ; separated, it is true, into thirteen several municipal organizations, having in many respects diverse interests, but still not the less in mind, in heart, and in destiny, one. You and I are descendants of that people ; and I ask you if it is not true — if you do not in your hearts know it to be true — that when, in the incipient stages of the revolution through which they were called to struggle, they magnanimously put aside all local differences and jealousies, and with one impulse combined their efforts, their fortunes, their lives, their all, against fearful odds, for the redress of their common grievances at the hands of the mother-country, and for the independence which they resolved to achieve, they evoked an already-existing feeling of unity, and did, in the very essence of the term, form a full, SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 273 unreserved, and practical union of the people, intended by them- selves to be perpetual ? Did they not, as perfectly as any people ever did, constitute and declare themselves a single and undi- vided nation ? Is there in all history an instance of such a union among a people who did not feel themselves to be, in every im- portant particular, the same people? Why, even before the Union was a fact in history, the feeling in the North in refer- ence to it was expressed by James Otis, one of the leading patriots of Massachusetts, in the Convention of 1765, in the hope that a union would be formed which should " knit and work to- gether into the very blood and bones of the original system, every region, as fast as settled;" and from distant South Carolina, great- hearted Christopher Gadsden answered back, " There ought to be no New-England man, no New-Yorker, known on the continent, but all- of us Americans." And in the very hour of the Union's birth-throes, Patrick Henry flashed upon the Congress of 1774 these lightning words : " All America is thrown into one mass. Where are your landmarks, — your boundaries of colonies ? They are all thrown down. The distinctions between Virginians, Penn- sylvanians, New-Yorkers, and New-Englanders are no more. I am not a Yirginian, but an American." And when, after the Union was a recorded and mighty fact in history, the united people, through their Congress, organized the first form of gov- ernment for the new-born nation, they solemnly wrote down in the articles of their confederation, "The Union shall be per- petual." Charles Daniel Drake. (1861.) THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such, because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered ; and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic 18 274 PATRIOTIC READER. government, being incapable of any other. I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better constitution. For when j^ou assemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, sir, to lind this system approaching so near to perfection as it does ; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our counsels are confounded, like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet, hereafter, for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that this is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us, in returning to his constituents, were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects and great advantages resulting naturally in our favor, among foreign nations, as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength and efficacy of airy government, in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of that government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope, therefore, that for our own sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of our posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recom- mending this Constitution, wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered. Benjamin Franklin. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 275 A REPUBLIC THE STRONGEST GOVERNMENT. (Extract from First Inaugural Address after the bitter Presidential canvass in 1800.) The contest being now decided by tbe voice of tbe nation, and announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convul- sions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of in- furiated man, seeking, through blood and slaughter, his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore ; that this should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety : but, every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. "We have called, by different names, brethren of the same prin- ciple. We are all republicans : we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand, undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong, — that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experi- ment, abandon a government which has, so far, kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this govern- ment, the world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, to be the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the stand- 276 PATRIOTIC READER. ard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others ? Let history answer this question. Thomas Jefferson. AMERICAN LIBERTY IS REASONABLE AND JUST. To the Anglo-Saxon mind, liberty is not apt to be the enthu- siast's mountain nymph, with cheeks wet with morning dew, and clear eyes that mirror the heavens ; but rather is she an old dowager lady, fatly invested in commerce and manufactures, and peevishly fearful that enthusia'sm will reduce her establish- ment, and panics cut off her dividends. Our political institutions, again, are but the body, of which liberty is the soul ; their preservation depends upon their being continually inspired by the light and heat of the sentiment and idea whence they sprung, and when we timorously suspend, ac- cording to the latest political fashion, the truest and dearest maxims of our freedom to the call of expediency or threat of passion ; when we convert politics into a mere game of interest, unhallowed by a single great or unselfish principle, we may be sure that our worst passions are busy "forging our fetters;" that we are proposing all those intricate problems which red republicanism so swiftly solves, and giving manifest destiny per- tinent hints, to shout new anthems of atheism over victorious rapine. The liberty which our fathers planted, and for which they sturdily contended, and under which they grandly conquered, is a rational, and temperate, but brave and unyielding freedom ; the august mother of institutions ; the hardy nurse of enter- prise ; the sworn ally of justice and order ; a liberty that lifts her awful and rebuking face equally upon the cowards who would sell, and the braggarts who would pervert, her precious gifts of rights and obligations. This liberty we are solemnly bound, at all hazards, to protect ; at any sacrifice to preserve ; and by all just means to extend, against the unbridled excesses of that ugly and brazen hag, SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 277 originally scorned and detested by those who unwisely gave her infancy a home, but which now, in her enormous growth and favored deformity, reels with blood-shot eyes, and dishev- elled tresses, and words of unshamed slavishness, into halls where Liberty should sit enthroned. Edwin Percy Whipple. AMERICAN RESPONSIBILITY MEASURED. When we reflect on what has been, and is, how is it possible not to feel a profound sense of the responsibleness of this re- public to all future ages! What vast motives press upon us for lofty efforts ! What brilliant prospects invite our enthusi- asm ! What solemn warnings at once demand our vigilance and moderate our confidence ! The Old World has already revealed to us, in its unsealed books, the beginning and end of all its own marvellous struggles in the cause of liberty. Greece, lovely Greece, " the land of scholars and the nurse of arms," where sister republics, in fair procession, chanted the praises of liberty and the gods, where and what is she ? For two thousand years the oppressor has bound her to the earth. Her arts are no more. The last sad relics of her temples are but the barracks of a ruthless soldiery ; the fragments of her columns, and her palaces, are in the dust, yet beautiful in ruin. She fell not when the mighty were upon her. Her sons were united at Ther- mopylae and Marathon ; and the tide of her triumph rolled back upon the Hellespont. She was conquered by her own factions. She fell by the hands of her own people. The man of Mace- donia did not the work of destruction. It was already done, by her own corruptions, banishments, and dissensions. Rome, republican Rome, whose eagles glanced in the rising and setting sun, where and what is she ? The Eternal City yet remains, proud even in her desolation, noble in her decline, venerable in the majesty of religion, and calm as in the com- posure of death. The Malaria has but travelled in the paths worn by her destroyers. More than eighteen centuries have 278 PATRIOTIC READER. mourned over the loss of her empire. A mortal disease was upon her vitals before Caesar had crossed the Kubicon. The Goths, and Vandals, and Huns, the swarms of the North, com- pleted only what was already begun at home. Eomans betrayed Rome. The legions were bought and sold, but the people offered the tribute-money. And where are the republics of modern times, which clustered round immortal Italy? Venice and Genoa exist but in name. The Alps, indeed, look down upon the brave and peaceful Swiss in their native fastnesses; but the guarantee of their freedom is in their weakness, and not in their strength. The mountains are not easily crossed, and the valleys are not easily retained. When the invader comes, he moves like an avalanche, carrying destruction in his path. The peasantry sink before him. The country is too poor for plunder, and too rough for valuable con- quest. Nature presents her eternal barriers, on every side, to check the wantonness of ambition ; and Switzerland remains, with her simple institutions, a military road to fairer climates, scarcely worth a permanent possession, and protected by the jealousy of her neighbors. "We stand the latest, and, if we fail, probably the last, ex- periment of self-government by the people. We have begun it under circumstances of the most auspicious nature. We are in the vigor of youth. Our growth has never been checked by the oppressions of tyranny. Our constitutions have never been en- feebled by the vices or luxuries of the Old World. Such as we are, we have been from the beginning, — simple, hardy, intel- ligent, accustomed to self-government and self-respect. The Atlantic rolls between us and any formidable foe. Within our own territory, stretching through many degrees of latitude and longitude, we have the choice of many products and many means of independence. The government is mild. The press is free. Religion is free. Knowledge reaches, or may reach, every home. What fairer prospect of success could be presented? What means more adequate- to accomplish the sublime end ? What more is necessary than for the people to preserve what they themselves have created ? Already has the age caught the spirit of our institutions. It has already ascended the Andes and snuffed the breezes of both SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 279 oceans. It has infused itself into the life-blood of Europe, and warmed the sunny plains of France and the low lands of Hol- land. It has touched the philosophy of Germany and the North, and, moving onward to the South, has opened to Greece the lessons of her better days. Can it be that America, under such circumstances, can betray herself? that she is to be added to the catalogue of republics. the inscription upon whose ruins is, " They were, but they are not" ? Forbid it, my countrymen ! forbid it, Heaven ! I call upon you, fathers, by the shades of your ancestors, by the dear ashes which repose in this precious soil, by all you are and all you hope to be, resist every project of disunion, resist every encroachment upon your liberties, resist every attempt to fetter your consciences, or smother your public schools, or ex- tinguish your s} T stem of public instruction. I call upon you, young men, to remember whose sons you are, whose inheritance you possess. Life can never be too short, which brings nothing but disgrace and oppression. Death never comes too soon, if necessary in defence of the liberties of your country. I call upon you, old men, for your counsels, and your prayers, and your benedictions. May not your gray hairs go down in sorrow to the grave with the recollection that j^ou have lived in vain ! May not your last sun sink in the west upon a nation of slaves ! No, I read in the destiny of my country far better hopes, far brighter visions. We who are now assembled here must soon be gathered to the congregation of other days. The time of our departure is at hand, to make way for our children upon the theatre of life. May God speed them and theirs ! May he who, at the distance of another century, shall stand hei'e to celebrate this day, still look upon a free, happy, and virtuous people! May he have reason to exult as we do! May he. with all the enthu- siasm of truth, as well as of poetry, exclaim that here is still his country ! — " Zealous, yet modest ; innocent, though free ; Patient of toil, serene amidst alarms ; Inflexible in faith, invincible in arms." Joseph Story. 280 PATRIOTIC REAI>ER. AMERICAN LIBERTY ON A PERMANENT BASIS. The election of a chief magistrate by the mass of the people of an extensive community was, to the most enlightened nations of antiquity, an impossibility. Destitute of the art of printing, they could not have introduced the representative principle into their political systems even if they had understood it. In the very nature of things, that principle can only be coextensive with popular intelligence. In this respect the art of printing, more than any invention since the creation of man, is destined to change and elevate the political condition of society. It has given a new impulse to the energies of the human mind, and opens up new and brilliant destinies to modern republics, which were utterly unattainable by the ancients. The existence of a country population, scattered over a vast extent of territory, as intelligent as the population of the cities, is a phenomenon which was utterly and necessarily unknown to the free states of antiquity. All the intelligence which controlled the destiny and upheld the dominion of republican Rome was confined to the walls of the great city. Even when her dominion extended beyond Italy, to the utmost known limits of the inhabited world, the city was the exclusive seat both of intelligence and empire. Without the art of printing, and the consequent advantages of a free press, that habitual and incessant action of mind upon mind, which is essential to all human improvement, could no more exist among a numerous scattered population, than the commerce of disconnected continents could traverse the ocean without the arts of navigation. Here, then, is the source of our superiority and our just pride as a nation. The statesmen of the remotest extremes of the Union can converse together like the philosophers of Athens in the same portico, or the politicians of Rome in the same forum. Distance is overcome, and the citi- zens of Georgia and Maine can be brought to co-operate in the same great object, with as perfect a community of views and feelings as actuated the tribes of Rome in the assemblies of the people. It is obvious that liberty has a more extensive and durable foundation in the United States than it ever has had in any SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OP AMERICANS. 281 other age or country. By the representative principle, a princi- ple unknown and impracticable among the ancients, the whole mass of society is brought to operate in constraining the action of power and in the conservation of liberty. George McDuffie. AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP AND ITS DUTIES. It behooves us to look our perils and difficulties, such as they are, in the face. Then, with the exercise of candor, calmness, and fortitude, being able to comprehend fully their character and extent, let us profit by the teachings of almost every page in our annals, that any defects, under our existing system, have resulted more from the manner of administering it than from its substance or form. We less need new laws, new institutions, or new powers, than we need, on all occasions, at all times, and in all places, the requisite intelligence concerning the true spirit of our present ones ; the high moral courage, under every hazard and against every offender, to execute with fidelity the authority already possessed ; and the manly independence to abandon all supine- ness, irresolution, vacillation, and time-serving pusillanimity, and enforce our present mild system with that uniformity and steady vigor, throughout, which alone can supply the place of the greater severity of less free institutions. To arm and encourage us in renewed efforts to accomplish everything on this subject which is desirable, our history con- stantly points her finger to a most efficient resource, and indeed to the only elixir, to secure a long life to any popular govern- ment, in increased attention to useful education and sound morals, with the wise description of equal measures and just practices they inculcate, on every leaf of recorded time. Be- fore their alliance, the spirit of misrule will always, in time, stand rebuked, and those who worship at the shrine of unhal- lowed ambition must quail. Storms, in the political atmosphere, may occasionally happen, by the encroachments of usurpers, the corruption or intrigues 282 PATRIOTIC READER. of demagogues, or in the expiring agonies of faction, or by the sudden fury of popular frenzy; but, with the restraints and salu- tary influences of the allies before described, these storms will purify as healthfully as they often do in the physical world, and cause the tree of liberty, instead of falling, to strike its roots deeper. In this struggle the enlightened and moral possess also a power, auxiliary and strong, in the spirit of the age, which is not only with them, but onward, in everything to ameliorate or improve. When the struggle assumes the form of a contest with power, in all its subtlety, or with undermining and corrupting w T ealth, as it sometimes may, rather than with turbulence, sedition, or open aggression by the needy and desperate, it will be indis- pensable to employ still greater diligence; to cherish earnest- ness of purpose, resoluteness in conduct; to apply hard and constant blows to real abuses, rather than milk-and-water reme- dies, and encourage not only bold, free, and original thinking, but determined action. In such a cause, our fathers were men whose hearts were not accustomed to fail them through fear, however formidable the obstacles. Some of them were companions of Cromwell, and imbued deeply with his spirit and iron decision of character, in whatever they deemed right. . . . We are not, it is trusted, such degenerate descendants as to prove recreant, and fail to defend, with gallantry and firmness as unflinching, all which we have either derived from them, or since added to the rich inheritance. At such a crisis, therefore, and iu such a cause, yielding to neither consternation nor despair, may we not all profit by the vehement exhortations of Cicero to Atticus ? — " If you are asleep, awake ; if you are standing, move ; if you are moving, run ; if you are running, fly." All these considerations warn us, the gravestones of almost every former republic warn us, that a high standard of moral rectitude, as well as of intelligence, is quite as indispensable to communities, in their public doings, as to individuals, if they would escape from either degeneracy or disgrace. Lkvi Woodbury. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 283 AMERICA'S TRUE GREATNESS. At present we behold only the rising of our sun of empire, — only the fair seeds and beginnings of a great nation. Whether that glowing orb shall attain to a meridian height, or fall sud- denly from its glorious sphere ; whether those prolific seeds shall mature into autumnal ripeness, or shall perish, yielding no harvest, depends on God's will and providence. But God's will and providence operate not by casualty or caprice, but by fixed and revealed laws. If we would secure the greatness set before us, we must find the way which those laws indicate, and keep within it. That way is new and all untried. We departed early — we departed at the beginning — from the beaten track of national ambition. Our lot was cast in an age of revolution, — a revolution which was to bring all mankind from a state of servitude to the exercise of self-government, — from under the tyranny of physical force to the gentle sway of opinion, — from under subjection to matter to dominion over nature. It was ours to lead the way, — to take up the cross of republi- canism and bear it before the nations, to fight its earliest battles, to enjoy its earliest triumphs, to illustrate its purifying and elevating virtues, and by our courage and resolution, our mod- eration and our magnanimity, to cheer and sustain its future followers through the baptism of blood and the martyrdom of fire. A mission so noble and benevolent demands a generous and self-denying enthusiasm. Our greatness is to be won by beneficence without ambition. We are in danger of losing that holy zeal. We are surrounded by temptations. Our dwellings become palaces, and our villages are transformed, as if by magic, into great cities. Fugitives from famine, and oppression, and the sword, crowd our shores, and proclaim to us that we alone are free, and great, and happy. Our empire enlarges. The continent and its islands seem ready to fall within our grasp, and more than even fabulous wealth opens under our feet. No public virtue can withstand, none ever encountered, such seductions as these. Our own virtue and moderation must be renewed and fortified, under circumstances so new and peculiar. Where shall we seek the influence adequate to a task so 284 PATRIOTIC READER. arduous as this? Shall we invoke the press and the pulpit? They only reflect the actual condition of the public morals, and cannot change them. Shall we resort to the executive author- ity ? The time has passed when it could compose and modify the political elements around it. Shall we go to the Senate? Conspiracies, seditions, and corruptions in all free countries have begun there. Where, then, shall we go to find an agency tbat can uphold and renovate declining public virtue ? "Where should we go but there, where all republican virtue begins and must end ? where the Promethean fire is ever to be rekindled until it shall finally expire ? where motives are formed and passions disciplined ? To the domestic fireside and humbler school, where the American citizen is trained. Instruct him there, that it will not be enough that he can claim for his country Lacedae- monian heroism, but that more than Spartan valor and more than Roman magnificence is required of her. Go, then, ye laborers in a noble cause ; gather the young Catholic and the young Protestant alike into the nursery of freedom, and teach them there, that, although religion has many and different shrines on which may be made the offering of a " broken spirit" which G-od will not despise, yet that their country has appointed only one altar and one sacrifice for all her sons, and that ambi- tion and avarice must be slain on that altar, for it is consecrated to humanity. William Henry Seward. AMERICA'S INTRINSIC STRENGTH. The enemies of popular right and power have been pointing to the dreadful proof which is afforded in America, that an ex- tended suffrage is a thing to be shunned, as the most calamitous thing possible to a country. I will not refer to the speeches that have dealt with this question in this manner, or to the newspapers which have so treated it. I believe now, that a great many people in this country are beginning to see that those who have been misleading them, for the last two or three years, have been profoundly dishonest or profoundly ignorant. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMEEICANS. 285 If I am to give my opinion upon it, I should say, that which has taken place in America within the last three years, affords the most triumphant answer to charges of this kind. Let us see the government of the United States. They have a suf- frage which is almost what here would be called a manhood suffrage. There are frequent elections, vote by ballot, and ten thousand, twenty thousand, and one hundred thousand persons vote at an election. Will anybody deny that the government at Washington, as regards its own people, is the strongest government in the world, at this hour? And for this simple reason : because it is based on the will, and the good will, of an instructed people. Look at its power ! I am not now discuss- ing why it is, or the cause which is developing this power ; but power is the thing which men regard, in these old countries, and which they ascribe mainly to European institutions; but look at the power which the United States have developed ! They have brought more men into the field, they have built more ships for their navy, they have shown greater resources, than any nation in Europe at this moment is capable of. Look at the order which has prevailed at their elections, at which, as you see by the papers, fifty thousand, or one hundred thou- sand, or two hundred and fifty thousand persons vote, in a given State, with less disorder than you have seen lately in three of the smallest boroughs in England. Look at their industry. Notwithstanding this terrific struggle, their agri- culture, their manufactures and commerce, proceed with an uninterrupted success. They are ruled by a President, chosen, it is true, not from some worn-out royal or noble blood, but from the people, and the one whose truthfulness and spotless honor have claimed him universal praise ; and now the country that has been vilified through half the organs "of the press in England, during the last three years, and was pointed out, too, as an example to be shunned, by many of your statesmen, — that country, now in mortal strife, affords a haven and a home for multitudes, flying from the burdens and the neglect of the old governments of Europe; and when this mortal strife is over, — when peace is restored, when slavery is destroyed, when the Union is cemented afresh, — for I would say, in the language of one of our own poets addressing his country, — 286 PATRIOTIC READER. " The grave's not dug where traitor hands shall lay, In fearful haste, thy murdered corse away," — then, Europe and England may learn that an instructed democ- racy is the surest foundation of government, and that education and freedom are the only sources of true greatness and true happiness among any people. John Bright. (1863.) AMERICA WITHOUT A PARALLEL. In all the attributes of a great, happy, and nourishing peo- ple, we stand without a parallel in the world. Abroad, we en- joy the respect and, with scarcely an exception, the friendship of every nation ; at home, while our government quietly, but efficiently, performs the sole legitimate end of political institu- tions, in doing the gi-eatest good to the greatest number, we present an aggregate of human prosperity surely not elsewhere to be found. How imperious, then, is the obligation imposed upon every citizen, in his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert himself in perpetuating a condition of things so singu- larly happy ! All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us, if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages Ave happen to possess. Position and climate, and the bounteous resources that nature has scattered with so liberal a hand, — even the diffused intelligence and elevated character of our people, — will avail us nothing, if we fail sacredly to up- hold those political institutions that were wisely and deliberately formed witb reference to every circumstance that could preserve, or might endanger, the blessings we enjoy. The thoughtful Cramers of our Constitution legislated for our country as they found it. Looking upon it with the eyes of statesmen and of patriots, they saw all the sources of rapid and wonderful pros- perity ; but they saw, also, that various habits, opinions, and institutions, peculiar to the various portions of so vast a region, were deeply fixed. Distinct Sovereignties were in actual exist- ence, whose coi-dial union was essential to the welfare and happi- SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 287 ness of all. Between many of them there Avas, at least to some extent, a real diversity of interests, liable to be exaggerated through sinister designs ; they differed in size, in population, in wealth, and in actual and prospective resources and power ; they varied in the character of their industry and staple pro- ductions ; and in some existed domestic institutions which, un- wisely disturbed, might endanger the harmony of the whole. Most carefully were all these circumstances weighed, and the foundations of the new government laid upon principles of reciprocal concession and equitable compromise. The jealousies which the smaller States might entertain of the power of the rest were allayed by a rule of representation confessedly unequal at the time, and designed forever to remain so. A natural fear that the broad scope of general legislation might bear upon and unwisely control particular interests, was counteracted by limits strictly drawn around the action of the Federal authority ; and to the people, and to the States, was left, unimpaired, their sovereign power over the innumerable subjects embraced in the internal government of a just republic, except- ing such only as necessarily appertain to the concerns of the whole Confederacy, or its intercourse, as a united community, with the other nations of the world. Martin Van Buren. AMERICA IN THE FRONT RANK OP NATIONS. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institu- tions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours ; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past, and gen- erations to come, hold us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal voices ; posterity calls out to us from the bosom of the future ; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes, — all, all conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relation which we sustain. "We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon us ; but by virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation of every good principle and every good habit, we may hope to enjoy the blessing through our day, and to leave it unimpaired to 288 PATRIOTIC READER. our children. Let us feel deeply how much, of what wo are and what we possess, we owe to this liberty and these insti- tutions of government. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil which yields bounteously to the hands of industry; the might}* and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and seas, and skies, to civilized man with- out society, without knowledge, without morals, without re- ligious culture? And how can these be enjoyed, in all their extent and all their excellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government ? Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us, there is not one of us here present, who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, experience in his own condition, and in the condition of those most near and dear to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty, and these institutions. Let us, then, acknowledge the blessing; let us feel it deeply and powerfully; let us cherish a strong affection for it, and resolve to maintain and perpetuate it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vain ; the great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted. The striking attitude, too, in which we stand to the world around us, a topic to which, I fear, I advert too often and dwell on too long, cannot be altogether omitted here. Neither individuals nor nations can perform their part well until they understand and feel its importance, and comprehend and justly appreciate all the duties belonging to it, It is not to inflate national vanity, nor to swell a light and empty feeling of self- importance ; but it is that we may judge justly of our situation, and of our own duties, that I earnestly urge this consideration of our position and our character among the nations of the earth. It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against the sun, that with America, and in America, a new era com- mences in human affairs. This era is distinguished by free representative governments, by entire religious liberty, by im- proved systems of national intercourse, by a newly awakened and an unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge thi-ough the community, such as has been be- SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMBRICAN8. 289 fore altogether unknown and unheard of. America, America, our country, our own dear and native land, is inseparably con- nected, last hound up, in fortune and by fate, with these great interests. If they fall, we fall with them; it' they stand, it will be because we have; upheld them. Let us contemplate, then, this connection which Kinds the prosperity of others to our own ; and let us manfully discharge all the duties which it imposes. It' we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers, Heaven will assisl us to canyon the work- of human liberty and human happiness. Auspicious omens cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our own firmament now shines brightly upon our path. Washington is in the clear upper sky. Those other stars have now joined the American constellation; they circle round their centre, and the heavens beam with new light. Beneath this illumination let us walk the course of lite, and a! its close devoutly com- mend our beloved country, the common parent of us all, to the Divine Benignity. Daniel Webster. AMERICA THE COLOSSUS OP THE NATIONS. Two ideas there are which, above all others, elevate and dig- nify a race, — the idea of God and country. How imperishable is the idea of counl ry ! How does it live within and ennoble I he heart in spite of persecution and trials, difficulties and dangers! After I wo thousand years of wandering, it makes the Jew a sharer in the glory of the prophets, the law-givers, the warriors and poets who lived in the morning of time. How does it toughen every fibre of an Englishman's frame, and imbue tin; spirit of a Frenchman with Napoleonic enthusiasm ! How does the German carry with him even the ' ; old house-furniture of the Rhine," surround himself with the sweet and tender associa- tions of "Fatherland;" and wheresoever he may he, the great names of German history shine like stars in tin; heaven above him! And the [rishman, though the political existence of his country is merged in a kingdom whose rule he may abhor, yet still do the chords of his heart vibrate responsive to the tones 19 290 PATRIOTIC READER. of the harp of Erin, and the lowly shamrock is dearer to his soul than the fame-crowning laurel, the love-breathing myrtle, or storm-daring pine. What is our country? Not alone the land and the sea, the lakes and rivers, and valleys and mountains ; not alone the people, their customs and laws ; not alone the memories of the past, the hopes of the future; it is something more than all these combined. It is a divine abstraction. You cannot tell what it is, but let its flag rustle above your head, you feel its living presence in your hearts. They tell us that our country must die ; that the sun and the stars will look down upon the great republic no more ; that already the black eagles of des- potism are gathering in our political sky ; that even now kings and emperors are casting lots for the garments of our national glory. It shall not be ! Not yet, not yet shall the nations lay the bleeding corpse of our country in the tomb ! If they could, angels would roll the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre ! It would burst the cerements of the grave and come forth a living presence, " redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled." Not yet, not yet shall the republic die ! The heavens are not dark- ened, the stones are not rent. It shall live, — it shall live, the embodiment of the power and majesty of the people. Baptized anew, it shall stand a thousand years to come, the colossus of the nations, — its feet upon the continents, its sceptre over the seas, its forehead among the stars. Newton Booth. AMERICA AN AGGREGATE OF NATIONS. Giant aggregate of nations, glorious whole, of glorious parts, Unto endless generations live united, hands and hearts ! Be it storm or summer weather, peaceful calm or battle jar, Stand in beauteous strength together, sister States, as now ye are! Every petty class-dissension, heal it up as quick as thought; Every paltry place-pretension, crush it as a thing of naught ; Let no narrow private treason your great onward progress bar, But remain, in right and reason, sister States, as now ye are! SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 291 Fling away absurd ambition ! people, leave that toy to kings ; Envy, jealousy, suspicion, — be above such grovelling things : In each other's joys delighted, all your hate be — joys of war, And by all means keep united, sister States, as now ye are ! Were I but some scornful stranger, still my counsel would be just; Break the band and all is danger, mutual fear and dark distrust ; But you know me for a brother, and a friend who speaks from far, Be as one, then, with each other, sister States, as now ye are ! If it seems a thing unholy, Freedom's soil by slaves to till, Yet be just! and sagely, slowly, nobly cure that ancient ill: Slowly, — haste is fatal ever; nobly, — lest good faith ye mar ; Sagely, — not in wrath, to sever, sister States, as now ye are ! Charmed with your commingled beauty, England sends the sig- nal round, "Every man must do his duty" to redeem from bonds the bound ! Then, indeed, your banner's brightness, shining clear from every star, Shall proclaim your uprightness, sister States, as now ye are ! So a peerless constellation may those stars forever blaze ! Three-and-ten times threefold nation, go ahead in power and prais Like the many-breasted goddess, throned on her Ephesian car, Be — one heart, in many bodies ! sister States, as now ye are ! Martin Farquhar Ttjpper. THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S HOPE. Our republic has long been a theme of speculation among the savans of Europe. They profess to have cast its horo- scope ; and fifty years was fixed upon by many as the utmost limit of its duration. But those years passed by, and beheld us a united and happy people; our political atmosjmere agi- 292 PATRIOTIC READER. tated by no storm, and scarce a cloud to obscure the serenity of our horizon; all of the present was prosperity, all of the future was hope. True, upon the day of that anniversary two venerable fathers of our freedom and of our country fell; but they sank calmly to rest, in the maturity of years and the fulness of time, and their simultaneous departure, on that day of jubilee, for another and a better world, was hailed by our nation as a propitious sign, sent to us from heaven. Wandering the othor day in the alcoves of the library, I accidentally opened a volume containing the orations delivered by many distinguished men on that solemn occasion, and I noted some expressions of a few who now sit in this hall, which are deep-fraught with the then prevailing, 1 may say, universal feeling. It is inquired by one, "Is this the etfect of accident, or blind chance, or has G-od, who holds in his hands the destiny of nations and of men, designed these things as an evidence of the permanence and perpetuity of our institutions?" Another says, "Is it not stamped with the seal of divinity?" And a third, descanting on the prospects, bright and glorious, which opened on our beloved country, says, "Auspicious omens cheer us !" Yet it would have required but a tinge of superstitious gloom to have drawn from that event darker forebodings of that which was to come. In our primitive wilds, where the order of nature is unbroken by the hand of man, there, where majes- tic trees arise, spread forth their branches, live out their age, and decline, sometimes will a patriarchal plant, which has stood for centuries the winds and storms, fall, when no breeze agitates a leaf of the trees that surround it. And when, in the calm stillness of a summer's noon, the solitary woodsman bears, on either hand, the heavy crash of huge, branchless trunks, fall- ing by their own weight to the earth whence they sprung, — prescient of the future, he foresees the whirlwind at hand, which shall sweej) through the forest, break ils strongest stems, upturn ils deepest roots, and strew in the dust its tallest, proudest heads. Bui I am none of those who indulge in gloomy anticipa- tion. I do not despair of the republic. My trust is strong that SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 293 the gallant ship, in which all our hopes are embarked, will yet outride the storm ; saved alike from the breakers and bil- lows of disunion, and the greedy whirlpool, the all-engulfing maelstrom of executive power ; that, unbroken, if not unharmed, she may pursue her prosperous voyage far down the stream of time ; and that the banner of our country, which now waves over us so proudly, will still float in triumph, borne on the wings of heaven, fanned by the breath of fame, every stripe bright and unsullied, every star fixed in its sphere, ages after each of us, now here, shall have ceased to gaze on its majestic folds forever. Thomas Ewing. AMERICA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD. What, it is asked, has this nation done to repay the world for the benefits we have received from others? Is it nothing for the universal good of mankind to have carried into" successful operation a system of self-government, uniting personal liberty, freedom of opinion, and equality of rights, with national power and dignity, such as had never before existed only in the Utopian dreams of philosophers ? Is it nothing, in moral science, to have anticipated, in sober reality, numerous plans of reform in civil and criminal jurisprudence, which are but now received as plau- sible theories by the politicians and economists of Europe ? Is it nothing to have been able to call forth, on every emergency, either in war or peace, a body of talents always equal to the difficulty ? Is it nothing to have, in less than half a century, exceedingly improved the sciences of political economy, of law, and of medicine, with all their auxiliary branches ; to have en- riched human knowledge by the accumulation of a great mass of useful facts and observations ; and to have augmented the power and the comforts of civilized man by miracles of mechani- cal invention ? Is it nothing to have given the world examples of disinterested patriotism, of political wisdom, of public virtue, of learning, eloquence, and valor, never exerted save for some praiseworthy end? it is sufficient to have briefly suggested 294 PATRIOTIC READER. these considerations ; every mind would anticipate me in filling up the details. No, Land of Liberty ! thy children have no cause to blush for thee. What though the arts have reared few monuments among us, and scarce a trace of the Muse's footstep is found in the paths of our forests, or along the banks of our rivers, yet our soil has been consecrated by the blood of heroes, and by great and holy deeds of peace. Its wide extent has become one vast temple and hallowed asylum, sanctified by the prayers and bless- ings of the persecuted of every sect and the wretched of all nations. Land of refuge, land of benedictions ! Those prayers still arise and they still are heard : " May peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces !" " May there be no decay, no leading into captivity, and no complaining in thy streets !" " May truth flourish out of the earth, and righteous- ness look down from heaven !" Gulian Crommelin Verplanck. AMERICAN ENTERPRISE OLDER THAN INDE- PENDENCE. (Address before Parliament, 1775.) For some time past, Mr. Speaker, the Old World has been fed from the New. The scarcity which you have felt would have been a desolating famine, if this child of your old age, if Amer- ica, with a true filial piety, with a Roman charity, had not put the full breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent. Turning from the agricultural resources of the colonies, consider the wealth which they have drawn from the sea, by their fisheries. Pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it? Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of New England have of late carried on the whale-fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits; whilst we are looking for them beneath the Arctic Circle, we hear that SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 295 they have pierced into the opposite region of Polar cold, — that they are at the Antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Ser- pent of the South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the Poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to then- toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterity and firm sagacity of English enter- prise, ever carried this most perilous mode of industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. When I contemplate these things ; that the colonies owe little or nothing to any care of ours ; that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of a watchful and suspicious government ; but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to per- fection, I feel all the pride of power sink and die away within me. My rigor relents ! I pardon something to the spirit of liberty ! John Wilkes. THE AMERICAN UNION A GEOGRAPHICAL NECESSITY. (Extract from Address at Randolph Macon College, Virginia, at Com- mencement, 1854.) The name " American," itself, is sufficient to inspire within the bosom of every one, who so proudly claims it, a holy zeal to preserve forever the endearing epithet. This Union must and will be preserved ! Division is impossible ! Mind has never con- ceived of the man equal to the task! Geographical lines can 296 PATRIOTIC READER. never separate the interests of the American people, can never dissever the ties which unite them. Each claims the beautiful lakes and flourishing cities of the North. Each claims t lie ex- truded prairies of the West and the rich productions of the sunny South. Each claims Massachusetts' patriot. Each claims Kentucky's sage. Who has not an inheritance in the ashes of Vernon's tomb ? New England as loudly and as affectionately proclaims him Father of his country, as does Virginia. New England never will relincpiish her claim ; Virginia, never, never suffer those ashes to be touched ! The Divine Architect of Nature, Himself, has said in His lofty mountains and majestic rivers, "Be united!" Observe their ranges and courses. The Blue Bidge, the Alleghany, and the Rocky Mountains all run north and south ; the great Mississippi with her vast tributaries, parallel with them, waters the whole extent. There must be design in all this. The ancient poets and philosophers pictured a far-off land, across the waters, a fairer abode, a land of equal rights and a happy people. This, surely, is that land ; and through this people the Supreme Legis- lator has decreed that the true principles of government shall be taught all mankind. And as the blue arch, above, is in beauty shown us, so surely will it span the mightiest domain that ever shook earth. As surely as art and labor are now adorning, and science ex- alting, a land which religion has sanctified and patriotism re- deemed, so surely will the Goddess <>!' Liberty yet walk abroad in the gardens of Europe, and to our country shall belong all the honor. Then, no longer will be obscure our resplendent and glorious Constitution ! No more will our bright escutcheon he tarnished ! No more will our banner droop; but, in his original strength and pride, the American eagle, pluming himself for loftier flights and brighter (dimes, shall, fearlessly, while gazing on the beauties and splendors of his country's flag, shriek the downfall of tyranny; and the longest, loudest, proudest shout of Freedom's sous, in honor of Freedom's triumph, shall he, — "The star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the five and the home of t lie brave!" Alexandkk IIoqg. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 297 UNION LINKED WITH LIBERTY. (From Inaugural Address, 1833.) Without union, our independence and liberty would never have been achieved ; without union, they can never be main- tained. The time at which I stand before you is full of interest. The eyes of all nations are fixed on our republic. The event of the existing crisis will be decisive, in the opinion of mankind, of the practicability of our federal system of government. Great is the stake placed in our hands ; great is the responsibility which must rest upon the people of the United States. Let us realize the importance of the attitude in which we stand before the world. Let us exercise forbearance and firmness. Let us ex- tricate our country from the dangers which surround it, and learn wisdom from the lessons they inculcate. Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, and under the obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I shall continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just powers of the Con- stitution, and to transmit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of our Federal Union. At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate, by my official acts, the necessity of exercising, by the General Government, those powers only that are clearly delegated ; to encourage sim- plicity and economy in the expenditures of the Government ; to raise no more money from the people than may be requisite for these objects, and in a manner that will best promote the interests of all classes of the community, and of all portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in mind that, in entering into society, indi- viduals must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest, it will be my desire so to discharge my duties as to foster with our brethren, in all parts of the country, a spirit of liberal con- cession and compromise; and by reconciling our fellow-citizens to those partial sacrifices which (hey must unavoidably make, for the preservation of a greater good, to recommend our inval- uable Government and Union to the confidence and affections of the American people. Finally, it is nry most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom now I stand, and who has 298 PATRIOTIC READER. kept us in his hands from the infancy of our republic to the present day, that he will so overrule all my intentions and actions, and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens, that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue for- ever a united and happy people. Andrew Jackson. LIBERTY AND UNION ONE AND INSEPARABLE. I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union that we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only bj^ the discipline of our virtues, in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of dis- ordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings ; and, although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of pre- serving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this govern- ment, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it should be broken up and destroyed. SPECIAL, OBLIGATIONS OP AMERICANS. 299 While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Be- yond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise ! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind ! When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dis- honored fragments of a once glorious Union ; on States dis- severed, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in tbeir original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured ; bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all this worth f nor those other words of delusion and folly, — Liberty first and Union afterwards ; but everywhere, spread all over in charac- ters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable I Daniel Webster. THE VALUE OF THE UNION. THE BATTLE OF NEW OPvLEANS. You cannot calculate the value of the Union ! The astrono- mer, from his observatory, may measure the disk of the sun, tell you his distance from the earth, describe the motion of his rays, and predict with positive certainty an eclipse, but he cannot compute the utility of heat, the blessings of light, nor the splen- dor and glory of the god of day. Who can calculate the value of constitutional liberty, — the blessings of a free press, free schools, and a free religion? Go and calculate the value of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the earth that we inhabit ! By what mathematical 300 PATRIOTIC READER. process will you calculate the value of national character? In what scales will you weigh political equality and the ballot-box? At what price would you sell American citizenship? What is self-government worth, — its freedom, happiness, and example? "Calculate the value of the Union ?" Look at the mighty Mississippi, the Father of Waters. It rises in the nameless snows of North America, runs through twenty-three degrees of latitude, all our own soil, and washes the sides of ten young, flourishing, and powerful States. Its tributaries drain the rains that fall in sight of the Atlantic, and meet the streams that How into the Pacific, upon the summit of the Eocky Mountains. Its broad tides bear on their buoyant bosom the clothing of half the world, and the fertile valleys which spread out from its ample banks are capable of producing food for the whole population of the earth, for a thousand years to come. On its eastern shore, near the Crescent City, you see some clusters of small orange-trees growing upon a broken embank- ment, and now and then an old but flourishing live-oak spreads its green branches over the damp soil. You are on the battle- field of New Orleans. You behold the field of the most re- markable victory ever won, and, as you ascend the mouldering intrench ment, the morning of the 8th of January, 1815, rises before you. Your hearts beat anxiously; you watch the serried columns of Packenham advance to the charge; you note the calm faces of Jackson's men ; you hear the rifle's peal, the din of musketry, the cannon's roar; you see the repulse, the retreat, the field of the dead and dying; you cross the moat, and as the smoke clears away, you count the fallen. The English have lost twenty-six hundred men on that field; the Americans have lost seven killed and six wounded. You remember no victory like it. The historian tells you, " It is a disproportion of loss unrecorded of any oilier bailie." You see the Flag of the Stars waving over you, and you feel your country in your veins! Stand upon the battle-ground of New Orleans, by the side of the greal Father of Waters, and tell me, if you can, what the Union is worth? These are its jewels. They shine brightly in a diadem whose full and radiant circle sparkles all over with glorious deeds. Mattiikw W. Hansom. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 301 OUR COUNTRY IS ONE GRAND POEM. Sir, I dare not trust myself to speak of my country with the rapture which I habitually feel when I contemplate her marvel- lous history. But this I will say, — that, on my return to it, after an absence of only four years, I was filled with wonder at all I saw and all I heard. What is to be compared with it? I found New York grown up to almost double its former size, with the air of a great capital, instead of a mere flourishing commercial town, as I had known it. I listened to accounts of voyages of a thousand miles, in magnificent steamboats, on the waters of those great lakes, which, but the other day, I left sleeping in the primeval silence of nature, in the recesses of a vast wilderness ; and I felt that there is a grandeur and a majesty in this irresistible onward march of a race, created, as I believe, and elected, to possess and people a continent, which belong to few other objects, either of the moral or material world. We may become so accustomed to such things that they shall make as little impression upon our minds as the glories of the heavens above us ; but, looking on them, lately, as with the eye of the stranger, I felt, what a recent English traveller is said to have remarked, that, far from being without poetry, as some have vainly alleged, our whole country is one great poem. Sir, it is so ; and if there be a man who can think of what is doing, in all parts of this most blessed of all lands, to embellish and advance it, — who can contemplate that living mass of in- telligence, activity, and improvement as it rolls on, in its sure and steady progress, to the uttermost extremities of the West, — who can see scenes of savage desolation transformed, almost with the suddenness of enchantment, into those of fruitfulness and beauty, crowned with flourishing cities, filled with the noblest of all populations, — if there be a man, I say, that can witness all this, passing under his very eyes, without feeling his heart beat high, and his imagination warmed and transported by it, be sure that the raptures of song exist not for him. Hugh Swinton Leqake. 'ATRIOTIC READER. VAST TERRITORY NO BAR TO UNION. Extent of country, in my conception, ought to be no bar to the adoption of a good government. No extent on earth seems to me too great, provided the laws be wisely made and executed. The principles of representation and responsibility may pervade a large as well as a small territory, and tyranny is as easily introduced into a small as into a large district. Union is the rock of our salvation. Our safety, our political happiness, our existence, depend on the union of these States. Without union, the people of this and the other States will undergo the un- speakable calamities which discord, taction, turbulence, war, and bloodshed, have continually produced in other countries. With- out union, we throw away all those blessings for which we have so earnestly fought! Without union, there is no peace in the land! The American spirit ought to be mixed with American pride, — pride to see the Union magnificently triumphant. Let that glorious pride which once defied the British thunder, reanimate you again. Let it not be recorded of Americans, that, after having performed the most gallant exploits, after having over- come the most astonishing difficulties, and after having gained the admiration of the world, by their incomparable valor and policy, they lost their acquired reputation, lost their national consequence and happiness, by their own indiscretion. Let no future historian inform posterity, that Americans wanted wis- dom and virtue to concur in any regular, efficient government. Catch the present moment ! Seize it with avidity ! It may be lost, never to be regained ; and if the Union be lost now, it will remain so forever. JonN Kaniioi.imi. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT A BOND OF UNION. On this subject of national power, what can bo more im- portant than a perfect unity in every part, in feelings and senti- ments ? And what can tend more powerfully to produce it than overcoming the effects of distance? No country enjoying free- SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 303 dom ever occupied anything like as great an extent of territory as this republic. One hundred years ago the most profound philosophers did not believe it to be even possible. They did not suppose it possible that a pure republic could exist on as great a scale even as the island of Great Britain. "What then was considered as chimerical, we have now the felicity to enjoy ; and, what is more remarkable, such is the happy mould of our government, so well are the State and gen- eral powers blended, that much of our political happiness draws its origin from the extent of our republic. It has exempted us from most of the causes which distracted the small republics of antiquity. Let it not, however, be forgotten, let it be forever kept in mind, that it exposes us to the greatest of all calamities, next to the loss of liberty, — even to disunion itself. We are great, and rapidly, T was about to say fearfully, grow- ing. This is our pride and our danger, our weakness and our strength. Little does he deserve to be intrusted with the liber- ties of this people who does not raise his mind to these truths. We are under the most imperious obligations to counteract every tendency to disunion. The strongest of all cement is, undoubt- edly, the wisdom, justice, and, above all, the moderation of this House ; yet the great subject on which we are now deliberating, in this respect, deserves the most serious consideration. "Whatever impedes the intercourse of the extremes with this, the centre of the republic, weakens the Union. The more en- larged the sphere of commercial circulation, the more extended that of social intercourse ; the more strongly we are bound to- gether, the more inseparable are our destinies. Those who understand the human heart best know how powerfully dis- tance tends to break the sympathies of our nature. Nothing, not even dissimilarity of language, tends more to estrange man from man. Let us, then, bind the republic together with a per- fect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space. It is thus, the most distant part of the republic will be brought within a few days' travel of the centre ; it is thus, that a citizen of the West will read the news of Boston, still moist from the John Caldwell Calhoun. 304 PATRIOTIC READER. THE SHIP OP STATE. Break up the Union of these States because there are acknowl- edged evils in our system? Is it so easy a matter, then, to make everything in the actual world conform exactly to the ideal pat- tern we have conceived, in our minds, of absolute right? Sup- pose the fatal blow were struck, and the bonds which fasten together these States were severed, would the evils and mis- chiefs that would be experienced by those who are actually members of this vast republican community be all that would ensue? Certainly not. We are connected with the several nations and races of the world as no other people has ever been connected. We have opened our doors and invited emigration to our soil from all lands. Our invitation has been accepted. Thousands have come at our bidding. Thousands more are on the way. Other thousands still are standing a-tiptoe on the shores of the Old- World, eager to find a passage to the land where bread may be had for labor, and where man is treated as man. In our political family almost all nations are represented. The several varieties of the race are here subjected to a social fusion, out of which Providence designs to form a "new man." We are in this way teaching the world a great lesson, — namely, that men of different languages, habits, manners, and creeds can live together, and vote together, and. if not pray and worship together, yet in near vicinity, and do all in peace, and be, for certain purposes at least, one people. And is not this lesson of some value to the world, especially it' we can teach it not by theory merely, but through a successful example? Has not this lesson, thus conveyed, some connection with the world's progress towards that far-off period to which (he human mind looks for t lie fulfilment of its vision of a perfect social stale? It may safely be asserted that this Union could not be dissolved without disarranging and convulsing every pari of the globe. Not in the indulgence of a vain confidence did our fathers build I he ship of Stall' and launch it upon the waters. We will ex- claim, in the noble words of one of our poets, — * * Longfellow. SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 305 " Thou too, sail on, ship of State ! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! Fear not each sudden sound and shock, — 'Tis of the wave and not the rock ; 'Tis but the napping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale I In spite of rock and tempest roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee ! Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, — are all with thee I" William Parsons Lunt. THE SOUTH IN THE REVOLUTION. If there be one State in the Union, and I say it not in a boast- ful spirit, that may challenge comparisons with any other, for an uniform, zealous, ardent, and uncalculating devotion to the Union, that State is South Carolina. From the very commencement of the Eevolution, up to this hour, there is no sacrifice, however great, she has not cheerfully made, no service she has ever hesitated to perform. She has adhered to you, in your prosperity ; but in your adversity she has clung to you with more than filial affection. No mailer what was the condition of her domestic affairs, though deprived of her resources, divided by parties, or surrounded by difficul- ties, the call of the country has been to her as the voice of God. Domestic discord ceased at the sound ; eveiy man became at 20 306 PATRIOTIC READER. once reconciled to his brethren, and the sons of Carolina were all seen crowding together to the temple, bringing their gifts to the altar of their common country. What was the conduct of the South during the Revolution ? I honor New England for her conduct in that glorious struggle. But, great as is the praise which belongs to her, I think at least equal honor is due to the South. They espoused the quarrel of their brethren with a generous zeal which did not sutler them to stop to calculate their interest in the dispute. Favorites of the mother-country, possessed of neither ships nor seamen to create a commercial rivalship, they might have found, in their situation, a guarantee that their tirade would be forever fostered and protected by Great Britain. But, trampling on all con- siderations, either of interest or of safety, they rushed into the conflict ; and, fighting for principle, perilled all in the sacred cause of freedom. Never was there exhibited in the history of the world higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suf- fering, and heroic endurance than by the "Whigs of Carolina during the Bevolution ! The whole State, from the mountains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force of the enemy. The fruits of industry perished on the spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. The " Plains of Caro- lina" drank up the most precious blood of her citizens. Black and smoking ruins marked the places which had been the habitations of her children. Driven from their homes, into the gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of liberty survived, and South Carolina, sustained by the example of her Sumters and her Marions, proved, by her conduct, that, though her soil might be overrun, the spirit of her people was invincible. Kobert Young Hayne. AMERICA'S GREETING TO ENGLAND. Alt. hail ! thou noble land. Our fathers' native soil ! O ! stretch thy mighty hand, Gigantic grown by toil, SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICANS. 307 O'er the vast Atlantic wave to our shore ! For thou, with magic might, Canst reach to where the light Of Phoebus travels bright The woi'ld o'er ! The genius of our clime, From pine-embattled steep, Shall hail the guest sublime ; While the tritons of the deep With their conchs the kindred league shall proclaim. Then let the world combine, — O'er the main, our naval line, Like the Milky Way, shall shine Bright in fame ! Though ages long have passed Since our fathers left their home, Their pilot in the blast, O'er untravelled seas to roam, — Yet lives the blood of England in our veins ! And shall we not proclaim That blood of honest fame, Which no tyranny can tame By its chains ? While the language free and bold, Which the bard of Avon sung, In which our Milton told How the vault of heaven rung, When Satan, blasted, fell with all his host, — While this, with reverence meet, Ten thousand echoes greet, From rock to rock repeat Bound our coast ; While the manners, while the arts, That mould a nation's soul, Still cling around our hearts, — Between let ocean roll, 308 PATRIOTIC READER. Our joint communion breaking with the Sun: Yet, still, from cither beach The voice of blood shall reach, More audible than speech, " We are One !" Washington Allston. AMERICA. O mother of a mighty race, Yet lovely in thy youthful grace ! The elder dames, thy haughty peers, Admire and hate thy blooming years ; With words of shame And taunts of scorn they join thy name. They know not, in their hate and pride, What virtues with thy children bide, — How true, how good, thy graceful maids Make bright, like flowers, the valley shades ; What generous men Spring, like thine oaks, by hill and glen. ***** * O fair young mother ! on thy brow Shall sit a nobler grace than now. Deep in the brightness of thy skies Tbe thronging years in glory rise, And, as they fleet, Drop strength and riches at thy feet. Thine eye with every coming hour Shall brighten, and thy fame shall tower; And when thy sisters, elder born, Would brand thy name with words of scorn, Before thine eye CTpon their li]>s the (aunt shall die. William Cullkn Bryant. PART IX. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. INTRODUCTION. "The imperishability op great examples" is the pledge of human progress and the inspiration of human hope. Incentive and warning alike leap out from the mists of the past to chal- lenge recognition, and, in return, impart to the present and the future a strengthened purpose and a firmer tread. Words as well as facts have thus blazed a path through all the centuries, to mark the pioneer work accomplished, leaving solid landmarks for our guidance and benefit. The voice of Edward Everett still rings in our ears : GREAT EXAMPLES. " To be cold and breathless, — to feel not, and speak not, — this is not the end of existence to the men who have breathed their spirits into the institu- tions of their country ; who have stamped their characters on the pillars of the age; who have poured their hearts' blood into the channels of the public prosperity I Tell me, ye who tread the sods of yon sacred height, is Warren dead ? Can you not see him, — not pale and prostrate, the blood of his gallant heart pouring out of his ghastly wound, but moving resplendent over the field of honor, with the rose of heaven upon his cheek and the fire of liberty in his eye? Tell me, ye who make your pious pilgrimage to the shades of Vernon, is Washington indeed shut up in that cold and narrow house ? That which made these men, and men like these, cannot die ! The hand that traced the charter of Independence is, indeed, motionless ; the eloquent lips that sustained it are hushed; but the lofty spirits that conceived, resolved, and maintained it, and which alone, to such men, 'make it life to live,' these cannot expire. ' These shall resist the empire of decay, When time is o'er and worlds have passed away; Cold in the dust the perished heart may lie, But that which warmed it once can never die.' " 310 PATRIOTIC READER. The poet Byron thus pays his meed of tribute to THE PROCREATIVE VIRTUE OF GREAT EXAMPLES. "We must forget all feelings save the one; We must resign all passions save our purpose ; We must behold no object save our count ry ; And only look on death as beautiful, So that the sacrifice ascend to heaven, And draw down Freedom on her evermore. But if we fail ? They never fail who die In a great cause. The block may soak their gore ; Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs Be strung to city gates and castle walls ; But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts Which overpower all others, and conduct The world at last to Freedom." It was in the spirit of such utterances as these that, when the greatest of New England's orators rested from life's work, the Boston Courier uttered its memorable words of mingled sad- ness and triumph : "WEBSTER STILL LIVES. " The arm that defended the Constitution is broken in death. The sun that has so long guided the steps of the nation is quenched. The great intellect which poured forth its treasures of truth and wisdom for the enlightenment of mankind has departed from us. The lips whose words were miracles, and which stirred the nation like the sound of a trumpet, are forever closed, for- ever silent. The great heart that embraced a whole people no longer throbs with the flood of life. All that was mortal of Daniel Webster has returned to dust; but his spirit remains among us; his fame can never die, nor the light of his great example, nor the lessons of wisdom he has taught us. Men die ; principles, never I " Our country has lost many gifted spirits, many strong intellects, many brave and devoted hearts, but since the day when George Washington was summoned from earth we have not been called upon to mourn the loss of one so truly great, so clearly destined to stamp his name and character upon the age, as Mr. Webster. He taught the American people not only to be great and powerful, but he taught them justice and honor, he taught them stead- fast principle and manly self-respect, enlarged patriotism, comprehensive PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 311 and true philanthropy. His teachings were for all time. A future age will render him the justice which was withheld from him in this. "The great statesman was great to the last. The light of that splendid intellect went out at full blaze. The strong sense, the clear thought, the firm self-possession, that have ever been the mental characteristics of Daniel Webster, remained with him to the hour of his death. He died at his post, with the cares of a nation on his hands, yet in full preparation for his great and last change. With a noble calmness of spirit he contemplated the sublime and solemn approach of the King of Terrors, and he passed into the bosom of eternity, sustained by all the hopes and confidence of a sincere Christian." The name of Simon Bolivar will be perpetually associated with the republics of South America, and that of Toussaint L'Ouver- ture with the independence of San Domingo ; but neither the military genius of Napoleon Bonaparte, nor his stirring appeals to his army, could awaken that pure spirit of patriotism which counts an assured peace as the only true glory of war. Now and then some master-mind comprehends the spirit of an age and its exemplar characters, so that he can reproduce age and characters in a form that will stand as a pyramid against time and tempest. On the 2d of August, 1826, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, during a memorial tribute to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Webster drew a vivid picture of the solemn deliberations at Philadelphia when the Declaration of American Independence was still pending. He saw John Hancock pre- side with impressive dignity. He heard the voice of some timid patriot, who shrank back from the awful responsibility of the hour. He merged the lapsed hours of more than half a century, and invoked the spirit of John Adams, through himself, to make reply. It is Webster who voices the utterance ; it is Adams who inspires the orator. SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS, JULY 4, 1776. " Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a divinity which shapes our ends. The injus- tice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest, for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the declaration ? Is any man so weak as now to hope for a 312 PATRIOTIC READER. reconciliation with England, which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life and his own honor? Are not you, sir, who sit in that chair; is not he, our venerable colleague near you; are you not both, already, the proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and of vengeance? Cut oft 1 from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws ? If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on, or to give up, the war? Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston Port-Bill and all? Do we mean to submit and consent that we ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. Do we intend to violate that most solemn obligation ever entered into by men, that plight- ing, before God, of our sacred honor to Washington, when, putting him forth to incur the dangers of war as well as the political hazards of the times, we promised to adhere to him, in every extremity, with our fortunes and our lives? I know there is not a man here who would not rather see a general conflagration sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to the ground. For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved you that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces raised, or to be raised, for defence of American liberty, may my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I hesitate or waver in the support I give him. The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off longer the declaration of independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. The nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowl- edge ourselves subjects, in arms against our sovereign. Nay, I maintain that England herself will sooner treat for peace with us on the footing of independence, than consent, by repealing her acts, to acknowledge that her whole conduct towards us has been a course of injustice and oppression. Her pride will be less wounded by submitting to that course of things which now predestinates our independence, than by yielding the points in controversy to her rebellious subjects. The former she would regard as the result of fortune; the latter she would feel as her own deep disgrace. Why, then, why, then, sir, do we not, as soon as possible, change this from a civil to a national war? And, since we must fight it through, why not put ourselves in a state to enjoy all the benefits of victory, if we gain the victory ? " If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. " I care not how tickle other people have been found. I know the people of these colonies ; and I know that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 313 has expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life. Bead this declaration at the head of the army ; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to main- tain it, or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit ; re- ligion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it or fall with it. Send it to the public halls ; proclaim it there ; let them hear it, who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon ; let them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, — and the very walls will cry out in its support. " Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs ; but I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this declaration shall be made good. "We may die ; die, colonists ; die, slaves ; die, it may be, ignominiously, and on the scaffold. Be it so ! Be it so ! If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the ap- pointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. " But, whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, that this declara- tion will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood ; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with fes- tivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I be- lieve the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment : — independence now, and independence forever!" 314 PATRIOTIC HEADER. WHAT MAKES A HERO? "What makes a hero ? Not success, not fame, Inebriate merchants, and the loud acclaim Of glutted Avarice, caps tossed up in air, Or pen of journalist, with flourish fair, Bells pealed, stars, ribbons, and a titular name, — These, though his rightful tribute, he can spare ; His rightful tribute, — not his end or aim, Or true reward ; for never yet did these Ee fresh the soul, or set the heart at ease. What makes a hero ? An heroic mind, Expressed in action, in endurance proved. And if there be pre-eminence of right, Derived through pain well suffered, to the height Of rank heroic, 'tis to bear unmoved, Not toil, not risk, not rage of sea or wind, Not the brute fury of barbarians blind, But worse, — ingratitude and poisonous darts Launched by the country he had served and loved : This, with a free, unclouded spirit pure, This, in the strength of silence to endure, A dignity to noble deeds imparts, Beyond the gauds and trappings of renown : This is the hero's complement and crown ; This missed, one struggle had been wanting still, One glorious triumph of the heroic will, One self-approval in his heart of hearts. Henry Taylor. MOSES THE FIRST LIBERATOR. (Period of life, from about 1570 to 1450 b.c.) The conquest of nations and the subversion of governments formed, as well as exhibited, such men as Alexander, Nebuchad- nezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and others of a sim- PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 315 ilar character. We sicken while we read of their exploits, and blush that such scourges of the world should have claimed a common nature with ourselves. But there have been times when empire and religion changed for the better. Among the men who, at such periods, have risen to eminence, the prophet Moses is unquestionably the first. In all the talents which enlarge the human mind, and all the virtues which ennoble the human heart, in the amiableness of private life and the dignity of a ruler, in dangers hazarded and difficulties overcome, in splendor of destination and the enjoyment and proof of divine complacency, he is clearly without a rival. Born with a superior soul, educated in the first school of wisdom, trained to arms and to policy in the most improved and powerful court in the world, and nurtured in wisdom still more sublime, in the quiet retreats of Midian, he came forth, to accom- plish a more important revolution than had ever taken place, and, under God, was formed and finished, as the instrument which so illustrious a design required. In whatever course of life, in whatever branch of character, we trace this great man, we find almost everything to approve and love, and scarcely anything to blame or censure. We mark unexampled patriotism, immovable by ingratitude, rebellion, and insult : glorious integrity, in always adhering to the duties of his office ; unseduced by power and splendor ; unmoved by homage ; unawed by faction or opposition ; undaunted by danger or difficulty ; unaltered by provocation, obloquy, and distress ; meek beyond example ; patient and persevering through forty years of declining life, of trial, toil, and hazard. We read in his own writings the frank record of his own failings, and those of his family, friends, and nation. We see the first efforts of the historian, the poet, the orator, and the law-giver, and a life of self-government, benevolence, and piety approximating to an- gelic virtue. In him we behold the Deliverer of his Nation ; the restorer of truth ; the pillar of righteousness, and the reformer of mankind. He is, everywhere, the same glorious person ; the greatest of all the prophets conducted to Pisgah ; unclothed of mortal flesh, and entombed in the dust, by the immediate hand of the Most High. Timothy Dwight. 316 PATRIOTIC READER. THE LAST HOURS OP SOCRATES. (470-399 B.C.) Socrates was the reverse of a sceptic. No man ever looked upon life with a more positive and practical eye. No man ever pursued his mark with a clearer perception of the road which he was travelling. No man ever combined, in like manner, the absorbing enthusiasm of a missionary, with the acuteness, the originality, the inventive resources, and the gen- eralizing comprehension, of a philosopher. And yet this man was condemned to death, condemned by a hostile tribunal of more than five hundred citizens of Athens, drawn at hazard from all classes of society. A majorit}^ of six turned the scale, in the most momentous trial, up to that time, the world had witnessed. And the vague charges on which Socrates was con- demned Avere, that he was a vain babbler, a corrupter of youth, and a setter-forth of strange gods ! It would be tempting to enlarge on the closing scene of his life, a scene which Plato has invested with such immortal glory ; on the affecting farewell to the judges ; on the long thirty days which passed in prison before the execution of the verdict ; on his playful equanimity, amid the uncontrolled emo- tions of his companions ; on the gathering in of that solemn evening, when the fading of the sunset hues on the tops of the Athenian hills was the signal that the last hour was at hand ; on the introduction of the fatal hemlock ; the immova- ble countenance of Socrates, the firm hand, and then the burst of frantic lamentation from all his friends, as, with his habitual ease and cheerfulness, he drained the cup to its dregs ; then the solemn silence enjoined by himself; the pacing to and fro; the strong religious persuasions attested by his last words ; the cold palsy of the poison creeping from the extremities to the heart ; the gradual torpor ending in death ! But I must forbear. Oh for a modern spirit like his ! Oh for one hour of Socrates ! Oh for one hour of that voice whose questioning would make men see what ■ they knew, and what they did not know ; what they meant, and what they only thought they meant; what PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 317 they believed in truth, and what they only believed in name j wherein they agreed, and wherein they differed. That voice is, indeed, silent ; but there is a voice in each man's heart and conscience, which, if we will, Socrates has taught us to use rightly. That voice still enjoins us to give to ourselves a reason for the hope that is in us, both hearing and asking questions. It tells us, that the fancied repose which self-in- quiry disturbs is more than compensated by the real repose it gives ; that a wise questioning is the half of knowledge ; and that a life without self-examination is no life at all. Epes Sargent. ALFRED THE GREAT. (848-901 a.d.) As great and good in peace as he was great and good in war, King Alfred never rested from his labors to improve his people. He made just laws that they might live more happily and freely ; he turned away all partial judges that no wrong might be done them ; he was so careful of their property, and punished robbers so severely, that it was a common thing to say that under the great King Alfred garlands of golden chains and jewels might have hung across the streets, and no man would have touched them. He founded schools ; he patiently heard causes himself in his court of justice. Every day he divided into certain portions, and in each portion devoted himself to a certain pursuit. That he might divide his time exactly, he had wax torches or candles made, which were all of the same size, were notched across at regular distances, and were always kept burning. Thus, as the candles burned down, he divided the day into notches, almost as accurately as we now divide . it into hours by the clock. He had the candles put into cases formed of wood and white horn ; and these were the first lanthorns ever made in England. A brave, good man he lived, and, after a reign of thirty years, 318 PATRIOTIC READER. died at the age of fifty-three, in the year nine hundred and one ; but, long ago as that is, his fame, and the love and gratitude with which his subjects regarded him, are freshly remembered to the present hour. Charles Dickens. WILLIAM THE SILENT. (1533-1584 a.d.) The history of the rise of the Netherland Eepublic is at the same time the biography of " William the Silent." That life was a noble Christian epic, inspired with one great purpose from its commencement to its close ; the stream flowing ever from one fountain with expanding fulness, but retaining all its original purity. Of his moral qualities, the most prominent was his piety. From his trust in God he ever derived support and consolation, even in his darkest hours. He looked danger in the face with a constant smile, and endured incessant labors and trials with a serenity which seemed more than human. Tolerant of error, no man ever felt more keenly than he, that the reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious. His constancy in bearing the whole weight of a struggle as unequal as men have ever undertaken, was the theme of admiration even to his ene- mies. He lived and died, not for himself, but for his country. When assassinated, July 10, 1584, his dying words were, " God pity this poor people !" The supremacy of his political genius was entirely beyond question. He was the first statesman of his age. His knowl- edge of human nature was profound. He governed the passions and sentiments of a great nation as if they had been but the keys and chords of one vast instrument ; and his hand rarely failed to evoke harmony even out of the wildest storms. Pos- sessed of a ready eloquence, sometimes impassioned, but always rational, his influence over his audience was unexampled in the annals of that country or age ; yet he never condescended to flatter the people. He never followed, but always led, the nation PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 319 in the path of duty and honor ; much more prone to rebuke the vices than to pander to the passions of his hearers. He never failed to administer ample chastisement wherever it was due, to parsimony, to insubordination, to intolerence, to infidelity; nor feared to confront the States, or the people, in their most angry hours, and to tell them the truth to their faces. At fifteen, he was the confidential counsellor, as at twenty- one he became the general-in-chief, to the most politic as well as the most warlike potentate of his age. His enemies said that he was governed by a desire of personal advancement, but never denied his talents, his industry, and his vast sacrifices of wealth and station. As far as can be judged by a careful observation of undisputed facts, and by a diligent collation of public and private documents, it would seem that no man, not even Washington, had ever been inspired by a purer pa- triotism. William the Silent went through life, bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his shoulders, with a smiling face. Their name was the last word upon his lips, save the simple affirmative with which the soldier, who had been battling for the right all his lifetime, commended his soul, in dying, " to his great Captain, Christ." The people were grateful and affectionate, for they trusted the character of their " Father William." As long as he lived, he was the guiding star of a whole brave nation, and when he died, the little children cried in the streets. John Lothrop Motley. JOHN MILTON GIVES EYESIGHT TO LIBERTY. (From Lecture upon Milton as an Educator.) The Commonwealth was in danger. Liberty, whether in Eng- land or Ireland, Massachusetts or Carolina, does not rest, cannot rest long, on bayonets ; but on the intelligence and virtue of the people ; and the book of Salmasius was confusing the intelli- gence, undermining the virtue, bringing odium upon republican government, and paving the way for the triumphal return of 320 PATRIOTIC READER. despotism. The Council of State voted " that Mr. Milton do prepare something in answer to the book of Salmasius." But Milton's eyesight was now so feeble and so dependent upon his general health, then sadly impaired by excessive toil, that his physicans absolutely forbade new literary labor. They warned him that the certain effect of writing the proposed reply would be the loss of his remaining eye, for his left eye was gone already. "I did not long balance," says Milton, " whether my duty should be preferred to my eyes !" So he wrote and published his " De- fence of the People of England," a work of prodigious energy, smiting Salmasius like a Thor hammer, pulverizing him and his arguments. Milton's fame at once spread over the world. His book was repeatedly translated into foreign tongues, and had the distinguished honor to be publicly burned, by the common hangman, both at Toulouse and Paris. But in 1653, as forewarned, Milton became totally blind. Aided by amanuenses, he still toiled for freedom ; and there was sore need of it. Alas, oppression bears a charmed life ! In 1658, Cromwell died. In 1660, Charles II. was trium- phantly enthroned. Eepublican government had been tried in England, but the people were not ready for it. Milton was himself in peril. The spirit that could behead "good Sir Harry Vane, once governor of Massachusetts," pronounced by "Wendell Phillips to have been "the greatest man that ever trod the streets of Boston," could hardly brook the life of the mightiest literary champion of freedom. A resolution of the House of Commons and a royal Proclama- tion singled him out by name for vengeance. "We are told that he was concealed in a friend's house, for four months ; that he was reported as dead, and a mock-funeral paraded for him in London. His property was swept away. By order of Parlia- ment, his " Image-Breaker" and his " Defence of the People of England" were burned in the centre of London during August, 1660. This was Milton's gloomiest period. The darkness that veiled his eyes was but typical of that deeper shadow. "What a shadow ! Property gone, health failing, life imperilled, old age coming on apace ; political and religious liberty, for which he had battled so long and so well, and for which he had cheerfully given up PATRIOTIC TEIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 321 the precious light of day, — even that annihilated ; his magnifi- cent writings vanished in smoke, the friends of his manhood slain, or hunted and hiding like Goffe, "Whalley, and Dixwell in the caves and cellars of Connecticut and Massachusetts ; the putrid corpses of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw dug up from their repose of years and swinging in chains at Tyburn; the Avatar of lust, the reign of diabolism visibly begun ; such men as the good Dr. South poisoned against him, and stigma- tizing him as " the blind adder that spit venom on the king's cause ;" even his own daughters, as there is too much reason to believe, siding with the royalists against their father, cheat- ing him, and selling his choicest books away from him. How changed ! O calm gray eyes, that shall see the sunlight nevermore ! locks, once clustering in auburn and gold, now thin and gray ! face, once radiant with joy and beautiful as an angel's, now fur- rowed and saddened with agonies that have torn the heart! hands, once skilled to ply the pen, to swing the sword, or finger the organ-keys, now groping feebly to supply, by touch, the want of sight! form, once of celestial symmetry, now bowed with disease, pain, and age, tremulous, slow, with garments faded and worn ! Ah, the twin serpents, civil tyranny and religious bigotry, twining around him and around him, have stifled this truth-telling Laocoon at last ! And yet, of all men, he least needed pity. His soul was un- subdued, heroic, radiant with truth, strong in G-od. Out of Bunyan's prison flashed his immortal allegory ! Out of Milton's darkness shone the unfading splendors of " Paradise Lost" ! Flowers and fruits from that Eden now fill with fragrance and beauty the school-books of every child, illustrating, to use his own language, " what religious, Avhat glorious, what magnificent use may be made of poetry." Thus, " being dead, he yet speak- eth !" Silenced by tyranny for a moment, how grandly was all overruled by Divine Providence, so that, till the end of time, the London teacher might be the world's educator ! But, greater than all his books, the life of Milton is an educating force, a power for evermore. Homer Baxter Spragtje. 21 322 PATRIOTIC READER. WILLIAM PITT. AN ODE TO MR. PITT. (This ode is a tribute of very early appreciation of Mr. Pitt's devotion to the people, and is given literally. On November 10, 1759, Poet-Laureate Whitehead issued a Birthday Ode in honor of George II., not recognizing Minister Pitt, to whose patriotic energy the closing years of that reign owed their glory, by land and sea. Stanzas addressed " To a Great Minister and Great Man," with a burlesque, addressed " To no Minister nor Great Man," seem to have inspired those now quoted. Grat tan's eulogy of Mr. Pitt is familiar, and enough has been exhibited in Part IV. of Mr. Pitt's patriotic character to warrant its omission.) Our prayers unbribed, unpensioned, rise For thee, the fav'rite of the skies, The guardian of the land ; For thee, defender of the laws, The foremost in fair Freedom's cause, The chief of Virtue's band. Long may thy light thy country cheer ! Thou minister without a peer, Long may thy wisdom warm ! For, like the Spring, thy genial ray Improves the sun, adorns the day, And guards us all from harm. Behold the ox in safety feeds, And Ceres scatters all her seeds, And Plenty smiles around. Each ship triumphant rides the main, Bright Honor dreads black Slander's stain, And dances glad the ground. Britannia now for battle burns, Behold, her genius now returns, PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 323 Her foes dismayed with fear ; Her vengeance shall affright the brave, Reduce the proud, and crush the slave, If Pitt but points the spear. Auspicious Pitt ! thy glory beams On Mississippi's silver streams, And Ohio's savage shores ; It dazzles Afric's tawny race, Inspires the noble, scares the base, And ev'ry heart explores. Now blest, and free, each Briton roves Along his hills, or thro' his groves, Nor fears the frown of kings ; Enjoys himself (that bliss divine), Or, to the elm, he joins the vine, Or clears the bubbling springs, Then social quaffs the cheerful bowl, While gratitude inflames his soul, And Pitt employs his praise ; In solemn pomp he crowns his bust, Amidst the great, the good, and just, With laurels, palms, and bays. Oh I be it thine, at last, to close The scene of war, — of Europe's woes, And hush the world to rest ; Bid Peace advance with placid mien, Proclaim her sports on every green, And let each land be blest. This is our prayer, when cool we rise, Ere morning blushes streak the skies, Or Phoebus sips the dew ; This is our pi-ayer, when thee we toast, Auspicious Pitt! as " Britain's boast," And ev'ning joys renew. Annual Register, 1759, p. 446. 324 PATRIOTIC READER. WILLIAM PBNN. William Penn stands the first among the law-givers whose names and deeds are recorded in history. Shall we compare with him Lycurgus, Solon, Eomulus, those founders of military commonwealths, who organized their citizens in dreadful array against the rest of their species ? taught them to consider their fellow-men as barbarians, and themselves as alone worthy to rule over the earth? What benefit did mankind derive from their boasted institutions ? Interrogate the shades of those who fell in the mighty contests between Athens and Lacedaemon, between Carthage and Eome, and between Borne and the rest of the universe. But see our William Penn, with weaponless hands, sitting down peaceably with his followers in the midst of savage nations, whose only occupation was shedding the blood of their fellow-men, disarming them by his justice, and teaching them, for the first time, to view a stranger without distrust. See them bury their tomahawks in his presence, so deep that man shall never be able to find them again. See them, under the shade of the thick groves of Quaquannock, extend the bright chain of friendship, and solemnly promise to preserve it as long as the sun and moon shall endure. See him, then, with his companions, establishing his commonwealth on the sole basis of religion, morality, and universal love, and adopting, as the fundamental maxims of his government, the rule handed down to us from heaven, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." Here was a spectacle for the potentates of the earth to look upon, an example for them to imitate. But the potentates of the earth did not see, or, if they saw, they turned away their eyes from the sight ; they did not hear, or, if they heard, they shut their ears against the voice. The character of William Penn alone sheds a never-fading lustre upon our history. No other State in this Union can boast of such an illustrious founder ; none began their social career under auspices so honorable to humanity. Every trait of the life of that great man, every fact and anecdote of those golden times, will furnish many an interesting subject for the fancy of the novelist and the enthusiasm of the poet. Peter S. Duponceau. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 325 JONATHAN TRUMBULL. The leading feature in his character, ever in exercise, a vir- tue steadfast and warming as the sun, was his distinguishable patriotism. As an ardent and constant natural impulse, it was not distinguishable, more than in other men, but it was signally- pure, it was enlightened, it was heroic. Signally pure it was, for there did not rest upon it a single stain of self-interest. He toiled for others, not for himself; for the advancement of his country, not his own ; not alone for the America of the Bevolu- tion, but for the America of all time. Foreseeing clearly the rising greatness of this land under the fostering embrace of Liberty and Union, and under the sunshine of peace, knowing well its inexhaustible resources, and the laws which should govern its progress, he took an interest in public affairs which was most profound. He labored to combine, in one great har- mony, all sectional interests. Patriotism often has its counterfeits in national vanity or a contented self-sufficiency. In Trumbull it bore none of these false stamps. He did not enter the bloody arena of the Ameri- can Eevolution simply that he might open the book of history and show America, in feats of arms, belligerent as Athens, brave as Sparta, resolute as Eome, hardy as Germany, indefatigable as Holland, chivalric as Spain, gallant as Gaul, and mightier far than her English mother-foe, but to vindicate the honor of his native land, and to plant for her, set beyond even the tornado's power, that Tree of Liberty, whose fruitage, and wbose whole fruitage, he knew to be civilization, prosperity, happiness, and glory. His patriotism was pure, like the chaste passion of the poet for his Muse. His patriotism was like the zeal of the painter for glorious forms of art, working within him, by virtue of an intense and irresistible yearning in his nature, for the sublime and beautiful in human government and human im- provement. But the patriotism of Trumbull was enlightened. His mind grasped with more than ordinary power the grand idea of the greatest of societies, the State, and felt the excellence of its mechanism, almost as a living thing, whose disruption or injury 32(> PATRIOTIC READER. would bring death to all the valuable interests of his country- men. To him, therefore, the celebrated Charter of Connecticut was, peculiarly, a grand patriotic missive, which made bim acute to perceive the first secret invasions of American rights, quick- ened him to trace them down, through their whole sad series of consequences, into an oppressor's final errands of blood and rapine, and rendered him swift to organize resistance. His patriotism was the exact counterpart of that which shone in the spirit of the immortal Hampden, and of that spirit which beamed from the life of one, whose enlightened republican effort, virtuous eagerness, and noble modesty, stamped him as the savior of Genoa, — the renowned Andrea Doria. The patriotism of Trumbull was heroic. Look at him, at the outset of the Eevolutionary struggle, voluntarily constituting himself the only rebel executive, among thirteen governors, in the colonies. Before him was one of the mightiest of human monarchs claiming his allegiance, but he spurned it in the face of rewards, princely and profusely within his reach, to espouse the side of his native land. His spirit of patriotism knew no difficulty, contemned all danger. It flew through the people, rousing activity, infusing patience, and enkindling intrepidity. It exclaimed to every son of Connecticut and to every sister State in the Union, in the language of the great Frederick to his gallant little army before the battle of Eossbach, "My brave countrymen, the hour is come in which all that is and all that ought to be dear to us, depends upon the swords that are now drawn forth in battle. You see me ready to lay down my life with you, and for you. All I ask of you, is the same pledge of fidelity and affection that I give. Acquit yourselves like men, and put your confidence in God." Isaac M. Stuart. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. (June 11, 1790.) Franklin is dead ! Restored to the bosom of the Divinity, is that genius which gave freedom to America, and rayed forth torrents of light upon Europe. The sage whom two worlds PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 327 claim — the man whom the History of Empires and the History of Science alike contend for — occupied, it cannot be denied, a lofty rank among his species. Long enough have political cabi- nets signalized the death of those who were great in their funeral eulogies only. Long enough has the etiquette of courts pre- scribed hypocritical mournings. For their benefactors, only, should nations assume the emblems of grief; and the represent- atives of nations should commend only the heroes of humanity to public veneration. In the fourteen States of the Confederacy, Congress has or- dained a mourning of two months, for the death of Franklin ; and America is at this moment acquitting herself of this tribute of honor to one of the fathers of her Constitution. Would it not become us, gentlemen, to unite in this religious act ; to partici- pate in this homage, publicly rendered, at once to the rights of man, and to the philosopher who has contributed most largely to their vindication throughout the world ? Antiquity would have erected altars to this great and powerful genius, who, to promote the welfare of mankind, comprehending both the heavens and the earth in the range of his thought, could at once snatch the bolt from the cloud and the sceptre from tyrants. France, enlightened and free, owes at least the acknowledgment of her remembrance, and regret, to one of the greatest intellects that ever served the united cause of philosophy and liberty. I propose that it be now decreed that the National Assembly wear mourning, during three days, for Benjamin Franklin. VlCTOB RlQTJETTI DE MlRABEAU. FRANKLIN'S EPIGRAMS. (" Poor Kichard's Sayings.") If pride leads the van, beggary brings up the rear. He that can travel well afoot keeps a good horse. Some men grow mad by studying much to know, but who grows mad by studying good to grow ? Whate'er's begun in anger ends in shame. He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. 328 PATRIOTIC READER. Against diseases, know the strongest defensive virtue, absti- nence. Sloth maketh all things difficult ; industry, all easy. If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. A mob is a monster; with heads enough, but no brains. There is nothing humbler than ambition when it is about to climb. The discontented man finds no easy chair. When prosperity was well mounted, she let go the bridle, and soon came tumbling out of the saddle. A little neglect may breed great mischief. For want of a nail the shoe was lost, and for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the rider was lost. A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines. Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and keep. Old boys have playthings as well as young ones ; the difference is only in price. If you would keep a secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend. One to-day is worth two to-morrows. It is foolish to lay out money in a purchase of repentance. If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some ; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing. Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Contempt. Fly pleasures, and they will follow you. Creditors have better memories than debtors. Creditors are a superstitious set, — great observers of set days and times. SAMUEL ADAMS. (From Centennial Address at Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1875.) Samuel Adams, the New-Englander in whom the Eevolution seemed to be most fully embodied, was not eloquent like Otis, PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 329 nor scholarly like Quincy, nor all-fascinating like Warren ; yet, bound heart to heart with these great men, his friends, the plain- est, simplest, austerest among them, he gathered all their sepa- rate gifts, and, adding to them from his own, fused the whole, in the glow of that untiring energy, that unerring perception, that sublime will, which moved before the chosen people of the colonies, — a pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night. Until 1768, Samuel Adams did not despair of a peaceful issue of the quarrel with Great Britain. But when in May of that year the British frigate Eomney sailed into Boston harbor, and her shotted guns were trained upon the town, he saw that the question was chauged. From that moment, he knew that America must be free or slave, and the unceasing effort of his life, by day and night, with tongue and pen, was to nerve his fellow-colonists to strike when the hour should come. On that gray December evening, two years later, when he rose in the Old South, and in a clear, calm voice said, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country," and so gave the word for the march to the tea-ships, he comprehended more clearly, per- haps, than any man in the colonies, the immense and far-reach- ing consequences of his words. He was ready to throw the tea overboard, because he was ready to throw overboard the king and Parliament of England. During the ten years from the passage of the Stamp Act to the fight at Lexington and Concord, this poor man, in an obscure provincial town beyond the sea, was engaged with the British ministry in one of the mightiest contests that history records. Not a word in Parliament, that he did not hear ; not an act in the cabinet, that he did not see. Intrenched in his own honesty, the king's gold could not buy him. Enshrined in the love of his fellow-citizens, the king's writ could not take him. And when, on this morning, the king's troops marched to seize him, his sublime faith saw, beyond the clouds of the moment, the rising sun of the America that we behold, and, careless of himself, mindful only of his country, he exultingly exclaimed, " Oh, what a glorious morning 1" Yet this man held no office but that of clerk of the Assem- bly, to which he was yearly elected, and that of constant Mod- erator of the town-meeting. That was his mighty weapon. The 330 PATRIOTIC READER. town-meeting was the alarm-bell with which he aroused the con- tinent. It was the rapier with which he fenced with the minis- try. It was the claymore with which he smote their counsels. It was the harp of a thousand strings that he swept into a burst of passionate defiance, or an electric call to arms, or a proud paean of exulting triumph, — defiance, challenge, and exultation, all lifting the continent to independence. His indomitable will and command of the popular confidence, played Boston against London, the provincial town-meeting against the royal Parlia- ment, Faneuil Hall against St. Stephen's. And as long as the American town-meeting is known, its great genius will be re- vered, who, with the town-meeting, overthrew an empire. So long as Faneuil Hall stands, Samuel Adams will not want his most fitting monument, and when Faneuil Hall falls, its name, with his, will be found written, as with a sunbeam, upon every faithful American heart. George William Curtis. REVOLUTIONARY VETERANS HONORED. (From Address at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825.) Venerable men ! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country. Behold, how altered ! The same heavens are, indeed, over your heads ; the same ocean rolls at your feet ; but all else, how changed ! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and the dying; the im- petuous charge ; the steady and successful repulse ; the loud call to repeated assault; the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 331 bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death ; — all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more. All is peace. The heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw nlled with wives and children and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy population, come out to welcome and greet you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, but your coun- try's own means of distinction and defence. All is peace ; and God has granted you this sight of your country's happiness, ere you slumber in the grave forever. He has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils ; and he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and, in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you ! But, alas ! you are not all here ! Time and the sword have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Eead, Pomeroy, Bridge ! our eyes seek for you in vain amidst this broken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance and your own bright example. But let us not too much grieve that you have met the com- mon fate of men. You lived, at least, long enough to know that your work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. You lived to see your country's independence established and to sheathe your swords from war. On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like " another morn, Kisen on mid-noon," — and the sky, on which you closed your eyes, was cloudless. Daniel Webster. 332 PATRIOTIC READER. NATHAN HALE. Nathan Hale was born on the 6th of June, 1755, at Cov- entry, Connecticut. His early education was of that distiuctly domestic type, under definite religious direction, which partook of the New England custom of those days. It looked forward to the best, and upward to the noblest, so that there was no ser- vice, for God or country, to which the boy, trained under its influence, might not aspire. Such distinctly religious training as was given in those old Puritan congregations of New England, had its visible effect in the political struggle of that time. No one understands the political history of the Eevolution who does not remember what had been, for a century and a half, their ecclesiastical history. They went into the contest with such confidence in their own local governments, and in their sufficiency to com- bine, with others, like themselves, that single towns declared war, separately, against George III. Where did such towns learn that lesson of self-reliance ? Where did they learn that, when a great occasion should arise, such separate communities would stand shoulder to shoulder, as if united in the most absolute political power? It was simply the lesson of their Congregational Order, where every church, which is absolutely separate, for its own affairs, finds no difficulty in holding abso- lute unity with sister churches, against the common enemy of mankind. For one hundred and fifty years they had been learning that central lesson of the civil liberty of to-day, the lesson which gives life and form to every constitution which the last century has called into being, — the double lesson of local independence for local purposes, and of vital organic unity tor national purposes. Young Hale entered Yale College at fourteen, having, ulti- mately, the ministry in view. Just after the battle of Lexing- ton, at a town-meeting, with the audacity of boyhood, he cried out, "Let us never lay down our arms till we have achieved independence !" Where had ho learned that new word, not to be found in Shakespeare, or in Spenser, and. in Bacon, only as applied to the " Independents" of England ? Is there on record PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 333 any earlier demand for independence than this bold utterance of the boy, Nathan Hale, in April, 1775 ? Not yet two years out of college, he secured release from the school he was teaching, enlisted in Webb's regiment, the Sev- enth Connecticut, — by the 1st of September was promoted from lieutenant to captain, and on the 14th marched to Cambridge. He shared in the achievement at Dorchester, and his regi- ment was one of the five that first marched to New London and thence by water to New York. On the 29th of August, 1776, a sergeant and four of his men attempted to burn the frigate Phoenix, and did cut out one of her tenders, securing four cannon. The war goes on. "Where was Hale, as the weeks go by? He was on dangerous service. Washington needed immediate information of the enemy's plans. At a meeting of officers, when his wishes-were made known, one answered, " I am will- ing to be shot; but not hung." When dead silence ensued, Hale, the youngest captain present, still pale from recent sick- ness, spoke out : " I will undertake it. If my country de- mands a peculiar service, its claims are imperious." These are the last words we can report of him, until those, near his death. In the second week of September he made a successful at- tempt, taking with him his college diploma, to pass for a Con- necticut school-master, and secured the information desired ; but his boat failed to meet him. A British boat answered the signal. His notes, written in Latin, exposed him. He was taken to New York on that eventful 21st of September when five hundred of its buildings were burned, was summarily tried, and executed the next day. The brutal provost-marshal burned, before his face, the letters written to his friends, saying, as excuse, " The rebels shall not know they have a man who can die so bravely." A Bible was refused him, but he was permitted, in derision, " to address the people when he went to the gallows." One sen- tence makes his name immortal : " I only regret that I have but one life to give to my country." Edward Everett Hale. 334 PATRIOTIC READER. WASHINGTON'S LAMENT FOR LAFAYETTE. (The author of these lines served as lieutenant-colonel in the Revolution, then as Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, and then as Attorney-General of the United States. While a member of Washington's cabinet he visited Mount Vernon, and there put in this form his conversation with the President as to the imprison- ment by Austria of their old comrade and friend Lafayette.) THE LAMENT OF WASHINGTON. As beside his cheerful fire, 'midst his happy family, Sat a venerable sire, tears were starting in his eye, Selfish blessings were forgot, Whilst he thought on Fayette's lot, Once so happy on our plains, Now in poverty and chains. " Fayette," cried he, " honored name, Dear to these far-distant shores ; Fayette, fired by Freedom's flame, Bled to make that Freedom ours ; What, alas, but this remains, What, but poverty and chains 1 " Soldiers, in our field of death Was not Fayette foremost there ? Cold and shivering on the heath, Did you not his bounty share ? What reward but this remains, What, but poverty and chains ! " Hapless Fayette, 'midst thine error, How my soul thy worth reveres ! Son of Freedom, tyrants' terror, Hero of both hemispheres, What reward for all remains, What, but poverty and chains ! PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 335 " Born to honors, ease, and wealth, See him sacrifice them all ; Sacrificing, also, health, At his country's glorious call. What for thee, my friend, remains, What, but poverty and chains ! " Thus, with laurels on his brow, Belisarius begged for bread; Thus, from Carthage forced to go, Hannibal, an exile, fled. Alas, Fayette at once sustains Exile, poverty, and chains ! " Courage, child of Washington ! Though thy fate disastrous seems, We have seen the setting sun Rise and burn with brighter beams. Thy country soon shall break thy chain, And take thee to her arms again. Thy country soon shall break thy chain, And take thee to her arms again." William Bradford. ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND JOHN JAY. It were, indeed, a bold task to venture to draw into compari- son the relative merits of Jay and Hamilton on the fame and fortunes of their country. In patriotic attachment equal, yet was that attachment far different in kind. With Hamilton it was a sentiment, with Jay a principle ; with Hamilton enthusi- astic passion, with Jay duty as well as love; with Hamilton patriotism was the paramount law, with Jay a law sub graviori lege. Either would have gone through fire and water to do his country a service, — Hamilton with the roused courage of the lion, Jay with the calm fearlessness of a man ; or rather, Hamilton's courage would have been that of the soldier, Jay's that of the Christian. Of the latter it might be truly said, — 336 PATRIOTIC READER. "Conscience made him firm, That boon companion, who her strong breastplate Buckles on him that fears no guilt within, And bids him on, and fear not." In intellectual power, in depth, and grasp, and versatility of mind, as well as in all the splendid and brilliant parts which captivate and adorn, Hamilton was greatly, not to say im- measurably, Jay's superior. In the calm and deep wisdom of practical duty, — in the government of others, and, still more, in the government of himself, — in seeing clearly the right, and following it whithersoever it might lead, firmly, patiently, self- deniedly, Jay was again greatly, if not immeasurably, Hamilton's superior. Hamilton's mind had in it more of "constructive" power, Jay's of " executive." Hamilton had genius, Jay had wisdom. "We would have taken Hamilton to plan a government, and Jay to carry it into execution ; and, in a court of law, we would have Hamilton for our advocate, if our cause were generous, and Jay for judge, if our cause were just. Hamilton's civil official life was a brief and single, though brilliant, one. Jay's numbered the years of a generation, and exhausted every department of diplomatic, civil, and judicial trust. In fidelity to their country, both were pure to their hearts' core; yet was Hamilton loved, perhaps, more than trusted, and Jay trusted, perhaps, more than loved. Such were they in points of character. Their lives, when viewed from a distance, stand out in equally striking contrast. Jay's, viewed as a whole, has in it a completeness of parts, such as a nicer critic demands for the perfection of an epic poem, with its beginning of promise, its heroic middle, and its peace- ful end, and partaking, too, somewhat of the same cold stateli- ness, — noble, however, still and glorious, and ever pointing, as such poem does, to the stars, — sic itur ad astra. The life of Ham- ilton, on the other hand, is broken and fragmentary, begun in the darkness of romantic interest, running on into the sympathy of all high passion, and at length breaking off in the midst, like some half-told tale of sorrow, amid tears and blood, even as does the theme of the tragic poet. Hamilton had his frailties, arising out of passion, as tragic heroes have. Jay's name was faultless, PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 337 and his course passionless, as becomes the epic leader, and, in point of fact, was, while living, a name at which frailty blushed and corruption trembled. If we ask, whence, humanly speaking, came such disparity of fate between equals, the stricter morals, the happier life, the more peaceful death, to what can we trace it but to the health- ful power of religion over the heart and conduct ? "Was not this the ruling secret ? Hamilton was a Christian in his youth, and a penitent Christian, we doubt not, on his dying bed ; but Jay was a Christian, as far as man may judge, every day and hour of his life. He had but one rule, the gospel of Christ ; in that he was nurtured, — ruled by that ; through grace he lived, — rest- ing on that, in prayer, he died. Admitting both names to be objects of our highest sympa- thetic admiration, yet with the name of Hamilton, as the master says of tragedy, the lesson is given "with pity and in fear." Not so with that of Jay ; with him we walk fearless, as in the steps of one who was a Christian, as well as a patriot. Francis Lister Hawks. JOHN ADAMS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON. (From Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, delivered at Faneuil Hall, August 2, 1826.) Adams and Jefferson are no more. On our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of national jubilee, in the very hour of public re- joicing, in the midst of echoing and re-echoing voices of thanks- giving, while their own names were on all tongues, they took their flight, together, to the world of spirits. As human beings, indeed, they are no more. But how little is there of the great and good which can die ! To their country they yet live, and live forever. They live in all that perpetuates the remembrance of men on earth ; in the recorded proofs of their own great actions, in the offspring of their intellect, in the deep engraved lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of mankind. They live in their example ; and they 22 338 PATRIOTIC READER. live, emphatically, and will live, in the influence which their lives and efforts, their principles and opinions, now exercise, and will continue to exercise, on the affairs of men, not only in their own country, but throughout the civilized world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning bright for a while and then expiring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind ; so that, when it glimmers, in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows ; but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit. Bacon died ; but the human understanding, roused, by the touch of his miraculous wand, to a perception of the time phi- losophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept on its course successfully and gloriously. Newton died ; yet the courses of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on, in the orbits which he saw, and described for them, in the infinity of space. No two men now live — perhaps it may be doubted whether any two men have ever lived, in one age — who, more than those we now commemorate, have impressed their own sentiments, in regard to politics and government, on mankind, infused their own opinions more deeply into the opinions of others, or given a more lasting direction to the current of human thought. Their work doth not perish with them. The tree which they assisted to plant will flourish, although they water it and pro- tect it no longer; for it. has struck its roots deep; it has sent them to the very centre ; no storm, not of force to burst the orb, can overturn it ; its branches spread wide ; they stretch their protecting arms broader and broader, and its top is des- tined to reach the heavens. We are not deceived. There is no delusion here. No age will come in which the American Eevolution will appear less than it is, one of the greatest events in human history. No age will come in which it will cease to be seen and felt, on either conti- nent, that a mighty step, a great advance, not only in American affairs, but in human affairs, Avas made on the 4th of July, 1776. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 339 And no age will come, we trust, so ignorant, or so unjust, as not to see and acknowledge the efficient agency of these we now honor, in producing that momentous event. Daniel Webster. THE COLLEAGUES OP JOHN ADAMS. (Extract from Eulogy of Adams and Jeiferson, delivered at Faneuil Hall, August 2, 1826.) It would be unjust on this occasion to omit a most respectful, affectionate, and grateful mention of those other great men, his colleagues, who stood with him, and, with the same spirit, the same devotion, took part in the interesting transaction. Hancock, the proscribed Hancock, exiled from his home by a military governor, cut off, by proclamation, from the mercy of the crown, for him Heaven reserved the distinguished honor of putting this great question to the vote, and of writing his name first, and most conspicuously, on that parchment which spoke in defiance to the power of the crown of England. There, too, is the name of that other proscribed patriot, Samuel Adams ; a man who hungered and thirsted for the independence of his country; who thought the Declaration halted and lingered, being himself not only ready, but eager for it, long before it was proposed ; a man of the deepest sagacity, the clearest foresight, and the profoundest judgment of men. And there is Gerry, himself among the earliest and the fore- most of the patriots, found, when the battle of Lexington sum- moned them to common councils, by the side of Warren ; a man who lived to serve his country at home and abroad, and to die in the second place in the government. There, too, is the inflexible, the upright, the Spartan charac- ter, Eobert Treat Paine. He also lived to serve his country through the struggle, and then withdrew from her councils only that he might give his labors and his life to his native State, in another relation. These names are the treasures of the Com- monwealth, and they are treasures which grow brighter by time. Daniel Webster. 340 PATRIOTIC READER. DEATH OP JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. (John Quincy Adams, on the 21st of February, 1848, while in his seat in the Capitol, was struck with paralysis, and died on the 23d of that month. His last words were, "This is the last of earth, — I am content." Of all the tributes to his memory, not one is more tender and just than that of Mr. Holmes, of South Carolina, delivered the week after his death.) ADDKESS. The mingled tones of sorrow, like the voice of many waters, have come unto us from a sister State, — Massachusetts, weep- ing for her honored son. The State, I in part represent, once endured with her a common suffering, battled for a common cause, and rejoiced in a common triumph. Surely, then, it is meet that in this, the day of her affliction, we should mingle our griefs. "When a great man falls, the nations mourn ; when a patriarch is removed, the people weep. Ours is no common bereavement. The chain which linked our hearts with the gifted spirits of former times has been suddenly snapped. The lips from which flowed those living and glorious truths that our fathers uttered, are closed in death. Yes, Death has been among us. He has not entered the humble cottage of some unknown, ignoble peasant ; he has knocked audibly at. the palace of a nation. His footstep has been heard in the halls of state. He has cloven down his victim in the midst of the councils of a peo- ple. He has borne from among you the gravest, wisest, most bonored head. Ah, he has taken him, as a trophy, who was once chief over many statesmen, adorned with virtue, and learn- ing, and truth ; he has borne at his chariot- wheels a renowned one of the earth. How often we have crowded into that aisle, and clustered around that now vacant desk, to listen to the counsels of wisdom as they fell from the lips of the venerable sage, we can all re- member; for it was but of yesterday! But what a change! How wondrous ! How sudden ! 'Tis like a vision of the night. That form which we beheld, but a few days since, is now cold in death. But the last Sabbath, and in this hall, he worshipped with PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 341 others. Now his spirit mingles with the noble army of martyrs, and the just made perfect, in the eternal adoration of the liv- ing God. With him, " this is the end of earth." He sleeps the sleep that knows no waking. He is gone, and forever. The sun that ushers in the morn of that next holy day, while it gilds the lofty dome of the Capitol, shall rest with soft and mellow light upon the consecrated spot beneath whose turf forever lies the Patriot Father, and the Patriot Sage. Isaac Edward Holmes. CHARLES CARROLL OP CARROLLTON, THE LAST OF THE SIGNERS. Come to the window, old man. Come, and look your last upon this beautiful earth. The day is dying, the year is dying, you are dying; so light, and leaf, and life, mingle in one com- mon death, as they shall mingle in one resurrection. Clad in a dark morning gown that reveals the outline of his tall form, now bent with age, once so beautiful in its erect manhood, rises a man from his chair, which is covered with pillows, and totters to the window, spreading forth his thin white hands. Did you ever see an old man's face that combines all the sweetness of childhood with the vigor of mature intellect ? Snow-white hair, in waving flakes, around a high and open brow ; eyes that gleam with clear light ; a mouth moulded in an ex- pression of benignity, almost divine ! It is the 14th of November, 1832 ; the hour is sunset, and the man, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last of the Signers. Ninety-five years of age, a weak and trembling old man, he has summoned all his strength, and gone along the carpeted cham- ber, to the window, his dark gown contrasted with the purple curtains. He is the last! Of the noble fifty-six who, in the Revolution, stood forth, undismayed by the axe or the gibbet, their mission the freedom of an age, the salvation of a country, he alone remains. One by one the pillars have crumbled from the roof of the temple, and now the last, a trembling column, glows in the sunlight, as it is about to fall. 342 PATRIOTIC REAPER. But, for the pillar that crumbles, there is no hope that it shall ever tower aloft in its pride again ; while for this old man, about to sink into the night of the grave, there is a glorious hope. His memory will live. His soul will live, not only in the pres- ence of God, but on the tongues and in the hearts of millions. The band in which he counts one, can never be forgotten. The last ! As the venerable man stands before us, the declining day imparts a warm flush to his face, and surrounds his brow with a halo of light. His lips move, without sound ; he is recalling the scenes of the Declaration; he is murmuring the names of his brothers in the good work. All gone but him ! Upon the woods, dyed with the rainbow of the closing year ; upon the stream, darkened by masses of shadow ; upon the home peeping out from among the leaves, falls, mellowing, the last light of the declining day. He will never see the sun rise again. He feels that the silver cord is slowly, gently loosening; he knows the golden bowl is crumbling, at the fountain's brink. But death comes on him as a sleep, as a pleasant dream, as a kiss from beloved lips. He feels that the land of his birth has become a mighty people, and thanks God that he was permitted to behold its blossoms of hope ripen into full life. In the recess, near the window, you behold an altar of prayer ; above it, glowing in the fading light, the image of Jesus seems smiling, even in agon}', around that death-chamber. The old man turns aside from the window. Tottering on, he kneels be- side the altar, his long dark robe drooping over the floor. He reaches forth his white hands, he raises his eyes to the face of the Crucified. There, in the sanctity of an old man's last prayer, we will leave him. There, where, amid the deepening shadows, glows the image of the Saviour ; there, whore the light falls over the mild face, the waving hair, and tranquil eyes of the aged patriarch ! The smile of the Saviour was upon that perilous day, the 4th of July, 1776 ; and now that its promise has brightened into fruition, He seems to smile, He does smile, again, even as His sculptured image meets the dying gaze of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last of the Signers. Gkorge Lippard. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 343 DANIEL O'CONNELL. (The following is an extract from the O'Connell Centennial Address, de- livered by Wendell Phillips, at Boston, August 6, 1875. This address was subsequently written out in full by its eloquent author, and was republished in the Boston Pilot of February 16, 1884. The speech is without its equal, as an exponent of Mr. Phillips's views of human liberty, no less than as a just tribute to the subject of the address. It belongs to history as the dis- passionate estimate, by an extraordinary man, of Ireland's great liberator.) A hundred years ago to-day, Daniel O'Connell was born. The Irish race, wherever scattered, pay tribute to his memory, — to one of the most eloquent men, one of the most devoted patriots, and the most successful statesman which that race has given to history. We, of other races, may well join in that tribute, since the cause of constitutional government owes more to Mr. O'Con- nell than to any other political leader for the last two centuries. If to put the civil and social elements of your day into successful action, and plant the seeds of continued strength and progress for coming time ; if this is to be a statesman, then, most emphatically, he was one. To exert this control and secure this progress while, and because, ample means lie ready for use under your hand, does not rob Walpole and Colbert, Chatham and Richelieu, of their title to be considered statesmen. When Napoleon's soldiers bore the negro chief, Toussaint L'Ouverture, into exile,- he said, pointing back to San Domingo, "You think you have rooted up the tree of liberty. But I am only a branch. I have planted the tree so deep that ages will never root it up." O'Connell is the only Irish- man who can say as much of Ireland. He found her a mass of quarrelling races and sects, divided, dispirited, broken-hearted, and servile. He made her a nation ! His generous aid, thrown into the scale of the three great British reforms, the ballot, the corn laws, and slavery, secured their success. He ranks not with founders of States, like Alexander, Caesar, Bismarck, Napoleon, and William the Silent, but with men who, without arms, b}^ force of reason, have revolutionized their times, — with Luther, Jefferson, Mazzini, Samuel Adams, Garrison, and Franklin. G:frat- tan, with all the courage and more than the eloquence of his race ; Emmet in the field, Sheridan in the senate, and, above 344 PATRIOTIC READER. all, Edmund Burke, whose name makes eulogy superfluous, gave their lives to Ireland ; and when the present century opened, where was she ? It was then that Daniel O'Connell gave fifty years to the service of his country ; and to-day, she is not only redeemed, but her independence put beyond doubt or peril. He created a public opinion and unity of purpose which make Ire- land a nation. Fifty or sixty years hence, when scorn of race has vanished, and bigotry lessened, it may be possible for Ireland to be safe while holding the position to England that Scotland does ; but during this generation, and the next, O'Connell was wise in claim- ing that Ireland's rights would never be safe without " Home Eule." His tireless patience was unexampled. That every man should be allowed freely to worship God according to his con- science, that no man's civil rights should be affected by his re- ligious creed, were both cardinal principles of O'Connell. I have no time to speak of his marvellous success at the bar; nor of his courage, that met every new question frankly; his entire- ness of devotion, that made the people feel that he was entirely their own ; that masterly brain, that made them always sure that they were safe in his hands ! When I consider O'Connell's personal disinterestedness; his rare, brave fidelity to every cause his principles covered, no matter how unpopular; that clear, far-reaching vision, and true heart, which on most moral and political questions set him so much ahead of his times; his eloquence, almost equally effec- tive in the courts, in the senate, and before the masses ; that sagacity, which set at naught the malignant vigilance of the whole Imperial bar, watching thirty years for a misstep ; when I see the sobriety and moderation with which he used his measureless power, and the lofty, generous purpose of his whole life, I am ready to affirm that ho was, all things considered, the greatest man the Irish race ever produced. Wkndell Phillips. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 345 MARCO BOZZARIS. At midnight, in his guarded tent, The Turk was dreaming of the hour When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, Should tremble at his power ; In dreams, through camp and court, he bore The trophies of a conqueror ; In dreams, his song of triumph heard ; Then wore his monarch's signet-ring, — Then pressed that monarch's throne — a king ; As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, As Eden's garden bird. At midnight, in the forest shades, Bozzaris ranged his Suliote band, True as the steel of their tried blades, Heroes in heart and hand. There had the Persian's thousands stood, There had the glad earth drunk their blood, On old Platsea's day ; And now there breathed that haunted air The sons of sires who conquered there, With arm to strike, and soul to dare, As quick, as far as they. An hour passed on, — the Turk awoke ; That bright dream was his last ; He woke — to hear his sentries shriek, " To arms ! they come ! the Greek ! the Greek !" He woke — to die 'midst flame and smoke, And shout, and groan, and sabre-stroke, And death-shots falling thick and fast As lightnings from the mountain-cloud, And heard, with voice as trumpet loud, Bozzaris cheer his band : " Strike — till the last armed foe expires, Strike — for your altars and your fires, Strike — for the green graves of your sires, God — and your native land !" 346 PATRIOTIC READER. They fought — like brave men, long and well ; They piled that ground with Moslem slain ; They conquered — but Bozzaris fell, Bleeding at every vein. His few surviving comrades saw His smile, when rang their proud hurrah, And the red field was won ; Then saw in death his eyelids close, Calmly, as to a night's repose, Like flowers at set of sun. Come to the bridal chamber, Death ! Come to the mother's, when she feels For the first time' her first-born's breath ; — Come when the blessed seals Which close the pestilence are broke, And crowded cities wail its stroke ; — Come in consumption's ghastly form, The earthquake's shock, the ocean storm ; — Come when the heart beats high and warm With banquet-song, and dance, and wine, — And thou art terrible ; the tear, The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, And all we know, or dream, or fear, Of agony, are thine. But to the hero, when his sword Has won the battle for tbe free, Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word, And in its hollow tones are heard The thanks of millions yet to be. Bozzaris ! with the storied brave Greece nurtured in her glory's time, Rest thee, — there is no prouder grave, Even in her own proud clime. We tell thy doom without a sigh ; For thou art Freedom's now, and Fame's, — One of the few, the immortal names That were not born to die. Fitz-Greene Halleck. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 347 JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. The eloquence of Mr. Calhoun, or the manner of his exhibi- tion of his sentiments in public bodies, was part of his intel- lectual character. It grew out of the qualities of his mind. It was plain, strong, terse, condensed, concise ; sometimes im- passioned, still always severe. Eejecting ornament, not often seeking far for illustration, his power consisted in the plainness of his propositions, in the closeness of his logic, and in the earnestness and energy of his manner. These qualities enabled him, through such a long course of years, to speak often, and yet always command attention. His demeanor as a senator is known to us all, — is appreciated, venerated by us all. No man was more respectful to others ; no man carried himself with greater decorum ; no man with superior dignity. He had the basis, the indispensable basis, of all high char- acter; and that was, unspotted integrity, unimpeached honor and character. If he had aspirations, they were high, honor- able, and noble. There was nothing grovelling, or low, or meanly selfish, that came near the head or the heart of Mr. Calhoun. Firm in his purpose, perfectly patriotic and honest in the principles that he espoused, and in the measures that he defended, aside from that large regard for that species of distinction that conducted him to eminent stations for the benefit of the republic, I do not believe he had a selfish motive, or selfish feeling. However he may have differed from others in his political opinions, or his political principles, those principles and those opinions will now descend to posterity under the sanction of a great name. He is now an historical character. We shall hereafter, I am sure, indulge in it as a great recollection, that we have lived in his age, that we have been his contemporaries, that we have seen him, and heard him, and known him. We shall delight to speak of him to those who are rising up to fill our places. And when the time shall come when we ourselves shall go, one after another, in succession to our graves, we shall carry with us a deep sense of his genius and character, his honor and integrity, bis amiable deportment in private life, and the purity of his exalted patriotism. Daniel Webster. 348 PATEIOTIC READER. HENRY CLAY. Henry Clay was the favorite son, the pride, the glory of Kentucky ; but his life for forty years has been, literally, that of his country. He was so identified with the government for forty years of its existence, that, during that time, hardly any act which has redounded to its honor, its present prosperity, its present rank among the nations of the earth, can be spoken of without calling to mind involuntarily the lineaments of his noble person. It would be difficult to determine whether in peace or war, in the field of legislation or of diplomacy, in the spring-tide of his life or in its golden ebb, he won the highest honor. In all the points of practical statesmanship, he encoun- tered no superior in any of the employments which his constitu- ents, or his country, conferred upon him. He was indebted to no adventitious circumstances for the suc- cess and glory of his life. Sprung from an humble stock, " he was fashioned to much honor from his cradle," and he achieved it by the noble use of the means which God and nature had given him. He was no scholar, and had none of the advantages of collegiate education. But there was a " divinity that stirred within him." This mighty genius was accompanied in him by all the qualities necessary to sustain its action and to make it most irresistible. His person was tall and commanding, and his demeanor " Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer." He was direct and honest, ardent and fearless, prompt to form his own opinions, always bold in their avowal, and sometimes impetuous, or even rash, in their vindication. In the perform- ance of his duties he feared no responsibility. He scorned all evasion or untruth. No pale thoughts ever troubled his decisive mind. " Be just and fear not" was the sentiment of his heart and the principle of his action. It regulated his conduct in private and public life ; all the ends he aimed at were his coun- try's, his God's, and truth's. Such was Henry Clay, and such were his talents, qualities, and objects. Nothing but success and honor could attend such a PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 349 character. For nearly half a century he was an informing spirit, a brilliant and heroic figure, in our political sphere, marshalling our country in the way she ought to go. The great objects of his life were, to preserve and strengthen the Union ; to maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States ; to cherish in- dustry ; to protect labor ; and to facilitate, by all proper national improvements, the communication between all the parts of our widely-extended country. This was his " American system" of policy. With inflexible patriotism he pursued and advocated it, to his end. He was every inch an American. His heart, and all that there was of him, were devoted to his country, to its liberty, and its free institutions. He inherited the spirit of the Revolu- tion, in the midst of which he was born ; and the love of liberty and the pride of freedom were in him principles of action. As against the injurious designs of visionary politicians or party demagogues, he may be almost said to have been, during forty years, the guardian angel of the country. He never would compromise the public interest for anybody or for any personal advantage to himself. He was the advocate of liberty through- out the world, and his voice of cheering was raised in behalf of every people who struggled for freedom. Greece, awakened from a long sleep of servitude, heard his voice, and was re- minded of her own Demosthenes. South America, too, in her struggle for independence, heard his brave words of encourage- ment, and her fainting heart was animated and her arm made strong. Henry Clay is the fair exponent of the age in which he lived, an age which forms the greatest and brightest era in the history of man, and with its chivalrous and benignant spirit he was thoroughly imbued. He was indeed moulded by it, and made in its own image. When the storms of state beat around and threatened to overwhelm him, his exclamation was still heard, " Truth is mighty and public justice certain." His appeal was not in vain. What a magnificent and heroic figure does Henry Clay here present to the world ! The passions of party subsided, truth and justice resumed their sway, and his generous coun- trymen repaid him, for all the wrong they had done him, with gratitude, affection, and admiration, in his life, and tears for his death. He was ambitious, but in him, ambition was virtue. It 350 PATRIOTIC READER. sought only the proper, fair objects of honorable ambition, and it sought these by honorable means only, by so serving the country as to deserve its favors. He was in the highest sense a great man ; but he has gone to join the mighty dead in another and better world. His fame, the memory of his benefactions, the lessons of his wisdom, all remain with us ; over these death has no power. Glorious as his life was, there was nothing that became him like the leaving it. Conscious of his approaching end, he pre- pared to meet it with all the resignation of a Christian hero. Patience, meekness, and gentleness shone round him like a mild, celestial light, breaking upon him from another world : " And, to add greater honors to his age Than man could give, he died, fearing God." John Jordan Crittenden. DANIEL WEBSTER. (From Address at the "Wehster Centennial, Boston, January 18, 1882.) It is but a poor tribute that I can pay, for Massachusetts, to her greatest statesman, her mightiest orator. For years he was her synonyme. With what matchless grandeur he defended her ! With what overwhelming power he impressed her convictions upon the national life ! It was the resistless logic of his discus- sion, the household familiarity of his simple but overmastering statement, the eloquence, clear as crystal, precipitated in the school-books and literature of our people, which had trained up the generation of twenty years ago to regard this nation as one, to love the flag with a patriotism which knew no faction or section, to be loyal to the whole country, and to find in its Constitution the power to suppress any hand or combination against it. A great man touches the heart of a people as well as their intelligence. They not only admire, they love him. It some- times seems as if they sought in him some weakness of our common nature, that they may chide, forgive, and thus endear him to themselves the more. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 351 Massachusetts had her friction with the younger Adams, only to lay him away with profounder honor, and to remember him, devotedly, as the defender of the right of petition, and " the old man eloquent." She forgave the overweening confidence of Sumner, revoked her unjust censure, and points her youth to him as the unsullied patriot, without fear or reproach, who stood and spoke for equal rights. Massachusetts smote and broke the heart of her idol, "Webster, and then broke her own above his grave, but to-day writes his name highest upon her roll of statesmen. It seems disjointed to say that with such might as bis, the im- pression that comes from his silhouette upon the background of our history, is that of sadness, the sadness of his great deep eyes, the sadness of the lonely shore he loved, and by which he sleeps. The story of Webster from the beginning has the very pathos of romance. A minor chord runs through it, like the tenderest note in a song. What eloquence, to tears, is in that narrative which reveals in this giant of intellectual strength the heart, the single loving heart, of a child, as he describes a winter sleigh-ride through the New Hampshire hills, when his father told him that he should have a college education at whatever cost, and he could not speak, but only laid his head upon his father's shoulder and wept ! The greatness of Webster and his title to enduring grati- tude have impressive illustration. He taught the people of the United States, in the simplicity of common understanding, the principles of the Constitution and the government of our coun- try, and" wrought for them in a style of matchless strength and beauty the literature of statesmanship. From his lips flowed the discussion of constitutional law, of economic philosophy, of finance, of international right, of national grandeur, and of the whole range of high public themes, so clear and so judicial that it was no longer discussion, but judgment. To-day, and so will it be while the republic endures, the student and the legis- lator will draw from the fountain of his statements the enun- ciation of those principles. What other authority holds second, or even third place? His words have embedded themselves in our common phraseology, and they come to the tongue like pas- sages from the Psalms or the poets. Thus Webster made his 352 PATRIOTIC REAPEi:. words the household words of a nation. They are the library of a people. They inspired and still inspire patriotism. They taught and still teach loyalty. They are the inwrought and accepted fibre of American politics. If the temple of our republic shall ever fall, they will " still live," like those foundation-stones of ancient ruins, which stand in lonely grandeur, unburied in the dust, making man to wonder from what rare quarry and by what mighty force they came. To Webster, almost more than to any other man, it is due to say, in the generous spirit of this occasion, that wherever a son of America, at home or abroad, "beholds the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured," he can utter a prouder boast than " Civis Eomanus sum" when he says, " I am an American citizen." John Davis Long. CHARLES SUMNER. (From Address in Faneuil Hall at the Sumner Memorial, March 12, 1874.) Charles Sumner has departed. It is too soon for his eulogy ; too soon for his history. Our minds are full of his living image. In character he was a moral hero. In learning and experience he was a model statesman, the great senator, always the friend of the oppressed and defenceless, the advocate of liberty for its own sake, and the tireless champion of human rights for all men. His forensic efforts had all the boldness and fervency of Chatham combined with the classic purity and elegance of Burke, whom in countenance he so strongly resembled. Through a long career the advocate of an unpopular cause, no man ever assailed the sincerity of his motives, the blamelessness of his life, or his stainless fidelity. Suspicion found no lodgement upon the guileless simplicity of his deeds. He despised duplicity, and revolted at everything that was dishonest. The good name of his native State was as dear to him as his own reputation, and in the discharge of his public trusts, his patriotism was the sure guardian of the national renown. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 353 In the contemplation of such a character, how grand is justice, how radiant is truth, how lovable is fidelity, how inestimable is personal honor ! To a remarkable degree Mr. Sumner exhibited his life, as it were, in duplicate, for while engaged in the activities of his career, he seemed a historic personage. There was a breadth to his statesmanship which transcended the measure of his gener- ation, while the affluence of his learning supported it with ex- amples from the past, and pointed out the way of safety in the future. With comprehensive sagacity he discussed the philoso- phy of government in passing events, seized and acted upon re- sults he believed would be ultimately certain, long before they transpired, outran his time, and, when the world overtook him, he appeared to be living only what had been already recorded. He passed out of the world in the maturity of his manhood, and his deeds and example will live forever, as potential forces, in the veneration and gratitude of posterity. Thus, in this world, is his mortality swallowed up in life. His spirit has gone to that higher Congress above, where the noblest and purest of earth sit together, evermore, in the pres- ence and love of that Divine Father and Guide who is none other than the King of kings and the Lord of lords. O Grave, thou canst receive of the departed statesman only another clod of thy kindred dust ! O Death, thou art robbed of thy shining victory; for again the holy declaration is fulfilled, and this mortal hath put on immortality ! Alexander Hamilton Kice. CHARLES SUMNER. (From Memorial Address delivered in the U. S. Senate, March 12, 1874.) Mississippi regrets the death of Charles Sumner and sincerely unites in paying honors to his memory; not because of the splendor of his intellect, though in him was extinguished one of the brightest lights which have illustrated the councils of the government for nearly a quarter of a century ; not because of the high culture, the elegant scholarship, and the varied learning, which revealed themselves so clearly in all his public 23 354 PATRIOTIC READER. efforts as to justify the application to him of Johnsons felicitous expression, '• He touched nothing which he did not adorn," — not this, but because of those peculiar and strongly-marked moral traits of his character, which gave the coloring to the whole tenor of his singularly dramatic public career, making himself, to a part of his countrymen, the object of as deep and passionate hostility as to another he was one of enthusiastic admiration ; and which are not less the cause that unites all these parties, so widely different, in a common sorrow, to-day, over his lifeless remains. Charles Sumner was born with an instinctive love of freedom; and was educated, from his earliest infancy, to the belief that freedom is the natural and indefeasible right of every intel- ligent being having the outward form of man. In him, in fact, the creed seems to have been something more than a doc- trine imbibed from teachers, or a result of education. It was a grand intuitive truth, inscribed in blazing letters upon the tablet of his inner consciousness, to deny which would have been to deny that he himself existed ; and, along with this all-controlling love of freedom, he possessed a moral sensibility, keenlj* intense and vivid, — a conscientiousness which would never permit him to swerve, by the breadth of a hair, from what he pictured to himself as the path of duty. Thus were combined in him the characteristics which have, in all ages, given to religion her martyrs, and to patriotism her self-sacrificing heroes. Let me do this great man the justice which, amid the ex- citements of the struggle between the sections, now past, many have been disposed to deny him. In his fiery zeal, and his earnest warfare against the wrong, as he viewed it, there en- tered no enduring personal animosity towards the men whose lot it was to be born to the system which he denounced. It has been the kindness of his sympathy, which, in these later years, he has displayed to the impoverished and suffering people of the Southern States, that has unveiled to me the generous and tender heart which beat beneath the bosom of the zealot, and has forced me to yield him the tribute of my respect, I might say, even of my admiration. Xor, in the manifestation of this, has there been anything which a proud and sensitive people, smarting under a sense of recent discomfiture and PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 355 present suffering, might not frankly accept, or which would give them just cause to doubt his sincerity. The spirit of magna- nimity, therefore, which breathes in his utterances and mani- fests itself in all his acts affecting the South, was as evidently honest as it was grateful to the feelings of those to whom it was displayed. It was certainly a gracious act towards the South, though it jarred upon the sensibility of the people at the other ex- treme of the Union, to propose to erase from the banners of the National Army the mementos of the bloody internal struggle, which might be regarded as assailing the pride, or wounding the sensibilities, of the Southern people. That proposal will never be forgotten by that people, so long as the name of Charles Sumner lives in the memory of man. But, while it touched her heart and elicited her profound gratitude, her people would not have asked of the North such an act of self-renunciation. Conscious that they themselves were animated by devotion to constitutional liberty, and that the brightest pages of history are replete with evidence of the depth and sincerity of that devotion, they can but cherish the recollections of the battles fought, and the victories won, in defence of a hopeless cause ; and, respecting, as all true and brave men must, the martial spirit with which the men of the North vindicated the integrity of the Union, and their devotion to the principles of human freedom, they do not ask, they do not wish the North to strike the mementos of heroism and victory from either records, mon- uments, or battle-flags. They would rather that both sections should gather up the glories won by each section, not envious, but proud of each other, and regard them as a common heritage of American valor. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. Death sitteth in the Capitol ! His sable wing Hung its black shadow o'er a country's hope, And, lo ! a nation bendeth down in tears ! A few short weeks, and all was jubilee, — 356 PATRIOTIC READER. The air was musical with happy sounds, — The future full of promise ; joyous smiles Beamed on each freeman's face, and lighted up The gentle eye of beauty. The Hero came, — a noble, good old man, — Strong in the wealth of his high purposes. Age sat upon him with a gentle grace, Giving unto his manhood dignity, Imbuing it with pure and lofty thoughts, As pictures owe their mellow hues to time. He stood before the people. Theirs had been The vigor of his youth, his manhood's strength ; And now his green old age was yielded up To answer their behest. Thousands had gathered round that marble dome, Silent and motionless in their deep reverence, Save when there gushed the heaving throb And low tumultuous breath of patriot hearts, Surcharged with grateful joy. The mighty dead Bent gently o'er him with their spirit wings, As solemnly he took the earthly state, Which flung its purple o'er his path to Heaven. The oath was said, and then one mighty pulse Seemed throbbing through the multitude, — Faces were lifted upward, and a prayer Of deep thanksgiving winged that vow to Heaven. In Heaven, the Hero answered it. Time slept on flowers, and lent his glass to Hope, — One little month his golden sands had sped, When, mingling with the music of our joy, Arose and swelled a low funereal strain, So sad and mournful that a nation heard, And trembled as she wept I Darkness is o'er the land, For, lo ! a death-flag streams upon the breeze. The Hero hath departed I PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 357 Nay, let us weep. Our grief hath need of tears, — Tears should embalm the dead ; and there is one, A gentle woman, with her clinging love, Who wrung her heart that she might give him up To his high destiny. Tears are for her, — She knoweth not how low her heart is laid.* From battle-fields, where strife was fiercely waged, And human blood-drops fell a crimson rain, He had returned to her. God help thee, lady, Look not for him now ! Throned in a nation's love, he sunk to sleep, And so awoke in Heaven ! Ann Sophia W. Stephens. "ZACHABY TAYLOR. (Extracts from Memorial Sermon.) A man has fallen. I do not mean a mere male, human animal. I speak of that which God meant, when He said, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." A man, that has a mind and uses it. A man, that has a heart and yields to it. A man, that shapes his circumstances. A man, that cares not for him- self. A man, with the simplicity of a child. A man, with the directness of a child. A man, with the freshness and earnest- ness of a child. A man, in justice. A man, in generosity. A man, in magnanimity. A man, to meet emergencies. A man, to dare not only, but to bear. A man, of love. A man, without a fear. A thunder-bolt in war, a dew-drop in the day of peace. One that, against the fearful odds of five to one, could sway the battle-storm at Buena Yista, and then, from the very arms and lap of victory, write to one whose gallant son had died to make its crown, " When I miss his familiar face, I can say with truth that I feel no exultation in our success." Truly, a man "has fallen in Israel." And a great man has fallen, — great, in act. His masterly defence of Fort Harrison, when but a captain in the service, where the terrors of impending conflagration were added to the midnight onslaught of Indians ; his conduct of * Mrs. Harrison, then absent. 358 PATRIOTIC READER. the war in Florida, against the same foe ; the gallant movement to Point Isabel, achieving Palo Alto and Eesaca de la Palma; the storming of Monterey; the crowning victory at Buena Yista, are glorious, but now painful reminiscences of the military career of him beside whose grave a nation weeps, to assure us that a great man has been taken from our Israel. And more illustrious even than in these, the greatness that knew how to bear such victories ; the greatness of moderation ; the greatness of modesty ; the greatness of self-conquest and control ; these do but wound our bleeding hearts more deeply, while they swell them with a fuller, higher admiration of the real greatness of the great man who has gone from us to-day. " General Taylor rises before us in all the glory of the hero, in all the majesty of the patriot, whose name and deeds are indelibly written on the tablet of the nation's gratitude." This is the true out-speaking of the heart when its deep pulses have been deeply touched. Such is the moral conquest of a man, wide as humanity in its extent. Such is the triumph which a great man, great in doing, or great in suffering, can achieve, beyond the lustre of all arms, beyond the splendor of all arts. Such is the true and real glory of the princes among men, — not of ancestral line, but that they rule in hearts ; that they are felt, as princes, among freemen ; and that, when they have passed from power and from life, men will stand up, and mourn as David mourned for Abner, and weep as David wept, and say as David said, and challenge all the world for a denial, " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ?" George Washington Doane. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. (Extracts from Funeral Sermon preached April 17, 1865.) Abraham Lincoln is dead. Probably no man since the days of Washington was ever so deeply and firmly enshrined in the very hearts of the American people. Nor was it a mistaken confidence and love. He deserved it well, and deserved it all. He is dead. But the memory of his virtues, of his wise and PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 359 patriotic counsels and labors, of his calm and steady faith in God, lives, and will be a power for good in the country quite down to the end of time. He is dead, but the cause he so ardently loved, so ably and faithfully represented and defended, not for himself only, but for all people in all coming generations, — that cause survives his fall, and will survive it ; and the language of God's united provi- dence is telling us, that, though the friends of liberty may die, liberty itself is immortal. There is no assassin strong enough, and no weapon deadly enough, to quench its inextinguishable life, or arrest its onward march to the conquest and empire of the world. Our beloved President is slain ; but our beloved country is saved ; and so tears of gratitude mingle with those of sorrow. God be praised that our fallen chief lived long enough to see the day dawn, and the day-star of joy and peace arise upon the nation ! He saw it and was glad. Alas ! alas! he only saw the dawn. When the sun has arisen full-orbed and glorious, and a happy, reunited people are rejoicing in its light, it will shine upon his grave ; but that grave will be a precious and a conse- crated spot. The friends of liberty and of the Union will repair to it in years and ages to come, to pronounce the memory of its occupant blessed ; and, gathering from his very ashes, and from the rehearsal of his deeds and virtues, fresh incentives to patriotism, they Avill there renew their vows of fidelity to their country and their God. P. D. GURLEY. OH, WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OP MORTAL BE PROUD ? (A favorite hymn with President Lincoln, and properly associated with his memory. ) Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? Like a swift-fleeing meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 360 PATRIOTIC READER. The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, Be scattered around, and together be laid ; And the young and the old, and the low and the high, Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. The infant a mother attended and loved ; The mother that infant's affection who proved ; The husband that mother and infant who blessed, — Each, all, are away to their dwellings at rest. The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne ; The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn ; The eye of the sage ; and the heart of the brave, — Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap ; The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep ; The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread, — Have faded away, like the grass that we tread. So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed That withers away, to let others succeed ; So the multitude comes, even those we behold, To repeat every tale that has often been told. For we are the same our fathers have been ; We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; "We drink the same stream, and view the same sun, And run the same course our fathers have run. The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think ; From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink To the life they are clinging they also would cling; But it speeds for us all, like a bird on the wing. They loved ; but the story we cannot unfold ; They scorned ; but the heart of the haughty is cold ; They grieved; but no wail from their slumber will come; They joyed ; but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 361 They died ; ay, they died ; we, things that are now, That walk on the turf that lies on their brow, And make in their dwellings a transient abode, Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, We mingle together in sunshine and rain ; And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, From the blossom of health to the paleness of death ; From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud, — Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? William Knox. JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. (From Memorial Oration before both Houses of Congress, February 27, 1882.) Lincoln fell at the close of a mighty struggle, in which the passions of men had been deeply stirred. Garfield was slain in a day of peace, when brother had been reconciled to brother, and when anger and hate had been banished from the land. From two sources, the English Puritan and the French Hugue- not, came the late President. It was good stock on both sides. There was in it an inheritance of courage, of manliness, of im- perishable love of liberty, of undying adherence to principle. His family, he said, were at Marston Moor, at Naseby, and at Preston ; they were at Bunker Hill, at Saratoga, and at Mon- mouth ; and in his own person had battled in the same great cause which preserved the Union of the States. General Garfield was a poor boy, in the same sense in which Henry Clay was a poor boy ; in which Andrew Jackson was a poor boy ; in which Daniel Webster was a poor boy ; in the sense in which a large majority of the eminent men of America, of all generations, have been poor boys. The poverty of the frontier, where all are engaged in a common struggle, and where a common sym- pathy and hearty co-operation lighten the burdens of each, is 362 PATRIOTIC READER. indeed no poverty. General G-arfield's youth presented no hard- ships which family love and family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations which he did not cheerfully ac- cept, and left no memories save those which were recalled with delight, and transmitted with profit and with pride. At eighteen years of ago he was able to teach school, and at the age of twenty-two to enter the Junior class of Williams College, and, receiving his diploma when twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound to spring into conspicuous success. Within six years he was president of a college, State senator of Ohio, major-general of the army, and representative-elect to the National Congress. A combination of honors so varied, within a period so brief and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history of the country. The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the House of Representatives, which he entered but seven years from his college graduation. His military life, illustrated by honorable performance and rich in promise, was, as ho felt himself, prematurely terminated, and necessarily incomplete. As a lawyer, though admirably equipped for the profession, he can scarcely be said to have entered on its practice. As a par- liamentary orator, as a debater on an issue squarely joined, where the position had been chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield must be assigned a very high rank. In the beginning of his Presidential life, Garfield's experience did not yield him pleasure or satisfaction. But while many of the executive duties were not grateful to him, he was assiduous and conscientious in their discharge. From the very outset he exhibited administrative talent of a high order. With perfect comprehension of all the inheritances of the war, with a cool calculation of the obstacles in his way, impelled always by a generous enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much might be done towards restoring harmony between the different sections of the Union. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he looked to the destiny of the United States with the philo- sophic composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative confidence of John Adams. The religious element in Garfield's character was deep and earnest. Its crowning characteristic element was charity, liberality. In all things, he had charity. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 363 On the morning of Saturday, July 2, the President was a contented and happy man, — not in any ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly, happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, his talk was all in the grateful and gratula- tory vein. Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching peace- fully out before him. Tbe next he lay wounded, bleeding, help- less, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for hearing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. Let us believe that in the silence of the re- ceding world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning. James Gillespie Blaine. ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. (From Address in Tremont Temple, Boston, October 22, 1885.) Another name is added to the roll of those whom the world will not willingly let die. Under a serene sky he laid down his life, and the nation wept. The path to his tomb is worn by the feet of innumerable pilgrims. The lips of slander are silent, and even criticism hesitates, lest some incautious word should mar the history of the modest, gentle, magnanimous warrior. The whole nation watched his passage through humiliating misfor- tunes with unfeigned sympathy ; the whole world sighed when his life ended. Grant entered into the sulphurous flames of war almost un- known. It was with difficulty that he could obtain a command. 364 PATRIOTIC READER. Once set forward, Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, the- Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, and Appomattox were his footsteps. In four years he had risen, without political favor, from the bottom, to the very highest command, not second to any living commander in any part of the world. For more than four years there were more than a million of men on each side, stretched out on a line of between one and two thousand miles, and a blockade rigorously enforced along a coast of an equal extent. During that time there were fought more than two thousand engagements, — two thousand two hun- dred and sixty-one, of record. Amid this sea of blood, there shot up great battles, that for numbers, fighting, and losses, will rank with the great battles of the world. When his work was done, this man of blood was as tender towards his late adversaries as a woman towards a son! He imposed no humiliating conditions, spared the feelings of his antagonists, sent home the disbanded Southern men with food, and horses for working their crops, and when a revengeful spirit in the executive chair showed itself, and threatened the chief Southern generals, Grant, with a holy indignation, interposed himself, and compelled his superior to relinquish his rash pur- pose. A man he was, without vices, with an absolute hatred of lies, and an ineradicable love of truth, of a perfect loyalty to friend- ship, neither envious of others nor selfish of himself. With a zeal for the public good unfeigned he has left to memory only such weaknesses as connect him with humanity, and such virtues as will rank him among heroes. The tidings of his death, long expected, gave a shock to the whole world. Governments, rulers, eminent statesmen, and scholars from all civilized nations, gave sincere tokens of sym- pathy. For the hour, sympathy rolled as a wave over the whole land. It closed the last furrow of war; it extinguished the last prejudice ; it effaced the last vestige of hatred ; and cursed be the hand that shall bring them back ! Johnston and Buckner (of the Confederates) on one side of his bier, and Sherman and Sheridan (of the Federals) upon the other, he has come to his tomb, a silent symbol that liberty had conquered slavery, and peace war. PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLAR LIVES. 365 He rests in peace ! Xo drum or cannon shall disturb his slumber ! Sleep, hero, sleep, until another trumpet shall shake the heavens and the earth ! Then come forth to glory and im- mortality! Henry Ward Beechbr. VICTORIA OF ENGLAND. JUBILEE ODE. (1887.) Xot as our empress do we come to greet thee. August Victoria, On this auspicious Jubilee : Wide as Old England's realms extend. O'er earth and sea. — Her flag in every clime unfurled. Her morning drum-beat compassing the world. — Yet here her sway imperial finds an end. In our loved land of liberty ! Nor is it as our queen for us to hail thee. Excellent majesty. On this auspicious Jubilee : Long, long ago our patriot fathers broke The tie which bound us to a foreign yoke, And made us free ; Subjects thenceforward of ourselves alone, We pay no homage to an earthly throne, — Only to God we bend the knee ! Still, still, to-day and here, thou hast a part, Illustrious lady, In every honest Anglo-Saxon heart, Albeit untrained to notes of loyalty : As lovers of our old ancestral race. — In reverence for the goodness and the grace Which lend thy fifty years of royalty A monumental glory on the historic pasre. Emblazoning them forever, a* the Victorian Age, 366 PATRIOTIC READER. For all the virtue, faith, and fortitude, The piety and truth, Which mark thy noble womanhood, As erst thy golden youth, — "We also would do honor to thy name, Joining our distant voices to the loud acclaim Which rings o'er earth and sea, In attestation of the just renown Thy reign has added to the British Crown ! Meanwhile, no swelling sounds of exultation Can banish from our memory, On this auspicious Jubilee, A saintly figure, standing at thy side, The cherished consort of thy power and pride, Through weary years the subject of thy tears, And mourned in every nation, — Whose latest words a wrong to us withstood, The friend of peace, — Albert, the wise and good. Robert Charles Winthrop. PART X. PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. INTRODUCTION. It has become the high privilege of the American people, sinco the achievement of national independence, so to exemplify their capacity for self-government and a substantial civil and religious liberty, that the world has begun to recognize the rightful claim of all men to possess and enjoy similar liberty. Eeverdy Johnson, in his outlook over continental countries, where the fires kindled but were quickly smothered by the foul atmosphere of deadly license, said, — "To be free, man needs to know the value of freedom. The liberty suited to man's nature is liberty restrained by law ; and liberty, unrestrained, is dangerous licentiousness ; but a constitutional freedom, learned from our ex- ample, will secure all the blessings of human life, and give everything of power and true glory which belong to a civilized and Christian state." Henry Clay, in his memorable speech for suffering Erin in her hour of famine, tenderly spoke of "that Ireland, which has been, and, in all the vicissitudes of our national existence, our friend, and has ever extended to us her warmest sympathy," and of " those Irishmen who, on every battle-field, from Quebec to Monterey, have stood by us, shoulder to shoulder, and shared in all the perils and fortunes of the conflict." Daniel Webster, in a senatorial assertion of national sympathy for Greece, while distinctly disavowing an armed intervention, expressed the true value of the American example. His words are " like apples of gold in baskets of silver :" 367 368 PATRIOTIC READER. OUR OBLIGATIONS TO GREECE. "Are we to go to war? Certainly not. Then what is there within our power? Such reasoning mistakes the spirit of the age. The time has been, indeed, when fleets and armies and subsidies were the principal reliances even in the best cause. Happily for mankind, moral causes come into considera- tion. The public opinion of the civilized world is rapidly gaining an as- cendency over mere brute force. As it grows more intelligent and more intense, it will be more formidable. It may be silenced, but cannot be conquered. It is elastic, irrepressible, and invulnerable to the weapons of ordinary warfare. It is that impassible, unextinguishable enemy of mere violence and arbitrary rule, which, like Milton's angels, ' Vital in every part, Cannot, but by annihilating, die.' " Even in the midst of a conqueror's exultations, this enemy pierces his ear with the cry of injured justice; it denounces against him the indignation of an enlightened and civilized age ; it turns to bitterness the cup of his re- joicing, and wounds him with the sting which belongs to the consciousness of having outraged the opinion of mankind." Louis Kossuth invoked American sympathy, on the basis of Ihis assertion, that there could be " no permanent peace without (liberty." Still, peoples struggle ! Poland and Hungary, Swit- zerland and Italy, France and Ireland, as well as the African and the Indian, have been the theme of oratory and poetry in their behalf; until America, herself, rescued from an inherited, involuntary attitude of disloyalty to the principles of her emi- grant founders, is before the foot-lights, on the world's vast stage of human action, to vindicate her asserted freedom, and her right to stand as the adequate " torch, to enlighten the world." The grandest experiment, in behalf of enfranchised man, is intrusted to America. A race, " to the manor born," with no other native land, no other language, — instinctively religious, home-loving, and essentially patriotic, — is now to act its part as citizens. Severed manacles do not restore strength to the be- numbed freedman. The suddenly acquired wealth of liberty does not impart an intelligent sense of its value and its most beneficent uses. The struggle goes on, but still, a struggle, to attain, as best it can, a well-adjusted and rightly-tempered fruition. PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 369 To the Southern States the difficulties are greater than the outside world can readily measure. Changes of property and relation, so radical, and all within a passing generation, affect society — especially the very old, and those who are just reach- ing maturity — in unnumbered ways, entirely beyond the com- prehension of those who do not personally experience the local force of such a change as only time can reconcile, or compen- sate. It is at such a crisis, of uncertain continuance, that all emo- tional sympathy for a freshly emancipated race will find its best deliverance through that patient fraternity of conference and action which will adjust entangled interests and secure genuine peace and kindly intercourse, without prejudice to any rights of the emancipated, or the impairment of the social and political integrity of a single Commonwealth of this great aggregate of States. Already many branches of the Christian Church realize this dawning issue, and make overtures for harmonious and fruit- ful action. Already the National Congress weighs its respon- sibility for that illiterac}^ which is the most prolific parent of vice and the deadliest foe of human liberty. Already it is felt, beyond the reach of partisan political action, that the moral constraint of a profound and discriminating charity is the true force that must wisely weld all sections and parties, in one supreme effort, to " see that the republic suffer no harm" while perfecting this great and costly enfranchisement. THE DOWNFALL OP POLAND. (1794.) O sacred Truth ! thy triumph ceased awhile, And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile, "When leagued Oppression poured to Northern wars Her whiskered pandoors and her fierce hussars, Waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn, Pealed her loud drum, and twanged her trumpet horn ; 24 370 PATRIOTIC READER. Tumultuous horror brooded o'er her van, Presaging wrath to Poland — and to man ! Warsaw's last champion from her height surveyed, Wide o'er the fields, a waste of ruin laid : " Heaven !" he cried, " my bleeding country save I Is there no hand on high to shield the brave ? Yet, though destruction sweep these lovely plains. Eise, fellow-men ! our country yet remains ! By that dread name, we wave the sword on high, And swear for her to live, with her to die !" He said, and on the rampart-heights arrayed His trusty warriors, few, but undismayed ; Firm-paced and slow, a horrid front they form, Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm ; Low murmuring sounds along their banners fly, " Eevenge, or death," — the watchword and reply ; Then pealed the notes, omnipotent to charm, And the loud tocsin tolled their last alarm ! In vain, alas ! in vain, ye gallant few, Prom rank to rank your volleyed thunder flew : Oh! bloodiest picture in the book of Time, Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime ; Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe ! Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear, Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career ; Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, And Freedom shrieked — as Kosciusko fell. The sun went down, nor ceased the carnage there ; Tumultuous murder shook the midnight air. On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow, His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below ; The storm prevails, the rampart yields a way, Bursts the wild cry of horror and dismay ! Hark ! as the mouldering piles with thunder fall, A thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call ! PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 371 Earth shook, red meteors flashed along the sky, And conscious Nature shuddered at the cry ! O righteous Heaven ! ere Freedom found a grave, Why slept the sword, omnipotent to save ? Where was thine arm, Vengeance ! where thy rod, That smote the foes of Sion and of God ; That crushed proud Amnion, when his iron car Was yoked in wrath, and thundered from afar? Where was the storm that slumbered till the host Of blood-stained Pharaoh left their trembling coast, Then bade the deep in wild commotion flow, And heaved an ocean on their march below ? Departed spirits of the mighty dead ! Ye that at Marathon and Leuctra bled ! Friends of the world! restore your swords to man, Fight in his sacred cause, and lead the van ! Yet for Sarmatia's tears of blood atone, And make her arm puissant as your own ! Oh ! once again to freedom's cause return The patriot Tell, — the Bruce of Bannockburn! Yes, thy proud lords, unpitied land ! shall see That man hath j^et a soul, and dare be free ! A little while, along thy saddening plains, The starless night of Desolation reigns ; Truth shall restore the light by Nature given, And, like Prometheus, bring the fire of heaven! Prone to the dust, Oppression shall be hurled, Her name, her nature, withered from the world ! Thomas Campbell. HEROISM OP THE HUNGARIAN PEOPLE. (November 12, 1851.) Gentlemen have said that it was I who inspired the Hunga- rian people. I cannot accept the praise. No, it was not I who inspired the Hungarian people. It was the Hungarian people 372 PATRIOTIC HEADER. who inspired me. Whatever I thought, and still think, — what- ever 1 felt, and still feel, — is but the pulsation of that heart which in the breast of my people beats ! The glory of battle is for the historic leaders. Theirs, are the laurels of immortality. And yet, in encountering the danger, they knew that, alive or dead, their names would, on the lips of the people, forever live. How different the fortune — how nobler, how purer the heroism — of those children of the people, who went forth freely to meet death in their country's cause, knowing that where they fell they would lie, undistinguished and unknown, — their names unhon- ored and unsung! Animated, nevertheless, by the love of free- dom and fatherland, they went forth calmly, singing their na- tional anthems, till, rushing upon the batteries, whose cross-fire vomited upon them death and destruction, they took them, with- out firing a shot, — those who fell, falling with the shout, "Hurrah for Hungary !" And so they died by thousands — the unnamed demi-gods! Such is the people of Hungary. Still it is said, it is I who have inspired them. No ! — a thousand times, no ! It is they who have inspired me. Louis Kossuth. LIBERTY TO ATHENS. The flag of freedom floats once more Around the lofty Parthenon; It waves, as waved the palm of yore, In days departed long and gone ; As bright a glory from the skies Pours down its light around those towers, And once again the Greeks arise, As in their country's noblest hours; Their swords are girt in virtue's cause, Minerva's sacred hill is free, — Oh ! may she keep her equal laws, While man shall live and time shall be ! The pride of all her shrines went down ; The Goth, the Prank, the Turk, had reft PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 373 The laurel from her civic crown ; Her helm by many a sword was cleft : She lay among her ruins low, — Where grew the palm, the cypress rose, And, crushed and bruised by many a blow, She cowered beneath her savage foes ; But now, again she springs from earth. Her loud, awakening trumpet speaks ; She rises in a brighter birth, And sounds redemption to the Greeks. It is the classic jubilee, — Their servile years have rolled away ; The clouds that hovered o'er them flee, They hail the dawn of freedom's day ; From heaven the golden light descends, The times of old are on the wing, And Glory, there, her pinion bends, And Beauty wakes a fairer spring ; The hills of Greece, her rocks, her waves, Are all in triumph's pomp arrayed ; A light that points their tyrants' graves Plays round each bold Athenian's blade. James Gates Percival. THE IRISH INSURRECTION. (1844.) Sir, these topics are perilous ; but I do not fear to touch them. It is my thorough conviction that England would be able to put down any insurrectionary movement, with her gigantic force, even although maddened and frantic Ireland might be aided by calculating France. But at what a terrible cost of treasure and of life would treason be subdued ! Well might the Duke of Wellington, although familiar with fields of death, express his horror at the contemplation of civil wai\ War in Ireland would 374 PATRIOTIC READER. be worse than civil. A demon would take possession of the nation's heart, — every feeling of humanity would be extin- guished, — neither to sex nor to age would mercy be given. The country would be deluged with blood ; and when that deluge bad subsided, it would be a sorry consolation to a British statesman, when he gazed upon the spectacle of desolation which Ireland would then present to him, that he beheld the spires of your Established Church still standing secure amidst the desert with which they would be encompassed. You have adjured us, in the name of the oath which we have sworn on the gospel of God, — I adjure you, in the name of every precept contained in that holy book, — in the name of that religion which is the per- fection of humanity, — in the name of every obligation, divine and human, as you are men and Christians, to save my country from those evils to which I point, and to remember, that if you shall be the means of precipitating that country into perdition, posterity will deliver its great finding against you, and that you will not only be answerable to posterity, but responsible to that Judge, in whose presence, clothed with the blood of civil war- fare, it will be more than dreadful to appear. But God forbid that these evils should ever have any other existence except in my own affrighted imaginings, and that those visions of dis- aster should be embodied in reality! God grant that the men to whom the destinies of England are confided by their sovereign may have the virtue and the wisdom to save her from those fearful ills that so darkly and so densely lower upon her ! For my own part, I do not despair of witnessing the time when Ireland will cease to be the battle-field of faction ; when our mutual acrimonies will be laid aside ; when our fatal antipathies will be sacrificed to the good genius of our country; and, so far from wishing for a dismemberment of this majestic empire, I would offer up a prayer, as fervent as ever passed from the heart to the lips of any one of you, that the greatness of that empire may be imperishable, and that the power, and the afflu- ence, and the glory, and, above all, the liberties of England may endure forever. KlCHARD LALOR SHEIL. PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 375 HOME RULE FOR IRELAND. (From Speech in Parliament, February 16, 1888.) We have evidence before us to show that as regards the great objects which the government have had in view, of putting down the National League and the Plan of Campaign, their efforts have resulted in total failure. Such is the retrospect. What is the prospect ? There are many things said by the govern- ment in debate ; but I never heard them express a confidence that they will be able to establish a permanent resistance to the policy of Home Rule. You are happily free, at this moment, from the slightest shade of foreign complications. You have, at this moment, the constitutional assent of Ireland, pledged in the most solemn form, for the efficacy of the policy which I am considering. But the day may come when your condition may not be so happy. I do not expect, any more than I desire, these foreign complications, but still it is not wise to shut them wholly out. What I fear is rather this, that if resistance to the national voice of Ireland be pushed too far, those who now guide the mind of that nation may gradually lose their power, and may be supplanted and displaced by ruder and more dangerous spirits. For seven hundred years, with Ireland practically un- represented, with Ireland prostrate, with the forces of this great and powerful island absolutely united, you tried and failed to do that which you are now trying to do, with Ireland fully represented in your Parliament, with Ireland herself raised to a position which is erect and strong, and with the mind of the people so devoted, that, if you look to the elections of the last twelve months, you find that the majority of the people have voted in favor of the concession of Home Rule. If this is to continue, I would venture to ask gentlemen, oppo- site, under such circumstances as these, and with the experience you have, is your persistence in this system of administration, I will not say just, but is it wise, is it politic, is it hopeful, is it conservative? Now, at length, bethink yourselves of a change, and consent to administer, and consent finally to legislate for Ire- land and for Scotland in conformity with the constitutionally 376 PATRIOTIC READER. expressed wishes and the profound and permanent convictions of the people ; and ask yourselves whether you will at last con- sent to present to the world the spectacle of a truly and not a nominally United Empire. William Ewart Gladstone. IRELAND NEAR THE GOAL. (From Address in Parliament, February 17, 1888.) All the speeches in support of the government have appeared to be more or less artfully designed to draw angry retorts from these benches. It is one of our national faults to be very ready to resent injustice, and a most generous use our opponents have made of that characteristic. The whole policy of our oppo- nents towards Ii*eland, and the whole object of the powerful London newspapers, seems to be to get at the worst side of Irish and of English character, and to sting and goad us into doing things which will put new life into national prejudices, that are expiring, in spite of you. Irishmen and Englishmen are becoming only too united for your purpose. Yours is a noble purpose ! Yours is a noble am- bition ! But you have failed in Ireland, and you will fail, I promise you, in this House, also. There was a time when we came here with our hand against every man's, and every man's against us. We expected no quarter, and, to the best of our ability, we gave none. It seemed to no purpose to struggle against the tremendous and cruel forces arrayed against us ; but that is all at an end, forever, — thanks to the right honorable member for Mid-Lothian [Mr. Gladstone]. We have come to this House no longer as enemies, among enemies. We count ourselves Ishmaelites no longer in this House, nor in this land of England. We are now among allies and friends who were not ashamed, nor afraid, to stand by our side, and by the side of our people, in many a bitter hour of trial and calumny, last year. We come here, now, among a people whose consciences, I believe, have been deeply stirred by the sufferings of our unfortunate people ; and though we are con- fronted by a hostile majority, callous to those sufferings, we PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 377 know that that majority does not represent Scotland and Wales. We believe that it does not even represent England. It is a majority of men who, two years ago, were not ashamed to re- ceive their offices at the hands of the men whom they are now libelling in England and torturing in Ireland. We have no re- spect for that majority. I doubt whether, in their secret hearts, many of them have much respect for themselves. I know very well that they are extremely ill at ease. We believe that we are winning. The right honorable gentleman opposite (the Chief Secretary) has failed in Ireland. He has failed to smash our organization. He has failed to break the spirit of our people. He has failed to degrade us, I won't say in the eyes of our countrymen, for that would be absurd, but in the eyes of every honest man within these three realms. The right honorable member for Mid-Lothian has accom- plished, in two years, what seven hundred years of coercion had not accomplished previously, and what seven hundred more would leave unaccomplished still. He has united the hearts of the two peoples by a more sacred and enduring bond than that of terror and brute force; and our quarrel with England, and our bitterness towards England, is gone. It will be your fault and your crime if it ever return, — a crime for which posterity will stigmatize you forever. We, at all events, are not disrup- tionists. It is you who are the disruptionists and the separatists. We have never made a disguise of our feelings. We say what we mean. You are the separatists. We, are for peace and for happiness, and for the brotherhood of the two nations. Tou, are for eternal repression and eternal discord and eternal mis- ery, for yourselves as well as for us. We, are for appeasing the dark passions of the past. You, are for inflaming them, whether for purposes of a political character I do not know, but for pur- poses in the interest of that wretched class of Mamelukes whom you support in Ireland, who are neither good Englishmen nor good Irishmen, and who are being your evil genius in Ireland, just as they have been the scourge of our unhappy people. That is the state of things ; and in such a case, and between such forces, I believe the end is not far off, and to the God of justice, and of liberty, and of merc3% we leave the issue. "William O'Brien. 378 PATRIOTIC READER. THE AFRICAN CHIEF. Chained in the market-place he stood, A man of giant frame, Amid the gathering multitude That shrunk to hear his name, — All stern of look and strong of limb, His dark eye on the ground ; And silently they gazed on him, As on a lion bound. Vainly, but well, that chief had fought,- He was a captive now ; Yet pride, that fortune humbles not, Was written on his brow : The scars his dark broad bosom wore Showed warrior true and brave : A prince among his tribe before, He could not be a slave. Then to his conqueror he spake : " My brother is a king : Undo this necklace from my neck, And take this bracelet ring, And send me where my brother reigns, And I will fill thy hands With store of ivory from the plains, And gold-dust from the sands." " Not for thy ivory nor thy gold Will I unbind thy chain ; That bloody hand shall never hold The battle-spear again. A price thy nation never gave Shall yet be paid for thee ; For thou shalt be the Christian's slave, In land beyond the sea." PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 379 Then wept the warrior chief, and bade To shred his locks away ; And, one by one, each heavy braid Before the victor lay. Thick were the plaited locks, and long, And deftly hidden there Shone many a wedge of gold among The dark and crisped hair. " Look, feast thy greedy eye with gold, Long kept for sorest need : Take it, — thou askest sums untold, — And say that I am freed. Take it, — my wife, the long, long day, "Weeps by the cocoa-tree, And my young children leave their play, And ask in vain for me." " I take thy gold, — but I have made Thy fetters fast and strong, And ween that by the cocoa shade Thy wife shall wait thee long." Strong was the agony that shook The captive's frame to hear, And the proud meaning of his look Was changed to mortal fear. His heart was broken, — crazed his brain, — At once his eye grew wild : He struggled fiercely with his chain, Whispered, and wept, and smiled ; Yet wore not long those fatal bands, And once, at shut of day, They drew him forth upon the sands, The foul hyena's prey. William Cullen Bryant. 380 PATRIOTIC READER. MELANCHOLY PATE OF THE INDIANS. There is, indeed, in the fate of these unfortunate beings much to awaken our sympathy, and much to disturb the so- briety of our judgment ; much which may be urged to excuse their atrocities ; much in their characters which betrays us into an involuntary admiration. What can be more melancholy than their history ? Two centuries ago the smoke of their wigwams and the fires of their councils rose in every valley, from Hudson's Bay to the farthest Florida, from the ocean to the Mississippi and the lakes. The shouts of victory and the war-dance rung through the moun- tains and the glades. The thick arrows and deadly tomahawk whistled through the forests ; and the hunter's trace, and the dark encampment, startled the wild beasts in their lairs. The warriors stood forth in their glory. The young listened to the songs of other days. The mothers played with their in- fants, and gazed on the scene with warm hopes of the future. The aged sat down ; but they wept not. They should soon be at rest in fairer regions, where the Great Spirit dwelt, in a home prepared for the brave, beyond the western skies. Braver men never lived ; truer men never drew the bow. They had courage, and fortitude, and sagacity, and perseverance, beyond most of the human race. They shrunk from no dangers, and they feared no hardships. If they had the vices of savage life, they had the virtues also. They were true to their country, their friends, and their homes. If they forgave not injury, neither did they forget kindness. If their vengeance was terrible, their fidelity and generosity were unconquerable also. Their love, like their hate, stopped not on this side of the grave. But where are they? Where are the villages, and warriors, and youths ? The sachems and the tribes ? The hunters and their families ? They have perished. They are consumed. The wasting pestilence has not alone done tli is mighty work. No, — nor famine, nor war. There has been a mightier power, a moral canker, which hath eaten into their heart-cores, — a plague, which the touch of the white man com- municated, — a poison which betrayed them into a lingering ruin. PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 381 The winds of the Atlantic fan not a single region which they may now call their own. Already the last feeble remnants of the race are preparing for their journey beyond the Mississippi. I see them leave their mis- erable homes, " few and faint, yet fearless still." The ashes are cold on their native hearths. The smoke no longer curls round their lowly cabins. They move on with a slow, unsteady step. The white man is upon their heels, for terror or despatch; but they heed him not. They turn to take a last look of their deserted villages. They cast a last glance upon the graves of their fathers. They shed no tears ; they utter no cries ; they heave no groans. There is something in their hearts which passes speech. There is something in their looks, not of vengeance or submission, but of hard necessity, which stifles both ; which chokes all utter- ance ; which has no aim or method. It is courage absorbed in despair. They linger but for a moment. Their look is onward. They have passed the fatal stream. It shall never be repassed by them, — no, never. Yet there lies not between us and them an impassable gulf. They know, and feel, that there is, for them } still one remove farther, not distant nor unseen. It is to the general burial-ground of their race. Joseph Story. THE RED MEN OP ALABAMA. (From " Komantic Passages in Southwestern History," by the late Judge Meek, contributed, for the " Patriotic Reader," by Professor Benjamin F. Meek, of Alabama University.) The Red Men of Alabama, if properly reviewed, would be found to pre- sent more interesting facts and features, upon a more extended scale, than any other American tribes. The peculiarities which had ever invested the character of the Indian with so much romantic interest, making him the chosen child of fable and of song, were here exhibited in bolder relief than elsewhere. In numbers ; in the extent of their territories, all converging to the heart of our State ; in their wide and terrific wars; in intercourse and traffic with the whites ; in the mystery of their origin and migration ; in the arts, rude though they were, which gradually refine and socialize man ; in their political and religious forms, arrangements, and ceremonies; in mani- festations of intellectual power, sagacity, and eloquence ; and in all those strange moral phenomena, which marked " the stoic of the woods, the man 382 PATRIOTIC READER. without a tear," — the native inhabitants of our soil surpassed all the other primitive nations north of Mexico. The study of their history is peculiarly our province, for they are indissolubly connected not only with the past, but the present and future, of the State. Yes, though they all have passed awa} r , — That noble race, and brave, — Though their light canoes have vanished From off the crested wave, Though 'mid the forests where they roved There rings no hunter's shout, Yet their names are on our waters, And we may not wash them out. Their memory liveth on our hills, Their baptism on our shore, Our everlasting rivers speak Their dialect of yore. 'Tis heard where Chattahoochee pours His yellow tide along ; It sounds on Tallapoosa's shores, And Coosa swells the song. Where lordly Alabama sweeps, The symphony remains, And young Catawba proudly keeps The echo of its strains ; Where Tuscaloosa's waters glide, From stream and town 'tis heard. And dark Tombigbee's winding tide Eepeats the olden word. Afar, where nature brightly wreathed Fit Edens for the free, Along Tuscumbia's bank 'tis breathed, By stately Tennessee ; And, south, where from Conecuh's Springs Escambia's waters steal, The ancient melody still rings, From Tensaw and Mobile. Alexander Beaufort Meek. PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. THE RED MEN PASSING AWAY. (Close of Address before the British Association of Science, at Bristol, England, 1876.) In 1866, soon after occupying the Powder River country, and before the completion of any defences, I made peace with a band of Cheyennes, who were small in numbers, were hated by the Sioux, and thus were compelled to leave that region, or join the Sioux to resist the establishment of posts on the Big Horn and Yellowstone Rivers* I watched the departing Cheyennes, led by old White Horse, with hair white as snow, Black Bear, Dull Knife, Big Wolf, and The Man That Strikes Hard. They started for the Wind River Mountains. Their lodge-poles, laden with all their effects, dragged behind the ponies in slow procession. The squaws bent under the weight of dried game, skins, arrow- wood, and the supplies furnished from the post. Children were packed with all they could carry. The old men rode, or slowly trudged along in the middle of the train, compelled to keep up or be abandoned. They were going to seek new hunting- grounds ; leaving an Indian paradise, because the shadow of the advancing white man had fallen upon their trail. They were passing away. I have freely talked with Spotted Tail, Standing Elk, and a score and more of chiefs, who came to be fed and cared for, who sought peace, and sought it honestly ; and with all the flashes of pride and dignity which now and then brightened their actions, there was ever present that painful consciousness of their impending doom, which, as when the autumnal frosts strike their first blow at the vast wealth of a summer's crea- tion, compel the soul to breathe, half audibly, in its deep emo- tion, — Passing away. I have seen all ages, and both sexes, half naked, and yet reckless of exposure, fording the Platte, while ice ran fast, and mercury was below the zero-mark, for the single * This military movement was in violation of solemn treaties made in 1865, and the costly war succeeding was caused by the broken pledges of the United States. See Senate Ex. Doc. 33, Fiftieth Congress, First Session. Also, " Absaraka; or, Indian Operations on the Plains," fifth edition, pub- lished by J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 384 PATRIOTIC READER. purpose of gathering from a post slaughter-house, to the last scrap, all offal, however nauseous, that they might use it in lieu of that precious game which our occupation was driving from its haunts. They, too, were passing away ! In the wild rage of battle, in the torturing test of the sun-dance, in the hour of defeat and the howl of victory, in the spirited hunt, and in the solemn council, — awake, asleep, in tepah, or on the prairie, — I have found them the same fate-defying, strong-willed, and pecu- liar race, — obdurate, steady, and self-possessed in all their moods, yet passing away. On a generous gift of food, I have been startled by being the centre of a circle of old women, whose song of thanksgiving, as with shrill screams and distorted faces they whirled and leaped, and sAvung their bodies, was more, as you might imagine, the rejoicing of fiends over some fresh soul lost, than as the expression of grateful hearts ; and I have seen the same wrinkled hags grinding the knife, the hatchet, and the arrow-head, with as apparent a relish as if alreadj^ they were drinking the life-blood of the white man. Here, too, in the absence of all that should give glory to woman, I read the ever- present premonition, — Passing away. We turn up the Ameri- can mounds, and in vain seek for some conclusive record as to the antecedents of the red men. We are upon the verge of the disappearance of the red man himself! Be it our part to strengthen the hands of those who would save the red man, so that the eternal disgrace of his extinction shall not attach to America, while Christianity is its strength and its glory. THE INDIAN WARRIOR'S LAST SONG. The wood is dyed with varied hue Of olive, blent with azure blue Of crescent sk}^ that, bending low, Has kissed the burnished autumn's glow ; And far beyond, the dark blue top Of Tuscarora's mountains prop The wide-extended sheet of sky, Where snow-winged cloudlets swiftly fly. PATRIOTIC SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING PEOPLES. 385 The falling leaf has spread adown Upon the earth, in red and brown, A carpet of its own wild wealth ; Thereon, with steps of springing stealth, An Indian hunter bounds along, Unconscious of the blackbird's song ; Its melody falls cold and drear Upon his once retentive ear. His memory is with the past, Before the pale-faced warrior cast A cloud of gloom upon his race, — Had seized the red man's hunting-place, And cried, " These acres are my own, These woods belong to me, alone ; Towards the west now turn thy face, Where dwell a fierce and hostile race." A nameless horror racked his brain, A struggle with heart-gnawing pain : " Oh for the battle-cry again To ring throughout this fertile plain ! — To see the white man's wigwam burn, — To see his face still whiter turn As rings the dreadful shout for blood, From mount to mount, and wood to wood ! As shrieks his scalped and bleeding squaw, And turns his proud and fierce huzza To plaintive cries of frenzied woe, — To see, beneath the red man's blow, His children's life-blood freely flow ! Ah, that would pay for years of shame, Without a tribe, without a name, Could I again behold him die, Beneath our nation's arching sky ! " But ah, my warriors, where are ye ? Ye sleep beneath the greenwood tree ! The grass o'ergrows each silent grave ! Launched on the rapid, tideless wave, 25 386 PATRIOTIC READER. You've reached the happy hunting-land, Where we, the Spirit's favored band, Shall bend for evermore the bow And safely conquer every foe ! " Too long I linger here below ; I come, I come, ye warrior braves; I die upon your grass-grown graves !" J. Howard Wkkt. PART XI. PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. INTRODUCTION. A few illustrative selections of popular appeal, during the struggle for liberty and country, mark the progressive patriotic sentiment, as the mere pride of country advanced towards its higher expression, in the gradual development of the law of peace as the true condition of a happy State and People. "ON, ON TO THE JUST AND GLORIOUS STRIPE." The following lines, by an unknown author, written at the time of the struggle of modern Greece for independence, in 1822, are in the spirit of patriotic aspiration : On, on to the just and glorious strife ! With your swords your freedom shielding: Nay, resign, if it must be so, even life, But die, at least, unyielding. On to the strife ! for 'twere far more meet To sink with the foes who bay you, Than crouch like dogs at your tyrants' feet, And smile on the swords that slay you. Shall the Pagan slaves be masters, then, Of the land which your fathers gave you ? Shall the infidel lord it o'er Christian men, When your own good swoz-ds may save you ? 887 388 PATRIOTIC READER. No ! let him feel that their arms are strong, That their courage will fail them never, Who strike to repay long years of wrong, And bury past shame forever. Let him know there are hearts, however bowed By the chains which he threw around them, That will rise, like a spirit, from pall and shroud, And cry " woe !" to the slaves who bound them. Let him learn how weak is a tyrant's might Against Liberty's sword contending ; And find how the sons of Greece can fight, Their freedom and land defending. Then on, then on to the glorious strife ! With your swords your country shielding ; And resign, if it must be so, even life, But die, at least, unyielding. Anonymous. REGULUS BEFORE THE SENATE OP CARTHAGE. (255 b.c.) Marcus Attilius Eegulus, an eminent Roman general, was taken prisoner near Carthage, 255 B.C., but sent to Rome to negotiate terms of peace and the interchange of prisoners of war on condition that in case of failure he would return to Carthage. In spite of the entreaties of the Roman Senate and his family, he protested against any terms of arrangement either degrading to Rome or holding life as an element in the settlement, and surrendered himself to the Senate of Carthage. Epes Sargent has given his supposed address before the Roman Senate. That before the Carthaginian Senate, by Kellogg, well describes the times and the character of the hero as preserved through tradition. PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. 389 SUPPOSED SPEECH OF EEGULUS. The palaces and domes of Carthage were burning with the splendor of noon, and the blue waves of her harbor were rolling and gleaming in the gorgeous sunlight. An attentive ear could catch a low murmm* sounding from the centre of the city, which seemed like the moaning of the wind before a tempest. And well it might. The whole people of Carthage, startled, astounded by the report that Eegulus had returned, were pouring, a mighty tide, into the great square before the Senate-House. There were mothers in that throng whose captive sons were groaning in Eoman fetters ; maidens, whose lovers were dying in the distant dungeons of Borne ; gray-haired men and matrons, whom Eoman steel had made childless ; men who were seeing their country's life crushed out by Eoman power ; and with wild voices, cursing and groaning, the vast throng gave vent to the rage, the hate, the anguish, of long years. Calm and unmoved as the marble walls around him, stood Eegulus, the Eoman. He stretched his arm over the surging crowd with a gesture as proudly imperious as though he stood at the head of his own gleaming cohorts. Before that silent command the tumult ceased, — the half-uttered execration died upon the lip : so intense was the silence that the clank of the captive's brazen manacles smote sharp on every ear as he thus addressed them : " Ye doubtless thought, judging Eoman virtue by your own, that I would break my plighted faith rather than by returning, and leaving your sons and brothers to rot in Boman dungeons, to meet your vengeance. Well, I could give reasons for this re- turn, foolish and inexplicable as it seems to you ; — I could speak of yearnings after immortality, — of those eternal principles in whose pure light a patriot's death is glorious, a thing to be de- sired ; but, by great Jove, I should debase myself to dwell on such high themes to you. If the bright blood which feeds my heart were like the slimy ooze that stagnates in your veins, I should have remained at Bome, saved my life, and broken my oath. If, then, you ask why I have come back to let you work your will on this poor body, which I esteem but as the rags that cover it, enough reply for you, it is because I am a Boman. As such, 390 PATRIOTIC READER. here in your very capital, I defy you. What I have done ye can never undo ; what ye may do I care not. Since first my young arm knew how to wield a Eoman sword, have I not routed your armies, burned your towns, and dragged your gen- erals at my chariot-wheels ? And do you now expect to see me cower and whine with dread of Carthaginian vengeance ? Com- pared to that fierce mental strife which my heart has just passed through at Rome, the piercing of this flesh, the rending of these sinews, would he but sport to me. " Venerable senators, with trembling voices and outstretched hands, besought me to return no more to Carthage. The gen- erous people, with loud wailing and wildly-tossing gesture, bade me stay. The voice of a beloved mother, her hands beating her breast, her gray hair streaming in the wind, tears flowing down her furrowed cheeks, praying me not to leave her in her lonely and helpless old age, is still sounding in my ears. Compared to anguish like this, the paltry torment you have in store is as the murmur of the meadow brook to the wild tumult of the moun- tain storm. Go ! Bring your threatened tortures I The woes I see impending over this fated city will be enough to sweeten death, though every nerve should tingle with its agony. I die, but mine shall be the triumph; yours, the untold desolation. For every drop of blood that falls from my veins your own shall flow in torrents. Woe unto thee, O Carthage ! I see thy homes and temples all in flames, thy citizens in terror, thy women wail- ing for the dead. Proud city, thou art doomed. The curse of Jove, a living, lasting curse, is on thee. The hungry waves shall lick the golden gates of thy rich palaces, and every brook run crimson to the sea. Rome, with bloody hand, shall sweep thy heart-strings, and all thy homes shall howl in wild response of anguish to her touch. Proud mistress of the sea, disrobed, uncrowned, and scourged, thus again do I devote thee to the infernal gods. "Now bring forth your tortures! slaves! While ye (ear this quivering flesh, remember how often Regulus has beaten your armies in the field and humbled your pride. Cut, as he would have carved you! Burn, deep as his curse I" Elijah Kellogg. PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. 391 SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS AT CAPUA. (71 B.C.) Spartacus, a Thracian soldier, taken prisoner by the Romans and trained as a gladiator, escaped, and with his comrades waged war for the freedom of all slaves. He was killed in battle, in the year 71 b.c. THE APPEAL OF SPAKTACTJS. Ye call me chief; and ye do well to call him chief who, for twelve long years, has met upon the arena every shape of man or beast the broad empire of Rome could furnish, and who never yet lowered his arm. If there be one among you who can say that ever, in public fight or private brawl, my actions did belie my tongue, let him stand forth and say it. If there be three in your company dare face me on the bloody sands, let them come on. And yet I was not always thus, a hired butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men! My ancestors came from old Sparta, and settled among the vine-clad rocks and citron groves of Syrasella. My early life ran quiet as the brooks by which I sported ; and when, at noon. I gathered the sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the shepherd's flute, thei-e was a friend. the son of a neighbor, to join me in the pastime. We led our flocks to the same pasture, and partook together our rustic meal. One evening, after the sheep were folded, and we were all seated beneath the myrtle which shaded our cottage, my grandsire, an old man, was telling of Marathon and Leuctra; and how, in ancient times, a little band of Spartans, in a defile of the moun- tains, had withstood a whole army. I did not then know what war was ; but my cheeks burned, 1 knew not why, and 1 clasped the knees of that venerable man, until my mother, parting the hair from off my forehead, kissed my throbbing temples, and bade me go to rest, and think no more of those old tales and savage wars. That very night the Romans landed on our coast. 1 saw the breast that had nourished me trampled by the hoof of the war-horse ; the bleeding body of my father flung amidst the blazing rafters of our dwelling ! To-day I killed a man in the arena ; and, when I broke his 392 PATRIOTIC READER. helmet-clasps, behold ! he was my friend. He knew me, smiled faintly, gasped, and died; the same sweet smile upon his lips that I had marked, when, in adventurous boyhood, we scaled the lofty cliff to pluck the first ripe grapes and bear them home in childish triumph. I told the praetor that the dead man had been my friend, generous and brave ; and I begged that I might bear away the body, to burn it on a funeral pile, and mourn over its ashes. Ay ! upon my knees, amid the dust and blood of the arena, I begged that poor boon, while all the assembled maids and matrons, and the holy virgins they call Vestals, and the rabble, shouted in derision, deeming it rare sport, forsooth, to see Eome's fiercest gladiator turn pale and tremble at sight of that piece of bleeding clay I And the praetor drew back as I were pollution, and sternly said, " Let the carrion rot ; there are no noble men but Eomans!" And so, fellow-gladiators, must you, and so must I, die like dogs. O Eome ! Eome ! thou hast been a tender nurse to me. Ay ! thou hast given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd lad, who never knew a harsher tone than a flute-note, muscles of iron and a heart of flint ; taught him to drive a sword through plaited mail and links of rugged brass and warm it in the marrow of his foe ; to gaze into the glaring eyeballs of the fierce Numidian lion, even as a boy upon a laugh- ing girl! And he shall pay thee back, until the yellow Tiber is red as frothing wine, and in its deepest ooze thy life-blood lies curdled ! Ye stand here now like giants, as ye are! the strength of brass is in your toughened sinews ; but to-morrow some Eoman Adonis, breathing sweet perfume from his curly locks, shall with his lily fingers pat your red brawn, and bet his sesterces upon your blood. Hark! hear ye yon lion roaring in his den? 'Tis three days since he tasted flesh ; but to-morrow he shall break his fast upon yours, and a dainty meal for him ye will be ! If ye are beasts, then stand here, like fat oxen waiting for the butcher's knife! If ye are men, follow me! Strike down your guard, gain the mountain-passes, and there do bloody work, as did your sires at old Thermopylae! Is Sparta dead? is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins, that ye do crouch and cower like a belabored hound beneath his master's lash? comrades! warriors ! Thracians! if we must fight, let us fight for ourselves! PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. 393 If we must slaughter, let us slaughter our oppressors ! If we must die, let it be under the clear sky, by the bright waters, in noble, honorable battle I Elijah Kellogg. GALGACUS TO THE CALEDONIANS. (A.D. 84.) The following is the rendering, by the late Epes Sargent, of the address delivered by the British general to his army, on the Grampian Hills, just before his total overthrow by Agricola. Tacitus gives the addi-ess of Agricola, up to the time when he was interrupted by the fierce onset of the British. APPEAL FOR FATHER-LAND. Beflecting on the origin of this war, and on the straits to which we are reduced, I am persuaded, O Caledonians, that to your strong hands and indomitable will is British liberty this day confided. There is no retreat for us if vanquished. Not even the sea, covered as it is by the Boman fleet, offers a path for escape. And thus war and arms, ever welcomed by the brave, are now the only safety of the cowardly, if any such there be. No refuge is behind us ; naught but rocks, and the waves, and the deadlier Bomans: men whose pride you have vainly tried to conciliate by forbearance, whose cruelty you have vainly sought to deprecate by moderation. The robbers of the globe; when the land fails, they scour the sea. Is the enemy rich, they are avaricious ; is he poor, they are ambitious. The East and the West are unable to satiate their desires. Wealth and poverty are alike coveted by their rapacity. To carry off, to massacre, to make seizures under false pretences, this they call empire ; and when they make a desert, they call it peace ! Do not suppose that the prowess of these Bomans is equal to their lust. They have thrived on our divisions. They know how to turn the vices of others to their own profit. Casting off all hope of pardon, let us exhibit the courage of men to whom salvation and glory are equally dear. Nursed in freedom as we 394 PATRIOTIC READER. have been, unconquered and unconquerable, let us, in the first onset, show tbe usurpers what manner of men they are that Old Caledonia shelters in her bosom ! All the incitements to victory are on our side. Wives, parents, children, — these we have to protect ; and these the Eomans have not. They have none to cry shame upon their flight ; none to shed tears of exul- tation at their success. Few in numbers, fearful from ignorance, gazing on unknown forests and untried seas, the gods have de- livered them, hemmed in, bound and helpless, into our hands. Let not their showy aspect, their glitter of silver and gold, dismay you. Such adornments can neither harm nor protect from harm. In the veiy line of the enemy we shall find friends. The Britons, the Gauls, the Germans, will recognize their own cause in ours. Here is a leader ; here an army ! There are trib- utes, and levies, and badges of servitude, — impositions, which to assume, or to trample underfoot forever, lies now in the power of your arms. Forth, then, Caledonians, to the field ! Think of your ancestors ! Think of your descendants ! Tacitus : Life of Agricola, chap, xxx.-xxxii. ALFRED THE GREAT TO HIS MEN. (a.d. 894.) My friends, our country must be free ! The land Is never lost that has a son to right her, — And here are troops of sons, and loyal ones! Strong in her children should a mother be : Shall ours be helpless, that has sons like us? God save our native land, whoever pays The ransom that redeems her! Now, what wait we? For Alfred's word to move upon the foe ? Upon him, then ! Now think ye on the things You most do love! — husbands and fathers, on Their wives and children ; lovers, on their beloved ; And all, upon their country! When you use Your weapons, think on the beseeching eyes, To whet them could have lent you tears for water I PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. 395 Oh, now be men, or never ! From your hearths Thrust the unbidden feet, that from their nooks Drove forth your aged sires, your wives and babes ! The couches, your fair-handed daughters used To spread, let not the vaunting stranger press, Weary from spoiling you ! Your roofs, that hear The wanton riot of the intruding guest, That mocks their masters, — clear them for the sake Of the manhood to which all that's precious clings, Else perishes. The land that bore you — oh, Do honor to her ! Let her glory in Your breeding ! Eescue her ! Eevenge her, — or Ne'er call her mother more ! Come on, my friends, And where you take your stand upon the field, However you advance, resolve on this, That you will ne'er recede, while from the tongues Of age, and womanhood, and infancy, The helplessness, whose safety in you lies, Invokes you to be strong ! Come on ! Come on ! I'll bring you to the foe ! And when you meet him, Strike hard ! Strike home ! Strike, while a dying blow Is in an arm ! Strike, till you're free, or fall ! Arranged from J. S. Knowles by Epes Sargent. WILLIAM TELL'S ADDRESS TO THE SWISS. (a.d. 1307.) (Adapted by Epes Sargent from Schiller's " William Tell.") Confederates, listen to the words which God Inspires my heart withal. Here we are met To represent the general weal. In us Are all the people of the land convened. Then let us hold the Diet, as of old, And as we're wont in peaceful times to do. The time's necessity be our excuse, If there be aught informal in this meeting. 396 PATRIOTIC READER. Still, wheresoe'er men strike for justice, there Is God ; and now beneath His heaven we stand. The nations round us bear a foreign yoke, For they have yielded to the conqueror. Nay, e'en within our frontiers may be found Some that owe villein service to a lord, — A race of bonded serfs, from sire to son. But we, the genuine race of ancient Swiss, Have kept our freedom, from the first, till now. Never to princes have we bowed the knee. What said our fathers when the Emperor Pronounced a judgment in the Abbey's favor Awarding lands beyond his jurisdiction? What was their answer? This : " The grant is void. No Emperor can bestow what is our own ; And if the Empire shall deny us justice, We can, within our mountains, right ourselves." Thus spake our fathers ; and shall we endure The shame and infamy of this new yoke, And from the vassal brook what never king Dared, in the fulness of his power, attempt ? This soil we have created for ourselves, By the hard labor of our hands ; we've changed The giant forest, that was erst the haunt Of savage bears, into a home for man ; Blasted the solid rock ; o'er the abyss Thrown the firm bridge for the wayfaring man. By the possession of a thousand years, The soil is ours. And shall an alien lord, Himself a vassal, dare to venture here, On our own hearths insult us, and attempt To forge the chains of bondage for our hands, And do us shame on our own proper soil ? Is there no help against such wrong as this ? Yes ! there's a limit to the despot's power. When the oppressed looks round in vain for justice, When his sore burden may no more be borne, With fearless heart he makes appeal to Heaven, And thence brings down his everlasting rights, PATEIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. 397 Which there abide, inalienably his, And indestructible as are the stars. .Nature's primeval state returns again, Where man stands hostile to his fellow-man, And, if all other means shall fail his need, One last resource remains, — his own good sword. Our dearest treasures call to us for aid Against the oppressor's violence ; we stand For country, home, for wives, for children, here ! ADDRESS OF ROBERT BRUCE. (June 24, a.d. 1314.) At Bannockburn the English lay, The Scots they werena far away, But waited for the break o' day That glinted in the east. But soon the sun broke through the heath, And lighted up that field o' death, When Bruce, wi' saul-inspiring breath, His heralds thus addressed : " Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled ! Scots, wham Bruce has aften led ! Welcome to your gory bed, Or to glorious victory ! " jNow's the day, and now's the hour; See the front o' battle lour ; See approach proud Edward's power — Edward I chains and slavery I " Wha will be a traitor knave, Wha can fill a coward's grave, Wha sae base as be a slave, Traitor ! coward ! turn and flee ! 398 PATRIOTIC HEADER. " AVha for Scotland's king and law Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Freeman stand, or freeman fa', Caledonian ! on wi' me ! " By oppression's woes and pains ! By your sons in servile chains ! We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be — shall be free ! " Lay the proud usurpers low 1 Tyrants fall in every foe ! Liberty's in every blow ! Forward ! let us do or die !" Robert Burns. RIENZI'S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS. (a.d. 1347.) Nicola Gabrini, known as Colas di Rienzi, a transient re- former, became Tribune of Bome through wonderful energy in behalf of the people, and is thus referred to in Byron's " Childe Harold :" " Redeemer of dark centuries of shame, — The friend of Petrarch, — hope of Italy, — Rienzi I last of Romans I" ADDRESS. Friends, I come not here to talk. Ye know too well The story of our thraldom. We are slaves! The bright sun rises to his course, and lights A race of slaves ! He sets, and his last beam Falls on a slave ; not such as, swept along By the full tide of power, the conqueror led To crimson glory and undying fame ; But base, ignoble slaves, — slaves to a horde Of petty tyrants, feudal despotsl lords Rich in some dozen paltry villages, — Strong in some hundred spearmen, — only great In that strange spell — a name. PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. 399 Each hour, dark fraud, Or open rapine, or protected murder, Cry out against them. But this very day, An honest man, my neighbor, — there he stands, — Was struck, struck like a dog, by one who wore The badge of Ursini ; because, forsooth, He tossed not high his ready cap in air, Nor lifted up his voice in servile shouts, At sight of that great ruffian. Be we men, And suffer such dishonor, — men, and wash not The stain away in blood ? Such shames are common : I have known deeper wrongs. I, that speak to ye, I had a brother once, a gracious boy, Full of gentleness, of calmest hope, Of sweet and quiet joy, — there was the look Of Heaven upon his face, which limners give To " the beloved disciple." How I loved That gracious boy ! — younger by fifteen years, Brother at once and son ! He left my side ; A summer bloom on his fair cheeks, — a smile Parting his innocent lips. In one short hour The pretty, harmless boy was slain ! I saw The corse, the mangled corse, and then I cried For vengeance ! Rouse ye, Romans ! — Rouse ye, slaves ! Have ye brave sons ? — Look in the next fierce brawl To see them die. Have ye fair daughters ? — Look To see them live, torn from your arms, distained, Dishonored; and if ye dare call for justice, Be answered by the lash. Yet this is Rome, That sat on her seven hills, and, from her throne Of beauty, ruled the world ! Yet we are Romans ! Why, in that elder day to be a Roman Was greater than a king! And once again, — Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread Of either Brutus ! — once again, 1 swear, The eternal city shall be free ; her sons Shall walk with princes ! Mary Pvussell Mitfokd. 400 PATRIOTIC READER. ARNOLD VON WINKELRIBD AT THE BATTLE OP SEMPACH. (a.d. 1386.) " Make way for liberty I" he cried, — Made way for liberty, and died ! In arms the Austrian phalanx stood, A living wall, a human wood ; Impregnable their front appears, All horrent with projected spears. Opposed to these, a hovering band Contended for their native land, Peasants whose new-found strength had broke From manly necks the ignoble yoke, And forged their fetters into swords, On equal terms to fight their lords ; Marshalled once more at Freedom's call, They came to conquer or to fall. And now the work of life and death Hung on the passing of a breath ; The fire of conflict burned within ; The battle trembled to begin ; Yet, while the Austrians held their ground, Point for attack was nowhere found ; Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed, The unbroken line of lances blazed ; That line 'twere suicide to meet, And perish at their tyrants' feet. How could they rest within their graves, And leave their homes the haunts of slaves? Would they not feel their children tread With clanging chains above their head ? It must not be ; this day, this hour, Annihilates the oppressor's power! All Switzerland is in the field, She will not fly ; she cannot yield. PATRIOTIC APPEALS IN EMERGENCIES. 401 She must not fall ; her better fate Here gives her an immortal date. Few were the numbers she could boast, But every freeman was a host, And felt as 'twere a secret known That one should turn the scale alone, While each unto himself was he On whose sole arm hung Victory. It did depend on one, indeed ; Behold him, — Arnold Winkelried ! There sounds not to the trump of Fame The echo of a nobler name. Unmarked he stood amid the throng, In rumination deep and long, Till you might see, with sudden grace, The very thought come o'er his face, And by the motion of his form Anticipate the bursting storm ; And by the uplifting of his brow Tell where the bolt would strike, and how. But 'twas no sooner thought than done, — The field was in a moment won 1 " Make way for liberty I" he cried, Then ran, with arms extended wide, As if his dearest friend to clasp ; Ten spears he swept within his grasp. " Make way for liberty !" he cried ; Their keen points met from side to side ; He bowed amongst them like a tree, And thus made way for liberty. Swift to the breach his comrades fly, — " Make way for liberty !" they cry, And through the Austrian phalanx dart, As rushed the spears through Arnold's heart, 26 402 PATRIOTIC READER. While, instantaneous as his fall. Bout. ruin, panic, scattered all. Au earthquake could not overthrow A city with a surer blow. Thus Switzerland again was free : Thus death made way for liberty ! Jambs Montgomery HENRY V. TO HIS TROOPS. ^a.b. IT??. ) Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility ; But when the blast of war blows in our ears. Then imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. lMs