POEM
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
AT THE'QUARTER CENTURY CELEBRATION
OF THE'SETTLEMENT OF THE VILLAGE AND COUNTY
OF
JUN.S, 21st., 1854
NEW YORiK:
1854.








A
POEM.
When gory war lays waste a happy land,
And arms with blood-red scourge oppression's hand;
When cities sacked, and pillaged farms betray.
The unmeasured woes that mark the lust of sway;
Then comes the bard, and with triumphal song
Exalts the victor and conceals the wrong:
Or, when grown old, outworn with blood and crime,
Some hoary empire yields to fate and time,
In sad, pathetic strains the poet sings,Rome's ancient glories or Assyria's kings.
O Humble harp of mine! if such the strain,
Well might thy trembling strings be touched in vain:
No songs of joy should greet the warrior's ear
Save such as Freedom bends with joy to hear:
No sad lament should mourn oppression's fall
Save mene tekel on her crumbling wall.
But if the noble contest of the free
With untamed nature, and the victory;If the fair village and the fruitful plain
That late usurped rude nature's drear domain;If Kala's fair invite such strains of thine,
Rlow should thy numbers swell, 0 honored harp of mine!




-4Fit were such theme for his immortal strain
Who sung " sweet Auburn" loveliest of the plain;
Yet pensive sung, in mournful garb arrayed,
A ruined land, " by luxury betrayed."
0, how unlike the theme that greets me now;The pearls that shine on Kala's youthful brow!
iHer brief, bright childhood, drawn on memory's page,
And all her glorious hopes of future age!
I saw thee, Kala-'twas but yesterdayWhen these thronged streets in nature's stillness lay:
Kala's fair stream.that rolled its silver tide,
By pendant boughs embraced on either side;
The flickering shadows of the leafy trees;
The tall grass waving in the summer breeze;
The grazing deer, whose restless ear now turns
Where the lone ring-cdove sadly sits ancld mourns;
Now, where the squirrel, brisk, with chattering glee,
Drops his peeled rind from out the walnut tree;
The listless Indian, whose quick eye is cast
To see the hawk whose shadow glances past;These were the visions fair that graced the sceneNature's own, wild, untrodden, stainless green.
And yet the traveler's curious eye might trace
Mysterious tokens of a vanished race:Long rows of garden beds, in order due,
Where once what unknown plants, luxuriant, grew!
What various flowers repaid the florist's care,
Spread their gay blooms and scented all the air!
Now the old oak upon these beds appears
Intruder still, though half a thousand years
Of sole possession ratify his claim
Against the fruits and flowers without a name.
There, too, the mound.its cone-like form displays,
Enduring monument of other days!




See what is fame! some brave old warrior here,
Chief of his tribe, to fame and glory dear,'In battle slain, after an hundred foes
IIad felt the vengeance that a warrior owes,
Is tombed, with all that savage pomp could give'To bid the memory of the hero live;
And, lest the wtarrior in the shadowy land
Might need some weapon for his shadowy hand,
His well-strung bow is placed beside him here,
His copper hatchet, and his ashen spear;
And, meet provision for the ethereal plains,
Venison and corn an earthen jar contains
This heaped up mound of earth remains the same;
But of the warrior neither race nor name.
iHere, by this lonely mound in forest dell
Might pensive melancholy love to dwell,
And muse on all the vanity of things:The fame of warriors, and the pride of kings!
kYet even here, o'er these deserted plains,
Where nature slumbers, and where silence reigns;
Where the drear past has rolled its fruitless years,
And scarce a record of their flight appears,
A change is coming, and the sign is nigh,
Filled with strange wonders to prophetic eye;
For. lo! slow moving through the oaken glade,
Now gleaming in the sun, now darkening in the.shade,
A canvass-covered wagon looms in view;
The deer espies it, and the red man too:
A few light bounds the wild deer gives, and then
Stops, looks, and snorting, bounds away again:
The Indian, to his native caution true,
An intervening tree conceals from view;:
Whence peering out, his keen, observant eye
Watches the lumbering vehicle draw nigh.




0, Artful Indian! and 0, bounding deer!
Well may ye note that white-topped wain draw near;
For wheresoe'er that vision has been seen
Your race has vanished from the woodland green 
But slowly on the laboring wagon rolls,
Through open glades, and o'er surrounding knolls,
To where a brook winds merrily along,
Gladdening its journey with its own low song;
Now on the bank of the meandering rill
This strange, intruding vehicle stands still;
And he to whom its long-arched roof gives birth
Has nowhere else his prototype on.earth.
His speech is that 6f England, but yet free
From English brogue, no foreign brogue has he:
A certain something in his carless air
Proves not her culture if her blood is there;
In his queer lexicon of words are some
Derived from IKentuck, or from Iloosierdom;
His strong right hand the ready rifle grasps,
His axe the left with equal vigor clasps;
With equal nerve prepared the foe to meet,
Or lay the forest prostrate at his feet.
His head erect, his bearing proud and free,
Might fit Castilian knight of high degree;
Yet more unlike in heart and thought and deed
Than Sancho's master and his sorry steed:
He spurns all tinsel and all false pretense,
His guiding genius sterling common sense.
Deep in his breast the fires of freedom dwell
As in the children of the land of Tell;
Lightly he'd reck in war's red front to stand,
Battling for freedom and his native land,'Where"'er their wings Columbia's eagles spread,
lHis country's ensign waving o'er his head;




-7But not, poor Switzer, not like thine, his sword
Is drawn, the hireling of a foreign lord.
A little boastful, yet'tis oftener shown
To prove his countiry's prowess than his own;'Tis what we are he boasts; not what I am;
His faith, and hope, and pride, is Uncle Sam:
Of his own country's universal heart
His quicker throbs to feel itself a part:
He deems no special guerdon due because
He loves his country and obeys her laws;
Saving alone the right to meet her foes,
Or make " the desert blossom as the rose."
Ye helpless, heartless, mercenary band,
Like Egypt's frogs that fill and curse the land;
Whose noisy croakings indicate your zeal
For your own private, not the public weal;
Though skilless all to guide your own affairs,
Yet of the public claim to manage theirs;
To all above with servile flattery bow,
Yet proud and arrogant to all below;
Ye slimy crawlers for the public pelf,
Whose creed is party, and whose party self;
Go, note the hardy pioneer, whose hand
Widens the borders of his native land;Go, note him well, and learn, if learn ye can,
What'tis to be a patriot and a man.
And there is one whose true and trusting heart
Braves with him all, and bears in all a part;
Where'er he wanders, or what ill betide,
She shares his fortunes, ever at his side:
On the broad prairie, or in forest gloom
His humble cabin is her happy home.
From her loved friends and kindred far away,
The faithful-hearted labors, day by day.




Courageous spirit! who could bear like thee
Thy lonely life, thy toil and poverty!
~With. wifely care the weary hours beguile,
And make even barren desolation smile!
WVhen the lone traveller on Illina's plains,
Or where Iowa spreads her broad domains,
Benighted, weary, dubious of his way,
That endless seemed, and traclless, e'en by day;
Nought but the prarie wilderness around;
No cheerful tree, and no familiar sound;
Nought but the curlew's wild and wailing cry,
Or the marsh bittern's dismal melody;
Or,' as thick darkness settles on the plain,
The wolf's lQng howl is answered back again;
Of the low cabin, like a setting star,
Descries the light, dlull-glimmering from afar,
H-ow, with a lightened heart and quickened pace-,
He hastens toward that welcome resting-place;
For well he knows that woman's hand is there
To lay the couch and spread the humble fare;
And,, though without, all cheerless seems, and mean,
Order, and joy, and comfort reign within.
Such are the homes, the nurseries of a race
That stand unrivalled on the earth's broad face;
Such were the homes that lined thy sounding shore,
O, Bleak New England! in the days of yore.
Such homes, such mothers nurtured those strong arms
And stronger hearts, that, when wild war's alarms
I-fad paled the cheek,. and quailed the heart of all
The sons of fear whom tyrants can enthral,
At the armed despot stern defiance hurled,
And Freedom's flag on the free air unfurled!
Such were the mothers, and such homes were theyThe natal homes of Webster and of Clay.




-9Why have these names, and many scarce less great,
Sprung from so low a source, so rude a state?
Ye titled lordlings! it were well to know
Fair [Freedoml's children may be poor, not low;
iHer poorest son may fix on fame's bright star:No laws oppress him and no titles bar;
And the clear voice that in rude cabin rings
May charm grave senates and may hunmble kings:
Up toward the good, the great, the right, the high,
The way is clear for all, as toward the sky,;
While only wrong law's stern restraint may know,
As earth's foundations bar the depths below.
Tis this, my country! makes thy glorious name
A watch-word to the nations; — a bright flame
With living fire to wither and consume
Old, giant tyrannies; and to illume,
O'er all the earth, with Liberty's clear light,
Oppression's gloomy realms, her long and dreary nigI
ITis this that leads the exile to thy shore,
Pleased to remain, an exile now no more;
Or in far nations shields him;-and how well,
Koszta can answer   or let Austria tell.
ITis this that gives to serve thy countless sons
A slave far better than all human ones, —
Bright-eye'd and many-handed, that ere long
Shall purge that foul; hereditary wrong
Wherewith thy young limbs fester; for in vain
The galling fetter and the clanking chain,
To serve our needs or feed our luxury,
Facile invention! shall compete with thee.'Tis this that moulds, with utmost skill, the form
Of the winged ship to brave the ocean storm;
With least resistance past the yielding tide,
And dash the billows from her shapely side:




— 10With nicest art that forms the spreading sail
To catch the utmostwof the favoring gale;
YUntil the boasted mistress of the sea
Reluctant yields and leaves the palm with thee.'Tis this that sends careering fast and far,
In thousand mazy lines, the rapid car;
That, fire-impelled, its flaming course is driven,
Like the red meteor, o'er the face of heaven!'Tis this that o'er earth's cold and torpid breast,
That since creation lay in lifeless rest,
Spreads finest nerves, that permeate the whole,
And with electric fire makes it a living soul:
Lands far removed by mountain, lake and sea,
Are joined in bonds of mutual sympathy;
The quivering nerves the distant impulse feel,
And swift as light the far off thought reveal.'Tis this that scatters with unfettered hand,
In countless thousands, wide throughout the land
With all their power to instruct, to improve, to ble
The unnumbered offspring of a liberal press:
Those airyirits that, on untiring wing,
To every hearth their various tidings bring;
Each outrage new of hoary wrong proclaim,
Each noble action consecrate to fame;
With prompt alarm warn of each threatened right
And drag corruption's darkest deeds to light.
O, Holy Freedom i these are but the sign
And visible out-croppings of that mine
Of countless wealth that lies concealed in thee:Wherever settler fells the forest tree,
Turns the fresh soil, and builds his little home, -
Thou, guardian spirit! with him there dost come:'Twas thoul that leddest him to the forest wild,
Cheered all his toils, and on his labors smiled.




-11 —Wherever learning's first rude temples stand,
There they were planted by thy careful hand;
And all above, of whatsoe'er degree,
From thee are sprang and dedicate to thee;
Where'er Religion lifts her heavenward spire,
Her light were dim without thy holy fire;
And scarce a hamlet where thy foot has trod
But has its temple pointing up to God.
Virtue and Truth from old oppression flee,
And find congenial home alone with thee;
And maiden purity and manly pride
Dwell where thou dwellest and flourish by thy side'
4, can it be! and shall thy sons confess,
Nurtured by thee, they learned to love thee less;
And for a pottage but less vile than they,
Cast half thy glorious heritage away!'Bay, shall thy beams that light our northern sky —
Grow sickly pale, and fitful flickering die,
Quenched by the baleful breath of Slavery?
No, Freedom, no! the hideous monster's power
Is rushing headlong to its fated hour:
I see thy sons in countless numbers rise,
And on the wind I hear their vengeful cries;"L Back, demon! back! back to thy noisome den!
The soil of Freedom rears not slaves, but men!"
H;umbled, abased, I see the fiend retire,
Appalled with fear before thy children's ire!
And thou, 0 Kala! happy thrice art thou
That freedom's gems adorn thy shining brow:
And happy too, not thus alone to stand;
But many a sister fair throughout the land,
Like thee adorned, lifts her proud head on high,
In youthful grace and glorious majesty:



-12Sprung from one source, to the same good ye tend;
One common parent and.one common end:
A sister band, by Freedom linked in love,
Through the long course of future years ye move:Prophetic eye, through the dim mists afar,
May note each brilliant, although differing star;
In varied constellations see them shine,
With light and harmony almost divine;
Till gazing long, on the fair scene intent,
Dazzled and blinded turns from Freedom's firmament.
So brief, so bright thy past; thy coming years
So fraught with hopes, so all undimmed with fears;
And on thy natal day, with garlands crowned,
Thy own glad presence scattereth joy around;
Yet in thy joy a sadness shades thy brow
For many a noble heart all pulseless now
That were of thee the glory: many an eye
Whose kindling glance beamed on thy infancy'
Is closed forever: many a voice is stilled
Whose tones of love through all thy being thiililed:
And these are gone, O Kala! like a dream
Whose empty visions are not what they seem
And in our turn, ere long, we too shall pass,
Like inane shadows in the silvered glass:
All who have made and make thee what thou art,,
As fate decrees shall one by one depart;
But thou wilt still remain: for thee appears
A ]ong-drawn vista of unnumbered years:
I see thee far adown the centuries,.
The light and joy of myriad loving eyes:
1Kala, the beautiful! thy Indian name
And the Greek liquid epithet the sameKala, e kale: be thou ever so
IWhile in thy gentle stream its silvery waters flow.