A FOURTH OF JULY ADDRESS ON SECESSION. 255 it is the secret of divided families; it is the explanation of unrelenting hatred between those who once were bosom friends. Our war would be the repetition of the Peloponnesian War, or of the German Thirty Years' War, with still greater bitterness between the enemies, because it would be far more unnatural. It would shed the dismal glare of barbarism on the nineteenth century. Have they that long for separation forgotten that England, at first behind Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, rapidly outstripped all, because earlier united, without permitting the crown to absorb the people's rights? The separation of the South from the North would speedily produce a manifold disrupture, and bring us back to a heptarchy, which was no government of seven, but a state of things where many worried all. If there be a book which I would recommend, before all others, to read at this juncture, that book is Thucydides. It reads as if it had been written to make us pause; as if the orators introduced there had spoken expressly for our benefit; as if the fallacies of our days had all been used and exposed at that early time; and as if in that book a very mirror was held up for our admonition. Or we may peruse the history of cumbered, ailing Germany, deprived of unity, dignity, strength, wealth, peace, and liberty, because her unfortunate princes have pursued, with never-ceasing eagerness, what is called in that country particularism-that is, hostility of the parts to the whole of Germany, and after the downfall of Napoleon preferred the salvation of their petty sovereignties, conferred upon them by Napoleon, to the grandeur, peace, and strength of their common country. The history of Germany, the battlefield of Europe for these three centuries, will tell you what idol we should worship, were we to toss our blessings to the winds, and were we to deprive mankind of the proud example inviting to imitation. I, for one, dare not do anything toward the disruption of the Union. Situated, as we are, between Europe and Asia, on a fresh continent, I see the finger of God in it. I believe our destiny to be a high, a great, and a solemn one, before which the discussions now agitating us shrink into much smaller dimensions than they appear if we pay exclusive attention to them. I have come to this country, and pledged a voluntary oath to be faithful to it, and I will keep this oath. This is my country from the choice of manhood, and not by chance of birth. In my position, as a servant of the state, in a public institution of education, I have imposed upon myself the duty of using my influence with the young neither one way nor the other in this discussion. I have scrupulously and conscientiously adhered to it in all my teaching and intercourse. There is not a man or a youth that can gainsay this. But I am a man and a citizen, and as such I have a right, or the duty, as the case may be, to speak my mind and my inmost convictions on solemn occasions before my fellowcitizens, and I have thus not hesitated to make these remarks. Take them, gentlemen, for what they may be worth. They are, at any rate, sincere and fervent; and, whatever judgment others may pass upon them, or whatever attacks may be levelled against them, no one will be able to say that they can have been made to promote any individual advantages. God save the commonwealth! God save the common land! Ex. CLXV.-ELEGY. · On the death of Clay, Calhoun and Webster.-1850-52. THOMAS BUCHANAN READ. THE great are falling from us; to the dust A nation's glory and a people's trust Lie in the ample pall where WEBSTER lies. The great are falling from us, one by one, Lo! Carolina mourns her steadfast pine, That like a mainmast towered above her realm; And Marshfield's giant oak, whose stormy brow THE AMERICAN SAILOR. Ex. CLXVI.—THE AMERICAN SAILOR. R. F. STOCKTON. 257 Look to your history-that part of it which the world knows by heart and you will find on its brightest page the glorious achievements of the American sailor. He, at least, has never disgraced his country; he has always been ready to serve her; he always has served her faithfully and effectually. He has often been weighed in the balance and never found wanting. The only fault ever found with him is that he sometimes fights ahead of his orders. The world has no match for him, man for man, and he asks no odds, he cares for no odds, when the cause of humanity or the glory of his country calls him to fight. Who, in the darkest days of our Revolution, carried your flag into the very chops of the British channel, bearded the lion in his den, and woke the echoes of old Álbion's hills by the thunders of his cannon, and the shouts of his triumph? It was the American sailor. And the names of John Paul Jones and the Bon Homme Richard will go down the annals of time forever. Who struck the first blow that humbled the Barbary flag, which for a hundred years had been the terror of Christendomdrove it from the Mediterranean, and put an end to the infamous tribute it had been accustomed to extort? It was the American sailor. And the name of Decatur and his gallant companions will be as lasting as monumental brass. your war of 1812, when your arms on shore were covered by disaster-when Winchester had been defeated, when the army of the Northwest had surrendered, and when the gloom of despondency hung like a cloud over the land, who first relit the fires of national glory, and made the welkin ring with the shouts of victory? It was the American sailor. And the names of Hull and the Constitution will be remembered as long as we have anything left worth remembering. That was no small event. The wand of Mexican prowess was broken on the Rio Grande. The wand of British invincibility was broken when the flag of the Guerrière came .down. That one event was worth more to the Republic than all the money which has ever been expended for the navy. Since that day, the navy has had no stain upon its escutcheon, but has been cherished as your pride and glory. And the American sailor has established a reputation throughout the world-in peace and in war, in storm and in battle-for hero In ism and prowess unsurpassed. He shrinks from no danger, dreads no foe, and yields to no superior. No shoals are too dangerous, no seas too boisterous, no climate too rigorous for him. The burning sun of the tropics can not make him effeminate, nor can the eternal winter of the polar seas paralyze his energies. Foster, cherish, develop these characteristics, by a generous and paternal government. Excite his emula tion and stimulate his ambition; inspire him with love and confidence for your service, and there is no achievement so arduous, no conflict so desperate, in which his actions will not shed glory upon his country And when the final struggle comes, as come it will, for the empire of the seas, you may rest with entire confidence in the persuasion that victory will be yours. Ex. CLXVII.-OLD IRONSIDES.* OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. AYE! tear her tattered ensign down! And burst the cannon's roar; The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more. Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, The harpies of the shore shall pluck Oh! better that her shattered hulk * The United States frigate Constitution, employed in the war of 1812–15. EIGHTY YEARS AGO. Her thunders shook the mighty deep Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the God of storms, Ex. CLXVIII.-EIGHTY YEARS AGO. CHARLES SPRAGUE. EIGHTY years have rolled away Struck the conquering blow! Praise to them-the bold who spoke; Pour the wine of sacrifice, Let the grateful anthem rise; Shall we e'er resign the prize? Never, never! No! Hearts and hands shall guard those rights, Eighty years ago! Swear it! by the mighty dead Those who counselled, those who led; By the blood your fathers shed, By your mothers' woe; Swear it by the living few, Those whose breasts were scarred for you, Eighty years ago! By the joys that cluster round, By our hill-tops-holy ground, Rescued from the foe, 259 |