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In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit; to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue; to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated.

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 committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, 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 toward it which is

so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate, with pleasing expectations, 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.

EUTAW SPRINGS

PHILIP FRENEAU

Philip Freneau (1752-1832) has been called "the pioneer of our national poets." Throughout the Revolutionary War he combined with his work as a newspaper editor the writing of many patriotic poems. The battle celebrated in the following poem, was fought at Eutaw Springs, in South Carolina, and was among the last conflicts of the Revolution. It occurred on September 8, 1781. Though pronounced a British victory, the victors fled and were pursued for thirty miles by the defeated Americans. Soon afterwards South Carolina was freed of enemy troops.

Ar Eutaw Springs the valiant died:

Their limbs with dust are covered o'er; Weep on, ye springs, your tearful tide; heroes are no more!

How many

If in this wreck of ruin they

Can yet be thought to claim a tear,

Oh, smite thy gentle breast and say,
The friends of freedom slumber here!

Thou who shalt trace this bloody plain,
If goodness rules thy generous breast,
Sigh for the wasted rural reign;

Sigh for the shepherds sunk to rest!

Stranger, their humble groves adorn;
You too may fall, and ask a tear:
'Tis not the beauty of the morn

That proves the evening shall be clear.

They saw their injured country's woe,
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear-but left the shield.

Led by thy conquering standards, Greene,1
The Britons they compelled to fly:
None distant viewed the fatal plain,
None grieved in such a cause to die.

But, like the Parthians famed of old,
Who flying, still their arrows threw,
These routed Britons, full as bold,

Retreated, and retreating slew.

1 General Nathaniel Greene, American commander in the South.

Now rest in peace our patriot band;

Though far from nature's limits thrown,
We trust they find a happier land,
A brighter Phoebus of their own.

WASHINGTON

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

The following stanzas were written to be sung at a dinner given by the New York Historical Society on the evening of April 30, 1839. The event was in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Washington's inauguration. John Quincy Adams was the chief speaker, and the singing of the ode immediately preceded Mr. Adams' address. As printed below, the verses are given in Jubilee of the Constitution, published by the Society in 1839.

GREAT were the hearts and strong the minds
Of those who framed, in high debate,
The immortal league of love that binds
Our fair broad empire, state with state.

And ever hallowed be the hour

When, as the auspicious task was done,
A nation's gift, the sword of power,
Was given to glory's unspoiled son.

That noble race is gone; the suns
Of fifty years have risen and set;

The holy links those mighty ones
Had forged and knit, are brighter yet.

Wide

as our own free race increase-
Wide shall it stretch the elastic chain,
And bind in everlasting peace,
State after state, a mighty train.

ODE FOR WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), poet, novelist, and essayist, began publishing poems while still a student at Harvard. Much of his verse is in a light vein and reflects his genial spirit of humor and good-fellowship. Under his kindly exterior, however, burned the fire of an intense patriotism.

WELCOME to the day returning,
Dearer still as ages flow,

While the torch of Faith is burning,

Long as Freedom's altars glow!
See the hero whom it gave us

Slumbering on a mother's breast;
For the arm he stretched to save us,
Be its morn forever blest!

1 From The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company.

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