REJOICINGS ON REPEAL OF STAMP ACT.

BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.

THE joy was, for a time, unmixed with apprehension. South Carolina voted Pitt a statue; and Virginia a statue to the king, and an obelisk, on which were to be engraved the names of those who, in England, had signalized themselves for freedom. "My thanks they shall have cordially," said Washington, "for their opposition to any act of oppression." The consequences of enforcing the Stamp Act, he was convinced "would have been more direful than usually apprehended."

Otis, at a meeting at the Town Hall in Boston, to fix a time for the rejoicings, told the people that the distinction. between inland taxes and port duties was without foundation ; for whoever had a right to impose the one, had a right to impose the other; and, therefore, as the parliament had given up the one, they had given up the other; and the merchants were fools if they submitted any longer to the laws restraining their trade, which ought to be free.

A bright day in May was set apart for the display of the public gladness, and the spot where resistance to the Stamp Act began, was the centre of attraction. At one in the morning the bell nearest Liberty Tree was the first to be

rung; at dawn, colors and pendants rose over the housetops all around it; and the steeple of the nearest meeting-house was hung with banners. During the day all prisoners for debt were released by subscription. In the evening the town shone as though night had not come; an obelisk on the Common was brilliant with a loyal inscription; the houses round Liberty Tree exhibited illuminated figures, not of the king only, but of Pitt, and Camden, and Barre; and Liberty Tree itself was decorated with lanterns, till its boughs could hold

no more.

All the wisest agreed that disastrous consequences would have ensued from the attempt to enforce the Act, so that never was there a more rapid transition of a people from gloom to joy. They compared themselves to a bird escaped from the net of the fowler, and once more striking its wings freely in the upper air; or to Joseph, the Israelite, whom Providence had likewise wonderfully redeemed from the perpetual bondage into which he was sold by his elder brethren. The clergy from the pulpit joined in the fervor of patriotism and the joy of success. "The Americans would not have

submitted," said Chauncey.

"History affords few examples

- of a more general, generous, and just sense of liberty in any country than has appeared in America within the year past." Such were Mayhew's words; and while all the continent was calling out and cherishing the name of Pitt, the greatest statesman of England, the conqueror of Canada and the Ohio, the founder of empire, the apostle of freedom;-"To you," said Mayhew, speaking from the heart of the people, and as

if its voice could be heard across the ocean, "to you grateful America attributes that she is reinstated in her former liberties. The universal joy of America, blessing you as our father, and sending up ardent vows to heaven for you, must give you a sublime and truly godlike pleasure; it might, perhaps, give you spirits and vigor to take up your bed and walk, like those cured by the word of Him who came from heaven to make us free indeed. America calls you over and over again her father; live long in health, happiness, and honor. Be it late when you must cease to plead the cause of liberty on earth."

OUR COUNTRY.

OUR country first, our glory and our pride.
Land of our hopes-land where our fathers died,
When in the right, we'll keep thy honor bright;
When in the wrong, we'll die to set it right.

ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM.

BY W. C. BRYANT.

HERE are old trees, tall oaks, and gnarled pines,
That stream with grey-green mosses; here the ground
Was never touch'd by spade, and flowers spring up
Unsown, and die ungather'd. It is sweet
To linger he e, among the flitting birds
And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks and winds
That shake the leaves, and scatter as they pass
A fragrance from the cedar 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,
And wavy tresses gushing from the cap
With which the Roman master crown'd his slave,
When he took off the gyves. A bearded man,

Arm'd 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 scarr'd

With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs

Are strong and struggling. Power at thee has launch'd 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 shiver'd, 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 birth-right 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,
The enemy, although of reverend look,
Hoary with many years, and far obey'd,
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;