121 THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION. Thy human children shall restore thy grace The wild, barbaric beauty of thy face And Order, Justice, Social Law shall curb Thy untamed energies; And Art and Science, with their dreams superb, The marble sleeping in thy mountains now, Thy native oak shall crown the sage's brow- Thy tawny hills shall bleed their purple wine, And Music, with her eloquence divine, Till Hesper, as he trims his silver beam, No happier land shall see, And earth shall find her old Arcadian dream THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION.-DANIEL WEBSTER. FOR myself, I propose, Sir, to abide by the principles and the purposes which I have avowed, I shall stand by the Union, and by all who stand by it. I shall do justice to the whole country, according to the best of my ability, in all I say, and act for the good of the whole country in all I do. I mean to stand upon the Constitution. I need no other platform. I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country's, my God's, and Truth's. I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this, with the absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country in a crisis like this, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate? Let the consequences be what they will. I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer or if he fall in defense of the liberties and Constitution of his country. OUR COUNTRY-E. D. BAKER. [Extract from the speech of Senator Baker, at the great Union Mass Meeting in New York City, after the fall of Fort Sumter.] THE majesty of the people is here to-day to sustain the majesty of the Constitution, and I come, a wanderer from the far Pacific, to record my oath along with yours of the great Empire State. The hour for conciliation has passed, the gathering for battle is at hand; and the country requires that every man shall do his duty. Fellow-citizens, what is that country? Is it the soil on which we tread? Is it the gathering of familiar faces? Is it our luxury and pomp and pride? Nay, more than these, is it power and might and majesty alone? No, our country is more, far more than all these. The country which demands our love, our courage, our devotion, our hearts' blood, is more than all these—our country is the history of our fathers-our country is the tradition of our mothers-our country is past renown-our country is present pride and power-our country is future hope and destiny --our country is greatness, glory, truth, constitutional libertyabove all, freedom forever! These are the watchwords under which we fight; and we will shout them out till the stars appear in the sky, in the stormiest hour of battle. I have said that the hour for conciliation is past. It may return; but not to-morrow, nor next week. It will return when that tattered flag is avenged. It will return when the rebel traitors are taught obedience and submission. It will return when the rebellious Confederates are taught that the North, though peaceable, are not cowardly THE REVEILLE. 23 though forbearing, are not fearful. That hour of conciliation will come back when again the ensign of the Republic will stream over every rebellious fort of every Confederate State. Then, as of old, the ensign of the pride and power, and dignity and majesty, and the peace of the Republic will return. THE UNION.-OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. HAS our love all died out? Have its altars grown cold? They may fight till the buzzards are gorged with their spoil, In vain is the strife! When its fury is past, Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky, Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die! THE REVEILLE.-FRANK BRET HARTE, HARK! I hear the tramp of thousands, Lo, a nation's hosts have gathered Freemen, come ! "Ere your heritage be wasted," said The quick alarming drum. "Let me of my heart take counsel; Who shall stay and reap the harvest Echoed "Come! Death shall reap the braver harvest," said The solemn-sounding drum. "But when won the coming battle, Answered "Come! You must do the sum to prove it!" said "What if, mid the cannon's thunder, Whistling shot and bursting bomb When my brothers fall around me— Should my heart grow cold and numb?" But the drum Answered "Come, Better then in death united, than in Thus they answered-hoping, fearing, Till a trumpet-voice proclaiming, Lo! was dumb, For the great heart of the nation, Throbbing, answered, "Lord, we come !" THE OLD CONTINENTALS. THE OLD CONTINENTALS.-GUY HUMPHREY MCMASTER In their ragged regimentals Yielding not, When the Grenadiers were lunging, Cannon-shot; When the files Of the isles, From the smoky night encampment, bore the banner of the rampant Unicorn, And grummer, grummer, grummer rolled the roll of the drummer, Then with eyes to the front all, Stood our sires; And the balls whistled deadly, And in streams flashing redly As the roar On the shore, Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green-sodded acres Of the plain; And louder, louder, louder, cracked the black gunpowder, Now like smiths at their forges And the "villainous saltpetre " Round their ears; As the swift Storm-drift, With hot sweeping anger, came the horse-guards' clangor On our flanks. Then higher, higher, higher, burned the old-fashioned fire 25 |