Then the old-fashioned Colonel
Galloped through the white infernal

Powder-cloud ;
And his broad sword was swinging,
And his brazen throat was ringing

Trumpet loud.
Then the blue

Bullets flew,
And the trooper-jackets redden at the touch of the leaden

Rifle-breath.
And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six-pounder,

Hurling death!

WOUNDED.

Let me lie down,
Just here in the shade of this cannon-torn tree,
Here, low on the trampled grass, where I may see
The surge of the combat, and where I may hear
The glad cry of victory, cheer upon cheer:

Let me lie down.

Oh, it was grand !
Like the tempest we charged, in the triumph to share :
The tempest, --its fury and thunder were there;
On, on, o'er intrenchments, o'er living and dead,
With the foe under foot, and our flag overhead:

Oh, it was grand !

Weary and faint,
Prone on the soldier's couch, ah, how can I rest
With this shot-shattered head, and sabre-pierced breast ?
Comrades, at roll-call, when I shall be sought,
Say I fought till I fell, and fell where I fought,-

Wounded and faint.

Oh, that last charge!
Right through the dread hell-fire of shrapnel and shell,
Through without faltering,-clear through with a yell,
Right in their midst, in the turmoil and gloom,
Like heroes we dashed at the mandate of Doom!

Oh, that last charge i

BARBARA FRIETCHIE.

27

It was duty!
Some things are worthless, and some others so good
That nations who buy them pay only in blood;
For Freedom and Union each man owes a part,
And here I pay my share all warm from my heart:

It is duty!

Dying at last!
My Mother, dear Mother, with meek, tearful eye,
Farewell! and God bless you, forever and aye!
Oh, that I now lay on your pillowing breast,
To breathe my last sigh on the bosom first prest:

Dying at last!

a

I am no saint!
But, boys, say a prayer. There's one that begins,—
“Our Father;" and then says, “Forgive us our sins,"-
Don't forget that part, say that strongly, and then
I'll try to repeat it, and you'll say, Amen!

Ah, I'm no saint!

Hark,—there's a shout!
Raise me up, comrades! We have conquered, I know!
Up, up on my feet, with my face to the foe!
Ah! there flies the Flag, with its star-spangles bright!
The promise of Glory, the symbol of Right!

Well may they shout.

I'm mustered out!
O God of our Fathers ! our Freedom prolong,
And tread down Rebellion, Oppression, and Wrong!
O Land of Earth's hope! on thy blood-reddened sod,
I die for the Nation, the Union, and God !

I'm mustered out!

Round about them orchards sweep.
Apple and peach-tree fruited deep,

Fair as a garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,

On that pleasant morn of the early fall, When Lee marched over the mountain-wall,

Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.

Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,

Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;

In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.

Under his slouched hat, left and right,
He glanced: the old flag met his sight.

“ Halt!"-the dust-brown ranks stood fast. "Fire !"-out blazed the rifle-blast.

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.

Quick as it fell from the broken staff,
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;

She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.

ELEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

THE English colonists in America, generally speaking, were men who were seeking new homes in a new world. They brought with them their families and all that was most dear to them. This was especially the case with the colonists of Plymouth and Massachusetts. Many of them were educated men, and all possessed their full share, according to their social condition, of knowledge and attainments of that age. The distinctive characteristic of their settlement is the introduction of the civilization of Europe into a wilderness, without bringing with it the political institutions of Europe. The arts, sciences, and literature of England came over with the settlers. That great portion of the common law which regulates the social and personal relations and conduct of men, came also. The jury came; the habeas corpus came; the testamentary power came; and the law of inheritance and descent came also, except that part of it which recognizes the rights of primogeniture, which either did not come at all, or soon gave way to the rule of equal partition of estates among children. But the monarchy did not come, nor the aristocracy, nor the Church, as an estate of the realm. Political institutions were to be framed anew, such as should be adapted to the state of things. But it could not be doubtful what should be the nature and character of these institutions. A general soci al equality prevailed among the settlers, and an equality of political rights seemed the natural, if not the necessary consequence. After forty years of revolution, violence, and war, the people of France have placed at the head of the fundamental instrument of their government, as the great boon obtained by all their suffering and sacrifices, the declaration that all Frenchmen are equal before the law. What France has only reached by the expenditure of so much blood and treasure, and the perpetration of so much crime, the English colonists obtained by simply changing their place, carrying with them the intellectual and moral culture of Europe, and the personal and social relations to which they were accustomed, but leaving behind their political institutions. It has been said with much vivacity, that the felicity of the American colonists consisted in their escape from the past. This is true so far as respects political establishments, but no