V
 
 PROGRESSION; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE SOUTH DEFENDED 
 
 MILLIE MAYFIELD, 
 
 OF NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 APPLEGATE & CO., PUBLISHEKS, 
 
 43 MAIN STREET, CINCINNATI, 0. 
 
 18GO.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 18CO, 
 BY APPLEGATE & CO., 
 
 in tbo Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of Oh.io.
 
 To the intelligent, reasoning, and generous thinkers among 
 my countrymen and countrywomen those who are willing, 
 with unjaundiced eyes and unprejudiced opinions, to weigh the 
 South and her Institutions in the balance of Justice, against 
 fanaticism and error this volume is sincerely dedicated ; while 
 it is respectfully submitted to the consideration of all believers 
 and admirers of the monstrosities set forth in " Uncle Tom s 
 Cabin," et hcec omnia genera, for the purpose of deceiving and 
 
 misleading the masses. 
 
 THE AUTHOR.

 
 tt t * tt t 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 CREATION 16 
 
 THE EARTH 35 
 
 MAN 66 
 
 SLAVERY 103 
 
 THE SOUTH 149 
 
 VALEDICTORY 194 
 
 NOTES 211
 
 PROGRESSION ; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE SOUTH DEFENDED 
 
 YE lords of creation, bear with me, I pray, 
 While I point to the object that guideth my lay ; 
 And ye, my fair sisters, my visit excuse : 
 Unushered I call, but ye will not refuse 
 To receive me with favor, when once I explain 
 The laudable motives that prompted my strain. 
 Would my pen were inspired with the pictures it 
 
 paints, 
 While I bring to your notice some sinners turned 
 
 saints ! 
 
 But my goose-quill can give but the d 1 his due, 
 And enough it will be, for the tale is " ower true." 
 
 (7)
 
 PROGRESSION. 
 
 In this age of great wonders, of "rights," 
 
 "ists," and " isms," 
 
 Of social o erturns, and political schisms ; 
 Of miracles working right under our noses, 
 That shake to the center the good laws of Moses ; 
 Of wordy tornadoes, and shrieking anathema 
 Pitched into our teeth and our faces, ex-cathedra, 
 By raving reformers, a dictating brood, 
 Who the laws of creation would change, if they 
 
 could ; 
 
 When the B rs, and P rs, and S ds, & Co., 
 "With their petticoat leader, the sleek Mistress S e ! 
 Have emptied their vials of rancor and spleen 
 O er the line, marked by Mason and Dixon, between 
 The South, sunny land and "free soil!" where 
 
 jingles 
 
 The pewter that forms their religion, which mingles 
 With all their vile stuff, from rank hate to alloy, 
 Which freely they scatter our peace to destroy, 
 And under the cloak of religion, sow seeds 
 Of discord, fast ripening to enmity s deeds, 
 Between the two races whom but to befriend, 
 Is their motive for meddling, they vainly pretend ; 
 Then gloat o er the warfare their daring calls forth,
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 And from the cold lips of the "Rights "-ridden 
 
 North 
 
 Boldly challenge the South to a contest of strength 
 In a match with opponents, whose laws have a 
 
 length 
 And a breadth of their own, paramount to the 
 
 laws 
 
 Of their country ! Then say, has any one cause 
 To wonder a daughter of that sunny land, 
 Most basely defamed by a bigoted band, 
 Should take up the gauntlet, defiantly hurled, 
 Tho all bearded creation contemptuously curled 
 Their indignant mustaches, at womanly knight, 
 Who the seven-headed beast would thus valiantly 
 
 fight? 
 
 Yes, land of my sires, of my home and my love ! 
 Be mine the blest portion thy honor to prove, 
 Be mine the dear task to wipe off from thy brow 
 That plague-spot, rogues planted, which grows on 
 
 it now, 
 
 Or their fingers of falsehood so foully have traced 
 Vile calumnies, ne er to be wholly erased 
 Till the sense of mankind shall awake to those laws 
 Which govern creation.
 
 10 PROGRESSION. 
 
 With reverence I pause, 
 And a blessing I ask from the great Source of 
 
 Light, 
 
 To hallow each axiom my heart would indite; 
 That truth from my pen so prophetic may roll, 
 As shall carry conviction to every great soul; 
 Conviction that God s laws, unchanging and just, 
 Shall abide, when weak man has resolved his to 
 
 dust! 
 And those laws. Will the P rs, and B rs, 
 
 and S es, 
 
 Who, on ill-gotten laurels so proudly repose, 
 Asserting, " All men are born equal ! " but will 
 
 they 
 
 Point the law in creation which proves it? or say 
 (Taking Scripture to back me), what meaneth the 
 
 story, 
 
 That one star from another shall differ in glory ? 
 Why not have them equal, with splendor supernal, 
 To shine thro all ages, undimmed and eternal? 
 For one is a star, just as much as the other 
 Pray, why should the one, then, outrival his 
 
 brother? 
 And again (from the Bible I freely must quote,
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 For pailsful of Scripture Mistress S e sets afloat) 
 We are told, in that heaven are seraphs who see 
 The face of their Maker continually. 
 But it sayeth not all have that privilege blest, 
 Of the angelic dwellers of that land of rest! 
 Then why should that God, who made heaven and 
 
 earth ; 
 From whom suns and stars claim their glorious 
 
 birth ; 
 
 Who fashioned the angels and cherubim fair, 
 But made them not equal pause, skeptic, just 
 
 there 
 
 Say, why should he make an exception in man, 
 Or alter in him, the original plan? 
 
 Ascending, by steps, from the lower types, 
 
 brutes 
 
 Are marked in each species with distinct attri 
 butes 
 
 To man, walking upright, a creature, they say, 
 Just less than the angels this none will gainsay, 
 Still, the different species of men on the earth 
 Must claim the prerogatives stamped them at birth; 
 And who will deny that to each has been given 
 A different glory, like stars in yon heaven?
 
 12 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The great laws of God show distinctions. Each 
 
 star, 
 That, with scintillant splendor, shines out from 
 
 afar, 
 
 Was in its beginning an atom in space, 
 Which, step by step, circled in ne er-ending race, 
 Till it shone out full-orbed, as a glorious sun, 
 With its satellite planets, contented, each one, 
 As planets to be, which with borrowed light shine, 
 Nor think themselves suns from the ray, half di 
 vine, 
 That lights their dark faces when touched by the 
 
 beam 
 
 Which flows from their primary in a full stream, 
 But, without which, the darkness of ne er-ending 
 
 night, 
 
 Its somber wings folding, existence would blight. 
 Tis thus in the vast book of nature we read 
 Great truths, far above each sectarian creed. 
 On its gold-illumed pages unerring we trace, 
 The dependence of some of the bodies of space 
 Upon other orbs, still ranging higher and higher, 
 On the grand chords harmonious of heaven s bright 
 lyre;
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 Then, down to the earth, where the baser strings 
 
 grate, 
 
 No exceptions we find in this progressive state. 
 As nearest the skies, take the genus called 
 
 " homo " 
 
 For earthly progression ranks him major-domo 
 Thro five distinct grades runs the species, de 
 scending 
 
 To that, which the good book will tell us lies end 
 ing 
 
 In Afric s warm regions of desert and palm, 
 First peopled by Noah s cursed son, yclept 
 
 "Ham;" 
 Which, in savage condition, one degree from the 
 
 brute 
 
 Is only removed. (This, I know, will not suit 
 Your screamers for freedom, and clerical forces, 
 "Who, astride of their huge black republican horses, 
 Would ride o er the neck of the South, their great 
 
 evil, 
 In the name of the Lord ! Freddy D., and the 
 
 d 1 ! ) 
 
 Then down thro creation we find, link by link, 
 The chain all unbroken. We adore, while we think
 
 14 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of the wisdom which fashioned each creature pro 
 gressive, 
 
 From lowest type upward to man ! Inexpressive 
 Are words in their meaning, to tell the whole 
 
 story, 
 
 How, from man rising upward from glory to glory, 
 Are angels, and cherubs, and seraphim, singing 
 The praises of Him, in whom all had beginning! 
 Ariel ! thy wing I would borrow from thee ! 
 Puck, lend me thy girdle, while backward I flee 
 O er the mountains of Time, rising hoary and gray, 
 Back, back to the moment when dawned the first 
 
 day, 
 
 When the glimmer electric rent darkness apart, 
 And the first throb pulsated in Nature s great 
 
 heart ! 
 
 When Deity spoke, and the darkness replied; 
 When his laws were established, so fixed to abide, 
 Till the circles of time are fulfilled on the dial, 
 And every created thing, pure from the trial 
 Which tested its faith in a fiery ordeal, 
 Has merged from nonentity into the real ; 
 Has acted its part in the drama of life ; 
 Has basked in its sunshine, and battled its strife ;
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 Has seen, link by. link, the chain part, that to 
 
 earth 
 
 Binds the spirit, still looking for heavenly birth, 
 For that glorious celestial progression which love, 
 Love Divine, has marked out in the bright realms 
 
 above ; 
 
 When casting behind it its fetters of clay. 
 The spirit, triumphant, soars on its bright way 
 To regions of light on the crystalline river 
 That laves the white throne of our life s, glorious 
 
 Giver ! 
 Let me trace, step by step, those most wonderful 
 
 laws 
 Which sprang into being when breathed the First 
 
 Cause, 
 
 And which govern inanimate objects as well 
 As those warmed with life tho no man can tell 
 Why such and such causes produce their effects, 
 Yet that such the result is, there s no one objects. 
 Let me show that the present condition of man, 
 Is but the result of an organized plan, 
 By superior Intelligence fashioned and made, 
 Ere Time s corner-stone in creation was laid.
 
 THE sea of space was moteless. Systems, 
 
 spheres, 
 
 In circling marches, marked no passing years 
 On Time s great dial time was then unborn ; 
 But, with the mild, balm-breathing, blue-eyed 
 
 morn, 
 
 In the still womb of chaos unformed lay, 
 A foetal mass, unconscious of to-day. 
 
 The universe the countless orbs that rise 
 In golden glory now o er burnished skies, 
 Those stellar monarchs of the vast domains 
 Whose fields are glittering with planet trains, 
 And wandering comets, in eccentric lines, 
 Nearing the throne where glowing splendor shines, 
 And every world that s teeming now with light 
 And life, lay wrapt in embryonic night ! 
 
 Nonentity ! ! say, what mortal eye 
 May with a backward glance thy depths descry 
 do)
 
 CREATION. 17 
 
 What mortal pen may paint the somber pall 
 Which dropped its darkening shadows over all 
 The regions where glad life triumphant reigns 
 To-day? For once, encircled with thy chains, 
 Each mighty element that sweeps the deep 
 Lay hushed beneath thy touch in harmless sleep ; 
 The germ of every living thing that springs, 
 On thy broad bosom folded silent wings 
 And thro the lofty aisles around, no sound 
 Broke on the solemn silence, deep, profound! 
 
 But now a pulse, like the first throb that tells 
 Of quickening life, thro all thy fibers swells. 
 Whence comes the glow that lights thy ashen 
 
 face, 
 
 ! dun-browed mother of a countless race 
 Of golden glories shining thro all space? 
 Whence comes the thrill, coursing thy dark veins 
 
 thro , 
 
 Whose speed electric wakes each throb anew 
 Ere it expires? The mighty Word which was 
 In the beginning the great Primal Cause 
 Is breathed, and lo! startling the silence round, 
 The fathomless abyss gives back the sound, 
 Reverberating thro the caverns deep, 
 2
 
 18 PROGRESSION. 
 
 "Wakening each atom from its pristine sleep 
 Out-speeding thought, it sweeps the broad aisles 
 
 thro , 
 
 Where now each firmament hangs its bann rol blue, 
 Where now each world rolls on its ceaseless way, 
 Each sun from slumber calls the drowsy day. 
 On, on, the mighty Word, with lightning march, 
 And spell Promethean, ignites the torch 
 Of electricity, to work the will 
 Of the Great Architect s supernal skill! 
 
 ! mighty power ! what sway to thee is given ; 
 Thy chain, Electricity ! unriven, 
 Spans the wide earth, circles the walls of heaven ! 
 There s not a leaf that trembles on the breeze 
 There s not an eddy dimpling in the seas 
 There s not a cloudlet floating o er yon sky, 
 Or tear-drop welling from old Nature s eye 
 A blade of grass, a diamond spray of dew, 
 But shows thy mystic footsteps sparkling thro . 
 Wizard ! that forgest thunderbolts at will, 
 Then peaceful gambol st down a mountain rill, 
 Or, leaping from the dark cloud, with a flash, 
 Level st whole cities with a deaf ning crash; 
 Then turn st next moment from the low ring sky
 
 1 
 
 CREATION. 19 
 
 To light a thought in beauty s sparkling eye ! 
 So much that s gentle with thy fierceness blends, 
 We learn to love thee ere our terror ends. 
 
 Well might the wakening heart of nature thrill, 
 As Slave of Lamp, obedient to thy will 
 When forth, thro space, careering in mad glee, 
 Thou spedst full wildly on thy errand free, 
 And, at thy call, forth from his secret lair 
 Sprang up the mighty giant men call "Air." 
 Like molten ore looked forth his glowing eyes, 
 And hotter still were breathed his burning sighs, 
 Till the gray mist of space caught up the glow, 
 And fiery vapor filled the void below. 
 
 0! wondrous sight, a universe all fire! 
 A cup wherein was brewed each vain desire, 
 Each grief, each doubt, each love, hate, hope, 
 
 fear, joy, 
 
 Each mad ambition and each gilded toy; 
 Each little appetite, that leads men on, 
 From doubtless good, till e en that good is gone; 
 Each vanity and every virtue, here, 
 From atoms bubbling, sought their proper sphere, 
 That each in turn might act their destined part 
 In their vast theater, the living heart!
 
 20 PROGRESSION. 
 
 For so, from the beginning, went the Word, 
 When its first whisper fired, and ether stirred. 
 A mist of fire ! the glowing warp and woof 
 To fashion drapery for Heaven s high roof; 
 The loom, the universe: the weaver, He 
 At whose command springs all things Deity ! 
 He spake and it was done ; to Him, all time 
 Is one eternal NOW ! thought sublime ! 
 The finite mind shrinks from the task with awe, 
 When it would measure Him by mortal law. 
 
 Yet ample are His laws. The drop of dew 
 That hangs a mimic world, proclaims this true ; 
 The rounded tear that falls from childhood s eye, 
 Is still a globule, like yon orb on high; 
 The glowing lamp that lights the distant sky, 
 Or the stray mote that dances in the beam 
 Of the warm sun, the eddy in the stream 
 The desert s grain of sand, the pebble small, 
 Proclaim the mighty Hand that fashioned all. 
 From worlds to meaner things, one form gave He, 
 That man might thence learn meek humility ! 
 Not to despise weak atoms, for from these 
 Worlds sprang to light, as from small drops spring 
 seas !
 
 CREATION. 21 
 
 ! most sublime in their simplicity, 
 These never-failing laws of Deity. 
 
 Thus, in yon mist of fire, bright spots now gleam, 
 Like diamond dust they sparkle in the beam 
 Electric playing o er them. Nuclei these, 
 Atomic drops of planetary seas, 
 Which, true to laws presiding at their birth, 
 Rotate as surely as the full-grown earth ; 
 And still accumulating as they go, 
 Collect new forces from the depths below, 
 Above, around them (everywhere we view 
 The one pervading principle as true 
 At work, of like attracting like), till each 
 Has swelled its bulk to where its limits reach. 
 
 Now may we view each system s early state, 
 As red-hot liquid masses they rotate 
 Obedient to a law which science owns, 
 That fluids meeting in a center, zones 
 Of quick rotation are established so 
 All whirlpools prove, as madly round they go. 
 And still another law have we to show. 
 Rotating fluids, drawing as they go 
 All things attractive, still repel again, 
 By that same force, all that they can t retain.
 
 22 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And thus each solar system claims its birth, 
 Formed by the self-same laws man finds on earth 
 In simplest things ; for He who formed them all, 
 Made the same power by which apples fall 
 To hold great systems in their proper place, 
 And keep each courser on the fields of space 
 From chance encounter in their rapid race ! 
 
 Seest thou yon monarch of the realms of day, 
 Whose diadem emits a golden ray, 
 As thro morn s opal gates he takes his way ? 
 Why turns the earth, with a glad smile, to greet 
 His coming, and to kiss his jeweled feet ? 
 Wliy from each hill-side, meadow, dale, and grove, 
 Do ringing anthems of melodious love 
 In matin welcomes rise ? ! say, why opes 
 The flowers sweet eyes, as lawn and leafy copes 
 Shake off the glittering dew-drops which the night s 
 Dark eyes have wept, and hail the dawn s delights ? 
 
 Does not Dame Nature, with harmonious voice, 
 Call thro her mossy dales and groves "Rejoice?" 
 Bends not the earth in tribute to her sire 
 Who proudly turns on her his eyes of fire, 
 Whence spring both warmth and light ? 0, why, 
 say why,
 
 CREATION. 23 
 
 Do all things turn instinctive to the sky, 
 And rapt adore the Day God s golden sheen, 
 If ne er a part of it they once have been? 
 Is not the voice of nature ever near 
 To whisper of the parent in child s ear ? 
 And thus, the earth last youngest-born but two 
 Of this, our solar household gives her due 
 Of reverence meet, her morning greeting fair, 
 To her crowned sire enthroned in golden air. 
 
 For, once, a circling mass of liquid fire, 
 Our sun filled all our system s space entire; 
 And gases, metals, earths, all, all were blent 
 In mass chaotic, thro space whirling sent. 
 As ages lapsed, grown colder (as all must 
 In time), solidifying to a crust, 
 Its outer edge gave way, as solids will 
 From fluids part, one law obeying still ; 
 This detached mass, assuming spheral shape, 
 Rotating in the orbit where escape 
 From thrall parental first proclaims it free 
 And eldest born of Sol s vast progeny, 
 It paces now in never-ending march, 
 The outer walls of this, our system s arch, 
 As sentinel, guarding the wide domain,
 
 24 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Where brother soldiers tramp in starry train 
 Their circling courses, as from parent sun 
 They sprang to being, as the first had done; 
 Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, claiming birth 
 Of the same sire, their gentle sisters, Earth 
 And fair-browed Venus honored father call 
 And Mercury, the youngest born of all 
 Members of the same family, each one, 
 We find these bright- eyed children of the Sun. 
 
 Go forth, man, when eve, with glowing cheek 
 And dewy lip, murmurs a good-night meek, 
 As in the footsteps of her liege-lord nigh, 
 She softly follows o er the faded sky, 
 Lights the bright taper in her nuptial bower, 
 Pauses a moment o er each bridemaid flower 
 For farewell kiss, then hides her from their sight, 
 Beneath the envious drapery of night 
 Linger, till deep descends still midnight s hour, 
 List to the voice of Nature, own her power; 
 Raise but your glances to the arching sky, 
 Where countless suns and systems ceaseless 
 
 %- . 
 
 Where Sirius sparkles with his diamond blaze, 
 And Lyra on her golden harp-strings plays,
 
 CREATION. 25 
 
 Arcturus moves resplendent mong the stars, 
 With glowing luster like the shield of Mars 
 Bootes with his hounds pursues the Bear, 
 And Pleiades still mourn grieved sisters fair, 
 While Aldebaran s red eye gleams afar, 
 As Taurus wages ineffectual war 
 Gainst bold Orion s sword of golden spheres 
 All suns of systems, numbering more years 
 On Time s hoar chronicle, than mind of man 
 Can ever grasp within its feeble span 
 Behold these wonders ! then on bended knee 
 Lift up your humble heart to Deity, 
 And ask, with prayerful lips, " Lord, what is man, 
 That thou art mindful of him?" Father, can 
 So frail a creature claim from thee a thought, 
 Thou Architect of worlds built out of naught? 
 Stupendous structures, tangible and bright, 
 Whose glories from nonentity s dark night, 
 Forth at thy bidding sprang thro ceaseless years 
 Progressing to these gold illumined spheres, 
 Teeming with life! And ages yet will show 
 New worlds and glories, bright ning as they go, 
 To swell the wavelets of that stellar sea, 
 Whose shores are bounded by eternity! 
 3
 
 26 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Thus have we seen how solar systems spring, 
 And from each sun, each planet, once a ring 
 Detached from the hot mass, condensing still 
 To a fixed point, its orbit there to fill, 
 "Which, as it cools, may from itself throw off 
 Its superfluities (tho skeptics scoff!) 
 Which, by the laws of nature, fixed as fate, 
 Around their parent mass will then rotate. 
 Thus satellites are formed, those lesser lights 
 That with soft silver lamps illume the nights, 
 When wearied day her western chamber seeks, 
 And goblin darkness to the owlet speaks 
 When bats marauding thro the dusky air 
 Rouse the hyena, slumbering in his lair, 
 And croaking ravens, till the hour has come 
 For such ill things and elfin shapes to roam. 
 
 What Goddess, meek advancing o er the blue 
 Etherial pathway of the stars, looks thro 
 Their jeweled ranks? An ornate silver shield, 
 Upon a diamond-studded azure field, 
 Is her insignia! Tis bright Luna, she 
 In fable, Goddess of fair Chastity 
 But whom men know as gentle Ladye Moon, 
 She comes to smile away "night s cheerless noon!"
 
 CREATION. 27 
 
 Earth s fair-browed daughter she, her only one 
 
 Thrown from that earth, as earth from parent sun, 
 
 And ever lending to her mother dear 
 
 A smile of love, her gloomy night to cheer. 
 
 If then, each mighty orb that lights the blue 
 
 Empyrean, has sprung to being, true 
 
 To laws presiding o er the whole, and all 
 
 From matter in one vast stupendous ball 
 
 May we not also judge, that all contain 
 
 Constituent elements, which lose or gain 
 
 A density, as subject more or less 
 
 To those controlling causes which compress, 
 
 Expand, solidify, evaporize 
 
 All gases, metals, known beneath the skies ? 
 
 The chemist tells of certain substances 
 Called Elements, and by combining these, 
 All forms of matter in and round our earth, 
 Are represented in primordial birth 
 As water, from two gases mingling, springs, 
 The liquid compound of these vaporous things; 
 The metal silicium, in quantum suf., 
 With oxygen unites to form the rough 
 Silica, base of nearly half the rocks ; 
 While carbon sparkles in the ebon blocks,
 
 28 
 
 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The massive walls, and wide-spread, jetty domes, 
 
 Where the poor miners make their dismal homes, 
 
 As well as in the diamond s sparkling rays 
 
 Which in a monarch s jeweled scepter blaze ; 
 
 And nitrogen, of which our atmosphere 
 
 Is four-fifths formed, among them doth appear ; 
 
 While different metals with a gas combined, 
 
 In magnesia, alumin, lime, we find. 
 
 Yet solids, liquids, fluids aeriform, 
 
 Are all reducible to simple form 
 
 Which elementary we call ; of these 
 
 Are gases, six ; metallic substances, 
 
 In number forty-two ; the rest not classed, 
 
 But which, as elements, must not be passed, 
 
 For carbon stands within the group, a small 
 
 Ingredient in the atmosphere, but all 
 
 Of animal or vegetable kind 
 
 Are with its subtle essence intertwined, 
 
 The base on which they rest ; and fossils, too, 
 
 Formed from the latter, it impregnates thro ; 
 
 As coal will show, within whose dusky bed 
 
 Masses of carbon are deposited. 
 
 If these constituent elements that all 
 Of matter else is formed from, on this ball,
 
 CREATION. 29 
 
 Have sprung themselves from primordial form 
 Of matter, which some fierce, organic storm, 
 Obeying certain laws, has caused produce, 
 Analogy would teach us to deduce, 
 The same conditions liable to take place, 
 In all the regions of infinite space, 
 As are the laws of centrifugal force 
 Or gravitation ; and, if so, of course 
 The gases, metals, earths, exist as true 
 (Conditions being proper), where the blue, 
 Unbroken ether fans the golden light 
 Of astral systems, glorious and bright, 
 Yet far remote, beyond the span of mind 
 To fathom, as the wanderings of the wind 
 " That bloweth where it listeth," as on earth, 
 Where science metes to them this glorious birth. 
 Matter, if springing then from but one cause, 
 Or many more (as may be), under laws 
 That differ in effects, shows varied forms ; 
 As cold condenses ; heat, expanding, warms. 
 Put water under arctic temperature, 
 And solid barriers guard the ice-bound shore ; 
 Place the same liquid in the boiler red 
 With heat, and wreathing, curling overhead,
 
 30 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The vapor moist in graceful folds ascends, 
 Expanding, as with air it freely blends, 
 Filling more space than -when a liquid mass, 
 Or by cold hardened to a wall of glass. 
 
 Thus heat, we find s a powerful agent here 
 In regulating matter in our sphere. 
 And science tells us how much added heat 
 Would be required, to vaporize complete, 
 The waters of our globe and how much more, 
 To free the solids of their gaseous store, 
 And with increasing temperature, to bring 
 The whole to vapor, whence it first did spring. 
 
 Tis then, existing temperature, which lends 
 The earth its present volume, and which blend 
 The elements in compound form, and gives 
 Conditions whereby man and creature lives. 
 And chilling off with age, is nature s law 
 For that the earth has colder grown, no flaw 
 We find in research ever to exist, 
 In refutation of the fact. The mist 
 Of fire, wherein each solar system formed, 
 Agglomerated, till its surface swarmed 
 With eddying circles, cooling as they turned, 
 Till each a mighty sun in splendor burned,
 
 CREATION. 31 
 
 Which cooling still, threw off its planet host 
 The first of which, escaped, of course, could boast 
 More heat than could the next and so, till all 
 Were whirling sent from the great golden ball, 
 Which still retained warmth-giving power and light 
 Enough to dissipate each planet s night. 
 
 Take our own system view each planet there 
 Their densities form argument most fair 
 In favor of the theory ; for earth 
 Claiming o er Mercury and Venus, birth 
 Antecedent, hath matter more diffuse 
 Than either ; which will force us to deduce 
 That twas because the earth was formed when heat 
 Was greater in our system ; so complete 
 Throughout that system s range, this unity 
 Among its planetic community, 
 Is marked. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, still 
 Are lighter, as in circling turns, they fill 
 Respective limits in our system s space. 
 And Ilerschel, elder still in planet race, 
 In his diffusive matter, shows that heat 
 Preponderated, when his glowing feet 
 First trod the azure. And, may it not be 
 So ordered, that these distant worlds shall see
 
 32 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Less of the sun s light, feel less of his heat, 
 Because their inward warmth makes all complete ! 
 While those that s nearest to the fountain-head 
 (As Mercury, for instance, dense as lead) 
 Exist beneath an atmosphere of cold, 
 Which call for solar rays of heat fourfold, 
 To make them habitable. 
 
 Wise, those laws, 
 
 By Him ordained, the great All-giving Cause ! 
 Who hath attempered every dwelling-place 
 In His wide empire, to each varied race 
 That He hath placed there. For, no cause have we 
 To doubt existence on those orbs we see 
 Obeying laws, which govern earth as well, 
 Where sentient beings are well-known to dwell. 
 No right have we presuming as we are 
 To dare deny to one pale, trembling star 
 That sails with earth our system s waveless sea, 
 Its birthright s due, its being s destiny ! 
 As theaters of life, young nurseries 
 For budding virtues, and rich argosies 
 Of dawning hopes and aspirations high 
 That reach beyond the blue, o erarching sky, 
 Are those bright orbs that ever ceaseless fly !
 
 CREATION. 33 
 
 Or crucibles where every grain of good 
 
 Is filtered from its dross, to be the food 
 
 Of angels, in those higher realms where man 
 
 Will walk transparent, when his little span 
 
 Of life is past, and mind shall have progressed 
 
 Beyond its clayey covering then the rest 
 
 Shall be as noon-day clear as on, still on 
 
 Thro Heaven s bright aisles, until the goal is won, 
 
 And God revealed, in majesty sublime, 
 
 Great Self-existent Founder of all time ! 
 
 Shines o er his works brighter than -midday sun, 
 
 And gives his creature welcome with " Well done, 
 
 Thou good and faithful servant, enter thou 
 
 Into the joys prepared for thee !" 
 
 And now 
 
 (These facts admitted), it is clearly shown, 1 
 Our globe s a specimen of all the known, 
 And similarly placed orbs, that run 
 Their circling courses round our common sun 
 That is, as far as matter, and the laws 
 Which govern it are known with but this clause : 
 That varied shades will from conditions spring 
 And bodies here that s solid, there may wing 
 In vapory folds, or in soft liquid flow,
 
 34 PROGRESSION. 
 
 As inner heat sends forth expanding glow. 
 If then, we re " one of many," let us seek 
 With earnest faith, and reverence true and meek, 
 To gain a knowledge of our mother earth, 
 Since we have seen there s nothing in her birth 
 That differs from all other planets known. 
 In her, we then, have but a sample shown 
 Of myriad orbs, that like the desert s sand 
 Whose grains are numberless on every hand, 
 Above, around us circle ! 
 
 Let us look 
 
 In Nature s ever open " story-book," 
 And read upon its pages, truths sublime, 
 There traced by never-erring " Father Time." 
 Quaint chronicles on every leaf marks he 
 Sometimes upon the margin, " Destiny " 
 But still, the running title clear and bright, 
 We ll find o er all, lettered both full and light 
 " Progression !" Earth s brown cover lift and see 
 Its footsteps over mountain, rock, and lea !
 
 THE wondrous Earth! diversified with vales 
 And mounts, rocks, forests, rivers, meadows, dales, 
 Blue, dimpling lakes and foaming oceans deep 
 White, towering glaciers dark ravines and steep 
 Acclivities fierce torrents, rushing free 
 O er jutting crags, to form a raging sea 
 Of surge and tiny rivulets that sing 
 A cheerful song, as onward still they wing 
 Their modest way to the great deep all, all 
 That s beauteous, grand, terrific, on this ball ^ 
 That wakes our wonder, or calls forth our praise, 
 Or startles, even while we raptured gaze 
 Must still inspire more wonder, reverence, awe, 
 When, as results of an unchanging law 
 We view them ! And this proof of it we ll bring 
 Tis from conditions meeting, all things spring, 
 
 In manner called spontaneous each thing 
 
 (35)
 
 36 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Inanimate, and those with life endowed ! 
 Tho mystery the manner may enshroud 
 To our dull visions; yet effects we see, 
 Showing us, that t is from spontaneity 
 All changes geological take place 
 Upon the earth, and, also, that each race 
 Of animals, from meaner things that crawl, 
 To man, by each acknowledged lord of all 
 Terrestrial things, have in like manner been 
 Produced. Spontaneous the action, seen 
 Thro its effects; and electricity s 
 The powerful agent to accomplish these 
 (To us) most wonderful results divine 
 In origin, omnipotent, sublime ! 
 
 Tis thus, the great, all-wise Creator shows 
 His majesty! O! think not that it throws 
 One tittle of contempt upon his power 
 To show, that by fixed laws a godly dower 
 He works his ever comprehensive will: 
 It proves the mighty mind, more mighty still, 
 That has the power to frame harmonious laws, 
 Progressive thro all time, from simplest cause 
 To most sublime effect, than to affirm 
 That Deity, in person, placed each germ,
 
 THE EARTH. 37 
 
 To wave in foliage o er each circling sphere, 
 Where first it sprang to being ! ! no fear 
 That reasoning minds to this delusion long 
 Shall yield, when truthful Nature, with her throng 
 Of witnesses, attests the glorious power 
 That s worked Time s lever from its starting hour, 
 That s calling, now, new wonders from the mist 
 In which like fire in the volcano s heart exist 
 The subtile elements, with impulse rife, 
 Waiting the touch of some organic strife 
 To reproduce them in their outward form, 
 As the red thunderbolt is born of storm! 
 
 All elemental substances are found 
 United in some compound form. Thus, round 
 Our globe aerial draperies curl, 
 As oxv^en and nitrogen unfurl 
 
 \j O 
 
 Their gaseous banners, waved in union, where 
 Their folds uniting, form our atmosphere! 
 But tho thus blent in vapory union, 
 They re never found alone in nature ; one, 
 Of water s a third part; and in each kind 
 Of rock in the earth s crust, we also find 
 This gas abundant while the other claims 
 The "better-half" of Air s wide-spread domains,
 
 38 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And freely blends with many simple things, 
 
 If but attraction waves inviting wings 
 
 For, there are predilections strange, in these 
 
 Aeriform, metallic substances, 
 
 Toward each other s company. We find 
 
 ( So says the chemist ) two of these combined 
 
 In a solution ; add a third, and see 
 
 One of the former to the latter flee 
 
 Then introduce a fourth, the third will leave, 
 
 The first and firmly to the stranger, cleave ! 
 
 Few rocks there are in which can not be found, 
 Two forms of matter, each of which abound 
 In elementary substances combined 
 While in the diamond, carbon pure we find, 
 Alone ; thus showing, combinations and 
 Recombinations blend on every hand ; 
 Conditions meet conditions, and thence spring 
 All forms of matter, and each living thing ! 
 For such are but earth s majestatic laws 
 There s no effect but there exists a cause. 
 
 Now that our globe was in a fluid state 
 When finally solidifying, great 
 Existing proof have we ; the very form 
 Which a revolving body, soft and warm,
 
 THE EARTH. 39 
 
 Will always take from centrifugal force, 
 Our earth possesses, which departs, of course, 
 Just so much from a perfect sphere, as shows 
 The workings of that inner law, which throws 
 Preponderance toward the equatorial zone, 
 Where earth s diameter exceeds, tis known, 
 Its polar depth, and proves our planet s form 
 To be an oblate spheroid ; not warm 
 (As once ) upon its outer crust, but deep 
 In its huge subterranean chambers sleep 
 The smoldering fires a residuum 
 Of that great heat which kept vaporiform 
 All matter in times past and whence arise 
 Volcanoes flaming, towering to the skies ! 
 
 The lamp of science throws its piercing ray 
 Thro earth s green coverlet and wild rocks gray, 
 And by its light, shining distinct and clear, 
 The beauteous law of Order doth appear 
 In the arrangements of the solid crust, 
 Whose basis rock of crystalline, t is just 
 To infer, must rest upon the fused mass 
 Of matter in earth s center thence we pass 
 To layer, or strata, which from water seems 
 To ve been deposited ; but this, by streams
 
 40 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of melted rock volcanically sent 
 
 From the chaotic mass below, is rent 
 
 In fissures; and again, are chinks, 
 
 Where veins of many metals lay broad links 
 
 Of yellow gold, pale silver, duller lead, 
 
 And red-eyed iron are deposited, 
 
 Thus forming, at first sight, a most confused, 
 
 Disordered scene. But when we have perused 
 
 The leaves of the " stone book," we will have 
 
 hived 
 
 Instruction only from such source derived ; 
 A knowledge of the history of our globe, 
 The which to gain, we must its vitals probe. 
 
 The deposition of the aqueous rocks, 
 And the projection of volcanic blocks, 
 Have taken place since Earth its present form s 
 Assumed. And still take place, as the wild storms 
 Of .ZEtna and Vesuvius plainly show ; 
 Where the red lava s seething, molten flow 
 (The rocky scum of each fused element 
 O er-boiling the huge caldrons where they re 
 
 blent), 
 
 Rains liquid fire upon the plains around, 
 Which cooling, solid rock is always found.
 
 THE EARTH. 41 
 
 And the deep sea, in never-ceasing flow, 
 
 Her stores of sediment still leaves below ; 
 
 And as fresh layers upon her rocky bed 
 
 She freely scatters, thro the mass is spread 
 
 Diffusive heat from the great fires beneath, 
 
 And from its action, thus, another sheath 
 
 Or coating s added to the basis rock 
 
 Of earth s broad wall of crystal, block on block. 
 
 And so, old Earth is ever filling up 
 
 Her inequalities for where the cup 
 
 Of mighty seas sunk deep within her breast 
 
 (Deeper than those which now within it rest), 
 
 Granitic mountains reared their scraggy heads 
 
 From ocean s ever restless, surging beds, 
 
 And tireless waves still chafed the rocky sides, 
 
 Bearing the granules on their flowing tides, 
 
 Which " constant dripping " will wear off" to fill 
 
 The cavities below. And this is still 
 
 The means used now, as in times formerly, 
 
 To give the earth a smooth rotundity. 
 
 T is science tells us that the seas of old 
 Were deeper far by many, many fold, 
 Than now ; and this is by the primary rocks 
 Well proved, of which, the lofty, towering blocks ; 
 4
 
 42 PROGRESSION. 
 
 That guard old Scotia s burns and fiow ry braes 
 Are fine examples. These, formed in those 
 
 days 
 
 Of eld, the earliest stratified, and first 
 Series that from earth s crystal bosom burst, 
 Are called the gneiss system and mica slate. 
 The thickness of these beds is oft so great 
 That it attests the mighty depths profound 
 Of the primeval oceans that around, 
 (Perhaps) above them circled. 
 
 Now, these rocks, 
 
 These early stratified, primeval blocks, 
 Bear witness of a higher temperature, 
 A stronger heat than any, we are sure, 
 Within earth s crust ; nor one of them contains 
 A vestige of the petrified remains 
 Of vegetation or of creature found 
 In other rocks so freely to abound 
 To tell a wondrous tale of times long past 
 And from their absence in a field so vast 
 As these present, we must infer that none 
 Existed ; that the earth displayed but one 
 Vast face of ponderous rock or boiling sea, 
 Where naught of verdure, flower, or shrub, or tree,
 
 THE EARTH. 43 
 
 Waved its soft foliage on the sterile air, 
 Nor animal crouched in his covert lair, 
 Nor fish in the hot waves disporting, laved, 
 Nor wing of bird the heated ether cleaved ; 
 But silence, broken only by the roar 
 Of the wild waters dashing on the shore, 
 Hung o er the lonely scene ! 
 
 The march toward life 
 
 Had not commenced as yet. Organic strife 
 In never-ceasing changes, still evoked 
 Conditions new, to part the chain which yoked 
 Existence in its rocky prison deep, 
 And loose that element from pristine sleep, 
 Which clothes the forest in its mantle green, 
 And o er earth s bosom folds an emerald screen; 
 From which each blade of grass, each sheaf of 
 
 grain, 
 Sucks in the principles which life sustain ! 
 
 And what this substance ? Carbon known to be 
 Of herb and plant the main commodity 
 From them to animals, by transit rare 
 Tis passed, and back again restored to air 
 In each expired breath the latter sends 
 So that with all things, thus tis shown, it blends
 
 44 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The great life-giving principle ! and found 
 In the next strata freely to abound 
 In beds of limestone; and tis there are shown 
 The first remains of living creatures known : 
 The forms of zoophites, polypes 
 (Those tireless builders in the restless seas 
 Where coral palaces attest their skill, 
 Their perseverance, industry, and will ! ) 
 * And mollusJcs these, the fossils which betray 
 The life-productions of that early day, 
 Of which the species now are swept away ; 
 For tis resemblance, only, that they show 
 In general character, to those below 
 Old ocean s briny billows, where they lave 
 To-day, the portals of the sea-king s cave. 
 And with them, various sea-plants, also sprung 
 Spontaneous in their watery beds, and clung 
 The first link in the chain of nutriment. 
 And so, by links, all forms of life are blent ! 
 Conditions are advanced and one by one, 
 A higher order is produced. T is shown, 
 That in the eras of those early rocks, 
 A tropic clime prevailed ; and as the blocks 
 Of other series reared their stately heads,
 
 THE EARTH. 45 
 
 From the retreating ocean s watery beds, 
 
 A cooler temperature still wrought more change ; 
 
 And varied petrifactions in each range, 
 
 Give, in quaint characters, on stony page 
 
 (If man ivould only heed), their lessons sage ! 
 
 Thus in the Old Red Sandstone fish abound, 
 That nowhere in earth s waters now are found; 
 Nor only in one section of our sphere, 
 In those old rocks, do these remains appear. 
 In lands antipodal, where er is found, 
 The strata of that system, types abound 
 Of uniform condition which doth show 
 This form of life organic, in its flow, 
 Was coeval with those primeval rocks ; 
 And not until the Secondary blocks, 
 Or ranges Carboniferous, was seen, 
 Upon the earth s broad bosom, aught of green 
 Luxuriance or verdure ; no land plant, 
 Or animal remains, ere these, extant, 
 To prove that such existed. 
 
 Thence, tis clear, 
 
 The mighty mandate, " Let dry land appear," 
 Was by earth s majestatic laws obeyed 
 (The produce of conditions all arrayed
 
 46 PROGRESSION. 
 
 In favorable progress), at the close 
 Of the first strata. Then volcanic throes, 
 In nature s bosom spoke the mighty birth, 
 Of the great mountain ranges of our earth. 
 Dry land was formed, and vegetation reared 
 Its head spontaneous towering shrubs appeared, 
 Of which no species now on earth are known ; 
 Because the temperature, t is clearly shown, 
 Too cold is for existing types to be 
 Developed to such size. And thus, we see, 
 The forests of those days abundant spread 
 (As their deposits in each dusk coal-bed 
 Must plainly prove geology doth show 
 Hundreds of species in this strata low). 
 The fern or bracken then in lofty trees, 
 Waved in wild foliage on each tropic breeze, 
 Sweeping o er earth s warm breast in music sweet, 
 Where now the Ice-king stalks with freezing feet; 
 But still no flowering shrub or luscious fruit 
 Spread tempting banquet round for bee or brute 
 No hum of bird or insect s waving wings, 
 Nor higher types of animated things 
 Shone o er the scene. And from this, it would seem 
 That this luxuriant vegetable stream,
 
 THE EARTH. 47 
 
 Was but designed the atmosphere to free 
 
 Of matter noxious to organic life and be 
 
 A means, as well, to lay up mineral store 
 
 To benefit the human tides, which pour 
 
 Their floods from North, South, East, and West, 
 
 to-day, 
 And to Omniscient Source their tribute pay ! 
 
 We pass from these to other rocks, and here 
 We find new marvels. On our startled ear 
 Breaks a low whisper from our mother, Earth: 
 " Behold ! the forms to which was given birth 
 Spontaneous in creatures made to be 
 Dwellers alike of either land or sea!" 
 Yes, in these rocks are found the fossil forms 
 Of reptiles huge ; and, also, mammoth swarms 
 Of creatures now unknown, but still allied 
 To crocodiles and lizards and beside, 
 Are -numerous tortoises of monstrous growth; 
 And all these creatures blend the types of 
 
 both 
 
 Land animals and fish that is, they live 
 In water, yet can breathe the air and give 
 In one (the rynchosaurus), beak and feet 
 Of bird, and reptile body to complete
 
 48 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The link between these two. So Nature blends 
 Each changing type as higher she ascends ! 
 
 And thus, the New Red Sandstone era shows 
 Commencement of Eeptilia, and throws 
 Advancing steps toward the next order birds. 
 Then the succeeding series, formed two-thirds 
 Of Oolite (a limestone in round grains 
 Like to a fish s roe), give the remains 
 Of reptiles still, and insects ; also, here, 
 The first marks of Mammalia appear 
 The fossil of a quadruped, as clear 
 To prove the progress that the busy earth 
 Had made in creatures of spontaneous birth 
 For by this petrifaction, we infer 
 The lowest order of this mammifer, 
 Marsupialia here first was seen 
 And still new plants ; which prove the clime 
 
 t have been 
 
 A tropical and temperate between. 
 Thus showing, still decreasing temperature, 
 And new advancing types appearing here, 
 The while the old in gradual decay, 
 Were from their scene of being swept away. 
 
 The next formed rocks cretaceous are. Of these,
 
 THE EARTH. 49 
 
 The white cliffs of Old England, o er the seas, 
 That stretch broad arms to shield their native land 
 From depredation guardians of the strand ! 
 Are specimens. In such chalk-beds are seen 
 Great hollows, with clay, limestone, marl between^ 
 And these mixed beds (which have divided been 
 Into three classes), show new species, still, 
 Of animals thus, link by link, to fill 
 The gap between the earliest formed and man, 
 According to earth s grand organic plan 
 By infinite intelligence arranged ! 
 Which mortal arrogance has never changed, 
 Tho fanatics have wordy thunders hurl d 
 Above a strangely self-deluded world, 
 To prove their Maker in his laws did err, 
 Which failed to fashion man. 
 
 We must infer, 
 
 From petrifactions in this strata found, 
 That earth had reached, in her progressive round, 
 The period whose glimmering dawn would rise 
 To noonday splendor; when the arching skies 
 Would wave bright banners o er the bounteous 
 
 lands, 
 
 That, still obeying the Divine commands, 
 5
 
 50 PROGRESSION. 
 
 "Would bring forth living creature, creeping thing, 
 And every feathered warbler that doth wing 
 Its way thro the blue ether; when great whales 
 Would part the billows, and the finny sails 
 Gliding o er oceans watery mirrors blue, 
 Would still proclaim their laws of being true 
 Fulfilling the great mandate which went forth 
 In the beginning, and thus prove its worth 
 In earth s increasing fruitfulness ! 
 
 Begin 
 
 With the first period of this era. In 
 Its shell deposits, vast remains are found, 
 Showing mammalia freely to abound, 
 Of higher types Paeliydermata. These 
 Are long extinct in direct species, 
 But still approximating to that class 
 That now on earth crops the luxuriant grass. 
 And others still, allied to wolf and fox, 
 Opossum, raccoon, squirrel in these blocks 
 Of Tertiary Formation. Species, too, 
 Of birds allied to sea-lark, quail, curlew 
 And buzzard, owl and pelican, and new 
 Forms of reptiles. Then the next periods give 
 Advancing types of creatures vast that live
 
 THE EARTH. 51 
 
 Neath the wave: marine mammalia, here, 
 Seals, dolphins, whales, walruses now appear; 
 And still progressing, on the land are shown 
 The mastodon and mammoth, now unknown, 
 With other animals gigantic, prone 
 To exist in times gone by, as if the earth 
 Used a refining process in each birth, 
 And modeled and remodeled every type, 
 That each incongruous feature she might wipe 
 From the progressive being, till it shone 
 The prototype of the Almighty One, 
 Whose wondrous word, " In our own image, man 
 Shall fashioned be! "went forth when time began. 
 From these huge creatures which the elephant 
 Is now the existing species of we want 
 New orders ; and behold ! we find them here 
 In Ruminantia as camels, deer, 
 And oxen, now, for the first time appear, 
 And these, with other ruminants, but fill 
 The points progressive to Bimana. Still, 
 A gap is left in the ascending scale, 
 And lo ! what fills it ? Surely we don t fail, 
 In pointing to the Quadrumana ? There 
 The link, that must resolve all doubts to air !
 
 52 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Showing the blended types of man and beast, 
 And with intelligence enough at least 
 To cause us wonder if the (so-called) brute, 
 Is destitute of reason, altho mute? 
 T is to Geology we owe the light 
 That dissipates the darkness of the night, 
 Brooding above the labyrinthine past, 
 And read its history by the gleam so cast. 
 A never-ending volume, always new, 
 With fresh leaves placed by time while journeying 
 
 thro , 
 
 And to its bulk will each succeeding age, 
 Still add a wonderful, transcendent page ! 
 From low volcanic depths to mountain heights, 
 Time s restless pencil still this axiom writes: 
 Spontaneous formation of each thing I 
 From zephyr floating by on viewless wing, 
 To raging winds that toss the mighty seas; 
 From the young leaf that trembles on the breeze, 
 To the gnarled oak that braves the storm-king s 
 
 wrath ; 
 
 In every grain of sand, in every path 
 That chafing oceans mark upon the rocks; 
 In every varied tribe of feathered flocks,
 
 THE EARTH. 53 
 
 That part the azure curtains of the air; 
 
 In each fierce creature crouching in his lair; 
 
 And e en in lordly man, we read this truth, 
 
 Self-evident to all from age to youth 
 
 That each inanimate and living thing 
 
 Must from spontaneous action ever spring ! 
 
 Note the firm earth, its far-spread, ranging blocks 
 
 Of massive, ponderous and towering rocks 
 
 Of what composed ? Of water crystallized, 
 
 Solidified and all, evaporized 
 
 May be by heat. For, water but appears, 
 
 The well-known produce of two blended airs 
 
 By electricity combined. And this, 
 
 The fluid, that our solid planet is 
 
 Composed of; it surrounds the globe in mists, 
 
 And deep within the crust of earth exists 
 
 In springs deeper, appears a sea, as shown 
 
 By wells artesian, which to all are known 
 
 Deeper, it is conjectured to exist, 
 
 A sea of condensed steam, or scalding mist 
 
 And deeper still, in mass chaotic lies, 
 
 From whose hot, molten bed volcanoes rise. 
 
 And thus around us, do we see effects 
 Of spontaneity, for who rejects
 
 54 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The theory, that conditions must be right, 
 
 To work such wondrous changes, which our sight 
 
 Convinces us have taken place within 
 
 Our globe ? These facts to prove, we must begin 
 
 At the beginning, thence, progressive rise 
 
 Upon the chain whose end is in the skies ! 
 
 Nothing was e er created to be lost. 
 The waif, on ocean s billow tempest-tost, 
 Hath still its mission, trifling tho it be 
 And what but drops is every mighty sea ? 
 And atoms infinite, form rolling spheres, 
 Succeeding moments swell to hoary years 
 And all are marching toward the dawning light 
 That parts the curtains of the dying night, 
 And lets the day-beam splendor in, to show 
 To man benighted, all the heavenly glow 
 Which God s grand laws progressing, shed around 
 O er earth and skies, where er effects are found! 
 There s nothing insubstantial the breath 
 Of air we breathe, on which hangs life and death, 
 Can be by pressure turned to fluid form, 
 The fleeting rainbow hues that ride the storm, 
 Are prisoned in the diamond s crystal cell 
 The thoughts engendered in man s brain, can swell 
 

 
 THE EARTH. 
 
 55 
 
 To outward shape in " words that burn," and leave 
 Their mark on memory s brow to joy or grieve, 
 Thrill with enthusiasm or depress with fear 
 As now they burst, now sink upon the ear. 
 Even shadow, held of all terrestrial things 
 Most fleeting the daguerreotypist brings 
 Within the range of certain laws, and see 
 The shadow s fixed l>y spontaneity ! 
 And thus, the changing forms of Earth have 
 
 been 
 
 Produced. Thro each succeeding era seen 
 Developed to superior orders still 
 Each range of rocks the circle vast to fill; 
 And these again volcanically rent, 
 With matter new, projected thro each vent, 
 Which new conditions still evoke effects, 
 And counter-causes all the old rejects 
 Sweeping away successive races still, 
 Which have played out the part they were to 
 
 fill; 
 
 Progressive steps, toward a completed whole, 
 Which under laws eternal ceaseless roll ! 
 For all must know, the lofty pines that rise 
 In grandeur towering to the bending skies,
 
 56 PKOGRESSION. 
 
 Sprang from the simple cone in earth s dark bed, 
 
 As tender saplings first, ere overhead 
 
 Their green plumes wave where eagles proudly 
 
 soar 
 
 And animals and worlds can do no more 
 For all from germs to forms complete progress, 
 T is nature s law, gainst which there s no redress ! 
 
 Each discord has its harmony, each storm 
 Its calm, each light its shade, and every form 
 Of pain its pleasure, every throb its rest, 
 Each aim its object ; and tho last, still best 
 "We find on earth that each thing has its place, 
 In the triumphal march, the mighty race 
 From inanition to intelligence ; 
 And still progressing upward, onward, thence 
 To immortality when faith shall rise 
 Exultant o er the grave to glorious skies ! 
 
 We find in nature, certain substances 
 That form connecting ties, which by degrees, 
 From matter lead to life ; thence, link by link, 
 From lowest form that trembles on the brink 
 Of being, up to man. As bitumen 
 And sulphur are the links the earth between 
 And metals ; vitriols, metals join, t is known,
 
 THE EARTH. 
 
 57 
 
 With salts; crystallizations, salts with stone; 
 
 The amianthis and cytophites 
 
 Most surely form a certain species 
 
 Of tie twixt stones and plants ; the polypus 
 
 Tween plants and insects; and the tube-worm, 
 
 thus 
 
 Leads off to shells and reptiles ; then, the eel 
 And water-serpent, also, seem to steal 
 A path from reptiles on to fish ; a medium 
 Tween fish and birds, the anas nigra come; 
 The bat and flying-squirrel still link birds 
 To quadrupeds ; and so, the chattering herds 
 Of monkeys, are the band twixt beast and man. 
 A chain of beings on progressive plan. 
 
 We see effects of natural law, where er 
 We turn our eyes upon the rolling sphere; 
 Effects, from which we m^st this fact deduce : 
 That t is conditions proper which produce 
 Each change of verdure and organic life ! 
 One step beyond a previous order, rife. 
 With principles progressive, ever gives 
 Advancing types of everything that lives, 
 Or being has, upon prolific Earth. 
 And thus it is, the individual birth 
 
 L_
 
 58 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of a new form of verdure, sprang from change 
 In the conditions since the previous range, 
 Thus differing the effects. We also see, 
 Spontaneous growth of flower, bush, shrub, or 
 
 tree, 
 
 In this wise: When salt-springs upon the land 
 Break out far from the sea, on every hand 
 Do salt or seaside plants spring up, tho none 
 Grew there before. And this is only one 
 Example. Mold from vast depths thrown, we 
 
 know, 
 
 Exposed to atmospheric action, so 
 Becomes spontaneously verdure clad 
 With plants that there no previous being had. 
 When lakes are drained new vegetation springs. 
 And among other proved spontaneous things, 
 "Pis told, when London was laid low by fire, 
 The surface of the ruined part, entire, 
 Became completely covered with the plant 
 Sisymbrium irio ! And there are extant 
 Innumerable instances to show 
 Spontaneous production here below. 
 
 Nor only vegatation thus induced 
 Organic life is by like means produced.
 
 THE EAKTH. 59 
 
 >_J 
 
 The mites we see in cheese spontaneous spring ; 
 And close-kept furs their stock of moths will 
 
 bring, 
 
 As foul-kept hedges generate the slug. 
 These actions all admit, who do not hug 
 Delusion as their guide, and still deny 
 Existence, but as work of Deity 
 In propria persona, nor pause 
 To ask themselves, why universal laws 
 In one department of creation may 
 Not work as well as in another ? Say 
 Does it not elevate our Maker more, 
 That by these laws, mysterious, slow and sure, 
 And never-failing, all things are produced ? 
 Than to suppose him (mortal-like) reduced 
 To fashion with Jiis hands the model, whence 
 Each prototype (by different process) thence 
 Was ever after to be made ? Weak, weak, 
 The causality that thus would seek 
 To blind itself, and bring Divinity 
 To human standard! 
 
 All these orbs we see 
 
 Rolling thro space, have in like way progressed 
 From comprehensive germ, which all the rest
 
 60 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of future grand development evolved. 
 
 This is self-evident. Yet man resolved 
 
 In bold defiance of known nature s laws, 
 
 And even while admitting a First Cause 
 
 Asserts a direct act of Divine power 
 
 Which placed him here, to live his little hour, 
 
 A trifle longer than the ephemera ! 
 
 The God of many worlds ! by whose wise law 
 
 Great systems circle forced to interfere 
 
 With His established laws to usher here, 
 
 Weak man upon the theater of his 
 
 Existence! 0, if Atheism is 
 
 Extant, tis in a creed like this, which gives 
 
 To God a limit ! 
 
 Ah! there surely lives 
 Not a reflective mind but sees how far 
 Above all mortal power God s workings are ! 
 His workings, thro eternities unchanged, 
 Thro all departments of creation ranged 
 On principles which human skill defy 
 To alter, for their superstructures lie 
 On one firm basis Order ! which is known, 
 To be in nature the great corner-stone, 
 On which is reared the towering fanes where swell
 
 THE EARTH. 61 
 
 The paeans grand, their Author s praise to tell ! 
 The arching skies that roof cathedrals vast, 
 Ionic columned in Time s quarry cast, 
 And hung with pictures which a Claude Lorraine, 
 Might ceaseless strive to imitate in vain ; 
 Where every whispering breeze and waving leaf, 
 Conveys a moral or a sermon brief; 
 Where feathered choristers harmonious raise, 
 Their untaught anthems of melodious praise, 
 And incense rising from the flowers, floats thro 
 The ivied portals wet with morning dew; 
 And Man, the High Priest, at the altar stands, 
 Confirmed as such by God s most holy hands I 
 Who gives to him dominion o er the earth, 
 And every living thing that there claims birth ; 
 Fish in the seas, and fowls that cleave the air, 
 Cattle, and creeping thing that moveth there 
 All these in man their master still must find, 
 And bow before the majesty of mind! 
 Yea, mind ! the light planned by Divinity, 
 To be developed when the clay should be 
 Progressed upon the earth thro ever still 
 Succeeding species upward, higher, till 
 The full-formed being shone with godlike brow,
 
 62 PKOGRESSION. 
 
 Its Maker s image, to which all things bow! 
 That by this all-controlling principle 
 Of mind, should be almost invincible, 
 And fitted for a future glorious race, 
 Of immortality and endless grace. 
 
 Away with superstition, whine, and cant ! 
 For sound reflection s all we ever want 
 To teach us mighty truths. An eye to see, 
 A heart to feel the works of Deity! 
 A mind unprejudiced by bigotry 
 A soul from all sectarianism free, 
 That gives God praise for all that round us lies, 
 And makes him Lord of earth, and seas, and 
 
 skies ! 
 
 Progenitor of laws progressing still, 
 Thro whole eternities to work his will, 
 In minute steps, which fall, as falls the sand 
 To mark the hours around on every hand, 
 Till from the atom mighty worlds round out, 
 And new conditions ever bring about 
 Their changes, till those rolling worlds have given 
 In man, the link between all earths and Heaven ! 
 
 And thus, the morning stars shall sing for joy ! 
 Each planet praises ring without alloy,
 
 THE EARTH. 63 
 
 When to that point progressed which ushers man 
 
 Upon his scene of being which began 
 
 O er earth to dawn as closed the era known 
 
 As that of Tertiary Formations, shown 
 
 To contain the traces of existence still 
 
 Of higher types, the ascending scale to fill. 
 
 And we have seen that each successive race 
 
 Was swept away, yet leaving still a trace 
 
 To mark that once they lived. Research doth 
 
 show 
 
 In that remote, far distant " long ago," 
 That five distinct, successive races vast, 
 Of plants existed, now gulfed in the past; 
 And four distinct, successive races more, 
 Of animals, lived in those days of yore, 
 Before the present race, with man, appeared. 
 How many countless ages may have reared 
 Their cycles o er the rolling earth the while, 
 We know not. When we view each ponderous pile 
 Of mineral productions each coal-bed 
 Whose fossil masses o er vast areas spread ; 
 And think what time s required to vegetate, 
 And to produce the carbon, which in great 
 Quantities, all coal-fields generate;
 
 64 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Or cast our glances o er the towering blocks 
 
 Of solid stratified, or aqueous rocks 
 
 Which old retreating oceans have laid bare, 
 
 And think by what slow process, layer on layer, 
 
 Their present bulk s attained; or turn our eyes 
 
 To where the fierce volcanic fires arise 
 
 From Hecla s regions of perpetual snow 
 
 See Etna s hissing, surging, molten flow 
 
 Of lava and Vesuvius, Stromboli, 
 
 And numbers in the isles of the South Sea 
 
 In Asia, Africa, America, 
 
 Where er these furnaces projected are 
 
 And then reflect, no human records show 
 
 The moment when these fires began to glow 
 
 (With but a few exceptions) in each mount, 
 
 That from time immemorial s been the fount 
 
 Whose seething jets fall in a golden rain 
 
 To make another Danae of each plain ! 
 
 And that each mountain range that girts our earth, 
 
 Owes to such inward struggle still its birth 
 
 And all by slow, progressive steps, t is seen, 
 
 Developed to their present state have been 
 
 The mind shrinks back, and fails to grasp the sum 
 
 Of multiplying units as they come
 
 THE EARTH. 65 
 
 To give the age of Earth ! 
 
 Man s life s a rill 
 
 Beside creation s gulf a fraction still 
 Of a compounded whole a drop within 
 Time s ever rolling ocean circling 
 A second on the dial s endless round 
 A mote in Nature s golden sunbeam found 
 A tiny mountain stream by torrent free, 
 But flowing on to swell the tidal sea 
 Of Progress ! Such the destiny of man, 
 And worlds, and systems, since Time s march began. 
 6
 
 
 WE now must solve the mighty problem, Man ! 
 Roll back the curtain, Faith ! that we may scan 
 His attributes and thou, mother Earth ! 
 Turn to the page whereon we read his birth 
 Recorded in Old Time s Biography 
 Tho entered there in quaint stenography, 
 Tis to the eye of Reason, lettered clear ! 
 
 Now, " Open Sesame." What see we here ? 
 A point where ceaseless progress has evolved 
 Conditions new, and Nature has resolved 
 To test her powers, a higher race to give 
 In her ancestral palaces to live. 
 We ve seen her handiwork, her curious chain 
 Of plants and animals, progress amain, 
 From sea-weeds to land plants, the simplest, first, 
 Ere to fruition the more complex burst 
 Her life organic, in the humble forms 
 Of zoophytes, radiata, swarms 
 (66)
 
 MAN. 67 
 
 Of mollusca, articulata, ere 
 
 A higher order shone upon our sphere; 
 
 Then fishes, reptiles, birds, mammalia 
 
 (First of which is marsupialia, 
 
 The lowest forms of mammifers) are seen, 
 
 Each a progressive step from what has been, 
 
 And giving earnest, still, of what may be 
 
 Developed yet, thro all eternity ! 
 
 And showing how all forms are bound in one 
 
 Upon our globe a mighty chain, begun 
 
 Mongst lowliest mosses, onward, link by link, 
 
 Binding organic things, till on the brink 
 
 Of immortality, it circles man, 
 
 Last of created things, whose mortal span 
 
 Of life being o er, shall then triumphant rise 
 
 To his new form of being in the skies ! 
 
 The physiologist observes, each animal 
 Progresses still, while in the germinal, 
 Thro changes, all resembling the forms 
 Of lower orders in the scale. The worms, 
 Being lowest of articulata see, 
 An insect at the order s head, will be 
 In larva state, an annelid, or worm ; 
 And thus, with every embryo, or germ.
 
 68 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The frog is first a fish with gills, to fit 
 
 It for aquatic life and still, as it 
 
 Advances to maturity, a change 
 
 In its formation, then admits its range 
 
 Upon the land. And higher classes still 
 
 Of mammifers, the fixed forms must fill 
 
 In embryo, of orders in the scale 
 
 Beneath them. Even mighty man don t fail 
 
 In this fulfillment of the law tis shown, 
 
 His organization passes thro all known 
 
 Conditions, in the germinal, and gives 
 
 (In resemblance only) type of each that lives 
 
 The permanent established form, below 
 
 Him, of the various orders as they go 
 
 Advancing upward. His first form is shown 
 
 That, which in animalcules is known 
 
 To be fixed ; his brain will then assume 
 
 The form of a true fish s ; then t will loom 
 
 The more distinct brain of a reptile ; still 
 
 In transitu, a bird s, a rodent s, will 
 
 The type be ; then, that of a ruminant 
 
 Digitigrada s the next type we want, 
 
 And lo ! the foetal brain evolves it now ; 
 
 Then the next change, and nearly last, will show
 
 MAN. 69 
 
 The characteristics of the perfect ape ; 
 This when supprest, there seems to be a gap 
 In the ascending scale t is then, that man, 
 Formed from each creature s best, by Wisdom s 
 
 plan, 
 
 The human type assumes. That is, the brain 
 Is then complete, the last link in the chain 
 Of earthly things, that yet have been exhumed 
 From the prolific dust of ages ! tombed 
 In whose vast mausoleum mighty Truth 
 Has dormant lain thro the world s thoughtless 
 
 youth ; 
 
 But Reason s trump, like Gabriel s blast, shall wake 
 The dead the tower of Superstition shake, 
 Until its weakened portals crumbling fall, 
 And grandly o er the charred and somber pall 
 Of blackened ashes, buried Truth shall rise, 
 A phoenix soaring in effulgent skies ! 
 
 That man s an animal, his attributes 
 Must plainly prove, and silence all disputes. 
 Considered zoologically, he 
 The type above all others, seems to be ; 
 The head of animated nature here. 
 And as, in every order on our sphere
 
 70 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Are different species existing found, 
 
 So, in Bimana, differing types abound, 
 
 From lower ranging to the higher still, 
 
 The order s circle thus complete to fill. 
 
 We 11 give each species, as t is shown their birth 
 
 Successively took place upon the earth, 
 
 Where climate and conditions governed each 
 
 Advance, as all effects full surely teach 
 
 The first, then, of the genus homo (shown 
 By all analogy in nature known, 
 To be spontaneously produced), appeared 
 When atmospheres caloric far upreared 
 A torrid climate o er the rolling earth, 
 Too hot for other forms of human birth 
 Than that, by constitution, color, seen 
 Adapted to withstand the heat, has been, 
 And still is, relatively speaking, shown 
 To be confined to torrid climes the known, 
 Thick-lipped, flat-nosed, and frizzled, woolly- haired 
 Inhabitant of Africa. Compared 
 With other known conditions of mankind, 
 This species, in their barbarism, blind 
 Superstitions, and loose morals, and in 
 Their intellectual desolation (twin
 
 MAN. 71 
 
 Children of one parent), their features coarse, 
 Their dark, ungainly forms, and voices hoarse 
 In all these, differ, more than do the rest 
 From that type known to be the last and best 
 The Indo-European or Caucasian race. 
 ( Our own impartial Jefferson did trace 
 Between the Black and White man, many points 
 Of difference. He says : The Black anoints 
 His body more profusely than the White 
 With perspiration ; and there is a slight 
 Difference in the arrangement of the mass 
 Of lungs, by which, t is clear, the Black can pass 
 His breath with greater force than the White man ; 
 Less beard he has his mouth s broad arch to span ; 
 And in th,e shape of body, color, hair, 
 They differ ; while the Negro s needful share 
 Of sleep requires to be less than the White s; 
 The ardor of his love display invites, 
 But deals less in imagination than 
 That of the more idealistic man, 
 Whose finer organization leads to less 
 Of animal preponderance and excess. 
 The Black is more adventurous, while his grief 
 More transient is, and quicker finds relief;
 
 72 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Less he reflects ; his reasoning powers are 
 
 Decidedly inferior ; by far 
 
 His mind s best feature, memory, 
 
 Which, equal to the White s is known to be ; 
 
 But not imagination : dull in the extreme 
 
 This faculty while but a partial gleam 
 
 Of bright originality he shows 
 
 And no poetic tendency e er glows 
 
 Within his brain s dark chambers ; or no turn 
 
 For painting, sculpture, there in raptures burn ! 
 
 With quite as good an ear for music, still 
 
 In composing he evinces little skill ; 
 
 And many other points of diiference 
 
 As great, exist between the two ; t is thence 
 
 The line of demarcation is made clear.) 
 
 The intermediate types distinct appear 
 
 In color, feature, form, and attributes 
 
 Progressive, even as they re shown in brutes 
 
 From low to high, and higher still, they re seen 
 
 In man. We also see, there was, between 
 
 The production of each varied species, 
 
 In the earth s temperature a sure decrease, 
 
 Evolving new conditions, so, to bring 
 
 The next advancing type within the ring.
 
 MAN. 73 
 
 And thus, the next above the Negro, is 
 The Malay. Of a blackish brown is his 
 Complexion, broad his nose, and coarse and straight 
 His hair. Inhabitant of all the great 
 Broad chain of islands in the Southern Sea, 
 And most of the East Indian isles is he. 
 And scarcely less a savage than the first 
 Of liomo, in his roving life and thirst 
 For wild adventure. And his skull is found 
 By the phrenologist, but to abound 
 In characters, which tho they plainly tell 
 Of energy and courage, yet as well 
 Of stubbornness and harshness there that be, 
 And intellectual incapacity 
 Extreme, combined with selfishness : 
 While every talent requisite to bless 
 And to improve mankind, defective is ; 
 And ideality is so small in his 
 Development, that t is not strange we find 
 Him in the social scale so far behind 
 His European brethren. And it is 
 Because the animal preponderates, that his 
 Cannibalistic habits operate ; 
 
 For most of these savage hordes will satiate 
 
 I, 
 
 7
 
 74 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Their appetite for blood, and roast and eat, 
 Not only enemies, but -to complete, 
 If possible, their barbarism make 
 Their bestial meals on infants ; or they take 
 Revenge in this way, on absconding slaves, 
 Nor lay restrictions on the act by halves. 
 And like atrocities prove them to be 
 Not far removed above the brute. 
 
 We see 
 
 The next advance in human order, lies 
 Within that land arched o er by Western skies, 
 Where giant mountain ranges fortified 
 The wide-spread plains, and the exultant tide 
 Of grand Niagara shouted forth its praise 
 To the Most High ! and gave, in rainbow rays, 
 An everlasting arch, as covenant 
 Of Peace to be o er that broad land extant, 
 When the vast wilderness should, as the rose, 
 Bloom in serene, majestical repose ; 
 The tomahawk and scalping-knife give way 
 Before the march of empire the noonday 
 Sun of civilization ! 
 
 Yes, tis He, 
 The Red Man of the forest, now, that we
 
 MAN. 75 
 
 Must introduce upon the theater 
 Of mortal life. For he was, we infer 
 From doubtless proofs that nature gives, the third 
 Species of mankind and surely born to herd 
 Where range the bear, and elk, and buffalo. 
 Remove him from his forest home, in wo 
 Untold you steep him ; for the glorious light 
 Of the great Sun, the sparkling stars of night, 
 The springing sapling and the russet brown 
 Of autumn s leaf, the meadow s emerald down, 
 The flight of swallows in the early spring, 
 The changing plumage of each warbler s wing; 
 Each varied garb that Nature dons at will, 
 Each mighty river and each tiny rill ; 
 Each footprint on the forest s path of leaves, 
 Or curious house of silk the insect weaves; 
 Each line of fog above a water-course, 
 Or blasted pine, or foaming torrent, hoarse 
 With screaming to the rocks ; each blade of grass 
 That waves a welcome when the wild winds pass, 
 And every tree, shrub, bush, or bended twig, 
 Is to his eye with nature s teachings big ! 
 The only volume on whose page he 11 look 
 Is her illimitable, mighty book;
 
 76 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The only logic that his reason heeds, 
 Is to divine all motives by their deeds ; 
 His only creed (not versed in written word), 
 To "look thro nature up to nature s God!" 
 
 In this untutored forest child, we see 
 High reverence for an unknown Deity 
 A great pervading Spirit ! by whose power 
 And will, all things live out their destined hour. 
 A mighty Spirit! who not only gives 
 The earthly lodge wherein each warrior lives, 
 The grand old woods where he may track the deer, 
 The prairie s herds for his amusement here 
 But, in that land beyond the setting sun, 
 Where each Brave goes when mortal combat s 
 
 done, 
 He spreads the "Happy Hunting-Grounds" for 
 
 his 
 
 *Red children ! 0, let us despise not this 
 High prompting in the savage heart, which tells 
 Of life beyond the grave ! What tho there swells 
 From his bloodthirsty lip, the wild war-whoop, 
 And in fierce torture he disdains to stoop 
 To supplication tho he s treacherous, 
 Revengeful, cruel, cunning; still, with us,
 
 MAN. 77 
 
 Who claim to be enlightened, he must share 
 A meed of praise ; for rude and wild as are 
 His habits, still he reverences all things 
 Which appertain to Deity, and brings 
 The human standard nearer to the goal 
 Where the immortal promptings of the soul 
 Are heard thro the dull clay. 
 
 True, that with him, 
 We find this principle is sadly dim 
 In moral aptitudes ; and but arrays 
 The life to come with hue of mortal days, 
 And crowned with pleasures for the pulse of sense 
 To throb to not the heavenly raptures, whence 
 The soul of intellect drinks in new light ! 
 But shaded with the drapery of earth s night, 
 When the long-dormant spirit first begins 
 To plume itself for higher flight, arid wins, 
 In the mere effort, glimpses of a sphere 
 Of happier being than surrounds it here 
 Of immortality and endless bliss, 
 In higher realms when toil is o er in this ! 
 And if that future is thus clothed with joys, 
 That here below please with their gilded toys ; 
 Tis that the spirit yet is in its youth,
 
 78 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Nor reached the portal of its manhood s truth ; 
 But trammeled with dull matter s leading-strings, 
 Which blend their earthly hues with heavenly 
 
 things, 
 
 Thus coloring all its high imaginings 
 It looks to that bright land to come, as one 
 Of animal enjoyment. Yet, begun, 
 The soul s high questioning in the Indian s breast, 
 Which bids it ask a higher, better rest 
 Than earth affords, and seek a God above 
 The wooden deity of Pagan love ; 
 An All-wise God that made all things; not one, 
 By man constructed from a block or stone. 
 And surely here are dawnings of a light 
 That yet should chase the blackness of the night 
 Of Heathenism, and progressing on 
 To broader daylight, fall in rays upon 
 The sacred mount whereon the living God 
 Gave to enlightened man his holy Word! 
 When Sinai s Hill in bright effulgence shone, 
 And to the ripened creature of his own 
 Progressive work, he gave his laws supreme, 
 To govern ALL, when full and wide the stream 
 Of golden glory, from the coming Sun 
 
 1
 
 MAN. 79 
 
 Of Christianity, should fall upon 
 
 The desert s palm, the islands of the sea, 
 
 The bright, " all-perfect day " that a yet to be, 
 
 When kindreds, nations, tongues, with rapt accords, 
 
 Shall own him "King of kings and Lord of 
 
 lords!" 
 
 The next advancing human grade, to these, 
 America s wild aborigines, 
 Is the Mongolian type, and perfect found, 
 Within the guarded, walled, forbidden ground 
 Of the Celestial Empire ; where the eye 
 Of curiosity in vain may pry 
 To gain the secret of each quaint device, 
 Or queer contrivance ; where chop-sticks and rice, 
 Souchong and pig- tails flourish; and the Sun, 
 High on his amber throne, is looked upon 
 As the Omnipotent, Omniscient One! 
 The idol of their worship. 
 
 Nor can we, 
 
 To whom more light s been given, fail to see 
 In this idolatry, a beauty still ; 
 For what more calculated is, to fill 
 The mind with awe, sublimity, than yon 
 Bright orb, whose fiery feet glide noiseless on
 
 80 PKOGRESSION. 
 
 The sapphire walls of space? whose glowing 
 
 eyes 
 
 Bring morn s soft blushes to the pale-faced skies ; 
 Whose golden locks fall in a yellow rain 
 To fructify and fertilize each plain; 
 Whose breathings warm unseal the flowers closed 
 
 lips, 
 
 And opening leaf, unfolding blossom, sips 
 The mild, ethereal nectar, till it blooms 
 In glowing raiment all, from night s dark 
 
 tombs 
 
 Rising to matins pure, devotional 
 Each morning s praises, resurrcctional, 
 That float from lawn and grove, mount, vale and 
 
 plain, 
 
 When Death s twin-sister, Sleep, gives up again 
 Her charge, and Sol s bright wand sweeps back 
 
 the pall 
 
 Of darkness from the earth s green couch, and all 
 Of animated nature in the grand 
 Anthem join, to hail his advent bland, 
 As up the orient s jeweled steps he hies, 
 Day s light-crowned king, whose throne is in the 
 
 skies !
 
 MAN. 81 
 
 No wonder, then, that man, by reason taught 
 To look for cause where er effect is wrought, 
 Should, in his primitive intelligence, 
 Turn to that orb s refulgent splendor, whence 
 All things are touched with glory, and there 
 
 find 
 
 Presumptive evidence of power, combined 
 With light, life-giving attributes and heat 
 Dispensing properties in fact, complete 
 Investments of each wondrous quality, 
 Unscientific minds to Deity 
 Ascribe and learn to love and worship, this 
 The source of every blessing known in his 
 Experience. 
 
 This worship still will last 
 Until the heavy cloud the night has cast 
 The night of mental darkness parts its fold, 
 As glimmers from the better time, foretold 
 In prophet vision, rend the mist to let 
 The daylight in, whose rising Sun will set 
 Not; but widening to a broad stream 
 Of living glory, brightening in the gleam 
 Of light divine, shall flow o er every land, 
 And "Bramah" fall at the Divine command!
 
 82 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Unhallowed Ganges waves give up the ghost 
 
 Of buried Paganism ; and the host 
 
 Of heathen, at Messiah s feet lay down 
 
 Their impious rites, and own the Thorny Crown 
 
 As brighter gem than "Vishnu s" diamond eyes; 
 
 And feel within their souls, more merit lies 
 
 In crucifying selfish passions, than 
 
 In fanatic prostrations in the van 
 
 Of Juggernaut s triumphal car ! 
 
 Roll on, 
 
 Earth! and haste the time for see, upon 
 The mount the watchman stands, and waits to hail 
 The coming light, whose noonday shall prevail, 
 When ALL shall join the anthem : " Blessed is he 
 That cometh in the name of the Lord ! " and be 
 Bound with the cords of love and unity ! 
 
 "We now come to the last, best type of all 
 The human race, upon this rolling ball, 
 Spontaneously formed: the Caucasian. 
 In color, form, proportions, we may scan 
 All other species, none with this compare ; 
 For elegance symmetrical we there 
 With beauty find combined ; at least, what WE 
 Consider such ; for other people see
 
 MAN. 83 
 
 With other eyes as the stained fingers, lips 
 Of indigo, black brows and red toe-tips 
 Of the Arabian belle ; the crippled feet 
 Of Chinese beauty ; and the most complete 
 Of checker-boards the Hottentot imprints 
 Upon her body, in decided tints 
 Of red and black, to captivate the eye ; 
 The Greenland women s blue and yellow dye 
 With which they stain their faces ; and 
 The tattooed beauties on the golden strand 
 Of the Pacific Ocean, plainly tell ; 
 And also, of barbaric tastes that dwell 
 In human bosoms. For in these we find 
 No homage paid to mighty, godlike mind ! 
 T is in the true Caucasian type we see 
 Alone, this principle complete, to be 
 The means, as time progresses, to subdue 
 The savage, quell the rude, and plant the true 
 And perfect principles of mortal life ; 
 And barbarism, butchery, and strife, 
 Will be remembered only as the clouds 
 Which vail the sunrise, when earth s mist en 
 shrouds 
 The couch of morn with waving draperies gray ;
 
 84 PROGRESSION. 
 
 But, as the warm, bright sun (like truth) away 
 To the high zenith springs, his piercing ray 
 Parts the dun curtain, and lets in the light, 
 And to the dark dominions of the night, 
 The cloud-like mist descends ; so mind will yet 
 O er matter triumph ; and the world forget 
 In the bright future that is still to be, 
 That superstition, wrong, and cruelty 
 E er marred the human race ! 
 
 But all in time 
 
 This happy change will be. The passing chime 
 Of centuries must sound the dirge of each 
 Old fallacy or rotten creed, to teach 
 Immortal truths to man ! Bigots may preach 
 Of universal charity and love, 
 The while their lives the contrary doth prove 
 Or rear His standard as the Prince of Peace ! 
 And claim to be disciples, yet ne er cease 
 To throw the gauntlet at their fellow-man 
 Who different views has of Almighty plan ; 
 Or place a stumbling-block where humble feet 
 Would climb, to bend before the mercy-seat ; 
 And clothe their king with thunders such as Jove 
 Would hurl not sweet, forgiving smiles of love,
 
 MAN. 85 
 
 To lure the sinner back to beaten track 
 
 But with the torturing whip, the scourge, the rack 
 
 Of fierce anathema, pour forth a blast 
 
 Of dark revenge to be, for errors past, 
 
 Taken by Him, the God of Mercy ! 
 
 See, 
 
 When the bleeding Savior hung upon the tree, 
 Upon his foes he cast his pitying eyes, 
 Then raised them meekly to the lowering skies, 
 And prayed : " Father, forgive them, for they know 
 Not what they do !" And this the love below 
 This the bright spirit which o er earth must sweep 
 Her radiant wings, her tireless vigils keep, 
 Ere lambs with lions couch ere man for man 
 Feels as for self! Meek charity the van 
 Must take in human hearts, and tender, pitying love, 
 For weak mortality ere, like a dove, 
 Sweet Peace, with all her blessings in her train, 
 Will soft descend, and, like the summer s rain, 
 Waken to life the flowers of gentleness, 
 Dear buds of hope to comfort and to bless, 
 While seeds of promise quicken fast to life 
 Beneath her genial influence which strife, 
 With harsh breathings, else had chilled.
 
 86 PROGRESSION. 
 
 man ! 
 
 Thy brother s nature strictly, strictly scan, 
 Ere censuring him ; and then, pause, still pause, 
 And for his weakness, mayhap, a cause 
 Will show itself, which will your pity wake, 
 And banish hatred for compassion s sake 
 Thus, in your heart you 11 plant a goodly seed, 
 To bring forth tenfold for the spirit s need; 
 To bear immortal fruit whose bright ning bloom 
 Will gild thy passage to the darksome tomb, 
 And branching there, to brighter skies, will spread 
 In fadeless laurels o er your victor head ! 
 For, who so great a conqueror, as he 
 O er self victorious ? and who yet can see 
 A fellow-being in the outcast one 
 Whom the self-righteous Pharisee doth shun, 
 And by a word of kindness, aptly said, 
 Pour balm on wounds that long have inly bled ; 
 Heal the dark sore of sin by gentle word, 
 And lead an erring brother back to God ! 
 
 These, the conditions, which to man will bring 
 The ethereal mildness of Millennium spring, 
 When human hearts with gentle pity flow, 
 And brother seeks to heal a brother s wo,
 
 MAN. 87 
 
 And o er a brother s weakness drop a tear 
 Instead of meeting it Avith scoff and jeer 
 For all are mortal, and all flesh is prone 
 To wander ; but, when mighty mind shall own 
 Dominion, and shall join with love and faith 
 To conquer sin, then, then the victor s wreath 
 Shall crown mortality ; and man below 
 Foretaste the joys celestial, which glow 
 Where disembodied souls, from matter free, 
 Expand and brighten thro eternity ! 
 Where the glad spirit, on its new-born winga 
 Escaped the binding cord of earthly things, 
 Looks back on sin s dark night as sorrow past, 
 And hails the Avelcome light that s dawned at 
 
 last, 
 When naught can stay its upward flight. 
 
 The soul 
 
 No more, by weight of animal control, 
 Compelled to sit in judgment on the deeds 
 Of the poor, erring body far exceeds 
 In splendor, what the eye or heart of man 
 Has ever dreamed of in its reaching span 
 To grasp the good, the beautiful, the pure ; 
 And when tis landed on the crystal shore
 
 88 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of the Eternal River, freed from sense 
 And all its penalties expansive, thence, 
 It brighter glows with gems of thought refined, 
 And stands, th embodiment of glorious mind; 
 That link, which God designed should unite man 
 With angels, in his grand, progressive plan ! 
 And God s great laws, unceasing, slow, and 
 
 sure, 
 
 Are working earth s redemption evermore ; 
 Tho man, in his blind ignorance, fails to see 
 In many things, the hand of Deity 
 That s molding up the plastic clay of thought 
 To higher points of interest, and fraught 
 With rich revealings Truth s unfolding light 
 Intensifying, as its radiance bright 
 Rolls back the darkness of the mental night 
 Shrouding the past. Old things give way to new, 
 As the world waxeth to the full and true 
 Perception of the grand and beautiful, 
 The reasonable and the dutiful ; 
 And manners, customs, habits, feelings change, 
 As greater scope is given the mind to range 
 In nature s storehouses, there to explore 
 Her mysteries and read her ancient lore,
 
 MAN. 89 
 
 And see in all things wisdom, love, and power, 
 Assigning to each blade of grass, each flower, 
 Or stately tree, each rain-drop, spring, or flood, 
 Its portion toward the universal good ; 
 And every insect, animal, or race, 
 Its fitting attributes and proper place, 
 To exist while needed, then, to pass away ; 
 And new conditions, with the old s decay, 
 Dawn into being. 
 
 View our own loved land, 
 By nature fashioned in appointments grand. 
 Once, its bold rocks, huge forests, mighty lakes, 
 High towering mountains, and deep tangled 
 
 brakes, 
 
 Wide-spreading prairies, flowing rivers, free, 
 All a vast wilderness was known to be, 
 Where the fierce wolf couched in his rocky lair 
 And roamed the panther, and wild grizzly bear ; 
 Or Red Man tracked the elk with bended bow, 
 While timid deer lurked in the covert low ; 
 And flashing from Niagara s sheet of light 
 The " council fire," reflected clear and bright ; 
 Or where the Mississippi valley spread 
 In wild luxuriance, the measured tread
 
 90 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of painted warriors broke the deep repose, 
 .As the exultant "death-song" fierce, uprose 
 Fron some poor victim at the fiery stake, 
 Who scorned one faint entreaty there to make; 
 And where the mighty river wanders o er 
 His clayey bed each bluff or wood-crowned shore 
 Echoed the shrill war-whoop, both fierce and 
 
 free ; 
 
 Yet, thro the thick foliage of each tree, 
 The peaceful calumet sent wreathy smoke, 
 And songs of savage joy the silence broke* 
 But now, the Red Man s reign is o er his day 
 Has run its limit and away, away 
 From earth he s swept, no longer needexl there ; 
 But, with the wolf, the panther, and the bear, 
 lie flies before that onward march, which sows 
 The wilderness with myrtle and the rose. 
 He leaves that lovely land, designed to be 
 The cradling-place of heaven-born Liberty ! 
 Where for a time he flourished ; but where now 
 The leveling ax, the saw, the spade, the plow, 
 Have spread broad fields, and towns and cities 
 
 rise, 
 With gilded spires that point to brighter skies !
 
 MAN. 91 
 
 This noble Western World, fair Freedom s car ! 
 Had higher destiny, more glorious far, 
 Than the rude savages broad hunting-ground 
 To be, thro circling ages ceaseless round. 
 But still, when haunt of creatures fierce and wild, 
 No fitter habitant than " forest child " 
 (Which cognomen s the Indian s birthright, clear), 
 Could be by Wisdom placed as ruler here. 
 No longer wanted see, he passes on 
 His sunset path, where myriad Braves have gone ; 
 And, let us hope, to find that spirit-rest 
 In the Hereafter s regions of the blest ! 
 
 Here, then, is seen how manifold the ways 
 Of Providence ! We, in enlightened days, 
 Who o er the past send a far-reaching glance, 
 Can see each step progressively advance 
 To the still distant but still nearing goal 
 Where sense will yield supremacy to soul ; 
 Where present wrong will turn to future right, 
 And day succeed the gloomy, darksome night; 
 Can see Truth s glimmer, faint and far, t is true 
 But o er the dead Old World t will burst with new 
 And higher glory, when our rising star 
 Shall culminate, and spread its light afar ;
 
 92 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And ancient empires, thrones, and kingdoms quake, 
 As shouts of " freedom " from this broad land 
 
 break 
 
 Atlantic s shores echo the watchword wide, 
 And broad Pacific s ever-flowing tide 
 Bears the hosanna on to distant lands, 
 And mighty floods, all-joyful, clap their hand s, 
 And spread glad tidings far from Pole to Pole, 
 Where wild winds blow or foaming oceans roll, 
 Lighting a spark, a quenchless spark, to rise, 
 When once t is kindled, flaming to the skies ! 
 A tiny ball, which, gaining as it goes, 
 Falls in an avalanche like mountain snows, 
 And with resistless force sweeps all aside, 
 And buries wrong, oppression, pomp, and pride, 
 Beneath its pure, unsullied, spotless garb, 
 Heaven s matchless ermine, man s protective barb, 
 The banner of the just, the good, the true, 
 Which yields to mind and soul their being s due ! 
 
 " From little acorns mighty oaks arise ! " 
 This proverb fleeting time still verifies. 
 The seedling of a giant tree was sown, 
 When the stanch Pilgrims freely left their own 
 Fair land to tread these Western wilds, and raise
 
 MAN. 93 
 
 Unchecked their prayers and unrebuked their 
 
 praise ! 
 
 Self-exiled from their homes, with hearts as true 
 As finest-tempered steel, to brave (tho few 
 Their numbers) all the savage hosts, before 
 They d yield their right their Maker to adore 
 As conscience dictated. The germ, thus laid 
 In genial soil, now spreads a grateful shade 
 From wide-spread foliage, o er the happy land 
 "Where Freedom s banner floats on breezes bland; 
 Where a blest nation rears its honored head 
 From conquered Despotism s ashes red ; 
 The eagle, Liberty, on heavenward wings, 
 Soars on triumphant, or exultant sings, 
 From cloud-capped eyrie, anthems grand that 
 
 swell 
 
 To pasans glorious, and sound the knell 
 Of dark Oppression till each fettered soil 
 Looks up from gyves and serfdom s forced toil, 
 To catch the refrain rolling o er the sea, 
 And brave hearts echo, " FREE ! WE WILL BE 
 
 FREE ! " 
 
 Yes ! Yes ! ALL will be free in time in time ; 
 But Liberty s a plant that every clime
 
 94 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Must raise spontaneously, ere a firm hold 
 Its root can take ! All forcing, we are told, 
 Produces sickly growth; and Nature, true 
 To all her instincts, thus, must first indue 
 The mind with proper attributes, and give 
 The energies for freedom s plant to live 
 And flourish ; then the pruning-knife may be 
 Applied, to lop from the yet budding tree 
 Its useless branches, to condense its strength, 
 And goodly foliage t will yield at length ; 
 Nourished by proper soil, its growth will be 
 Proportionate to any native tree, 
 That under genial airs and kindred skies, 
 Lifts its crowned head with plumes of varied dyes, 
 And to the passing breeze may bend, not break 
 The forest s king, which tempests fail to shake ! 
 With heart of oak and brow undimmed by age 
 T will stand, the youthful hero and the sage ; 
 Firm at the core, but pleasing to the eye 
 The grecn-bay-tree, heaven-grafted, Liberty ! 
 
 The mind has its conditions: soul and sense 
 Must work harmonious, ere progressive thence 
 Springs ripe fruition. Not where thistles thrive 
 Will plenteous crops be gathered ! Man, alive
 
 MAN. 95 
 
 Tho he may be to his high attributes, 
 Which place him far, so far above dumb brutes, 
 Must feel the promptings of immortal mind 
 And will indomitable ; these, combined, 
 The despot s gilded throne can overthrow ; 
 For mind is power and will is might, below ! 
 And when this dual force is brought to bear, 
 The strongest fetters burst dissolve in air; 
 Earth s adamantine monarchies give way, 
 And Freedom s sun pours down its golden ray, 
 As broad it shines on our own land to-day ! 
 
 Blest land! the honored birthplace and the grave 
 Of him who would have given his life to save 
 Thy sons from despotism s iron rule, 
 But scorned to be a tyrant s slave or tool. 
 0, shout exultant to thy peaceful skies 
 His name ! and as the sound still echoing flies 
 From fame s high mount, t will give that patriot 
 
 cry 
 
 A mold for gods to fashion heroes by ! 
 For where s the land can boast another son, 
 To equal thine, thy noble Washington? 
 0, proudly rear thy head, " Queen of the West," 
 And own thyself, o er all, supremely blest ;
 
 96 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And keep the trust his lips to thee have given 
 As thou wouldst answer it before High Heaven. 
 For see, a cloud, no bigger than man s hand, 
 Is creeping o er thy atmosphere so bland, 
 To spread and blacken the fair soil afar 
 With all the horrors of intestine war, 
 And civil feud ; where brother brother meets 
 As mortal foe, and enmity completes 
 What anarchy began. Pause, brethren, pause ! 
 Respect each other s rights, our country s laws, 
 Ere wickedly attempting to undo 
 The floodgates of rank discord, and imbrue 
 With native blood our rising empire s sod 
 Once spake that country s savior next to God ! 
 And what this threatened wo, this tiny cloud 
 Whose spreading will our prospects fair en 
 shroud ? 
 
 The spirit of Dictation! that would wrest 
 Another s right of thought from his own breast, 
 And sever cords of unity and love 
 Whose links were twined in the bright realms 
 
 above ; 
 
 Whose rights were purchased by our fathers brave 
 Who nobly fought and bled their land to save,
 
 MAN. 97 
 
 And dying, left the heritage to those 
 
 As brothers joined, but now, almost as foes 
 
 Arrayed with hostile feelings, just because 
 
 They differ in regard to freedom s laws ; 
 
 And hot, vituperative, random speech 
 
 Is rolling ever to increase the* breach, 
 
 Till discord riots o er the tottering land. 
 
 And, as a house divided can not stand 
 
 So, with these discords, the broad Union shakes ; 
 
 The arching firmament with terror quakes, 
 
 Lest from our banner s spangled azure fold 
 
 Its sister stars should leave their glorious hold, 
 
 And mid the ruin of their universe 
 
 Die out in darkness ! Heaven forbid, this curse 
 
 Should ever blot our fair escutcheon! 
 
 List! 
 
 Ye sowers of dissension, nor insist 
 That you ve the right to point your brethren s 
 
 course, 
 
 Which, should they follow, still would lead to worse 
 Conditions than exist list to the voice 
 Of reason ! and not rashly make the choice 
 That severs all our bonds of brotherhood; 
 Clipped by rank Faction s discontented brood 
 
 L_L
 
 98 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of meddlers, cloaked in piety s broad garb, 
 To hide the point of foul dissension s barb, 
 And under pretense of philanthropy- 
 Plant hatred, violence, and anarchy 
 In kindred soil. Ah ! t is no feeling pure, 
 (An empty boast ),l>ut simply to insure 
 A rigid to dictate to the rest, and show 
 The North will teach the South the way to go! 
 T is not true horror of " vile slavery " 
 Calls forth this bombast of great bravery, 
 Or sympathy for the poor Negro lends 
 A strength to wield the battle-ax, and tends 
 To lessen the deep horror of these broils, 
 These family dissensions and turmoils ! 
 brothers, ALL, both North and South, I pray 
 Give ear to me, and hearken to my lay, 
 The while I prove to thee, the hand of God 
 Holds over Africa the divining rod, 
 To lift from barbarism s horrid hold 
 Her sunk humanity, whose hidden gold 
 Were worthless else, with savage dross o ergrown, 
 Which to subdue, no better means are known 
 Than those of a judicious slavery. 
 Not the foul bondage coined by knavery
 
 MAN. 99 
 
 And represented to exist where rolls 
 
 The white-capped waves of bursting cotton bolls, 
 
 And fields of sugar-cane, luxuriant spread 
 
 Beneath a fiery sun s fierce, burning tread; 
 
 But such a thralldom as superior powers 
 
 May lay on weaker, in this world of ours, 
 
 When soul and sense unite to point the way 
 
 To better things, to humanize the clay 
 
 Of savagism ! And this, God permits 
 
 To be, while needed, as a means that fits 
 
 The Neoro to receive his Word, and kiss 
 
 O * 
 
 The chastening rod that points to future bliss ! 
 
 We must deny the Bible s holy word 
 To say that slavery came not from God! 
 On its blest pages read we duty there 
 To slave and master both assigned. And where 
 The palmy days of Israel rose, t is shown 
 That slavery existed ; and t is known 
 The Christian Dispensation recognized 
 Its justice, now so basely scandalized. 
 And tho the dawnings of a brighter day 
 May glimmer from the distant future, say, 
 Is the Negro yet endowed aright 
 To govern self? And what (we ask in quite
 
 100 PROGRESSION. 
 
 A humble spirit), what is to become 
 Of him, if from his comfortable home 
 Emancipated, he is forced to flee? 
 Left to himself, a savage he will be ! 
 This has been tried in St. Domingo now 
 View his barbarity ; or else, he 11 bow 
 To some superior savage race, and be 
 By greater force destroyed. 
 
 Ah ! happier, he 
 
 "Well fed, well clothed, well cared for in that land 
 Which fanatic reformers deeply brand 
 (Those transcendental bigots, who can t see 
 The never-failing ways of Deity, 
 Nor hear the voice that in the wilderness 
 Calls night and day the means of all redress, 
 And in the groaned- o er, falsely-pictured fate 
 Of Africa, makes clear the path, and straight, 
 For Him to enter the Almighty One ! ) 
 They ve yet to learn, the work that is begun 
 By Providence, is never left undone ; 
 For God s will works in a mysterious way, 
 Which men unconscious to themselves, obey, 
 And coming light will part all dark ning screens, 
 And prove the end to justify the means ;
 
 MAN. 101 
 
 And when the proper time has come, we 11 see 
 ( What is not now the case ) the Black will be 
 Fitted, as is the White man, to be free ! 
 
 We 11 take a backward glance, and try to trace 
 The rise of Slavery in the human race, 
 At least, as far as mortal records show 
 Arid see what horror, agony, and wo, 
 At one time stamped it with ail iron heel ; 
 Then, view it noiv, and every heart will feel 
 The present age is surely leading on 
 To strike the hidden path, where lies the stone 
 So vainly sought by alchemists of old, 
 To turn all baser metab to pure gold 
 Designed the crowning glory yet to be 
 Of man, the godlike -scepter with which he 
 Will right all wrongs, all grievances redress, 
 Succor all weakness, soothe all dire distress, 
 And plant the banner of the just and true 
 To guard a world! to conquer and subdue 
 All barbarisms, despotisms, bold ; 
 And turn these base alloys to finest gold ! 
 Gold in the furnace tried like that which 
 
 gleams 
 From Free America in radiant beams,
 
 102 PROGRESSION. 
 
 To light the Old World s feeble steps along 
 The path her brave young son has nobly gone, 
 And in the footsteps of yon orb of fire 
 From East to West, has mounted higher, higher 
 Till in the zenith a broad noonday flame 
 Lights all the glorious road by which he came, 
 And writes in golden characters his fame !
 
 THE Book of books we confidently quote 
 In reference to the past, doth plainly note 
 The fact, that slavery existed Avhen 
 Good Noah (he who found above all men, 
 Grace in the eyes of God) dwelt in the land 
 Deluged, tis said, by the Divine command; 
 For in the malediction breathed upon 
 His younger and his most irreverent son, 
 These words he used : " Accursed shall Canaan be, 
 A servant s servant ever shall be he 
 Unto his brethren," and by this, t is shown, 
 That servitude mong men is fairly known 
 To have existed ere the floods of heaven 
 Poured forth, we re told, upon an unforgiven, 
 Corrupt, and wicked generation ; for, 
 Twas shortly after that fierce watery war 
 Was said to have been waged, that Ham provoked 
 His parent s ire, who vengeance dire invoked 
 
 (103)
 
 104 PROGRESSION. 
 
 On him and all his progeny and hence 
 We ve grounds for the belief, that Slavery thence 
 Has progressed mong the nations of the earth, 
 And claims this far-removed and ancient birth. 
 
 Nimrod s the first that dealt in slaves, that we 
 Can trace such dealings to. We re told, that he 
 Became a mighty one upon the earth 
 " A mighty hunter before the Lord !" Now, 
 
 worth 
 
 Is given by commentators, to this clause, 
 Proportionate to all translations flaws 
 They give the literal meaning thus : " Of men 
 A mighty hunter he became ;" for then, 
 By Scripture it appears, his conquests were 
 Immense, the territories of Ashur 
 Invaded were by him he seized upon 
 That far-famed city, Ancient Babylon, 
 And made it what it was, the capital 
 Of the first kingdom in the world ! And shall 
 We err in saying, that the captives ta en 
 In war by him, were forced to remain 
 Bond-servants to the conqueror ! 
 
 And tis seen 
 Twas so for seventy years scarce rolled between
 
 SLAVERY. 105 
 
 The death of Nimrod and good Abraham s birth, 
 Yet in that Patriarch s age there was no dearth 
 Of servitude in his own house were born 
 Three hundred and eighteen slaves ; and on that 
 
 morn 
 
 When Siddam s vale rang with the din of war, 
 And battle s issues, on the " Four Kings " car 
 Of triumph, captive placed his brother s son 
 lie armed his " trained servants," every one, 
 Pursued the conquerors unto Dan by night 
 Smote them, and still pursued to Hobah quite, 
 Nor ceased till he d recaptured all the spoil 
 (He and his servants) of the bloody toil, 
 And brought back women, goods, and people, 
 
 too, 
 
 To Sodom s king who generously, in view 
 To reward him, said : " The persons give to me, 
 And take the goods to thyself." By this, we see 
 That each one thought the conqueror had a right 
 To hold as slaves all captives ta en in fight. 
 And many other scriptural texts will show 
 How valued then all bondsmen were ; for so, 
 The sacred writer Abraham s wealth describes 
 He says, that he had of men-servants, tribes,
 
 106 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and 
 Maid-servants, and she-asses, to command ; 
 And camels. Such was also Jacob s dower, 
 And Isaac s estimated wealth and power. 
 
 That Slavery was authorized by law 
 Among the Israelites, we find no flaw 
 In Holy Writ to contradict; we see 
 There, also, how all servants were to be 
 Treated. First: They were to be bought alone 
 Of heathen for, if a poor Jew was known 
 To sell himself either for food, or debt, 
 The limits of his servitude were set 
 To expire upon the year of Jubilee, 
 If after six years bondage he would be 
 Considered still a servant then, to show 
 That from this service he declined to go, 
 The master, with an awl, bored fast his ear 
 To the door-post, to show that he would here 
 Remain a slave till jubilee s blest year. 
 But slaves for life, those bought and sold again, 
 Or which as fixed inheritance remain 
 In families forever, were of those 
 Taken in war, the heathen, strangers, foes. 
 Says Moses : " Both thy bondmen and bondmaids
 
 SLAVERY. 107 
 
 Shall be of the heathen." And he further 
 
 adds : 
 
 " And ye shall take them as inheritance 
 For your children after you." And if (as 
 
 chance 
 
 Might be), a master beat a slave to death, 
 He was not doomed by the unswerving breath 
 Of justice stern, to pay the penalty 
 Such crime exacts from high and low degree 
 In human courts to-day but simply was 
 Punished proportionate unto the cause, 
 As this was deemed sufficient. Such was then 
 The power that man held o er his fellows, men. 
 
 Ah! happy we to have outlived the time, 
 And reached the borders of a milder clime, 
 Where mercy and compassion s wreaths entwine, 
 And justice and humanity combine 
 To lighten fetters forged by direst need, 
 Pour balm on wounds destined so long to bleed, 
 Till bondage by sweet sympathy made light, 
 Sees not its shackles, unless thrust in sight 
 By self-styled friends ! who rattle loud the 
 
 chains, 
 And the poor victim writhes neath fancied pains ;
 
 108 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The while these wolves clothed in their sheepskin 
 
 garbs, 
 Sink deep their fangs, their sharp and poisoned 
 
 barbs, 
 
 Which with their victim s life-blood mingles, and 
 The tares of discontent on every hand 
 Spring up, and choke the better fruit whose bloom 
 Was lighting the dark passage to the tomb, 
 Till these rank weeds o erspread the kindly soil 
 And crushed the produce of a better toil ; 
 Planting a bitter enmity twixt those 
 Master and slave who never should he foes ; 
 Tightening the latter s bonds and locking up 
 The former s sympathies. And this, the cup 
 Of bitterness, these meddlers mix for those 
 Poor idiots, who know not friends from foes ! 
 
 Ah well ! there is a proverb old, doth say 
 That mighty " Rome was not built in a day." 
 And let us hope these bigots yet will see 
 How false the path they ve chosen. If to free 
 The Negro is their only end and aim 
 And such the generous purpose they would claim 
 We 11 trust to time s all-powerful, potent test, 
 To prove their error, leaving God the rest !
 
 SLAVERY. 109 
 
 His laws unceasing will work out their end, 
 However men may strive or fools contend ; 
 And when they cry, " A lion s at the door," 
 Before we fly we 11 wait to hear him roar, 
 Nor conjure beast with longer ears to be 
 The king at whose loud voice all creatures flee ; 
 And go unflinching on our path, with faith 
 That sober second thought will lay the wraith 
 Of troubled Abolitionism low 
 That wandering spirit with perturbed brow ! 
 Now turn we to that land by classic song 
 And Homer s verse, immortal made among 
 The lands of earth ! "VVe find, that Slavery there, 
 Despite its orators and heroes fair, 
 Existed, and atrocities most foul 
 Were perpetrated; while the victim s howl 
 Of anguish, music was most sweet to hear, 
 To the ferocious conqueror s bestial ear. 
 Such were the habits of the Greeks of old. 
 And even in Alexander s time, we re told, 
 That when he had rased Thebes, he seized and 
 
 sold 
 
 Men, women, children, all for slaves. But still, 
 The Spartans were most cruel for with skill
 
 110 PROGRESSION. 
 
 They trained the Lacedemonian youth 
 
 To practice all achievements void of truth, 
 
 Purposely to deceive and butcher those 
 
 Poor captives seized as slaves from out their foes. 
 
 And this was but to show their progress in 
 
 The stratagems of massacre, and win 
 
 A base applause for deeds of wantonness 
 
 Gainst those who had no means of just redress. 
 
 Even Rome, imperial city of the East! 
 Could boast but little over these at least 
 Till Christianity s mild cays shed holier light 
 To turn brute force and question wrong and right. 
 Eor the blood-stained arena s gory flow, 
 The dark, inhuman, gladiatorial show ; 
 The stiffened corpse dragged thro the circus round 
 (First scourged to death the slave was, and then 
 
 bound 
 
 In his hand a fork in gibbet form) ; the dread 
 And brutal Vedius Pollio s conduct; still must shed 
 A nameless horror o er those barbarous times, 
 And cause us bless the ring of happier chimes. 
 
 In Sicily, during the commonwealth, 
 Masters, to keep their slaves from march of 
 stealth,
 
 SLAVERY. Ill 
 
 Branded their foreheads with an iron hot ; 
 And one slaveholder (Damophilus), not 
 Content with this security, shut fast 
 His slaves at night in prisons close, then pass d 
 Them out like beasts to daily work at morn. 
 Thank Heaven, we now can hail a brighter dawn, 
 Tho fleecy clouds may hang upon its brow, 
 Their silver edges tell how bright the glow 
 Behind them a radiance which shall pierce 
 The farthest limits of the universe, 
 When rolling time shall reach the point at last 
 Where misty doubts, into Faith s ocean cast, 
 Resolve themselves to pearls of truth and love, 
 To glearn and scintillate in courts above! 
 
 A milder form of Slavery prevailed 
 Among the ancient Germans. This assailed 
 Not wantonly its subjects, nor imposed 
 Undue exactions ; slaves were not exposed 
 To cruel treatment. Attached to the soil, 
 And working and improving it their toil, 
 With tending cattle, they could neither be 
 Made articles of commerce nor yet free. 
 The only ones that could be bought and sold, 
 Were freemen who had lost themselves for gold;
 
 112 PROGRESSION. 
 
 For it was no uncommon thing to see 
 
 An ardent gamester stake his liberty 
 
 Upon a dice s turn ; the victor then 
 
 Could sell his property to other men. 
 
 But the condition of the slave still seems 
 
 To have been much better than the savage gleams 
 
 Thrown from the annals of the polished Greeks 
 
 And Romans. 
 
 Then, by one of those strange freaks 
 Of retrogression, which sometimes exist 
 Mong nations on this " island in the mist ;" 
 The Anglo-Saxons seem not to have been 
 So honorable in this traffic as we ve seen 
 Were their Teutonic forefathers. As when 
 Alfred (he, surnamed "the Great") pass d rnong 
 
 men 
 
 A law forbidding purchase of a man, 
 A horse, an ox, without a voucher: can 
 We doubt, the statute was but to prevent 
 The stealing of such property ? This bent 
 Must have prevailed to have called forth the law. 
 And, to apply an almost worn-out " saw :" 
 " Tis a poor rule that will not work both ways," 
 Men must have been property in those days,
 
 SLAVERY. 113 
 
 Otherwise, why steal them ? 
 
 A species too 
 
 Of slavery, alike to that which thro 
 The German States held sway, existed in 
 The Kingdom of Great Britain, till within 
 The last three centuries. And this is seen 
 From a commission issued by the Queen, 
 The famous Queen Elizabeth of yore, 
 In fifteen hundred and seventy-four, 
 Inquiring bout the lands and goods of all 
 Her bondmen and bondivomen in Cornwall, 
 Devon, Somerset, and Gloucester, 
 In order that they might compound with her 
 For manumission, and enjoy their lands 
 And goods as freemen. So, the matter stands 
 Till now. A work of later years has been 
 To free the Colliers, Salters who were seen 
 To have endured a wretched serfdom, worse 
 Than negro-slavery s much quoted curse. 
 Doomed in dark mines, to wear life s threads 
 
 away, 
 
 Robbed of God s precious gift, the light of day ! 
 And even their wretched children born to share 
 The curse, which shut them from sunshine and air, 
 10
 
 114 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Till little better than the grub, they crept 
 Thro their dark holes in mother earth, or slept 
 A sort of waking sleep for intellect, 
 Crushed by the nightmare, darkness, can t reflect 
 The hues prismatic which life-giving light 
 Calls forth victorious o er the brooding night, 
 And in an apathetic torpor run 
 Their race, destined to end where it begun ! 
 So far, so good ; and England acted well 
 In freeing those poor wretches doomed to dwell 
 In earth s dark bowels for, of the same race 
 These sons of toil held with her equal place 
 In human grade but stepped she not too far 
 In leaving her West India door ajar, 
 And vesting savages with powers and rights, 
 To equal sway with more enlightened Whites ? 
 And what s the result, this vaunted labor free 
 Has brought to her? Where once there used to 
 
 be 
 
 Most ample stores of tropical produce, 
 The soil, from dire neglect and rank misuse, 
 Scarce yields supplies for home consumption 
 
 while 
 Fair Cuba s sugar-fields prolific smile;
 
 SLAVERY. 115 
 
 Her green tobacco waves in fragrance swc^t, 
 And fills the holds of many a noble fleet. 
 And why? Because right management an 1 toil 
 Bring out the richness of the generous so!! 
 The White man s intellect, the Negro s strc-ii^th, 
 Are brought to bear, and harvest comes at length. 
 
 But, as the Negro will not work unless 
 Compelled, why lay such monstrous, direful vstress 
 Upon his slavery, which brings to him . 
 Comforts he d never have the will to win 
 If left to himself? This, England knows full well, 
 And free Jamaica s sterile fields now tell, 
 The world would suffer for supplies of those 
 Commodities, on which it vainly throws 
 The obloquy of " slavery s products; " while 
 The wani of them would hardly cause a smile, 
 If on " free labor " we d depend, to give 
 These necessaries by which millions live. 
 For White men can not stand a tropic sun, 
 And Blacks, by nature fitted for it, won 
 Can never be by hire to do more work 
 Than will keep off starvation ; they will shirk 
 (To use a Yankee phrase) all that they can, 
 Are naturally lazy to a man.
 
 116 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Why is it sinful, then, to take them from 
 The barbarous wilds of Afric, where they roam 
 But little else than brutes and give them homes, 
 And turn to men these dark ungainly gnomes ? 
 Will any other means ere civilize 
 These savages, beneath our Christian skies ? 
 Or, setting that aside must these fair lands 
 Remain as deserts neath our helpless hands, 
 When means are known on earth, if well employed, 
 To cause them yield what we ve so long enjoyed? 
 Nor only us the workers have their share ; 
 Well fed, well clad, and taught both praise and 
 
 prayer 
 
 Saved from the darker horrors that await 
 Less fortunate companions in a state 
 Of barbarism still in their own land, 
 Stamped as it s always been with savage brand, 
 And made their being s aim to understand. 
 That Africa at any time was free 
 From the most horrid forms of slavery, 
 All history forbids us to suppose. 
 There, tribe gainst tribe, arrayed as mortal foes, 
 Enslave each other. Mong the ancient race 
 As far back as we ve records left to trace,
 
 SLAVERY. 117 
 
 Even to the era of the Trojan war, 
 
 We find Phoenicia trading with Lybia for 
 
 Her slaves ; and Carthage, which was known to be 
 
 No more than a Phoenician colony, 
 
 Following the customs of its parent state, 
 
 Still carried on the traffic with the great 
 
 Interior tribes of that wild, desert land, 
 
 Where burning sunbeams flow o er parched sand, 
 
 And the tall palm-tree with its high plumed head, 
 
 Scarce deigns a strip of grateful shade to shed; 
 
 But miles of sterile, unproductive land 
 
 Stretch far and wide around on every hand, 
 
 With only here and there a little dot 
 
 Of verdure, a grass-grown and welcome spot 
 
 That marks a water-course ; and which the cry 
 
 Of thirsty camel tells, ere man can spy, 
 
 That t is the blest oasis which they near 
 
 To yield their worn-out strength its grateful cheer. 
 
 And still in modern times her sons are seen 
 Subjected unto bondage. They had been 
 Made slaves of by the nations of the earth 
 At a much earlier period than the birth 
 Of European slavery of the race. 
 Tis proved beyond a doubt, that we can trace
 
 118 PROGRESSION. 
 
 A trade in slaves to have been carried on 
 
 By Arabs wild, previous to this, upon 
 
 The coast of Guinea e en some hundred years 
 
 Before the incursive Portuguese appears 
 
 Upon the western coast, or e er had seen 
 
 A woolly-headed Negro. Twas between 
 
 The war of the Crusaders in the year 
 
 Eleven hundred (when it doth appear 
 
 That Europeans first obtained a sight 
 
 Of Africans, which caused their army quite 
 
 A burst of merriment), and that fierce time 
 
 Some cycles back in rolling centuries chime 
 
 When Nubia s king, sore harassed by the host 
 
 Of bold Egyptian Arabs, who did boast 
 
 Mohammed as their God, agreed to send 
 
 By way of tribute and also, to tend 
 
 Toward lessening these annoyances a vast 
 
 Number of Nubian slaves to Egypt. Fast 
 
 To this covenant held, each year was he 
 
 Then forced to drain on neighboring bands ; we 
 
 see, 
 He bought the Blacks of Guinea, whom he 
 
 paid 
 In tribute to the Calif thus the trade
 
 SLAVERY. 119 
 
 May have been said to have commenced abroad, 
 Tho long prevailing niong each native horde 
 In the interior. 
 
 That this was so, 
 
 To prove, we need no farther backward go 
 Than the last century. The Dahomans, 
 One of the wild interior s warlike clans, 
 Had never seen a White man till the year 
 Seventeen hundred and twenty-seven ; and here, 
 Their prince and army met some travelers 
 In Sabi, and were so shocked, it appears, 
 At their complexion and their dress, they were 
 Afraid to approach them, and were heard demur 
 As to their being men until they spoke ; 
 Then satisfied that it was not a joke, 
 They yet were much astonished when informed 
 That these were buyers of the slaves that swarmed 
 For purchasers upon the Guinea coast. 
 Yet these Dahomans, most inhuman, boast 
 Such horrid cruelties to such poor slaves 
 As chance they hold, that a wretch freely braves 
 The unknown good that may in foreign chains 
 Be found, to native bondage with its stains 
 Of cannibalism, its most monstrous rites,
 
 120 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Unholy usages and shocking sights ! 
 
 Such is, we find, the present state of things 
 
 In Africa ; and this conviction brings 
 
 Us to the inquiry : Where will we see 
 
 In the world s annals, a community 
 
 Composed of Negroes, that have ever been 
 
 So well off as our slaves ? Better ( t is seen 
 
 By the distress and want that wide prevailed 
 
 In late disastrous times, and fierce assailed 
 
 The working classes of the North) by far, 
 
 Is their condition, than nine-tenths that are 
 
 Compelled to earn their all by labor free ; 
 
 For, let a "panic" stop the wheels, and see, 
 
 The poor man is the sufferer ; no right 
 
 Has he to " daily bread," unless his mite 
 
 Of work is added to the general stock. 
 
 And, as "retrenchment" bids the master lock 
 
 His coffers, and reduce his working hands, 
 
 Minus employment, the poor laborer stands 
 
 But little chance of shutting his slight door 
 
 On wolf-like hunger s fierce and maddening 
 
 roar. 
 
 Not so our well-fed Negroes. Housed and warm, 
 They, unconcerned, abide the wildest storm
 
 SLAVERY. 121 
 
 That shakes the base of the commercial world, 
 Nor heed the rudest tempest ever hurled 
 From speculation s giddy hights. For them 
 Decline of stocks no terror has ; they stem 
 The tide of life, sure of a hand to save 
 From every whelming billow and each wave 
 Of want that o er the working White man rolls. 
 Their bodily requirements met their souls, 
 Exhumed from the foul rubbish and neglect 
 Of savage ignorance, can full reflect 
 The beams of Christianity s bright sun ; 
 Showing how well the work that was begun 
 Long years ago for their advancement, is 
 Progressing to its end of future bliss ! 
 
 Shame ! where is thy blush," that in such 
 
 cause 
 
 Wild fanatics should, spite their country s laws, 
 And in the face of verdict just, see flaws 
 To cavil at ? Such men would, doubtless, see 
 Motes in the eyes of Truth ? A class, a flea 
 Would choke, but who, without grimace or gag, 
 Can swallow camels whole! For loud they brag 
 Of tireless efforts in behalf of those 
 Who re well protected from privation s woes, 
 11
 
 122 PROGRESSION. 
 
 While brothers round them starve for want of 
 
 work, 
 
 And sisters, under master fierce as Turk, 
 Stitch, for a pittance, their life-threads away , 
 Yet mourn they for the slave, more blest than 
 
 they, 
 
 Who, free from care, with childlike confidence 
 Looks for protection, comfort (competence, 
 Compared to those poor creatures ill supplies), 
 To him who seldom want or wish denies. 
 For the " good servant " knows his lord will yield 
 Increase to him whose talent in the field 
 Lies buried not the laborer will find 
 He s worthy of his hire ; and master kind 
 Supplies the mental force that can direct 
 The Negro s muscle. Thus, our land is decked 
 With the rich crops by which we want defy, 
 And White and Black have plentiful supply. 
 
 And yet this happy state of things must be 
 Made a vain pretext for rank anarchy, 
 Seditious speech, and wordy war, by those 
 Whose pretense friendship is, but who are foes 
 Of direst, deadliest import to our land 
 Blest in its own mild government to stand ;
 
 SLAVERY. 123 
 
 Which, with unholy zeal, they seek to change, 
 And all our articles of faith derange ; 
 Assuming to themselves a paramount 
 Ability to dictate, o er the Fount 
 Whence all our blessings are derived and raise 
 A new law-code, a better form of praise 
 Than our forefathers gave, who left the soil 
 And Constitution without stain, when toil 
 For freedom ended. Wisely they assigned 
 Each one his place, nor thought, when they con 
 signed 
 
 The Negro to the ranks of servitude 
 (The fit condition for his nature rude), 
 The policy would ere be questioned. But 
 Our country s "faster" grown since then, and 
 
 soot 
 
 er ivory soars in bigots brains, who see 
 Not what a trial vaunted liberty 
 Becomes to Sambo, when he s forced to earn 
 By his own wits, his livelihood, and learn 
 To think for himself. [A phrase unknown 
 In his vocabulary.] They disown 
 All fair approaches to the truth, and seek 
 To cover purpose foul with aspect meek ;
 
 124 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And if permitted, ne er will cease, till all 
 This lovely land lies covered with a pall 
 Of darkness and our glowing sun goes down 
 Behind a severed nation s gloomy frown ! 
 
 ! where the wisdom now to guide aright 
 The sinking ship of state, ere the dark night 
 That s hovering on the horizon s verge, sets in! 
 No second Washington, we fear, will win 
 A nation s grateful plaudits by a firm, 
 Consistent course of action; while the worm 
 That s sapping at our peace, works ceaseless on. 
 ! mighty Truth, arise ! shed rays upon 
 Our glorious Constitution s outraged brow, 
 Nor let our native eagle s proud head bow, 
 His quivering wings fall listless by his sides, 
 That from Atlantic s to Pacific s tides 
 Spread their broad pinions when, his eyry 
 
 rent 
 
 From Alleghany s cloud-capped battlement 
 He looks abroad to seek another hight ; 
 And on the one side stretches to his sight 
 New England s snow-crowned mounts and busy 
 
 vales, 
 Her peopled cities and her homestead dales
 
 SLAVERY. 125 
 
 The cold, proud " North," hemmed in on every 
 
 hand 
 
 By colleges and churches at command, 
 And all her hardy sons toiling untired 
 (As never slaveling toiled by fear inspired) 
 To heap bright ingots, or to strike a trade ; 
 To drive a bargain, or mayhap a spade; 
 To dig an idea or potato patch 
 No matter which, so gold they thereby hatch ; 
 Or using powers which might be better spent, 
 In sowing broad-cast, se^ds of discontent, 
 And loud declaiming gainst their sister, " South," 
 Because she will not take from her own mouth. 
 The food on which she lives, and trust to Heaven 
 To shower down manna for her sins forgiven ! 
 The while they see not what poor slaves they are 
 Themselves, chained in the van of Mammon s car, 
 To creeds and stereotyped ideas of right, 
 In spite of Truth s broad, plain, ungarnished light, 
 Which seeing, they won t see a blindness worse 
 Than Nature s dark, unfathomable curse 
 Which lays a vail upon her beauteous face, 
 Thro which no feature can her victim trace 
 But seeming nothingness and midnight s space
 
 126 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And this too, -while they claim to be but just! 
 Yet let the golden rule grow red with rust ; 
 For, t is not " as they would be done by," this 
 Invasion of another s premises 
 Sees far away Ontario s waters blue, 
 Niagara s arch and sprays of silver dew, 
 Great Erie s waves breaking in ceaseless roar, 
 And fertile field, and wood, and rock-bound shore, 
 All fair to look upon. 
 
 Then turns him, where 
 The myrtle and- magnolia scent the air, 
 And orange blossoms lend their sweets to roll 
 Above each bursting, downy cotton boll; 
 Where skies are blue and golden light pours down 
 In warm effulgence from Old Sol s bright crown, 
 And fires the blood of ancient chivalry 
 In heroes veins, who boast a fair degree 
 Of that bright spirit which to woman gave 
 The homage of the good, the true, the brave ! 
 And where SHE S honored, there, as always 
 
 seen, 
 
 The greatest moral excellence has been 
 And that she s honored in the sunny clime 
 Where citron ripens with the yellow lime,
 
 SLAVEEY. 127 
 
 Needs not be told its noble sons full well 
 
 Attest her influence and own her spell, 
 
 Till each, thus purified, might lead the van 
 
 " To give the world assurance of a man 1" 
 
 Sees Mexico s broad gulf bearing upon 
 
 Its restless waves the tithes of commerce on, 
 
 And Mississippi s ever-flowing tides 
 
 Groaning neath products which its fertile sides 
 
 Yield in their vast luxuriance sees far 
 
 And near, a happy people free from jar 
 
 Or discord, save the forced broils a band 
 
 Of sectionists spread thro their peaceful land, 
 
 Willing to heed the eleventh commandment true, 
 
 " Mind your own business" (not your neighbor s 
 
 too, 
 
 As added and amended to this clause 
 By folks in higher latitudes, whose laws 
 Embrace a wider field) with faith in man 
 And trust in God s supreme and hallowed plan 
 Which in the end will surely prove the right 
 As sure as day succeeds the darksome night ! 
 Sees all this land, this broad and beauteous 
 
 land, 
 Whose sons united, formed a goodly band;
 
 128 PROGRESSION. 
 
 But now the close-knit chain shows many chinks, 
 And hideous gaps are parting its firm links ; 
 And clouds are vailing the horizon s blue, 
 And soon will darken all the sun s light too. 
 From North, from South, from East, from West, 
 
 arise 
 
 These shadows o er the brightly glowing skies, 
 Till all in vain he looks to find safe rest 
 Within the regions that his heart loves best; 
 Then, with a lowered crest and drooping eye, 
 He folds his wings and lays him down to die, 
 Rather than choose between the severing hosts 
 Whose name was "legion," and whose banner 
 
 boasts 
 
 For motto : " One in many." Ah ! alas ! 
 The golden bowl seems as t were made of glass, 
 And waiting but the slightest blow to part 
 In minute fragments its full brittle heart ! 
 
 That slavery of the African will last 
 While Cotton s King, analogy must cast 
 The crowning vote to ; for have we not seen 
 All things on earth subservient have been 
 To human needs, by wise, Almighty plan ? 
 God s laws assisting the advance of man
 
 SLAVERY. 129 
 
 Along the steep hill of progression. See 
 
 How useful by this means the Black can be 
 
 Toward beautifying and adorning this 
 
 Fair earthly temple, to the praise of His 
 
 Omniscient name, the Architect supreme 
 
 Of the whole universe ! who deigns a gleam 
 
 Of radiance to cast o er savage man, 
 
 To rescue him from barbarism s ban, 
 
 And place him where his attributes will show 
 
 To best advantage, where his part below 
 
 He may act out, and thus assist the whole 
 
 Great human mass, whose bulk will ceaseless roll, 
 
 Till grain by grain it loses all its dross, 
 
 And rarefying with supernal gloss 
 
 T will shine, the embodiment of truth and love, 
 
 And fitted for a higher march above 
 
 Dull matter t will, expanding, soar away, 
 
 To realms of glowing light and endless day ! 
 
 The reign of superstition is not o er, 
 Altho we boast more knowledge than of yore 
 When bigots thus before the public eye 
 Can flaunt monstrosities, black with the dye 
 Of falsehood, to deceive the masses and 
 To breed dissension in our peaceful land.
 
 
 130 PROGRESSION. 
 
 But even in enlightened times, we ve seen 
 Wise men and gentle women to have been 
 Burned at the stake, because, like Faustus, they 
 Were deemed possessed of demons. And to-day, 
 Neath hydra-headed Abolition s sway, 
 If license, such as Cotton Mather s time 
 Permitted, granted was the knell would chime 
 For each slaveholder, and his whitening bones 
 Would bleach on cold fanaticism s stones, 
 The while his blistering flesh would writhe and 
 
 broil 
 On Black Republican gridirons ! 
 
 What turmoil 
 
 A band of malcontents can ever raise, 
 Even while they cover it with prayer and praise 
 Thus desecrating true religion s robe, 
 While rancorous wounds with malice dire they 
 
 probe, 
 
 Until the festering sores spread far and near, 
 And purity itself may almost fear 
 To catch the infection. But we still will hope 
 Right-judging minds exist in the broad scope 
 Our Northern limits have, and they will yet 
 A better influence bring to bear, and set
 
 SLAVERY. 131 
 
 The index on the dial s face to show 
 
 Their erring brothers the right road to go, 
 
 Nor let our country s name become a jest, 
 
 For scoffing nations to make manifest; 
 
 Our flag dishonored, and our unity 
 
 A by-word in each broad community ! 
 
 For all must see (unless willfully blind) 
 
 How useless t is to hope, the South to bind 
 
 With fetters, or to think she 11 yield to those 
 
 Whom she regards as bitterest of foes ; 
 
 Give up her lawful rights, which soul and sense 
 
 At present sanction, to the vain pretense 
 
 Of sympathy and pure philanthropy 
 
 That s urged by madness or misanthropy, 
 
 And seeks to do an evil to a race, 
 
 Who in creation s aim hold the right place 
 
 In the progressive scale of being. 
 
 What 
 
 But sheer infatuation, e er could plot 
 So wild a scheme as it would prove to be, 
 If e er effected, all our Blacks to free ? 
 Why, such a gang of paupers, or, still worse, 
 Of thieves and villains, would our country curse, 
 That even Europe s gipsy hordes could not
 
 132 PROGKESSION. 
 
 Compare with; for the Negro is a sot 
 
 Of beastial description, and when free 
 
 Spends most his time in low debauchery. 
 
 And this the population that would spread, 
 
 In vagrant swarms, and in their vileness, shed 
 
 A merited opprobium on the head 
 
 That first conceived the wondrous plan that 
 
 set 
 The ball in motion ! 
 
 O! loose not the jet 
 
 Of the dark fountain whose rank, muddy flow, 
 Would stain our land s unblemished, spotless 
 
 snow, 
 And where fair Peace and Plenty reign, send 
 
 Want 
 With haggard brow, shrunk limbs, and visage 
 
 gaunt. 
 
 The eighty-first year of our freedom crashed 
 Like a huge bomb-shell o er the world! War 
 
 clash d 
 
 Its tocsin o er the Eastern Hemisphere. 
 For scarce did gentle Peace descend to bear 
 Her olive-leaf across the Black Sea s wave, 
 When India burst her prison doors and gave
 
 SLAVERY. 133 
 
 Dread prestige of her barbarous strength and 
 
 might, 
 
 Her vengeance dire with bloody pen to write! 
 The footfalls of advancing liberty 
 Echoed thro Spain and sunny Italy, 
 Startling the powers that be all Europe felt 
 That thrones and monarchies were doomed to 
 
 melt 
 
 In the pure crucible of Justice. Still 
 The gold must first be tried, its strength must fill 
 The measure of endurance, ere the pure 
 Metal may from the dross be drained we re sure 
 By all analogy, that man must be 
 First fitted for it, ere he can be free ! 
 On our own continent went, hand in hand, 
 Revolting states. Again that fated land, 
 Uneasy Mexico, made other laws 
 Without advancing her unhappy cause 
 A single step toward better government 
 Or national prosperity. There went 
 Thro Central America, the clash 
 Of civil war, and, twice", the meteor flash 
 Of baseless government. Republics, too, 
 In South America, gave proofs anew
 
 134 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of instability, by popular 
 
 Disturbances; and everywhere the car 
 
 Of warfare national, rolled with its stains 
 
 Of blood, its kindred throes and gnawing pains ; 
 
 Save in our own Republic s peaceful shade, 
 
 Which Heaven forbid it ever shall invade ; 
 
 For rather than our banner shall be rent 
 
 And on the wild gale of disunion sent 
 
 To furnish vultures nests ; or tattered, wave 
 
 Above our Constitution s early grave ; 
 
 I would exclaim, as did a noble one 
 
 Of nature s freemen, and the patriot son 
 
 Who sought his own loved but down- trodden land 
 
 To save from despotism s- iron band : 
 
 "May all the colors of God s bow be torn 
 
 Asunder ere that banner s stripes ! " 
 
 The worn 
 
 And weary footsteps of the warring past 
 With blood have made their deep-set marks, and 
 
 cast 
 
 Their warnings forth upon the gale, to show 
 The tide of liberty is in its flow ; 
 And tho the ebb may come, twill swell anew 
 And rise to higher bights when full and true 

 
 SLAVERY. 135 
 
 The rounding moon of Progress shall have filled 
 Her horns, and o er the purity distilled 
 From the foul lees of despotism s night, 
 Shines out with ripe perfection s glowing light 
 To gild each billow, silver-crest each wave 
 Of wrong or violence, and thro the cave 
 Where Lethe- s waters wash remembrance out,- 
 Turn every stream of discord, dread, and doubt, 
 To be but things forgotten. Ah ! ere then, 
 IIow many changes shall be wrought mong 
 
 men, 
 
 And fallacies, and feuds, and creeds give way, 
 Ere on the horizon the perfect day 
 Shall gleam, when peace and concord sweet shall 
 
 bind 
 The world s great family of human kind ! 
 
 My Country ! twas thy priceless boon to lead 
 The way to better things, nor do I need 
 The prophet s mantle to descend on me 
 To tell how glorious may thy future be 
 Among the nations of the earth, if thou 
 But crush fanaticism. Thorns will grow 
 On fairest roses, but their points we see, 
 And by destroying, may not wounded be.
 
 136 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Why should we prostitute our better sense 
 
 By granting license to each foul pretense 
 
 That cloaks the wish for undisputed power 
 
 Neath cover of religion s holy dower, 
 
 And throws contempt on laws and government, 
 
 Which to establish our forefathers went 
 
 Thro seas of blood, and battles groans and 
 
 shrieks ? 
 
 Must we now yield to mad dictation s freaks, 
 And tamely suffer domination s rules, 
 Which were but made, at best, to fetter fools ? 
 
 ! for the eloquence that thrilled upon 
 The heart-strings of his countrymen, when on 
 The forum bold Virginia s son stood forth, 
 And, one by one, let fall the pearls whose worth 
 A nation now attests. Ah ! one might give 
 Their heart s blood, drop by drop, if they could 
 
 live 
 
 One glorious hour like that that lighted on 
 The brow of Patrick Henry when he won 
 The Assembly s ear, and pointed to the course 
 To guide his country s bark thro breakers worse 
 Than helmsman other than a hero e er 
 Would fearless dash thro , and full boldly steer
 
 SLAVERY. 137 
 
 Upon the bristling rock of war s fierce front. 
 ! for a draught from the celestial fount 
 Of inspiration, that my pen might trace 
 The lineaments of Truth s all-perfect face, 
 To show my brethren, by the contrast, how 
 Ungainly and uncouth foul Error s brow 
 That they may thereby her embraces flee, 
 And shake the incubus of bigotry 
 From their half-paralyzed perceptions ! 
 
 Then 
 
 Our star, whose light is dimming fast mong men, 
 Would burst the clouds by traitors raised, and 
 
 shine 
 
 Fair as yon hosts in galaxy divine ! 
 An ambient ray to gild our mighty deeds; 
 A holy flame unswerved by feuds or creeds ; 
 The torch whereby oppression sees the way 
 To flee from darkness unto bright noonday; 
 The Vestal s lamp, by purity supplied, 
 That quenchless blazes over time and tide ! 
 
 Alas ! that e er our honored name should be 
 Coupled with such rank, factious anarchy 
 As t is to-day ! Must our broad land be riven 
 With broils, because it is the will of Heaven 
 12
 
 138 PROGRESSION. 
 
 To make it the blest means a class to save 
 From Heathenism s dark, polluted grave ? 
 Forbid it, Justice ! God of Power and Might ! 
 Roll back the scroll of ignorance let light 
 From thy eternal hills shower knowledge down : 
 And take thou from our country s brow the crown 
 Of thorns that s rankling, festering there ! 
 0, Father ! hear an earnest, fervent prayer. 
 
 Tis not to pettifogging dogmatists 
 I would appeal as well hope thro thick mists 
 To steer in safety, as that one of those 
 Unyielding wranglers who the South oppose, 
 Should list my feeble voice but to " good men 
 And true," I d show, their honor s questioned, 
 
 when 
 
 By weak supineness they encourage those 
 Whose conduct proves them but their country s 
 
 foes, 
 
 And silently look on to see the rights 
 Of freemen trampled by those buckram knights, 
 Who using Sambo for their dastard shield, 
 Take a bold stand in policy s sham field, 
 And fain would pass for pure philanthropists 
 At the expense of all wherein consists
 
 SLAVERY. 139 
 
 Faith with their fellow-man ! ! brothers, why 
 
 Ye who can boast a truth-discerning eye 
 
 Why will ye suffer this foul leprosy 
 
 To stain your better nature ? Ye might be 
 
 The means, if you d exert the slumbering power 
 
 That God has vested in you, this black hour 
 
 To blot from out the calendar nor let 
 
 Our country be the sacrifice which yet 
 
 Unto this Moloch must be offered, and 
 
 Which will another Tophet make our land. 
 
 That land, by heroes blood redeemed, made 
 
 pure, 
 
 The open-armed and ever friendly shore 
 That welcomes all who seek its peaceful strand 
 That it should groan beneath the scorching brand 
 Placed by its children on its manhood s brow ! 
 That they, of all, should question the pure vow 
 Baptized in blood, but registered in praise 
 Beneath the dawn that s brought us these blest 
 
 days 
 
 Of plenty and prosperity ! ! shame 
 On all who let a dastard purpose, lame 
 In the poor arguments with which it boasts 
 Of strength cover their eyes to hosts
 
 140 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Of blessings which the very law that they 
 
 Contend against, brings to us all to-day ! 
 
 Yes, all! for who dare say the Black is not 
 
 Far happier, and far better in his lot 
 
 (Tho it be groaned o er by each sycophant 
 
 Whose whole religion s humbugging and cant), 
 
 Of a well treated and much- cared- for slave, 
 
 Than in a state of freedom left to brave 
 
 Not only outside wants and penury, 
 
 But his own savage nature s tenure ? He 
 
 Has in himself a greater foe than e er 
 
 He d find in a kind master s thoughtful care, 
 
 Tho would-be friends seek to divest him of 
 
 His blessings, showing thereby neither love 
 
 Nor kindness prompts their measures, but desire 
 
 For domination kindles the wild fire 
 
 To whose red, hissing flames their brethren s 
 
 rights 
 Are recklessly consigned. 
 
 My pen indites 
 
 These truths, not that I would decry the North 
 I state but simple facts for what they re worth 
 For all this land my country is, and wrong 
 Or right, is still MY NATIVE LAND ! ! strong
 
 SLAVERY. 141 
 
 The tics forged by those magic words, to bind 
 
 The human heart, to link it to its kind; 
 
 And dastard he who d seek to set a stain 
 
 Upon the sod that gave him birth, or gain 
 
 A doubtful reputation at the shrine 
 
 That immolates all that is most divine 
 
 Or sacred held by man ! Not this, not this 
 
 The paltry motive whose base prompting is 
 
 The lever which calls forth what I indite ; 
 
 But when a people willfully invite 
 
 Contention, as the Northern mass has done 
 
 By heaping slanders and abuse upon 
 
 That section of our land known as " The South," 
 
 And using for this means the ready mouth 
 
 Of pulpit, press, and rostrum, to create 
 
 A furore false gainst each slaveholding State 
 
 It is but natural that this should cause 
 
 Some refutation of our outraged laws 
 
 To be attempted; tho the arm that wields 
 
 The defensive armor, boasts not manhood s shields 
 
 Of confidence and liberty of speech; 
 
 Yet once, a little child was brought to teach 
 
 Wise men, and sat down in their midst! 
 
 And t is this simple thought aroused, that bids
 
 142 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Me lift my feeble voice to quell the storm, 
 And call on God to aid the motive warm 
 And sincere, that from my heart of hearts 
 Leaps into words, and its own strength imparts 
 To what my pen, without that motive true, 
 Could never fashion or do justice to. 
 
 Believe it, brothers, I but seek to bind 
 Our fearfully disjointed causes, twined 
 Like the soft tendrils of a clinging vine 
 Around one parent tree yet mine, and thine, 
 Stead of converging toward blest unity, 
 Sprea d, as the poles, asunder ! This may be 
 The wild chimera of an enthusiast s brain 
 But yet I ll hope, that, like the spring s soft 
 
 rain, 
 
 My admonitions may fall on good seeds 
 To yield an hundred fold, our country s needs 
 Full bounteously to furnish and supply 
 With wholesome food, fair to the polished eye 
 Of taste, and also palatable to 
 The healthy throat of probity. 
 
 And now, 
 
 That matter settled I would simply ask, 
 Why do our Northern brethren take the task,
 
 SLAVERY. 143 
 
 The odious task, upon themselves to pry 
 
 Into our business, and to decry 
 
 Our institutions and our systems, all, 
 
 Domestic, civil, and political? 
 
 Have Southerners this course pursued toward 
 
 theirs? 
 
 Or ever sowed detraction s spreading tares 
 To choke the growth of sympathy abroad, 
 And by base slanders, half unsheath the sword 
 Of popular opinion in their face? 
 They, who with us, should in the struggling race 
 Of excellence go side by side, nor let 
 A paltry matter of opinion set 
 Wide open the broad floodgates of the tide 
 That sweeps our common interests thus wide 
 Apart. Not such the holy chain that wound 
 With adamantine links our nation round, 
 When those brave hearts, with firm reliance on 
 Divine protection in their union, 
 Mutually to each other pledged their lives, 
 Their fortunes, and their sacred honor! 
 
 Strives 
 
 There one, of all the wrangling demagogues, 
 Whose leaden weight our native progress clogs,
 
 144 PROGRESSION. 
 
 To benefit his country, or impart 
 
 New impetus to college, church, or mart ? 
 
 Say, rather, is not selfish interest 
 
 And personal aggrandizement, at the best, 
 
 The prompting motives for each fierce assault 
 
 That even at falsehood s barrier does not halt, 
 
 But leaps alike o er friend and foe, to gain 
 
 The dizzy hights of power, tho bought with 
 
 pain? 
 
 Ah! would impartial eyes but only ope, 
 Survey our rights and wrongs in widest scope, 
 Compare our institutions and our laws, 
 And make our grievances a common cause ; 
 Then, with the wand of justice, mete to all 
 An equal footing in our Congress Hall ; 
 Nor let dictation mount its hobby there, 
 And set its iron heel on all that s fair, 
 Or equitable to a portion of 
 The people meeting their demands with scoff, 
 Or covering with deceitful smile, a dread 
 And treacherous purpose, to lay low the head 
 That shrunk not when its country called to save 
 Sweet heaven-born Liberty from the dark grave 
 Dug by oppression ; but stood bravely forth
 
 SLAVERY. 145 
 
 With form erect, firm heart, and steadfast worth, 
 Pledged to the death to fight for rights which now 
 By brethren s hands are wrenched from its own 
 
 brow. : 
 
 This agitated question Slavery 
 lias called forth more bombastic bravery, 
 And more inflated Furiosos brought 
 Forth from oblivion s somber, dingy court, 
 To war in rhetoric s windy field, than e er 
 Fanaticism did before. And here 
 I 11 digress, just to tell you why t is so : 
 Didst ever note how prone are all below, 
 To add to what they hear ? Just like the crow 
 Tradition where a man gave out that he 
 Did something vomit, black as crow could be ; 
 When this had gone the village circuit round, 
 The swiftly-rolling ball had swelled, t was found, 
 To such a size, that it was clearly shown 
 He d thrown up three black crows! 
 
 I freely own 
 
 The joke is rather stale, but not less true 
 To human nature s foibles, which with new 
 Adornments dress each story, foul or just, 
 And mountains make out of each grain of dust ; 
 13
 
 146 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And there are never wanting idlers, who 
 
 Will roll the atom till each layer anew 
 
 Vests with increasing strength the gaining ball ; 
 
 Then, as a mighty avalanche, its fall 
 
 Awakens sleeping echoes far and near 
 
 And crushes all who come within its sphere ! 
 
 And so, each idle tale that floated thro 
 The regions of "free soil," black crow like, 
 
 drew 
 
 Its idle followers to roll the ball 
 E en to the portals of our Congress Hall, 
 Where now, a threatened avalanche, it swings 
 
 O 
 
 Upon a single thread and discord brings 
 O er our fair land, whose rulers scarcely know 
 How Abolition s tongue can turn a crow 
 To a huge condor just as malice can 
 Grind to a pigmy a true-hearted man ! 
 
 What makes the matter worse (but this is 
 
 still 
 
 Only a like sad phase of human ill), 
 These all-wise boasters who decry the South, 
 Have gained their knowledge only by the mouth 
 Of Humor she of many tongues the foul 
 Base slanderer, whose harsh, discordant howl
 
 SLAVERY. 147 
 
 Grates on the ear of sensibility, 
 And shocks the virtuous to the last degree, 
 But who is welcomed by her colleagues dear 
 With shouts of joy and cries of Hear ! hear ! 
 
 hear ! 
 
 They ve never sought to sift the chaff to find 
 The grains of truth, but rashly have combined 
 To crush the South, because her foes see fit 
 To clamor loud, and ceaseless strive for it. 
 
 Come with me, one and all, unto this land 
 I 11 lead you gently, with a loving hand, 
 And point out all its beauties, if I can, 
 Until, for very shame, you 11 to a man 
 Exclaim : " Is this the people, these the laws 
 We ve sought to crush ? ! surely, we must 
 
 pause 
 
 In our mad judgment of an upright cause 
 That wide disseminates its blessings, and 
 With peace and plenty crowns a happy land, 
 Where each the station holds by Providence 
 Assigned him and where broad diverging 
 
 thence 
 
 The bounteous streams of industry glide on 
 To beautify our common country."
 
 148 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Gone 
 
 Will be all prejudice, if with the eye 
 Of truth you seek our merits to descry, 
 And, with the tongue of probity, send forth 
 Your firm convictions for just what they re worth, 
 When you have fairly weighed us and our cause 
 Gainst wild fanaticism s fickle laws.
 
 WHERE the fair tropic s golden fruits expand 
 Beneath the day god s glances, smiles a land 
 Of roses tis fair Flora s vast parterre 
 She holds her court and highest revels there, 
 Where clustering multiflorous buds half blown, 
 O ercanopy her queenly dahlia throne ; 
 And blue-eyed violets kiss her dainty feet 
 As up the dewy lawn they twinkle fleet ; 
 And waxen lilies shade their soft cheeks pale, 
 And o er their loveliness draw snowy vail 
 As the gay goddess passes with her train, 
 These garden nuns who pageantry hold vain ! 
 Here, too, those sycophants of flowerdom 
 That cling and cringe to each and all that come, 
 Convolvuluses, decked in garments gay, 
 Are born to live and die in one short day 
 (The doom of vanity) ! And here is one, 
 The gentle heliotrope, that to the sun 
 
 (149)
 
 150 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Doth constant turn in adoration still 
 Where er he moves, the guidcr of her will 
 Who, seeking not to charm, charms all the 
 
 more; 
 
 For unobtrusive merit s ever sure 
 To win its way among the just and good 
 Where arrogance Avill fail ! 
 
 Beneath a hood 
 
 Of rose-color or purest white, you spy 
 The periwinkle s watching, yellow eye, 
 With envy glaring at the lovely rose, 
 Whose blushes deepen as her lips unclose 
 To breathe t a welcome to the humming-bird 
 That s whispering in her ear the witching word 
 With which he s wiled full many a gentle flower; 
 Then left, to wander in a fresher bower, 
 When he has rifled it of all its sweets. 
 Here, too, transformed Adonis faithful greets 
 The realms of air, as t is his right to be 
 Known half the year as gay anemone, 
 Flower of the wind, and earliest of the spring, 
 To tell of coming buds and blossoming. 
 The purple orchis waves in wildness here ; 
 And sweet forget-me-nots, like faith, appear
 
 THE SOUTH. 151 
 
 With starry eyes that smile and seem to say, 
 Love can abide fell sorrow s darkest day 
 If nourished by fidelity and what 
 But this thy emblem, blest forget-me-not? 
 
 Thus, everywhere around the fairies write 
 Their loving messages, their deeds indite 
 You see their rings beneath the myrtle s boughs, 
 The whispering pines but echo their soft vows, 
 And many a creamy white magnolia leaf 
 Shows creases where they ve written sonnets brief; 
 And grave old oaks shake their gray mossy hairs, 
 While in the moonlight dance the elfin pairs 
 To the sweet south wind s music, stealing o er 
 Some silvery lake s enameled shelly shore ; 
 Or sighing thro some fragrant orange grove 
 Where mocking-birds discourse melodious love, 
 And starry watchers in the blue afar 
 Wink their bright eyes as swells each trilling bar 
 To blend with heaven s seraphic melodies 
 As softly as the dew falls on the seas 
 A half-tone in the harmony of spheres, 
 But swelling still the choral chant of years, 
 As up the sounding aisles of space it rolls 
 To echo thro the realms of happy souls !
 
 152 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Here, too, Pomona scatters graciously 
 Her luscious favors, and Vertumnus (he, 
 Her youthful spouse) his horn of plenty, here 
 Replenishes throughout the changing year ; 
 While Ceres blesses all the fruitful land, 
 And bids it yield its sweets at her command ; 
 And grateful thousands lift their voices high 
 In songs of joy that echo to the sky, 
 And freely use the blessings love has given. 
 
 By using not abusing tis to Heaven 
 Mankind returneth thanks, and earth can raise 
 A "new song" to the great Creator s praise 
 For all his wondrous gifts. " Let everything 
 That hath breath praise the Lord!" we re taught 
 
 to sing 
 
 By the great Psalmist; and we glorify 
 Him in his works when neath his arching 
 
 sky 
 
 We reap the harvest of his providence. 
 Be sure he has not sent his bounties hence 
 To lead us into temptation, without still 
 Our minds impressing with the woful ill 
 That follows all abuses and the wise 
 Can see the medium with truth s loving eyes,
 
 THE SOUTH. 153 
 
 And all enjoy ; but know where lies the mark 
 
 Which to o erstcp turns every light to dark ; 
 
 Yet in its moderate limits circles all 
 
 Of harmless pleasure on this earthly ball, 
 
 And in its innocent enjoyment gives 
 
 A sounding " song of praise" from each that lives ! 
 
 T is here that true religion really reigns 
 For God s great laws progress without the stains 
 That Error s worshipers imprint the schisms 
 Wrought by false prophets, with their "ists" and 
 
 "isms;" 
 
 Those stumbling-blocks which clog the road of faith 
 To trip the weak, whose end is moral death. 
 No thanks to an all-wise, protecting Power, 
 That s guided us aright unto this hour, 
 And from all evil safe delivered us 
 Our eyes of truth can see the incubus 
 That holds with demon strength the fast-closed lids 
 Of all fanaticism s hosts, and bids 
 Calm Reason yield her throne while Error sits 
 In judgment on the rights of man. 
 
 Cry " quits," 
 
 Ye schemers wild ! come to our land and learn 
 Of those, whose laws ye in your ignorance spurn;
 
 PROGRESSION. 
 
 That tis consistent with benevolence 
 And one of the designs of Providence, 
 To put each thing, or creature to its use 
 (Neglect s as great a sin as is abuse) 
 And surely God designed that each should fill 
 A relative position, that would still 
 Go to complete a yet perfecting whole 
 Whence comfort, welfare, happiness will roll 
 To circle man and beautify the earth 
 Thro its own creatures of progressive birth. 
 
 And here that law works in its widest sense, 
 And shows in its results, the vain pretense 
 That s urged by wrangling abolitionism, 
 That there exists a fierce antagonism 
 Between the Black and White man. Tis not so 
 When in their true relation, each can go 
 In harmony along the upward scale ; 
 But discord rises when rude hands assail 
 The heaven-strung instrument, and seek to place 
 Among fine treble chords the harsher base. 
 And thus the social lyre is out of tune, 
 When, as co-equals, Negroes can commune 
 With White men ; for they are not fit to be 
 Left their own masters, self-dependent, free !
 
 THE SOUTH. 155 
 
 As well let loose your ox, your horse, your cow, 
 
 And then expect that one will to the plow 
 
 Back of his own accord the other leap 
 
 Into harness and old Brindle keep 
 
 True to her trust, and seek the dairy s door 
 
 As that a liberated Black will pour 
 
 His labor forth for hire ! 
 
 And so, we see, 
 
 The Negro race can only useful be 
 By working in a rank subordinate 
 To greater intellect; and thus the great 
 Design of an all-wise Creator is 
 Fulfilled, by giving each his place in this 
 Progressing, fruitful world, which man must till 
 To cause it yield abundantly, to fill 
 His measure full to overflowing, and 
 With plenteousness to crown a happy land. 
 Tho nature has done much, man must do 
 
 more 
 
 Of this, experience makes us very sure ; 
 And if the South would firmly keep the trust 
 Reposed in her by One both true and just, 
 She 11 go unflinching on her steady course, 
 And let wild Faction scream .till it grows hoarse,
 
 156 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And prove herself her country s truest friend 
 
 In thus maintaining laws which in the end 
 
 Will work their own redemption for they give 
 
 The real principles to truly live 
 
 E en to that class that s groaned over as slaves 
 
 In rescuing them from their living graves 
 
 Of barbarism, and developing 
 
 Their attributes. There s nothing else will bring 
 
 The negro race within the social ring, 
 
 To yield their resources of labor here, 
 
 Without we place them in their proper sphere. 
 
 That is a morbid, false philanthropy, 
 The offspring of a weak misanthropy, 
 That bids us loosen o er our thriving lands 
 Paupers and thieves where now are happy bands 
 Of disciplined and well-conducted slaves. 
 T is madness or sheer wantonness thus raves ; 
 As neither Black or White man thus could be 
 A beneficiary in the least degree. 
 For one would sink to beastial indolence, 
 The other lack the means of self-defense 
 Against privation s biting stings ; for he 
 Is not by constitution made to be 
 Exposed to ardent heat like him whose birth
 
 THE SOUTH. 157 
 
 Spontaneous was with torrid elimes of earth. 
 
 And all these fertile, beauteous lands would lie 
 
 Uncultivated neath a burning sky; 
 
 The main commodity that gives, we know, 
 
 Employment to thousands here below 
 
 That swells the tithes of commerce, and that fills 
 
 The revenues of other States distills 
 
 Its benefits North, South, East, West, to all 
 
 Would fail, for want of force to swing the ball 
 
 That bids the manufacturing levers work, 
 
 And feeds the very mouths that twist and jerk 
 
 While basely leveling reproof at those 
 
 Who ve proved their greatest friends instead of 
 
 foes. 
 
 Let but slave labor in the cotton field 
 Come to an end, and where will be the yield 
 That Northern factors pocket ? Ah ! be sure 
 The wolf will be not only at our door, 
 But all our country will cry out, too late, 
 When small receipts of customs show that hate 
 Has crushed the means that gave us our in 
 
 crease 
 
 And brought contentious strife where all was 
 peace.
 
 158 PROGRESSION. 
 
 God s purposes in all things are subserved 
 His will has still controlled, and never swerved, 
 Since mingling elements their march began 
 In circling changes till they fashioned man, 
 Who, with his mortal eyes, may fail to see 
 The slow, mysterious ways of Deity. 
 But he may rest assured they re good and just; 
 And so, with childlike confidence and trust, 
 Abide His time, who in the beginning gave 
 To time its limits, and prepared the grave 
 In which old things shall sink into decay, 
 When progress shall have reached the brighter 
 
 day 
 
 To which convergent from creation s morn 
 All things terrestrial have been upward drawn 
 By cords of love fulfilling the design 
 Eternal, glorious, infinite, divine ! 
 
 Man may not hasten the Almighty s hand, 
 That rules the storm or sways the breezes bland 
 That opes the gates of Death, and parts the 
 
 way 
 
 For light to enter thro the realms of day 
 That scattcreth the east wind o er the earth, 
 And gave each shining star its glorious birth !
 
 THE SOUTH. 159 
 
 He may not question the Eternal One, 
 
 Who from the whirlwind spake to that poor 
 
 son 
 
 Of sorrow, when he mourned his hapless fate 
 To show him, that tis God alone is great. 
 And man must still submit to his decrees ; 
 He, who the influences of Pleiades 
 Can bind, or loose Orion s bands can guide 
 Arcturus with his sons, o er the blue tide 
 Of space or, in his season, can bring forth 
 Mazzaroth ! 
 
 "We re taught by this, the worth 
 Of patiently submitting to God s will, 
 Which in the end will prove his wondrous skill 
 By turning wrong to right, and guiding all 
 Conditions on this ever-moving ball, 
 So that their destined ends, perfected, my 
 Add brighter glories to the coming day, 
 Which, struggling with the darkness, seeks to 
 
 climb 
 
 The distant zenith o er the hights of time, 
 And shed o er earth refulgent light sublime. 
 Why will the North submit to be the tool 
 Of monarchists, who seek a world-wide rule,
 
 160 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And labor without ceasing, early, late, 
 Our institutions to exterminate? 
 And to this end dogmatically strive, 
 By blowing a faint spark until, a live 
 And glowing coal, it threatens all the land 
 To turn to a fierce, quivering, flaming brand, 
 Which, if not checked, will hissingly burn on 
 Until it melts our bands of union, 
 And leaves the altar of our liberty, 
 A charred and blackened ruin ! 
 
 This, we see, 
 Is but the aim of those who ve duped the 
 
 North, 
 
 By propagating doctrines whose whole worth 
 Lay in the selfish end to be attained. 
 And well they ve labored, and their end s near 
 
 gifted ; 
 
 Those antislavery demagogues, with seed 
 Plucked from the Old World s crown and scepter 
 
 breed, 
 
 Which they have planted in our Northern soil, 
 And pruned and watered, till their ceaseless toil 
 Has been rewarded for their dupes and tools 
 Strive with them now to overturn the rules
 
 THE SOUTH. 161 
 
 Laid down by their forefathers, lend their strength 
 To curtail freemen s rights, by breadth and length ; 
 Nor would they shrink to strike the dastard blow 
 E en if their country s head was thus laid low ! 
 
 Why urge the dogma of equality ? 
 The White and Black can never equal be ! 
 God ne er designed it, else we had not seen 
 Their attributes so different to have been. 
 And even the poor Indians now own 
 This to be true as it is clearly shown 
 In the late delegations of some tribes 
 Of red men to our government. The scribes 
 On that occasion, penned things trite and true, 
 Altho t was untaught tongues gave utterance to 
 The maxims wise t was Nature speaking thro 
 Her forest-children s lips. Hear what she said : 
 
 "My Grandfather!" spoke one of the chiefs, 
 
 red, 
 
 Addressing the Great Ruler of our land ; 
 " This land on which to-day you firmly stand, 
 Belonged to me. T was the Great Spirit s will 
 That you should take it from us ! " Speaking still 
 He added : " The Great Spirit ! that made you 
 More powerful than me, was partial to
 
 162 PROGRESSION. 
 
 You, and a letter color gave than me ; 
 For it was the Great Spirit s will that we 
 Both came into existence. You re a man, 
 My Grandfather, and so am I." 
 
 Say, can 
 
 Our vaunted wisdom and enlightenment 
 Lead us to wiser issues, than the bent 
 Of observation in rude savage breast 
 Which judges causes by results ? The test 
 In this case, was the White man s power 
 Which triumphed o er the Indian s given hour, 
 And proved to this poor forest child, how vast 
 The line of demarcation that is cast 
 Between the races; that the weaker, still 
 Must follow guidance from superior skill, 
 If they would find the road from wrong to right 
 And merge from darkness into broad noon-light. 
 
 How, then, we ask each antislaveryite, 
 Are we to guide the African aright? 
 We ne er can hope that land to colonize; 
 At least, the way s not clear yet to our eyes, 
 Tho nothing is impossible with God ! 
 And should the time arrive,- he 11 point the 
 road.
 
 THE SOUTH. 
 
 163 
 
 But for the present, we but follow his 
 
 Appointments, when we give a place to this 
 
 Poor savage in our midst, and kindly try 
 
 To open his long-closed, benighted eye 
 
 To better things the while we may not place 
 
 His guidance in his own hands, for the race 
 
 Would run to ruin faster than the mass 
 
 Of dingy Black Republicans now pass ; 
 
 But, as we d train a little child to go 
 
 Where wisdom pointed us to guide it so, 
 
 Yet hold the leading-string to check, whene er 
 
 It deviated from a proper sphere, 
 
 So, with this simple child of savage birth, 
 
 We seek to point his steps aright on earth, 
 
 Supply his wants by turning his own strength 
 
 In proper channels, where t will yield at length 
 
 Not only personal necessities, 
 
 But all mankind will, also, in degrees 
 
 Be the recipients of the warming, stream 
 
 Of light, that glides from well-directed beam, 
 
 Which else, obscured beneath a thick vail, dark 
 
 Would lie, because the bright Promethean spark 
 
 Of true philanthropy, was quenched by hate 
 
 That spat upon its mission pure and great !
 
 164 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Why is the South denied equality 
 Within the Union? She does not, we see, 
 Ask anything unjust, unwise, untrue 
 To the great cause which led her to imbrue 
 With her heart s blood the standard of our 
 
 land 
 
 To free it from oppression s galling band ! 
 Is it forgotten how her gallant sons 
 Risked life and fortune for us favored ones 
 Th.at are the beneficiaries ? Say, 
 Had Thomas Jefferso.n lived in our day 
 To see the cause for which he labored long, 
 Early and late attacked thus by a strong, 
 Hot-headed host of fanatics, whose ire 
 Was kindled at a foreign kingdom s fire, 
 To be the means of ruining that cause 
 Which dared oppose the Old World s grinding 
 
 laws 
 
 How would his pure, unselfish spirit shrink 
 To see his country trembling on the brink 
 Of the deep chasm dug by envy here 
 To gulf this hated Western hemisphere 
 Before its herald star shall lead all on 
 To follow in the path thus nobly gone
 
 THE SOUTH. 165 
 
 So far ; to crush it ere its rays divine 
 Shall draw all earth to worship at the shrine 
 Of Liberty that dragon to the breed 
 Of despots, who would shout to see it bleed, 
 And now are laughing in their sleeves, to see 
 What dupes they ve made among the enemy; 
 And how New England (spite of boasted wit) 
 Holds her blind side for them the coat to fit, 
 Remodel the lean wearer, puff, and pad 
 To suit monarchial dogmas. 
 
 Tis too bad, 
 
 That wrong directed sympathy should lead 
 To the commission of so foul a deed 
 As will be perpetrated if the rights 
 Of the fair South are subject to such slights 
 As have been heaped upon it, far and wide, 
 Where er has flowed the muddy, surging tide 
 Of Abolition. Yes, a deed so foul 
 That angels well may weep at demons howl 
 When our fair Union is rent in twain, 
 As it must be, if this upheaving main 
 Is suffered longer to encroach upon 
 Our borders. It has swelled and rolled still 
 on,
 
 166 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Bearing upon its chafing waves the scum 
 Of party feeling, till the drift s become 
 A formidable barrier which shuts in 
 Our privileges ; and the angry din 
 Of battle, embryoed in words at first, 
 Will yet upon our startled hearing burst 
 If longer parley is allowed. 
 
 " Thus far, 
 
 And no farther shalt thou go," is just ; a bar 
 Must ever stop oppression, let it come 
 From any source it will, e en from our home. 
 We may regret the dire necessity 
 That forces the sad deed ; but we must be 
 Placed in our true position in this land, 
 And then we 11 pledge our lives to nobly stand 
 By it, as we have ever done, thro good 
 Or ill. But if the prating, meddling brood 
 Of Black Republicans must dictate to 
 Our government, and show it what to do; 
 And Southern rights, equality, and space 
 Be left for these foul demagogues to trace 
 The limits of then must we look to God 
 To judge our cause, and use the avenging 
 rod,
 
 THE SOUTH. 167 
 
 If we do err in seeking for ourselves 
 
 A standard for which justice vainly delves 
 
 At present ! 
 
 Vail thy face, fair Liberty ! 
 If this, thy boasted throne, is thus to be 
 Ruled by rank faction. Tis a misnomer, 
 Might well incite satiric caviler 
 To call it thy abiding place, or raise 
 Thy altar, if we desecrate thy praise 
 In this way ; if the mob can sway the mass, 
 And trample common sense, to rudely pass 
 Beyond all barriers social, civil, and 
 Implant their right to lead and rule the land 
 Dictate to and chastise, control and teach, 
 Let hatred prompt, fanaticism preach, 
 And Idiocy condemn, approve, or boast 
 With maudlin leer, that it can rule the roast ! 
 That individual sovereignty must yield 
 When cap-and-bells and long-ears take the 
 
 field 
 
 To bray down justice and equality 
 With venomed partisan garrulity. 
 
 We 11 now take up the term " equality," 
 The Abolition watchword ! First, we see, 
 
 LL-
 
 168 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The lexicographer defining it 
 
 As " uniformity," an equal fit 
 
 Of two or more things to each other. See, 
 
 If by this rule, the White and Black can be 
 
 On the same footing? And, again, we find 
 
 The word as " similarity," defined. 
 
 Pray, will you equalizers tell us, where, 
 
 Or in what manner, habit, Negroes are 
 
 Or ever can be, similar to Whites ? 
 
 The question all your logic now invites. 
 
 Come one and all, with Freddy at your head, 
 
 Here s chance for screaming, if you wish to shed 
 
 A light on this dark subject; for I own 
 
 I ve tried to fathom it, but fairly shown 
 
 My inability to do so. Now, 
 
 I call on you to speak no matter how 
 
 We ll make excuses for your want of grace, 
 
 In Balaam s time a like event took place! 
 
 We only ask you to enlighten us, 
 
 Upon a point that you so oft discuss, 
 
 That we may share your erudition, and 
 
 Be blest partakers of its precepts grand, 
 
 Which in the rules of order, " Heaven s first law," 
 
 Can find an error and detect a flaw
 
 THE SOUTH. 169 
 
 And (wiser than Omnipotence) aspire 
 To re-string all the chords of Nature s lyre, 
 So that the squeaking fiddle of base peers 
 May drown the rolling anthems of the spheres ! 
 
 Meantime, I ll tell you how the South defines 
 Equality: We ve seen, each star that shines 
 "With phosphorescent gleam in ether s sea, 
 Hath in itself a differing degree 
 Of glory a fixed light assigned each one. 
 We re told, "There is a glory of the sun, 
 Another of the moon, and of the stars, 
 And one star differs from another." Wars 
 There any gainst this creed ? Then let him look 
 Above, in the blue-covered, gilded book, 
 Whose leaves are ever open to his sight, 
 And read the lesson God s pen there did write 
 For man to profit by. He 11 learn to know 
 That true equality, above, below, 
 Consists in each tiling holding its own place ; 
 Whether a system, world, or but a race, 
 If its light shine in its own given sphere, 
 It radiates a beam both bright and clear, 
 Tho but a planet borrowing its rays 
 From golden sun glowing with inward blaze. 
 15
 
 170 PROGRESSION. 
 
 But ! how vain to hope to emulate 
 The flooded splendor of its primary great; 
 To equal the bright source of its own light ! 
 Then its dependence would soon come to sight. 
 The only equalizing process is 
 Its oivn true orbit to hold fast in this 
 Grand panorama, still to add its mite 
 Of usefulness, and shed its borrowed light, 
 The universe to bless ; and then t will be 
 Equal to suns of radiant degree! 
 And such alone is true equality, 
 To do your duty in that station God 
 Hath here appointed, by his wondrous word. 
 Let man do this angels can do no more 
 If he would equal those who rapt adore 
 Their Great Creator, face to face, where rolls 
 The sounding praises of enfranchised souls ! 
 Where is the Negro s field of usefulness? 
 Is it in council-chamber, at the press, 
 Or bar; in pulpit, auditorium, 
 Or learning s intricate emporium? 
 Say, can he climb Parnassus, or entwine 
 The laurel plucked where roam the Heavenly 
 Nine?
 
 THE SOUTH. 171 
 
 lias Deity imprinted on his brow 
 
 The seal to which all creatures humbly bow? 
 
 Do pearls of thought there scintillate and gleam, 
 
 Or rich imaginings send forth a stream 
 
 Of living glory s radiating beam? 
 
 You may reply, The pearls want polishing ; 
 How test their rays, if ne er abolishing 
 Their rough crustations ? Ah ! true gems will show 
 Themselves, even if bedded far below 
 Their outer coverings ; so may we find 
 In the uneducated, gleams of mind, 
 Which neath the mental lapidary s hand 
 May luster get to fit them to command ! 
 But we apply the lens in vain, in vain 
 To find such rays within the Negro s brain 
 For there alone the coarser instincts reign. 
 Refinement, elegance, or perfect taste, 
 If planted there, would surely run to waste; 
 The soil is uncongenial to such growth 
 Imagination and reflection both 
 Are wanting ; but the animal, combined 
 With the domestic properties, is shrined 
 Which gives the Negro a subordinate 
 Relation to the White man. T is his fate
 
 172 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The fiat of creation that he still 
 This rank below must uncomplaining fill. 
 To place him on the White man s level, we 
 Destroy the basis of equality 
 We re only equal in our proper spheres ! 
 But to annul this footing now appears 
 To be the end and aim of those who strive, 
 Against all principle, to keep alive 
 The quivering flame, lit in unholy cause 
 Against creation s and our Maker s laws ! 
 This shows, the fundamental principles 
 Of what knaves vaunt about in madd ning yells, 
 So far exceed their gross perceptions, that 
 In Truth s pure light, they re blind as is a bat 
 In sunshine ! So they spout, and rant, and rave 
 Bombastic Jy about the Southern Slave 
 (Who d open wide his eyes to hear them tell 
 How cruelly he s treated) ; and they swell 
 His grievances to such a blackened stream 
 That Styx compared to it, would fairly gleam 
 With lacteal luster. They dark portraits draw 
 In falsehood s hues, of sanguine conflicts raw, 
 Between psalm-singing Uncle Toms, and Turks 
 Of masters fierce (and, by the way, there lurks
 
 THE SOUTH. 173 
 
 A clue to the enlightenment of one 
 
 Dark labyrinth in a sheer romance, but done 
 
 To suit a morbid appetite. We find, 
 
 The coarse, harsh master, Mistress Stowe has 
 
 shrin d 
 
 To represent a Southern Planter, claims 
 New England as his birthplace! Hot, would 
 
 shome s 
 Bright blood mount flaming to the cheeks and 
 
 brows 
 
 Of the South s own true-hearted sons, if vows 
 Of cruelty and deeds of blood should be 
 E er dreamed of by them, such as one "Legree" 
 Is made the mover of in that tirade. 
 But he but follows all his colleagues trade 
 Dictation to the death, is their employ f 
 And this is why they pour their base alloy 
 O er our pure laws, and prate equality 
 While crushing it with iron heel.) 
 
 We see 
 
 How far fanaticism leads men on, 
 By measuring the lengths these dupes have gone ; 
 Who, all-forgetful of the ties that bind 
 These States in union, by joint interest twined,
 
 174 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Would take from us, their equals by God s laws, 
 A right to judge or advocate a cause 
 Involving national prosperity, 
 And circumscribe in limited degree 
 Our territory, while they dwarf, confine 
 Our resources in bigotry s dark mine; 
 As may be seen by all who look abroad 
 And view the flaming, bright despotic sword 
 Of Empire, which the North s cold hand now waits 
 To grasp, ere fiercely it decapitates 
 That gorgon in its path the sunny South 
 Who, let her but essay to ope her mouth, 
 Iler wholesome precepts are transformed to snakes 
 By those who in Power s temple hold the stakes, 
 And fearful of our Federal rights and rules, 
 Remodel them to suit despotic schools ! 
 Your philanthropic novel writers may 
 Work on credulity, and mayhap, sway 
 The tender-hearted for a time, with scenes 
 Drawn from imagination s painted screens, 
 And highly colored to comport with what 
 Their colleagues wildly scheme and basely plot 
 Gainst every argument of common sense, 
 To give a substance to a false pretense,
 
 THE SOUTH. 175 
 
 And hoodwink justice, while they seek to gain 
 The balance of that power for which they strain 
 Each nerve and every fiber of heart, soul, sense, 
 Aided by rank duplicity ; and hence 
 They work their way where honest folk draw 
 
 back, 
 
 Preferring the straightforward, open track, 
 Open alike to friend and foe, that all 
 May see their movements, if they rise or fall, 
 Disdaining subterfuge, and seeking still 
 To call forth friendliness and pure good-will 
 From their opponents ; but, in case they fail, 
 Ready to boldly guard what foes assail, 
 Stand by their rights, as freemen should, to death, 
 And die proclaiming them with latest breath, 
 If need be ! 
 
 This, the difference, that lies 
 Open to all impartial, candid eyes, 
 Between the North and South to-day. The land, 
 Purchased with price of blood by patriot band, 
 Made the low theater of party strife. 
 But, thanks to God ! the South drew not the knife 
 Upon her brother s heart; her work and cares 
 Have ever been about her own affairs,
 
 176 PROGRESSION. 
 
 With faith in all her kindred, North, East, West, 
 She s wisely thought they knew their business 
 
 best, 
 
 And were as capable of minding it 
 As she would be to leave her own and sit 
 In judgment on their actions. All can find 
 Sufficient business of their own to mind, 
 Without a thankless interference in 
 The affairs of others. Thus, the deep sin 
 Of severing the bonds left to us pure, 
 If perpetrated, lies not at our door. 
 W r e ve ever been true to the sacred cause 
 Which led our forefathers to fight for lawa 
 Which would secure them from oppression now 
 We feel that hot brand searing our own brow, 
 And t is a brother s hand hath placed it there ! 
 We pause for him to move it ere we tear 
 It ruthlessly from the proud head it thus 
 Dishonors ! 
 
 Dear the Union is to us 
 Dear from its history, and from the names 
 Enrolled upon its archives ! Ne er will shame s 
 Condemning flush rise on the South s fair face 
 When called her moiety therein to trace.
 
 THE SOUTH. 177 
 
 She sent her Washington to lead the host 
 To freedom ! and may, all-exultant, boast 
 Another noble star of first degree, 
 The true apostle of sweet Liberty, 
 In Thomas Jefferson, the wise, the good ! 
 And in her glorious galaxy there stood 
 Conspicuous, Henry, Morgan, Marion. 
 Shall names like these fail to shine out upon 
 Her honor, and to increase its light ? And still 
 Are hosts of others every blank to fill; 
 There, Shelby, Laurens, Pinckney, Sumter, tell 
 That patriot hearts in Southern bosoms dwell ; 
 And Eutaw s field, and Yorktown s battered walls, 
 ShoAV courage is not wanting when the calls 
 Of country ask avenging arms to save 
 From tyranny s dishonored, darksome grave. 
 Proud Tarleton s lowered crest on Cowpen s field, 
 Show d Southern force could make a braggart 
 
 yield ; 
 King s Mountain s hights proclaimed in bloody 
 
 words 
 
 The value of stanch hearts and Southern swords ; 
 And Valley Forge, if it had tongues, might speak 
 Of sufferings that would blanch the stoutest cheek,
 
 178 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Endured for love of country, by the brave, 
 True Southern tide of that almighty wave 
 That was to roll above and free the land 
 Of a despotic kingdom s hireling band 
 Of mercenaries. 
 
 Say, my brethren, say, 
 Are we less true to freedom s cause to-day, 
 Than we were then ? Think you that brows that 
 
 spurned 
 
 Control from, parent hand, and proudly turned 
 From mother England when she grew unjust, 
 Will bend to those who have betrayed the trust 
 Reposed in them ? Altho a kindred tie 
 Unites us all, too deep within us lie 
 The seeds implanted by our fathers bold, 
 To guard our rights e en from a brother s hold, 
 If he encroaches on the limits set 
 When justice and equality have met 
 To guard them. Think of this, tis all we ask; 
 You then will see how odious the task 
 That you have voluntarily assumed, 
 Mast in our eyes appear. You have presumed 
 Too far, and if you re just you 11 own to this, 
 Nor ra,shly push the matter till there is
 
 THE SOUTH. 179 
 
 No honorable path left for the South 
 
 But to withdraw herself from the cold mouth 
 
 That with a Judas kiss would thus betray 
 
 Its country ; for the hope of power and sway 
 
 That may be gained if the South yields her 
 
 right, 
 
 Is the true motive of your dastard fight! 
 Ah ! this is a sad picture, and it pains 
 My heart to paint it. Surely there remains 
 Some brightening tints to gild the portrait dark ? 
 Some flashes of a clearer, holier spark 
 That latent lies within fraternal breasts, 
 To glow and radiate when the kindling tests 
 Are tried, of partings that will wring the heart 
 (If the South takes the firm resolve to part 
 Rather than lie down bleeding at the feet 
 Of Northern despotism) ? Then will meet 
 Sons, fathers, brothers, to unlink the chain 
 By Nature riveted, but rent in twain 
 By goading malice under friendly guise ! 
 ! ere that clouded dawn shall darkly rise 
 O er our loved land, will not some patriot soul 
 Step forth to turn the scales ? Nor let the foul 
 And parricidal act be hastened on
 
 180 PROGRESSION. 
 
 By the base means that heretofore have done 
 The insidious work. 
 
 ! could I speak 
 The thoughts that wring my heart and blanch my 
 
 cheek, 
 
 I d surely prove to ye, my brothers, all, 
 How great will be our honored country s fall 
 If such a consummation of wild schemes 
 Is wrought beneath our day-star s sacred beams. 
 Were I but blessed with angel eloquence, 
 I d send a stream of light convergent hence 
 To reach the holy sanctuary within 
 Each heart, and show the heinous, monstrous sin 
 That ye are perpetrating, all ye hosts 
 Of instigators who now make your boasts 
 Of having gained the day for which ye ve striven 
 To crush your brethren s rights before High 
 
 Heaven ! 
 
 Can ye not see the ill ye ve surely wrought ? 
 Do ye not force an act whose memory fraught 
 With vain repinings and regrets, too late 
 Will blacken all your future s somber fate ? 
 Down, down Dictation ! cease your grinding rules, 
 Which only cowards yield to, knaves, or fools.
 
 THE SOUTH. 181 
 
 You vainly strive on Freedom s neck your yoke 
 To place; it bends not but it may be broke 
 And in its shattered fragments you will find 
 But wild remorse, for having rashly twin d 
 A cord to strangle Liberty s sweet breath, 
 And caused your country s dark, dishonored 
 
 death ! 
 
 ! here, where ambient skies and balmy airs 
 Distill etherial mildness nature wears 
 Perennial verdure, and great hearts expand 
 Beneath her genial influence, strong yet bland 
 Think you, our Southern blood thrills not as true 
 With patriotism, and leaps up anew, 
 Indignant at oppression, as with you, 
 Girt with a chilling atmosphere of frost 
 In which vitality is almost lost ? 
 Think you, the bounteousness here spread abroad 
 By an all-powerful and generous God, 
 Wakes in our warm hearts no responsive swell 
 To him, who with abundance, shows how well 
 He recompenses our fidelity, 
 In honoring his most wise and just decree, 
 By giving each thing its own proper place 
 In this progressive, onward, upward race ?
 
 182 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Ay, ready hearts and willing hands here strive 
 
 To keep the sacred flame of Truth alive 
 
 Upon the altar of just principle ; 
 
 Whose maxims holy and invincible, 
 
 Are graved too deeply to be e er erased 
 
 By partisan scurrility, tho graced 
 
 With theologian dogmas, which but show 
 
 Religion never yet was made to go 
 
 With politics. Here, no professions we 
 
 E er make here s no self-righteous Pharisee 
 
 We own we re human, and as such, oft err ; 
 
 Yet still, one rule finds ready worshiper 
 
 In all: To strive to do to others as 
 
 We d have them do to us ! 
 
 Now this, alas ! 
 Seems blotted from our Northern brethren s 
 
 code; 
 
 And, as companions on their upward (!) road, 
 They cherish hatred, animosity, 
 And vent in petty spites, antipathy 
 To all our institutions; while they raise 
 A standard of their own for prayer and praise, 
 And climb to heaven upon the sins of all 
 They ve trampled on this sin-provoking ball !
 
 THE SOUTH. 183 
 
 No doubt we have a heathenish look com 
 pared 
 
 To them, for we have never wildly shared 
 In the excitement by false prophets raised 
 Uniquely showing how God may be praised, 
 By desecrating every moral law, 
 And finding in each physical, a flaw ! 
 We know our soil is not congenial to 
 This fungus growth ; and we re content to go 
 Along the plainer track of common sense, 
 Nor yield to every doubtful, wild pretense, 
 By fanatics set forth to justify 
 Their measures while they scomngly defy 
 Their country and their Mak^r, and insist 
 That truth lies at the bottom of each "1st" 
 And " ism." Hence, we ve seen, how quick the 
 
 growth 
 
 Of these monstrosities at the far North, 
 And "free love," " Mormonism," and their train 
 Of untold evils, have progressed amain 
 Thro out the land, until twould seem, indeed, 
 That the " Sixth Angel," mentioned in the creed 
 Of Revelation, had his wrath poured out, 
 And "unclean spirits, like to frogs, come out
 
 184 PROGRESSION. 
 
 The Dragon s mouth, and the mouth of the Beast, 
 And the mouth of the false Prophet." Such, at 
 
 least, 
 
 These vile productions of distorted faith 
 Seem, in their heinous properties, whose breath 
 Sullies the face of Truth s pure mirror, while 
 The foul streams pour libations rank and vile, 
 To overrun and to pollute the land 
 "With the dark scum rising on Error s strand, 
 And drifting inward, with its tidal might, 
 To quench Religion s holy, sacred light ! 
 
 Ah ! true religion, based on chanty, 
 So far exceeds such vile barbarity, 
 That a comparison between them ne er 
 May be attempted on our mundane sphere ; 
 For we would not pollute a shrine so pure 
 By mingling with its music the harsh roar 
 Of wolves and lions, to attest its power 
 Harmonious over discord s angry dower. 
 But, would we seek for the blessed spot on 
 
 earth 
 
 Where this most holy cause has ne er a dearth 
 Of followers we ll find that sacred spot 
 To be, where bigotry leaves not a blot
 
 THE SOUTH. 185 
 
 To sully the fair face of tolerance ; 
 Where love of man does love of G-od enhance; 
 Where nature s beauties are enjoyed by all 
 As gifts from Heaven, and no dull, leaden pall 
 Is laid o er innocent amusement to invest 
 Sweet holiness with terror as, when drest 
 In sackcloth, it must ever seem a. gnome, 
 To lead the young to a cold, gloomy tomb, 
 In which their natural gayety must lie 
 Buried forever from each mortal eye. 
 Ah ! where God s worshiped in glad anthems, there 
 Arises truest praise and holiest prayer ; 
 And where man for his brother finds excuse, 
 If weakness leads him to excess (abuse 
 Of nature s privileges), in his own 
 Frail being s foibles which will still atone 
 For many errors he mayhap commit 
 For we re expressly told, we may not sit 
 In judgment on each other, lest we be 
 Judged by a like imperative decree. 
 T is only where all kindly feelings thrive, 
 That piety s pure spark is kept alive ; 
 Where love and charity lend their whole strength, 
 To fan it, till a steady flame at length, 
 16
 
 186 PROGRESSION. 
 
 It mounts to lieaven from altar pure and true, 
 Which no fanatic stain may e er imbrue 
 With oversteeped discolorings from the fount 
 Where falsehood bubbles and doubt s vapors mount. 
 
 There is a land where happiness thus reigns 
 Without the clog of all the clanking chains 
 In darkness forged. Wouldst find it ? Seek it 
 
 HERE ! 
 
 We ve room for millions, and you need not fear 
 To test our Southern hospitality. 
 Warm hearts are beating where each small degree 
 Of latitude but brings us nearer to 
 The fount of warmth, the source of light, the true 
 Inspirer of each ardent impulse he 
 By all acknowledged day s divinity, 
 Great Sol ! who broad dispenses loving smiles 
 To teach us mortals how sweet faith beguiles 
 Dark doubt of all its harsh incrustings, in 
 Thus lovingly enfolding earth to win 
 The treasures buried deeply in her heart, 
 Which his warm, generous smile of trust, will 
 
 start 
 
 To life and bloom ; but which neath chilling blast 
 Of doubting wind, their tender leaves would cast ;
 
 THE SOUTH. 187 
 
 Put forth no buds of promise, but fall dead, 
 Because kind influence was not around them shed ! 
 But faith and kindness here go hand in hand ; 
 Come ! tho your prejudices North may stand, 
 Yet here, once here, they must, they will give way 
 Before the clearer beam, the brighter day 
 Poured from our tropic sun s enlightening ray ! 
 
 When once amongst us, you will find how much 
 Of confidence is to be placed in such 
 Distorted statements as your " shriekers " give. 
 Their trade ignores the text, " Live and let live," 
 For not content with living their own way, 
 They d change the mode of those more blest than 
 
 they 
 
 Are ; while their practice contradicts in full 
 Their precept as one must be very dull 
 Not to perceive how ill equality 
 With Blacks, sits on their puffy dignity ! 
 Cuffy does very well to groan about, 
 But when he comes too near, he s put to rout ; 
 And, as a freeman, in a freesoil state, 
 Experiences far greater slights than wait 
 Him here, where he is kindly cared for, and 
 Warm sympathy excites on every hand.
 
 188 PROGRESSION. 
 
 For tho a slave, he s human, still, and shares 
 His master s bounty, while he scapes his cares ; 
 And is regarded in each household band 
 As member of the family. No hand 
 Disdains his proffered grasp, no children there 
 Refuse their love and kiss with him to share ; 
 And "Mammy" is a queen-bee in each hive 
 For subjects, White and Black, to proudly strive 
 Who shall with greatest honors load her down ! 
 Would not your free-soil matrons shrink and 
 
 frown 
 
 To see their infant rose-buds clinging round 
 These sooty goddesses in nursery crowned ? 
 And yet you prate equality tho blind 
 To all its bearings ! 
 
 We ve, you see, divined 
 How far your equalizing process goes : 
 You d like to crush those you regard as foes, 
 Because they differ in opinion ; and 
 The readiest means to do so, you command. 
 Poor Sambo s dragged from quietude to be 
 Your shield, and in the warfare gets, we see, 
 The wounds for you but cause his owner to 
 Curtail his privileges, and to go
 
 THE SOUTH. 189 
 
 To greater lengths, more rigid means to save 
 His property from felon s grasp. You have 
 Thus heaped upon us all, both White and Black, 
 Annoyance, and in this you draw not back ; 
 And why, why do you do this thing ? To be, 
 We answer, rulers, lords of all you see ! 
 For prating kindness does not come to acts; 
 The Negro finds he has to deal with facts, 
 Cold, stubborn facts, when on your soil he learns 
 Ilis stanch adviser, promised friend, now spurns 
 His brotherly regard, and turns his back 
 When funds and labor both are getting slack, 
 And the poor outcast, who has birthright sold, 
 Finds out, too late, the pottage is all cold ! 
 
 Ah ! better, would you kindly with us join 
 To polish this neglected, barbarous coin, 
 So that the metal may ring bright and clear 
 Upon Truth s pure and sympathetic ear. 
 You d help the Negro s progress more, far more, 
 By bringing him to our enlightened shore, 
 And teaching him the way to better things 
 Beneath our Eagle s broad, protecting wings ! 
 But still it would not do to leave him free, 
 Even in this fair land of liberty
 
 190 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Because he would not make a proper use 
 
 Of freedom, and t would be to him a curse 
 
 Bather than a blessing. Then let him be 
 
 A slave, if by such wholesome slavery 
 
 We free him from a bondage worse, more dire 
 
 A chain that shackles intellect s pure fire 
 
 A mental thralldom in which heart and soul 
 
 Together in the mire of darkness roll, 
 
 In savagism s deep Egyptian night, 
 
 Denied blest Christianity s clear light, 
 
 And burying the seal by God imprest, 
 
 Neath monstrous barbarisms, foul, unblest ! 
 
 Think you he ll progress on his native soil? 
 
 And is he injured when we make him toil ? 
 
 God ne er designed that man should be supine 
 
 He gives us means, and we must thence divine 
 
 How to exert them ; and when powers exist 
 
 In others, wrapt in barbarism s mist, 
 
 Do we not act the good Samaritan 
 
 In freeing them from the unholy ban 
 
 That lays a leaden clog upon their might, 
 
 And steeps them in the darkness of midnight ? 
 
 Say, are we not the Negro s truest friends ? 
 
 And are we not the source, neath God, which sends
 
 THE SOUTH. 191 
 
 A dawning light thro his benighted soul, 
 To help it gain the hights where ceaseless roll 
 Hosannas glorious and anthems grand, 
 From all who man s condition understand ? 
 
 Then bury animosities, my friends ! 
 Contest no law which in its bearing tends 
 To elevato a poor, unhappy race, 
 And gives to them in human grade their place. 
 "We all are pigmies in the sight of Him 
 Who fashioned us from nothing ! If we swim 
 Time s ocean with the means that He has given, 
 T will land us on the blissful shores of heaven ! 
 And while with greater force we breast the wave, 
 Twill not retard us if we seek to save 
 Our weaker comrades from the billow s might 
 That threatens darkness and eternal night. 
 If we would hasten on that glorious time 
 Foretold in Holy Writ when every clime 
 " Shall own Messiah s name, 3 shall be set free 
 From savage bonds and all idolatry 
 We 11 hesitate not to employ all ways 
 By which this brightest ending of dark daya 
 May be attained. Be sure the day will come 
 When all will strive to reach that better home ;
 
 192 - PROGRESSION. 
 
 That " house not made by hands, eternal in 
 The heavens !" ! what a blessed goal to win ! 
 ! what a glorious birthright, there to be 
 Progressing still thro all eternity, 
 From knowledge unto wisdom, and from love 
 To adoration, in those courts above, 
 Where shining seraphs vail their faces pure 
 While in His presence, whom they rapt adore ; 
 And winged aspirations ceaseless rise 
 To glories brightening in celestial skies! 
 
 And this is man s immortal destiny. 
 0, fellow mortals ! why not strive to be 
 Worthy its blessed privileges ! and 
 Disgrace not this our own, our favored land, 
 That has thus far, triumphant led the van 
 To better things by arming, man to man, 
 To wrangle on a point which ne er should be 
 Made pretext for this civil anarchy. 
 But, as a band of brothers, strive to find 
 The RIGHT with mildness bear this still in mind ; 
 And where ye differ in opinion, pray 
 Let Justice be the umpire in the fray ; 
 And meet on equal grounds, that each may be 
 Vested alike with true authority;
 
 THE SOUTH. 193 
 
 Then for the issue trust to God ! He 11 hold 
 The crucible to test the purer gold, 
 And all that s mingled with alloy, or base, 
 Must to the finer yield its fitting place ! 
 
 Then will sweet Peace, now frightened from 
 
 her nest, 
 
 Descend again to regions she loves best ; 
 Then will our Eagle from his eyry high, 
 Gaze proudly at his rival s blazing eye 
 That from a higher hight lights all the sky, 
 And plume its pinions for a greater flight 
 Than it e er dreamed of thro the low ring night; 
 Then will our Spangled Banner proudly wave 
 Above the land where dwell the free and brave ; 
 Then will our Nation s great heart ? free from pain, 
 Throb with contentment s sacred pulse again ; 
 And from Atlantic s to Pacific s shore, 
 From Mexico s broad gulf, Niagara s roar, 
 The sounding anthems shall roll glad and free, 
 Chanting the praise of glorious Liberty, 
 To swell the posans of the hosts who day 
 And night rest not, but ever ceaseless say, 
 " ! holy, holy, holy Lord !" alway. 
 17
 
 ERE we part, my kind readers, I beg you 11 
 
 permit 
 Me a few words on leaving : 
 
 You may not see fit 
 
 To indorse all the sentiments I have expressed, 
 But my motive, you still must acknowledge, the 
 
 best 
 
 That could have inspired a lover of peace, 
 And hater of falsehood s base, spurious increase, 
 That of late years has peopled the pulpit and 
 
 press, 
 
 The forum and Senate with fatal excess ; 
 And spread its vile progeny over the face 
 Of our once happy country, to sully, debase, 
 And exterminate wholesome and practical laws, 
 And crush our dear liberty in its huge jaws. 
 
 To you, the pure-hearted and brave of our land, 
 Who the rights of each brother full well under 
 stand, 
 (194)
 
 VALEDICTORY. 195 
 
 I need not appeal ; for the monitor blest, 
 
 That holds its own court in each true patriot s 
 
 breast, 
 Shall with eloquence speak, and your actions 
 
 control, 
 
 In all matters relating to body and soul ; 
 And raise warning finger, if, even in thought, 
 You d seek to presume on the privilege bought 
 At so countless a price, by our forefathers brave, 
 Their country to liberate, ransom and save 
 From the deep degradation of despotic rule, 
 Whose precepts are grafted in tyranny s school. 
 Let your hearts be the balance in which you will 
 
 weigh 
 
 The matters that ask your opinion to-day; 
 We fear not the verdict such jurymen just 
 Will return in the case, and our cause freely trust 
 To your reason, humanity, wisdom, and skill, 
 Which the rigid will discern in spite of ill-will, 
 With its witnesses bribed to distort the truth fair, 
 Till its bloated proportions make simple folks 
 
 stare ! 
 Now our case, as it stands, you have heard me 
 
 rehearse ;
 
 196 PROGRESSION. 
 
 I condensed it to suit the design of my verse, 
 That you may discern but its rights and its 
 
 wrongs, 
 
 And give that impartial return which belongs, 
 We know, to each matter that s fairly discussed 
 By equity s arguments, honest and just. 
 
 I have drawn no false pictures to work on your 
 
 sense, 
 
 And excite a deep sympathy by such pretense 
 I leave that field open to one Mistress S we, 
 Who s better provided the journey to go. 
 As for me, I m not fitted to grope in the dark, 
 But prefer the least glimmer of truth s faintest 
 
 spark, 
 
 To that Egyptian darkness which fancy can fill 
 To suit morbid appetites, strengthen ill-will, 
 And work out the ends of dictation, without 
 The least ray to show the poor traveler the 
 
 route 
 Which his guide (who, bat-like, sees a way thro 
 
 the gloom, 
 
 That will place all opposers beneath a cold tomb), 
 Is leading him on, over quagmire and bog 
 His reason to deaden, his ideas to clog,
 
 VALEDICTORY. 197 
 
 While breathing things monstrous and foul in his 
 
 ear, 
 
 To harrow his feelings or thrill him with fear, 
 Till mystified, horrified, not knowing why, 
 lie joins in the wild and fanatical cry, 
 And rushes to battle gainst all who resist 
 The allurements that lie in romance s thick 
 
 mist, 
 
 And prefer common sense and experience s tests 
 To the fallacies which this base medium invests 
 With colors prismatic to catch simple eyes, 
 But which the discerning detect as the dyes 
 Of falsehood, that garbs with the semblance of 
 
 truth 
 The creatures of fiction, to cheat age and youth. 
 
 No, not by such means do I seek to impose 
 Upon any ; the road s alike open to foes 
 As to friends, all its windings and turnings to 
 
 trace ; 
 And for traveling companion, plain Truth s honest 
 
 face, 
 At their elbow they 11 find thro the whole of the 
 
 route, 
 To clear each obstruction, dissolve every doubt,
 
 198 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And radiate beams from the Fountain of light, 
 To exorcise demons begotten of fright, 
 Who hold the perceptions of all who give ear 
 To raving disturbers of harmony s sphere ! 
 01 call not that soul, true philanthropy s seat. 
 That sows seeds of discord at each brother s feet, 
 Where the fast- growing tares check each kindlier 
 
 groivth, 
 And ripen to hatred s rank blossoms ivith both. 
 
 A word to reformers : Before you begin 
 To parade to the public each light, floating sin 
 That skims on the stream of your neighbor s warm 
 
 life. 
 
 "Would it not be as well to allay every strife, 
 Every wrong and oppression that broods o er 
 
 your own 
 Household hearths, or stalks thro your land, with 
 
 a tone 
 
 Of despair, calling loudly for work and for bread, 
 From free operatives ? As well, would you 
 
 shed 
 A portion of light (where you ve so much to 
 
 spare), 
 To help to relieve your own poor of their care?
 
 VALEDICTORY. 199 
 
 As for us, thanks to God ! want s unknown in our 
 
 clime, 
 
 Our workers, tho slaves, ring a merrier chime, 
 On the bells that pour forth the fleet progress of 
 
 Time! 
 
 Your laborer is White, and your equal yet he 
 Is a sufferer to a much greater degree 
 Than his ebony rival tho this till doomsday 
 Perhaps you 11 contend ; but I ve this much to 
 
 say : 
 
 Let "crises," "panics," "suspensions," invade 
 And break down the barriers guarding all trade ; 
 Let banks go to ruin, and stocks sink to naught, 
 The whirlpool, to one class with misery fraught, 
 Glides light past the other as singing brooks play 
 In the beams of the sun on a calm summer s day ; 
 And while " factory strikes," mong your suffering 
 
 poor, 
 Tell too plainly the wolf s at each working man s 
 
 door; 
 Our careless, light-hearted, and good-natured 
 
 " Cuff," 
 With his sleek, glossy hide, shows he s still got 
 
 enough
 
 200 PROGRESSION. 
 
 And to spare, should some poor Northern White 
 
 brother need 
 To share his snug cabin, his garment and feed. 
 
 Why bring in the aid of the novelist s pen 
 To work on the feelings of warm-hearted men, 
 By dressing in pitiful guise every gross 
 Misrepresentation ? We re not at a loss 
 For facts and hard truths, when we enter your 
 
 door, 
 
 To substantiate all we assert of your poor ; 
 Nor need we the pallet of fancy, to paint 
 How near to a sinner comes every saint 
 Who bellows from pulpit invective and jeer 
 To stir up antipathy in each compeer, 
 And trumpet contention abroad with that Word 
 That the olive should tender instead of the sword. 
 For Religion should bind with sweet charity s 
 
 clasp, 
 
 Not nurse in its flowers the sting of the asp; 
 But gently diffuse its etherial balm, 
 Each discord to soften, each tempest to calm. 
 There may be some cases (which all must de 
 plore), 
 Of cruel injustice and wrong done the poor 

 
 VALEDICTORY. 201 
 
 Negro slave ; this I ve candor to own. Yet I still 
 
 Ask, are any exempt from such ill ? 
 
 Are there none in your midst, at this moment, 
 
 opprest 
 
 By grinding exactitude, heartless, at best, 
 Mong your Wliite operatives ? Say, do they not 
 
 give 
 Their heart s blood for pittance which scarce lets 
 
 them live ? 
 
 Ah, Pharisees ! ere you the Publican spurn, 
 Look at home ; to your own moral grievances turn ; 
 Cleanse the leprosies foul that within you exist, 
 Till no longer you see thro a wildering mist, 
 Ere you lay your cold hands where your heart 
 
 ought to be, 
 And whine out your thanks, that you are not as he. 
 
 Let charity, with you, begin in your home, 
 Fit subjects t will find, and no longer need roam 
 On a wild, thankless mission, devoid of all grace, 
 Which mistakes both the calling, the time, and the 
 
 place, 
 
 In its useless endeavors to draw forth the mote 
 From its neighbor s clear vision, which fails not 
 
 to note
 
 202 PKOGRESSION. 
 
 The broad beam obstructing the visual ray 
 
 Of the optics of those who would point out the 
 
 To the better perceptions of others they d guide, 
 And swamp friend and foe in a treacherous tide, 
 Rising slowly and surely where er it finds room, 
 To ingulf all the nation within a cold tomb. 
 Pray, pray for more light, from the Fountain 
 
 above, 
 Till its glory doth flood all your souls with pure 
 
 love, 
 
 Not only for him, the Creator of all, 
 But for man, Ms creation upon this dun ball ! 
 For once you but cherish a sympathy sweet, 
 For each human waif on Time s ocean you meet, 
 And kindly admonish him when he doth err, 
 Yet love Mn thro all things, let radiance or blur 
 On his brow leave a mark for distinction or shame 
 Still, but cherish for him an undying flame 
 Of holy forbearance to guide thro all gloom, 
 Arid from error s waste lead to the brightness and 
 
 bloom 
 
 Of truth and of purity, you will achieve 
 A power, for which you 11 have no cause to grieve ;
 
 VALEDICTORY. 203 
 
 A power of persuasion, the mild and the true, 
 That will gently, yet surely, prevail where the crew 
 Of force, domineering, can never gain ground, 
 Tho policy girt it with piety round. 
 An enemy may be by kindness o ercome, 
 And soft words will make the wrathful man dumb. 
 You should not abuse theological power, 
 By pointing its shafts at your neighbor s home- 
 bower, 
 
 And poisoning the darts in dark sophistry s pool, 
 Thus making religion a puppet and tool, 
 Thro whose channel your venomed ill-nature may 
 
 flow 
 Gainst all who but differ from you here below. 
 
 The pulpit, the Holy of Holies should be ! 
 There, questions political, all anarchy, 
 Should be banished its calling s more sacred, by 
 
 far, 
 
 Than leading a caucus or waging a war ; 
 T is God s throne on earth! (or rather, should be, 
 But man has polluted the pure sanctuary) ; 
 And should not be defiled by such streams as 
 
 to-day 
 In muddy disturbances take their dark way
 
 204 PROGRESSION. 
 
 From this fountain, thus basely turned out of its 
 
 course, 
 To babble with bigots who scream themselves 
 
 hoarse 
 While fiercely contending gainst nature s pure 
 
 laws, 
 To uphold an ill-grounded, fanatical cause ! 
 
 I would say to ye all, ye Reformers so bold, 
 Who enter, unasked, our Southern stronghold 
 Should ye need a new field for a famous display 
 Of rhetorical powers and windy array, 
 Turn your weapons, so logical, on your own 
 
 band 
 
 Of clerical wranglers for all understand 
 That they need reforming the most in our land ! 
 They seem to forget that their mission is " peace !" 
 And, lion-like, roar from their soft waving fleece 
 Till one is in doubt whether sheep-cot, or lair, 
 Is appropriate term for God s temple fair! 
 
 And now to my friends, and the rest of mankind, 
 I have something to say. We have, all of us, 
 
 shrined 
 In our heart s secret chamber, some idol tho 
 
 blind
 
 VALEDICTORY. 205 
 
 "We may be to the knowledge, yet others can see 
 What to us is obscui*e to the latest degree; 
 With one, tis ambition another, tis love 
 And a third worships Mammon, all creatures above; 
 While some, purer hearted, (alas ! they are few !) 
 Throne Truth there, with radiance to shine out 
 
 anew 
 
 O er each fallacy bred in dark Error s abode, 
 To obstruct and obscure every newly-laid road 
 That invites earthly tourist to take shorter route 
 When seeking some knotty point s flaws to find out. 
 Then again, other hearts cling to Error, and hug 
 Her delusions, not knowing how vainly they tug 
 At a chain that coils firmer the harder they pull, 
 And binds their perceptions with leaden clog dull. 
 And still, other deities, other hearts own 
 Unconsciously yet, by their fruits they are known ; 
 And so I appeal to your reason and sense 
 To judge between truth and fallacious pretense. 
 My motive I feel to be honest and true, 
 In submitting these arguments freely to you ; 
 And if I have blindly advanced a false cause 
 T will quickly be seen, when, with Nature s known 
 
 laws
 
 206 PROGRESSION. 
 
 Tis compared. All I ask, is impartial survey 
 Of both sides of this mighty question to-day 
 Give each a fair hearing, and when you do this 
 Be sure you re not swayed by the sheer fallacies 
 Set forth by the novelist but to confound 
 Your reason, and lead you o er treacherous ground; 
 But lay aside romance and take solid fact, 
 If you would arrive at conclusion exact ; 
 Nor weep over Fiction s all-fanciful wrongs, 
 But give your sweet sympathy where it belongs, 
 When actual experience proves to your mind 
 That sufferings and wrongs exist mong your 
 
 kind. 
 In this age of free thought we have, each one, 
 
 a right 
 
 To investigate aught that seems dim to our sight ; 
 And when we ve arrived at conclusions, we still 
 Can express them, I hope, without rousing ill- 
 will. 
 
 I ve simply expressed what I think to be true, 
 And if in opinion I differ from you, 
 We do but what mortals will everywhere do, 
 For few think alike on all points yet on this 
 I would ask you to pause before you dismiss
 
 VALEDICTORY. 207 
 
 The matter entirely give it a thought 
 
 Tis by ildnlcing most wonderful changes are 
 
 wrought ! 
 
 For Thought is the mine from which was exterred 
 All the wonders that nations entranced have heard ; 
 In its depths the great giant was molded to form 
 When he rose in a vaporous moisture so warm 
 From his kettle-bed, which the boy dreamily eyed 
 As the slight curling breath pushed the thick lid 
 
 aside, 
 
 And saw in the action a slumbering power, 
 That works mighty levers at this present hour ! 
 T was from Thought s deep recesses that Franklin 
 
 brought forth 
 
 The bright spark electric, whose magical worth 
 The world now attests, as it girdles the North, 
 Spans the soft breezy South, clasps the East and 
 
 the West, 
 
 And draws nations nearer in unity blest ! 
 For, from Heaven the spark came to circle the 
 
 Earth, 
 
 And herald a new and a glorious birth 
 In the fair field of Progress, to show forth to man 
 How much he may grasp with an up-reaching span
 
 208 PROGRESSION. 
 
 That not vainly aspires, if a pure motive gives 
 The impetus ! 
 
 So, then, fare ye well ! If there lives 
 But a spark of true patriotism still in our land, 
 I fear not the Union will yet firmly stand, 
 The bulwark of Liberty ! which the harsh gale 
 Of partisan violence, tho it assail, 
 May storm round in vain for its true heart of 
 
 oak 
 
 Will resist to the last the dastardly stroke, 
 And ride out the tempest with sails all unrivcn, 
 And furl but its flag on the bright shores of 
 
 Heaven !
 
 18
 
 PROGRESSION. In taking the Xebular Hypothesis as my 
 argument for creation, I but agree with many learned 
 writers and astronomers. But my attention was chiefly 
 called to the subject of Progression, by a perusal of a little 
 volume entitled, Vestiges of the Natural History of Crea 
 tion, by Man tell. 1 have endeavored (as far as in me 
 
 lies the power) to carry out the ideas of the author of that 
 work for I most religiously believe them to be correct 
 and cordially recommend the perusal of that book to every 
 one desirous of an intellectual feast There is certainly 
 no work, of the same number of pages, that contains the 
 same amount of information. It is a clear embodiment of 
 the Multum in Parvo, so desirable in all writings. 
 
 As far as the slavery question is concerned, I have 
 acted for "conscience sake" and think, while so doing, 1 
 but echo the sentiments of all calm reasoners and lovers 
 of truth, Xorth, South, East, or West. 
 
 Page 17. 
 
 The miyhty Word which teas 
 
 In the beginning. 
 
 (211)
 
 212 PROGRESSION. 
 
 " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
 God, and the Word was God." St. John i : 1. 
 
 Page 19. 
 ! wondrous sight, a universe all fire ! 
 
 "The nebulous matter of space, previous to the forma 
 tion of stellar and planetary bodies, must have been a uni 
 versal Fire Mist; an idea which we can scarcely comprehend, 
 though the reasons for arriving at it seem irresistible." 
 Vestiges of Creation, p. 20. 
 
 Page 21. 
 And still another law have we to show. 
 
 " Xow, mechanical philosophy informs us that the instant 
 a mass begins to rotate, there is generated a tendency to fling 
 off its outer portions. In other words, the law of centrifugal 
 force begins to operate. There are, then, two forces acting 
 in opposition to each other, the one attracting to, the other 
 throwing from the center. While these remain exactly 
 counterpoised, the mass necessarily continues entire; but 
 the least excess of the centrifugal over the attractive force 
 would be attended with the effect of separating the mass and 
 its outer parts. These outer parts would then be left as a 
 ring round the central body, which ring would continue to 
 revolve with the velocity possessed by the central mass at 
 the moment of separation, but not necessarily participating 
 in any changes afterwards undergone by that body. This 
 is a process which might be repeated as soon as a new
 
 NOTES. 213 
 
 excess arose in the centrifugal over the attractive forces 
 working in the parent mass. It might, indeed, continue 
 to be repeated, until the mass attained the ultimate limits 
 of the condensation -which its constitution imposed upon 
 it. From what cause might arise the periodical occurrence 
 of an excess of the centrifugal force ? If we suppose the 
 agglomeration of a nebulous mass to be a process attended 
 by refrigeration or cooling, which many facts render likely, 
 we can easily understand why the outer parts, hardening 
 under this process, might, by virtue of the greater solidity 
 thence acquired, begin to present some resistance to the 
 attractive force. As the solidification proceeded, this re 
 sistance would become greater, though there would still bo 
 a tendency to adhere. Meanwhile, the condensation of the 
 central mass would be going on, tending to produce a sep 
 aration from what may now be termed the solidifying 
 crust. During the contention between the attractions of 
 these two bodies, or parts of one body, there would proba 
 bly be a ring of attenuation between the mass and its crust. 
 At length, when the central mass had reached a certain 
 stage in its advance toward solidification, a separation 
 would take place, and the crust would become a detached 
 ring. It is clear, of course, that some law, presiding over 
 the refrigeration of heated gaseous bodies, would determine 
 the stages at which rings were thus formed and detached. 
 We do not know any such law, but what we have seen as 
 sures us it is one observing, and reducible to, mathematical 
 formula.
 
 214 PROGRESSION. 
 
 " If these rings consisted of matter nearly uniform 
 throughout, they would probably continue each in its 
 original form ; but there are many chances against their 
 being uniform in constitution. The unavoidable effect of 
 irregularity in their constitution, would be to cause them 
 to gather toward centers of superior solidity, by which the 
 annular form would, of course, be destroyed. The ring 
 would, in short, break into several masses, the largest of 
 which would be likely to attract the lesser into itself. The 
 whole mass would then necessarily settle into a spherical 
 form, by virtue of the law of gravitation ; in short, would 
 then become a planet revolving round the sun. Its rotary 
 motion would, of course, continue, and satellites might 
 then be thrown off in turn, from its body, in exactly the 
 same way as the primary planets had been thrown off from 
 the sun. The rule, if I can be allowed so to call it, re 
 ceives a striking support from what appears to be its ex 
 ceptions. While there are many chances against the 
 matter of the rings being sufficiently equable to remain 
 in the annular form till they were consolidated, it might 
 nevertheless be otherwise in some instances : that is to 
 say, the equableness might, in those instances, be suffi 
 ciently great. Such was probably the case with the two 
 rings around the body of Saturn, which remain a living 
 picture of the arrangement, if not the condition, in which 
 all the planetary masses at one time stood. It may also 
 be admitted that, when a ring broke up, it was possible that 
 the fragments might spherify separately. Such seems to be
 
 NOTES. 215 
 
 the actual history of the ring between Jupiter and Mars, 
 in whose place we now find four* planets, much b ?noath 
 the smallest of the rest in size, and moving nearly it the 
 same distance from the sun, though in orbits so elliptical, 
 and of such different planes, that they keep apart." Ves 
 tiges of Creation, p. 11. 
 
 Page 22. 
 
 The samepoicer by which apples fall. 
 
 The law of gravitation. 
 
 Page 23. 
 
 For, once, a circling mass of liquid fire, 
 Our sun filled all our system s space, entire. 
 
 " I may here, also, remind the reader that there are other 
 grounds for this hypothesis, besides observations on the 
 nebulae. Overlooking the zodiacal light, which has been 
 thought a residuum of the nebulous fluid of our system, 
 we find geology taking us back toward a state of our 
 globe which can not otherwise be explained. It was 
 clearly, at one time, in a state of igneous fluidity the 
 state in which its oblately spheroidal form was assumed 
 under the law of centrifugal force. Since then it has 
 cooled, at least in the exterior crust. We thus have it 
 passing through a chemical process, attended by dimin- 
 
 * Modern research has discovered over. fifty small planets in this space.
 
 216 PROGRESSION. 
 
 ishing heat. Whence the heat at first, if not from tho 
 causes indicated in the nebular hypothesis ? But this 
 is not all. In looking back along the steps of such a pro 
 cess, we have no limit imposed. There is nothing to call 
 for our stopping, till we reach one of those extreme tem 
 peratures which would vaporize the solid materials; and 
 this gives us exactly that condition of things which is 
 implied by the nebular cosmogony." Vestiges of Creation, 
 p. 209. 
 
 Page 39. 
 
 Where earth s diameter exceeds, tis knoicn, 
 Its polar depth, and proves our planet s form 
 To be an oblate spheroid. 
 
 "Although it appears, from the preceding facts, that 
 the earth is spherical, yet it is not a perfect sphere. If 
 it were, the length of the degrees of latitude, from the 
 equator to the poles, would be uniformly the same ; but 
 it has been found, by the most careful measurement, that 
 as we go from the equator toward the poles, the length 
 increases with the latitude. 
 
 " These measurements have been made by the most 
 eminent mathematicians of different countries, and in 
 various places, from the equator to the urctic circle. 
 They have found that a degree of latitude at the arctic 
 circle was nine-sixteenths of a mile longer than a degree 
 at the equator, and that the ratio of increase for the inter-
 
 NOTES. 217 
 
 mediate degrees was nearly as the sines of the latitude. 
 Thus the theory of Sir Isaac Newton was confirmed, that 
 the body of the earth was more rounded and convex be 
 tween the tropics, "but considerably flattened at the poles." 
 Geography of the Heavens and Class-Book of Astronomy, 
 by Elijah II. Burrilt. 
 
 Page 39. 
 
 A residuum 
 
 Of that great heat which kept vaporiform 
 All matter in times past. 
 
 See Baron Fourier s TMorie Analylique de la Chaleur. 
 1S22. 
 
 Page 41. 
 
 For where the cup 
 
 Of mighty seas sunk deep within her breast 
 (Deeper than those which now within it rest), 
 Granitic mountains reared their scraggy heads. 
 
 "Geology tells us as plainly as possible, that the original 
 crystalline mass was not a perfectly smooth ball, with air 
 and water playing round it. There were vast irregularities 
 in the surface irregularities trifling, perhaps, compared 
 with the whole bulk of the globe, but assuredly vast in 
 comparison with any which now exist upon it. These 
 irregularities might be occasioned by inequalities in the 
 cooling of the substance, or by accidental and local slug- 
 
 19
 
 218 PROGRESSION. 
 
 gishncss of the materials, or by local effects of the con 
 centrated internal heat. From whatever cause they arose, 
 there they were, enormous granitic mountains, interspersed 
 with seas which sunk to a depth equally profound, and 
 by which, perhaps, the mountains were wholly or partially 
 covered. * * * 
 
 There is the clearest evidence that the seas of those days 
 were not, in some instances, less than a hundred miles in 
 depth, however much more. The subaqueous mountains 
 must necessarily have been of at least equal magnitude." 
 Vestiges of Creation, p. 29. 
 
 Page 43. 
 
 And what this substance? Carbon known to be 
 Of herb and plant the main commodity. 
 
 " Limestone is a carbonate of lime, a secondary com 
 pound, of which one of the ingredients, carbonic acid gas, 
 presents the element carbon, a perfect novelty in our pro 
 gress. Whence this substance? The question is the more 
 interesting, from our knowing that carbon is the main 
 ingredient in organic things. There is reason to believe 
 that its primeval condition was that of a gas, confined in 
 the interior of the earth, and diffused in the atmosphere. 
 The atmosphere still contains about a two-thousandth part 
 of carbonic acid gas, forming the grand store from which 
 the substance of each year s crop of herbage and grain is 
 derived, passing from herbage and grain into animal 
 substance, and from animals again rendered back to the
 
 NOTES. 219 
 
 atmosphere in their expired breath, so that its amount is 
 never impaired. Knowing this, when wo hear of carbon 
 beginning to appear in the ascending series of rocks, we 
 are unavoidably led to consider it as marking a time of 
 some importance in the earth s history, a new era of 
 natural conditions, one in which organic life has probably 
 played a part." Vestiges of Creation, p. 31. 
 
 Page 46. 
 Geology doth show 
 
 Hundreds of species in this strata low. 
 
 " Upward of three hundred species of plants have been 
 ascertained to exist in the coal formation; but it is not 
 necessary to suppose that the whole contained in that 
 system are now, or will be, distinguished. * * * * 
 Coal strata are nearly confined to the group termed the 
 carboniferous formation. Thin beds are not unknown 
 afterward, but they occur only as a rare exception. It is 
 therefore thought that the most important of the conditions 
 which allowed of so abundant a terrestial vegetation, had 
 ceased about the time when this formation was closed." 
 Vestiges of Creation, pp. 45, 49. 
 
 Page 47. 
 
 Behold ! the forms to which was given birth 
 Spontaneous in creatures made to be 
 Dwellers alike of either land or sea . 
 
 " These animals are of the vertebrate sub-kingdom, but
 
 220 PROGKESSION. 
 
 of its lowest class next after fishes namely: reptiles a 
 portion of the terrestial tribes, whose imperfect respiratory 
 system, perhaps, fitted them for enduring an atmosphere 
 not yet quite suitable for birds or mammifers. The spe 
 cimens found in the muschelkalk are allied to the croco 
 dile and lizard tribes of the present day ; but, in the latter 
 instance, are upon a scale of magnitude as much superior 
 to present forms, as the lepidodendron of the coal era was 
 superior to the dwarf club-mosses of our time. These 
 saurians also combine some peculiarities of a most extra 
 ordinary character. 
 
 " The animal to which the name ichthyosaurus has 
 been given, was as long as a young whale, and it was 
 fitted for living in the water, though breathing the atmos 
 phere. It had the vertebral column and general bodily 
 form of a fish, but to that were added the head and breast 
 bone of a lizard, and the paddles of the whale tribes. 
 The beak, moreover, was that of a porpoise, and the teeth 
 were those of a crocodile. It must have been a most 
 destructive creature to the fish of those early seas. 
 
 " The plcsiosaurus was of similar bulk, with a turtle- 
 like body and paddles, showing that the sea was its cle 
 ment ; but with a long, serpent-like neck, terminating in 
 a saurian head, calculated, to reach prey at a considerable 
 distance. These two animals, of which many varieties 
 have been discovered, constituting distinct species, are 
 supposed to have lived in the shallow borders of the seas 
 of this and subsequent formations, devouring immense
 
 NOTES. 221 
 
 quantities of the finny tribes. It was at first thought 
 that no creatures approaching them in character now 
 inhabit the earth; but, latterly, Mr. Darwin has discovered, 
 in the reptile-peopled Gallapagos Islands, in the South 
 Sea, a marine saurian, from three to four feet long. 
 
 " The meyalosaurus was an enormous lizard a land 
 creature, also carnivorous. The pterodaclyle was another 
 lizard, but furnished with wings to pursue its prey in the 
 air, and varying in size between a cormorant and a snipe. 
 Crocodiles abounded, and some of these were herbivorous. 
 Such was the iguanodon, a creature of the character of 
 the iguana of the Ganges, but reaching a hundred feet in 
 length, or twenty times that of its modern representative. 
 
 " There were also numerous tortoises, some of them 
 reaching a great size ; and Professor Owen has found in 
 Warwickshire some remains of an animal of thebatrachian 
 order (the order to which frogs and toads belong), to which, 
 from the peculiar form of the teeth, he has give the name 
 of labyrinthidon. Thus, three of Cuvier s four orders of 
 reptilia (sauria, chelonia, and batrachia) are represented 
 in this formation, the serpent order (ophidia) being alone 
 wanting." Vestiges of Creation, p. 52. 
 
 Page 49. 
 
 Thus, link by link, to Jill 
 
 The, gap between the earliest formed and man. 
 
 " Such is the outline of the fauna of the tertiary era, 
 as ascertained by the illustrious naturalists who first
 
 222 
 
 PROGRESSION. 
 
 devoted their attention to it. It will be observed, that it 
 brings us up to the felinas, or carnivora, a considerably 
 elevated point in the animal scale, but still leaving a blank 
 for the quadrumana (monkeys) and for man, who collec 
 tively form, as will afterward be seen, the first group in 
 that scale." Vestiges of Creation, p. 69. 
 
 Page 67. 
 
 The physiologist observes, each animal 
 Progresses still, while in the germinal, 
 Thro changes, all resembling the forms 
 Of lower orders in the scale. 
 
 See the Scale of Xature, in Fletcher s Rudiments of 
 Physiology. 
 
 Page 96. 
 Once spake that country s savior next to God. 
 
 "And let me conjure you, in the name of our common 
 country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you re 
 spect the rights of humanity, and as you regard the mili 
 tary and national character of America, to express your 
 utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, 
 under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of 
 our country ; and who wickedly attempts to open the flood 
 gates of civil discord, and deluge our rising empire in 
 blood." Washington s speech to his officers, on the occa 
 sion of the "Newburgh addresses."
 
 NOTES. 223 
 
 Page 106. 
 
 That slavery was authorized by law 
 Among the Israelites, etc. 
 
 " The Hebrews had several kinds of servants. Some 
 were mere slaves for life, and wore sold and disposed of 
 by their masters as they thought fit: such were the 
 strangers bought or taken in war. Lev. xxv: 44, etc. 
 Such are also called bodies, because their masters rigor 
 reaches only to their body. Rev. xviii: 13. Hebrew 
 slaves or bond-servants, who could only at first be bound 
 six years, and at the end thereof were to be dismissed, 
 with presents from their masters ; but their children, 
 born during their servitude, continued to be their master s 
 property : but if they declined to go free, their master, 
 with an awl, bored their ear to the door-post, as a token 
 they could not afterward have their freedom, at least till 
 the year of jubilee. If a master struck a bond-servant 
 till he died, he was only punished, not condemned to 
 death. If an ox gored to death a bond-servant, the owner 
 paid thirty shekels of silver as his price, and the ox was 
 stoned. If a master struck out the eye of his slave, he 
 was to give him his liberty as a compensation. Ex. xxi : 
 1, 11, 20, 26, 27: Deut. xxv: 1, 18." From Brown s Dic 
 tionary of the Bible. 
 
 Page 134. 
 
 I would exclaim, as did a noble one 
 Of Nature s freemen.
 
 224 PROGRESSION. 
 
 In John Mitchel s reply to the Joint Committee of the 
 Senate and House of Representatives of Louisiana, inviting 
 him to the seat of Government, he says : " You will not 
 condemn nor wonder at the zeal of a stranger and a refugee 
 for that Union. In my case, it is not unnatural. To me, 
 from my childhood, the United States has been a sacred 
 unity one and indivisible the couipletest, grandest 
 achievement and monument of wit and courage of man 
 in modern times. The admiration became a passion ; and 
 the passion led me far, and cost me dear; but the dearer 
 it cost me, the more jealously and proudly I cherish now 
 my old faith and hope ; now, when the banner I gazed on 
 so long from hopeless distance, with the desire of the 
 moth for the star, gleams and waves above me at last. 
 May the colors of God s bow be torn asunder ere the 
 stripes of that majestic banner." 
 
 Page 161. 
 
 And even the poor Indians now own 
 This to be true. 
 
 Most of the newspapers of the day have given us ac 
 counts of the interview between the President of the 
 United States and the delegations of the Pawnee, Ponca, 
 and Pottawatomie tribes of Indians, on business connected 
 with the Government. I would like to transcribe in full 
 the speech of each "Chief" to his "Grandfather," to show 
 how completely these poor forest children have come to a
 
 NOTES. 225 
 
 knowledge of their insignificance, and dependence on a 
 more favored race, but condensation forbids it, so I will 
 content myself with a few extracts. 
 
 One said, " My Grandfather, you see me to-day, I am 
 poor. * * * * I tli ink this is a splendid man 
 sion. I think you are like the Great Spirit. Everything 
 the white man makes is wonderful to us. When I see 
 you, and see all these curiosities, I feel as if I am not 
 poor. 
 
 Another "I come here to-day and look about and see 
 your splendid mansion, and it surprises me; but still I 
 know a ivliite man can do anything and make anything, 
 and I hope we shall be put in the way to do these things, 
 and not be poor. We have been a long way to see you, 
 and a long time coming here, and, now that we have seen 
 you, it looks as if the Great Spirit is smiling upon us" 
 (alluding to the sunshine and clear sky). 
 
 But Wae-gah-sah-pi, or "The Whip," a chief of the 
 Ponca tribe, embodied more truth in a part of his address, 
 than many a more logical white brother might bo capable 
 of doing. "My Grandfather," he spake, "I call you 
 Grandfather for no other reason than this : God made me 
 one color, and you of another; but God was partial to 
 you, and made you of a better color. You came into ex 
 istence and so did I. It was the will of the Great Spirit 
 that we both came into existence. * 
 It was the will of the Great Spirit that made you more 
 powerful than me ; it was the will of the Great Spirit that
 
 226 PROGRESSION. 
 
 you should take this land from us this land that you 
 stand on to-day belongs to me. You are a man, my 
 Grandfather, and so am I. Everything that you have 
 made, Grandfather, is worthy of attention is worthy of 
 looking at" 
 
 T II E END.

 
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 this new edition of Rollin : It may not be generally known 
 that in previous English editions a large and interesting 
 portion of the work has been suppressed. The deficien 
 cies are here supplied and restored from the French edi 
 tions, giving the copy of Messrs. Applegate & Co. a supe 
 riority over previous English editions." Western Recorder. 
 
 "A superb edition of this indispensable text and refe 
 rence book is published by Messrs. Applegate & Co. 
 The work in this form has been for some years before the 
 public, and is the best and most complete edition pub 
 lished. The work is comprised in two volumes of about 
 600 pages each, containing the prefaces of Rollin and the 
 " History of the Arts at 1 Sciences of the Ancients, which 
 have been omitted in mcst American editions." Spring 
 field Republic. 
 
 " The work is too well known, and has too long been a 
 favorite, to require any commendation from us. Though 
 in some matters more recent investigations have led to 
 conclusions different from those of the Author, yet his 
 gviieizil accuracy is unquestionable." West. Chris. Adv.
 
 APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 MOSHEIM S CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 Ancient and Modern, from the birth of Christ to the 
 Eighteenth Century, in which the Rise, Progress, and Varia 
 tions of Church Power are considered in their connection 
 with the state of Learning and Philosophy ; and the Politi 
 cal History of Europe during that period, continued up to 
 the present time, by CHARLES COOTE, LL. D. 806 pages, 
 1 vol., quarto, spring back, marble edge. 
 
 From the Masonic Review. 
 
 This great standard history of the Church from the birth of 
 Christ, has just been issued in a new dress by the extensive pub 
 lishing house of Applegate <fe Co. Nothing need be said by us 
 in relation to the merits or reliability of Mosheim s History : it 
 has long borne the approving seal of the Protestant world. It 
 has become a standard work, and no public or private library is 
 complete without it ; nor can an individual be well posted in the 
 history of the Christian Church for eighteen hundred years, 
 without having carefully studied Monlieim. We wish, however, 
 particularly to recommend the present edition. The pages are 
 in lai-ge double columns ; the type is large and very distinct, and 
 the printing is admirable, on tine white paper. It is really a 
 pleasure to read such print, and we recommend our friends to 
 purchase this edition of this indispensable work. 
 
 From the Telescope, Dayton, O. 
 
 This work has been placed upon our table by the gentlemanly 
 and enterprising publishers, and we are glad of an opportunity 
 to introduce so beautiful an edition of this standard Church his 
 tory to our readers. The work is printed on beautiful white 
 paper, clear large type, and is bound in one handsome volume. 
 No man ever sat down to read Mosheim in so pleasing a dress. 
 What a treat is such an edition to one who has been studying 
 this elegant work in small close print of other editions. 
 
 From Professor \Yrirjhtson. 
 
 Whatever book has a tendency to add to our knowledge of 
 God, or the character or conduct of his true worshipers, or that 
 points cut the errors and mistakes of former generations, must 
 have an elevating, expanding, and purifying influence on the 
 human mind. Su<-h a work is Mosheim s Ecclesiastical History. 
 Like " Rollin s History of the Ancients," it is the standard, and 
 is too well known to need a word of comment.
 
 APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 GATHERED TREASURES PROM THE MINES OF 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 Containing Tales, Sketches, Anecdotes, and Gems of Thought, 
 Literary, Moral, Pleasing and Instructive. Illustrated with 
 steel plates. 1 vol. octavo. Embossed. 
 
 To furnish a volume of miscellaneous literature both pleasing 
 and instructive, has been the object of the editor in compiling 
 this work, as well to supply, to some extent, at least, the place 
 that is now occupied by publications which few will deny are of 
 a questionable moral tendency. 
 
 It has been the intention to make this volume a suitable travel 
 ing and fireside companion, profitably engaging the leisure mo 
 ments of the former, and adding an additional charm to the 
 cheerful glow of the latter ; to blend amusement with instruc 
 tion, pleasure with profit, and to present an extensive garden of 
 vigorous and useful plants, and beautiful and fragrant flowi-rs, 
 among which, perchance, there may be a few of inferior worth, 
 though none of utter inutility. While it is not exclusively a re 
 ligious work, yet it contains no article that may not be read by 
 the most devoted Christian. 
 
 From the Cincinnati Daily Times. 
 
 This is certainly a book of rare merit, and well calculated for 
 a rapid and general circulation. Its contents present an ext< u 
 sive variety of subjects, and these not only carefully but judi 
 ciously selected, and arranged in appropriate departments. l:s 
 contents have been highly spoken of by men of distinguished 
 literary acumen, both editors and ministers of varioua Christina 
 denominations. We cheerfully recommend it. 
 
 GATHERED TREASURES FROM THE MINES OF LITERATURE. "One 
 of the most interesting everyday books ever published. Like the 
 Spectator, it may be perused again and again, and yet afford 
 something to interest and amuse the reader. Its varied and choice 
 selections of whatever is beautiful or witty, startling or amus 
 ing, can not fail to afford rich enjoyment to minds of every char 
 acter, and a pleasant relaxation from more severe and vigorous 
 reading." 
 
 GATHERED TREASURES. " A choice collection of short and in 
 teresting articles, comprising selections from the ablest authors. 
 Unlike voluminous works, its varied selections afford amusement 
 for a leisure moment, or entertainment for a wniter evening. It 
 is alike a companion fur the railroad car, the library and parlor, 
 and lever fails to interest its reader."
 
 APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 TBE SPECTATOR. 
 
 1 vol. royal 8vo, 750 pages, with a portrait of Addi- 
 flon. Plain and embossed gilt. 
 
 The numerous calls for a complete and cheap edition of 
 this valuable work, have induced us to newly stereotype it, 
 in this form, corresponding in style and price with our 
 other books. Its thorough revisions have been committed 
 to competent hands, and will be found complete. 
 
 From the Central Clrist an Herald. 
 
 " One hundred and forty years ago, when there were 
 no daily newspapers nor periodicals, nor cheap fictions for 
 the people, the SPECTATOR had a daily circulation in Eng 
 land. It was witty, pithy, tasteful, and at times vigorous, 
 and lashed the vices and follies of the age, and inculcated 
 many useful lessons which would have been disregarded 
 from more serious sources. It was widely popular. It 
 contains some very excellent writing, not in the spasmodic 
 moon-struck style of the fine writing of the present day, 
 but in a free, graceful and flowing manner. It used to be 
 considered essential to a good style and a knowledge of 
 Belles-Lettres to have studied the Spectator, and we are 
 certain our age is not wise in the selection of some of 
 the substitutes which are used in its stead. It should yet 
 be a parlor volume, which should be read with great profit, 
 
 "But we do not design to criticise the book, but have 
 prefixed these few facts for the information of our readers 
 to a notice of a new edition of the work by Messrs. Apple- 
 gate dli Co. It is entirely of Cincinnati manufacture, and 
 is in a style very creditable to the enterprising house 
 which has brought it out." 
 
 From the Cinrimviti Commercial. 
 
 " APPLEGATE & Co., 43 Main street, have just published, 
 in a handsome octavo volume of 750 pages, one of the 
 very best classics in our language. It would be super 
 fluous at this day to write a line in commendation of this 
 wovk. The writings of Addison are imperishable, and 
 win continue to charm youth and age while language lasts."
 
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 PLUTAECH S LIVES. 
 
 With Historical and Critical Nbtes, and a LIFE OF PLU 
 TARCH. Illustrated with a portrait. Plain and embossed 
 gilt. 
 
 This edition has been carefully revised and corrected, 
 and is printed upon entirely new plates, stereotyped by 
 ourselves, to correspond with our library edition of Dick s 
 Works, <fec. 
 
 From the Naslmlle and Louisville Christian Advocate. 
 " PLUTARCH S LTVES. This great work, to which has 
 long since been awarded the first honors of literatute, is 
 now published complete in one volume by Messrs. Apple- 
 gate & Co., of Cinciuuati, and offered at so low a price as 
 to place it within the reach of all. This is a desideratum, 
 especially in this age of many books. Next in impor 
 tance to a thorough knowledge of history, and in many 
 respects fully equal to it, is the study of well authenti 
 cated biography. For this valuable purpose, we know of 
 no work extant superior to the fifty lives of Plutarch. It 
 is a rare magazine of literary and biographical knowledge. 
 The eminent men whose lives compose this work, consti 
 tute almost the entire of that galaxy of greatness and 
 brightness, which stretches across the horizon of the dis 
 tant past, and casts upon the present time a mild and 
 steady luster. Many of them are among the most illus 
 trious of the earth." 
 
 From the Ladies Repository. 
 
 " It is a better piece of property for a young man to 
 own, than an eighty acre lot in the Mississippi Valley, or 
 many hundred dollars in current money. We would 
 rather leave it as a legacy to a son, had we to make the 
 choice, than any moderate amount of property, if we were 
 certain he would read it ; and, we are bound to add, that, 
 were we now going to purchase a copy, this edition would 
 have the preference over every other of which we have 
 any knowledge."
 
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