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 BUILDERS OF 
 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 GREENLAW 
 
 THE LAKE HISTORY STORIES 
 
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 K-D.LINCLiiT 
 
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BUILDERS OF 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 The Service, Told in Song and Story, of 
 Those Who Gave Us Freedom d n n The 
 New Crisis and How It Must Be Met nan 
 And the Greater Freedom That Is to Come 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN GREENLAW 
 // 
 
 KENAN PROFESSOR OF ENGUSH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK 
 

 Copyright, 1918 
 
 BY 
 
 SCOTT. FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 
 CbliCATION DEPT- 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book may be used as a supplementary text in history 
 and English classes, or as an independent text. The selec- 
 tions, taken from a wide variety of sources, constitute a 
 body of patriotic literature that will not fail to appeal to 
 boys and girls to whom love of country, in these stirring 
 times, is becoming a very real thing. The study helps and 
 questions and the glossary will serve to connect the 
 selections with each other and also to provide material for 
 (. lass-room discussions. 
 
 But the book is designed also to serve several purposes 
 not included in the usual idea of a mere reader. The first 
 of these may be defined as a propaganda for good citizen- 
 ship which is approached from a somewhat new angle. The 
 chief purpose of the book is this presentation of a definite 
 conception of democratic citizenship, but interest and con- 
 creteness are gained through the poems, stories, extracts 
 from histories of high literary value, and even state papers 
 which are used as illustrations of this conception. The 
 selections have been chosen in such a way as to present, con- 
 cretely and cumulatively, a conception of patriotism that is 
 founded on doing as well as believing, on conduct as well as 
 emotion, on cooperation of all for the good of all as the ideal 
 of democracy. The pupil will see how this combination of 
 self-activity and cooperation has been the vital principle of 
 democracy from the earliest times, and how we may test the 
 spiritual quality of any age or generation by the presence 
 or absence of this principle as an active force in society. 
 
 To bring out this conception, the three parts of the book 
 are named The Call to the Colors, The Builders and 
 
 ill 
 
iv Preface 
 
 Their Work, and Soldiers of Freedom. In Part I, which 
 is largely a matter of definition, the selections, with the 
 explanatory matter that accompanies them, bring out the 
 difference between patriotic emotion and cooperative serv- 
 ice. Concreteness is further gained through the application 
 of the whole matter to the present war, both national, in- 
 volving America's relation to it, and individual, including 
 school children as well as soldiers. The whole conception 
 gains dramatic value through the vision of the Nation 
 responding to the Call to the Colors, while the idea that 
 the flag not only represents the glorious history of the 
 nation, but also depends, for its meaning, on what each 
 generation makes of it, leads naturally to the subject 
 treated in the second part of the book. 
 
 In this second part, a series of twelve pictures, or 
 dramatic moments in the history of English and American 
 democracy, is given. These constitute what may be called 
 the epic story of our democracy. Besides their fundamental 
 interest, they have an advantage through concentration, so 
 that the imagination of the pupil can grasp something of 
 the splendid sweep of the history of democracy through a 
 long period of time. This appeal to the historical imagina- 
 tion of the child is a valuable aid in developing sound 
 ideals of patriotism, and this mighty drama, presented 
 through the words and deeds of those who in many cen- 
 turies have won victories for humanity, will inspire and 
 uplift all who look upon it. In fact, teachers may find it 
 possible to present these twelve scenes, with necessary 
 omissions and condensations, as a Masque or Eitual of 
 Democracy. Throughout Part II, as in Part I, the appli- 
 cation to present conditions is constant, and the section 
 closes once more with the idea that liberty is a heritage 
 
Preface ^ 
 
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 that is to be prized, but that it is also something to be won, 
 by each generation, according to a definition which each 
 generation must work out for itself. 
 
 In Part III there is less expository matter, or propa- 
 ganda of patriotism, partly because the foundations have 
 been laid and there can be no mistake in interpretation, 
 and partly because of the nature of the selections. The 
 spirit that unites the free peoples of the world in this new- 
 old conflict with the monster of tyranny, finds illustration 
 in song and story, with further definition in several prose 
 pieces, while the application to the theme of the book is 
 shown by the pledge of America in response to the call of 
 the Allies, by the account of the making of our youth into 
 defenders of this pledge, and by President Wilson's bene- 
 diction upon the Soldiers of Freedom. 
 
 The second of the special purposes proposed in the book 
 is to give to boys and girls a clear idea of the relationship 
 between England and America as the joint founders of free 
 government and now its co-defenders. We have singularly 
 missed, in our history teaching, the full meaning of this 
 stupendous achievement. Too often England has been seen 
 as a monarchy, the hereditary enemy of the United States. 
 Too often national vainglory has turned upon the idea of 
 the punishment England underwent at the hands of our 
 forefathers. The old quarrel has been kept up, the old bat- 
 tles fought over and over, in a clumsy and dangerous man- 
 ner, for generation after generation. But to see the Amer- 
 ican Revolution as a stage in* the development of free gov- 
 ernment for England as well as for America; to see that 
 our institutions have grown from English institutions and 
 are of the same organic texture, and finally to see that now 
 at last the two great English-speaking peoples are shoulder 
 
vi Preface 
 
 to shoulder in a fight that has been theirs for ages, — all 
 this is an inspiring and impressive lesson to be burnt upon 
 the consciousness of all those youth whose eyes shall also 
 see, before they reach the three score and ten years of the 
 psalmist, that dream come true of the "The United Peoples 
 of the World." 
 
 Finally, the book illustrates certain conceptions about the 
 teaching of English. For example, it is not a textbook of 
 English, as the analysis in the preceding paragraphs will 
 show, yet it is a collection of what are sometimes called 
 "masterpieces," and it will undoubtedly help pupils who 
 study it "to speak and write the English language cor- 
 rectly." Literature is in this book regarded as the bible of 
 the human spirit, its records as authentic as battle records 
 or dynasties or constitutions, its interpretations as divine as 
 the spirit of man. Facts of literary history, facts of style, 
 facts of verse-form are all subordinated to the conviction 
 that the chief aim of the pupil should be to ascertain the 
 meaning of what poet or story-teller has to say, and its 
 application to his life. The poem or story will be read not 
 as ai source of pleasure and refreshment alone, a dessert, 
 something to break the monotony of serious study, but 
 from a broader point of view. In this particular selec- 
 tion of literature, for example, two special purposes, 
 described above, have dictated the choice of material. 
 Through this choice it has been possible not only to make 
 use of the power of imagination and beauty concentrated 
 in the individual poem, but also to construct new units, 
 by which the poems help interpret each other and help 
 also to bring a new imaginative and dramatic concep- 
 tion to life in the minds and hearts of boys and girls. The 
 Studies and Notes have been designed to make these ideas. 
 
Preface vii 
 
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 and the applications of them, as clear as possible. They 
 should be carefully studied, as they are essential to the 
 plan. They are not supplied everywhere, because in many 
 cases the nature of the selection requires no such comment ; 
 they are not supplied merely for pui-poses of examination. 
 Of course others may be added at the discretion of teachers, 
 and those that are given may be used in a variety of ways, — 
 for oral discussion by pupils in class, or for written exer- 
 cises, or as the basis for talks by the teacher. The plan 
 of the book is such as to stimulate composition, both oral 
 and written, by giving pupils interesting things to talk and 
 to write about. 
 
 It remains to add a few words of personal acknowledg- 
 ment. For the use of copyrighted material, the author is 
 indebted to the following authors and publishers: 
 
 E. P. Button and Company: "The Beloved Captain," 
 from A Student in Arms, by Donald Hankey; and "A 
 Chant of Love for England," from A Chant of Love for 
 England, and Other Poems, by Helen Gray Cone. 
 
 The John Lane Company: Certain passages from The 
 Glory of the Trenches, by Coningsby Dawson, copyright 
 1918. 
 
 Messrs. Charles Scribner^s Sons: "Vive la France," 
 from Scribner's Magazine, by Charlotte H. Crawford, copy- 
 right 1916. 
 
 Miss Theodosia Garrison : "The Soul of Jeanne D'Arc," 
 from Scribner's Magazine. 
 
 The Xew York Tribune and Mrs. Grace Ellery Chan- 
 ning-Stetson : "Qui Vive ?" by Grace Ellery Channing. 
 
 Payson S. Wild: "File Three," from The Chicago 
 Tribune. 
 
 To Mr. W. H. Elson, the author is under obligations too 
 
viii Preface 
 
 varied and numerous to admit of detailed statement. For 
 a considerable portion of the time during which the book 
 was in active preparation, daily conferences were held at 
 which the wide experience of Mr. Elson as a school man 
 and as author of the Elson Readers was generously and 
 unreservedly placed at the service of the author. 
 
 The last of these special debts is one that has just been 
 transfigured by death. In the tragic passing of Mr. Charles 
 E. S. Fielden the author has lost not only a much-loved 
 friend but a wise and helpful co-laborer on this book, all 
 of which, save only these paragraphs, he had read in type. 
 His special work, outwardly, had to do with types and 
 forms, mechanical details of book manufacture. But such 
 a description conveys no sense of the love that he had for 
 his work, or of his fine judgment and wide knowledge and 
 never-failing patience, or of that rich personality that made 
 him like one of the old books that he loved so well. Many 
 were the books that he made, in the course of a long life, 
 for thousands of regiments of school children who never 
 knew his name. And the builder of beautiful books for 
 children is surely, of good right, one of the Builders of 
 Democracy. 
 
 E. G. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART ONE 
 THE CALL TO THE COLORS 
 
 I. The Flag page 
 
 The Flag Goes By, Henry H. Bennett 15 
 
 II. More Than the Flag 
 
 Flag of the Seas! Joseph Rodman Drake 17 
 
 Captain Orme's Story 17 
 
 The Battle of Lake Erie, James Fenimore Cooper 20 
 
 The Fourth of July in 1814, General Winfield Scott.. . . 23 
 
 How the National Hymn Was Written, F. S. Key-Smith 26 
 
 The Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key 29 
 
 III. Makers of the Flag 
 
 Makers of the Flag, Franklin K. Lane 31 
 
 IV. The Work That We Do Is the Making of the Flag 
 
 I Hear America Singing, Walt Whitman 35 
 
 V. The Living Flag 
 
 Flag Day Address (delivered in Washington, June, 
 1915), Woodrow Wilson 39 
 
 VI. Men and Kings 
 
 Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, Vachel Lindsay 46 
 
 VII. The Call to the Colors 
 
 A Peoples' War (delivered in Washington, June, 1917), 
 Woodrow Wilson 50 
 
 VIII. The Response 
 
 Beat! Beat! Drums! Walt Whitman 60 
 
 Lines from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Voluntaries". . . 62 
 
 ix 
 
X Contents 
 
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 PART TWO 
 THE BUILDERS AND THEIR WORK 
 
 I. The Story of Beowulf page 
 
 Beowulf Awaits the Coming of Grendel 67 
 
 Grendel Enters the Great Hall 68 
 
 Beowulf's Victory Is Celebrated 71 
 
 Hrothgar Seeks Beowulf's Aid a Second Time 73 
 
 Beowulf's Victory Over Grendel's Mother 75 
 
 Beowulf Returns to His Warriors 78 
 
 Beowulf's Last Adventure 78 
 
 II. The Days of Knighthood in England 
 
 How Knighthood Was Won, Samuel B. Harding 82 
 
 The Finding of Excalibur 84 
 
 From The Passing of Arthur, Alfred, Lord Tennyson. . 93 
 
 III. How the Nobles Won a Share in the Government. 101 
 
 IV. Struggle for Liberty in Scotland 
 
 The Battle of Bannockburn, Sir Walter Scott 105 
 
 Bannockburn, Robert Burns 115 
 
 V. The Sufferings of the Poor Man 
 
 The King and the Peasants, John Richard Green 118 
 
 The Peasants and Their King, John Richard Green. . . 120 
 
 VI. A New World and What It Brought to England 
 
 Ulysses, Alfred, Lord Tennyson 122 
 
 Columbus, Joaquin Miller 125 
 
 The Defeat of the Armada, John Richard Green 130 
 
 The Revenge, Alfred, Lord Tennyson 136 
 
 The Sea-King's Burial, Charles Mackay 141 
 
 An Ehzabethan Seaman, James Anthony Froude 145 
 
 Ye Mariners of England, Thomas Campbell 150 
 
 VII, The Days of the Puritans 
 
 Vanity Fair, John Bunyan : . . . . 155 
 
 A Pilgrim, John Bunyan 161 
 
 The Death of Hampden, John Richard Green 163 
 
 A Poet Who Fought for Freedom 166 
 
 VIII. Parliament Supreme in England, and the 
 
 Beginnings of a New Liberty in America 
 
 The BiU of Rights 172 
 
 The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England, 
 
 Felicia Hemans 174 
 
 The Compact of the Pilgrims 177 
 
Contents xi 
 
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 IX. The Building of Democracy in the American 
 
 Colonies page 
 
 The Gray Champion, Nathaniel Hawthorne 179 
 
 X. Defenders of the Rights of the Poor Man 
 
 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray 192 
 
 The Story of Robert Bums 196 
 
 For A' That and A' That, Robert Bums 199 
 
 To a Mouse, Robert Bums 200 
 
 From A Cotter's Saturday Night, Robert Bums 201 
 
 XI. The Conflict about Free Government in England 
 AND America in the Eighteenth Century 
 
 The Enghsh Government 204 
 
 Edmund Burke, the Friend of America 209 
 
 England and America Natural Allies, John Richard 
 
 Green 213 
 
 England and America in 1782, Alfred, Lord Tennyson . . 215 
 
 XII. How Democracy Has Been Carried on in America 
 
 A Vision of Days to Come, Woodrow Wilson 217 
 
 Lexington, John Greenleaf Whittier 218 
 
 Concord Hymn, Ralph Waldo Emerson 220 
 
 Liberty or Death, Patrick Henry 221 
 
 Acceptance of Appointment as Commander-in-Chief, 
 
 George Washington 226 
 
 The Liberty Tree 227 
 
 Washington Anticipates the Declaration, George 
 
 Washington , 228 
 
 From The Declaration of Independence, Thomas 
 
 Jefferson 229 
 
 Supposed Speech of John Adams, Daniel Webster 233 
 
 Hale in the Bush 236 
 
 Tunes That Try Men's Souls, Thomas Paine 238 
 
 Song 01 Marion's Men, William Cullen Bryant 241 
 
 Lafayette, Robert C. Winthrop 243 
 
 From The Farewell to the Army, George Washington. . 247 
 The Twenty-Second of February, William Cullen 
 
 Bryant 250 
 
 Washington, Jaines Russell Lowell 251 
 
 The American Experiment, Daniel Webster 251 
 
 Sacred Obligations, Daniel Webster 256 
 
 Ode, Ralph Waldo Emerson 259 
 
 The Poor Voter on Election Day, John Greenleaf 
 
 Whittier 261 
 
 The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln 263 
 
 To Mrs. Bixby, Abraham Lincoln 264 
 
xii Contents 
 
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 PAGE 
 
 From The Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln 265 
 
 O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman 265 
 
 Our Martyr-Chief, James Russell Lowell 266 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson 268 
 
 The Antiquity of Freedom, William Cullen Bryant 275 
 
 The Ship of State, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 277 
 
 PART THREE 
 SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM 
 
 To America, By a School Girl of France 281 
 
 The Hills of Sacrifice, David Lloyd George 281 
 
 I. Allies 
 
 Belgium, the Bar-Lass, A. Mary Robinson 284 
 
 Heart of All the World (Belgium), Marion C. Smith. . 285 
 
 The Soul of Jeanne D'Arc, Theodosia Garrison 286 
 
 Qui Vive? Grace Ellery Channing 287 
 
 Vive la France! Charlotte H. Crawford 289 
 
 A Chant of Love for England, Helen Gray Cone 290 
 
 Attacking with the Dawn, David Lloyd George 291 
 
 America, a Beacon Light of Peace, Gabriele d'Annunzio.. 293 
 Why We Are Fighting Germany, Franklin K. Lane. . . 296 
 America's Pledge (Speech Delivered at Baltimore, 
 April 6, 1918), Woodrow Wilson 299 
 
 II. Battles and Heroes 
 
 The Hell-Gate of Soissons, Herbert Kaufman 305 
 
 File Three, Payson S. Wild 308 
 
 Your Lad, and My Lad, Randall Parrish 309 
 
 A Dispatch Bearer, From the Bulletin of the Alliance 
 
 Francaise 310 
 
 The Beloved Captain, Donald Hankey 312 
 
 Doing Their Bit, Coningsby Dawson 318 
 
 DiscipHne, Coningsby Dawson 321 
 
 To Overcome the World, Coningsby Dawson 325 
 
 III. On to Victory 
 
 Soldiers of Freedom, Woodrdw Wilson 326 
 
 Glossary 327 
 
BUILDERS OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 All are architects of fate, 
 
 Working in these walls of time; 
 
 Some with massive deeds and great, 
 Some with ornaments of rhyme. 
 
 — Longfellow. 
 
 In this book we are to find what great men — poets, 
 statesmen, citizens — have said about the ideals for which 
 America and her Allies are now at war. The book is thus 
 a means by which we may learn what it is to be a good 
 American citizen. All the work of the school, of course, 
 has the same purpose. There can be no higher ideal for a 
 man or a woman than to try to be a good citizen. 
 
 To be a good citizen, one must not only be industrious, 
 honest, intelligent. He must also be able and willing to 
 work with others, so that his community is a good place in 
 which to live. He must take an intelligent interest in gov- 
 ernment, so that he can choose good officers for city and 
 state, and can himself be a good officer if chosen by his 
 fellows to serve them. He must know what the nation's 
 ideals are, and must help to form these ideals. President 
 Wilson has summed up the whole duty of citizenship by 
 saying that a man must not only earn a living but also be 
 ready to help forward the great enterprises of the human 
 spirit. 
 
 9 
 
lb * * 'Guilders of Democracy 
 
 What Men Have Done for Freedom 
 
 This last sentence is a little difficult, and we shall need 
 to give attention to the two things that it tells us. '^To 
 earn a living" means that one must be a productive member 
 of society, not one who lives upon others. It means that in 
 America men have what they do not always have in other 
 countries, the privilege of developing in business or a pro- 
 fession whatever talent they possess, so that they may attain, 
 and keep, the highest rewards of their intelligence and 
 industry. In ancient Egypt, wretched, starving men 
 worked as slaves upon buildings for kings, or died in wars 
 of conquest carried on by kings. In ancient Greece, a 
 highly intelligent group of men, an aristocracy, lived ad- 
 mirable lives that were made secure for them by the 
 work of their unfortunate fellows who were not thought 
 worthy of any freedom of opportunity. In Eussia at the 
 beginning of the war, millions of peasants had no land of 
 their own, had no tools for even the simple needs of 
 farmers, had no rights to any money or property. So it has 
 been through history, a constant struggle on the part of 
 millions of men and women merely for the right to earn a 
 living. In America it is not so. Our Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence stated as rights that cannot be taken away, "life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The history of the 
 United States has established that Declaration forever. 
 
 The other part of the sentence, "to help forward the 
 great enterprises of the human spirit," points out an obli- 
 gation that rests upon all citizens of a free government. 
 "America means opportunity," said one of our greatest 
 writers. To those who established the colonies at James- 
 town, Plymouth, and elsewhere, the "opportunity" they 
 
Builders of Democracy 11 
 
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 sought was escape from unendurable conditions in England. 
 To the millions of immigrants who have come to us from 
 European countries during the last century, "opportunity" 
 has meant a similar escape from oppression — the privilege 
 of building their own lives and fortunes. To many Amer- 
 icans in recent times, "opportunity" has meant the privilege 
 of choosing one's career — to be a lawyer or an engineer or 
 a manufacturer and to win the highest reward in money 
 and position possible to one's talents and industry. The 
 establishment of free colonies in America in the seventeenth 
 century was one of the enterprises of the human spirit. 
 The winning of independence in the Revolutionary war was 
 another such enterprise. The expansion of the Eepublic 
 through the western territories, a mighty western empire, 
 conquering forest and plain, building great cities, develop- 
 ing great farms — these also have been enterprises of the 
 American spirit during the last century. The abolition 
 of slavery, the establishment of a united country, the- devel- 
 opment of our system of government to meet the needs 
 of a vast population — all these are illustrations of what 
 the human spirit, in free America, has accomplished. "Be 
 proud! for she is saved," cried a great American poet at 
 the end of the Civil War— 
 
 "She that lifts up the manhood of the poor. 
 She of the open soul and open door, 
 With room about her heart for all mankind !" 
 
 A New Summons 
 
 But the warfare never ends. "Eternal vigilance is the 
 price of liberty." Some of the foes of liberty are outside — 
 they are made visible in the German scheme of conquest 
 
12 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 and world dominion. These we must fight if we would 
 retain our liberty. But there are also foes at home — self- 
 ishness, a "pursuit of happiness" that disregards the rights 
 of others, a wrong idea of what liberty and freedom mean. 
 To keep our liberty we must triumph over these foes, for- 
 eign and near at hand. 
 
 For what avail the plow or sail. 
 Or land or life, if Freedom fail? 
 
 There is one great enterprise of the human spirit, more 
 splendid and far-reaching than any that have gone before, 
 the climax of centuries of struggle. Our country is so vast 
 in extent that we have been able to care not only for our 
 own ' population but also for millions of poor men and 
 women who found in Europe no opportunity for life, lib- 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have made America 
 an asylum of refuge for all who were oppressed, a safe 
 place in the world for democracy. Now we have found that 
 this is not enough. The world itself is to be made safe for 
 democracy. President Wilson has spoken of this new enter- 
 prise of the human spirit in many places. "The things 
 which we have always carried nearest our hearts," he says, 
 we shall fight for. Our war is "for democracy, for the right 
 of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their 
 own Governments, for the rights and liberties of small 
 nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert 
 of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations 
 and make the world itself at last free.'' 
 
 What are these things which we have always carried 
 nearest our hearts? What is the purpose for which the 
 American flag is now once more unfurled over a battlefield ? 
 
Builders of Democracy 13 
 
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 Why is that flag now for. the first time leading armed forces 
 in Europe? These are questions that this book will help 
 you to answer. And this book will help you also to answer 
 some other questions that are equally important. What is 
 your part, and mine, in this great enterprise? What is it 
 to be "called to the colors"? 
 
 One answer that may help you to find others in the pages 
 that follow is contained in the following little incident. In 
 a small cabin on a farm far out in the country lives a fam- 
 ily which possesses little beyond the bare necessities of ex- 
 istence. A visitor suggested to the woman of the house 
 that she must find it very difficult to get flour in these days. 
 
 "We ain't used no flour in six months," was the reply. 
 
 "What, no flour? Why, how do you get along?" 
 
 "Oh, we eats potaters, mostly." 
 
 '^ut you could get flour if you tried, couldn't you?" 
 
 "Well, we read in the papers awhile back as how folks 
 oughtn't to use no flour bein' as the soldiers needed it. So 
 we just stopped." 
 
 The language shows that this woman has little education. 
 If she were asked questions about the meaning of the war 
 or the events of the war, very probably she could not an- 
 swer. But she is a good citizen. She is willing to deny 
 herself for others. She is willing to co-operate with others 
 in this great enterprise. She has answered the call to 
 the colors as truly as any young man who goes to fight 
 "over there." 
 
PART ONE 
 
 THE CALL TO THE COLORS 
 
 I. THE FLAG 
 
 You know what it is to see the school team, or the college 
 team in which you may be interested, running on the field 
 at the start of a big game. They have been called to the 
 colors of their school, and they will defend those colors 
 with every ounce of strength they possess. It is not only 
 of the present contest that they think. They must uphold 
 the tradition of the school. All the victories won by your 
 Bchool teams in the past years help to make this team today 
 the object of your admiration and support. 
 
 You feel that they represent you. You would like to 
 help them, and you do help them by your loyalty, by your 
 shouts, by your songs and cheers. You also would like to 
 be able to "make" that team, so that you could help uphold 
 the honor of the school. 
 
 Now watch the soldiers marching down the avenue, ranks 
 on ranks of them, marshalled under the flag. Here is the 
 Nation's "team,'' ready to do battle for the honor of the 
 great school to which we all belong. They have been called 
 to the colors. 
 
 How many there are of them! And how strong they 
 look. "Eyes right," team work in every movement, com- 
 pany after company of them, until the regiment has passed 
 
 by. 
 
 Then all at once you see in them not merely hundreds 
 and thousands of men in uniform, but the embodiment of 
 
 14 
 
The Call to the Colors 15 
 
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 our nation's stfength. They stand for the nation, as your 
 team stands for the school. At the head of the column 
 the colors are flying. The flag — Old Glory we call it — is 
 the symbol of the strength of the nation. It is a nation 
 that has grown mighty through the years that stretch from 
 Jamestown and Plymouth, from Lexington and Concord. 
 It is a nation that has filled plain and forest, has drawn 
 wealth from mine and farm-land, has built great cities and 
 vast industries. It is a nation, too, that has given safety 
 and freedom not only to those born under its flag but also 
 to millions who have come here from Europe to seek a 
 happier life. 
 
 It is this pride in the might of our nation, this love for 
 the flag and all that it implies, this loyalty that is the ele- 
 mentary virtue of patriotic citizens everywhere, that Mr. 
 Bennett has expressed in his poem, "The Flag Goes By." 
 
 THE FLAG GOES BY 
 
 HENBY H. BENNETT 
 
 1 
 
 Hats off! 
 
 Along the streets there comes 
 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, 
 
 A flash of color beneath the sky : 
 
 Hats off! 
 The flag is passing by ! 
 
 2 
 
 Blue and crimson and white it shines, 
 Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. 
 
 Hats off! 
 The colors before us fly; 
 But more than the flag is passing by. 
 
16 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 3 
 
 Sea fights and land fights, grim and great. 
 Fought to make and to save the State : 
 Weary marches and sinking ships; 
 Cheers of victory on dying lips; 
 
 4 
 Days of plenty and years of peace ; 
 March of a sliong land's swift increase; 
 Equal justice, right, and law. 
 Stately honor and reverend awe; 
 
 5 
 
 Sign of a nation, great and strong 
 To ward her people from foreign wrong : 
 Pride and glory and honor, — all 
 Live in the colors to stand or fall. 
 
 6 
 
 Hats off! 
 Along the street there comes 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums ; 
 And loyal hearts are beating high : 
 
 Hats off! 
 The flag is passing by! 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Find in the poem illustrations of the way in which the flag 
 signifies the might of the nation. 
 
 2. What is meant by "more than the flag is passing by"? 
 
 3. Name events in American history that illustrate each line 
 ©f the third stanza. 
 
 4. What periods of our history are referred to in the fourth 
 stanza? What is meant by "march of a strong land's swift in- 
 «rease" ? By "Equal justice, right, and law" ? 
 
 5. What part have you, as you watch the soldiers marching by ? 
 
The Call to the Colors 17 
 
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 II. MOEE THAN THE FLAG 
 
 Flag of the seas! on ocean wave 
 Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave; 
 When death, careering on the gale, 
 Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, 
 And frighted waves rush wildly back 
 Before the broadside's reeling rack. 
 Each dying wanderer of the sea 
 Shall look at once to heaven and thee, 
 And smile to see thy splendors fly 
 In triumph o'er his closing eye. 
 J — Joseph Rodman Drake. 
 
 "Sea fights and land fights" have helped to give meaning 
 to the Flag. A little more than a century ago, all Europe 
 was at war. American commerce was swept from the seas, 
 but the little American navy measured strength with the 
 great sea-power of England, a nation that had defeated the 
 combined naval power of France and Spain at Trafalgar. 
 In 1812 the Constitution compelled the British warship 
 Guerriere to surrender. Captain Orme, an American naval 
 officer whose ship had been captured by the Guerriere, tells 
 of his experience as a British prisoner during the fight. 
 
 CAPTAIN ORME'S STORY 
 
 I commanded the American brig Betsey, in the year 
 1812, and was returning home from Naples, Italy, to Bos- 
 ton. When near the western edge of the Grand Bank of 
 Newfoundland, on the 10th of August, 1812, I fell in with 
 the British frigate Guerriere, Captain Dacres, and was cap- 
 tured by him. Myself and a boy were taken on board of 
 the frigate; the remainder of my officers and men were 
 
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 left in the Betsey, and sent into Halifax, N. S., as a prize 
 to the Guerriere. 
 
 On the 19th of the same month, the wind being fresh 
 from the northward, the Guerriere was under double-reefed 
 topsails during all the forenoon of this day. At 2 p.m. we 
 discovered a large sail to windward, bearing about North 
 from us. We soon made her out to be a frigate. She was 
 steering off from the wind, with her head to the southwest, 
 evidently with the intention of cutting us off as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 Signals were soon made by the Guerriere, but as they 
 were not answered, the conclusion of course was, that she 
 was either a French or an American frigate. Captain 
 Dacres appeared anxious to ascertain her character, and 
 after looking at her for that purpose, handed me his spy- 
 glass, requesting me to give him my opinion of the stranger. 
 I soon saw from the peculiarity of her sails, and from her 
 general appearance, that she was, without doubt, an Ameri- 
 can frigate, and communicated the same to Captain Dacres. 
 He immediately replied, that he thought she came down 
 too boldly for an American, but soon after added, "The 
 better he behaves, the more honor we shall gain by taking 
 him." 
 
 The two ships were rapidly approaching each other, 
 when the Guerriere backed her maintopsail, and waited for 
 her opponent to come down and commence the action. He 
 then set an English flag at each masthead, beat to quarters, 
 and made ready for the fight. When the strange frigate 
 came down to within two or three miles distance, he hauled 
 upon the wind, took in all his light sails, reefed his top- 
 sails, and deliberately prepared for action. It was now 
 
The Call to the Colors 19 
 
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 about five o'clock in the afternoon, when he filled away 
 and ran down for the Guerriere . At this moment, Captain 
 Dacres politely said to me, "Captain Orme, as I suppose you 
 do not wish to fight against your own countrymen, you are 
 at liberty to go below the water-line." It was not long after 
 this before I retired from the quarter-deck to the cockpit. 
 
 Of course I saw no more of the action until the firing 
 ceased, but I heard and felt much of its effects; for soon 
 after I left the deck, the firing commenced on board the 
 Guerriere, and was kept up almost constantly until about 
 six o'clock, when I heard a tremendous explosion from the 
 opposing frigate. The effect of her shot seemed to make 
 the Guerriere reel and tremble as though she had received 
 the shock of an earthquake. Immediately after this, I 
 heard a tremendous crash on deck, and was told the mizzen- 
 mast was shot away. In a few moments afterward the 
 cockpit was filled with wounded men. 
 
 At about half-past six o'clock in the evening, after the 
 firing had ceased, I went on deck, and there beheld a scene 
 which it would be difficult to describe. All the Guerriere's 
 masts were shot away, and as she had no sails to steady her, 
 she lay rolling like a log in the trough of the sea. The decks 
 were covered with blood, the gun tackles were not made 
 fast, and several of the guns got loose, and were surging 
 to and fro from one side to the other. 
 
 In the same year Captain Lawrence, dying in the midst 
 of the battle between the American ship Chesapeake and 
 the British Shannon, called out as he was being borne 
 below, "Don't give up the ship !" 
 
 In June of 1813, Captain Perry won his great victory 
 
20 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 over the British fleet on Lake Erie. James Fenimore 
 Cooper, whose stories of Indian life are better known than 
 his history of the American navy, tells us about the battle. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE 
 
 JAMES FENIMOEE COOPER 
 
 The English vessels presented a very gallant array, and 
 their appearance was beautiful and imposing. Their line 
 was compact, with the heads of the vessels still to the 
 southward and westward; their ensigns were just opening 
 to the air; their vessels were freshly painted, and their 
 canvas was new and perfect. The American line was more 
 straggling. The order of battle required them to form 
 within half a cable's length of each other, but the schooners 
 astern could not close with the vessels ahead, which sailed 
 faster, and had more light canvas, until some considerable 
 time had elapsed. 
 
 A few minutes before twelve, the Detroit (Br.) threw a 
 twenty-four pound shot at the Lawrence (Am.), then on 
 her weather quarter, distant between one and two miles. 
 Captain Perry now passed an order by trumpet, through 
 the vessels astern, for the line to close to the prescribed 
 order ; and soon after the Scorpion was hailed, and directed 
 to begin her long run. At this nioment, the Ameri- 
 can vessels in line were edging down upon the English, 
 those in front being necessarily nearer to the enemy than 
 those more astern, with the exception of the Ariel and 
 Scorpion, which two schooners had been ordered to keep 
 well to windward of the Lawrence. As the Detroit had an 
 armament of long guns. Captain ^arclay (the British 
 
The Call to the Colors 21 
 
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 commander) manifested his judgment in commencing the 
 action in this manner; and in a short time, the firing be- 
 tween that ship, the Lawrence, and the two schooners at 
 the head of the American line, got to be very animated. 
 
 The Lawrence now showed a signal for the squadron 
 to close, each vessel in her station, as previously designated. 
 A few minutes later the vessels astern began to fire, and 
 the action became general but distant. The Lawrence, 
 however, appeared to be the principal aim of the enemy, 
 and before the firing had lasted any material time, the 
 Detroit, Hunter, and Queen Charlotjte were directing most 
 of their efforts against her. The American brig endeavored 
 to close, and did succeed in getting within reach of can- 
 ister, though not without suffering materially, as she 
 fanned down upon the enemy. At this time, the support 
 of the two schooners ahead, which were well commanded 
 and fought, was of the greatest moment to her; for the 
 vessels astern, though in the line, could be of little use in 
 diverting the fire, on account of their positions and the 
 distance. After the firing had lasted some time, the 
 Niagara hailed the Caledonia, and directed the latter to 
 make room for the former to pass ahead. . . . Captain 
 Perry, finding himself in a vessel that had been rendered 
 nearly useless by the injuries she had received, and which 
 was dropping out of the combat, got into his boat, and 
 pulled after the Niagara, on board of which vessel he ar- 
 rived at about half-past two. Soon after, the colors of the 
 Lawrence were hauled down, that vessel being literally a 
 wreck. 
 
 WTien the enemy saw the colors of the Lawrence come 
 down, be confidently believed that he had gained the day. 
 
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 His men appeared over the bulwarks of the different ves- 
 sel and gave three cheers. For a few minutes, indeed, there 
 appears to have been, as if by common consent, nearly a 
 general cessation in the firing, during which both parties 
 were preparing for a desperate and final effort. The wind 
 had freshened, and the position of the Niagara, which brig 
 was now abeam of thp leading English vessel, was com- 
 manding; while the gun- vessels astern, in consequence of 
 the increasing breeze, were enabled to close very fast. 
 
 At 45 minutes past 2, or when time had been given to 
 the gun-vessels to receive the order mentioned. Captain 
 Perry showed the signal from the Niagara for close action, 
 and immediately bore up, under his foresail, topsails, and 
 topgallantsail. As the American vessels hoisted their an- 
 swering flags, this order was received with three cheers, 
 and it was obeyed with alacrity and spirit. The enemy had 
 attempted to wear round, to get fresh broadsides to bear, in 
 doing wliich his line got into confusion, and the two ships 
 for a short time were foul of each other, while the Lady 
 Prevost had so far shifted her berth as to be both to the 
 westward and to the leeward of the Detroit. 
 
 At this critical moment, the Niagara came steadily 
 down, within half pistol shot of the enemy, standing be- 
 tween the Chippewa and Lady Prevost, on one side and the 
 Detroit, Queen Charlotte, and Hunter on the other. In 
 passing, she poured in her broadsides, starboard and lar- 
 board, ranged ahead of the ships, luffed athwart their bows, 
 and continued delivering a close and deadly fire. The 
 shrieks from the Detroit proclaimed that the tide of battle 
 had turned. At the same moment, the gun-vessels and 
 Caledonia were throwing in close discharges of grape and 
 
The Call to the Colors 23 
 
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 canister astern. A conflict so fearfully close, and so deadly, 
 was necessarily short. In fifteen or twenty minutes after 
 the Niagara bore up, a hail was passed among the small 
 vessels, to say that the enemy had struck, and an officer of 
 the Queen Charlotte appeared on the taffrail of that ship, 
 waving a white handkerchief, bent to a boarding pike. 
 
 You can easily find other stories written by men who 
 took part in stirring events in which the Flag acquired 
 new authority. Among the "land fights," for example. 
 General Winfield Scott's account of the battle of Chippewa, 
 in 1814, shows how brave American soldiers a century ago 
 kept the Fourth of July in time of war. 
 
 THE FOURTH OF JULY IN 1814 
 
 GEXERAL WIXFIELD SCOTT 
 
 Early in the march, a little above Blackrock, a consid- 
 erable body of the enemy was discovered. It proved to be 
 a corps of observation under the command of the Marquis 
 of Tweedale. All hearts leapt with joy at the chance of 
 doing something worthy of the anniversary, and to cheer 
 our desponding countrymen at home — something that might 
 ever, on that returning day — 
 
 Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered. 
 
 The events of the day, however, proved most tantalizing. 
 An eager pursuit of sixteen miles ensued. The heat and 
 dust were scarcely bearable; but not a man flagged. All 
 felt that immortal fame lay within reach. . . . Finally, 
 toward sunset, the enemy were driven across the Chippewa 
 River. . . . 
 
24 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 The anniversary dinner cooked for Scott's brigade, with 
 many extras added by him in honor of the day, happily 
 came over from Schlosser on the 5th, and was soon dis- 
 patched by officers and men, who had scarcely broken fast 
 in thirty-odd hours. 
 
 To keep his men in breath, he had ordered a parade for 
 grand evolutions in the cool of the afternoon. For this 
 purpose there was, below the creek, a plain extending back 
 from the Niagara of some hundred of yards in the broader 
 part, and a third narrower lower down. From the dinner, 
 without expecting a battle, though fully prepared for one, 
 Scott marched for this field. The view below from his 
 camp was obstructed by the brushwood that fringed the 
 creek; but when arrived near the bridge at its mouth, he 
 met Major General Brown, coming in at full gallop, who, 
 in passing, said with emphasis, "You will have a battle !" 
 and, without halting, pushed on to the rear to put Eipley's 
 brigade in motion — supposing that Scott was perfectly 
 aware of the near approach of the entire British army and 
 going out expressly to meet it. 
 
 The head of his (Scott's) column had scarcely entered 
 the bridge before it was met by a fire, at an easy distance, 
 from nine field guns. Towson's battery quickly responded, 
 with some effect. The column of our infantry, greatly 
 elongated by the diminution of front, to enable it to pass 
 the narrow bridge, steadily advanced, though with some 
 loss, and battalion after battalion when over formed line to 
 the left and front, under the continued fire of the enemy's 
 battery. When Scott was seen approaching the bridge. 
 General Riall (the British commander), who had dispersed 
 twice his numbers the winter before, in his expedition on 
 
The Call to the Colors 25 
 
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 the American side (of the boundary between Canada and 
 the United States), said, "It is nothing but a body of 
 Buffalo militia !" But when the bridge was passed in fine 
 style, under his heavy fire of artillery, he added with an 
 oath, "Why, these are regulars !" The gray coats at first 
 deceived him, which Scott was obliged to accept, there 
 being no blue cloth in the country. In compliment to the 
 battle of Chippewa, our military cadets have worn gray 
 coats ever since. Two hostile lines were now in view of 
 each other, but a little beyond the effective range of mus- 
 ketry. 
 
 It has been said that the model American brigade, not- 
 withstanding the excessive vigor and prowess exerted the 
 day before, had failed in the ardent desire to engraft its 
 name, by a decisive victory, on the great national anni- 
 versary. The same corps again confronting the enemy, but 
 in an open field, Scott, riding rapidly along the line, threw 
 out a few short sentences — among them, alluding to the 
 day before, was this : "Let us make a new anniversary for 
 ourselves!" . . . And it has often happened, if not al- 
 ways, when Fourths of July have fallen on Sundays, that 
 Chippewa has been remembered at the celebrations of Inde- 
 pendence on the 5th of July. 
 
 So General Scott and his men, when the nation's years 
 were yet the years of young men, found in the anniversary 
 inspiration for a great victory. To them, "more than the 
 flag was passing by." 
 
 But you should realize that "more than the flag" means 
 the defeats and discouragements as well as the victories. 
 General Scott, you will remember, speaks of the desire to 
 
26 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 do something that would encourage '^our desponding coun- 
 trymen at home." The year of Chippewa and Lund/s 
 Lane saw also the capture and burning of "Washington 
 and the ripening of the plot in New England to oppose 
 the further continuation of the war. Even secession was 
 talked of. Divided in opinion as to the wisdom of making 
 war, lacking a large and disciplined army to make effective 
 the protests of the government against the abuses directed 
 against the American people, forced to build a navy almost 
 under fire of hostile guns, Americans suffered in defeat as 
 well as rejoiced in victory. 
 
 The true spirit of the nation, however, is symbolized by 
 the story of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner, a 
 story that can not be too often told. You will remember 
 that Francis Scott Key wrote the h}Tnn while a prisoner on 
 the British fleet that was attacking Baltimore in 1814. 
 
 ''You may imagine," he writes, "what a state of anxiety 
 I endured. ... To make my feelings still more acute, 
 the Admiral had intimated his fears that the town must 
 be burned, and I was sure that if taken it would have been 
 given to plunder." 
 
 Mr. F. S. Key-Smith, a descendant of the author of 
 the national h3rmn, has given an interesting account of the 
 way in which it was written. 
 
 HOW THE NATIONAL HYMN WAS WRITTEN 
 
 F. S. KEY-SMITH 
 
 Between two and three o'clock in the morning the 
 British, with one or two rocket and several bomb-vessels 
 manned by 1200 picked men, attempted, under cover of 
 
The Call to the Colors 27 
 
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 darkness, to slip past the fort and up the Patapsco, hoping 
 to effect a landing and attack the garrison in the rear. 
 
 Succeeding in evading the gnns of the fort, but unmind- 
 ful of Fort Covington, under whose batteries they next 
 came, their enthusiasm over the supposed success of the 
 venture gave way in a derisive cheer, which, borne by the 
 damp night air to our small party of Americans on the 
 Minden (the ship on which Key was held), must have 
 chilled the blood in their veins and pierced their patriotic 
 hearts like a dagger. 
 
 Fort Covington, the lazaretto, and the American barges 
 in the river now simultaneously poured a galling fire upon 
 the unprotected enemy, raking them fore and aft, in hor- 
 rible slaughter. Disappointed and disheartened, many 
 wounded and dying, they endeavored to regain their ships, 
 which came closer to the fortifications in an endeavor to 
 protect their retreat. A fierce battle ensued. Fort Mc- 
 Henry opened the full force of all her batteries upon them 
 as they repassed, and the fleet responding with entire 
 broadsides made an explosion so terrific that it seemed as 
 though Mother Earth had opened and was vomiting shot 
 and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone. 
 
 The heavens aglow were a seething sheet of flame, and 
 the waters of the harbor, lashed into an angry sea by the 
 vibrations, the Minden rode and tossed as though in a tem- 
 pest. It is recorded that the houses in the city of Baltimore, 
 two miles distant, were shaken to their foundations. Above 
 the tempestuous roar, intermingled with its hubbub and 
 confusion, were heard the shrieks and groans of the dying 
 and wounded. But alas! they were from the direction of 
 the fort. What did it mean? For over an hour the pan- 
 
28 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 demonmm reigned. Suddenly it ceased — all was quiet, not 
 a shot fired or sound heard, a deathlike stillness prevailed, 
 as the darkness of night resumed its sway. The awful still- 
 ness and suspense were unbearable. With the approach of 
 dawn Mr. Key turned his weary and bloodshot eyes in the 
 direction of the fort and its flag, but the darkness had 
 given place to a heavy fog of smoke and mist which now 
 enveloped the harbor and hung close down to the surface 
 of the water. . . . Some time must yet elapse before 
 anything definite might be ascertained, or the object of his 
 aching heart's desire discerned. At last it came. A bright 
 streak of gold mingled with crimson shot athwart the 
 eastern sky, followed by another and still another, as the 
 morning sun arose in the fulness of his glory, lifting "the 
 mists of the deep," crowning a "Heaven-blest land'' with 
 a new victory and grandeur. 
 
 Through a vista in the smoke and vapor could now be 
 dimly seen the flag of his country. As it caught "The 
 gleam of the morning's first beam," and "in full glory re- 
 flected shone in the stream" his proud and patriotic heart 
 knew no bounds; the wounds inflicted "by the battle's con- 
 fusion" were healed instantly as if by magic; a new life 
 sprang into every fiber, and his pent-up emotions burst 
 forth with an inspiration in a song of praise, victory, and 
 thanksgiving as he exclaimed: 
 
 " 'Tis the star-spangled banner ; long may it wave 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" 
 
 The first draft of the words were emotionally scribbled 
 upon the back of a letter which he carried in his pocket 
 and of which he made use to dot down some memoranda of 
 his thoughts and sentiments. . . . Copies of the song 
 
The Call to the Colors 29 
 
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 were struck off in handbill fonn, and promiscuously dis- 
 tributed on the street. Catching with popular favor, like 
 prairie fire it spread in every direction, was read and dis- 
 cussed, until, in less than an hour, the news was all over 
 the city. Picked up by a crowd of soldiers assembled, some 
 accounts put it, about Captain McCauley's tavern, next to 
 the Holiday Street Theater, others have it around their 
 tents on the outskirts of the city, Ferdinand Durang, a 
 musician, adapted the words to the old tune of "Anacreon 
 in Heaven," and, mounting a chair, rendered it in fine style. 
 On the evening of the same day it was again rendered upon 
 the stage of the Holiday Street Theater by an actress, and 
 the theater is said to have gained thereby a national repu- 
 tation. In about a fortnight it had reached New Orleans 
 and was publicly played by a military band, and shortly 
 thereafter was heard in nearly, if not all> the principal 
 cities and towns throughout the country. 
 
 THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 
 
 FRANCIS SCOTT KET; 
 
 say, can you see, by the dawn's early light. 
 
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ? 
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous 
 fight. 
 
 O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly stream- 
 ing! 
 And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air. 
 Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ; 
 
 say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave? 
 
 On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep. 
 Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes. 
 
30 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, 
 
 As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? 
 Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam. 
 In full glory reflected now shines on the stream : 
 'Tis tiie star-spangled banner ; long may it wa^ 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 
 
 And where is that band who so vauntingly swore 
 That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion 
 
 A home and a country should leave us no more ? 
 
 Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. 
 
 No refuge could save the hireling and slave 
 
 From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave; 
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 
 
 thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 
 
 Between their loved homes and the war's desolation ! 
 
 Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land 
 Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a 
 nation. 
 
 Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, 
 
 And this be our motto — "In God is our trust." 
 
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 
 
 III. MAKERS OF THE FLAG 
 
 In Mr. Bennett's poem we found the suggestion that 
 "more than the flag is passing by." Some illustrations 
 of the meaning of this sentence have just been given — 
 American history, in peace and war, is symbolized by the 
 Flag. It gains a deeper meaning for us, therefore, when 
 we call to mind its history. 
 
 American soldiers and sailors are now engaged in a 
 
The Call to the Colors 31 
 
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 war far greater than any that has preceded, are fighting 
 in battles beside which Chippewa and Lake Erie and Bal- 
 timore were minor engagements. They are making new 
 history for the Flag, to give it new sacredness in our own 
 and in future generations. But they are not the only 
 Makers of the Flag. 
 
 Carpenters and mechanics who build ships to carry wheat 
 to our Allies, farmers who raise foodstuffs, men and 
 women and boys and girls who co-operate with the Food 
 Administration in saving necessary foods, all who help 
 the Government in the immense task of raising the money 
 necessary to enable us to win the victory, all of us who 
 devote our time and our energies, so far as we can, to 
 thinking and winning victory — all these are Makers of 
 the Flag who are now called to the Colors. Democracy 
 means co-operation. 
 
 In June, 1914, when all the world was still at peace, 
 Mr. Franklin K. Lane spoke to the five thousand officers 
 and employees of the Department of the Interior about 
 the Makers of the Flag. 
 
 MAKERS OF THE FLAG 
 
 FRANKLIN K. LANE 
 
 This morning as I passed into the Land Office, the 
 Flag dropped me a most cordial salutation, and from its 
 rippling folds I heard it say: "Good morning, Mr. Flag 
 Maker." 
 
 "I beg your pardon. Old Glory," I said; "aren't you 
 mistaken? I am not the President of the United States 
 nor a member of Congress nor even a general in the army. 
 I am only a Government clerk." 
 
32 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 "I greet you again, Mr. Flag Maker/' replied the gay 
 voice; "I know you well. You are the man who worked 
 in the swelter of yesterday straightening out the tangle 
 of that farmer's homestead in Idaho, or perhaps you found 
 the mistake in 'the Indian contract in Oklahoma, or helped 
 to clear that patent for the hopeful inventor in New York, 
 or pushed the opening of that new ditch in Colorado, or 
 made that mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief 
 to the old soldier in Wyoming. No matter, whichever one 
 of these beneficent individuals you may happen to be, I give 
 you greeting, Mr. Flag Maker." 
 
 I was about to pass on, when the Flag stopped me with 
 these words: 
 
 "Yesterday the President spoke a word that made hap- 
 pier the future of ten million peons in Mexico; but that 
 act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which 
 the boy in Georgia is making to win the Corn Club 
 prize this summer. 
 
 "Yesterday the Congress spoke a word which will open 
 the door of Alaska; but a mother in Michigan worked 
 from sunrise until far into the night, to give her boy an 
 education. She, too, is making the flag. 
 
 "Yesterday we made a new law to prevent flnancial 
 panics, and yesterday, maybe, a school teacher in Ohio 
 taught his first letters to a boy who will one day write 
 a song that will give cheer to the millions of our race. 
 We are all making the flag." 
 
 "But," I said impatiently, "these people were only 
 working!" Then came a great shout from the Flag: 
 
 "The work that we do is the making of the flag. 
 
 "I am not the flag; not at all. I am nothing more 
 than its shadow. 
 
The Call to the Colors 33 
 
 jiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiMmiiiMiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiniiniiiiiiriiiiiiiiuiiiiiuiiiiiiMiiinMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiHiiiiiiiiiia 
 
 "I am whatever you make me, nothing more. 
 
 "I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what 
 a People may become. 
 
 "I live a changing life, a life of moods and passions, 
 of heartbreaks and tired muscles. 
 
 ^'Sometimes I am strong with pride, when workmen 
 do an honest piece of work, fitting rails together truly. 
 
 "Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from 
 me, and cynically I play the coward. 
 
 "Sometimes I am loud, garish, and full of that ego that 
 blasts judgment. 
 
 "But always, I am all that you hope to be, and have 
 the courage to try for. 
 
 " I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling 
 hope. 
 
 "I am the da/s work of the weakest man, and the 
 largest dream of the most daring. 
 
 "I am the Constitution and the courts, the statutes 
 and the statute makers, soldier and dreadnaught, drayman 
 and street sweep, cook, counselor, and clerk. 
 
 "I am the battle of yesterday, and the mistake of to- 
 morrow. 
 
 "I am the mystery of the men who do without knowing 
 why. 
 
 "I am the clutch of an idea, and the reasoned purpose 
 of resolution, 
 
 "I am no more than what you believe me to be, and I 
 am all that you believe I can be. 
 
 "I am what you make me, nothing more. 
 
 "I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a 
 symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big 
 
34 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiHiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiuMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiHiiiiiim^^^^ 
 
 thing which makes this nation. My stars and my stripes 
 are your dream and your labors. They are bright with 
 cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because 
 you have made them so out of your hearts. For you 
 are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory 
 in the making.'' 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. What does Mr. Lane mean by saying that the Georgia boy, 
 the mother in Michigan, the school teacher in Ohio, are all Mak- 
 ers of the Flag? How do you think of the United States — as a 
 great population ruled by a President, a Congress, and a judiciary 
 at Washington, and by the various state and city governments, 
 with an army and a navy for defence, or as something more? 
 What is it, do you think, to be an American? Does it only mean 
 the right to vote and to hold office? Have you any part in 
 America? 
 
 2. What kinds of service does Mr. Lane have in mind — service 
 for one's self alone? What ideas about life, held by some 
 people, does he omit? Put into a paragraph a statement about 
 "How the farmer helps make the Flag." (For "farmer" you may 
 substitute the occupation of the man or woman who is the best 
 flag-maker you know.) 
 
 3. "I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what a people 
 may become." What do you think is meant by "belief in your- 
 self"? Name several illustrations of what you would like to see 
 our country become — ^your ideals of a great nation. Which of 
 these ideals would you like to see made real in your own life and 
 career ? 
 
 4. Think of several ways in which your school can co-operate 
 in making the flag. 
 
The Call to the Colors 85 
 
 niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimiimiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 IV. "THE WORK THAT WE DO IS THE MAKING 
 OF THE FLAG." 
 
 America has had many men and women who have 
 written of democracy. Among them none has expressed 
 60 fully the idea of co-operation and brotherhood as has 
 Walt Whitman. Several of his poems, therefore, are to 
 be found in various parts of this book. He was devoted to 
 Lincoln, and wrote his most beautiful poems about the 
 death of his friend. He saw hospital service during the 
 Civil War, and wrote intimately and tenderly about the 
 sufferings of wounded and dying soldiers. He loved men^ 
 the crowds on the Brooklyn ferries, and the thousands 
 who made homes in the great western wilderness. His 
 point of view, in many things that he wrote, is like 
 that of Secretary Lane — "the work that we do is the 
 making of the flag." 
 
 In the lines that follow, the good gray poet, as he has 
 been called, tells us about America at work, and singing 
 about the work — "strong with pride, when workmen do an 
 honest piece of work, fitting rails together truly." 
 
 • 
 
 I HEAR AMERICA SINGING 
 
 WALT WHITMAN 
 
 I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear. 
 Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be, 
 
 blithe and strong. 
 The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, 
 The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or 
 
 leaves off work. 
 The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the 
 
 deck-hand singing on the steamboat deck. 
 
36 Builders of Democracy 
 
 IIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIilllllllllllllllllSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIiniHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlillllllllliuiiuilM 
 
 The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter 
 
 singing as he stands, 
 The wood-cutters' song, the plowboy's on his way in the 
 
 morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown. 
 The dfelicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife 
 
 at work, or of the girl sewing or washing. 
 Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else. 
 The day what belongs to the day — at night the party of 
 
 young fellows, robust, friendly. 
 Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs. 
 
 V. THE LIVING FLAG. 
 
 You see, by this time, that the idea that the soldiers 
 are the team, and that the fia,g is the banner of the school 
 to which we all belong, is quite insufficient. You are 
 not on the side-lines, cheering the team to victory: you 
 have a part to play. That thought about the past victories 
 was all right in aj way, but it did not go far enough. We 
 can't think, for example, "Our soldiers showed at Chippewa 
 the kind of stuif Uncle Sam manufactures, and our sailors 
 on Lake Efie showed what kind of team we can put out 
 in an All- World Series, and that's what we are going to 
 do to Germany." That is, we can't think of these things 
 and just sit back in our seats in the grandstand and watch 
 the game. 
 
 For, now that we think of it, who is Uncle Sam? Is 
 he the Government, pictured as a rather funny looking 
 old gentleman who kindly watches over us, takes care of 
 us, keeps the burglars away with his gun? 
 
 You are Uncle Sam. 
 
 In a patriotic celebration held not long ago in one of 
 
The Call to the Colors 37 
 
 UillliiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiinMiiiiiiiiiininMiiimiiiMiiiniiiiniuiiiiiiiiiiiiiMMiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiniiiuiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 our large cities, hundreds of school children, dressed in 
 the colors of the flag, were arranged on the side of a hill 
 in such a way as to form a gigantic American flag. That 
 is one way to get the idea that the flag is not a mere 
 banner, a piece of colored bunting. It is alive! 
 
 When we read, in an oration in praise of the Stars and 
 Stripes, that "white is for purity, red for valor, blue for 
 justice; and altogether, bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, 
 blazing in the sky, make the flag of our country to be 
 cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands," 
 — when we read this, it becomes a question with us as to 
 whether we really mean these things or whether they are 
 only words. 
 
 So, too, when we get on our feet and sing, 
 
 " *Ti8 the Star Spangled Banner ; long may it wave 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave," — 
 
 what do we really get out of "land of the free and the 
 home of the brave"? Is it merely sentiment, enthusiasm 
 for something vaguely felt or something that we think we 
 ought to feel, a sort of tribute to Revolutionary heroes now 
 little more than names in our history books, something 
 outside ourselves, not ourselves? If so, we have not yet 
 found out what it is to be an American. 
 
 Two ideas stand out in what we have read thus far. The 
 first is that the flag is something far deeper than a combi- 
 nation of colors signifying purity, valor, justice. It is 
 the treasure won, in blood and devotion, by those who 
 made us a nation, and added to by countless others through 
 the long years until at length it has passed into our keep- 
 ing. And the other idea is that the flag was not made, 
 once for all, by Betsy Ross and adopted by Congress as 
 
38 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiMHiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiii^ 
 
 the emblem of the nation, just as the Union Jack is the 
 emblem of Great Britain and the tri-color the emblem of 
 France, but that it is made new, horn again, in each gener- 
 ation. This re-making is our chief business — all of us — 
 in this world. 
 
 With these two ideas in mind, you are prepared to read 
 President Wilson's address, delivered in Washington in 
 June, 1915. Here are some of the things to look for as 
 you read: 
 
 1. In the first place, notice what is said about think- 
 ing and speaking about the flag in terms of "vague 
 sentiment.^' When Mr. Key wrote his hymn to the flag, 
 it wasn't vague sentiment with him, for we have seen 
 what a terrible experience is back of these words. (Mark 
 this word experience, because Mr. Wilson will use it pres- 
 ently and you will wish to know what it means.) But our 
 singing of these words may easily be mere vague sentiment, 
 unless we are watchful. And when we read, or some one 
 tells us in a Fourth of July oration, that "white is for 
 purity, red for valor, blue for justice," it is vague sentiment 
 for us so long as the purity, valor, and justice seem to us 
 to be in the flag and not in our own lives. As Mr. Wilson 
 puts it, it is the experience, that is, the actual living of 
 men and women, that gives meaning to the flag. 
 
 2. Again, Mr. Wilson tells us more about this "liv- 
 ing under the flag." Great men have expressed the mean- 
 ing of America through what they have done and through 
 what they have said for our guidance. By so doing, they 
 "have coined our hearts into action or into words." Thus 
 we see once more that "more than the flag is passing by." 
 The heroic past has made the flag what it is. 
 
The Coll to the Colors 39 
 
 niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 3. But as we read on we notice that, after all, "the real 
 experience and life of a nation lies with the great multi- 
 tudes of unknown men," not with government officials and 
 generals and orators and poets. T\Tiat these ordinary and 
 apparently unimportant people are and what they desire to 
 be are the elements that give meaning to the flag. To put 
 it in another way, the life of the nation is not in the poli- 
 tician, nor in the platforms of political parties, but in "that 
 voiceless mass of men who merely go about their daily 
 tasks." Thus the idea about "makers of the flag" is once 
 more brought before us. "The work that we do is the 
 making of the flag." 
 
 4. Finally, we learn why we celebrate the Fourth of 
 July, but we are also reminded that "there are no days 
 when we should be more patriotic than on other days," and 
 at the end of the address the President asks us to wear 
 the flag in our hearts. Thus it becomes the living flag. 
 
 FLAG DAY ADDRESS 
 
 WOODROW WILSON • 
 
 I know of nothing more difficult than to render an 
 adequate tribute to the emblem of our nation. For those 
 of us who have shared that nation's life and felt the beat 
 of its pulse it must be considered a matter of impossibility 
 to express the great things which that emblem embodies. 
 I venture to say that a great many things are said about 
 the flag which very few people stop to analyze. For 
 me the flag does not express a mere body of vague senti- 
 ment. The flag of the United States has not been created 
 by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and 
 
40 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiMiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinNMiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiuiiiiinniiMiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiuiiiniiiMiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiHiiiiiiiiiMm^ 
 
 in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience 
 of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that 
 has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, 
 not of a sentiment, but of a history, and no man can 
 rightly serve under that flag who has not caught some 
 of the meaning of that history. 
 
 Experience, ladies and gentlemen, is made by men and 
 women. National experience is the product of those who 
 do the living under that flag. It is their living that has 
 created its significance. You do not create the meaning 
 of a national life by any literary exposition of it, but by 
 the actual daily endeavors of a great people to do the tasks 
 of the day and live up to the ideals of honesty and right- 
 eousness and just conduct. And as we think of these 
 things, our tribute is to those men who have created this 
 experience. Many of them are known by name to all the 
 world, statesmen, soldiers, merchants, masters of industry, 
 men of letters and of thought, who have coined our hearts 
 into action or into words. Of these men we feel that they 
 have shown us the way. They have not been afraid to 
 go before. They have known that they were speaking the 
 thoughts of a great people when they led that great people 
 along the paths of achievement. There was not a single 
 swashbuckler among them. They were men of sober, quiet 
 thought, the more effective because there was no bluster in 
 it. They were men who thought along the lines of duty, 
 not along the lines of self-aggrandizement. They were 
 men, in short, who thought of the people whom they served 
 and not of themselves. 
 
 But while we think of these men and do honor to them 
 as to those who have shown us the way, let us not forget 
 
The Call to the Colors 41 
 
 iiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiuiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiunitiiiiiiiMiiiiiiuiiuiiiiii^ 
 
 that the real experience and life of a nation lies with the 
 great multitude of unknown men. It lies with those men 
 whose names are never in the headlines of newspapers, those 
 men who know the heat and pain and desperate loss of hope 
 that sometimes comes in the great struggle of daily life; 
 not the men who stand on the side and comment, not the 
 men who merely try to interpret the great struggle, but 
 the men who are engaged in the struggle. They constitute 
 the body of the nation. This flag is the essence of their 
 daily endeavors. This flag does not express any more than 
 what they are and what they desire to be. 
 
 As I think of the life of this great nation it seems to 
 me that we sometimes look in the wrong places for its 
 sources. We look to the noisy places, where men are 
 talking in the market place; we look to where men are 
 expressing their individual opinions; we look to where 
 partisans are expressing passions: instead of trying to 
 attune our ears to that voiceless mass of men who merely 
 go about their daily tasks, try to be honorable, try to serve 
 the people they love, try to live worthy of the great com- 
 munities to which they belong. These are the breath 
 of the nation's nostrils; these are the sinews of its might. 
 
 How can any man presuma to interpret the emblem of 
 the United States, the emblem of what we would fain be 
 among the family of nations, and find it incumbent upon 
 us to be in the daily round of routine duty? This is 
 Flag Day, but that only means that it is a day when we 
 are to recall the things which we should do every day 
 of our lives. There are no days of special patriotism. 
 There are no days when we should be more patriotic than 
 on other days. We celebrate the Fourth of July merely 
 
42 Builders of Democracy 
 
 because the great enterprise of liberty was started on the 
 fourth of July in America, but the great enterprise of 
 liberty was not begun in America. It is illustrated by the 
 blood of thousands of martyrs who lived and died before 
 the great experiment on this side of the water. The Fourth 
 of July merely marks .the day when we consecrated our- 
 selves as a nation to this high thing which we pretend to 
 serve. The benefit of a day like this is merely in turn- 
 ing away from the things that distract us, turning away 
 from the things that touch us personally and absorb our 
 interest in the hours of daily work. We remind our- 
 selves of those things that are greater than we are, of 
 those principles by which we believe our hearts to be 
 elevated, of the more difficult things that we must under- 
 take in these days of perplexity when a man's judgment 
 is safest only when it follows the line of principle. 
 
 I am solemnized in the presence of such a day. I would 
 not undertake to speak your thoughts. You must interpret 
 them for me. But I do feel that back, not only of every 
 public official, but of every man and woman of the United 
 States, there marches that great host which has brought 
 us to the present day; the host that has never forgotten 
 the vision which it saw at the birth of the nation ; the host 
 which always responds to the dictates of humanity and of 
 liberty; the host that will always constitute the strength 
 and the great body of friends of every man who does his 
 duty to the United States. 
 
 I am sorry that you do not wear a little flag of the 
 Union every day instead of some days. I can only ask 
 you, if you lose the physical emblem, to be sure that you 
 wear it in your heart, and the heart of America shall 
 interpret the heart of the world. 
 
The Call to the Colors 43 
 
 iiiMiiiiiiiiiiniitiiiiiiiiimiitiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiniiniiiiiiiiiniiiiiiMiiiiiiMiiiniiniiiiiiinniiniMriiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiii 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Is Mr. Wilson satisfied with thinking of the flag merely as 
 the sign of patriotic sentiment? 
 
 2. What relations do you notice between the first paragraph 
 and the poem by Mr. Bennett? 
 
 3. What relations between the second and third paragraphs 
 and Mr. Lane's idea? Between these paragraphs and the poem 
 by Walt Whitman? 
 
 4. Think carefully of the expression "coin our hearts into 
 action or into words." Who are the ones "who have created this 
 experience"? See if you can tell why both these expressions apply 
 to America but would not apply to Germany. With the phrase 
 "coin our hearts" compare what Mr. Wilson says, in the last . 
 paragraph, about wearing the flag in our hearts. 
 
 5. Think carefully of the meanings of the words "swash- 
 buckler" and "self-aggrandizement." Find simpler words to ex- 
 press the same meaning. What two undemocratic ideals do they 
 express? Make these wrong ideals clear by thinking of illustra- 
 tions of them. 
 
 6. What better ideal of democracy is expressed in the third 
 paragraph? Does democracy, then, mean merely the right to vote 
 and to hold office? Does it mean being a Republican or a 
 Democrat? 
 
 7. Explain what is meant by "there are no days of special 
 patriotism." 
 
 8. Explain "the great enterprise of liberty was not begun in 
 America." What other nations or peoples preceded? What other 
 peoples are engaged in the enterprise today? 
 
 9. What is it to wear the flag in your heart? 
 
 10. In what sense is the heart of America now interpreting the 
 heart of the world ? 
 
 11. Write your answers to two of the questions given above. 
 
44 Builders of Democracy 
 
 itiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiuiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiniiiiiiiiiiMiitiiiiiiinriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 
 
 VI. ^^MEN" AND KINGS" 
 
 President Wilson has said that the American flag speaks 
 to us of "a great plan of life worked out by a great people.'* 
 Some of the principles on which this plan of life rests have 
 been made clear in the selections you have read. The 
 greatest of these is the idea of creating national ideals 
 through the co-operative work and thought of the people. 
 Each generation gives to the flag its significance. 
 
 The difference, then, between a plan of life such as that 
 which we know here in America and the plan of life known 
 in Germany is that the German citizen is told what he 
 must think and what he must do. He is not expected to 
 think for himself or to join with his fellows in building 
 the kind of State they think is best. To put it in another 
 way: in Germany the man belongs to the State, is the 
 property of the State; in America government belongs to 
 the people, who make the state what they desire it to be. 
 In the one case "kings,'* that is over-lords^ are supreme; 
 in the other, "men'* are supreme. 
 
 For a generation Germany prepared for war. Her 
 people were taxed heavily to maintain great military and 
 naval establishments, brought to the highest degree of 
 efficiency. Her people were taught to expect war, to pre- 
 pare for it, to want it. When the Prussian government 
 thought the right time had come this vast machine was 
 set in motion in an effort to crush free peoples everywhere. 
 The result was suffering without parallel. Men were 
 sacrificed to the evil ambitions of kings as in the old days 
 when some Alexander, or Caesar, or Napoleon tried to form 
 a world empire on the bones of thousands and millions of 
 peasants. 
 
The Call to the Colors 45 
 
 iiiiniiiiiiiriiiMiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiuiiiiriiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiniiiiiiMiiiiiiHiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMniiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiin 
 
 In these awful days the heart of America went out in 
 pity to all the sufferers. A Christmas ship filled with 
 toys was sent to the unhappy children who were tortured 
 and torn by the agony of war. A great commission, organ- 
 ized on a scale familiar only in the vast industrial and 
 commercial enterprises of America, was formed to feed 
 whole nations and to keep them from death. In such 
 ways the American spirit of co-operation, of love and 
 pity, of sympathy for the man as distinct from the king, 
 was manifested. The burden of the sufferings of mankind 
 was on American hearts. 
 
 An old prophet speaks of the coming of nations to the 
 Valley of Decision, to meet a high test. 
 
 "Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision, for 
 the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision. 
 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars with- 
 draw their shining." 
 
 Belgium, France, England, Italy, and their Allies, and 
 now America, have all had to pass through this Valley. 
 The trying days before it became clear that America 
 must also enter the Great War were such a test. It was 
 a period of preparation, not the kind of preparation that 
 Germany had been making for forty years, but of testing 
 the principles on which America is founded. 
 
 The flag was "being made once more! 
 
 American thought during this period turned to tlie 
 great words from Lincoln's Second Inaugural : 
 
 ''With malice toward none, with charity for all, with 
 firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, 
 let us finish the work we are in — ^to bind up one another's 
 
46 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^^^^^ 
 
 wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, 
 and for his widow and orphans; to do all which may- 
 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves and with all nations." 
 
 This sjrmpathy, this desire to co-operate in constructive 
 work for the benefit of men, this passion for peace, is one 
 note in Mr. Lindsay^s poem, "Abraham Lincoln Walks at 
 Midnight." To this is added the thought that men are 
 once more subjected to frightful pain to gratify the lusts 
 of kings, and the poem closes with the call for the deliverer 
 who is to realize for the world "the shining hope of Europe 
 free." 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN WALKS AT MIDNIGHT 
 
 (In Springfield, Illinois) 
 
 VACHEL LINDSAY 
 
 It is portentous, and a thing of state 
 That here at midnight, in our little town, 
 A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, 
 Near the old court-house pacing up and down. 
 
 Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards 
 He lingers where his children used to play ; 
 Or through the market, on the well-worn stones 
 He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away. 
 
 A bronzed, lank man ! His suit of ancient black, 
 A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl 
 Make him the quaint great figure that men love. 
 The prairie-lawyer, master of us all. 
 
 He cannot sleep upon his hillside now. 
 He is among us : — as in times before ! 
 And we who toss and lie awake for long 
 Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door. 
 
The Call to the Colors 4i7 
 
 fniniiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiniuiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiii^ 
 
 His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings. 
 Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep ? 
 Too many peasants fight, they know not why. 
 Too many homesteads in black terror weep. 
 
 The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart. 
 He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main. 
 He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now 
 The bitterness, the folly, and the pain. 
 
 He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn 
 Shall come ; — the shining hope of Europe free : 
 The league of sober folk, the Worker's Earth 
 Bringing long peace to Cornland, Alp, and Sea. 
 
 It breaks his heart that kings must murder still. 
 That all his hours of travail here for men 
 Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace 
 That he may sleep upon his hill again ? 
 
 VII. THE CALL TO THE COLOKS 
 
 We now reach the crisis. The American Nation, in the 
 Valley of Decision, makes its choice. 
 
 There is a close relation between the material you have 
 studied in this book and the reasons that brought the 
 United States into the war. To see this clearly, there is 
 no better way than to study the address given by the 
 President on Flag Day, 1917. 
 
 You will at once notice the relation of the sentence, 
 "It (the flag) has no other character than that which we 
 give it from generation to generation" — to the matter 
 previously studied. The flag is the symbol of a "great 
 plan of life worked out by a great people.'' The question 
 
48 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iniiimiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiniiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiuiiuiuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuH 
 
 proposed by the President for us to consider is whether 
 the flag is now carried into battle for some new purpose, 
 or for the "old, familiar, heroic purpose for which it has 
 seen men, its own men, die on every battleHeld upon 
 which Americans have borne arms since the Eevolution." 
 
 The answer is found in the fact that "this is a People's 
 War, a war for freedom and justice and self government 
 amongst all the nations of the world, a war to make the 
 world safe for the peoples who live upon it and have made 
 it their own." 
 
 This conclusion is reached through an analysis of the I 
 course adopted by the German government. In the first 
 place, this course made it impossible for the United States 
 to remain neutral, since spies and conspirators, connected 
 directly with the German embassy at Washington or the 
 Foreign Office at Berlin, tried to corrupt our citizens, to 
 destroy our industries, and to cripple our commerce. This 
 war of intrigue against the American people was further 
 carried out through the plot to excite Mexico to take up 
 arms against us, with financial support from Germany, 
 possibly also with the help of Japan, in return for which 
 Mexico was to receive her "lost provinces" of Texas, New 
 Mexico, and Arizona. And the attack on the people of the 
 United States reached a climax in the insolent refusal 
 to permit our citizens to travel on the high seas, except 
 on terms laid down by Germany. Such were the measures 
 taken by Germany against the peace and safety of the 
 United States at a time when outwardly the two nations 
 were on friendly terms. 
 
 In the second place, the menace of Germany consists 
 in the fact that her rulers do not regard nations as peoples 
 
The Call to the Colors 49 
 
 iiiniiinMiiiriiiiiiiiitiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiniiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniinuiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiuiii^ 
 
 — men, women, children — but as organizations or units 
 to be bought and sold and handled according to the designs 
 of the Prussian government. Thus, the German scheme 
 to build up a great empire in Mid-Europe, extending from 
 Berlin to Bagdad, ignores differences in race, language, 
 national ideals, and is an attempt to form an artificial 
 empire held together only by fear of an immense military 
 power. Thus, once more, the peoples of Europe are given 
 no choice of government, no rights to "life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness." To put the whole plan in a 
 single statement: Germany was already, before our en- 
 trance into the war, carrying on a war of intrigue designed 
 to destroy democratic government in America, and was 
 plotting also to overthrow forever any right of European 
 nations to govern themselves. This is why the President 
 said, in his War Message, that "the world must be made 
 safe for democracy." 
 
 If such a plan should succeed, it would be necessary for 
 the remaining free nations of the world, America included, 
 to establish great military and naval forces, in expectation 
 of a new war by which Germany would attempt to fasten 
 her system upon the whole world. This would mean an 
 end of political freedom everywhere. 
 
 In view of these things, the issue is clearly drawn. Amer- 
 ica has come to a "day of high resolution when every 
 principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated and made 
 secure for the salvation of the world." 
 
 This is the Call to the Colors! 
 
50 Builders of Democracy 
 
 A PEOPLES' WAR 
 
 WOODROW WILSON 
 
 We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which 
 we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of 
 our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. 
 It has no other character than that which we give it from 
 generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats 
 in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those 
 choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though 
 silent, it speaks to us, — speaks to us of the past, of the men 
 and women who went before us and of the records they 
 wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of its birth; and 
 from its birth until now it has witnessed a great history, 
 has floated on high the symbol of great events, of a 
 great plan of life worked out by a great people. We are 
 about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw 
 the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, 
 hundreds of thousands, it may be millions, of our men, 
 the young, the strong, the capable men of the nation, 
 to go forth and die beneath it on fields of blood far 
 away, — for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For 
 something for which it has never sought the fire before? 
 American armies were never before sent across the seas. 
 Why are they sent now ? For some new purpose, for which 
 this great flag has never been carried before, or for some 
 old, familiar, heroic purpose for which it has seen men, 
 its own men, die on every battlefield upon which Americans 
 have borne arms since the Revolution? 
 
 These are questions which must be answered. We are 
 Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can 
 serve her with no private purpose. We must use her flag 
 
The Call to the Colors 51 
 
 as she has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of 
 history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose 
 it is we seek to serve. 
 
 It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. 
 The extraordinary insults and aggressions of the imperial 
 German government left us no self-respecting choice but 
 to take up arms in defense of our rights as a free people 
 and of our honor as a sovereign government. The military 
 masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. 
 They filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies 
 and conspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our 
 people in their own behalf. When they found that they 
 could not do that, their agents diligently spread sedition 
 amongst us and sought to draw our own citizens from 
 their allegiance, — and some of those agents were men 
 connected with the official Embassy of the German gov- 
 ernment itself here in our own capital. They sought by 
 violence to destroy our industries and arrest our commerce. 
 They tried to incite Mexico to take up arms against us 
 and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance with her, — and 
 that, not by indirection, but by direct suggestion from 
 the Foreign Office in Berlin. They impudently denied 
 us the use of the high seas and repeatedly executed their 
 threat that they would send to their death any of our 
 people who ventured to approach the coasts of Europe. 
 And many of our people were corrupted. Men began to 
 look upon their own neighbors with suspicion and to wonder 
 in their hot resentment and surprise whether there was 
 any community in which hostile intrigue did not lurk. 
 What great nation in such circumstances would not have 
 taken up arms? Much as we had desired peace, it was 
 
52 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 denied us and not of onr own choice. This flag under 
 which we serve would have been dishonored had we with- 
 held our hand. 
 
 But that is only part of the story. We know now as 
 clearly as we knew before we were ourselves engaged that we 
 are not the enemies of the German people and that they are 
 not our enemies. They did not originate or desire this 
 hideous war or wish that we should be drawn into it ; and 
 we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their cause, 
 as they will some day see it, as well as our own. They 
 are themselves in the grip of the same sinister power 
 that has now at last stretched its ugly talons out and drawn 
 blood from us. The whole world is at war because the 
 whole world is in the grip of that power and is trying 
 out the great battle which shall determine whether it is 
 to be brought under its mastery or fling itself free. 
 
 The war was begun by the military masters of Germany, 
 who proved to be also the masters of Austria-Hungary. 
 These men have never regarded nations as peoples, men, 
 women, and children of like blood and frame as them- 
 selves, for whom governments existed and in whom gov- 
 ernments had their life. They have regarded them merely 
 as serviceable organizations which they could by force or 
 intrigue bend or corrupt to their own purpose. They have 
 regarded the smaller states, in particular, and the peoples 
 who could be overwhelmed by force, as their natural tools 
 and instruments of domination. Their purpose has long 
 been avowed. The statesmen of other nations, to whom 
 that purpose was incredible, paid little attention ; regarded 
 what German professors expounded in their classrooms 
 and German writers set forth to the world as the goal of 
 
The Call to the Colors 53 
 
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 German policy as rather the dream of minds detached 
 from practical affairs, as preposterous private conceptions 
 of German destiny, tlian as the actual plans of responsible 
 rulers ; but the rulers of Germany themselves knew all the 
 while what concrete plans, what well advanced intrigues 
 lay back of what the professors and the writers were say- 
 ing, and were glad to go forward unmolested, filling the 
 thrones of Balkan states with German princes, putting 
 German officers at the service of Turkey to drill her armies 
 and make interest with her government, developing plans 
 of sedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, setting their 
 fires in Persia. The demands made by Austria upon Serbia 
 were a mere single step in a plan which compassed Europe 
 and Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad. They hoped those de- 
 mands might not arouse Europe, but they meant to press 
 them whether they did or not, for they thought themselves 
 ready for the final issue of arms. 
 
 Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military 
 power and political control across the very center of Europe 
 and beyond the Mediterranean into the heart of Asia; and 
 Austria-Hungary was to be as much their tool and pawn 
 as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the ponderous states 
 of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to become part 
 of the central German Empire, absorbed and dominated 
 by the same forces and influences that had originally 
 cemented the German states themselves. The dream had 
 its heart at Berlin. It could have had a heart nowhere 
 else! It rejected the idea of solidarity of race entirely. 
 The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. It con- 
 templated binding together racial and political units which 
 could be kept together only by force, — Czechs, Magyars, 
 
54 Builders of Democracy 
 
 Croats, Serbs, Eoumanians, Turks, Armenians, — the proud 
 states of Bohemia and Hungary, the stout little common- 
 wealths of the Balkans, the indomitable Turks, the subtile 
 peoples of the East. These peoples did not wish to be 
 united. They ardently desired to direct their own affairs, 
 would be satisfied only by undisputed independence. They 
 could be kept quiet only by the presence or the constant 
 threat of armed men. They would live under a common 
 power only by sheer compulsion and await the day of 
 revolution. But the German military statesmen had reck- 
 oned with all that and were ready to deal with it in their 
 own way. 
 
 And they have actually carried the greater part of that 
 amazing plan into execution! Look how things stand. 
 Austria is at their mercy. It has acted, not upon its own 
 initiative or upon the choice of its own people, but at 
 Berlin's dictation ever since the war began. Its people 
 now desire peace, but cannot have it until leave is granted 
 from Berlin. The so-called Central Powers are in fact 
 but a single Power. Serbia is at its mercy, should its 
 hands be but for a moment freed. Bulgaria has consented 
 to its will, and Eoumania is overrun. The Turkish armies, 
 which Germans trained, are serving Germany, certainly 
 not themselves, and the guns of German warships lying 
 in the harbor at Constantinople remind Turkish statesmen 
 every day that they have no choice but to take their orders 
 from Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the net 
 is spread. 
 
 Is it not easy to understand 'the eagerness for peace 
 that has been manifested from Berlin ever since the snare 
 was set and sprung? Peace, peace, peace has been the talk 
 
The Call to the Colors 55 
 
 aillllllllirillllMIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMirilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIItllltllllllllllllllHIIIIII^ 
 
 of her Foreign Office for now a year and more; not peace 
 upon her own initiative, but upon the initiative of the 
 nations over which she now deems herself to hold the 
 advantage. A little of the talk has been public, but most 
 of it has been private. Through all sorts of channels it 
 has come to me, and in all sorts of guises, but never with 
 the terms disclosed which the German government would 
 be willing to accept. That government has other valuable 
 pawns in its hands besides those I have mentioned. It 
 etill holds a valuable part of France, though with slowly 
 relaxing grasp, and practically the whole of Belgium. Its 
 armies press close upon Eussia and overrun Poland at 
 their will. It cannot go further; it dare not go back. It 
 wishes to close its bargain before it is too late and it has 
 little left to offer for the pound of flesh it will demand. 
 
 The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding 
 see very clearly to what point Fate has brought them. If 
 they fall back or are forced back an inch, their power both 
 abroad and at home will fall to pieces like a house of cards. 
 It is their power at home they are thinking about now 
 more than their power abroad. It is that power which is 
 trembling under their very feet ; and deep fear has entered 
 their hearts. They have but one chance to perpetuate 
 their military power or even their controlling political 
 influence. If they can secure peace now with the immense 
 advantages still in their hands which they have up to 
 this point apparently gained, they will have justified them- 
 selves before the German people : they will have gained by 
 force what they promised to gain by it : an immense expan- 
 sion of German power, an immense enlargement of German 
 industrial and commercial opportunities. Their prestige 
 
56 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 will be secure, and with their prestige their political power. 
 If they fail, their people will thrust them aside ; a govern- 
 ment accountable to the people themselves will be set up 
 in Germany as it has been in England, in the United 
 States, in France, and in all the great countries of the 
 modern time except Germany. If they succeed they are 
 safe and Germany and the world are undone; if they fail 
 Germany is saved and the world will be at peace. If they 
 succeed, America will fall within the menace. We and 
 all the rest of the world must remain armed, as they will 
 remain, and must make ready for the next step in their 
 aggression; if they fail, the world may unite for peace 
 and Germany may be of the union. 
 
 Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the intrigue 
 for peace, and why the masters of Germany do not hesitate 
 to use any agency that promises to effect their purpose, 
 the deceit of the nations ? Their present particular aim is 
 to deceive all those who throughout the world stand for the 
 rights of peoples and the self-government of nations; for 
 they see what immense strength the forces of justice and of 
 liberalism are gathering out of this war. They are employ- 
 ing liberals in their enterprise. They are using men, in 
 Germany and without, as their spokesmen whom they have 
 hitherto despised and oppressed, using them for their own 
 destruction, — socialists, the leaders of labor, the thinkers 
 they have hitherto sought to silence. Let them once succeed 
 and these men, now their tools, will be ground to powder 
 beneath the weight of the great military empire they will 
 have set up; the revolutionists in Russia will be cut off 
 from all succor or co-operation in western Europe and a 
 coTinter revolution fostered and supported; Germany her- 
 
The Call to the Colors 57 
 
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 self will lose her chance of freedom; and all Europe will 
 arm for the next, the final struggle. 
 
 The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted 
 in this country than in Eussia and in every country in 
 Europe to which the agents and dupes of the imperial 
 German government can get access. That government 
 has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They 
 have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is 
 opinion they utter now, not sedition. They proclaim 
 the liberal purposes of their masters ; declare this a foreign 
 warVhich can touch America with no danger to either 
 her lands or her institutions; set England at the center of 
 the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic domin- 
 ion throughout the world ; appeal to our ancient traditions 
 of isolation in the politics of the nations; and seek to 
 undermine the government with false professions of loyalty 
 to its principles. 
 
 But they will make no headway. The false betray them- 
 selves always in every accent. It is only friends and partisans 
 of the German government whom we have already identified 
 who utter these thinly disguised disloyalties. The facts are 
 patent to all the world, and nowhere are they more plainly 
 seen than in the United States, where ,we are accustomed 
 to deal with facts and not with sophistries; and the great 
 fact that stands out above all the rest is that this is a 
 Peoples' War, a war for freedom and justice and self-gov- 
 ernment amongst all the nations of the world, a war to 
 make the world safe for the peoples who live upon it and 
 have made it their own, the German people themselves 
 included ; and that with us rests the choice to break through 
 all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of brute 
 
58 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 force and help set the world free, or else stand aside and 
 let it be dominated a long age through by sheer weight 
 of arms and the arbitrary choices of self-constituted mas- 
 ters, by the nation which can maintain the biggest armies 
 and the most irresistible armaments, — a power to which the 
 world has afforded no parallel and in the face of which 
 political freedom must wither and perish. 
 
 For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe 
 be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our 
 way in this day of high resolution when every principle we 
 hold dearest is to be vindicated and made secure for the 
 salvation of the nations. We are ready to plead at the 
 bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster. Once 
 more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the 
 great faith to which we were bom, and a new glory shall 
 shine in the face of our people. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Call to mind as many illustrations from your previous 
 reading as you can, to make clear the opening sentences of the 
 address. 
 
 2. In what way does the first paragraph, with the theme that 
 runs through the address ("This is a Peoples* War") answer the 
 objection of some people that America should keep out of 
 European affairs? 
 
 3. Some illustrations of the plots referred to in the third 
 paragraph are the attempts to destroy the Welland Canal, to 
 influence Congress through the use of a large sum of money, to 
 destroy merchant vessels by means of bombs secreted in the coal, 
 to foment trouble in Mexico. Advertisements were printed in our 
 papers warning Americans not to sail in English and French 
 ships. The famous Zimmermann note of January 19, 1917, pro- 
 posed an alliance between Germany and Mexico to make war on 
 
The Call to the Colors 59 
 
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 the United States. The climax of eflfrontery was reached in the 
 German official permission to American passenger ships to con- 
 tinue their sailings, provided they went to Falmouth only, carried 
 certain marks, sailed a certain defined course, and made only one 
 trip a week each way. 
 
 4. In the fourth paragraph, proof of the statement that the 
 German people did not "originate or desire this hideous war" is 
 found in the fact that the German parliament, which is not truly 
 representative of the people and has little power, was not officially 
 notified of the mobilization of the army until several days after 
 action had been taken by the authorities. Besides, in Prussia, the 
 most powerful state in the empire, one rich man's vote may be 
 equal to those of ten thousand laborers. There is no chance for 
 the people to express their desires as in the United States. The 
 German people are not "makers of the flag." 
 
 6. In the fifth paragraph the President refers to matters that 
 are now well known. The War Cyclopedia, published by the Com- 
 mittee on Public Information, will supply any details that you 
 wish to secure. The summary of the matter is that in Roumania, 
 Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece, relatives of the Hohenzollerns were 
 placed on the thrones; that Turkey was helped by German money 
 and officers to organize a modem army; that a railway from 
 Berlin to Bagdad was planned and almost completed under Ger- 
 man control. Serbia was the only country in the path of the 
 railway that was not connected in some way with the German 
 royal family. 
 
 6. The plan referred to in the sixth paragraph is the so- 
 called Mid-Europe, the nucleus of the proposed German world 
 empire. Some of the nations to be swallowed by this monstrous 
 plan are named by the President. You should identify them on 
 the map. By means of this plot Russia would be made helpless 
 even if not brought directly under German control. Events in 
 Russia since the President spoke have shown how far the plan 
 has progressed in that part of the world. 
 
 7. Find, by way of summary, the answer given by the Presi- 
 dent to the questions asked in the first paragraph. Write a para- 
 graph of your own answering the questions. 
 
60 Builders of Democracy 
 
 VIII. THE EESPONSE 
 The Summons of the Drums 
 
 The following poem by Walt Whitman will tell you of 
 the effect when a great nation is called from the pursuits 
 of peace to those of war. It will help you to see in imagina- 
 tion what went on in America after the Declaration of 
 War, April 6, 1917. President Wilson said, in his War 
 Message of April 2, "It is a fearful thing to lead this 
 great people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous 
 of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance." 
 
 BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS! 
 
 WALT WHITMAN 
 
 Beat! beat! drums! — ^blow! bugles! blow! 
 
 Through the windows — through doors — burst like a ruth- 
 less force. 
 
 Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation. 
 
 Into the school where the scholar is studying ; 
 
 Leave not the bridegroom quiet — no happiness must he 
 have now with his bride, 
 
 Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, plowing his field or 
 gathering his grain, 
 
 So fierce you whirr and pound you drums — so shrill you 
 bugles blow. 
 
 Beat! beat! drums! — blow! bugles! blow! 
 
 Over the traffic of cities — over the rumble of wheels in the 
 
 streets ; 
 Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no 
 
 sleepers must sleep in those beds, 
 No bargainers' bargains by day — ^no brokers or speculators 
 
 — would they continue ? 
 
The Call to the Colors 61 
 
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 Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt 
 
 to sing? 
 Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before 
 
 the judge? 
 Then rattle quicker, heavier drums — you bugles wilder 
 
 blow. 
 
 Beat ! beat ! drums ! — blow ! bugles ! blow ! 
 Make no parley — stop for no expostulation, 
 Mind not the timid — mind not the weeper or prayer. 
 Mind not the old man beseeching the young man. 
 Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's en- 
 treaties. 
 Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie 
 
 awaiting the hearses, 
 So strong you thump, terrible drums — so loud you bugles 
 blow. 
 
 The Youth Replies 
 
 These lines from "Voluntaries," by Ealph Waldo Emer- 
 son, were written many years ago, about another crisis, 
 but they seem to have been written for American youth 
 of today: 
 
 In an age of fops and toys. 
 
 Wanting wisdom, void of right. 
 
 Who shall nerve heroic boys 
 
 To hazard all in Freedom's fight, — 
 
 Break sharply off their jolly games. 
 
 Forsake their comrades gay, 
 
 And quit proud homes and youthful dames 
 
 For famine, toil, and fray ? 
 
 Yet on the nimble^ air benign 
 
 Speed nimbler messages. 
 
 That waft the breath of grace divine 
 
62 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 To hearts in sloth and ease. 
 
 So nigh is grandeur to our dust. 
 
 So near is God to man, 
 
 When Duty whispers low. Thou must. 
 
 The youth replies, / can. 
 
 The Spirit of America 
 
 These lines are also from Emerson's "Voluntaries.'^ They 
 are at once a benediction and a splendid interpretation of 
 the heroism of the soldiers of democracy. 
 
 Best befriended of the God 
 
 He who, in evil times, 
 
 "Warned by an inward voice, 
 
 Heeds not the darkness and the dread. 
 
 Biding by his rule and choice, 
 
 Feeling only the fiery thread 
 
 Leading over heroic ground. 
 
 Walled with mortal terror round. 
 
 To the aim which him allures, 
 
 And the sweet heaven his deed secures. 
 
 Stainless soldier on the walls. 
 Knowing this, — and knows no more, — 
 Whoever fights, whoever falls. 
 Justice conquers evermore, 
 Justice after as before, — 
 And he who battles on her side, 
 God, though he were ten times slain. 
 Crowns him victor glorified, 
 Victor over death and pain. 
 
PART TWO 
 
 THE BUILDERS AND THEIR WORK 
 
 The government which now calls to the colors all its 
 citizens is founded on ideas that have grown through many 
 centuries. Americans celebrate the Fourth of July as their 
 national birthday, and the year 1776 marks the beginning 
 of our separate existence as a nation. But we study the 
 history of our colonies back to 1607, when Jamestown was 
 founded, and 1620, when Plymouth was founded, because 
 their history is also a part of the history of the United 
 States. And we realize that the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence did not, when it was adopted, establish the nation 
 as we know it today ; nor did the Revolutionary War, when 
 it had been fought to the surrender at Yorktown; nor 
 even the Constitution, when it had been ratified by the 
 states. Our government has grown not only in the wealth 
 and the power of its people, but in its expression of the 
 will of the people who constitute it and are making it anew 
 from year to year. 
 
 To get at the real beginnings of America, however, we 
 must go much farther back than Plymouth and Jamestown. 
 A thousand years before the voyage of Columbus, our ances- 
 tors were trying out a rude parliamentary system. The 
 king and his chiefs, called mtan or wise-men, discussed 
 matters of government, while the people expressed approval 
 or dissent. At the sliire-moot, all freemen came together 
 to vote on matters that concerned the county or shire. 
 Even the village had its tun-moot (town-meeting), attended 
 
 63 
 
64 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 by all freemen, who settled in it all matters of local dis- 
 pute. In these meetings lay the beginnings of the English 
 Parliament and of the American system of representative 
 government. These men, back in the dim past, shadowy 
 creatures whose names we know not, stem men and war- 
 riors who were trying, after a crude fashion, to work out 
 ways by which men might co-operate with each other, were 
 Builders of Democracy. We may learn all the facts about 
 the slow growth of these rude assemblies of our ancestors 
 into our present system of free government without really 
 understanding what they mean.- Constitutions and Declara- 
 tions are dry and lifeless things until we see that they 
 express ideas that men have counted part of their lives, 
 ideas dearer than their lives. Some one has said that a book 
 is not a mere block of paper on which words have been 
 printed, but that it is, or ought to be, the very life-blood of 
 the man who wrote it. It is so with our great charters of 
 free government. 
 
 These charters, the names < of which you will learn as 
 you read their story, are the builders' plans for the great 
 structure of Democracy. They are not the building. They 
 are rules by which free men live together. Yet we get a 
 wrong idea if we think of them as just written out by men, 
 as we would write out a set of rules for a debating society. 
 The rights that they set forth have been won at the cost 
 of blood. Sometimes it has been through a long contest 
 with cruel and selfish kings. Often it has been on hard 
 fought battlefields. And one time the scene is laid in the 
 dimly lighted cabin of a little ship filled with people who 
 have for weeks battled with the terrors of an unknown sea, 
 only to face new dangers of hunger and bitter cold while 
 
The Builders and Their Work 65 
 
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 they build their homes in the wilderness. But always these 
 Builders have wrought their lives into that which they have 
 built. 
 
 A soldier of France, in the present war, wrote to his 
 mother that he would like to be "that workman who, though 
 he knows that the scaffolding on which he stands will 
 crumble without his being saved, nevertheless goes right 
 on sculpturing the ornaments of the cathedral.'^ It is in 
 this spirit, through many human generations, that the 
 Builders have wrought with their lives and then have made 
 way for others to carry on the work. 
 
 The stories that follow will help you to fill out, in your 
 imagination, this long record. These twelve chapters 
 gather into a series of little pictures the great periods in the 
 story of the Building. All sorts of men appear in these 
 pictures: barons and lords in early England, peasants and 
 laborers in the garb of simple men, bearded sailors on the 
 Spanish Main, grave P\iritans clad in black, ragged soldiers 
 in our Continental Army — all sorts and conditions of men. 
 But they speak the English tongue, though sometimes their 
 words are hard for us to understand, and they have all 
 helped in the Building. 
 
 The first story is in some ways a summary of them* all. 
 It tells of a hero who did what he could to make the world 
 safe for his fellows. So he delivered the dwelling of men 
 from the sudden terror that came in the night, and 
 cleansed the seas so that they should be pure and free for 
 the uses of men, and drove to his lair and slew the fiery 
 monster that shot destruction from the clouds. 
 
66 Builders of Democracy 
 
 I. 
 
 HOW IN THE BEGINNING MEN MADE HOMES BY THE NORTH- 
 ERN SEAS. HOW CRUEL MONSTERS CAME AGAINST THEM, 
 DRINKING THEIR BLOOD, MAKING UNCLEAN THEIR SEAS, 
 AND SENDING FIRE UPON THEM FROM ABOVE. AND HOW 
 A CHAMPION ROSE UP TO DEFEND THEM. 
 
 The oldest English heroic poem tells how a brave war- 
 rior went to the rescue of a prince whose realm was ravaged 
 by a terrible beast. The events of the story took place in 
 Denmark and southern Sweden and the story is made up of 
 incidents belonging to the sixth century or earlier, which 
 became the subjects of ballads or songs. Later, in England, 
 this material was woven into a splendid poem that .expresses 
 some of the deepest ideals of the English speaking peoples. 
 
 Beowulf, the hero of the poem, heard about a trouble 
 that had come upon King Hrothgar through a dreadful 
 beast, Grendel by name. As a result of the terror, the 
 splendid hall that Hrothgar had built as a home for him- 
 self and his chieftains was left deserted. No way of 
 conquering the monster could be devised; the people were 
 powerless before its awful cruelty. 
 
 "That, in his distant home, learnt a warrior; he learnt 
 the deeds of Grendel; he was of mankind strongest in 
 might in the day of this life; he was of noble birth and of 
 robust growth. He ordered a wave-traveler (a ship) to 
 be prepared for him, said he would pass over the swan- 
 croad (the sea) and visit the gallant king, the illustrious 
 ruler, inasmuch as he was in need of men.'' 
 
 With some carefully selected companions, Beowulf 
 landed in Hrothgar's kingdom and offered his services. 
 The king^ was overjoyed because a champion had come to 
 
The Builders and Their Work 67 
 
 nil iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiii iimiiiii iiiimiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiii 
 
 relieve him from his distress. After an evening spent in 
 the great hall, the king and his companions departed, leav- 
 ing Beowulf to await the coming of the monster. 
 
 BEOWULF AWAl*rS THE COMING OF GRENDEL 
 
 Then Hrothgar departed, the good prince, 
 out of the hall with his band of warriors ; 
 But the chief of the Geats well trusted in 
 his own proud might and the Creator's favor. 
 He doffed from him then his iron coat of mail, 
 the helm from his head, and gave to a henchman 
 his sword enchased, choicest of irons, 
 bade him take charge of the gear of war. 
 
 Some words of pride then spake the good chief, 
 Beowulf the Geat, ere he mounted his bed : 
 "I count me no feebler in martial vigor 
 of warlike works than Grendel himself. 
 Therefore I will not, tho' easy it were, 
 with sword destroy him or lull him to rest. 
 'Tis a warfare he knows not — to strike against me 
 and hew my shield, renowned tho' he be 
 for hostile works; but we two tonight 
 shall do without sword, if he dare seek 
 war without weapon. And afterward God, 
 the wise, the holy, shall judge glory 
 to whichever hand it meet to him seemeth." 
 
 Then lay down the brave man, — the bolster received 
 the warrior's cheek ; and around him many 
 a seaman keen reclined on his hall-couch. 
 Not one of them thought that he should thence 
 seek ever again the home he loved, 
 the folk or free burg where he was nurtured : 
 since first they had heard how far too many 
 folk of the Danes a bloody death 
 o'ertook in the wine-hall. But to them the Lord 
 
68 Builders of Democracy 
 
 gave victory, so that they all 
 by the might of one, by his single powers, 
 their foe overcame. Shown is it truly 
 that mighty God ruleth the race of men. 
 
 GRENDEL ENTERS THE GREAT HALL 
 
 Now in the murky night came stalking 
 the shadow-walker. All the warriors 
 who should defend that pinnacled mansion 
 slept, save one. 
 
 Then came Grendel : he bare God's anger. 
 The wicked spoiler thought to ensnare 
 many a man in the lofty hall. 
 He strode 'neath the clouds until the winehouse, 
 the gold-hall of men, he readily saw, 
 richly adorned. Nor was that time 
 the first that Hrothgar's home he had sought: 
 but ne'er in his life, before nor since, 
 found he a bolder man or war^-iors. 
 
 So then to the mansion the man bereft 
 of joys came journeying; soon with his hands 
 undid the door, tho' with forged bands fast; 
 the baleful-minded, angry, burst open 
 the mansion's mouth. Soon thereafter 
 the fiend was treading the glittering floor, 
 paced wroth of mood ; from his eyes started 
 a horrid light, most like to flame. 
 He in the mansion saw warriors many, 
 a kindred band, together sleeping, 
 fellow- warriors. His spirit exulted. 
 The fell wretch expected that ere day eame 
 he would take the. life from the body 
 of each, for in him the hope had risen 
 of a gluttonous feast. Yet 'twas not his fate 
 that he might more of the race of men 
 eat after that night. The mighty chief 
 
The Builders and Their Work 69 
 
 NiiiiiiiiiMiiiniiiinniniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiMiiiiiiUMiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiililililiiilliillimim^^ 
 
 of the Geats watched how the wicked spoiler 
 would proceed with his sudden grasping. 
 
 Nor did the monster mean to delay ; 
 for he at the first stroke quickly seized 
 a sleeping warrior, tore him unawares, 
 bit his bone-casings, drank his veins' blood, 
 in great morsels swallowed him. Soon had he 
 devoured all of the lifeless one, 
 feet and hands. He stepped up nearer, 
 took then with his hand the doughty-minded 
 warrior at rest ; with his hand the foe 
 reached towards him. He instantly grappled 
 with the evil-minded, and on his arm rested. 
 
 Soon as the criminal realized 
 that in no other man of middle-earth, 
 of the world's regions, had he found 
 a stronger hand-grip, his mind grew fearful. 
 Yet not for that could he sooner escape. 
 He was bent on flight, would flee to his cavern, 
 the devil-pack seek ; such chance had never 
 in all his life-day^ befallen before. 
 Then the great Beowulf remembered 
 his evening speech ; upright he stood, 
 and firmly grasped him ; his fingers yielded ; 
 the giant was fleeing. 
 
 The famed one considered whether he might 
 more widely wheel and thence away 
 flee to his fen-mound ; 
 
 'twas a dire journey the baleful spoiler made. 
 The princely hall thundered ; terror was 
 on all the Danes, the city-dwellers, 
 each valiant one, while both the fierce 
 strong warriors raged ; the mansion resounded. 
 There many a warrior 
 of Beownlf's drew his ancient sword ; 
 they would defend the life of their lord, 
 of the great prince, if so they might. 
 
70 Builders of Democracy 
 
 Then he who before in mirth of mood 
 (he was God's foe) had perpetrated 
 many crimes 'gainst the race of men, 
 found that his body would not avail him, 
 for him the proud prince, Beowulf, 
 had in hand. The fell wretch suffered 
 bodily pain; a deadly wound 
 appeared oi> his shoulder, his sinews started, 
 his bone-casings burst. To Beowulf was 
 the war-glory given ; Grendel must thence, 
 death-sick, under his fen-shelters flee, 
 seek a joyless dwelling; well he knew 
 that the end of his life was come, his appointed 
 number of days. For all the Danes, 
 that fierce fight done, was their wish accomplished. 
 
 So he then, the far-come, the wise and strong 
 of soul, had purified Hrothgar's hall, 
 saved it from malice; his night's work rejoiced him, 
 his valor-glories. The Geatish chieftain 
 had to the Danes his boast fulfilled, 
 had healed, to-wit, the preying sorrow 
 that they in that country before had suffered 
 and had to endure for hard necessity, 
 no small affliction. A manifest token 
 it was when the warrior laid down the hand — 
 arm and shoulder, Grendel's whole grappler 
 together there — 'neath the vaulted roof. 
 
 Then in the morning, as I have heard tell, 
 there was many a warrior around the gift hall: 
 folk-chiefs came, from far and near, 
 o'er distant ways, the wonder to see, 
 the tracks of the foe. His taking from life 
 seemed not grievous to any warrior 
 who the inglorious one's trail beheld, — 
 how, weary in spirit, o'ercome in the conflict, 
 death-doomed and fleeing, he bare death-traces 
 thence away to the watersprites' sea. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 71 
 
 jiiiiniMiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiHiiiiiiMinniiiiiiiiiiiiiiniMiiiHiiiiiniiniiMiiiMiiiiiiMiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiriMiiii 
 
 There was the surge boiling with blood, 
 
 the dire swing of waves all commingled; 
 
 with clotted blood hot, with sword-gore it welled ; 
 
 the death-doomed dyed it, when he joyless 
 
 laid down his life in his fen-as34um, 
 
 his heathen soul. 
 
 Beowulf's victory is celebrated 
 
 Then was Beowulf's 
 glory celebrated. Many oft said 
 that south or north, between the seas 
 the wide world over, there was no other 
 'neath heaven's course who was a better 
 shield-bearer, or one more worthy of power. 
 Yet found they no fault with their lord beloved, 
 the joyful Hrothgar; he was their good king. 
 
 Hrothgar spake (he to the hall went, 
 stood near the threshold, saw the steep roof 
 shining with gold, and Grendel's hand) : 
 "Now for this sight, to the Almighty thanks ! 
 May it quickly be given ! Much ill have I borne, 
 Grendel's snares; ever can God work 
 wonder on wonder, the King of Glory. 
 Now this warrior, 
 
 through the might of the Lord, has done a deed 
 which we all together before could not 
 with cunning accomplish. 
 Now will I, Beowulf, 
 best of warriors, even as a son, 
 love thee in my heart. Keep henceforth well 
 our kinship new; no lack shalt thou have 
 of worldly desires, wherein I have power. 
 Full often for less have I dealt a reward, * 
 an honor-gift, to a feebler warrior, 
 weaker in conflict. Thou for thyself 
 
72 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiuiiiiiuMiiHiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiuiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiMiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiniiiiiniiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiniiiniiiniin 
 
 hast wrouglit so well, that thy glory shall live 
 through every age. May the All-wielder 
 with good reward thee, as now He has done/' 
 
 Beowulf spake, the great chieftain, 
 '^We with great good will, that arduous work, 
 that fight, have achieved ; we boldly ventured 
 in war with the monster. The more do I wish 
 that thou himself mightest have seen, 
 the foe in his trappings, full weary enough. 
 Him I quickly, with hard and fast fetters 
 on his death-bed thought to have bound, 
 that through my hand-grips low he should lie, 
 struggling for life, but his body escaped. 
 I was not able, the Lord did not will it, 
 to keep him from going ; I held him not firm enough, 
 the deadly foe ; too strong on his feet 
 the enemy was. Yet his hand he left, 
 for his life's safety, to guard his track, 
 his arm and shoulder ; yet not thereby 
 did the wretched creature comfort obtain ; 
 nor will he, crime-doer, the longer live 
 with sins oppressed. For pain has him 
 in its grip compelling straitly clasped, ^ ^ 
 
 in its deadly bonds ; there shall he await, 
 the crime-stained wretch, the Final Doom, 
 as the Lord of Splendor shall mete it to him." 
 
 So Beowulf went to rescue Hrothgar^ as in recent years 
 England went to rescue Belgium, from the invasion of a 
 beast that knew no law but cruelty and blood. 
 
 But the warfare was not over. The mother of Grendel, 
 a beast even more terrible, dwelt on the bottom of the sea, 
 or lake, whence she came to avenge her son's death. The 
 warfare of Beoyailf was now transferred from land to the 
 depths of the sea. Hrothgar tells the hero about the new 
 danger : 
 
The Builders and Their Work 73 
 
 iNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 
 HROTHGAR SEEKS BEOWULF'S AID A SECOND TIME 
 
 "I have heard it said by the land-dwellers, 
 by my own subjects, my hall-counsellors, 
 that they have seen a pair of such 
 mighty march-stalkers holding the moors, 
 stranger-spirits, whereof the one, 
 so far as they could certainly know, 
 was in form of a woman ; the other, accurst, 
 trod an exile's steps in the figure of man 
 (save that he huger than other men was), 
 whom in days of yore the dwellers on earth 
 Grendel named. 
 
 That secret land they dwell in, wolf-dens, 
 the perilous fen-path, where the mountain stream 
 downward flows 'neath the mists-of the headlands, 
 the flood under earth. 'Tis not far thence, 
 a mile in measure, that the sea stands, 
 over which hang rustling groves ; 
 a wood fast rooted the water overshadows. 
 
 "There every night may be seen a dire wonder, 
 fire in the flood. None so wise lives 
 of the children of men, who knows the bottom. 
 Although the heath-stepper, wearied by hounds, 
 the stag strong of horns, seek that wood, 
 driven from far, he will give up his life, 
 his breath, on the shore, ere he will venture 
 his head upon it. That is no pleasant place. 
 Again now is counsel 
 
 in thee alone ! The spot thou yet know'st not, 
 the perilous place where thou may'st find 
 this sinful being. Seek if thou dare. 
 With riches will I for the strife reward thee, 
 with ancient treasures, as I did before, 
 with twisted gold, if thou comest off safe." 
 
 Beowulf spake, chief of the Geats: 
 
 "Sorrow not, sage man, 'tis better for each 
 to avenge his friend than greatly to mourn. 
 
74 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 Each of US must an end await 
 
 of this world's life ; let him work who can 
 
 high deeds ere death ; that will be for the warrior, 
 
 when he is lifeless, afterwards best. 
 
 Rise, lord of the realm, let us quickly go 
 
 to see the course of GrendeFs parent. 
 
 I promise thee, not to the sea shall she escape, 
 
 nor to earth's embrace, nor to mountain-wood, 
 
 nor to ocean's ground, go whither she will. 
 
 This day do thou endurance have 
 
 in every woe, as I expect of thee !" 
 
 Up leapt the old man then, thanked God, 
 the mighty Lord, for what the man said. 
 For Hrothgar then a horse was bridled, 
 a steed with curled mane. The ruler wise 
 in state went forth ; a troop strode on, 
 bearing their shields. Tracks there were 
 along the forest paths widely seen, 
 her course o'er the ground. 
 
 Then overpassed these sons of nobles 
 deep rocky gorges, a narrow road, 
 strait lonely paths, an unknown way, 
 precipitous headlands, monster-dens many. 
 He went in advance, he and a few 
 of the wary men, to view the plain, 
 till suddenly he found mountain-trees 
 overhanging a hoary rock, 
 a joyless wood ; there was water beneath. 
 
 Beowulf girt himself 
 in war-like weeds ; for life he feared not ; 
 his warrior-coat, woven by hands, 
 ample and inlaid, must tempt the deep ; 
 it could well his body protect 
 that battle-grip might not scathe his breast, 
 the fierce one's wily grasp injure his life. 
 But the flashing helm guarded his head, 
 (which with the sea-bottom was to mingle 
 
The Builders and Their Work 75 
 
 Minillll.llllllllMIIIIIIIIIIHnillUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIillllllllllllllllllllllllllllillHUIIIIIIIIU 
 
 and seek the sea-surge) with jewels adorned, 
 
 encircled with chains, as in days of yore 
 
 the weapon-smith wrought it, wondrously framed, 
 
 set with swine-figures, so that thereafter 
 
 no brand nor war-sword ever could bite it. 
 
 Nor then was that least of powerful aids 
 which Hrothgar's warrior lent him at need: 
 Hrunting was named the hilted sword. 
 'Twas among the foremost of olden treasures; 
 its edge was iron, tainted with poison, 
 harden'd with warrior-blood; ne'er in battle 
 had it failed any of those that brandished it, 
 who durst to travel the ways of terror, 
 the perilous ways. 'Twas not the first time 
 that it a valorous deed should perform. 
 
 Beowulf spake, the great hero : 
 
 ''Eemember thou now, good man, 
 sagacious prince, now I am ready to go, 
 gold-friend of men, the things we have spoken : 
 If I should lose my life for thy need, 
 that thou wouldst ever be to me, 
 when I am gone, in a father's stead. 
 Be a guardian thou to my fellow warriors, 
 to my near comrades, if war take me off. 
 Also the treasures which thou hast given me, 
 beloved Hrothgar, send to my King. 
 By that gold then may the lord of the Geats know, 
 when he looks on that treasure, 
 that I in man's virtue have found one pre-eminent, 
 a giver of rings, and rejoiced while I might. 
 And let him have the ancient relic, 
 the wondrous war-sword. I with Hrunting 
 will work me renown, or death shall take me." 
 
 Beowulf's victory over grendel's mother 
 After these words the great chieftain 
 with ardor hastened, nor any answer 
 
76 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiiHMiiiiiiiiiiiininiiiiMiiiiniiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMtiMiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiniMiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiim 
 
 would he await. The sea-wave received 
 
 the warrior-hero. It was a day's space 
 
 ere he the bottom could perceive. 
 
 Forthwith she found — she who the flood's course 
 
 had blood-thirsty held a hundred years, 
 
 grim and greedy — that a man from above 
 
 was there exploring the realm of strange creatures. 
 
 Then at him she grasped, the warrior seized 
 
 in her horrible claws. Notwithstanding she crushed not 
 
 his unhurt body ; the ring-mail guarded him, 
 
 so that she might not pierce that war-dress, 
 
 the lock-linked coat, with her hostile fingers. 
 
 Then when the sea-wolf reached the bottom, 
 she bore to her dwelling the prince of rings 
 so that he might not, brave as he was, 
 his weapons wield ; for many strange beings 
 in the deep oppressed him, many a sea-beast 
 with its battle tusks his war-shirt broke; 
 the wretches pursued him. Then the hero found 
 he was in he knew not what dread hall, 
 where him no water in aught could scathe, 
 nor because of the roof could the sudden grip 
 of the flood reach him ; he saw a fire-light, 
 a brilliant beam brightly shining. 
 The hero perceived then the wolf of the deeps, 
 the mighty mother of Grendel; a powerful onslaught 
 he made with his sword, 
 so on her head the ringed weapon sang 
 a horrid war-song. The guest then discovered 
 how that the battle-beam would not bite, 
 would not scathe life, but that the edge failed 
 its lord at his need ; previously had it endured 
 hand-confiicts many, slashed often the helm, 
 war-garb of the doomed ; then was the first time 
 for the precious gift that its power failed. 
 
 Still was he resolute, slacked not his ardor, 
 of great deeds mindful was the great chieftain. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 77 
 
 liiiiiiiiiiiiiMiriiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiitiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiu^^ 
 
 Flung he the twisted sword, curiously bound, 
 the angry champion, that stiff and steel-edged, 
 it lay on the earth ; in his strength he trusted, 
 his powerful hand-grip. So shall man do, 
 when he in battle thinks of gaining 
 lasting praise, nor cares for his life. 
 
 By the shoulder then seized he (heeded not her 
 malice), 
 the lord of the war-Geats, Grendel's mother; 
 the fierce fighter hurled, incensed as he was, 
 the mortal foe, that she fell to the ground. 
 She quickly repaid him again in full 
 with her fierce grasps, and at him caught; 
 then stumbled he weary, of warriors the strongest, 
 the active champion, so that he fell. 
 She pressed down the hall-guest, and drew her dagger, 
 the broad gleaming blade, — would avenge her son, 
 her only child. On his shoulder lay 
 the braided breast-net which shielded his life 
 'gainst point, 'gainst edge, all entrance withstood. 
 
 Then would have perished Beowulf 
 'neath the wide earth, champion of the Geats, 
 had not his war-coat help afforded, 
 his battle-net hard, and holy God 
 awarded the victory. The wise Lord, 
 Euler of Heaven, with justice decided it 
 easily, when he again stood up. 
 
 At the time of his greatest need, Beowulf saw an old 
 sword, one that the giants had used long ago. This he 
 seized and with it dealt a blow so mighty that the monster 
 sank in death. Then the sword, covered with battle-gore 
 like bloody icicles, melted like ice when the Father- relaxes 
 the bands of the frost. Beowulf found the corpse of 
 Grendel, and took back to the upper air the monster's head. 
 
78 Builders of Democracy 
 
 BEOWULF RETURNS TO HIS WARRIORS 
 
 He swam up through the water. 
 The ocean surges all were cleansed, 
 the dwellings vast, when the stranger guest 
 her life-days left and this fleeting existence. 
 Then came to land the sailor^s protector 
 stoutly swimming, rejoiced in his sea-spoil, 
 the mighty burden of what he brought with him. 
 Then toward him they went, with thanks to Grod, 
 the stout band of thanes, rejoiced in their lord, 
 because they beheld him safe and sound. 
 From the vigorous chief both helm and coat of mail 
 were then soon loosed. The sea subsided — 
 the cloud-shadowed water with death-gore dappled. 
 
 Thence forth they went retracing their steps, 
 happy at heart, the high-way measured, 
 the well-known road. The nobly bold, men 
 up from the sea-shore bore the head, 
 not without labor for each of them, 
 the mightily daring. Four undertook 
 with toil to bear on the battle-spear, 
 up to the gold-hall, the head of Grendel ; 
 until stiaightway to the hall they came, 
 resolute, warlike, four and ten of them, 
 Geats all marching with their lord. 
 Proud amid the throng, he trod the meadows. 
 
 Then entering came the prince Beowulf, 
 the deed-strong man with glory honored, 
 the man bold in battle, Hrothgar to greet. 
 And into the hall, where men were feasting, 
 Grendel's head by the hair was borne, 
 a thing of terror to nobles and queen. 
 
 Beowulf's last adventure 
 There yet remains a third adventure. Beowulf became 
 king, and ruled wisely his land for many years. Then one 
 
The Builders and Their Work 79 
 
 IHUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIinilllMMIIIIIIinilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIII 
 
 day a new terror came upon the people. A dragon flew over 
 the land, spurting forth live coals which set the cheerful 
 farmsteads aflame ; the flame-light flared aloft in defiance of 
 men; the hostile air-flyer would leave nothing there alive, 
 the rage of the foe was seen far and near, how the ravaging 
 invader hated and ruined the people. After he had spread 
 terror and destruction, he shot back to his dark mansion 
 before the light of day. The poet tells us that he had en- 
 compassed the land folk with flame; he trusted in his 
 mountain, his warcraft, and his rampart; that confidence 
 deceived him. 
 
 Then Beowulf prepared him for battle, uprose the reso- 
 lute warrior, stern under his helmet; he found out the 
 dragon's lair. N'o man could endure the flame. The foe 
 came upon him, curved like an arch, but the hero smote 
 the spotted horror with his mighty sword, which was bent 
 and broken by the monster's bony crust. Aided by a young 
 hero who alone of all Beowulf's followers dared face the 
 frightful fires, the king once more achieved victory, though 
 he received his death wound in the combat. The youth 
 upbraided those who had deserted their lord, — 
 
 "Death is preferable, for every warrior, rather than 
 a life of infamy." 
 
 The old story has for us strange attraction. No evil am- 
 bition spurred this first of our heroes on, no passion for 
 conquest. It was to help make the world safe for those 
 who must live in it. He drew his sword in behalf of men 
 oppressed by cruelty and terror. 
 
 The monsters of the old tale suggest to us the evil 
 
80 Builders of Democracy 
 
 forces that appear from time to time among men, now 
 in one form and now in another. Whenever they appear, 
 men must overthrow them, no matter at what cost. 
 
 In a far-off time, while there was yet no England, men 
 from whom we trace our descent told this tale of a hero. 
 This hero met and conquered three monsters that fought 
 through desire for blood and power and not according 
 to the rules of honorable war. The first attacked through 
 treachery a helpless people. The second made foul the 
 sea. The third shot fire from the air upon the farm- 
 steads, destroying homes and burning to death innocent 
 people who had done him no wrong. In the destruction of 
 Belgium, in the lawless and cruel submarine warfare, and 
 in the Zeppelin raids over England, the old story becomes 
 alive once more. The ideals held by English-speaking 
 .peoples today have a history that extends back through more 
 than a thousand years. 
 
 II .y 
 
 HOW THE ENGLISH NATION WAS FORMED, AND HOW IN THE 
 DAYS OF CHIVALRY A LAD WAS PREPARED FOR KNIGHT- 
 HOOD. OF THE CALL TO THE COLORS IN THOSE OLD DAYS, 
 AND THE STORY OF THE GOOD KING ARTHUR, WHO WAS ONE 
 OF THE BUILDERS. 
 
 "Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never 
 
 Kist, 30 long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, or a man or woman 
 ft to say, 'I will redress that wrong or spend my life in the attempt.' " 
 
 — Charles Kingsley. 
 
 • 
 
 The story of Beowulf is made up of legends that clus- 
 tered about the name of some northern hero who never lived 
 in England. But his story became, as we have seen, repre- 
 
The Builders and Their Work 81 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii nil mil iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiui 
 
 sentative of English ideals in that period when the founda- 
 tions of England were being laid. 
 
 The Northern tribes — Angles, Saxons, and others, who 
 settled in England in the fifth and sixth centuries, drove 
 back into the mountains of Wales the native Britons. These 
 people, who were imaginative, brave, lovers of stories of 
 magic and enchantment, had their own hero, King Arthur, 
 who fought the Romans and also conquered the Saxon 
 invaders in twelve great battles. 
 
 The British, or Welsh as they are known to us, still 
 keep traces of their old language and traditions. In the 
 sixteenth century a Welsh family, to which Henry VIII 
 and the great Queen Elizabeth belonged, ruled England, 
 and David Lloyd George, Premier of Great Britain during 
 the war, is a Welshman ; that is, he is descended from the 
 race to which King Arthur belonged. 
 
 The English race is the result of a combination of many 
 races. We ha.ve already named some of the Northern 
 tribes that conquered Britain. In 1066 the Normans came 
 over from France and brought new elements into English 
 blood and life. England and America are alike in their 
 power to receive and to mould into one race men from 
 very different nationalities. President Wilson recently 
 delivered an address before representatives of thirty-three 
 different nationalities, all of them good Americans now. 
 Much of the strength of English and American character 
 comes from the fact that English-speaking peoples unite 
 the good qualities of many races. 
 
 So it happens that the story of King Arthur, a British 
 hero of the sixth century, is also the product of many 
 racial influences. From the twelfth century on, this story 
 
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 grew from French and English sources until it came to 
 portray the best ideals of the age of chivalry. In the fif- 
 teenth century many different legends about Arthur were 
 woven into one story by Sir Thomas Malory. In the six- 
 teenth century, the greatest poem of Queen Elizabeth's 
 time, Spenser's Faerie Queene, made use of this material. 
 And almost within our own time the story was told again 
 by Alfred Tennyson in his Idylls of the King, 
 
 From all these sources we learn what chivalry was, and 
 what an influence it had upon restoring order and peace in 
 rude times, in bringing gentler manners among men, in 
 developing a desire to right all wrongs and drive out evil 
 customs, and in giving to women a higher place. 
 
 How a boy was trained for knighthood may be learned 
 from the selection that follows. 
 
 HOW KNIGHTHOOD WAS WON 
 
 SAMUEL B. HARDING 
 
 At about seven years of age, a boy of high birth was 
 usually sent away from home to be trained in the castle 
 of some noble lord. There he spent some years in attend- 
 ance upon the lord and lady of the castle, and was taught 
 how to bear himself politely. When older, he attended his 
 lord, learning to ride, to hunt, and to use the arms of 
 nobility — the shield, the sword, and the lance. When 
 skilled in these things, he became a "squire"; his duty 
 thenceforth was to accompany his lord to the tournament 
 or to battle, to help him put on his armor, to provide him 
 with a fresh lance or a fresh horse in the combat, and in 
 case of need to give him aid. After several years of such 
 
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 IlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllUllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 
 
 service, having proved his skill and his courage, the young 
 squire was ready to become a "knight." 
 
 Often the ceremony of conferring ^^knighthood" was not 
 performed until the squire had "won his spurs'' by some 
 heroic deed. The highest ambition of the young man was 
 to be knighted on the field of battle, as a reward for bravery. 
 When this was done the ceremony was simple. Some 
 famous knight would strike the kneeling youth upon the 
 shoulder and say, "I dub thee knight." 
 
 The ordinary ceremony was much more elaborate. The 
 first step in this was a bath, signifying purification. Then 
 the squire put on garments of red, white, and black — red, 
 for the blood he must shed in defense of the Church ; white, 
 for purity of mind ; hlcbch, in memory of death, which comes 
 to all. Then came "the vigil of arms" in the church, where 
 he watched and prayed all night, either standing or kneel- 
 ing before the altar, on which lay his sword. At daybreak 
 the priest came, the squire confessed his sins, heard mass, 
 and partook of the holy sacrament. Then perhaps he list- 
 ened, with the other candidates for knighthood, to a sermon 
 on the proud duties of a knight. Later in the morning he 
 appeared before his lord, or some other well-known knight, 
 and his spurs were fastened on his feet and his sword was 
 girt about him. Then he knelt before his lord, and the 
 latter gave him the "accolade" ; that is, he struck the squire 
 a blow upon the neck with his fist, or with the flat of his 
 sword, and said: 
 
 "In the name of God, and Saint Michael, and Saint 
 George, I dub thee knight. Be brave and loyal." 
 
 After this the new knight gave an exhibition of his skill 
 in riding and in the use of weapons, and the day ended 
 
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 with feasting and merry-making. As a true knight, he 
 was expected to be loyal to his lord and to the Ch\irch, to 
 be just and pure in his life, and to be kind to all in need 
 of his help, especially to defenseless women. — From The 
 Story of England. 
 
 But Arthur became one of the Builders not so much 
 through his actual achievements as through the influence 
 exerted for centuries by the legends that have gathered 
 about him. Almost every great English poet has had some- 
 thing to say about Arthur. Of the many stories, two are 
 given here. 
 
 The first shows how the young king was subjected to a 
 severe test, and how he got his famous sword Excalibur. 
 
 THE FINDING OF EXCALIBURi 
 
 Now when Arthur was first made King, as young knights 
 will, he courted peril for its own sake, and often would he 
 ride unattended by lonely forest ways, seeking the adven- 
 ture that chance might send him. All unmindful was he 
 of the ruin to his realm if mischief befell him; and even 
 his trusty counsellors, though they grieved that he should 
 thus imperil him, yet could not but love him the more for 
 his hardihood. 
 
 So, on a day, he rode through the Forest Perilous 
 where dwelt the Lady Annoure, a sorceress of great might, 
 who used her magic powers but for the furtherance of her 
 
 iTaken, by permission, from the Elson Grammar School Reader, 
 Book III. 
 
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 own desires. And as she looked from a turret window, she 
 descried-^ing Arthur come riding down a forest glade, and 
 the sunbeams falling upon him made one glory of his 
 ai3iior and of his yellow hair. Then, as Annoure gazed 
 upon the King, she resolved that, come what might, she 
 would have him for her own, to dwell with her always and 
 fulfill all her behests. And so she bade lower the draw- 
 bridge and raise the portcullis, and sallying forth accom- 
 panied by her maidens, she gave King Arthur courteous 
 ealutation, and prayed him that he would rest within her 
 castle that day, for that she had a petition to make to him ; 
 and Arthur, doubting nothing of her good faith, suffered 
 himself to be led within. 
 
 Then was a great feast spread, and Annoure caused the 
 King to be seated in a chair of state at her right hand, 
 while squires and pages served him on bended knee. So 
 when they had feasted, the King turned to the Lady An- 
 noure and said courteously : 
 
 "Lady, somewhat ye said of a request that ye would make. 
 If there be aught in which I may give pleasure to you, I 
 pray you let me know it, and I will serve you as knightly 
 as I may." 
 
 "In truth," said the lady, "there is that which I would 
 fain entreat of you, most noble knight; yet suffer, I be- 
 seech you, that first I may show you somewhat of my castle 
 and my estate, and then I crave a boon of your chivalry." 
 
 Then the sorceress led King Arthur from room to room 
 of her castle, and ever each displayed greater store of beauty 
 than the last. In some, the walls were hung with rich 
 tapestries, in others they gleamed with precious stones ; and 
 the King marveled what might be the petition of one that 
 
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 was mistress of such wealth. Lastly, Annoure brought the 
 King out upon the battlements, and as he gazed, around 
 him, he saw that, since he had entered the castle, there 
 had sprung up about it triple walls of defense that shut 
 out wholly the forest from view. Then turned he to An- 
 noure, and gravely said : 
 
 "Lady, greatly I marvel in what a simple knight may 
 give pleasure to one that is mistress of so wondrous a castle 
 as ye have shown me here; yet if there be aught in which 
 I may render you knightly service, right gladly would I 
 hear it now, for I must go forth upon my way to render 
 service to those whose knight I am sworn." 
 
 "Nay, now. King Arthur," answered the sorceress mock- 
 ingly, "ye may not deceive me ! for well I know you, and 
 that all Britain bows to your behest." 
 
 "The more reason then that I should ride forth to right 
 wrong and succor them that, of their loyalty, render true 
 obedience to their lord." 
 
 "Ye speak as a fool," said the sorceress ; "why should one 
 that may command be at the beck and call of every hind 
 and slave within his realm ? Nay, rest thee here with me, 
 and I will make thee ruler of a richer land than Britain, 
 and satisfy thy every desire." 
 
 "Lady," said the King sternly, "I will hear and judge 
 of your petition here and now, and then will I go forth 
 upon my way." 
 
 "Nay," said Annoure, "there needs not this harshness. I 
 did but speak for thine advantage. Only vow thee to my 
 service, and there is naught that thou canst desire that thou 
 shalt not possess. Thou shalt be lord of this fair castle and 
 of the mighty powers that obey me. Why waste thy youth in 
 
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 hardship and m the service of such as shall render thee 
 little enough again?" 
 
 Thereupon, without ever a word, the King turned him 
 about and made for the turret stair by which he had as- 
 scended, but nowhere could he find it. Then said the sor- 
 ceress, mocking him : 
 
 "Fair sir, how think ye to escape without my goodwill? 
 See ye not the walls that guard my stronghold ? And think 
 ye that I have not servants enough to do my bidding ?" 
 
 She clapped her hands and, forthwith, Jhere appeared a 
 company of squires who, at her command, seized the King 
 and bore him away to a strong chamber where they locked 
 him in. 
 
 And so the King abode that night, the prisoner of that 
 evil sorceress, with little hope that day, when it dawned, 
 should bring him better cheer. Yet lost he not courage, but 
 kept watch and vigil the night through, lest the powers of 
 evil should assail him unawares. And with the early morn- 
 ing light, Annoure came to visit him. More stately she 
 sfeemed than the night before, more tall and more terrible ; 
 and her dress was one blaze of flashing gems so that scarce 
 could the eye look upon her. As a queen might address a 
 vassal, so greeted she the King, and as condescending to 
 one of low estate, asked how he had fared that night. And 
 the King made answer : 
 
 "I have kept vigil as behooves a knight who, knowing 
 himself to be in the midst of danger, would bear himself 
 meetly in any peril that should offer," 
 
 And the Lady Annoure, admiring his knightly courage, 
 desired more earnestly even than before to win him to her 
 will, and she said : 
 
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 "Sir Arthur^ I know well your courage and knightly 
 fame, and greatly do I desire to keep you with me. Stay 
 with me and I promise that ye shall bear sway over a wider 
 realm than any that ye ever heard of, and I, even I, its 
 mistress, will be at your command. And what lose ye if 
 ye accept my offer? Little enough; for never think that 
 ye shall win the world from evil and men to loyalty and 
 truth." 
 
 Then answered the King in anger : "Full well I see that 
 thou art in league with evil and that thou but seekest to 
 turn me from my purpose. I defy thee, foul sorceress. Do 
 thy worst ; though thou slay me, thou shalt never sway me 
 to thy will" ; and therewith, the King raised his cross-hilted 
 sword before her. Then the lady quailed at that sight. Her 
 heart was filled with hate, but she said : 
 
 "Go your way, proud King .of a petty realm. Eule well 
 your race of miserable mortals, since it pleases you more 
 than to bear sway over the powers of the air. I keep you 
 not against your will." 
 
 With these words, she passed from the chamber, and the 
 King heard her give command to her squires to set him 
 without her gates, give him his horse, and suffer him to go 
 on his way. 
 
 And so it came to pass that the King found himself once 
 more at large, and marveled to have won so lightly to 
 liberty. Yet knew he not the depths of treachery in the 
 heart of Annoure; for when she found she might not pre- 
 vail with the King, she bethought her how, by mortal means, 
 she might bring the King to dishonor and death. And so, 
 by her magic art, she caused the King to follow a path 
 that brought him to a fountain, whereby a knight had his 
 
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 tent, and, for the love of adventure, held the way against all 
 comers. ISTow this knight was Sir Pellinore, and at that 
 time, he had not his equal for strength and knightly skill, 
 n,or had any been found tliat might stand against him. So, 
 is the King drew nigh, Pellinore cried: 
 ( "Stay, knight, for no one passes this way except he joust 
 with me." 
 
 "That is not a good custom," said the King ; "and it were 
 well that ye followed it no more." 
 
 "It is my custom, and I will' follow it still," answered 
 Pellinore ; "if ye like it not, amend it if ye can." 
 
 "I will do my endeavor," said Arthur, '^ut, as ye see, I 
 have no spear." 
 
 "Nay, I seek not to have you at disadvantage," replied 
 Pellinore, and bade his squire give x\rthur a spear. Then 
 they dressed their shields, l;aid their lances in rest, and 
 rushed upon each other. Now the King was wearied by his 
 night's vigil, and the strength of Pellinore was as the 
 strength of three men; so, at the first encounter, Arthur 
 was unhorsed. Then said he : 
 
 "I have lost the honor on horseback, but now will I en- 
 counter thee with my sword and on foot." 
 
 "I, too, will alight," said Pellinore ; "small honor to me 
 were it if I slew thee on foot, I being horsed the while." So 
 they encountered each other on foot, and, so fiercely they 
 fought that they hewed off great pieces of each other's 
 armor and the ground was dyed with their blood. But at 
 last, Arthur's sword broke off short at the hilt, and so he 
 stood all defenseless before his foe. 
 
 "I have thee now," cried Pellinore; "yield thee as rec- 
 reant or I will slay thee." 
 
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 "That will I never/' said the King, "slay me if thou 
 canst/' 
 
 Then he sprang on Pellinore, caught him by the middle, 
 and flung him to the ground, himself falling with him. And 
 Sir Pellinore marveled, for never before had he encountered 
 so bold arid resolute a foe; but exerting his great strength, 
 he rolled himself over, and so brought Arthur beneath him. 
 Then Arthur would have perished, but at that moment 
 Merlin stood beside him, and when Sir Pellinore would 
 have struck off the King's head, stayed his blow, crying: 
 
 "Pellinore, if thou slayest this knight, thou puttest the 
 whole realm in peril; for this is none other than King 
 Arthur himself." 
 
 Then was Pellinore filled with dread, and cried : 
 
 "Better make an end of him at once ; for if I suffer him 
 to live, what hope have I of his grace, that have dealt with 
 him so sorely?" 
 
 But before Pellinore could strike. Merlin caused a deep 
 sleep to come upon him ; and raising King Arthur from the 
 ground, he staunched his wounds and recovered him of 
 his swoon. 
 
 But when the King came to himself, he saw his foe lie, 
 still as in death, on the ground beside him; and he was 
 grieved, and said: 
 
 "Merlin, what have ye done to this brave knight ? [N'ay, 
 if ye have slain him, I shall grieve my life long; for a good 
 knight he is, bold and a fair fighter, though something 
 wanting in knightly courtesy." 
 
 "He is in better case than ye are. Sir King, who so lightly 
 imperil your person, and thereby your kingdom's welfare; 
 and, as ye say, Pellinore is a stout knight, and hereafter 
 
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 shall he serve you ^ell. Have no fear. He shall wake again 
 in threl^ours and^ave suffered naught by the encounter. 
 But^r you, it were w^ll that ye came where ye might be 
 teH^ed for your woundsl-^ 
 
 "Nay/^ replied the King, smiling, "I may not return to 
 iny court thus weaponless; first will I find, means to possess 
 ine of a sword.'* 
 
 'That is easily done/' answered Merlin ; "follow me, and 
 I will bring you where ye shall get you a sword, the wonder 
 of the world.*' j 
 
 So, though his wounds pained him sore, the King fol- 
 lowed Merlin by many a forest path and glade, until they 
 came upon a mere, bosomed deep in the forest; and as he 
 looked thereon, the King beheld an arm, clothed in white 
 samite, above the surface of thelake, and in the hand was 
 a faip sword that gleamed in the level rays of the setting 
 sun. 
 
 "This is a great marvel," said the King, "what may it 
 mean ?" 
 
 And Merlin made answer : "Deep is this mere, so deep 
 indexed that no man may fathom it; but in its depths, and 
 built upon the roots of the mountains, is the palace of the 
 Lady of the. Lake. Powerful is she with a power that works 
 ever for good, and she shall help thee in thine hour of need." 
 
 Anon the damsel herself came unto Arthur and said: 
 "Sir Arthur, King, yonder sword is mine and if ye will 
 give me a gift when I ask it of you, ye shall have it." 
 
 "By my faith," said Arthur, "I will give you what gift 
 ye will ask." 
 
 Then was Arthur aware of a little skiff, half hidden 
 among the bulrushes that fringed the lake; and leaping 
 
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 The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted hin^'^"'"' "^ " 
 And bore him to a chapel nigh the field, ^^ 
 A broken chancel with a broken cross, -^ 
 
 That stood on a dark strait of -barren land : 
 On one side lay the Ocean, aftd on one 
 Lay a great water, and the moon was full. 
 
 Then spake King iiithnr to Sir Bedivere : 
 "The sequel of today unsolders all 
 The goodliest fellotJship of famous knights 
 Whereof this world Jiolds record. Such a sleep 
 They sleep — the mek I loved. I think that we 
 Shall never more, at any future time, 
 Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds. 
 Walking about the gardens and the halls 
 Of Camelot, as in the days that were. 
 I perish by this people which I made, — 
 Tho' Merlin sware that I should come again 
 To rule once more ; but, let what will be, be, 
 I am so deeply smitten thro' the helm 
 That without help I cannot last till morn. 
 Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur, 
 Which was my pride : for thou rememberest how 
 In those old days, one summer noon, an arm 
 Rose up from out the bosom of the lake, 
 Clothed iff white samite, mystic, wonderful. 
 Holding the sword — and how I row'd across 
 And took it, and have worn it, like a king; 
 And, wheresoever I am sung or told 
 In aftertime, this also shall be known: 
 But now delay not: take Excalibur, 
 •And fling him far into the middle mere : 
 Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word." 
 
 To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere : 
 "It is not meet. Sir King, to leave thee thus, 
 Aidless, alone, and smitten thro' the helm — 
 
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 A little thuS^pnay liarm a wounded man ; 
 
 Yet I thy hest*Nvill all perform at full, 
 
 W%tc\\ what I see,' and lightly bring thee word." 
 
 So saying, from ^le ruin'd shrine he stept, 
 And in the moon athwart the place of tombs, 
 Where lay the mighty -bones of ancient men, 
 Old knights, and over themr. the sea-wind sang 
 Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down 
 By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock. 
 Came on the shining levels of the lake. 
 
 There drew he forth the brand Excalibur, 
 And o'er him, drawing it, the yinter moon. 
 Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth 
 And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt: 
 For all the haft twinkled witjj diamond sparks, . 
 Myriads of topaz-lights, and* jacinth-work 
 Of subtlest jewelry. He gazed so long 
 That both his eyes were, dazzled as he stood. 
 This way and that dividing the swift mind. 
 In act to throw; but at the last it seemed 
 Better to leave Excalibur conceal'd 
 There in the many-knotted waterflags, 
 Tiiat whistled stiff and dry about the marge. 
 So strode he back slow to the wounded King. 
 
 Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere: 
 "Hast thou performed my mission which I gave? 
 What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?" 
 
 And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere: 
 "I heard the ripple washing in the reeds. 
 And the wild water lapping on the crag." 
 
 To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale : 
 "Thou hast betray 'd thy nature and thy name. 
 Not rendering true answer, as beseem'd 
 
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 Thy fealty, nor like a noble knighj^t 
 
 For surer sign had followed, either hand, 
 
 Or voice, or else a motion of the mere. 
 
 This is a shameful thing for men to lie. 
 
 Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again. 
 
 As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing 
 
 I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word.** 
 
 Then went Sir Bedivere the second time 
 Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere. 
 Counting the dewy pebbles, fix'd in thought; 
 But when he saw the wonder of the hilt. 
 How curiously and strangely chased, he smote 
 His palms together, and he cried aloud : 
 
 "And if indeed I cast the brand away. 
 Surely a precious thing, one worthy note. 
 Should thus be lost for ever from the earth. 
 Which might have pleased the eyes of many men. 
 What good should follow this, if this were done ? 
 What harm, undone ? Deep harm to disobey. 
 Seeing obedience is the bond of rule. 
 Were it well to obey then, if a king demand 
 An act unprofitable, against himself? 
 The King is sick, and knows not what he does. 
 What record, or what relic of my lord. 
 Should be to aftertime, but empty breath 
 And ruiaaors of a doubt? But were this kept, 
 Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings. 
 Some one might show it at a joust of arms. 
 Saying, ^King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, 
 Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake. 
 Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps 
 Upon the hidden bases of the hills.' 
 So might some old man speak in the aftertime 
 To all the people, winning reverence 
 But now much honor and much fame were lost." 
 
 I 
 
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 So Spake \^ clouded with his own conceit, 
 And liid Excalftur the second time, 
 And so strode bacfc slow to the wounded King. 
 
 Then spoke King A-ithur, breathing heavily: 
 "What is it thou hast seen ? or what hast heard ?" 
 
 And answer made tlfe bold Sir Bedivere: 
 "I heard the water lapping on the crag, 
 And the long ripple washing in the reeds." 
 
 To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath : 
 "Ah, miserable and unkind, jintrue, 
 Unknightly, traitor-hearted ! iWoe is me ! 
 Authority forgets a dying king, 
 Laid widow'd of the power in his eye 
 That bow'd the will. I see thee what thou art, 
 For thou, the latest-left of aU my knights. 
 In whom should meet the offices of all, 
 Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt; 
 Either from lust of gold, or like a girl 
 Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes. 
 Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice. 
 And the third time may prosper, get thee hence : 
 But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur, 
 I will arise an4-«lay thee with my hands." 
 
 Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran. 
 And, leaping down the ridges lightly, pl\inged 
 Among the bulrush beds, and clutch'd the sword. 
 And strongly wheel'd and threw it. The great brand 
 Made lightnings in the splendor of the moon, 
 And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch, 
 Shot like a streamer of the northern morn, 
 Seen where the moving isles of winter shock 
 By night, with noises of the Northern Sea. 
 So flash'd and fell the brand Excalibur : 
 But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm 
 
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 Clothed in white samite, mystic, w9Aderful, 
 And caught him by the hilt, and Jjrandish'd him 
 Three times, and drew him un(j6r in the mere. - . 
 And lightly went the other to the King. 
 
 Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath: 
 "Now see I by thine eyes /-that this is done. 
 Speak out : what is it-,thou hast heard, or seen ?" 
 
 And answer made^ the bold Sir Bedivere : 
 "Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems 
 Should blind my purpose, for I never saw, 
 Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die. 
 Not tho' I live three lives of mortal men. 
 So great a miracle as yonder hilt. 
 Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him ; 
 But when I looked again, behold an arm, 
 Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful, 
 That caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him 
 Three times, and. drew him under in the mere." 
 
 And answer made King Arthur, breathing hard : 
 "My end draws nigh ; ^tis time that I were gone. 
 Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight. 
 And bear me to the margin; yet I fear 
 My wound hath taken cold, and 'I shall die." 
 
 So saying, from the pavement he half rose. 
 Slowly, with pain, reclining on his arm, 
 And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes 
 As in a picture. Him Sir Bedivere 
 Eemorsefully regarded thro' his tears, 
 And would have spoken, but he found not words ; 
 Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee, 
 O'er both his shoulders drew the languid hands, 
 And rising bore him thro' the place of tombs. 
 
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 Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge, 
 Dark as a fun^l^al scarf from stem to stern, 
 Beneath them; and descending they were ware 
 That all the decks were dense with stately forms, 
 Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream — by these 
 Three Queens with crowns of gold : and from them rose 
 .A cry that shiver'd to th.e tingling stars 
 And, as it were one voice, an agony 
 Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills 
 All night in a waste land, where no one comes. 
 Or hath come, since the makipg of the world. 
 
 Then murmured Arthur, "Place me in the barge." 
 So to the barge they came. There those three Queens 
 Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept. 
 But she, that rose the tallest of them all 
 And fairest, laid his head upon her lap. 
 And loosed the shattered casque, and chafed his hands, 
 And call'd him by his name, complaining loud, 
 And dropping bitter tears against a brow 
 Striped with dark blood-: for all his face was white 
 And colorless, and like the wither'd moon 
 Smote by the beam of the springing east ; 
 And all his greaves and cuisses dash'd with dropS 
 Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls — 
 That made his forehead like a rising sun 
 High- from' the dais-throne — were parch'd with dust; 
 Or clotted into points and hanging loose, 
 Mix'd with the knightly growth that fringed his lips. 
 So like a shattered column lay the King; 
 Not like that Arthur who, with lance in rest 
 From spur to plume a star of tournament. 
 Shot thro' the lists of Camelot, and charged 
 Before the eyes of ladies and of kings. 
 
 Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere : 
 "Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go? 
 Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes? 
 
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 For now I see the true old times are''9ead, 
 When every morning brought a nOble chance, 
 And every chance brought out ar noble knight. 
 Such times have been not since 'the light that led 
 The holy Elders with the gift ^' of myrrh. 
 But now the whole Eound Table is dissolved 
 Which was an image of the mighty world. 
 And I, the last, go forth companionless. 
 And the days darken round me, and the years. 
 Among new men, strange faces, other minds/^ 
 
 And slowly answet"'d Arthur from the barge: 
 "The old order changeth, yielding place to new. 
 And God fulfills himself in many ways, 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. 
 Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me? 
 I have lived my life, and that which I have done 
 May He within himself make pure ! but thou. 
 If thou shouldst never see, my face again. 
 Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer 
 Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice 
 Else like a fountain for me night and day. 
 For what are men better than sheep or goats 
 That nourish a blind life within the brain. 
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
 Both for themselves and those who call them friend? 
 For so the whole round earth is every way 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 
 But now farewell. I am going a long way 
 With these thou seest — if indeed I go 
 (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt) — 
 To the island-valley of Avilion; 
 Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow. 
 Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies 
 Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns 
 And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea. 
 Where I will heal me of my grievous wound." 
 
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 III 
 
 HOW KINGS AND KNIOJITS WENT OVER ALL THE WORLD IN 
 SEARCH OF ADVENTURf, AND FORGOT THEIR OWN PEOPLE. 
 AND HOW THE ENGLISH LORDS WRESTED FROM A CRUEL 
 KING A GREAT PARCHMENT WHEREON WERE WRITTEN 
 CERTAIN WONDERFUL THINGS. AND HOW. AT LAST, EARL 
 SIMON BUILDED APARLIAMEXT 
 
 But the ideals of chivalry, while they did much to re- 
 fine and humanize men, were only individual. The knight 
 wandered through all countries in search of adventure. 
 King Richard I, "Richard of the 'Lion Heart" as he was 
 called, spent little time in England. He was interested 
 in tournaments, in poetry, in hunting, and in warfare. 
 He went on a crusade, near the end^ of the twelfth century, 
 to attempt to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks. On 
 his way home, he was taken prisoner by the Emperor of 
 Germany, where he was foiind by his minstrel, Blondel, 
 who sang a song outside thfe prison and was answered by 
 the King. 
 
 The poet Chaucer tells us about a "very perfect gentle 
 knight" who had fought in many countries, heathen and 
 Christian. He possessed the cardinal knightly virtues of 
 truthfulness, sense of honor, generosity, and courtesy. He 
 had fought in fifteen great battles, in Russia, Africa, Asia 
 Minor, and Prussia, and had won high praise. Yet he was 
 modest and unassuming, deserving of the respect that was 
 shown him by the officers drawn from various nations, who 
 desired him to sit at the head of the table. 
 
 Other knights sought strange adventures in strange lands 
 — the pursuit of monsters, the rescue of ladies in distress, 
 the combats known as "tournaments," at which knights in 
 
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 mysterious armor jousted for victory — the ''green knight," 
 the "black knight/' the ^^knight with the lion." And some 
 of these knights became famous heroes in the long romances 
 that delighted our ancestors — Sir -Lancelot, Sir Galahad, 
 Sir Perceval, Sir Gawain. 
 
 But in all this travel in seai:eh of adventure there was 
 little spirit of nationality^^' little patriotism, little interest 
 in working out plans by which large numbers of people, of 
 every trade and profession, might live together. The knight 
 had no country; his wa^ the search for personal distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Eichard of the Lion Heart thought nothing of England 
 except as a source from which he might get money for 
 carrying on his projects in foreign lands. King John, his 
 successor, thought of nothing but his own pleasure. He 
 was cruel, extravagant, and cowardly. He lost the Eng- 
 lish possessions in France. He imprisoned innocent men, 
 collected high taxes from the poor, seized lands to which 
 he had no right. 
 
 These abuses drove the people to rebellion. The loss of 
 their estates in France made the great lords regard their 
 English possessions more highly. Common people and 
 nobles, therefore, began to look for a way to lessen their 
 burdens. Shakespeare tells a part of the story in a drama, 
 called King John. He shows how weak and cruel the king 
 was. He shows, too, how a new patriotism was springing 
 up in England. The one thing needful was for the nobles 
 to cease their quarrels and to unite for the safety of Eng- 
 land. One of them says : 
 
 "This England never did, nor never shall, 
 Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror. 
 
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 But when it first did help to wound itself. 
 
 Now these her princes are come home again, 
 
 Come the three corners of the world in arms, 
 
 And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue, 
 
 If England to itself do rest but true." 
 
 So the lords came home from France, defied the efforts of 
 the French king to add England to his domains, and turned 
 their attention to the tyrant John. 
 
 With this in mind, let us look upon a strange and won- 
 derful picture. It is a day in June in the year 1215, more 
 than seven hundred years ago. We are near the river 
 Thames. On one side are the fiel(Js of Runnymede, filled 
 with the great barons of the realm, ^hile in the background 
 are serfs and attendants, yeomen and laborers, a field full 
 of English folk. Across the river are the soldiers of King 
 John. Midway of the stream is an island. Here the King, 
 with a few attendants, is receiving the representatives of 
 the barons. A long scroll of parchment is presented by a 
 baron who falls on his knees before the monarch. King 
 John seems to read the writing; in reality he sees nothing. 
 It is a bitter day for him, for though he seems to sign 
 the parchment graciously enough, and with a smile, in 
 reality he is helpless. The barons have him in their power, 
 and the parchment he signs is the great foundation of our 
 liberties, the Magna Charta. 
 
 In this Charter the King agreed that, "No free man shall 
 be taken, or imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or 
 banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, 
 nor will we send upon him, except by the lawful judgment 
 of his peers, and by the law of the land." "To no one 
 will we sell — to no one will we deny — right or justice.'* 
 
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 It was also provided that there should '1)6 ift) taxation 
 without the consent of the Great Council. You will remem- 
 ber that taxation without representation was the chief com- 
 plaint of the American colonies against the policy of the 
 British government. It was for a fight guaranteed to Eng- 
 lishmen since the Great Charter that the colonists fought 
 in the American Eevolution. 
 
 The barons who compelled King John to sign their char- 
 ter were working not merely for their own benefit but for 
 the benefit of all the people of England. They were Build- 
 
 ers of Democracy, 
 
 i 
 
 The building process goes on slowly. It seems a simple 
 thing to us that the people of a city like Boston or Chicago 
 should have the right to send representatives to Congress, 
 or that a man who saves his money and buys a house or 
 store should be free from the fear that the government, or 
 some official, may take it away from him. We take these 
 things as matters of course, like good appetite or health. 
 There's nothing wonderful about it that father talks poli- 
 tics now and then and votes for some one or other for 
 mayor, or governor, or president. 
 
 But we should keep in mind two things : first, that these 
 well-known forms of self-government have grown very 
 slowly, through centuries; and, second, that our American 
 institutions were bom and had their earliest development 
 in England. 
 
 The story is too long to be told here. How Earl Simon 
 carried on the reforms suggested by the Great Charter, so 
 that, as a poet of the time sang, 
 
 "N"ow England breathes in the hope of liberty"; 
 
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 how he formed a real Parliament, in 1265, composed of 
 representatives of the towns and counties as well as of the 
 nobles; the merchant and the trader sitting in Parliament 
 beside the knight of the shire, the baron, and the bishops, — 
 these were stepping stones toward our American Congress. 
 
 IV 
 
 HOW BRAVE MEN ROSE UP IN SCOTLAND WITH THE FIRE 
 OF LIBERTY BURNING IN THEIR HEARTS. AND OF THE 
 BRAVE DEEDS OF ROBERT THE BRUCE. 
 
 These beginnings of representative government applied 
 only to England. Scotland was not represented in the gov- 
 ernment but was held as a dependent province ; under Wal- 
 lace and Bruce she strove for freedom. How men fought, 
 in those early days of the fourteenth century, for free gov- 
 ernment, is told by Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN 
 
 SIE WALTER SCOTT 
 (1314) 
 
 King Edward the Second, as we have already said, was 
 not a wise and brave man like his father, but a foolish 
 prince, who was influenced by unworthy favorites, and 
 thought more of pleasure than of governing his kingdom. 
 His father Edward the First would have entered Scotland 
 at the head of a large army, before he had left Bruce time 
 to conquer back so much of the country. But we have seen 
 that, very fortunately for the Scots, that wise and skilful, 
 though ambitious King, died when he was on the point of 
 
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 marching into Scotland. His son Edward^IiacK afterwards 
 neglected the Scottish war, and thus lost the opportunity 
 of defeating Bruce when his force was small. But now 
 when Sir Philip Mowbray, the governor of Stirling, came 
 to London, to tell the King that Stirling, the last Scottish 
 town of importance which remained in possession of the 
 English, was to be surrendered if it "^ere not relieved by 
 force of arms before midsummer, then all the English 
 nobles called out, it would be a sin and shame to permit the 
 fair conquest which Edward the First had made to be for- 
 feited to the Scots for want of fighting. It was therefore 
 resolved that the King Should go himself to Scotland, with 
 as great forces as he could possibly muster. 
 
 King Edward the Second, therefore, assembled one of the 
 greatest armies which a King of England ever commanded. 
 There were troops brought from all his dominions. Many 
 brave soldiers from the French provinces which the King of 
 England possessed in France — many Irish, many Welsh — 
 and all the great English nobles and barons, with their fol- 
 lowers, were assembled in one great army. The number was 
 not less than one hundred thousand men. 
 
 King Eobert the Bruce summoned all his nobles and 
 barons to join him, when he heard of the great preparations 
 which the King of England was making. They were not so 
 numerous as the English by many thousand men. In fact, 
 his whole army did not very much exceed thirty thousand, 
 and they were much worse armed than the wealthy English- 
 men; but then, Eobert, who was at their head, was one of 
 the most expert generals of the time ; and the officers he had 
 under him were his brother Edward, his nephew Ean- 
 dolph, his faithful follower the Douglas, and other brave 
 
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 and experieiiced leaders, who commanded the same men 
 that had been accifetomed to fight and gain victories under 
 every disadvantage of situation and numbers. 
 
 The King, on his part, studied how he might supply by 
 address and stratagem •yth.dX he wanted in numbers and 
 strength. He knew the stperiority of the English, both in 
 their heavy-armed cavalry, which were much better mounted 
 and armed than that of the Scots, and in their archers, who 
 were better trained than any others in the world. Both 
 these advantages he resolved to provide against. "With this 
 purpose, he led his army down into a plain near Stirling, 
 called the Park, near which, and beneath it, the English 
 army must needs pass through a boggy country, broken with 
 water-courses, while the Scots occupied hard dry ground. 
 He then caused all the ground upon the front of his line 
 of battle, where cavalry were likely to act, to be dug full of 
 holes about as deep as a man's knee. They were filled with 
 light brushwood, and the turf was laid on the top, so that 
 it appeared a plain field, while in reality it was all full of 
 these pits as a honeycomb is of holes. He also, it is said, 
 caused steel spikes, called calthrops, to be scattered up and 
 down in the plain, where the English cavalry were most 
 likely to advance, trusting in that manner to lame and 
 destroy their horses. 
 
 When the Scottish army was drawn up, the line stretched 
 north and south. On the south it was terminated by the 
 banks of the brook called Bannockburn, which are so rocky 
 that no troops could attack them there. On the left, the 
 Scottish line extended near to the town of Stirling. Bruce 
 reviewed his troops very carefully; all the useless servants, 
 drivers of carts, and such like, of whom there were very 
 
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 many, he ordered to go behind a height^ - afterwards, in 
 memory of the event, called the Gillies' hill, that is, the 
 Servants' hill. He then spoke to the soldiers, and expressed 
 his determination to gain the victory, or to lose his life on 
 the field of battle. He desired that all those who did not 
 propose to fight to the last should leave the field before the 
 battle began, and that none should remain except those who 
 were determined to take the issue of victory or death, as 
 God should send it. 
 
 When the main body of his army was thus placed in 
 order, the King posted Eandolph, with a body of horse, near 
 to the Church of St. Njuian's, commanding him to use the 
 utmost diligence to pravent any succors from being thrown 
 into Stirling Castle. He then dispatched James of Douglas 
 and Sir Eobert Keith, the Mareschal of the Scottish army, 
 in order that they might survey, as nearly as they could, 
 the English force, which was now approaching from Fal- 
 kirk. They returned with information that the approach 
 of that vast host was one of the most beautiful and terrible 
 sights which could be seen — that the whole country seemed 
 covered with men-at-arms on horse aj^d foot — that the num- 
 ber of standards, banners, and pennons (all flags of differ- 
 ent kinds) made so gallant a show that the bravest and 
 most numerous host in Christendom might be alarmed to 
 see King Edward moving against them. 
 
 It was upon the twenty-third of June (1314) the King 
 of Scotland heard the news that the English army were 
 approaching Stirling. He drew out his army, therefore, in 
 the order which he had before resolved on. After a short 
 time Bruce, who was looking out anxiously for the enemy, 
 saw a body of English cavalry trying to get into Stirling 
 
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 from the eastward. This was the Lord Clifford, who, with 
 a chosen body of eight hundred horse, had been detached 
 to relieve the castle. 
 
 "See, Randolph," said the King to his nephew, "there 
 is a rose fallen from your chaplet." By this he meant 
 that Randolph had lost some honor by suffering the enemy 
 to pass where he had been stationed to hinder them. 
 Randolph made no reply, but rushed against Clifford with 
 little more than half his number. The Scots were on 
 foot. The English turned to charge them with thair 
 lances, and Randolph drew up his men in close order to 
 receive the onset. He seemed to be in so much danger 
 that Douglas asked leave of the King to go and assist him. 
 The King refused him permission.' 
 
 "Let Randolph," he said, "redeem his own fault; I can- 
 not break the order of battle for his sake." Still the 
 danger appeared greater, and the English horse seemed 
 entirely to encompass the small handful of Scottish in- 
 fantry. "So please you," said Douglas to the King, "my 
 heart will not suffer me to stand idle and see Randolph 
 perish — I must go to his assistance." He rode off accord- 
 ingly ; but long before they ' had reached the place of 
 combat they saw the English horses galloping off, many 
 with empty saddles. 
 
 "Halt !" said Douglas to his men, "Randolph has gained 
 the day; since we were not soon enough to help him in 
 the battle do not let us lessen his glory by approaching 
 the field." Now that was nobly done; especially as Doug- 
 las and Randolph were always contending which should 
 rise highest in the good opinion of the King and the 
 nation. 
 
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 The van of the English army now cam^'in sight, and a 
 number of their bravest knights drew near to see what the 
 Scots were doing. They saw King Robert dressed in his 
 armor and distinguished by a gold crown which he wore 
 over his helmet. He was not mounted on his great war- 
 horse, because he did not expect to fight that evening. But 
 he rode on a little pony up and down the ranks of his 
 army, putting his men in order, and carried in his hand a 
 sort of battle-axe made of steel. When the King saw the 
 English horsemen draw near, he advanced a little before 
 his own men, that he might look at them more nearly. 
 
 There was a knight among the English, called Sir 
 Henry de Bohun, who thought this would be a good op- 
 portunity to gain great fame to himself, and put an end to 
 the war, by killing King Robert. The King being poorly 
 mounted, and having no lance, Bohun galloped on him 
 suddenly and furiously, thinking, with his long spear 
 and his tall powerful horse, easily to bear him down to 
 the ground. King Robert saw him and permitted him 
 to come very near, then suddenly turned his pony a little 
 to one side, so that Sir Henry missed him with the lance- 
 point and was in the act of being carried past him by 
 the career of his horse. But as he passed. King Robert 
 rose up in his stirrups, and struck Sir Henry on the head 
 with his battle-axe so terrible a blow that it broke to 
 pieces his iron helmet as if it had been a nut-shell and 
 hurled him from his saddle. He was dead before he 
 reached the ground. This gallant action was blamed by 
 the Scottish leaders, who thought Bruce ought not to 
 have exposed himself to so much danger when the safety 
 of the whole army depended on him. The King only kept 
 
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 looking at his weapon, which was injured by the force 
 of the blow, and said, '^I have broken my good battle- 
 axe/' 
 
 The next morning, being the twenty-fourth of June, at 
 break of day, the battle began in terrible earnest. The 
 English as they advanced saw the Scots getting into line. 
 The Abbot of Inchaffray walked through their ranks bare- 
 footed, and exhorted them to fight for their freedom. They 
 kneeled down as he passed, and prayed to Heaven for vic- 
 ory. King Edward, who saw this, called out, "They kneel 
 down — they are asking forgiveness." "Yes," said a cele- 
 brated English baron, called Ingelram de Umphraville, 
 '^ut they ask it from God, not from us — these men will 
 conquer, or die upon the field." 
 
 The English King ordered his men to begin the battle. 
 The archers then bent their bows, and began to shoot so 
 closely together that the arrows fell like flakes of snow 
 on a Christmas day. They killed many of the Scots, and 
 might, as at Falkirk, and other places, have decided the 
 victory; but Bruce, as I told you before, was prepared for 
 them. He had in readiness a body of men-at-arms, well 
 mounted, who rode at full gallop among the archers, and 
 as they had no weapons save their bows and arrows, which 
 they could not use when they were attacked hand to hand, 
 they were cut down in great numbers by the Scottish 
 horsemen, and thrown into total confusion. 
 
 The fine English cavalry then advanced to support their 
 archers and to attack the Scottish line. But coming over 
 the ground which was dug full of pits, the horses fell into 
 these holes, and the riders lay tumbling about, without 
 any means of defence, and unable to rise from the weight 
 
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 of their armor. The Englishmen began to fall into 
 general disorder; and the Scottish King, bringing up 
 more of his forces, attacked and pressed them still more 
 closely. 
 
 On a sudden, while the battle was obstinately main- 
 tained on both sides, an event happened which decided the 
 victory. The servants and attendants on the Scottish 
 camp had, as I told you, been sent behind the army to a 
 place afterwards called the Gillies' hill. But when they 
 saw that their masters were likely to gain the day, they 
 rushed from their place of concealment with such weap- 
 ons as they could get, that they might have their share 
 in the victory and in the spoil. The English, seeing them 
 come suddenly over the hill, mistook this disorderly rab- 
 ble for a new army coming up to sustain the Scots, and, 
 losing all heart, began to shift every man for him^self. 
 Edward himself left the field as fast as he could ride. A 
 valiant knight. Sir Giles de Argentine, much renowned in 
 the wars of Palestine, attended the King till he got him 
 out of the press of the combat. But he would retreat no 
 farther. "It is not my custom," he said, "to fly." With 
 that he took leave of the King, set spurs to his horse, and 
 calling out his war-cry of Argentine ! Argentine ! he 
 rushed into the thickest of the Scottish ranks, and was 
 killed. 
 
 The young Earl of Gloucester was also slain, fighting 
 valiantly. The Scots would have saved him, but as he had 
 not put on his armorial bearings, they did not know him, 
 and he was cut to pieces. 
 
 Edward first fled to 'Sitirling Castle, and entreated 
 admittance; but Sir Philip Mowbray, the governor. 
 
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 reminded the fugitive Sovereign that he was obliged to 
 surrender the castle next day, so Edward was fain to fly 
 through the Torwood, closely pursued by Douglas with a 
 body of cavalry. An odd circumstance happened during 
 the chase, which showed how loosely some of the Scot- 
 tish barons of that day held their political opinions. As 
 Douglas was riding furiously after Edward, he met a 
 Scottish knight, Sir Laurence Abernethy, with twenty 
 horse. Sir Laurence had hitherto owned the English 
 interest, and was bringing this band of followers to serve 
 King Edward's army. But learning from Douglas that 
 the English King was entirely defeated, he changed sides 
 on the spot, and was easily prevailed upon to join Doug- 
 las in pursuing the unfortunate Edward, with the very fol- 
 lowers whom he had been leading to join his standard. 
 
 Douglas and Abernethy continued the chase, not giving 
 King Edward time to alight from horseback even for an 
 instant, and followed him as far as Dunbar, where the 
 English had still a friend in the governor, Patrick Earl 
 of March. The Earl received Edward in his forlorn con- 
 dition, and furnished him with a fishing skiff, or small 
 ship, in which he escaped to " England, having entirely 
 lost his fine army and a great number of his bravest 
 nobles. 
 
 The English never before or afterwards, whether in 
 France or Scotland, lost so dreadful a battle as that of 
 Bannockburn, nor did the Scots ever gain one of the same 
 importance. Many of the best and bravest of the English 
 nobility and gentry, as I have said, lay dead on the field; 
 a great many more were made prisoners ; and the whole of 
 King Edward's immense army was dispersed or destroyed. 
 
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 The English, after this great defeat, were no longer in 
 a condition to support their pretensions to be masters of 
 Scotland, or to continue, as they had done for nearly 
 twenty years, to send armies into that country to overcome 
 it. On the contrary, they became for a time scarce able to 
 defend their own frontiers against King Robert and his 
 goldiers. 
 
 Thus did Robert Bruce arise from the condition of an 
 exile, hunted with bloodhounds like a stag or beast of 
 prey, to the rank of an independent sovereign, universally 
 acknowledged to be one of the wisest and bravest kings 
 who then lived. The nation of Scotland was also raised 
 once more from the situation of a distressed and con- 
 quered province to that of a free and independent state, 
 governed by its own laws, and subject to its own princes; 
 and although the country was, after the Bruce^s death, 
 often subjected to great loss and distress, both by the 
 hostility of the English and by the unhappy civil wars 
 among the Scots themselves, yet they never afterwards 
 lost the freedom for which Wallace had laid down his life, 
 and which King Robert had recovered, not less by his 
 wisdom than by his weapons. And therefore most just 
 it is, that while the country of Scotland retains any recol- 
 lection of its history, the memory of those brave warriors 
 and faithful patriots should be remembered with honor 
 and gratitude. 
 
 Robert Burns, who lived in Scotland at the time of 
 the American revolution, was a poet who wrote much of 
 liberty and of the rights of the common man. So he was 
 ^eatly interested in the brave deeds of his ancestors who 
 
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 had fought under Wallace and Bruce. One of his best 
 poems is a great war song of liberty, called Bannockburn. 
 
 BANNOCKBURN 
 
 ROBEBT Bbuce's Addbess TO His Abmy 
 
 Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, 
 Scots, wham Bruce has aften led; 
 Welcome to your gory bed, 
 Or to victory! 
 
 Now's the day, and now's the hour; 
 See the front o' battle lour; 
 See approach proud Edward's power — 
 Chains and slavery! 
 
 Wha will be a traitor knaVe? 
 Wha can fill a coward's grave? 
 Wha sae base as be a slave ? 
 
 Let him turn and flee ! 
 
 Wha for Scotland's king and law 
 Freedom's sword will strongly draw, 
 Freeman stand, or Freeman fa', 
 Let him follow me ! 
 
 By oppression's woes and pains ! 
 By your sons in servile chains! 
 We will drain our dearest veins. 
 But they shall be free! 
 
 Lay the proud usurpers low! 
 Tyrants fall in every foe! 
 Liberty's in every blow! — 
 Let us do or die! 
 
 These men, also, were Builders of Democracy. 
 
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 HOW NO ONE THOUGHT OF THE POOR MAN, WHO WAS LITTLE 
 BETTER THAN A SLAVE. OF A FAIR FIELD FULL OF FOLK, 
 AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIED. AND HOW THE PEASANTS BE- 
 LIEVED THEIR YOUNG KING, AND WERE GRIEVOUSLY DE- 
 CEIVED BY HIM, SO THAT THEIR BUILDING WAS SEEMINGLY 
 OF LITTLE AVAIL. 
 
 The building goes forward slowly. Thus far we have 
 been concerned chiefly with the deeds of the nobles and the 
 gentry. The knights of the shire and the burgesses from 
 the cities were no true representatives of the wretched 
 laborers who had no land, but were forced to work as slaves 
 for the proprietors of estates. In the fourteenth century 
 England was scourged by the terrible Black Death. More 
 than half the population was swept away. More than 
 fifty thousand corpses were buried in one cemetery in Lon- 
 don. In Bristol the living were hardly able to bury their 
 dead. So few laborers were left that the crops could not 
 be gathered, and "the sheep and cattle strayed through the 
 fields and corn." 
 
 Cruel laws were passed, compelling every man and 
 woman who had no land "to serve the employer who shall 
 require him to do so." No one was permitted to leave his 
 parish in search of better pay, and the wages were the mere 
 pittances paid before the coming of the Black Death. Grain 
 was so scarce and cost so much that a day's labor would not 
 purchase enough for the support of one person. 
 
 Once more we look upon an English meadow, "a fair field 
 filled with folk." But in this picture the pomp and cir- 
 cumstance of barons and king are wanting. The hero of 
 the scene is a poor English plowman. We learn of him 
 
 1 
 
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 through a vision described by a poet of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury. On a May morning, he tells us, he fell into a trance 
 in which he saw a great concourse of people, not knights 
 and their fair ladies alone, not kings and soldiers, but plow- 
 men, who played little and toiled much, weavers and bond- 
 men, pilgrims, friars, parish priests, minstrels, and beg- 
 gars. Some there were who lived only for pleasure, cloth- 
 ing themselves in rich apparel. Others were idle, avoiding 
 work, while still others worked hopelessly and without joy 
 in the working. Many had gone on pilgrimages in search 
 of forgiveness for their sins. 
 
 But the remarkable thing about this poet's vision of the 
 fair field full of folk is that all these people are on a pil- 
 grimage to find Saint Truth. They ask Piers Plowman if 
 he knows where Truth may be found. "Yes," he says. 
 "Wilt thou show us the way thither ?" "Yes, when I have 
 finished my plowing." Thus the poet praises thrift and 
 industry, and rebukes idleness and wandering. He warns 
 the knight not to mistreat the poor tenant, for perhaps in 
 heaven the poor man may be more highly rewarded than he 
 who lived in comfort on earth. But all must toil. Hunger 
 is God's instrument to make men industrious. Labor is 
 honorable. It is a vision of the Workers' earth. 
 
 The scene changes. Unable to bear their slavery, perse- 
 cuted by a Parliament more cruel than the king, since it is 
 an assembly of land owners and employers who wish to 
 keep labor in subjection,— the peasants have risen against 
 their tyrants. A hundred thousand men of Kent, led by 
 Wat Tyler, are marching on London. The nobles and rich 
 burghers are paralyzed by fear. King Richard is only a 
 
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 boy, but he meets them bravely. A great historian, John 
 Richard Green, tells us what went on. 
 
 THE KING AND THE PEASANTS 
 
 JOHN EICHARD GREEN 
 
 On the morning of the fourteenth, therefore, Richard 
 rode from the Tower to Mile-end to meet the Essex men. 
 "I am your King and Lord, good people," the boy began 
 with a fearlessness which marked his bearing throughout 
 the crisis, "What will you ?" "We will that you free us for- 
 ever," shouted the peasants, "us and our lands ; and that we 
 be never named nor held for serfs !" "I grant it," replied 
 Richard; and he bade them go home, pledging himself at 
 once to issue charters of freedom and amnesty. A shout 
 of joy welcomed the promise. Throughout the day more 
 than thirty clerks were busied writing letters of pardon and 
 emancipation, and with these^ the mass of the Essex men 
 and the men of Hertfordshire withdrew quietlj to their 
 homes. 
 
 But while the King was successful at Mile-end a terrible 
 doom had fallen on the counsellors he left behind him. 
 Richard had hardly quitted the Tower when the Kentish- 
 men who had spent the night within the city appeared at 
 its gates. The general terror was shown ludicrously enough 
 when they burst in and taking the panic-stricken knights 
 of the royal household in rough horseplay by the beard, 
 promised to be their equals and good comrades in the days 
 to come. But the horseplay changed into dreadful earn- 
 est when they found that Richard had escaped their grasp, 
 and the discovery of Archbishop Sudbury and other minis- 
 
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 ters in the chapel changed their fury into a cry for blood. 
 The Primate was dragged from his sanctuary and beheaded. 
 The same vengeance was wreaked on the Treasurer and the 
 Chief Commissioner for the levy of the hated poll-tax, the 
 merchant Richard Lyons, who had been impeached by the 
 Good Parliament. 
 
 Richard meanwhile had ridden round the northern wall 
 of the city to the Wardrobe near Blackfriars, and from this 
 new refuge he opened his negotiations with the Kentish 
 insurgents. Many of these dispersed at the news of the 
 King's pledge to the men of Essex, but a body of thirty 
 thousand still surrounded Wat Tyler when Richard on the 
 morning of the fifteenth encountered that leader by a 
 mere chance at Smithfield. Hot words passed between his 
 train and the peasant chieftain, who advanced to confer 
 with the King, and a threat from Tyler brought on a brief 
 struggle in which the Mayor of London, William Walworth, 
 struck him with his dagger to the ground. "Kill ! Kill !'' 
 shouted the crowd, "they have slain our captain !" But 
 Richard faced the Kentishmen with the same cool courage 
 with which he faced the men of Essex. "What need ye, 
 my masters!" cried the boy-king as he rode boldly up to 
 the front of the bowmen. "I am your Captain and your 
 King; follow me!" 
 
 The hopes of the peasants centered in the young sover- 
 eign ; one aim of their rising had been to free him from the 
 evil counsellors who, as they believed, abused his youth ; and 
 at his word they followed him with a touching loyalty and 
 trust till he entered the Tower. His mother welcomed him 
 within its walls with tears of joy. "Rejoice and praise 
 God," Richard answered, "for I have recovered today my 
 
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 heritage which was lost and the realm of England !" But 
 he was compelled to give the same pledge of freedom to the 
 Kentishmen as at Mile-end, and it was only after receiving 
 his letters of pardon and emancipation that the yeomen dis- 
 persed to their homes. 
 
 THE PEASANTS AND THEIR KING 
 
 JOHN RICHAED GREEN 
 
 A scene less violent, but even more picturesque, went on 
 the same day at St. Alban's. William Grindecobbe, the 
 leader of its townsmen, returned with one of the charters 
 of emancipation which Eichard had granted after his inter- 
 view at Mile-end to the men of Essex and Hertfordshire, 
 and breaking into the abbey precincts at the head of the 
 burghers, forced the abbot to deliver up the charters which 
 bound the town in bondage to his house. But a more strik- 
 ing proof of servitude than any charters could give 
 remained in the mill-stones which after a long suit at law 
 had been adjudged to the abbey and placed within its 
 cloister as a triumphant witness that no townsman might 
 grind corn within the domain of the abbey save at the ab- 
 bot's mill. Bursting into the cloister, the burghers now tore 
 the mill-stones from the floor, and broke them into small 
 pieces, "like blessed bread in church," which each might 
 carry off to show something of the day when their freedom 
 was won again. 
 
 But it was hardly won when it was lost anew. The quiet 
 withdrawal and dispersion of the peasant armies with their 
 charters of emancipation gave courage to the nobles. Their 
 panic passed away. The warlike Bishop of Norwich fell 
 
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 lance in hand on Litster's camp, and scattered the peasants 
 of Norfolk at the first shock. Kichard with an army of 
 forty thousand men marched in triumph through Kent and 
 Essex, and spread terror by the ruthlessness of his execu- 
 tions. At Waltham he was met by the display of his own 
 recent charters and a protest from the Essex men that 
 "they were so far as freedom went the peers of their lords." 
 But they were to leam the worth of a king's word. "Vil- 
 leins you were/' answered Richard, "and villeins you are. 
 In bondage you shall abide, and that not your old bondage, 
 but a worse!" 
 
 The stubborn resistance which he met showed that the 
 temper of the people was not easily broken. The villagers 
 of Billericay threw themselves into the woods and fought 
 two hard fights before they were reduced to submission. It 
 was only by threats of death that verdicts of guilty could 
 be wrung from Essex jurors when the leaders of the revolt 
 were brought before them. Grindecobbe was offered his 
 life if he would persuade his followers at St. Alban's to 
 restore the charters they had wrung from the monks. He 
 turned bravely to his fellow-townsmen and bade them take 
 no thought for his trouble. "I£ I die," he said, "I shall die 
 for the cause of the freedom we have won, counting myself 
 happy to end my life by such a martyrdom. Do then today 
 as you would have done had I been killed yesterday." But 
 repression went pitilessly on, and through the summer and 
 the autumn seven thousand men are said to have perished 
 on the gallows or the field. 
 
 These, also, were Builders of Democracy. 
 
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 VI 
 
 HOW A NEW WORLD WAS DISCOVERED ACROSS THE WESTERN 
 SEAS. HOW BRAVE MEN SAILED TO SPY OUT THE LAND, 
 AND WHAT THEY FOUND. AND HOW A WICKED KING 
 DREAMED OF A WORLD EMPIRE WITH ALL MEN HIS SUB- 
 JECTS. AND OF HIS GREAT FLEET WHICH WAS DESTROYED 
 AS BEOWULF DESTROYED THE SEA MONSTER. IN SUCH 
 WISE THE ENGLISH BECAME WARRIORS OF THE SEA. 
 
 Once more the scene changes. A new world is discov- 
 ered. In 1492 Columbus sails into the Western Ocean, far 
 beyond the Pillars of Hercules, beyond the place where the 
 ancients believed the Gardens of the Hesperides lay with 
 their enchanted paradise, to a land that promised gold and 
 adventure in plenty. The Greeks had legends that hinted 
 of such a land. In a poem about Ulysses, Alfred Tenny- 
 son imagines the old hero dreaming of such a land, and 
 gives to him the courage and longing for adventure that one 
 day was to guide Columbus. 
 
 ULYSSES 
 
 ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON 
 
 It little profits that an idle king. 
 
 By this still hearth, among these barren crags, 
 
 Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole 
 
 Unequal laws unto a savage race. 
 
 That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 
 
 I cannot rest from travel ; I will drink 
 
 Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd 
 
 Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those 
 
 That loved me, and alone ; on shore, and when 
 
 Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 
 
 Vext the dim sea. I am become a name : 
 
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 For always roaming with a hungry heart 
 Much have I seen and known, — cities of men 
 And manners, climates, councils, governments. 
 Myself not least, but honored of them all, — 
 And drunk delight of battle with my peers. 
 Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 
 I am a part of all that I have met ; 
 Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' 
 Gleams that untravelFd world whose margin fades 
 For ever and for ever when I move. 
 How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 
 To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use ! 
 As tho' to breathe were life ! Life piled on life 
 Were all too little, and of one to me 
 Little remains ; but every hour is saved 
 From that eternal silence, something more, 
 . A bringer of new things : and vile it were 
 For some three suns to store 'and hoard myself. 
 And this gray spirit yearning in desire 
 To follow knowledge like a sinking star. 
 Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. 
 
 This is my son, mine own Telemachus, 
 To whom I leave the scepter and the isle, — 
 Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil 
 This labor, by slow prudence to make mild 
 A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees 
 Subdue them to the useful and the good. 
 Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere 
 Of common duties, decent not to fail 
 In offices of tenderness, and pay 
 Meet adoration to my household gods. 
 When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. 
 
 There lies the port ; the vessel puffs her sail ; 
 There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners. 
 Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with 
 me, — 
 
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 That ever with a frolic welcome took 
 
 The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 
 
 Free hearts, free foreheads, — you» and I are old ; 
 
 Old age hath yet his honor and his toil. 
 
 Death closes all ; but something ere the end, 
 
 Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 
 
 Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 
 
 The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks ; 
 
 The long day wanes ; the slow moon climbs ; the deep 
 
 Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 
 
 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 
 
 Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
 
 The sounding furrows ; for my purpose holds 
 
 To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
 
 Of all the western stars, until I die. 
 
 It may be that the gulfs will wash us down ; 
 
 It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 
 
 And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 
 
 Tho' much is taken, much abides ; and tho' 
 
 We are not now that strength which in old days 
 
 Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, — 
 
 One equal temper of heroic hearts. 
 
 Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
 
 To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 
 
 In this spirit Columbus, not old but filled with the en- 
 thusiasm of youth, sailed beyond the Azores into the dread 
 sea whose mysteries civilized man had never explored. 
 An American poet, Joaquin Miller, tells the story in such 
 a way as to show the courage of the great discoverer and 
 to bring out what he calls "the grandest lesson" the New 
 World has to teach mankind. 
 
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 COLUMBUS 
 
 JOAQUIN MILLER 
 
 Behind him lay the gray Azores, 
 
 Behind the gates of Hercules ; 
 Before him not the ghost of shores, 
 
 Before him only shoreless seas. 
 The good mate said : "Now must we pray, 
 
 For, lo ! the very stars are gone. 
 Brave Adm'r'l, speak, what shall I say?" 
 
 "Why, say, *Sail on ! sail on ! and on !' " 
 
 "My men grow mutinous day by day ; 
 
 My men grow ghastly wan and weak." 
 The stout mate thought of home ; a spray 
 
 Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 
 "What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say. 
 
 If we sight naught but seas at da^vn ?" 
 "Why, you shall say, at break of day, 
 
 'Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on !' " 
 
 They sailed and sailed as winds might blow. 
 
 Until at last the blanched mate said : 
 '^hy, now not even God would know 
 
 Should I and all my men fall dead. 
 These very winds forget their way. 
 
 For God from these dread seas is gone. 
 Now speak, brave Adm'r'l^ speak and say — " 
 
 He said, "Sail on ! sail on ! and on !" " 
 
 They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate ; 
 
 "This mad sea shows his teeth tonight; 
 He curls his lips, he lies in wait 
 
 With lifted teeth, as if to bite! 
 Brave Adm'r'l, say but one good word ; 
 
 What shall we do when hope is gone?'' 
 The words leapt like a leaping sword: 
 
 "Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on !" 
 
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 Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck 
 
 And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
 Of all dark nights ! And then a speck — 
 
 Alight! Alight! Alight! Alight! 
 It grew, a starlit flag unfurled ! 
 
 It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. 
 He gained a world ; he gave that world 
 
 Its grandest lesson : "On ! sail on !" 
 
 In the sixteenth century the New World became indeed 
 an enchanted garden, bringing evil and good to men. Philip 
 of Spain built a mighty empire on the blood of the natives 
 of South American countries. His frightful cruelties in 
 Mexico and Peru developed from a lust of gold and power 
 that made him the greatest peril to freedom that Europe 
 had ever seen. England, slower to act, found new fishing 
 grounds, sought a short route to the Indies, caught the 
 vision at last of the new England beyond the seas. For 
 more than four hundred years America, in one way or 
 another, has had a profound influence on Europe. 
 
 So new sea-lanes are opened across the Western Ocean. 
 Columbus and the Cabots are followed by many others. 
 Treasure ships filled with wealth of kings brave the storms. 
 As they near the Azores great galleons meet them to con- 
 voy them safe to harbor. Philip of Spain has vast ambi- 
 tions. Cortes and Pizarro have conquered for him Mexico 
 and Peru, strange new lands whence come gold and silver 
 and jewels. Besides the Spanish realm, Philip also rules 
 a large part of Italy, rich and productive lands. He rules 
 the Low Countries — Europe's manufacturing centers in 
 Flanders, and Antwerp, the greatest commercial port of 
 the world. He has a great and formidable navy, and the 
 
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 best trained army in Europe. He is an absolute ruler, mak- 
 ing war at his own pleasure, working out steadily a great 
 scheme of conquest that was to make the Spanish Empire 
 dominate all Mid-Europe, to impose the Spanish Kultur 
 upon all nations, to put down forever the spirit of free 
 inquiry and free thought characteristic especially of 
 France and England. 
 
 His policy is Frightfulness. Through the Inquisition, 
 a court of injustice and torture, he finds an instrument 
 which the Philip of our time has found in. the submarine 
 and the Zeppelin. He boasts of his alliance with God. 
 He would reduce the remainder of Italy to submission, 
 would command all shores of the Mediterranean, would 
 crush Protestantism in Germany and in France, would 
 above all crush England, the deadly enemy, then as now, 
 of absolute tyranny. A monstrous egotism, a cold-blooded 
 cruelty, a vast hunger for power and dominion malce 
 him one of those incarnations of evil that from time to 
 time come ujx)n mankind like a fearful tornado, a deadly 
 flame as from the dragon against which Beowulf fought. 
 Only once more, in all the history of the world, has the 
 ugly fiend of tyranny gathered so much dreadful power 
 for assault on the slowly developed spirit of free govern- 
 ment. Then, as in this later time, free England was the 
 great champion, the Beowulf of the vast struggle. 
 
 For the sea-ways, as the sixteenth century is growing old, 
 see other ships than Spanish galleons. In 1576 Martin 
 Frobisher explores the coast of Labrador. Tho "sea-dogs" 
 of Devon harry the Spanish ships and take their treasure. 
 In 1577 Francis Drake sails away in a little ship on one of 
 
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 the most daring ventures recorded in history. One ship 
 and eighty men^ but what a voyage ! Through the Straits 
 of Magellan he sails^ up the coast of Chili and Peru, where 
 he loads his frail bark with gold dust and ingots of silver, 
 with pearls, emeralds, and diamonds, and then bravely 
 away across a new sea to the Cape of Good Hope, and in 
 three years, after a voyage around the globe, drops anchor 
 in English Plymouth. Humphrey Gilbert in 1578 receives 
 a patent for colonizing "any remote barbarous and heathen 
 lands not possessed by any Christian prince or people," and 
 from 1584 to 1589 Walter Ealeigh makes several unsuc- 
 cessful attempts to establish English colonies in North 
 Carolina. These men are heroes of a new chivalry, knights 
 errant of the sea. They war on Philip's treasure ships. 
 They bring back thrilling stories about strange lands and 
 peoples. Every fireside in England delights in these 
 stories of adventure; Beowulf and King Arthur's knights 
 are forgotten in the light shining from these new stars in 
 the* firmament. 
 
 England at peace, well governed, prosperous. Oppor- 
 tunities for advancement, — a shoemaker may become Lord 
 Mayor of London. A sense of national unity never before 
 experienced. Freedom of thought stimulated by an enor- 
 mous increase in printing; a great new literature, and a 
 drama that set before the people the past history of the 
 nation. 
 
 You are in an Elizabethan theater where one of these 
 history plays, by "William Shakespeare, is being presented. 
 All around are the English folk, whom you saw at 
 Eunn)rmede or in Piers Plowman's Vision, — knights and 
 
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 fair ladies, weavers, tradesmen, travelers in strange cos- 
 tumes brought from Italy, poets and musicians, university 
 students and lawyers from the Inns of Court. And you see 
 on the stage an old man who is dying. It is John of Gaunt, 
 telling his vision of the England that was unknown in 
 his time, but which you know has come into being in these 
 happy days under Good Queen Bess. 
 
 And your heart beats fast as you listen to those glori- 
 ous words, and when the old man has finished and sinks 
 back upon his couch to die, your cheers ring out with those 
 of your neighbors, in praise of England : 
 
 "This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle. 
 
 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
 
 This other Eden, demi-paradise. 
 
 This fortress built by Nature for herself 
 
 Against infection and the hand of War, 
 
 This happy breed of men, this little world. 
 
 This precious stone set in the silver sea. 
 
 Which serves it in the office of a wall 
 
 Or as a moat defensive to a house. 
 
 Against the envy of less happier lands, 
 
 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England !" 
 
 Once more the scene changes. Philip is more powerful 
 now. Since 1580 the realm of Portugal has been added 
 to his vast domain. A navy almost as large as his own 
 has been gained ; a vast colonial empire in Africa, in India, 
 and among the Islands of the South Seas. Thus far, only 
 the little provinces of the Netherlands, strangely antici- 
 pating the heroic Belgium of 1914, have dared to brave the 
 terror of the monster. The cruel butcher Alva tortured 
 and murdered their bodies, but to conquer their souls was 
 
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 as impossible for him as for his successor of the twentieth 
 century. 
 
 Slowly the stage is set for a gigantic drama. England is 
 to be drawn in. Philip sees in that free country his chief 
 antagonist. Ealeigh, the shepherd of the Ocean, and his con- 
 temporaries promise to dispute Philip's dominion in the Xew 
 World, and they are gaining the skill in sea-warfare that in 
 time is to make England mistress of the seas. Leicester 
 and Sidney lead an English expedition to the succor of the 
 hard-pressed Low countries. Mary of Scotland, the unhappy 
 Queen whom Philip had used in his attempts to remove 
 Elizabeth and so get England under his control, is executed 
 in 1587. At last Philip must try his strength against Eng- 
 land. The Great Armada is prepared to execute his will. 
 Here is the story, as the historian John Eichard Green 
 tells it. 
 
 THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 
 
 JOHN EICHARD GREEN 
 
 As the Armada sailed on in a broad crescent past Ply- 
 mouth, the vessels which had gathered under Lord Howard 
 of Effingham slipped out of the bay and hung with the wind 
 upon their rear. In numbers the two forces were strangely 
 unequal, for the English fleet counted only eighty vessels 
 against one hundred and thirty-two, which composed the 
 Armada. In size of ships the disproportion was even 
 greater. Fifty of the English vessels, including the 
 squadron of the Lord Admiral and the craft of the volun- 
 teers, were little bigger than yachts of the present day. Even 
 of the thirty Queen's ships which formed its main body, 
 there were but four which equaled in tonnage the smallest 
 
The Builders and Their Work 131 
 
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 of the Spanish galleons. Sixty-five of these galleons formed 
 the most formidable half of the Spanish fleet; and four 
 galleasses, or gigantic galleys, armed with fifty guns apiece, 
 fifty-six armed merchantmen, and twenty pinnaces made up 
 the rest. The Armada was provided with 2,500 cannons, 
 and a vast store of provisions ; it had on board 8,000 seamen 
 and more than 20,000 soldiers ; and if a court-favorite, the 
 Duke of Medina Sidonia, had been placed at its head, he 
 was supported by the ablest staff of naval ofiicers which 
 Spain possessed. 
 
 Small, however, as the English ships were, they were in 
 perfect trim; they sailed two feet for the Spaniards' one, 
 they were manned with 9,000 hardy seamen, and their 
 Admiral was backed by a crowd of captains who had won 
 fame in the Spanish seas. With him was Hawkins, who 
 had been the first to break into the charmed circle of the 
 Indies ; Frobisher, the hero of the North- West passage ; and 
 above all Drake, who held command of the privateers. They 
 had won too the advantage of the wind ; and, closing in or 
 drawing off as they would, the lightly-handled English 
 vessels, which fired four shots to the Spaniards' one, hung 
 boldly on the rear of the great fleet as it moved along the 
 Channel. "The feathers of the Spaniard," in the phrase 
 of the English seamen, were "plucked one by one." Gal- 
 leon after galleon was sunk, boarded, driven on shore ; and 
 yet ^ledina Sidonia failed in bringing his pursuers to a 
 close engagement. Now halting, now moving slowly on, 
 the running light between the two fleets lasted throughout 
 the week, till on Sunday, the twenty-eighth of July, the 
 Armada dropped anchor in Calais roads. The time had 
 come for sharper work if the junction of the Armada with 
 
132 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 Parma was to be prevented; for, demoralized as the Span- 
 iards had been by the merciless chase, their loss in ships 
 had not been great, and their appearance off Dunkirk 
 might drive off the ships of the Hollanders who hindered 
 ihe sailing of the Duke. 
 
 On the other hand^ though the numbers of English ships 
 had grown, their supplies of food and ammunition were fast 
 running out. Howard therefore resolved to force an 
 engagement; and, lighting eight iire ships at midnight, 
 sent them down with the tide upon the Spanish line. The 
 galleons at once cut their cables, and stood out in panic to 
 sea, drifting with the wind in a long line off Gravelines. 
 Drake resolved at all costs to prevent their return. At dawn 
 on the twenty-ninth the English ships closed fairly in, and 
 almost their last cartridge was spent ere the sun went down. 
 
 Hard as the fight had been, it seemed far from a 
 decisive one. Three great galleons indeed had sunk in the 
 engagement, three had drifted helplessly on to the Flemish 
 coast, but the bulk of the Spanish vessels remained, and even 
 to Drake the fleet seemed "wonderful great and strong." 
 Within the Armada itself, however, all hope was gone. 
 Huddled together by the wind and the deadly English fire, 
 their aails torn, their masts shot away, the crowded gal- 
 leons had become mere slaughter-houses. Four thousand 
 men had fallen, and bravely as the seamen fought, they 
 were cowed by the terrible butchery. Medina himself was 
 in despair. "We are lost, Senor Oquenda," he cried to his 
 bravest captain; "what are we to do?'^ "Let others talk 
 of being lost," replied Oquenda, "your Excellency has only 
 to order up fresh cartridge." But Oquenda stood alone, 
 and a council of war resolved on retreat to Spain by the 
 
The Builders and Their Work 133 
 
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 one course open, that of a circuit round the Orkneys. 
 "Never anything pleased me better," wrote Drake, "than 
 seeing the enemy fly with a southerly wind to the north- 
 wards. Have a good eye to the Prince of Parma, for, with 
 the grace of God, I doubt not ere it be long so to handle the 
 matter with the Duke of Sidonia, as he shall wish himself 
 at St. Mary Port among his orange trees." 
 
 But the work of destruction was reserved for a mightier 
 foe than Drake. The English vessels were soon forced to 
 give up the chase by the running out of their supplies. But 
 the Spanish ships had no sooner reached the Orkneys than 
 the storms of the northern seas broke on them with a fury 
 before which all concert and union disappeared. In Octo- 
 ber fifty reached Corunna, bearing ten thousand men 
 stricken with pestilence and death. Of the rest some were 
 sunk, some dashed to pieces against the Irish cliffs. The 
 wreckers of the Orkneys and the Faroes, the clansmen of 
 the Scottish Isles, the kernes of Donegal and Galway, all 
 had their part in the work of murder and robbery. Eight 
 thousand Spaniards perished between the Giant's Cause- 
 way and the Blaskets. On a strand near Sligo an English 
 captain numbered eleven hundred corpses which had been 
 cast up by the sea. The flower of the Spanish nobility, who 
 had been sent on the new crusade under Alonzo da Leyva, 
 after twice suffering shipwreck, put a third time to sea to 
 founder on a reef near Dunluce. 
 
 "I sent my ships against men," said Philip when the news 
 reached him, "not against the seas." It was in nobler tone 
 that England owned her debt to the storm that drove the 
 Armada to its doom. On the medal that commemorated 
 its triumph were graven the words, "The Lord sent his 
 
134 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 wind, and scattered them/^ The pride of the conquerors 
 was hushed before their sense of a mighty deliverance. It 
 was not till England saw the broken host "fly with a south- 
 erly wind to the north" that she knew what a weight of 
 fear she had borne for thirty years. 
 
 The victory over the Armada, the deliverance from Spain, 
 the rolling away of the terror which had hung like a cloud 
 over the hopes of the new people, was like a passing from 
 death into life. Within as without, the dark sky suddenly 
 cleared. The national unity proved stronger than the re- 
 ligious strife. When the Catholic lords flocked to the camp 
 at Tilbury, or put off to join the fleet in the Channel, Eliza- 
 beth could ptide herself on a victory as great as the vic- 
 tory over the Armada. "Let tyrants fear," she exclaimed in 
 words that still ring like the sound of a trumpet, as she 
 appeared among her soldiers. "Let tyrants fear! I 
 have always so behaved myself that under God I have 
 placed my chief est strength and safeguard in the loyal 
 hearts and goodwill of my subjects! And therefore I am 
 come among you, as you see, resolved in the midst and heat 
 of the battle to live and die amongst you all." 
 
 These, also, were Builders of Democincy. 
 
 With the defeat of the Armada England became at once 
 a great power. In the earlier years of Elizabeth's reign 
 European statesmen thought of her as doomed to be a de- 
 pendency of Spain or of France. But now the control of 
 the seas passed to England. Merchants and nobles fitted 
 out privateers that brought galleons and treasura ships to 
 
The Builders and Their Work 135 
 
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 English harbors. A group of trading vessels defeated a 
 larger group of Spanish war-galleys at Gibraltar. Even 
 more daring was the exploit of Sir Richard Grenville, who 
 commanded the Revenge at the Azores in 1591. The Re- 
 venge was one of a small company of English vessels sur- 
 prised by a fleet of Spanish warships. A brilliant account 
 of the battle was written by no less a person than Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, named above as one of the great Eliza- 
 bethan seamen. 
 
 Lord Bacon, himself one of the greatest statesmen of the 
 time, spoke of the last fight of the Revenge as "a defeat 
 exceeding a victory, memorable even beyond credit and to 
 the height of some heroical fable." According to another 
 contemporary account. Sir Richard was visited, before his 
 death, by many Spanish captains and gentlemen, who "won- 
 dered at his courage and stout heart, for that he showed 
 not any sign of faintness nor changing of color. But feel- 
 ing the hour of death to approach, he spoke these words in 
 Spanish, and said: ^Here die I, Richard Grenville, with 
 a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a 
 true soldier ought to do that hath fought for his country, 
 queen, religion, and honor, whereby my soul most joyful 
 departeth out of this body, and shall always leave behind it 
 an everlasting fame of a valiant and true soldier that hath 
 done his duty as he was bound to do.' " 
 
 This "everlasting fame" in which the dying hero found 
 recompense for his devotion to duty has become reality. 
 The last fight of the Revenge has become a glorious tra- 
 dition in naval warfare, and one of the greatest English 
 poets, Alfred Tennyson, has made it the theme of a stirring 
 poem. 
 
136 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 THE REVENGE 
 
 ALFEED, LORD TENNYSON 
 
 At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, 
 
 And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far 
 
 away; 
 '^Spanish ships of war at sea ! we have sighted fifty-three !" 
 Then sware Lord Thomas Howard : " 'Fore God I am no 
 
 coward ; 
 But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are ont of gear, 
 And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick. 
 We are six ships of the line ; can we fight with fifty-three ?'' 
 
 II 
 
 Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: "I know you are no 
 
 coward ; 
 You fly them for a moment to flght with them again. 
 But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore. 
 I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord 
 
 Howard, 
 To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain." 
 
 Ill 
 
 So Lord Howard past away with five ships of war that day. 
 
 Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven ; 
 
 But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land 
 
 Very carefully and slow. 
 
 Men of Bideford in Devon, 
 
 And we laid them on the ballast down below : 
 
 For we brought them all aboard. 
 
 And they blest him in their pain, that they were not left 
 
 to Spain, 
 To the thumb-screw and the stake, for the glory of the Lord. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 137 
 
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 IV . 
 
 He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight 
 And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came in 
 
 sight. 
 With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weather bow. 
 "Shall we fight or shall we fly? 
 Good Sir Richard, tell us now. 
 For to fight is but to die ! 
 
 There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set." 
 And Sir Richard said again : "We be all good English men. 
 Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil, 
 For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet." 
 
 V 
 
 Sir Richard spoke and he laughed, and we roar'd a hurrah, 
 and so 
 
 The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe, 
 
 With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick 
 below ; 
 
 For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were 
 seen. 
 
 And the little Revenge ran on thro' the long sea-lane be- 
 tween. 
 
 vt 
 
 Thousands of their soldiers look'd down from their decks 
 
 and laughed. 
 Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little 
 
 craft 
 Running on and on, till delay'd 
 By their mountain-like San Philip that, of fifteen hundred 
 
 tons, 
 And up-shadowing high above us with her yawning tiers 
 
 of guns, 
 Took the breath from our sails, and we stay'd. 
 
138 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 • VII 
 
 A-nd while now the great San Philip hung above ns like a 
 
 cloud 
 Whence the thunderbolt will fall 
 Long and loud, 
 Four galleons drew away 
 From the Spanish fleet that day, 
 
 And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard lay. 
 And the battle-thunder broke from them all. 
 
 VIII 
 
 But anon the great San Philip, she bethought herself and 
 
 went, 
 Having that within her womb that had left her ill content ; 
 And the rest they came aboard us, and they fought us hand 
 
 to hand. 
 For a dozen times they came with their pikes and mus- 
 
 queteers. 
 And a dozen times we shook 'em ofl! as a dog that shakes 
 
 his ears 
 When he leaps from the water to the land. 
 
 IX 
 
 And the sun went down, and the stars came out far over the 
 summer sea. 
 
 But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the 
 fifty-three. 
 
 Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built gal- 
 leons came. 
 
 Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thun- 
 der and flame: 
 
 Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her 
 dead and her shame. 
 
 For some were sunk and many were shattered, and so could 
 fight no more — - 
 
 God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world 
 before ? 
 
The Builders and Their Work 139 
 
 iiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiirriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiMiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiMiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiitiuiiNii 
 
 For he said, "Fight on ! fight on !" 
 
 Tho' his vessel was all but a wreck; 
 
 And it chanced that, when half of the short summer night 
 
 was gone. 
 With a grisly wound to be drest he had left the deck, 
 But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead. 
 And himself he was wounded again in the side and the 
 
 head. 
 And he said, "Fight on ! fight on !" 
 
 XI 
 
 And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over 
 
 the summer sea. 
 And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay round us all in 
 
 a ring; 
 But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we 
 
 still could sting, 
 So they watch'd what the end would be. 
 And we had not fought them in vain, 
 But in perilous plight were we, 
 Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain, 
 And half of the rest of us maim'd for life 
 In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife : 
 And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark 
 
 and cold. 
 And the pikes were all broken and bent, and the powder was 
 
 all of it spent; 
 And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side; 
 But Sir Eichard cried in his English pride : 
 "We have fought such a fight for a day and a night 
 As may never be fought again ! 
 We have won great glory, my men ! 
 And a day less or more 
 At sea or ashore, 
 We die — does it matter when ? 
 
140 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 Sink me the ship. Master Gunner — sink her, split her in 
 
 twain ! 
 Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain !" 
 
 XII 
 
 And the gunner said, "Ay, ay," but the seamen made reply : 
 
 "We have children, we have wives, 
 
 And the Lord hath spared our lives. 
 
 We will make the Spaniard promise, if we yield, to let 
 
 us go; 
 We shall live to fight again and to strike another blow." 
 And the lion there* lay dying, and they yielded to the foe. 
 
 XIII 
 
 And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore him then. 
 Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir Eichard caught at 
 
 last, 
 And they praised him to his face with their courtly foreign 
 
 grace ; 
 But he rose upon their decks, and he cried : 
 "I have fought for Queen and Faith like a valiant man and 
 
 true; 
 I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do. 
 With a joyful spirit I Sir Eichard Grenville die!" 
 And he fell upon their decks, and he died. 
 
 XIV 
 
 And they stared at the dead that had been so valiant and 
 
 true. 
 And had holden the power and glory of Spain so cheap 
 That he dared her with one little ship and his English few ; 
 Was he devil or man ? He was devil for aught they knew. 
 But they sank his body with honor down into the deep. 
 And they mann'd the Revenge with a swarthier alien crew, 
 And away she sail'd with her loss and long'd for her own ; 
 When a wind from the lands they had ruin'd awoke from 
 
 sleep, 
 
The Builders and Their Work 141 
 
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 And the water began to heave and the weather to moan, 
 
 And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew, 
 
 And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earthquake 
 
 grew. 
 Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts 
 
 and their flags, 
 And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shatter'd 
 
 navy of Spain, 
 And the little Revenge herself went down by the island 
 
 crags 
 I'd be lost evermore in the main. 
 
 The spirit of the old Vikings, bold sea-rovers from the 
 Xorthland, was in these Elizabethan seamen. England's 
 love of the sea, in fact, is an inheritance from the peoples 
 to which Beowulf belonged, ancestors of Drake and Kaleigh 
 and Gilbert. 
 
 The selection that follows shows us something of this 
 heroic spirit. Mr. Mackay's poem is about such a hero as 
 Beowulf was. 
 
 THE SEA-KING'S BURIAL 
 
 CHABLES MACKAY 
 
 "My strength is failing fast," 
 Said the sea-king to his men ; 
 
 "I shall never sail the seas 
 As a conqueror again. 
 
 But while yet a drop remains 
 
 Of the life-blood in my veins. 
 
 Raise, raise me from the bed ; 
 
 Put the crown upon my head ; 
 
 Put my good sword in my hand, 
 
 And so lead me to the strand, 
 
 Where my ship at anchor rides 
 Steadily ; 
 
142 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 If I cannot end my life 
 In the crimsoned battle-strife. 
 Let me die as I have lived. 
 On the sea." 
 
 They have raised King Balder up, 
 Put his crown upon his head ; 
 
 They have sheathed his limbs in mail. 
 And the purple o'er him spread ; 
 
 And amid the greeting rude 
 
 Of a gathering multitude, 
 
 Borne him slowly to the shore — 
 
 All the energy of yore 
 
 From his dim eyes flashing forth — 
 
 Old sea-lion of the north — 
 
 As he looked upon his ship 
 Eiding free. 
 And on his forehead pale 
 Felt the cold, refreshing gale. 
 
 And heard the welcome sound 
 Of the sea. 
 
 They have borne him to the ship 
 With a slow and solemn tread ; 
 
 They have placed him on the deck 
 With his crown upon his head, 
 
 Where he sat as on a throne; 
 
 And have left him there alone. 
 
 With his anchor ready weighed. 
 
 And his snowy sails displayed 
 
 To the favoring wind, once more 
 
 Blowing freshly from the shore ; 
 
 And have bidden him farewell 
 Tenderly, 
 Saying, "King of mighty men. 
 We shall meet thee yet again, 
 
 InValhalla, mth the monarchs • 
 Of the sea/' 
 
The Builders and Their Work 143 
 
 iifiiniiiiiniiuiuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiHiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuH 
 
 Underneath him in the hold 
 
 They have placed the lighted brand ; 
 
 And the fire was burning slow 
 As the vessel from the land. 
 
 Like a stag-hound from the slips. 
 
 Darted forth from out the ships. 
 
 There was music in her sail 
 
 As it swelled before the gale. 
 
 And a dashing at her prow 
 
 As it cleft the waves below, 
 
 And the good ship sped along. 
 Scudding free; 
 As on many a battle morn 
 In her time she had been borne. 
 
 To struggle and to conquer 
 On the sea. 
 
 And the king, with sudden strength. 
 Started up and paced the deck. 
 
 With his good sword for his staff 
 And his robe around his neck. 
 
 Once alone, he raised his hand 
 
 To the people on the land ; 
 
 And with shout and joyous cry 
 
 Once again they made reply. 
 
 Till the loud, exulting cheer 
 
 Sounded faintly -on his ear ; 
 
 For the gale was o'er him blowing 
 Fresh and free ; 
 And ere yet an hour had passed. 
 He was driven before the blast. 
 
 And a storm was on his path 
 On the sea. 
 
 "So blow, ye tempests, blow. 
 And my spirit shall not quail : 
 
 I have fought with many a foe, 
 I have weathered many a gale ; 
 
144 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 And in this hour of death, 
 Ere I yield my fleeting breath — 
 Ere the fire now burning slow 
 Shall come rushing from below, 
 And this worn and wasted frame 
 Be devoted to the flame — 
 I will raise my voice in triumph. 
 Singing free ; — 
 To the great All-Father's home 
 I am driving through the foam, 
 I am sailing to Valhalla, 
 O'er the sea. 
 
 "So blow^ ye stormy wind.s — 
 
 And, ye flames, ascend on high ; — 
 In the easy, idle bed 
 
 Let the slave and coward die ! 
 But give me the driving keel. 
 Clang of shields and flashing steel ; 
 Happy, happy, thus I'd yield. 
 On the deck or in the field, 
 ■ " My last breath, shouting, ^On 
 To victory.' 
 But since this has been denied. 
 They shall say that I have died 
 Without flinching, like a monarch 
 Of the sea." 
 
 And Balder spoke no more, 
 
 And no sound escaped his lip ; — 
 Neither recked he of the roar. 
 The destruction of his ship, 
 Nor the fleet sparks mounting high^ 
 Nor the glare upon the sky; 
 Scarcely heard the billows dash. 
 Nor the burning timber crash : 
 Scarcely felt the scorching heat 
 That was gathering at his feet. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 145 
 
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 Nor the fierce flames mounting o'er him 
 Greedily. 
 But the life was in him yet, 
 And the courage to forget 
 All his pain, in his triumph 
 On the sea. 
 
 Once alone a cry arose, 
 
 Half of anguish, half of pride, 
 As he sprang upon his feet 
 
 With the flames on every side- 
 "I am coming !" said the king, 
 ''Where the swords and bucklers ring — 
 Where the warrior lives again 
 With the souls of mighty men — 
 I am coming, great All-Father, 
 Unto Thee ! 
 Unto Odin, unto Thor, 
 And the strong, true hearts of yor 
 I am coming to Valhalla, 
 O'er the sea." 
 
 AN ELIZABETHAN SEAMAN 
 
 JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE 
 
 Some two miles above the- port of Dartmouth, once 
 among the most important harbors in England, on a pro- 
 jecting angle of land which runs out into the river at the 
 head of one of its most beautiful reaches, there has stood 
 for some centuries the Manor House of Greenaway. The 
 water runs deep all the way to it from the sea, and the 
 largest vessels may ride with safety within a stone's throw 
 of the windows. In the latter half of the sixteenth century 
 there must have met, in the hall of this mansion, a party 
 as remarkable as could have have been found anywhere 
 in England. Humfrey and Adrian Gilbert, with their 
 
146 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 half-brother, Walter Ealeigh, here, when little boys, played 
 at sailors in the reaches of Long Stream, in the summer 
 evenings doubtless rowing down with the tide to the port, 
 and wondering at the quaint figure-heads and carved prows 
 of the ships that thronged it; or climbing on board, and 
 listening, with hearts beating, to the mariners' tales of the 
 new earth beyond the sunset. And here in later life, ma- 
 tured men, whose boyish dreams had become heroic action, 
 they used again to meet in the intervals of quiet, and the 
 rock is shown underneath the house where Ealeigh smoked 
 the first tobacco. Another remarkable man could not fail 
 to have made a fourth at these meetings. A sailor-boy of 
 Sandwich, the adjoining parish, John Davis, showed early 
 genius which could not have escaped the eye of such neigh- 
 bors, and in the atmosphere of Greenaway he learned to be 
 as noble as the Gilberts, and as tender and delicate as 
 Raleigh. 
 
 In 1585 John Davis left Dartmouth on his first voyage 
 into the Polar Seas ; and twice subsequently he went again, 
 venturing in small, ill-equipped vessels of thirty or forty 
 tons into the most dangerous seas. These voyages were as 
 remarkable for their success as for the daring with which 
 they were accomplished, and Davis's epitaph is written on 
 the map of the world, where his name still remains to com- 
 memorate his discoveries. Brave as he was, he is dis- 
 tinguished by a peculiar and exquisite sweetness of nature, 
 which, from many little facts of his life, seems to have af- 
 fected every one with whom he came in contact in a remark- 
 able degree. "We find men, for the love of Master Davis, 
 leaving their firesides to sail with him, without other hope 
 or notion; we find silver bullets cast to shoot him in a 
 
The Builders and Their Work 147 
 
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 nmtiny ; the hard, rude natures of the mutineers being awed 
 by something in his carriage which was not like that of a 
 common man. He has written the account of one of his 
 northern voyages himself; and there is an imaginative 
 beauty in it, and a rich delicacy of expression, which is 
 called out in him by the first sight of strange lands and 
 things and people. 
 
 We have only space to tell something of the conclusion of 
 his voyage north. In latitude sixty-three degrees, he fell 
 in with a barrier of ice, which he coasted for thirteen days 
 without finding an opening. The very sight of an iceberg 
 was new to all his crew ; and the ropes and shrouds, though 
 it was midsummer, becoming encompassed with ice, — 
 
 "The people began to fall sick and faint-hearted — ^where- 
 upon, very orderly, and with good discretion, they entreated 
 me to regard safety of mine own life, as well as the preser- 
 vation of theirs; and that I should not, through over-bold- 
 ness, leave their widows and fatherless children to give 
 me bitter curses. 
 
 "Whereupon, seeking counsel of God, it pleased His Di- 
 vine Majesty to move my heart to prosecute that which I 
 hope shall be to His glory and- to the contentation of every 
 Christian mind." 
 
 He had two vessels — one of some burden, the other a pin- 
 nace of thirty tons. The result of* the counsel which he 
 had sought was, that he made over his own large vessel to 
 such as wished to return, and himself, "thinking it better 
 to die with honor than to return with infamy," went on 
 with such volunteers aft would follow him, in a poor leaky 
 cutter, up the sea now in commemoration of that adventure 
 called Davis Strait. He ascended four degrees north of 
 
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 the furthest known point, among storms and icebergs, when 
 the long days and twilight nights alone saved him from 
 being destroyed, and, coasting back along the American 
 shore, he discovered Hudson Strait, supposed then to be 
 the long desired entrance into the Pacific. This exploit 
 drew the attention of Walsingham, and by him Davis was 
 presented to Burleigh, "who was also pleased to show him 
 great encouragement." If either these statesmen or Elizabeth 
 had been twenty years younger, his name would have filled 
 a larger space in history than a small corner of the map 
 of the world ; but, if he was employed at all in the last years 
 of the century, no historian has been found to celebrate his 
 work, and no clew is left to guide us. He disappears; a 
 cloud falls over him. He is known to have commanded 
 trading vessels in the Eastern seas, and to have returned 
 five times from India. But the details are all lost, and 
 accident has only parted the clouds for a moment to show 
 us the mournful setting with which he, too, went down 
 upon the sea. 
 
 . In taking out Sir Edward Michellthome to Indid, in 
 160-i, he fell in with a crew of Japanese, whose ship had 
 been burnt, drifting at sea, without provisions, in a leaky 
 junk. He supposed them to be pirates, but he did not 
 choose to leave them tq so wretched a death, and took them 
 on board; and in a few hours, watching their opportunity, 
 they murdered him. 
 
 As the fool dieth, so dieth the wise, and there is no dif- 
 ference ; it was the chance of the sea, and the ill reward of 
 a humane action — a melancholy end for such a man — like 
 the end of a warrior, not dying Epaminondas-like on the 
 field of victory, but cut off in some poor brawl or ambuscade. 
 
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 But SO it was with all these men. They were cut off in the 
 flower of their days, and few of them laid their bones in 
 the sepulehers of their fathers. They knew the service 
 which they had chosen, and they did not ask the wages for 
 which they had not labored. Life with them ^as no summer 
 holiday, but a holy sacrifice offered up to duty, and what 
 their Master sent was welcome. Beautiful is old age — 
 beautiful is the slow-dropping mellow autumn of a rich, 
 glorious summer. In the old man, Nature has fulfilled her 
 work; she leads him with her blessings; she fills him with 
 the fruits of a well-spent life ; and, surrounded by his chil- 
 dren and his children's children, she rocks him softly away 
 to a grave, to which he is followed with blessings. God 
 forbid we should not call it beautiful. It is beautiful, but 
 not the most beautiful. There is another life, hard, rough, 
 and thorny, trodden with bleeding feet and aching brow; 
 the life of which the cross is the symbol ; a battle which no 
 peace follows, this side of the grave ; which the grave gapes 
 to finish, before the victory is won; and — strange that it 
 should be so — this is the highest life of man. Look back 
 along the great names of history; there is none whose life 
 has been other than this. They to whom it has been given 
 to do the really highest work in this earth — whoever they 
 are, Jew or Gentile, Pagan or Christian, warriors, legis- 
 lators, philosophers, priests, poets, kings, slaves — one and 
 all, their fate has been the same — the same bitter cup has 
 been given them to drink. And so it was with the servants 
 of England in the sixteenth century. Their life was a long 
 battle, either with the elements or with men; and it was 
 enough for them to fulfill their work, and to pa^s away in 
 the hour when God had nothing more to bid them do. 
 
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 More than two hundred years after Sir Eichard Gren- 
 rille's heroic death, Thomas Campbell wrote a ballad that 
 expresses the spirit of the ocean-warriors of England. Ad- 
 miral Blake died in 1657; Admiral Nelson fell at Trafalgar 
 in 1805. 
 
 YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND 
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL 
 
 Ye Mariners of England ! 
 
 That guard our native seas; 
 
 Wliose flag has braved, a thousand years, 
 
 The battle and the breeze ! 
 
 Your glorious standard launch again 
 
 To match another foe ! 
 
 And sweep through the deep, 
 
 While the stormy winds do blow ; 
 
 While the battle rages loud and long 
 
 And the stormy winds do blow. 
 
 The spirits of your fathers 
 
 Shall start from every wave ! — 
 
 For the deck it was their field of fame, 
 
 And Ocean was their grave : 
 
 Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell. 
 
 Your manly hearts shall glow. 
 
 As ye sweep through the deep, 
 
 While the stormy winds do blow ; 
 
 While the battle rages loud and long 
 
 And the stormy winds do blow. 
 
 Britannia needs no bulwarks, 
 
 No towers along the steep ; 
 
 Her march is o'er the mountain-waves. 
 
 Her home is on the deep. 
 
 With thunders from her native oak 
 
 She quells the floods below, — 
 
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 As they roar on the shore, 
 When the stormy winds do blow : 
 When the battle rages loud and long. 
 And the stormy winds do blow. 
 
 The meteor flag of England 
 
 Shall yet terrific burn ; 
 
 Till danger's troubled night depart. 
 
 And the star of peace return. 
 
 Then, then, ye ocean-warriors ! 
 
 Our song and feast shall flow 
 
 To the fame of your name. 
 
 When the storm has ceased to blow ; 
 
 When the fiery fight is heard no more, 
 
 And the storm has ceased to blow. 
 
 VII 
 
 OF A BOOK THAT ALSO OPENED A NEW WORLD. HOW A 
 STRANGE PEOPLE GATHERED STRENGTH AND MEASURED 
 THEMSELVES AGAINST THE WORLD'S VANITIES AND ALSO 
 AGAINST THE TYRANNY OF THE ENGLISH KINGS. HOW A 
 KING RULED WITHOUT A PARLIAMENT, AND HOW AFTER- 
 WARDS A PARLIAMENT RULED WITHOUT A KING. AND OF 
 TWO HEROIC BUILDERS,— A COUNTRY SQUIRE AND A POET. 
 
 The seventeenth century. brought great changes to Eng- 
 land. James I, who succeeded the great Elizabeth in 1603, 
 and his successor Charles I, ruled absolutely, that is, with- 
 out any consideration of the rights and wishes of the people. 
 They held that their power was derived from God. This 
 was the "divine right" idea of monarchy, held by Philip of 
 Spain in the time of Elizabeth and by the Kaiser of Ger- 
 many in our time. The English Parliament was not per- 
 mitted to meet, or if it did meet, was allowed no power. 
 The English people became divided. One class, those who 
 
152 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 were attached to the Court, lived selfish lives, given up to 
 extravagance and luxury. The masses of the people sought 
 simplicity and sincerity of life. Many of them were called 
 Puritans because of their dislike for form and ceremony 
 in religious observances, and because of their desire to do 
 away with the ignorance and corruption of many of the 
 clergy. They believed that the source of religious truth was 
 to be found in the Bible, not in the priesthood ; that a man 
 should be free to think for himself, not bound by authority ; 
 and that government, in the nation as well as in the church, 
 should be in the hands of the people. Thus, two ideals of 
 government came into conflict with each other: the idea 
 of divine right, of absolute rule by the monarch, as against 
 the idea of freedom of thought and participation in gov- 
 ernment in church and state. Despairing of any solution 
 at home, many Englishmen in the seventeenth century emi- 
 grated to America. They carried with them the ideas of 
 government that had been developing in England for many 
 generations, and they set up in their new homes the kind 
 of government they had longed to see in England, thus 
 leading the way to American democracy. 
 
 It is very important that you should get clearly in mind 
 the relationship between the founding of liberty in America 
 and the struggle that was going on in England in the sev- 
 enteenth century, in order that you may see how closely 
 related to each other England and America really are; 
 and may see, also, how they have together worked out most 
 completely that ideal of government of the people, by the 
 people, and for the people that is now in conflict with the 
 older ideal of government by one supTeme ruler. In the 
 seventeenth century, both these ideas were in a mighty con- 
 
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 flict in one country, England. The result there was Civil 
 War and Revolution, with the triumph, for the time being, 
 of free government. Another result of the conflict was the 
 founding and growth of great English colonies in Amer- 
 ica, devoted to the working out of this principle. A cen- 
 tury later, the same questions were again an issue, both in 
 England itself and in the relations of England to her col- 
 onies. The result, once more, was war, with a further vic- 
 tory for free government through the independence of the 
 United States. In the twentieth century,. the struggle has 
 been renewed, with the Teutonic powers representing the 
 ideas held by the English kings of the seventeenth century 
 and the British government of the eighteenth century, and 
 with the Allies representing free government. With these 
 facts in mind let us look a little more closely at the events 
 of 1603-1688. 
 
 The events of the sixteenth century — the great increase 
 in knowledge of lands previously unknown; the great in- 
 crease in contact between England and the continent 
 through foreign travel; the great increase in opportunities 
 for reading ; and the marvelous development of opportunity 
 for the ordinary man to live comfortably if not prosper- 
 ously, — all these contributed to the development of personal 
 judgment, the habit of thinking for oneself. Men became 
 more self-reliant. They belonged to a great nation, able 
 to meet and to conquer a long-dreaded enemy. They also 
 became more serious, more religious in their outlook on life. 
 
 In 1611 the most wonderful of English books was given 
 to the nation. It was the King James version of the Bible. 
 This book was the work of a band of translators who wisely 
 tried to get the utmost simplicity of language. The result 
 
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 was a book that at once became a whole literature for the 
 common man. It was filled with stories, with homely inci- 
 dents that illustrated great moral truths, and with wisdom 
 for every day. England became a church. Every man had 
 his Bible as a guide for his thought and conduct. He 
 needed no interpreter, for religion became simple ; the pos- 
 session not of a professional class, doctors, lawyers, church- 
 men, but of ordinary men and women. The language of 
 every day became saturated with phrases and words taken 
 from this source. Most of all, the sense of sin, of the strug- 
 gle between good and evil that goes on in a man's soul, be- 
 came a fact of every day thinking. Worldly standards became 
 less important, — the magnificence of kings and courtiers, 
 the deeds of knights of chivalry, the romantic ideals of the 
 stories about Arthur. In the sight of God, a king was no 
 greater than a plowman, and was to be tried by the same 
 standards. 
 
 Though it did not appear until near the end of the cen- 
 tury, Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress well illustrates 
 some of the characteristics of the Puritans. The 
 author, a poor tinker, had been brought up on the Bible ; 
 his great book is written in the same simple language 
 that we find in the King James Version. The Pilgrim's 
 Progress has been the most widely read book in England 
 excepting only the Bible. When he was a lad, John Bun- 
 yan saw visions of heaven and heard heavenly voices. He 
 struggled with deep conviction of sin. He and his little 
 family lived in the greatest poverty ; they possessed almost 
 nothing. He became a preacher, and at length was 
 thrown into prison because he did not uphold the state 
 religion. For eleven years he was in jail, his companions 
 
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 being men like himself, imprisoned because the govern- 
 ment thought them dangerous. "The parting with my wife 
 and poor children/' he wrote, "hath often been to me in 
 this place like the pulling of flesh from the bones, and that 
 not only because I am somewhat too fond of these great 
 mercies_, but also because I should often have brought to my 
 mind the many hardships, miseries, and wants that my poor 
 family was like to meet with should I be taken from them, 
 especially my poor blind child who lay nearer my heart 
 than all besides/' 
 
 After eleven years he was set free. He had spent much 
 time, when in prison, in writing tracts, sermons, and stories. 
 The following selection, from The Pilgrim's Progress, ex- 
 presses the spirit of the Puritan and his view of life. 
 
 VANITY FAIR 
 
 JOHN BUNYAN 
 
 So Evangelist began as followeth: 
 
 "My Sons, you have heard, in the words of the truth of 
 the Gospel, that you must through many tribulations enter 
 into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again, that in every 
 City bonds and afflictions abide you; and therefore you 
 cannot expect that you should go long on your Pilgrimage 
 without them, in some sort or other. You have found 
 something of the truth of these testimonies upon you al- 
 ready, and more will immediately follow; for now, as you 
 see, you are almost out of this Wilderness, and therefore 
 you will soon come into a Town that you will by and by 
 see before you ; and in that Town you will be hardly beset 
 with enemies, who will strain hard but they will kill you; 
 
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 and be ye sure that one or both of you must seal the testi- 
 mony which you hold, with blood ; but be you faithful unto 
 death, and the King will give you a Crown of life. He 
 that shall die there, although his death will be unnatural, 
 and his pain perhaps great, he will yet have the better of 
 his fellow; not only because he will be arrived at the 
 Celestial City soonest, but because he will escape many 
 miseries that the other will meet with in the rest of his 
 Journey. But when you are come to the Town, and shall 
 find fulfilled what I have here related, then remember your 
 friend, and quit yourselves like men, and commit the keep- 
 ing of your souls to your God in well-doing, as uhto a 
 faithful Creator. 
 
 Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out 
 of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, 
 and the name of that town is Vanity. And at the town 
 there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair; it is kept all the 
 year long ; it beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the 
 town where 'tis kept is lighter than Vanity; and also be- 
 cause all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is 
 Vanity. As is the saying of the wise, ''All that cometh is 
 Vanity.'' 
 
 This fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of 
 ancient standing ; I will show you the original of it. 
 
 Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims 
 walking to the celestial city, as these two honest persons 
 are; and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their com- 
 panions, perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, 
 that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, 
 they contrived here to set up a fair ; a fair wherein should 
 be sold all sorts of Vanity, and that it should last all the 
 
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 year long: therefore at this fair are all such merchandise 
 sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, 
 titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights 
 of all sorts, as lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, 
 precious stones, and what not. 
 
 And moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen 
 jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and 
 rogues, and that of all sorts. 
 
 Here are to be seen too, and that for nothing, thefts, 
 murders, adulteries, false-swearers, and that of a blood-red 
 color. 
 
 And as in other fairs of less moment there are the sev- 
 eral rows and streets under their proper names, where 
 such and such wares are vended, so here likewise you have 
 the proper places, rows, streets (viz., countries and king- 
 doms) where the wares of this fair are soonest to be found : 
 Here is the Britain Eow, the French Eow, the Italian Eow, 
 the Spanish Row, the German Row, where several sorts of 
 vanities are to be sold. 
 
 Now, as I said, the way to the celestial city lies just 
 through this town where this lusty fair is kept; and he 
 that will go to the city, and yet not go through this town, 
 must needs go out of the world. The Prince of Princes 
 himself, when here, went through this town to his own 
 country, and that upon a fair-day too ; yea, and as I think, 
 it was Beelzebub, the chief lord of this fair that invited 
 him to buy of his vanities : yea, would have made him lord 
 of the fair, would he but have done him reverence as he 
 went through the town. Yea, because he was such a per- 
 son of honor, Beelzebub had him from street to street, 
 and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little 
 
158 Builders of Democracy 
 
 time, that he might (if possible) allure that Blessed One 
 to cheapen and buy some of his vanities; but he had no 
 mind to the merchandise, and therefore left the town, 
 without laying out so much as one farthing upon these 
 vanities. This fair therefore is an ancient thing, of long 
 standing and a very great fair. 
 
 ISTow these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through 
 this fair. "Well, so they did; but behold, even as they en- 
 tered into the fair, all the people in the fair were moved, 
 and the town itself as it were in a hubbub about them ; and 
 that for several reasons : for 
 
 First : The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of rai- 
 ment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in 
 that fair. The people therefore of the fair made a great 
 gazing upon them: some said they were fools, some they 
 were bedlams, and some they were outlandish-men. 
 
 Secondly: And as they wondered at their apparel, so 
 they did likewise at their speech; for few could under- 
 stand what they said : they naturally spoke the language of 
 Canaan but they that kept the fair were the men of this 
 world ; so that from one end of the fair to the other they 
 seemed barbarians each to the other. 
 
 Thirdly : But that which did not a little amuse the mer- 
 chandisers was, that these pilgrims set very light by all 
 their wares ; they cared not so much as to look upon them ; 
 and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their 
 fingers in their ears, and cry, ''Turn away mine eyes from 
 beholding vanity," and look upwards, signifying that their 
 trade and traffic was in Heaven. 
 
 One chanced, mockingly, beholding the carriages of the 
 men, to say unto them, "What will ye buy?" But they, 
 
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 looking gravely upon him, answered, '^e buy the Truth." 
 At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men the 
 more; some mocking, some taunting, some speaking re- 
 proachfully, and some calling upon others to smite them. 
 At last things came to a hubbub and a great stir in the 
 fair, insomuch that all order was confounded. Now was 
 word presently brought to the great one of the fair, who 
 quickly came down and deputed some of his most trusty 
 friends to take those men into examination, about whom 
 the fair was almost overturned. So the men were brought 
 to examination; and they that sat upon them, asked them 
 whence they came, whither they went, and what they did 
 there in such an unusual garb? The men told them that 
 they were pilgrims and strangers in the world, and that 
 they were going to their own country, which was the heav- 
 enly Jerusalem; and that they had given no occasion to 
 the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to 
 abuse them, and to let them in their journey, except it was 
 for that, when one asked them what they would buy, they 
 said they would buy the truth. But they that were ap- 
 pointed to examine them did not believe them to be any 
 other than bedlams and mad, or else such as came to put all 
 things into a confusion in the fair. Therefore they took 
 them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and 
 then put them into the cage, that they might be made a 
 spectacle to all the men of the fair. There therefore they 
 lay for some time, and were made the objects of any man's 
 sport, or malice, or revenge, the great one of the fair laugh- 
 ing still at all that befell them. But the men being pa- 
 tient, and not rendering railing for railing, but contrari- 
 wise blessing, and giving good words for bad, and kindness 
 
160 Builders of Democracy 
 
 for injuries done, some men in the fair that were more 
 observing, and less prejudiced than the rest, began to check 
 and blame the baser gort for their continual abuses done by 
 them to the men; they therefore in angry manner let fly 
 at them again, counting them as bad as the men in the 
 cage, and telling them that they seemed confederates, and 
 should be made partakers of their misfortunes. The other 
 replied, that for aught they could see, the men were quiet, 
 and sober, and intended nobody any harm; and that there 
 were many that traded in their fair that were more worthy 
 to be put into the cage, yea, and pillory too, than were the 
 men that they had abused. Thus, after divers words had 
 passed on both sides, (the men behaving themselves all 
 the while very wisely and soberly before them) they fell 
 to some blows among themselves, and did harm one to an- 
 other. Then were these two poor men brought before their 
 examiners again, and there charged as being guilty of the 
 late hubbub that had been in the fair. So they beat them 
 piitifully and hanged irons upon them, and led them in 
 chains up and dovm the fair, for an example and a terror 
 to others, lest any should speak in their behalf, or join 
 themselves unto them. But Christian and Faithful be- 
 haved themselves yet more wisely, and received the igno- 
 miny and shame that were cast upon them, with so much 
 meekness and patience, that it won to their side (though 
 but few in comparison of the rest) several of the men in the 
 fair. This put the other party yet into a greater rage, 
 insomuch that they concluded the death of these two men. 
 Wherefore they threatened, that the cage, nor irons should 
 serve their turn, but that they should die, for the abuse 
 they had done, and for deluding the men of the fair. 
 
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 Then were they remanded to the cage again,^ until fur- 
 ther order should be taken with them. So they put them 
 in, and made their feet fast in the stocks. 
 
 Here also they called again to mind what they had heard 
 from their faithful friend Evangelist, and were the more 
 confirmed in their way and sufferings, by what he told 
 them would happen to them. They also now comforted 
 each other, that whose lot it was to suffer, even he should 
 have the best of it ; therefore each man secretly wished that 
 he might have that preferment: but committing them- 
 selves to the All-wise dispose of Him that ruleth all things, 
 with much content they abode in the condition in which 
 they were, until they should be otherwise disposed of. 
 
 A PILGRIM 
 
 JOHN BUNYAN 
 
 Who would true valor see 
 
 Let him come hither! 
 One here will constant be. 
 
 Come wind, come weather: 
 There's no discouragement 
 Shall make him once relent 
 His first avow'd intent. 
 
 To be a Pilgrim. 
 
 Who so beset him round 
 
 With dismal stories. 
 Do but themselves confound; 
 
 His strength the more is. 
 No lion can him fright, 
 He'll with a giant fight. 
 But he will have a right 
 
 To be a Pilgrim. 
 
162 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 Hobgoblin, nor fonl fiend, 
 
 Can daunt his spirit; 
 He knows he at the end 
 
 Shall Life inherit. 
 Then, fancies, fly away. 
 He'll fear not what men say, 
 He'll labor, night and day. 
 
 To be a Pilgrim. 
 
 To such men as these, political government was subject 
 to the test of righteousness. Therefore, when the English 
 kings held that their will was supreme, that no subject 
 might call in question royal acts, that Englishmen had no 
 rights to share in government, a conflict was certain. 
 James and Charles ruled, so far as they could, without 
 Parliament. They imposed heavy and unjust taxes in 
 order to get money for their personal expenses. They tried 
 to go back to those early times before Magna Charta, when 
 taxes were not voted by Parliament, but were imposed by 
 the will of the king. What happened is illustrated by the 
 story of John Hampden. 
 
 In 1636, this man, a Puritan country squire, refused to 
 pay an illegal tax called "ship-money." Only twenty 
 shillings were involved, but it was the principle, not the 
 money, that Hampden and others like. him thought about, 
 just as it was the principle and not the money involved, 
 that in a later time led to the Boston Tea Party and the 
 American Revolution. Hampden represented the same 
 English spirit of independence that afterwards blazed up 
 in America. 
 
 There had been no Parliament for many years. The 
 courts were in the hands of the king. There was small 
 
The Builders and Their Work 163 
 
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 chance for justice if a plain English citizen protested. Yet 
 John Hampden appealed to the courts, and to the surprise 
 of everyone, five of the twelve judges decided in his favor. 
 Of course the majority rule went against him, hut it was 
 a defeat that had the moral effect of a victory. 
 
 From 1642 to 1649 there was Civil War, ending with 
 the execution of Charles I and the establishment of a gov- 
 ernment which declared that "the people are the source of 
 all civil power" and that the instrument through which 
 the people exercise their power is the House of Commons. 
 Oliver Cromwell was made Lord Protector. Himself a 
 man of the people, he had formed an army of men who 
 were not professional soldiers, but were deeply religious, 
 "godly farmers." They advanced to the charge singing 
 psalms, and they were invincible. Officers in the new army 
 were not men of noble blood, as in earlier times. A serv- 
 ing man, or a drayman, or a sea-captain, might hold high 
 rank. 
 
 A single incident may be chosen to represent the series 
 of battles that ended with the triumph of Cromwell and 
 the execution of the king. The historian Green tells us 
 of Hampden's death. 
 
 THE DEATH OF HAMPDEN 
 
 JOHN RICHARD GREEN 
 
 It was time for the king's forces to think of retreat, for 
 Hampden was already in pursuit. He had slept at Watling- 
 ton ; but the tidings of the foray in the village hard by roused 
 him from slumber, and he at once despatched a trooper to 
 Essex to bid the Earl send foot and horse and cut off the 
 Prince from Chiselhampton bridge. Essex objected and de- 
 
164 Builders of Democracy 
 
 layed till Hampden's patience broke down. The thought of 
 his own village blazing in that Sunday dawn, his own 
 friends and tenants stretched dead in the village streets, car- 
 ried him beyond all thought of prudence. A troop of horse 
 volunteered to follow him ; and few as they were, he pushed 
 at once with them for the bridge. The morning was now 
 far gone ; and Eupert had reached Chalgrove Field, a broad 
 space without enclosures, where he had left his foot drawn 
 up amidst the standing corn to secure his retreat. To 
 Hampden the spot was a memorable one; it was there, if 
 we trust a royalist legend, that "he first mustered and 
 drew up men in arms to rebel against the King." But he 
 had little time for memories such as these. His resolve 
 was to hold Eupert by charge after charge till Essex could 
 come up ; and the arrival of these troops of horse with some 
 dragoons enabled him to attack. The attack was roughly 
 beaten off, and the assailants thrown into confusion, but 
 Hampden rallied the broken troops and again led them on. 
 Again they were routed, and Eupert drew off across the 
 river without further contest. It was indeed only the 
 courage of Hampden that had fired his little troop to face 
 the Cavaliers; and he could fire them no more. In the 
 last charge a shot struck him in the shoulder and disabled 
 his sword-arm. His head bending down, his hands resting 
 on his horse's neck, he rode off the field before the action 
 was done, "a thing he never used to do." The story of the 
 country side told how the wounded man rode first towards 
 Pyrton. It was the village where he had wedded the wife 
 he loved so well, and beyond it among the beech-trees of the 
 Chilterns lay his own house of Hampden. But it was not 
 there that he was to die. A party of loyalists drove him 
 
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 back from Pyrton, and turning northwards he paused for 
 a moment at a little brook that crossed his path, then gath- 
 ering strength leaped it, and rode almost fainting to 
 Thame. At first the surgeons gave hopes of his recovery, 
 but hope was soon over. For six days he lay in growing 
 agony, sending counsel after counsel to the Parliament, 
 till on the twenty-fourth of June the end drew near. "Oh 
 Lord, save my country,'' so ended Hampden's prayers; 
 "0 Lord, be merciful to — !" Here his speech failed him, 
 and he fell back lifeless on his bed. 
 
 With arms reversed and muffled flags, his own men bore 
 him through the lanes and woods he knew so well to the 
 little church that still stands unchanged beside his home. 
 On the floor of its chancel the brasses of his father and his 
 grandfather mark their graves. A step nearer to the altar, 
 unmarked by brass or epitaph, lies the grave in which, with 
 bitter tears and cries, his greencoats laid the body of the 
 leader whom they loved. "Never were heard such piteous 
 cries at the death of one man as at Master Hampden's." 
 With him indeed all seemed lost. But bitter as were their 
 tears, a noble faith lifted these Puritans out of despair. 
 As they bore him to his grave they sang, in the words of 
 the ninetieth psalm, how fleeting in the sight of the Divine 
 Eternity is the life of man. But as they turned away the 
 yet nobler words of the forty-third psalm broke from their 
 lips, as they prayed that the God who had smitten them 
 would send out anew His light and His truth, that they 
 might lead them and bring them to His holy hill. "Why 
 art thou cast down, my soul, and why art thou so dis- 
 quieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise 
 him, which is the help of my countenance and my God!" 
 
166 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 A POET WHO FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM 
 
 Among the Builders of Democracy during this period 
 none stands higher on the honor roll of fame than John 
 Milton. Born in 1608, given a splendid education in prep- 
 aration for the work to which he early felt himself called 
 — the writing of poetry — he went to Italy to complete his 
 training. He had already written poems that had attracted 
 wide attention and that showed the bent of his mind to- 
 wards liberty and virtue. In one of these, Comus by name, 
 he tells of a girl who was captured by a wicked enchanter. 
 Her two brothers search for her throughout the woods in 
 vain. Meantime, the magician places her in an enchanted 
 chair in the midst of a beautiful palace. Soft music, de- 
 lightful foods to tempt her appetite, lovely surroundings of 
 every sort are brought to bear in order to win her surren- 
 der. She spurns all these, and attempts to rise from the 
 chair. Then Comus tells her his power. If he should but 
 wave his wand, he says, she would be as helpless as if 
 turned to marble. But to this she replies that though he 
 may indeed imprison her or kill her: 
 
 "Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind." 
 
 These words give us the keynote to Milton's thought, 
 and to the impulse which led to the great war for freedom 
 in England in the seventeenth century and to the founding 
 of the colonies in America. The freedom of the mind is 
 the one precious thing ; it is beyond reach of tyrants unless 
 men tamely surrender. 
 
 So Milton was preparing for a poet's life, feeling within 
 himself the sense of power. When he was twenty-three 
 
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 years of age he wrote a poem which shows his dissatisfac- 
 tion with his apparent idleness, and also his self-devotion. 
 
 How soon hath Time, that subtle thief of youth, 
 
 Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year. 
 
 My hasting days fly on with full career, 
 
 But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. 
 
 Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth 
 
 That I to manhood am arrived so near; 
 
 And inward ripeness doth much less appear, 
 
 That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th. 
 
 Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, 
 
 It shall be still in strictest measure even 
 
 To that same lot, however mean or high. 
 
 Toward which time leads me, and the will of Heaven; 
 
 All is, if I have grace to use it so. 
 
 As ever in my great Task-Master's eye. 
 
 When he was traveling in Italy, news reached him that 
 the struggle in England had led to war. He at once came 
 home, saying: "I thought it ill for me to be traveling 
 at ease in foreign parts, while my countrymen were strik- 
 ing a blow for freedom." At first he taught a little school, 
 where he trained boys for citizenship. "I call a complete 
 and generous education," 'he said, "that which fits a man 
 to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the 
 oflBces, both private and public, of peace and war." 
 
 Later, he became Latin Secretary to Cromwell, an office 
 in which he carried on correspondence with foreign gov- 
 ernments and with many important men. The foreign re- 
 lations of England at this time were very complicated. No 
 previous ruler of England had been so widely known and 
 respected throughout Europe as Cromwell was. When in 
 
168 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 1655 a colony of Protestants living in Southern France were 
 exterminated because of their refusal to accept a state re- 
 ligion, Cromwell sent an English envoy to threaten instant 
 war unless atonement were made. The atrocity which set 
 English blood boiling was of the same kind that has been 
 made familiar to us during the present war, for example 
 through the frightful massacres of Armenians under Ger- 
 man auspices. When the English ambassador appeared 
 before the Duke of Savoy, who was responsible for the out- 
 rages, he bore a letter signed by Cromwell but written by 
 John Milton. What Milton thought of the massacre he has 
 explained also in a poem : 
 
 Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; 
 Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old. 
 When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones. 
 
 Forget not : in thy book record their groans 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 
 Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
 
 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 To heaven. 
 
 All through his life, Milton was passionately devoted to 
 the cause of liberty. In a poem addressed to Cromwell, he 
 praises the great general for the victories he has won, but 
 warns him about the dangers of a new tyranny : 
 
 Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud 
 
 Not of war only, but detractions rude, 
 
 Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, 
 
 To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plowed. 
 
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 And on the neck of crowned fortune proud 
 
 Hath reared God's trophies, and his work pursued, — 
 
 * * * yet much remains 
 
 To conquer still ; Peace hath her victories 
 
 No less renowned than war: new foes arise, 
 
 Threatening to bind our souls. 
 
 He speaks, in one of the last poems that he wrote, of 
 strenuous liberty, by which he means that liberty, when 
 won, must be guarded : 
 
 What more in nations grown corrupt 
 Than to love bondage more than liberty. 
 Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty. 
 
 He has no fear of tyranny or of error if only men fight for 
 the truth : "Who knows not,'' he says, "that truth is strong 
 next to the Almighty/' 
 
 It was in the same heroic spirit that Milton fought with 
 the greatest disaster that could come upon him — the loss 
 of his sight. Even in youth, he had determined "by long 
 study" to write one day a poem that the world would not 
 willingly let die. "You ask me, Charles," he wrote as a 
 boy to his dearest friend, "you ask me of what I am think- 
 ing. I think, so help me Heaven, of Immortality !" Yet he 
 had given up his studies and devoted himself through many 
 years to rendering what assistance he could to the cause 
 of liberty. His action in this respect reminds one of the 
 generous self-sacrifice with which many American busi- 
 ness men, during the present war, have given up their busi- 
 ness affairs to become "dollar a year" men in the service 
 of the government. Yet Milton gave more than they. His 
 task was laborious; it brought him little recognition or 
 thanks; it cost him his sight. When they told him that 
 
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 unless he gave up his government work he would soon be 
 blind, he never hesitated. What he felt, the following 
 lines indicate: 
 
 When I consider how my light is spent 
 
 Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 
 And that one talent which is death to hide 
 Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent 
 
 To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
 My true account, lest he returning chide ; 
 "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied ?" 
 I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent 
 
 That murmur, soon replies, "God does not need 
 Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best 
 Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state 
 
 Is kingly : thousands at his bidding speed. 
 And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
 They also serve who only stand and wait." 
 
 Three years later, he wrote to a friend : 
 
 Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear 
 
 To outward view, of blemish or of spot. 
 
 Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot ; 
 
 Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear 
 
 Of sun or moon or star throughout the year. 
 
 Or man or woman. Yet I argue not 
 
 Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
 
 Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 
 
 Eight onward. What supports me, dost thou ask ? 
 
 The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied 
 
 In liberty's defense. 
 
 "In liberty's defense !" Such was John Milton's watch- 
 word, as it is the watchword of America in the present 
 war. Let none think that America is inconsistent in war- 
 ring by England's side in this new straggle for liberty. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 171 
 
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 England has always warred for liberty. John Milton is 
 far more truly representative of England than Lord North 
 or George III, against whose government, and not against 
 the English people, our fathers fought at Concord and 
 Lexington. America stands by England's side, as she 
 should, and if England's heroic dead could come back to 
 ?ee these brothers in arms warring on tyranny and error 
 in the greatest of all conflicts, none would rejoice more 
 than John Milton, the heroic Builder who forgot self, 
 forgot his career, forgot what he thought was his mission 
 on earth, "in liberty's defense." Proof of this, and a 
 splendid statement of the brotherhood of man that is the 
 \ ery basis of the thought of the Allies in the present war, 
 Milton himself gives us. His thought was far in advance 
 of his time; we are just in process of making it reality. 
 "Who knows not," he says, "that there is a mutual bond 
 of amity and brotherhood between man and man over all 
 the world, neither is it the English sea that can sever lis 
 from that duty and relation. Nor is it distance of place 
 that makes enmity, but enmity that makes distance. He, 
 therefore, that keeps peace with me, near or remote, of 
 whatsoever nation, is to me, as far as all civil and human 
 offices, an Englishman and a neighbor. This is Gospel, 
 and this was ever law among equals." 
 
 VIII 
 
 OF A BILL OF RIGHTS WHICH MADE PARLIAMENT SUPREME, 
 AND OF A COMPACT IN A SHIP'S CABIN WHICH MADE THE 
 PEOPLE SUPREME. AND OF THE BEGINNINGS OF A NEW 
 LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 
 
 Building the House of Liberty is a slow process. Some 
 victory is won over an enemy, and it seems that the strug- 
 
172 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 gle is over, but one day the giant with the shackles appears 
 once more, some Comns with his enchantments, and seem- 
 ingly all the weary road must be retraced. 
 
 So it was with CromwelPs England. The Lord Pro- 
 tector ruled, not as a democratic president, but as a vic- 
 torious general. Many evils were corrected. England 
 prospered, and her fame increased. But in 1660 the king- 
 ship was restored, and with it the struggle between crown 
 and people. Charles II, the new king, was surrounded 
 by a mob of pleasure-seekers. He not only did all he could 
 to overthrow English liberty but also aided Louis XIV of 
 France in his efforts to crush Protestantism in Europe. 
 James II, who succeeded in 1685, ruled badly, so that in 
 
 1688 William of Orange was invited to the throne. In 
 
 1689 the famous Bill of Eights was adopted, and. with it 
 the triumph of Parliament was forever assured. 
 
 ■ By the Bill of Eights, the King is subject to Parliament 
 and the laws of the realm; he is not a master ruling by 
 divins right. That is, he is only an official who rules by 
 the consent of the people. If he rules badly, he may be 
 removed by the people. The ancient idea of the king as 
 a sort of priest, representative of God, who can do no 
 wrong, whose voice is the voice of God, an arbitrary des- 
 pot, — this idea survives in Germany. In England it has 
 been dead and. buried for more than two hundred years. 
 
 The reign of Elizabeth had established in the minds of 
 the people the love of country and the belief }n the nation's 
 power. The long struggle between the Parliament and the 
 kings in the seventeenth century established firmly this 
 principle of representative rule, the right of the people to 
 govern themselves. One thing remained. Who are the 
 
The Builders and Their Work 173 
 
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 people? Are they the nobility and gentry alone? What 
 are the rights of the common man? 
 The answer came from America. 
 
 Twelve hundred years after the Angles and Saxons, 
 bearing with them their song of Beowulf and of his service, 
 sought a new home in England, other shiploads of travel- 
 ers sailed out over the Atlantic. Captain John Smith, 
 with a company of something more than a hundred, estab- 
 lished a settlement at Jamestown in 1607. Unlike the 
 Spanish adventurers, who sought only gold and jewels, 
 these Englishmen were prepared to develop the new coun- 
 try as a permanent home. "Nothing is to be expected," 
 Smith warned them, "but by labor." So "men fell to 
 building houses and planting com." In fifteen years the 
 hundred colonists had grown to five thousand. 
 
 A little later a group of men and women who had been 
 compelled because of religious persecution to leave Eng- 
 land, set sail for the New "World. One of them wrote: 
 "We are well-weaned from the delicate milk of the mother- 
 country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land. 
 The people are industrious and frugal. It is not with us 
 as with men whom small things can discourage." In 1620 
 the Plymouth plantation was founded, in the depths of 
 a long winter, facing sickness and hunger. They were 
 sustained by their hope that freedom of thought and gov- 
 ernment might here be safe. It cost them much to leave 
 the England that they loved. "Farewell, dear England!" 
 they said ; "our hearts shall be fountains of tears for your 
 everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages 
 in the wilderness." 
 
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 THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS IN 
 NEW ENGLAND 
 
 FELICIA HEMANS 
 1 
 
 The breaking waves dashed high 
 On a stern and rock-bound coast. 
 
 And the woods against a stormy sky 
 Their giant branches tossed ; 
 
 2 
 
 And the heavy night hung dark 
 
 The hills and waters o'er, 
 When a band of exiles moored their bark 
 
 On the wild New England shore. 
 
 3 
 
 Not as the conqueror comes, 
 They, the true-hearted, came ; 
 
 Not with the roll of the stirring drums. 
 And the trumpet that sings of fame ; 
 
 4 
 Not as the flying come. 
 
 In silence and in fear;- — 
 They shook the depths of the desert gloom — 
 
 With their hymns of lofty cheer. 
 
 5 
 Amidst the storm they sang, 
 
 And the stars heard and the sea ; 
 And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
 
 To the anthem of the free ! 
 
 6 
 
 The ocean eagle soared 
 From his nest by the white wave's foam ; 
 And the rocking pines of the forest roared — 
 This was their welcome home ! 
 
The Builders and Their Work 175 
 
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 7 
 There were men with hoary hair 
 
 Amidst that pilgrim band ; — 
 Why had thetj come to wither there, 
 
 Away from their childhood's land? 
 
 8 
 
 There was woman's fearless eye. 
 
 Lit by her deep love's truth : 
 There was manhood's brow serenely high, 
 
 And the fiery heart of youth. 
 
 9 
 
 What sought they thus afar? — 
 
 Bright jewels of the mine ? 
 The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? — 
 
 They sought a faith's pure shrine ! 
 
 10 
 Ay, call it holy ground, 
 
 The soil where first they trod. 
 They have left unstained what there they 
 found — 
 Freedom to worship God. 
 
 Before the Mayflower landed there occurred an incident 
 filled with deep significance. The Pilgrim Fathers sailed 
 under a '^patent" or agreement issued by the King, which 
 provided for colonization in Virginia. But they were plan- 
 ning to set up their colony north of the Jamestown settle- 
 ment, outside its boundaries. The historian of the colony, 
 William Bradford, tells us that some people in the ship 
 said that "when they came ashore they would use their 
 own liberty; for none had power to command them, the 
 patent they had being for Virginia, and not for New 
 England." So the leaders of the party, learning of these 
 plans for throwing off all restraint and fearing that the 
 
176 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 evil might spread, called a meeting of the passengers and 
 drew up what they called a "combination/' or compact, for 
 their government in their new home. 
 
 Do yon see this picture of the founding of free govern- 
 ment in America? The little ship tossing upon the waves 
 of the Atlantic in winter; the little cabin filled with a 
 small group of men and women and children, poorly 
 clothed and fed, exiles from the land they loved, going to 
 a strange country filled with they knew not what perils ; 
 these people, in these hard circumstances, gathering into 
 a meeting of citizens, drawing up and voting upon a rude 
 constitution for their government. 
 
 It is an inspiring and affecting sight — this Building of 
 Democracy, — more dramatic even than that gathering so 
 many centuries before at Runnymede. And Bradford's 
 comment on what they did contains the whole doctrine of 
 free government. They did this thing, he says, in the 
 belief 'HhaJ; such an act ly them done {this their condition 
 considered) might he as firm as any patent, and in some 
 respects more sure." 
 
 A patent is a permission given by a king, setting forth 
 the rules to be followed, the conditions to be met, the price 
 to be paid. The Compact was a voluntary agreement 
 among a group of people, setting restraints by their own 
 will upon themselves. It was an instrument of govern- 
 ment, that is of discipline and control. But it was also 
 proof of freedom, for they entered into it freely, without 
 constraint. Thus was free government established. 
 
 And the people were all those who entered into the 
 agreement for living with one another in friendly co- 
 operation. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 111 
 
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 THE COMPACT OF THE PILGRIMS 
 
 In the name of God, amen. We whose names are under- 
 written . . . having undertaken, for the glory of God, 
 and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our 
 king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the 
 northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly 
 and mutually in the presence of God, and of one another, 
 covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body 
 politic, for our better ordering and preservation and fur- 
 therance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to 
 enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, 
 ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to 
 time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for 
 the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all 
 due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have 
 hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of 
 November, a. d. 1620. 
 
 These Builders laid the foundations of Democracy in 
 America. 
 
 IX 
 
 SOME FURTHER EXAMPLES OF THE BUILDING IN AMERICA, 
 AND OF ITS LIKENESS TO THE BUILDING IN ENGLAND. 
 AND AFTER THIS, THE STORY OF THE FIRST APPEARANCE 
 OF THE GRAY CHAMPION. 
 
 We have seen that the founding of Liberty in America 
 was closely related to the struggle that was going on in 
 England between the Parliament and the Stuart kings. 
 During the English Civil War and the period of Cromwell's 
 rule, the new colonies had ample opportunity to set up plans 
 of government suggested by the Compact of the Pilgrims. 
 The New England town meeting was built on the founda- 
 
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 tion laid centuries before in the tun-moot of our ances- 
 tors, but during the early days of American colonial his- 
 tory many experiments in truly popular government could 
 be tested without the interference of a selfish and tyranni- 
 cal over-lord or king. Thus the colonies grew in wealth, 
 population, and love of freedom. 
 
 But with the restoration of the Stuart kings in 1660, 
 the liberties of the colonists were in deadly peril. The 
 struggle that went on within the mother country was re- 
 flected on this side of the Atlantic. In 1686 Sir Edmund 
 Andros was appointed Governor-General of the two Mas- 
 sachusetts colonies. He added New York and Virginia to 
 his realm ; then Delaware, Connecticut, Ehode Island, New 
 Jersey. His plan was to reduce the whole territory of 
 America, all the independent self-governing colonies, to a 
 single state over which his rule would be practically that 
 of a king. 
 
 Therefore, the "Glorious Eevolution of 1688,'' as it has 
 been called, which with the Bill of Rights put the king in 
 his place, and ended the long struggle between crown and 
 parliament, was as important in America as it was in Eng- 
 land. An insurrection in Boston put an end to the rule 
 of Andros. The people seized the governor, the fort, and 
 a British armed frigate, and returned to their. old form 
 of government. 
 
 These stirring events are brought vividly before us 
 through a story by a great American writer, Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne. The story is based on tradition only, but it 
 is true ■ to the spirit of the times. Hawthorne nses the 
 legend of the Gray Champion as a symbol of the spirit of 
 Liberty in the Colonies. The opening paragraphs ex- 
 
The Builders and Their Work 179 
 
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 plain the situation, and at the end we have the suggestion 
 of the appearance of the champion during the war with 
 England. Perhaps the venerable spirit may appear among 
 General Pershing's men in France. At any rate, he speaks 
 to all our hearts in this new war against despotism. 
 
 THE GRAY CHAMPION 
 
 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 
 
 There was once a time when New England groaned 
 under the actual pressure of heavier wrongs than those 
 threatened ones which brought on the Revolution. James 
 II, the bigoted successor of Charles the Voluptuous, had 
 annulled the charters of all the colonies, and sent a harsh 
 and unprincipled soldier to take away our liberties and 
 endanger our religion. The administration of Sir Ed- 
 mund Andros lacked scarcely a single characteristic of 
 tyranny: a Governor and Council, holding office from the 
 King, and wholly independent of the country; laws made 
 and taxes levied without concurrence of the people, imme- 
 diate or by their representatives ; the rights of private citi- 
 zens violated, and the titles of all landed property declared 
 void; the voice of complaint stifled by restriction on the 
 press; and, finally, disaffection overawed by the first band 
 of mercenary troops that ever marched on our free soil. 
 For two years our ancestors were kept in sullen submission 
 by that filial love which had invariably secured their alle- 
 giance to the mother country, whether its head chanced 
 to be a Parliament, Protector, or Popish Monarch. Till 
 these evil times, however, such allegiance had been merely 
 nominal, and the colonists had ruled themselves, enjoying 
 
180 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iniiniiiiiiiiriiiuiuiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiniuiiiuniiiuiiniiiiiniiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiim 
 
 far more freedom than is even yet the privilege of the 
 native subjects of Great Britain. 
 
 At length a rumor reached our shores that the Prince of 
 Orange had ventured on an enterprise the success of which 
 would be the triumph of civil and religious rights and the 
 salvation of New England. It was but a doubtful whisper , 
 it might be false, or the attempt might fail ; and, in either 
 case, the man that stirred against King James would lose 
 his head. Still, the intelligence produced a marked effect. 
 The people smiled mysteriously in the streets, and threw 
 bold glances at their oppressors ; while, far and wide, there 
 was a subdued and silent agitation, as if the slightest signal 
 would rouse the whole land from its sluggish despondency. 
 Aware of their danger, the rulers resolved to avert it by an 
 imposing display of strength, and perhaps to confirm their 
 despotism by yet harsher measures. One afternoon in 
 April, 1689, Sir Edmund Andros and his favorite council- 
 ors, being warm with wine, assembled the redcoats of the 
 Grovemor's Guard, and made their appearance in the streets 
 of Boston. The sun was near setting when the march 
 commenced. 
 
 The roll of the drum, at that unquiet crisis, seemed to go 
 through the streets, less as the martial music of the soldiers, 
 than as a muster-call to the inhabitants themselves. A 
 multitude, by various avenues, assembled in King Street, 
 which was destined to be the scene, nearly a century after- 
 wards, of another encounter between the troops of Britain 
 and a people struggling against her tyranny. Though more 
 than sixty years had elapsed since the Pilgrims came, this 
 crowd of their descendants still showed the strong and 
 somber features of their character, perhaps more strikingly 
 
The Builders and Their Work 181 
 
 MllltlMllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMlltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllltlllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 
 
 in such a stern emergency than on happier occasions. There 
 was the sober garb, the general severity of mien, the gloomy 
 but undismayed expression, the Scriptural forms of speech, 
 and the confidence in Heaven's blessing on a righteous 
 cause, which would have marked a band of the original 
 Puritans, when threatened by some peril of the wilderness. 
 Indeed, it was not yet time f oi: the old spirit to be extinct ; 
 since there were men in the street, that day, who had wor- 
 shiped there beneath the trees, before a house was reared 
 to the God for whom they had become exiles. Old soldiers 
 of the Parliament were here, too, smiling grimly at the 
 thought, that their aged arms might strike another blow 
 against the house of Stuart. Here, also, were the veterans 
 of King Philip's war, who had burned villages and slaugh- 
 tered young and old, with pious fierceness, while the godly 
 souls throughout the land were helping them with praj'er. 
 Several ministers were scattered among the crowd, which, 
 unlike all other mobs, regarded them with such reverence 
 as if there were sanctity in their very garments. These 
 holy men exerted their influence to quiet the people, but 
 not to disperse them. Meantime, the purpose of the Gov- 
 ernor, in disturbing the peace of the town, at a period when 
 the slightest commotion might throw the country into a 
 ferment, was almost the universal subject of inquiry, and 
 variously explained. 
 
 "Satan will strike his master-stroke presently," cried 
 some, 'T^ecause he knoweth that his time is short. All our 
 godly pastors are to be dragged to prison! We shall see 
 them at a Smithfield fire in King Street !" 
 
 Hereupon the people of each parish gathered closer round 
 their minister, who looked calmly upwards and assumed a 
 
182 Builders of Democracy 
 
 IIIHIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIilllllllllllllllllilllllllMlllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIimillllH 
 
 more apostolic dignity, as well befitted a candidate for the 
 highest honor of his profession, the crown of martyrdom. 
 It was actually fancied, at that period, that New England 
 might have a John Rogers of her own, to take the place 
 of that worthy in the Primer. 
 
 ''The Pope of Rome has given orders for a new St. Bar- 
 tholomew!'' cried others. ''We are to be massacred, man 
 and male child!" 
 
 Neither was this rumor wholly discredited, although the 
 wiser class believed the Grovemor's object somewhat less 
 atrocious. His predecessor under the old charter, Brad- 
 street, a venerable companion of the first settlers, was 
 known to be in town. There were grounds for conjectur- 
 ing that Sir Edmund Andros intended, at once, to strike 
 terror, by a parade of military force, and to confound the 
 opposite faction by possessing himself of their chief. 
 
 "Stand firm for the old charter. Governor !" shouted the 
 crowd, seizing upon the idea. "The good old Governor 
 Bradstreet!" 
 
 While this cry was at the loudest, the people were sur- 
 prised by the well-known figure of Governor" Bradstreet 
 himself, a patriarch of nearly ninety, who appeared on the 
 elevated steps of a door, and, with characteristic mildness, 
 besought them to submit to the constituted authorities. 
 
 "My children,'^ concluded this venerable person, "do 
 nothing rashly. Cry not aloud, but pray for the welfare 
 of New England, and expect patiently what the Lord will 
 do in this matter !" 
 
 The event was soon to be decided. All this time the roll 
 of the drum had been approaching through Cornhill, louder 
 and deeper, till with reverberations from house to house. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 183 
 
 iiiiiiiniiiiininiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 and the regular tramp of martial footsteps, it burst into the 
 street. A double rank of soldiers made their appearance, 
 occupying the whole breadth of the passage, with should- 
 ered matchlocks, and matches burning, so as to present a 
 row of fires in the dusk. Their steady march was like the 
 progress of a machine, that would roll irresistibly over 
 everything in its way. Next, moving slowly, with a con- 
 fused clatter of hoofs on the pavement, rode a party of 
 mounted gentlemen, the central figure being Sir Edmund 
 Andros, elderly, but erect and soldier-like. Those around 
 him were his favorite counsellors, and the bitterest foes of 
 New England. At his right hand rode Edward Handolph 
 our arch-enemy, that "blasted wretch," as Cotton Mather 
 calls him, who achieved the downfall of our ancient govern- 
 ment, and was followed with a sensible curse, through life 
 and to his grave. On the other side was Bullivant, scatter- 
 ing jests and mockery as he rode along. Dudley came be- 
 hind, with a downcast look, dreading, as well he might, to 
 meet the indignant gaze of the people, who beheld him, 
 their only countryman by birth, among the oppressors of 
 his native land. The captain of a frigate in the harbor, 
 and two or three civil officers under the Crown, were also 
 there. But the figure which most attracted the public eye, 
 and stirred up the deepest feeling, was the Episcopal clergy- 
 man of King's Chapel, riding haughtily among the magis- 
 trates in his priestly vestments, the fitting representative 
 of prelacy and persecution, the union of Church and State, 
 and all those abominations which had driven the Puritans 
 to the wilderness. Another guard of soldiers, in double 
 rank, brought up the rear. 
 
 The whole scene was a picture of the condition of New 
 
184 Builders of Democracy 
 
 England, and its moral, the deformity of any government 
 that does not grow out of the nature of things and the 
 character of the people. On one side the religious multi- 
 tude, with their sad visages and dark attire, and on the 
 other^ the group of despotic rulers, with the High-Church- 
 man in the midst, and here and there a crucifix at their 
 bosoms, all magnificently clad, flushed with wine, proud 
 of unjust authority, and scoffing at the universal groan. 
 And the mercenary soldiers, waiting but the word to deluge 
 the street with blood, showed the only means by which obe- 
 dience could be secured. 
 
 "0 Lord of Hosts,'^ cried a voice among the crowd, "pro- 
 vide a Champion for thy people !" 
 
 This ejaculation was loudly uttered, and served as a 
 herald's cry, to introduce a remarkable personage. The 
 crowd had rolled back, and were now huddled together 
 nearly at the extremity of the street, while the soldiers had 
 advanced no more than a third of its length. The inter- 
 vening space was empty, — a paved solitude, between lofty 
 edifices, which threw almost a twilight shadow over it. 
 Suddenly, there was seen the figure of an ancient man, 
 who seemed to have emerged from among the people, and 
 was walking by himself along the center of the street, to 
 confront the armed band. He wore the old Puritan dress, 
 a dark cloak and a steeple-crowned hat, in the fashion of 
 at least fifty years before, with a heavy sword upon his 
 thigh, but a staff in his hand to assist the tremulous gait 
 of age. 
 
 When at some distance from the multitude, the old man 
 turned slowly round, displayed a face of antique majesty, 
 rendered doubly venerable by the hoary beard that de- 
 
The Builders and Their Work 185 
 
 itiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 scended on his breast. He made a gesture at once of en- 
 couragement and warning, then turned again, and resumed 
 his way. 
 
 "Who is this gray patriarch?" asked the young men of 
 their sires. 
 
 "Who is this venerable brother?" asked the old men 
 among themselves. 
 
 But none could make reply. The fathers of the people, 
 those of fourscore years and upwards, were disturbed, deem- 
 ing it strange that they should forget one of such evident 
 authority, whom they must have known in their early days, 
 the associate of Winthrop, and all the old counsellors, giv- 
 ing laws, and making prayers, and leading them against 
 the savage. The elderly men ought to have remembered 
 him, too, with locks as gray in their youth as their own 
 were now. And the young! How could he have passed 
 so utterly from their memories, — that hoary sire, the relic 
 of long-departed times, whose awful benediction had surely 
 been bestowed on their uncovered heads, in childhood ? 
 
 "Whence did he come ? What is his purpose ? Who can 
 this old man be?" whispered the wondering crowd. 
 
 Meanwhile, the venerable stranger, staff in hand, was 
 pursuing his solitary walk along the center of the street. 
 As he drew near the advancing soldiers, and as the roll of 
 their drum came full upon his ear, the old man raised him- 
 self to a loftier mien, while the decrepitude of age seemed 
 to fall from his shoulders, leaving him in gray but un- 
 broken dignity. Now, he marched onward with a warrior's 
 step, keeping time to the military music. Thus the aged 
 form advanced on one side, and the whole parade of soldiers 
 and magistrates on the other, till, when scarcely twenty 
 
186 Builders of Democracy 
 
 yards remained between, the old man grasped his staff by 
 the middle, and held it before him like a leader's truncheon. 
 
 "Stand V cried he. 
 
 The eye, the face, and attitude of command ; the solemn, 
 yet warlike peal of that voice, fit either to rule a host in 
 the battlefield or be raised to God in prayer, were irre- 
 sistible. At the old man's word and outstretched arm, the 
 roll of the drum was hushed at once, and the advancing 
 line stood still. A tremulous enthusiasm seized upon the 
 multitude. That stately form, combining the leader and 
 the saint, so gray, so dimly seen, in such an ancient garb, 
 could only belong to some old champion of the righteous 
 cause, whom the oppressor's drum had summoned from 
 his grave. They raised a shout of awe and exultation, and 
 looked for the deliverance of New England. 
 
 The Governor, and the gentlemen of his party, perceiving 
 themselves brought to an unexpected stand, rode hastily 
 forward, as if they would have pressed their snorting and 
 affrighted horses right against the hoary apparition. He, 
 however, blenched not a step, but glancing his severe eye 
 round the group, which half encompassed him, at last bent 
 it sternly on Sir Edmund Andros. One would have thought 
 that the dark old man was chief ruler there, and that the 
 Governor and Council, with soldiers at their back, repre- 
 senting the whole power and authority of the Crown, had 
 no alternative but obedience. 
 
 "What does this old fellow here?" cried Edward Ean- 
 dolph, fiercely. "On, Sir Edmund ! Bid the soldiers for- 
 ward, and give the dotard the same choice that you give all 
 his countrymen, — to stand aside or be trampled on!" 
 
 "ISTay, nay, let us show respect to the good grandsire," 
 
The Builders and Their Work 187 
 
 iiiiiii.-iririiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I mil iiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 >aid Bullivant, laughing. "Sec you not, he is some old 
 round-headed dignitary, who hath, lain asleep these thirty 
 years, and knows nothing of the change of times ? Doubt- 
 less, he thinks to put us down with a proclamation in Old 
 XolPs name !" 
 
 "Are you mad, old man?" demanded Sir Edmund 
 Andros, in loud and harsh tones. "How dare you stay 
 the march of King James's Governor?" 
 
 "I have stayed the march of a king himself, ere now," 
 replied the gray figure, with stern composure. "I am here. 
 Sir Governor, because the cry of an oppressed people hath 
 disturbed me in my secret place ; and beseeching this favor 
 earnestly of the Lord, it was vouchsafed me to appear once 
 again on earth, in the good old cause of his saints. And 
 what speak ye of James,? There is no longer a Popish 
 tyrant on the throne of England, and by tomorrow noon 
 his name shall be a byword in this very street, where ye 
 would make it a word of terror. Back, thou that wast a 
 (iovernor, back ! With this night thy power is ended, — to- 
 morrow, the prison ! — back, lest I foretell the scaffold !" 
 
 The people had been drawing nearer and nearer, and 
 drinking in the words of their champion, who spoke in 
 accents long disused, like one unaccustomed to converse, 
 except with the dead of many years ago. But his voice 
 stirred their souls. They confronted the soldiers, not 
 wholly without arms, and ready to convert the very stones 
 of the street into deadly weapons. Sir Edmund Andros 
 looked at the old man ; then he cast his hard and cruel eye 
 over the multitude, and beheld them burning with that 
 lurid wrath, so difficult to kindle or to quench; and again 
 he fixed his gaze on the aged form, which stood obscurely 
 
188 Builders of Democracy 
 
 in an open space, where neither friend nor foe had thrust 
 himself. What were his thoughts, he uttered no word which 
 might discover. But whether the oppressor were overawed 
 by the Gray Champion's look, or perceived his peril in the 
 threatening attitude of the people, it is certain that he gave 
 back, and ordered his soldiers to commence a slow and 
 guarded retreat. Before another sunset, the Governor, and 
 all that rode so proudly with him, were prisoners, and long 
 ere it was known that James had abdicated, King William 
 was proclaimed throughout New England. 
 
 But where was the Gray Champion? Some reported, 
 that when the troops had gone from King Street, and the 
 people were thronging tumultuously in their rear, Brad- 
 street, the aged Governor, was seen to embrace a form 
 more aged than his own. Others soberly affirmed, that 
 while they marveled at the venerable grandeur of his 
 aspect, the old man had faded from their eyes, melting 
 slowly into the hues of twilight, till, where he stood, there 
 was an empty space. But all agreed that the hoary shape 
 was gone. The men of that generation watched for his 
 reappearance, in sunshine and in twilight, but never saw 
 him more, nor knew when his funeral passed, nor where 
 his gravestone was. 
 
 And who was the Gray Champion? Perhaps his name 
 might be found in the records of that stern Court of Jus- 
 tice, which passed a sentence, too mighty for the age, but 
 glorious in all after times, for its humbling lesson to the 
 monarch and its high example to the subject. I have heard, 
 that whenever the descendants of the Puritans are to show 
 the spirit of their sires, the old man appears again. When 
 eighty years had passed, he walked once more in King 
 
The Builders and Their Work 189 
 
 IIIIIIIIIMinilllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItllllllllllllllllllllllMlllllllllltllH 
 
 Street. Five years later, in the twilight of an April morn- 
 ing, he stood on the green, beside the meeting-house, at 
 Lexington, where now the obelisk of granite, with a slab 
 of slate inlaid, commemorates the first fallen of the Revolu- 
 tion. And when our fathers were toiling at the breastwork 
 on Bunker's Hill, all through that night the old warrior 
 walked his rounds. Long, long may it be, ere he comes 
 again! His hour is one of darkness, and adversity, and 
 peril. But should domestic tyranny oppress us, or the in- 
 vader's step pollute our soil, still may the Gray Champion 
 come, for he is the type of New England's hereditary spirit, 
 and his shadowy march, on the eve of danger^ must ever be 
 the pledge that New England's sons will vindicate their 
 ancestry. 
 
 OF THE POOR MAN ONCE MORE, WHO HAD LOST THE FIGHT 
 NARRATED IN CHAPTER V AND HAD SMALL PART IN THE 
 BILL OF RIGHTS. ALSO OF THE RUDE FOREFATHERS 
 OF THE HAMLET. AND HOW A PLOW BOY POET ISSUED A 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND SO BECAME ONE 
 OF THE BUILDERS. 
 
 The greatest event of the eighteenth century was the 
 growth of sympathy for the poor man. 
 
 We have seen how the English peasants, from time to 
 time, rebelled against their oppressors. We have also seen 
 how the long struggle between the kings and the Parlia- 
 ment resulted, in 1688-9, in the victory of representative 
 government. But the people who secured the largest bene- 
 fits from this victory were not the peasants and laborers. 
 Even in that splendid gathering at Runnymede, when King 
 John gave Magna Charta to his barons, it was the great 
 lords who gained most. And the triumph of Parliament 
 
190 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiMMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiiiniiiiiiniiniiiriiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 in 1689 depended, for its value, on how fully the assembly 
 of the people, the House of Commons, represented all the 
 people. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the poor man had little chance in the 
 years following the Bill of Eights. Deprived of education, 
 he grew coarse and brutal. For even slight offenses he 
 might be thrown into prison, where he spent years of suf- 
 fering in the most horrible surroundings. Even cutting 
 down a tree without permission of some great man might be 
 punished by death. His burden of taxes was not lightened 
 because the Parliament fixed the amount instead of the 
 king. Most of all, he had no chance. He could not rise 
 from a low position to one of comfort and power. He was 
 not free to develop as fully as possible whatever talent he 
 possessed. 
 
 Poets and dramatists wrote about the rich and the noble, 
 not about the poor. Once, indeed, Alexander Pope, a great 
 poet, was so moved by a story that he heard about two poor 
 lovers, that he wrote about them to a beautiful lady, the 
 Lady Mary Wortley Montague. These lovers were working 
 in a hay-field when a storm came up. They fled for shelter 
 to a big stack of hay, but were struck dead by lightning. 
 The poet wrote about their fate, but he says, at the end, 
 that he ought not to have used her ladyship's time in tell- 
 ing about people so low in station, and that their chief 
 happiness, could they but know it, was that by their death 
 they came to the attention of so great a lady. 
 
 But a new spirit came over England, little by little, as 
 the years went on. Charles and John Wesley started a 
 great religious movement based on the idea that souls of 
 men are judged in Heaven by some other standard than 
 
The Builders and Their Work 191 
 
 illlllllllUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIlNIUIIiMUIIMnillllllllllUIIIIIIIUlim 
 
 wealth or social position. Prisons were reformed, made 
 cleaner, conducted in less brutal fashion, through the ef- 
 forts of John Howard. Sunday schools were established, 
 so that ignorant people might have instruction they could 
 not get elsewhere. And even the poets began to see that 
 the lives of the poor held stories that were worth while and 
 that England's greatness depended in a large part on the 
 comfort and industry of those who worked with their hands. 
 
 Several of these poems you should know. The Elegy 
 Wntten in a Country Churchyard was published a few 
 clears before the American Eevolution. Its author, Thomas 
 Gray, was a very scholarly man who did not associate much 
 with others. He spent a good deal of his time in his 
 rooms at Cambridge University. But in the Elegy, one 
 of the best known poems in our literature, you will find 
 several important ideas. One is his reference to Crom- 
 well, Hampden, and other Builders whom you met a little 
 while ago. Another is the idea that in the grave, at least, 
 lord and peasant are equal. And most important of all 
 is the recognition that, given a chance to develop their 
 powers freely, many of these peasants might have become 
 great. They lived and died in obscurity. They might have 
 been generals, orators, statesmen. 
 
 Democracy, as we in America understand it, gives every 
 man a chance. 
 
192 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iimiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiNiiiiiniiiiiiiitiiiiiiH 
 
 ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD 
 
 THOMAS GRAY 
 1 
 
 The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
 The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, 
 
 The plowman homeward plods his weary way. 
 And. leaves the world to darkness and to me. 
 
 2 
 
 Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight. 
 And all the air a solemn stillness holds. 
 
 Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
 And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds ; 
 
 3 
 
 Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower 
 The moping owl does to the moon complain 
 
 Of such, as wandering near her secret bower, 
 Molest her ancient solitary reign. 
 
 4 
 
 Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 
 Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap. 
 
 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid. 
 The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. 
 
 5 
 
 The breezy call of incense-breathing morn. 
 
 The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, 
 
 The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn. 
 No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 
 
 6 
 
 For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn. 
 Or busy housewife ply her evening care : 
 
 No children run to lisp their sire's return, 
 Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 193 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinHmmiii 
 
 y 
 
 Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 
 
 Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; 
 
 How jocund did they drive their team afield! 
 How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke ! 
 
 8 
 
 Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 
 Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 
 
 Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile, 
 The short and simple annals of the poor. 
 
 9 
 
 The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power. 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 
 Awaits alike th' inevitable hour. 
 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 
 
 10 
 
 Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 
 If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, 
 
 Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault 
 The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 
 
 11 
 
 Can storied urn or animated bust 
 
 Back to it? mansion call the fleeting breath? 
 
 Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust. 
 Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death? 
 
 12 
 
 Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
 
 Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 
 
 Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed. 
 Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 
 
194 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiuiiMiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 
 
 13 
 
 But knowledge to their eyes her ample page 
 Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll; 
 
 Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
 And froze the genial current of the soul. 
 
 14 
 
 Full many a gem of purest ray serene 
 The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: 
 
 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
 And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 
 
 16 
 
 Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast 
 The little tyrant of his fields withstood; 
 
 Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, 
 Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. 
 
 16 
 
 Th' applause of listening senates to command. 
 The threats of pain and ruin to despise, 
 
 To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land. 
 And read their history in a nation's eyes, 
 
 17 
 
 Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone 
 
 Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; 
 
 Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, 
 And shut the gates of mercy on mankind, 
 
 18 
 
 The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide. 
 To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, 
 
 Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride 
 With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 195 
 
 IHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIilllllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIinUIIUIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIHirillllllllllllllllllUllltlllU^ 
 
 19 
 
 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, 
 Their sober wishes never learned to stray; 
 
 Along the cool sequestered, vale of life 
 
 They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 
 
 20 
 
 Yet even these bones from insult to protect, 
 Some frail memorial still erected nigh, 
 
 With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, 
 Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 
 
 21 
 
 Their name, their years, spelt by th' unlettered Muse, 
 
 The place of fame and elegy supply: 
 And many a holy text around she strews. 
 
 That teach the rustic moralist to die. 
 
 22 
 
 For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey. 
 This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned. 
 
 Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day. 
 Nor cast one longing lingering look behind? 
 
 23 
 
 On some fond breast the parting soul relies, 
 Some pious drops the closing eye requires ; 
 
 Even from the tomb the voice of nature cries, 
 Even in our ashes live their wonted fires. 
 
 24 
 
 For thee, who mindful of th' unhonored dead 
 Dost in these lines their artless tale relate; 
 
 If chance, by lonely contemplation led, 
 Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate. 
 
196 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiHuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiH^ 
 
 25 
 
 Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, 
 "Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn 
 
 Brushing with hasty steps the dews away 
 To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. 
 
 26 
 
 "There at the foot af yonder nodding beech 
 That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, 
 
 His listless length at noontide would he stretch, 
 And pore upon the brook that babbles by. 
 
 27 
 
 "Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn. 
 Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove. 
 
 Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn. 
 
 Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. 
 
 28 
 
 "One morn I missed him on the customed hill. 
 Along the heath and near his favorite tree ; 
 
 Another came; nor yet beside the rill, 
 Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he; 
 
 29 
 
 "The next with dirges due in sad array 
 
 Slow thro^ the church-way path we saw him borne. 
 
 Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay. 
 Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn." 
 
 THE STORY OF ROBERT BURNS 
 President Wilson has said that patriotism in America 
 is '*^an active principle of conduct .... that was born 
 into the world to replace systems that had preceded it and 
 to bring men out upon a new plane of privilege." 
 
The Builders and Their Work 197 
 
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 This "new plane of privilege" made real the thing that 
 the poet Gray expressed in the poem you have just read. 
 All men have certain capacities. In the England of the 
 eighteenth century much, very much, had been done toward 
 making this fact count for the happiness and development 
 of the individual. But the principle had not been extended 
 to all men. The sharp distinctions in rank prevented. 
 The House of Commons, as we shall see presently, was not 
 truly representative. 
 
 The sense that these things were wrong and should be 
 corrected grew strong in the last years of the eighteenth 
 century. The American Eevolution was fought in order 
 to establish the political equality of men and their right to 
 govern themselves. The French Eevolution, which fol- 
 lowed a few years later, was inspired by the ideas of "lib- 
 erty, equality, fraternity." In Scotland, home of Wallace 
 and Bruce, those old patriots whom you met a while ago, 
 Robert Burns taught the same doctrine. The theme of 
 much of his poetry is just the same theme that you meet 
 in the writings and speeches of our own Revolutionary 
 heroes, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. You should 
 know something about this Scottish poet, for he was one 
 of the Builders of Democracy. 
 
 He was born in 1759, in a two-room cottage. His father 
 was a poor "renter" who moved from farm to farm in his 
 efforts to make a living. Everyone in the family had t» 
 work early and late, so Robert got most of his education 
 by studying nature, and by reading poetry and history at 
 odd moments, even while following the plow. 
 
 All his life he struggled with poverty. At one time he 
 planned to seek a better opportunity in America. The feel- 
 
198 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 ing that led him to this decision was just the same desire 
 for larger opportunity that has brought so many thousands 
 of poor men and women, from every country in Europe, 
 to free America during the last century. But in order to 
 get money enough to pay for his passage, Burns collected 
 a little volume of poems that he had written from time to 
 time, and published them. These poems were so simple, so 
 sincere, so filled with love for Scotland, that everyone read 
 them and loved them, and the poet decided to remain in 
 his native land. He made a journey all through Scotland, 
 visiting the birthplace of Eobert Bruce and other places 
 dear in Scottish legend and history. He loved this history. 
 He loved all the Scottish country, even the simple farm 
 scenes that to many people possess no charm. He wrote 
 about the field mouse whose humble dwelling was uprooted 
 by his plow, and about the mountain daisy, and about the 
 Saturday night at the cottage of the poor farm laborer. 
 
 These facts help us to understand how the wide sjnn- 
 pathy Burns felt for every humble creature, the farm ani- 
 mals, the flowers of the field, the poor cotter, led him to 
 express the very spirit of democracy. He himself was poor 
 and in debt; his life was so limited by circumstances that 
 only the music in his soul, the songs that broke from him 
 like the springs from mountain rocks, lifted him above 
 the round of suffering and care. But he did not envy those 
 who were counted great by the world merely because they 
 had been born to lordships and lands. To him manhood de- 
 pended on something else. So his song "A Man's a Man" 
 expresses the very same idea of equality that we find in 
 the Declaration of Independence. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 199 
 
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 FOR A' THAT AND A' THAT 
 
 BOBEBT BUBNS 
 
 Is there, for honest poverty. 
 
 That hangs his head, and a' that ? 
 The coward-slave, we pass him by 
 We dare be poor for a' that ! 
 For a' that, and a' that, 
 
 Our toils obscure, and a' that ; 
 The rank is but the guinea's stamp. 
 The man's the gowd for a' that. 
 
 What though, on hamely fare we dine. 
 
 Wear hoddin-gray, and a' that; 
 Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 
 A man's a man for a' that! 
 For a' that, and a' that. 
 
 Their tinsel show, and a' that ; 
 The honest man, though e'er sae poor, 
 Is king o' men for a' that. 
 
 Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, 
 
 Wha struts, and stares, and a' that; 
 Though hundreis worship at his word. 
 He's but a coof for a' that; 
 For a' that, and a' that, 
 
 His ribband, star, and a' that; 
 The man of independent mind. 
 He looks and laughs at a' that. 
 
 A prince can make a belted knight, 
 
 A marquis, duke, and a' that; 
 But an honest man's aboon his might 
 Guid faith, he maunna fa' that! 
 For a' that, and a' that; 
 
 Their dignities, and a' that; 
 The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth. 
 Are higher rank than a' that. 
 
200 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 Then let us pray that come it may, 
 
 As come it will for a' that, 
 That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 
 Shall bear the gree, and a' that; 
 For a' that, and a' that; 
 
 It's comin' yet, for a' that; 
 That man to man, the warld o'er 
 Shall brothers be for a' that. 
 
 The same ideas come out everywhere in the poetry of this 
 best-loved of song-writers. For example, when he was 
 plowing one day he accidentally destroyed the nest of a 
 field-mouse. So he stopped and wrote a poem about it. 
 To the mouse he said: 
 
 Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie. 
 Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie ! 
 Thou need na start awa sae hasty 
 
 Wi' bickering brattle ! 
 I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee 
 Wi' murd'rin pattle ! 
 
 • I'm truly sorry man's dominion 
 Has broken nature's social union. 
 An' justifies that ill opinion 
 
 Which makes thee startle 
 At me^ thy poor, earth-born companion, 
 
 An' fellow-mortal! 
 
 These lines show how wide was the sympathy of Burns 
 ^he is a "fellow-mortal" of the mouse, and his "earth-born 
 companion." And they also express his faith in "nature's 
 social union," a brotherhood that men by their evil am- 
 bitions are constantly breaking. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 201 
 
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 Again. Burns wrote about the Cotter's Saturday Night. 
 The laborer comes home, wearied from his week's work. 
 
 His wee-bit ingle, blinkin' bonilie. 
 
 His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie wifie's smile, 
 
 The lisping infant prattling on his knee 
 
 all fill him with joy and drive his care and weariness away. 
 The older children, who have spent the veek working out 
 on neighboring farms, also come home. The bashful young 
 lover joins the party, and is asked to stay for the simple 
 supper of porridge and cottage cheese. After supper is 
 over, 
 
 The priest-like father reads the sacred page 
 and all the family kneel in prayer. 
 
 So Bums sees the value in simple and industrious lives. 
 The worth of a nation depends not on its lords and great 
 men, but on such families as we here look upo:i. 
 
 From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs. 
 That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad : 
 Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 
 "An honest man's the noblest work of God"; 
 And certes, in fair Virtue's heavenly road, 
 The cottage leaves the palace far behind ; 
 What is a lordling's pomp ? a cumbrous load. 
 Disguising oft the wretch of human kind. 
 Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refin'd ! 
 
 Scotia ! my dear, my native soil ! 
 
 For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent. 
 
 Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil 
 
 Be blest with heal'th, and peace, and sweet content ! 
 
 And oh! may Heaven their simple lives prevent 
 
 From luxury's contagion, weak and vile! 
 
202 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, 
 A virtuous populace may rise the while, 
 
 And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd isle. 
 
 Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide 
 
 That stream'd thro' Wallace's undaunted heart. 
 
 Who dar'd to nobly stem tyrannic pride. 
 
 Or nobly die, the second glorious part, — 
 
 (The patriot's God peculiarly thou art, 
 
 His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!) 
 
 never, never Scotia's realm desert. 
 
 But still the patriot, and the patriot-bard. 
 
 In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard ! 
 
 Burns himself was a proof of what Gray wrote about — 
 the infinite possibilities in humble lives. America has 
 proved this truth over and over again. For example, a few 
 years ago a poor boy in Russia was put in prison, with 
 others in his family, because the government was afraid of 
 the growing spirit of rebellion among the peasants and 
 laborers. This boy escaped from prison and made his way 
 to America. He knew something about book-binding, and 
 worked his way through the University by this means. 
 Then he entered a medical school and completed his course. 
 He stood high in his studies and a brilliant career was 
 before him when America, his adopted country, went to 
 war against the sort of tyranny that denies a man a chance 
 for the free development of his life. So he entered the 
 Medical Eeserve service of the United States, where he is 
 now an officer, repaying his debt and helping to make the 
 world safe for boys such as he once was. Among the mil- 
 lions of peasants in Russia are many like this boy, many 
 also who, like Robert Burns, might write stories and songs 
 
The Builders and Their Work 203 
 
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 that would make the world happier and better. On such 
 a belief democracy is founded. The lords and great ones 
 in Scotland in the time of Burns we have forgotten, but 
 the world will never forget this plow-boy and his songs of 
 brotherhood and love. 
 He was one of the Builders of Democracy. 
 
 It's coming yet, for a' that. 
 That man to man, the warld o'er. 
 Shall brothers be for a' that. 
 
 XI 
 
 SHOWING THAT THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT IN THE TIME 
 OF BURNS DID NOT REPRESENT THE PEOPLE. BUT HOW 
 THE COLONIES, IN WHICH THE PEOPLE RULED, APPLIED 
 THE OLD ENGLISH TEST OF LIBERTY. OF THE NATURE OF 
 THE CONTEST, AND HOW GREAT ENGLISHMEN FOUGHT A 
 LOSING FIGHT IN BEHALF OF LIBERTY FOR AMERICA. AND 
 AT THE LAST, TWO PROPHECIES OF THE FUTURE OF ENG- 
 LAND AND AMERICA WHICH HAVE GREAT INTEREST FOR 
 US TODAY. 
 
 The English colonies in America grew and prospered 
 during the century and a half that followed the settlement 
 of Jamestown and Plymouth. Through most of the time 
 the government at home interfered but little. So the ideas 
 of co-operation and self-government they brought with 
 them from the mother-country were left free to expand in 
 a way impossible at home. They had their own magis- 
 trates, their own assemblies, their own free constitutions. 
 The principles that Burns praised — the idea of political 
 equality based on human brotherhood — triumphed over the 
 old distinctions based on rank and wealth. 
 
 When these free institutions were threatened by a new 
 tyranny, a clash was inevitable. The American Eevolu- 
 
204 Builders of Democracy 
 
 tion is a most important fact in the history of our country ; 
 it is also a most important fact in the history of our race. 
 Let us try to look at it, for the present, as one step in the 
 great struggle for liberty that had been going on in Eng- 
 land for centuries. It was not a war against the people of 
 England; the people of England, even at that time, were 
 vitally concerned in it, and as time went on they benefited 
 by it through their own increased share in government. 
 
 The Glorious Eevolution of 1688, as we have seen, estab- 
 lished the supremacy of Parliament. It only remained to 
 determine who were the people to be represented by this 
 Parliament. We have seen how in England as well as in 
 America a new sense of the importance of the laborer and 
 the peasant, of the common man, was gaining ground as 
 the years passed by. 
 
 But in fact the government of England was not in the 
 hands of the people, in spite of the triumph of Parliament. 
 For example, when the American Eevolution broke out 
 there were about eight millions of people in England. Of 
 these, only about one hundred and sixty thousand might 
 vote. A great Englishman, Edmund Burke, who was also 
 a great friend of the colonies, said that a House of Com- 
 mons could have value only as it was "the express image 
 of the feelings of the nation." But English cities like 
 Birmingham and Manchester had no representatives at all 
 in Parliament. Thus whole sections of the English popu- 
 lation, as in Germany today, had no voice in the govern- 
 ment. To make matters worse, certain districts, or bor- 
 oughs, that had once contained a considerable rural popu- 
 lation, had passed into the possession of the families of 
 nobles, and their population was dispersed. Yet these dis- 
 
The Builders and Their Work ^205 
 
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 tricts returned members to Parliament who of course repre- 
 sented not any part of the English people, but were merely 
 creatures of the owner of the borough. Even worse than 
 this, seats in Parliament could be purchased by men who 
 wished to gain power. Given a king, therefore, who wished 
 to rule absolutely, nothing could be easier than to form a 
 House of Commons completely under his control and not 
 at all responsible to the people. 
 
 One other fact you must keep in mind. Back in the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth much power was concentrated in 
 the Privy Council, a small body of ministers responsible 
 to the sovereign. In later times, this Privy Council be- 
 came a Cabinet, in whose hands the chief executive power of 
 the government was lodged. The king appointed a Prime 
 Minister, who in turn appointed men to direct the various 
 departments. In the time of George III this Cabinet was 
 responsible only to the sovereign. It is not so in England 
 today, but Lord North, who was the Prime Minister of 
 England at the outbreak of the American Eevolution, was 
 the tool of the king, and since the king also controlled 
 Parliament, you can easily see that the power of George 
 III, in spite of the constitutional freedom guaranteed by 
 the Bill of Rights, was almost as absolute as that of the 
 German kaiser today. 
 
 The first thing for you to remember, then, is that when 
 Parliament and the Ministry oppressed the American col- 
 onies through unlawful taxation and other restrictions they 
 did not do so by the aid or the will of the English people. 
 At that time the English people themselves were not free. 
 This is why the American Revolution marked not only 
 the founding of a new nation of men who spoke the English 
 
206 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 tongue, but also a stage in the development of a free Eng- 
 land. 
 
 It is equally important to remember that these things 
 were clearly seen by some of the ablest English statesmen 
 of that time. These men found an audience in that large 
 body of Englishmen who were becoming more intelligent in 
 matters of government and more sensitive to the corrup- 
 tion that made the king's tyranny possible. These men 
 sought to reform Parliament so that it might be more 
 truly representative. They also used their utmost en- 
 deavor to bring about a change in the policy of the govern- 
 ment toward America. 
 
 That policy was to treat the colonies as dependencies. 
 Their chief value to England, according to this view, was 
 precisely the value that Philip of Spain attached to his 
 colonies in the sixteenth century. That is, they were 
 sources of revenue, for the payment of government ex- 
 penses. They had no representation in the British Parlia- 
 ment; their old free charters were revoked; judges ap- 
 pointed by the Crown were imposed upon them; troops 
 were stationed among them; their commerce was inter- 
 fered with. 
 
 All these abuses centered about the question of taxation. 
 The right of men to tax themselves, to determine how their 
 public money shall be raised and how it shall be spent 
 has for a thousand years been the fundamental test of 
 liberty in the thought of Englishmen. The barons at 
 Runnymede forced King John to sign Magna Charta be- 
 cause they refused to be taxed without their consent. The 
 troubles of Charles I with his people were largely due to 
 his unjust and illegal taxation. Sir Thomas Wentworth 
 
The Builders and Their Work 207 
 
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 spoke in Parliament in 1628 in words that might have been 
 used by Samuel Adams or Patrick Henry, "We must vin- 
 dicate our ancient liberties. We must reinforce the laws 
 made by our ancestors. We must set such a stamp upon 
 them as no licentious spirit shall dare hereafter to in- 
 vade them." Thus the Declaration of Independence, pro- 
 testing against just such invasions of the rights of Eng- 
 lishmen, is in complete accord with the English tradition 
 of liberty. As the Massachusetts Assembly voted in pro- 
 test against the Stamp Act : "The power of taxing is the 
 grand banner of British liberty. If that is once broken 
 down, all is lost." 
 
 This was recognized also by powerful friends of Amer- 
 ica in England. When, in 1765, the Stamp Act was 
 passed, William Pitt, the Great Commoner, a« he was 
 called because of his constant effort to make the British 
 Parliament more completely representative of English 
 public opinion, was absent from the House because of ill- 
 ness. "When the resolution was taken to tax America, I 
 was ill and in bed," he said, "but if I could have endured to 
 be carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of my mind 
 for the consequences, I would have solicited some kind 
 friend to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne 
 my testimony against it." When he learned that the 
 Americans had called a Congress to provide for action 
 against the tax, Pitt openly rejoiced. 
 
 "In my opinion," he said, "this kingdom has no right 
 to lay a tax on the Colonies. America is obstinate ? Amer- ' 
 ica is almost in open rebellion ? Sir, I rejoice that Amer- 
 ica has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all 
 the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves 
 
208 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the 
 rest." "He spoke," said one who heard him, "like a man 
 inspired!" Pitt continued his fight for the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act until he was successful. 
 
 Long years afterwards, when the Eevolution was on, the 
 great statesman, now the Earl of Chatham, still worked 
 for a reconciliation. Lord North and the king were tri- 
 umphant about some successes over the army of Washing- 
 ton. But Chatham said, "You cannot conquer America! 
 If I were an American as I am an Englishman, while a for- 
 eign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down 
 my arms — never, never, never !" What he hoped to bring 
 about, even in the midst of war, was a federal union between 
 America and England somewhat like that which exists to- 
 day between Canada and Australia and the mother country. 
 Even after Burgoyne had surrendered and France had 
 joined the American cause, the old statesman, too feeble to 
 walk alone, was borne to the House of Lords for his last ap- 
 pearance. He wished to plead once more for surrender to 
 America of everything that might be necessary. "I re- 
 joice," he said, "that I am still alive to lift up my voice 
 against the dismemberment of this ancient and noble mon- 
 archy. His Majesty succeeded to an Empire as great in ex- 
 tent as its reputation was unsullied. Seventeen years ago 
 this people was the terror of the world." A few moments 
 later his speech was interrupted by a spasm of pain. Press- 
 ing his hand upon his heart he fell in a faint, to be carried 
 to his home to die. 
 
 "Life may be given in many ways," an American poet 
 has said, "and loyalty to Truth be sealed as bravely in 
 the closet as in the field." 
 
The Builders and Their Work 209 
 
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 One does not have to be a soldier, charging "over the 
 top," to deserve the badge of Distinguished Service. The 
 "top" may not be swept by bullets from machine guns, but 
 by bullets of a very different kind. It was a soldier who 
 once said of William Pitt that no man ever entered his 
 private conference room who did not feel himself braver 
 when he came out than wiS^ he went in. 
 
 Such a life of heroic service to justice and freedom was 
 lived by Edmund Burke, friend of America in the Revolu- 
 jtionary period. He was born in Dublin in 1729. His 
 father sent him, after he had completed a college course, 
 to London to study law, but he spent more time in reading 
 literature and history, in attending debating clubs and the 
 theaters, and in travel, than he spent on his legal studies. 
 So his father stopped his allowance, and the young Ed- 
 mund went to writing for a living. 
 
 Some of his writings attracted the attention of the edi- 
 tors of the Annual Register, a summary of important 
 events, and to this publication Burke contributed for many 
 years. He became a member of the famous Literary Club, 
 to which Dr. Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith be- 
 longed, as well as Garrick, the great actor, and Eeynolds, 
 the famous artist. 
 
 In 1766, Burke entered Parliament. He won immediate 
 fame for his speech against the Stamp Act, and then began 
 his long opposition to the policy of George III. He made 
 many speeches on American affairs, in all of which he 
 sought to secure for America a treatment based on justice 
 and a spirit of conciliation. 
 
 The heroism of Burke comes out in the fact that though 
 by compromise he might have had the highest positions. 
 
210 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 he preferred a course that was unpopular rather than to 
 give up his principles. "What is more, he knew that he 
 had no chance of getting Parliament to adopt his policy. 
 As we have seen, the "King's Friends" controlled the gov- 
 ernment absolutely. To fight on for the right, though he 
 knew right could not conquer, was his task. 
 
 Some of Burke's ideas are r of < great value today. The 
 two great ends of all political dealing, he thought, are 
 Justice and Freedom. It was because the course taken by 
 the king in dealing with the Americans was unjust to men 
 who were descendants of Englishmen, and because the over- 
 throw of the freedom of Englishmen in America would 
 lead to the dverthrow of Englishmen at home, that he 
 fought, against odds, with small hope of success, year after 
 year. 
 
 In March, 1775, a little more than three months 
 before the American Declaration of Independence, the 
 British House of Commons was the scene of an event 
 full of meaning for America and the world. Lord North's 
 bill, limiting the commerce of the Colonies and forbidding 
 the New England fishermen from carrying on their 
 work, was up for consideration. This act, called the 
 Grand Penal Bill, would, if passed, reduce New England 
 to beggary. 
 
 That the act would be passed, all men knew. Neverthe- 
 less, Burke spoke in behalf of Conciliation with the Amer- 
 ican colonies, in behalf of Justice and Freedom. 
 
 Three principles on which this speech rests are full of 
 significance for us today. 
 
 The first is his belief that government should be based 
 on "plain good intention." "Plain good intention," he 
 
The Builders and Their Work 211 
 
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 says, "which is as easily discovered at the first view, as 
 fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the 
 government of mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is 
 a healing and cementing principle/' 
 
 The course of autocratic government is never marked 
 by "plain good intention." It was not so in George Ill's 
 dealings with America. It has not been so in Germany's 
 dealings with the world. For it, Germany has substituted 
 intrigue, plots to get Mexico and Japan to attack the 
 United States, plots to overthrow the South American re- 
 publics, plots against the government of the United States 
 even when she was at peace with us. The same intrigue 
 and secret plotting came out in the revelations of the Ger- 
 man ambassador who was in London before the war broke 
 out. To such a government a treaty is but a "scrap of 
 paper"; hence the treatment of Belgium by Germany. 
 But all these secret treaties by which nations are compelled 
 to go to war at the will of a few military despots, this 
 method of intrigue, of spies, of secret propaganda, will be 
 done away with when this war is over. Burke's principle 
 of "plain good intention," of friendly desire to help others 
 and to play a fair game, will take its place, to be a 'Tieal- 
 ing and cementing principle" in the world. 
 
 The second principle is that a people, or a nation, has a 
 right to determine for itself its form of government and its 
 ideals of liberty. George III and his ministry knew little 
 and cared less about what the Americans wanted. But 
 Burke devoted much of his time to explaining the temper 
 and character of the American people, and his conclusion 
 was that England must comply with this spirit, not seek to 
 break it. Here was a great population, used to self-govern- 
 
212 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 ment^ which the British authorities thought they could 
 handle as they desired. 
 
 So Germany today thinks that the Poles, or the Bel- 
 gians, or the many different peoples in eastern and south- 
 eatern Europe can be bought and sold, placed under one 
 king or another, attached to one empire or another, with- 
 out regard for the feelings and ideals of the peoples. But 
 peoples are not like boxes of merchandise to be shipped 
 here and there. They have a right to "self-determination." 
 
 The Colonies, Burke thought, were a part of the Eng- 
 lish nation, not dependencies; they must be treated as 
 Englishmen. Here is the third idea that concerns us to- 
 day. Burke laid stress on the fact that the Colonies were 
 not only founded by Englishmen, having English love of 
 liberty, but that they left England when that passion for 
 liberty was at white heat. Liberty, Burke said, always 
 attached itself to some one real object. To an Englishman 
 taxation is the test. To be taxed without being repre- 
 sented, to an Englishman, is tyranny. Thus Burke pointed 
 ©ut the very thing that was driving the Americans to sepa- 
 ration from the mother country, and he said, boldly and 
 manfully, in the presence of Lord North and all the 
 "King's Friends," that the Americans were right. 
 
 Now, after all the years, we see the full significance of 
 Burke's argument about the relations between Americans 
 and Englishmen. 
 
 First, the Eevolution was not fought against the Eng- 
 lish nation, but against the government that was then in 
 power. It was a part of the long struggle for free govern- 
 ment that had been going on in England for centuries. 
 
 Second, Americans are related to England not only by 
 
The Builders and Their Work 213 
 
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 descent but through their institutions. The political ideals 
 of the two peoples are the same. Pitt and Burke hoped 
 that the differences between the Colonies and the British 
 government might be settled and that no separation would 
 take place. Their work was unavailing. But the spiritual 
 unity that both men saw and valued has become a great 
 and inspiring fact today. ' Many years ago John Richard 
 Green, writing about the American Eevolution, foresaw 
 this day and wrote of its significance. And Alfred Tenny- 
 son has put into a single short poem this whole story 
 of how the spirit of liberty in England and America grew 
 through two centuries. 
 
 ENGLAND AND AMERICA NATURAL ALLIES 
 
 JOFN RICHARD GREEX 
 
 Whatever might be the importance of American inde- 
 pendence in the history of England, it was of unequalled 
 moment in the history of the world. If it crippled for a 
 while the supremacy of the English nation, it founded the 
 supremacy of the English race. From the hour of Ameri- 
 can Independence the life of the English people has flowed 
 not in one current, but in two; and while the older has 
 shown little signs of lessening, the younger has fast risen 
 to a greatness which has changed the face of the world. 
 In 1783 America was a nation of three millions of inhabi- 
 tants, scattered thinly along the coast of the Atlantic 
 Ocean. It is now [1877] a nation of forty millions, stretch- 
 ing over the whole continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
214 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 In wealth and material energy^ as in numbers, it far sur- 
 passes the mother-country from which it sprang. It is 
 already the main branch of the English people ; and in the 
 days that are at hand the main current of that people's 
 history must run along the channel not of the Thames or 
 the Mersey, but of the Hudson and the Mississippi. 
 
 But distinct as these currents are, every year proves more 
 clearly that in spirit the English people are one. The dis- 
 tance that parted England from America lessens every day. 
 The ties that unite them grow every day stronger. The 
 social and political differences that threatened a hundred 
 years ago to form an impassable barrier between them grow 
 every day less. Against this silent and inevitable drift of 
 things the spirit of narrow isolation on either side the 
 Atlantic struggles in vain. It is possible that the two 
 branches of the English people will remain forever sepia- 
 rate political existences. It is likely enough that the older 
 of them may again break in twain, and that the English 
 people in the Pacific may assert as distinct a national life 
 as the two English peoples on either side the Atlantic. But 
 the spirit, the influence, of all these branches will remain 
 one. 
 
 And in thus remaining one, before half a century is over 
 it will change the face of the world. As two hundred mil- 
 lions of Englishmen fill the valley of the Mississippi, as 
 fifty millions of Englishmen assert their lordship over 
 Australasia, this vast power will tell through Britain on 
 the old world of Europe, whose nations will have shrunk 
 into, insignificance before it. What the issues of such a 
 world-wide change may be, not 'even the wildest dreamer 
 would dare to dream. But one issue is inevitable. In the 
 
The Builders and Their Work 215 
 
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 centuries that lie before us, the primacy of the world will 
 lie with the English people. English institutions, English 
 speech, English thought, will become the main features of 
 the political, the social, and the intellectual life of man- 
 kind. 
 
 ENGLAND AND AMERICA IN 1782 
 
 ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON 
 
 Thou, that sendest out the man 
 
 To rule by land and sea, 
 Strong mother of a Lion-line, 
 Be proud of those strong sons of thine 
 
 Who wrench'd their rights from thee ! 
 
 What wonder, if in noble heat 
 
 Those men thine arms withstood, 
 Eetaught the lesson thou hadst taught. 
 And in thy spirit with thee fought — 
 Who sprang from English blood! 
 
 But Thou rejoice with liberal joy. 
 
 Lift up thy rocky face, 
 And shatter, when the storms are black, 
 In many a streaming torrent back. 
 
 The seas that shock thy base! 
 
 Whatever harmonies of law 
 
 The growing world assume. 
 Thy work is thine — the single note 
 From that deep chord which Hampden smote 
 
 Will vibrate to the doom. 
 
216 Builders of Democracy 
 
 XII 
 
 HOW AMERICA HAS CARRIED ON THE BUILDING. OF THE 
 SPIRIT OF AMERICA, AS SHOWN IN THE TIME OF THE REVO- 
 LUTION, AND IN LATER YEARS. AND HOW FREEDOM, A 
 WARRIOR WHOSE WARS ARE NOT YET DONE, IS SUMMONED 
 ONCE MORE, LIKE BEOWULF, TO BATTLE AGAINST THE OLD 
 DRAGON. 
 
 "And the heart of America shall interpret the heart of the world." 
 
 In the selections that follow you will find material to 
 show how the story of the Building of Democracy has been 
 carried on in America since 1775. You will see how 
 closely the story is related to all that has gone before. You 
 will need to use your history to supplement the story, but 
 you will see that history is not made up alone of what we 
 call "events" — ^battles, presidents, laws passed, facts about 
 progress. These are the outward forms only. A man has 
 a certain outward form, is of a certain height, weight, and 
 appearance, wears clothes that are more or less becoming. 
 But the real man is something deeper, harder to perceive. 
 It is the difference between the man as he appears to us, 
 in a crowd, on the street, in the cars, and the man himself. 
 
 So it is with understanding America. We may cram our 
 brains with facts about American history, know dates and 
 battles and institutions, be able to name the presidents and 
 their terms, know the names of the states and of cabinets, 
 know facts of population and industrial progress, — we may 
 know all these things and yet not know America. Tliese 
 selections will help you to understand the spirit of Amer- 
 ica. You will find stories about Builders who were men 
 of action. You will also find interpretations of the spirit 
 
 I 
 
The Builders and Their Work 217 
 
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 of America by Builders who were men of thought — poets, 
 orators, statesmen. 
 
 We must know this spirit of America, which is one ex- 
 pression of the free spirit of Man, so that we may be able 
 to live up to President Wilson's noble statement of the duty 
 of every American, — "Not only to make a living, but to 
 help forward the great enterprises of the human spirit." 
 
 A VISION OF DAYS TO COME 
 
 WOODROW WILSON 
 
 The peculiarity of patriotism in America is that it is not 
 a mere sentiment. It is an active principle of conduct. It 
 is something that was born into the world, not to please it 
 but to regenerate it. It is something that was born into the 
 world to replace systems that had preceded it and to bring 
 men out upon a new plane of privilege. The glory of the 
 men whose memories you honor and perpetuate is that they 
 saw the vision, and it was a vision of the future. It was a 
 vision of great days to come when a little handful of three 
 million people upon the borders of a single sea should have 
 become a great multitude of free men and women spreading 
 across a great continent, dominating the shores of two 
 oceans, and sending West as well as East the influences of 
 individual freedom. Such things were consciously in their 
 minds as they framed the great Government which was born 
 out of the American Revolution ; and every time we gather 
 to perpetuate their memories, it is incumbent upon us that 
 we shall be worthy of recalling them and that we should 
 endeavor by every means in our power to emulate their 
 example. 
 
218 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. The paragraph is from an address given by the President 
 before the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, 
 October 11, 1915. 
 
 2. Distinguish carefully between "a mere sentiment" and "an 
 active principle of conduct." How may your attitude toward the 
 American flag be merely "sentiment"? How may it become a 
 "principle of conduct"? 
 
 3. Commit to memory these sentences: 
 
 *'The peculiarity of patriotism in America is that it is not a 
 mere sentiment. It is an active principle of conduct. It is 
 something that was horn into the world, not to please it, hut to 
 regenerate it." 
 
 Be prepared to apply these sentences whenever possible in your 
 study of the remaining portions of this book, to all that you learn 
 about America's part in the war, and in as many ways as pos- 
 sible to your owm life. 
 
 4. Notice carefully Mr. Wilson's statement about bringing men 
 "out upon a new plane of privilege." How is this sentence given 
 meaning from your thought about "Gray's Elegy" and the poems 
 of Burns? 
 
 5. What does the President mean by saying that "we should be 
 worthy of recalling them"? 
 
 LEXINGTON 
 
 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 
 
 No Berserk thirst of blood had they. 
 
 No battle- joy was theirs, who set 
 
 Against the alien bayonet 
 Their homespun breasts in that old day. 
 
 Their feet had trodden peaceful ways ; 
 
 They loved not strife, they dreaded pain; 
 
 They saw not, what to ns is plain, 
 That God would make man's wrath his praise. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 219 
 
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 No seers were they, but simple men; 
 
 Its vast results the future hid : 
 
 The meaning of the work they did 
 Was strange and dark and doubtful then. 
 
 Swift as their summons came they left 
 The plow mid-furrow standing still, 
 The half-ground corn grist in the mill, 
 
 The spade in earth, the axe in cleft. 
 
 They went where duty seemed to call, 
 They scarcely asked the reason why; 
 They only knew they could but die, 
 
 And death was not the worst of all ! 
 
 Of man for man the sacrifice, 
 
 All that was theirs to give, they gave. 
 The flowers that blossomed from their grave 
 
 Have sown themselves beneath all skies. 
 
 Their death-shot shook the feudal tower. 
 And shattered slaver^s chain as well; 
 On the sky's dome, as on a bell, 
 
 Its echo struck the world's great hour. 
 
 That fateful echo is not dumb: 
 The nations listening to its sound 
 Wait, from a century's vantage-ground.. 
 
 The holier triumphs yet to come, — 
 
 The bridal time of Law and Love, 
 The gladness of the world's release. 
 When, war-sick, at the feet of Peace 
 
 The hawk shall nestle with the dove! 
 
220 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 The golden age of brotherhood 
 
 Unknown to other rivalries 
 
 Than of the mild humanities. 
 And gracious interchange of good. 
 
 When closer strand shall lean to strand. 
 
 Till meet, beneath saluting flags. 
 
 The eagle of our mountain-crags. 
 The lion of our Motherland! 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Phrases and words to be studied, with the aid of the dic- 
 tionary if necessary, are "Berserk thirst"; "alien bayonet"; 
 "homespun breasts"; "feudal tower"; "golden age." 
 
 2. The third stanza is important. When was the battle of 
 Lexington fought? How long afterwards was the Declaration of 
 Independence adopted? What led to the battle^ of Lexington and 
 Concord? Answers to these questions will help you to see why 
 to the men who fought in these early battles "the meaning of the 
 work they did was strange and dark and doubtful then." 
 
 3. This poem was written in 1875. What are the "holier tri- 
 umphs" to come from "a century's vantage-ground"? 
 
 4. With the last stanza, compare the prophecy of the future 
 relations of England and America in the selection by J. R. 
 Green, pp. 213-215. 
 
 CONCORD HYMN 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON 
 
 By the rude bridge that arched the flood. 
 Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
 
 Here once the embattled farmers stood 
 
 And fired the shot heard round the world. 
 
 The foe long since in silence slept; 
 
 Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; 
 And time the ruined bridge has swept 
 
 Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 221 
 
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 On this green bank, by this soft stream, 
 
 We set today a votive stone; 
 That memory may their deed redeem, 
 
 When like our sires, our sons are gone. 
 
 Spirit, that made those heroes dare 
 To die, and leave their children free, 
 
 Bid Time and Nature gently spare 
 The shaft we raise to them and thee. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. This poem was sung at the completion of the battle monu- 
 ment at Concord, July 4, 1837. 
 
 2. In the light of what you have studied in this book, explain 
 why the shot fired at Concord was heard round the world. 
 
 3. What is a "votive stone"? 
 
 4. What spirit is appealed to in the last stanza? 
 
 5. Commit to memory the first and last stanzas. 
 
 LIBERTY OR DEATH 
 
 PATRICK HENRY 
 
 Mr. President, — No man thinks more highly than I do 
 of the patriotism, as well as of the abilities, of the very 
 worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. Bui 
 different men often see the same subject in different lights; 
 and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful 
 to those gentlemen, if, entertaining, as I do, opinions of a 
 character very opposite from theirs, I shall speak forth my 
 sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for 
 ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful 
 moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as 
 nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery ; and in 
 proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be 
 
222 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we 
 can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsi- 
 bility which we hold to God and our country. Should I 
 keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giv- 
 ing offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason 
 towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the 
 Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. 
 
 Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the 
 illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a 
 painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she 
 transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, 
 engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are 
 we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, 
 see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so 
 nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, 
 whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to 
 know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide 
 for it. 
 
 I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and 
 that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judg- 
 ing of the future but by the past. And judging by the 
 past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of 
 the British Ministry for the last ten years to justify those 
 hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace 
 themselves and the House ? Is it that insidious smile with 
 which our petition has been lately received ? Trust it not, 
 sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not your- 
 selves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this 
 gracious reception of our petition comports with those 
 warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken 
 our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of 
 
The Builders and Their Work 223 
 
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 love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so un- 
 willing to be reconciled that force must be called in to win 
 back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These 
 are the implements of war and subjugation — the last argu- 
 ments to which kings resort. I ask, sir, what means this 
 martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to sub- 
 mission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive 
 for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of 
 the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and 
 armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; 
 they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to 
 bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British 
 ^linistry have been so long forging. And what have we 
 to oppose to them ? Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have 
 been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything 
 new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held 
 the subject up in every light of which it is capable ; but it 
 has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and 
 humble supplication? What terms shall we find, which 
 have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech 
 you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done every- 
 thing that could be done to avert the storm which is now 
 coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; 
 we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before 
 the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest 
 the tyrannical hands of the Ministry and Parliament. 
 Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have 
 produced additional violence and insult; our supplica- 
 tions have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, 
 with contempt, from the foot of the throne ! In vain, after 
 these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and 
 
224 Builders of Deinocracy 
 
 reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If 
 we wish to be free— if we mean to preserve inviolate those 
 inestimable privileges for which we have been so long con- 
 tending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble 
 struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which 
 we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the 
 glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must 
 fight ! I repeat it, sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms 
 and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us ! 
 
 They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with 
 so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be 
 stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? 
 Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British 
 guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather 
 strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire 
 the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our 
 backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our 
 enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? 
 
 Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those 
 means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. 
 Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of lib- 
 erty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are 
 invincible by any force which our enemy can send against 
 us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There 
 is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, 
 and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. 
 The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the 
 vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no 
 election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now 
 too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but 
 in submission and slavery ! Our chains are forged ! Th-eir 
 
The Builders and Their Work 225 
 
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 clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war 
 is inevitable — and let it come ! I repeat it, sir, let it come ! 
 It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen 
 may cry, Peace, peace ! — but there is no peace. The war is 
 actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the north 
 will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! Our 
 brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we here idle ? 
 What is it that gentlemen wish? WHiat would they have? 
 Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the 
 price of chains and slavery? Forbid it. Almighty God! 
 I know not what course others may take; but as for me, 
 give me liberty or give me death ! 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Patrick Henry delivered this speech at the Virginia Con- 
 vention, March 28, 1775. For some years this fiery young orator 
 had been active in stirring up resistance in Virginia to the 
 tyrannical acts of the crown. In 1774 the royal governor in that 
 colony reported that every county was arming a company of men 
 for the purpose of protecting their committees, which had been 
 formed, as in the other colonies, to work out a plan of co-opera- 
 tion against the British government. In March, 1775, the second 
 revolutionary convention of Virginia met at Richmond. A reso- 
 lution was offered to put the colony into a state of defense. Some 
 delegates objected to such radical action, and it is to these men 
 that Henry addressed the opening sentences of his* speech. 
 
 2. Find, in your history, the chief acts of the British ministry, 
 during the ten years prior to March, 1775, which Mr. Henry had 
 in mind in the third paragraph of his speech. 
 
 3. In the last paragraph, explain "the next gale that sweeps 
 from the north." What "brethren" are referred to? 
 
 4. Make an outline of the arguments by which Mr. Henry 
 sought to convince the delegates of the need of immediate action. 
 
 5. The resolution was passed. The chief command of the Vir- 
 
226 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 ginia forces was offered to Colonel Washington, who responded 
 to the invitation with the words: "It is my full intention to 
 devote my life and fortune to the cause we are engaged in." 
 
 ACCEPTANCE OF APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDER-IN- 
 CHIEF 
 
 GEOKGE WASHINGTON 
 
 To the President of Congress — Mr. President : Though 
 I am truly sensible of the high honor done me, in this ap- 
 pointment, yet I feel great distress, from a consciousness 
 that my abilities and military experience may not be equal 
 to the extensive and important trust. However, as the 
 Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty, 
 and exert every power I possess in their service, and for 
 the support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept 
 my most cordial thanks for this distinguished testimony 
 of their approbation. But, lest some unlucky event should 
 happen, unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be re- 
 membered by every gentleman in the room, that I, this 
 day, declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think 
 myself equal to the command I am honored with. 
 
 As to pay, sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress, that, 
 as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to 
 accept this arduous employment at the expense of my do- 
 mestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit 
 from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. 
 Those, I doubt not, they will discharge; and that is all I 
 desire. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. The Congress met at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. Colonel 
 Washington was a delegate, and appeared in his provincial uni- 
 
The Builders and Their Work 227 
 
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 form. On June 15, the Congress chose him as commander-in- 
 chief of the American forces. 
 
 2. Note that General Washington's refusal of pay for his serv- 
 ices made him the first of the "dollar a year" men in the service 
 of the United States. 
 
 THE LIBERTY TREE 
 
 (Published in The Pennsylvania Magazine in 1775) 
 In a chariot of light from the regions of day. 
 
 The Goddess of Liberty came; 
 Ten thousand celestials directed the way, 
 
 And hither conducted the dame. 
 A fair budding branch from the gardens above. 
 
 Where millions with millions agree, 
 She brought in lier hand as a pledge of her love. 
 
 And the plant she named Liberty Tree. 
 
 The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground. 
 
 Like a native it flourished and bore; 
 The fame of its fruit drew the nations around, 
 
 To seek out this peaceable shore. 
 Unmindful of names or distinctions they came, 
 
 For freemen like brothers agree ; 
 With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued. 
 
 And their temple was Liberty Tree. 
 
 Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old. 
 
 Their bread in contentment they ate, 
 Un vexed with the troubles of silver and gold, 
 
 The cares of the grand and the great. 
 With timber and tar they old England supplied, 
 
 And supported her power on the sea ; 
 Her battles they fought, without getting a groat, 
 
 For the honor of Liberty Tree. 
 
228 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 But hear, ye swains, 'tis a tale most profane. 
 
 How all the tyrannical powers, 
 Kings, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain. 
 
 To cut down this guardian of ours; 
 From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms. 
 
 Through the land let the sound of it flee, 
 Let the far and the near, all unite with a cheer. 
 
 In defense of our Liberty Tree. 
 
 WASHINGTON ANTICIPATES THE DECLARATION 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 With respect to myself, I have never entertained an 
 idea of an accommodation, since I heard of the measures 
 which were adopted in consequence of the Bunker Hill 
 fight. The King's speech has confirmed the sentiments I 
 entertained upon the news of that affair; and, if every 
 man was of my mind, the ministers of Great Britain should 
 know, in a few words, upon what issue the cause should 
 be put. I would not be deceived by artful declarations, nor 
 specious pretenses ; nor would I be amused by the unmean- 
 ing propositions; but in open, undisguised, and manly 
 terms proclaim our wrongs, and our resolution to be re- 
 dressed. I would tell them, that we had borne much, that 
 we had long and ardently sought for reconciliation upon 
 honorable terms, that it had been denied us, that all our 
 attempts after peace had proved abortive, and had been 
 grossly misrepresented, that we had done everything which 
 could be expected from the best of subjects, that the spirit 
 of freedom rises too high in us to submit to slavery, and 
 that, if nothing else would satisfy a tyrant and his dia- 
 bolical ministry, we are determined to shake off all con- 
 .nections with a state so unjust and unnatural. This I 
 
The Builders mid Their Work 229 
 
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 would tell them, not under covert, but in words as clear 
 as the sun in its meridian bris^htness. . 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. This paragraph is taken from a letter written by General 
 Washington in February, 1776. The people in the colonies were 
 divided in opinion. Many, especially in the middle colonies, were 
 loyal to the British government. Many others thought of the 
 resistance that had been made, at Lexington, Bunker Hill, and 
 ilsewhere, as merely a protest; they had no idea of separation. 
 But Washington saw from the first that independence should be 
 declared, "in words as clear as the sun," not only for the effect 
 in England, but as a means for bringing Americans into unity 
 of thought. With this unity would come realization of the diffi- 
 culty of the task before them. A great task, like a great vision 
 from a mountain top, does not reveal itself at once. It is only 
 after one has climbed. 
 
 2. Study this paragraph for the vigor and intensity of its lan- 
 guage. It is the language of a man of action who also has the 
 power to think and speak clearly. 
 
 FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 When, in the course of human events, it becomes neces- 
 sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which 
 have connected them with another, and to assume, among 
 the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to 
 which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, 
 a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that 
 they should declare the causes which impel them to the 
 separation. 
 
 We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men 
 are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 
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 with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure 
 these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriv- 
 ing their just powers from the consent of the governed; 
 that, whenever any form of government becomes destruc- 
 tive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
 to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its 
 foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers 
 in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect 
 their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate 
 that governments long established should not be changed 
 for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experi- 
 ence hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer 
 while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abol- 
 ishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when 
 a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably 
 the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under 
 absolute despotism, it is -their right, it is their duty, to 
 throw off such government, and to provide new guards for 
 their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance 
 of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which 
 constrains them to alter their former systems of govern- 
 ment. The history of the present King of Great Britain is 
 a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having 
 in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny 
 over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to 
 a candid world. 
 
 [Here is given a list of the wrongs suffered by the col- 
 onies at the hands of the British Government.] 
 
 We, therefore, the representatives of the United States 
 of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to 
 
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 the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our 
 intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good 
 people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare. 
 That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
 free and independent states; that they are absolved from 
 all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political 
 connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, 
 and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and 
 independent states, they have full power to levy war, con- 
 clude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do 
 all other acts and things which independent states may of 
 right do. And, for the support of this declaration, with a 
 firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we 
 mutually pledge to each other our lives. Our fortunes, and 
 our sacred honor. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. The Declaration of Independence was prepared by a com- 
 mittee of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, and the actual 
 composition was done by Jefferson. It was reported to Congress 
 on the second of July and on the fourth was adopted after a 
 debate in which some portions of the original draft were cut out. 
 John Adams, writing to his wife about it, used these words : 
 
 "Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was 
 debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will 
 be decided among men. A resolution was passed without one 
 dissenting colony, that these United Colonies are, and of right 
 ought to be, free and independent states. . . . The second day of 
 July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of 
 America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by suc- 
 ceeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought 
 to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of 
 devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp 
 
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 and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and 
 illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from 
 this time forward, forevermore. You will think me transported 
 with enthusiasm^ but I am not. I am aware of the toil, and 
 blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declara- 
 tion and support and defend these states. Yet, through all the 
 gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory." 
 
 2. In the first paragraph observe the following very important 
 matters : ( a ) that the action taken to create a new nation is the 
 action of the people. That is, a nation is formed not by agree- 
 ments among other governments or by the will of a ruler or a set 
 of rulers, but by the will of the people making up that nation. 
 To make this clear, remember, for example, that the wars between 
 England and France in the old days, were wars between kings. 
 Henry V thought he had a right to the territory of France, there- 
 fore he made war to secure that territory, — the people were not 
 consulted. So also, Philip of Spain thought he could secure a 
 claim to England by marriage with the English Queen. In recent 
 years, one method pursued by Germany has been to get members 
 of the German royal family on the thrones of the weaker nations 
 in southeastern Europe. Another German method has been to 
 form, by arbitrary action, new states, to be controlled by German 
 influence. And the "treaty" with Russia established a number 
 of such "nations." In no case has the will of the peoples been 
 considered. But the United States has gone on record, in recent 
 months^ as standing for what is called "self-determination of 
 peoples"; that is, for the principle that a people has the right 
 to determine for itself what government it will live under. This 
 principle is in the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 (b) The same idea is phrased in the second paragraph: "gov- 
 ernments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed." 
 
 (c) The political equality defined in the second paragraph re- 
 fers to all men. Thus we have an answer to the questions asked 
 on pages 172, 173. The English Revolution of 1688 set Parliament 
 above King as the representative of the people. America defined 
 who the people are. 
 
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 (d) This idea of political equality is also in Burns's poem "A 
 Man's a Man," which though a poem is also a Declaration of 
 Independence. Our American Declaration is the outgrowth, as 
 we have already seen, of a long course of development. 
 
 (e) The Declaration plainly is directed against "the present 
 King of Great Britain" who is said to be guilty of "repeated in- 
 juries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establish- 
 ment of an absolute tyranny," * 
 
 (f) Now try to imagine these thirteen colonies, each with its 
 own peculiar form of government, with differences in customs and 
 employment, widely separated and with far less ready communica- 
 tion than nations have today (Boston was farther from James- 
 town in time than Washington is now from London or Paris) — try 
 to imagine these separate states forming a confederation, or league 
 of nations against a tyrant who sought to reduce them to his own 
 ideas of government. Then try to see the relationship between 
 that situation and the present. The kaiser is the George III of 
 the present day. The allied nations, free governments, separate 
 peoples, are in the place of the Colonies in 1776. The kaiser re- 
 jects the idea of self-determination of peoples. He would reduce 
 all these nations to his own control, as dependencies of Germany. 
 But the free nations have formed a League, or Confederation 
 against him. It is a new War of Independence. 
 
 And out of it will grow what President Wilson has called "the 
 Un4,ted Peoples of the World." 
 
 3. Find out what you can about the proposed "League to En- 
 force Peace." 
 
 SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
 Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my 
 hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in 
 the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there 
 is a divinity which shap^es our ends. The injustice of Eng- 
 land has driven us to arms ; and, blinded to her own inter- 
 
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 est, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now 
 within onr grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and 
 it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the declaration? 
 
 If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on 
 or to give up the war? Do we mean to submit, and con- 
 sent that we shall be ground to powder, and our country 
 and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do 
 not mean to submit. We never shall submit ! 
 
 The war, then, must go on; we must fight it through. 
 And if the war must go on, why put off the declaration of 
 independence ? That measure will strengthen us. It will 
 give us character abroad. Nations will then treat with us, 
 which they never can do while we acknowledge ourselves 
 subjects in arms against our sovereign. 
 
 If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not 
 fail. The cause will raise up armies ; the cause will create 
 navies. The people — the people, if we are true to them, 
 will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through 
 this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been 
 found. I know the people of these colonies; and I know 
 that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled 
 in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. 
 • Sir, the declaration of independence will inspire the 
 people with increased courage. Instead of a long and 
 bloody war for the restoration of privileges, for redress of 
 grievances, set before them the glorious object of entire 
 independence, and it will breathe into them anew the spirit 
 of life. 
 
 Eead this declaration at the head of the army; every 
 sword will be drawn, and the solemn vow uttered to main- 
 tain it or perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the 
 
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 pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious 
 liberty will cling around it, resolved to stand with it, or 
 fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; 
 ].'t them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall 
 on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington 
 and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support. 
 
 Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, 
 I see clearly through this day's business. You and I, in- 
 deed, may rue it. "We may not live to see the time this 
 declaration shall be made good. We may die; die colon- 
 ists; die slaves; die, it may be ignominiously, and on the 
 
 I [fold. Be it so: be it so. If it be the pleasure of 
 1 leaven that my country shall require the poor offering of 
 my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour 
 oi' sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do 
 live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a coun- 
 try, and that a free country. 
 
 But whatever may be our fate, be assured — ^be assured 
 that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and 
 it may cost blood ; but it will stand, and it will richly com- 
 pensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present 
 I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. 
 , We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we 
 are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will 
 celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bon- 
 fires, and illuminations. On its annual return they will 
 shed tears, copious, gushing tears; not of subjection and 
 slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of 
 gratitude, and of joy. 
 
 Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judg- 
 ment approves the measure, and my whole heart is in it. 
 
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 All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in 
 this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it ; and I leave 
 off as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for 
 the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the 
 blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment; indepen- 
 dence now, and independence forever. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 This passage is from an address on Adams and Jefferson, de- 
 livered by Webster in Boston in 1826. No record exists of any 
 speech in support of the Declaration by John Adams, but he was 
 a member of the Committee appointed to frame it, and both the 
 phrasing and the ideas in the supposed speech follow closely some 
 of Adams' writings about the events of July 2-4, 1776. Com- 
 pare, for example, the extract from a letter to Mrs. Adams 
 given oh p. 231. 
 
 HALE IN THE BUSH 
 
 The breezes went steadily through the tall pines, 
 A-saying "Oh! hu-ush!" a-saying "Oh! hu-ush!" 
 
 As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse. 
 For Hale in the bush, for Hale in the bush. 
 
 "Keep still ?' said the thrush, as she nestled her young 
 In a nest by the road, in a nest by the road ; 
 
 "For the tyrants are near, and with them appear 
 What bodes us no good, what bodes us no good." 
 
 The brave captain heard it, and thought of his home 
 In a cot by the brook, in a cot by the brook ; 
 
 With mother and sister and memories dear. 
 He so gaily forsook, he so gaily forsook. 
 
 Cooling shades of the night were coming apace. 
 
 The tattoo had beat, the tattoo had beat : 
 The noble one sprang from his dark lurking-place 
 To make his retreat, to make his retreat. 
 
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 He warily trod on the dry rustling leaves, 
 
 As he passed through the wood, as he passed through 
 the wood. 
 And silently gained his rude launch on the shore, 
 As she played with the flood, as she played with the 
 flood. 
 
 The guards of the camp on that dark dreary night, 
 Had a murderous will, had a murderous will : 
 
 They took him and bore him afar from the shore. 
 To a hut on the hill, to a hut on the hill. 
 
 No mother was there, nor a friend who could cheer, 
 In that little stone cell, in that little stone cell; 
 
 But he trusted in love from his Father above — 
 In his heart all was well, in his heart all was well. 
 
 An ominous owl with his solemn bass voice 
 Sat moaning hard by, sat moaning hard by : 
 
 "The tyrant's proud minions most gladly rejoice. 
 For he must soon die, for he must soon die." 
 
 The brave fellow told them, no thing he restrained, — 
 The cruel gen'ral; the cruel gen'ral! — 
 
 His errand from camp, of the ends to be gained, 
 And said that was all, and said that was all. 
 
 They took him and bound him and bore him away, 
 Down the hill's grassy side, down the hill's grassy side. 
 
 'Twas there the base hirelings, in royal array. 
 His cause did deride, his cause did deride. 
 
 Five minutes were given, short moments, no more, 
 
 For him to repent, for him to repent. 
 He prayed for his mother — ^he asked not another, — 
 
 To heaven he went, to heaven he went. 
 
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 The faith of a martjrr the tragedy showed, 
 
 As he trod the last stage, as he trod the last stage. 
 
 And Britons will shudder at gallant Hale's blood, 
 As his words do presage, as his words do presage : 
 
 ^'Thon pale king of terrors, thou life's gloomy foe. 
 Go frighten the slave, go frighten the slave ; 
 
 Tell tyrants, to you their allegiance they owe — 
 No fears for the brave, no fears for the brave !" 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 The author of this ballad is unknown. It is a good example 
 of the ballad, since it is a story, told in verse, of an event that 
 powerfully moved the people who knew about it. One of these 
 people composed the ballad. The poem is a tribute to Nathan 
 Hale, who was hanged as a spy in September, 1776. You remem- 
 ber his dying words: "I only regret that I have but one life to 
 give for my country!" 
 
 TIMES THAT TRY MEN'S SOULS 
 
 THOMAS PAINE J 
 
 These are the times that try men's souls. The summer 
 soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink 
 from the service of his country ; but he that stands it now, 
 deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, 
 like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consola- 
 tion with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious 
 the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too 
 lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value. 
 Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods ; it 
 would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as free- 
 dom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to 
 enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right, not 
 
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 only to tax, but to "bind us in all cases whatsoever/' and 
 if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then is there 
 not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expres- 
 sion is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only 
 to God. 
 
 I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but 
 my secret opinion has been, and still is that God Almighty 
 will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave 
 them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and 
 so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by 
 every decent method which wisdom could invent. 
 
 I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to 
 feel, against the mean principles that are held by the tories : 
 a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at 
 his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight 
 or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his 
 mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with 
 this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my 
 day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes 
 that a separation must some time or other finally take 
 place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there 
 must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may 
 have peace" ; and his single reflection, well applied, is suf- 
 ficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon 
 earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is re- 
 mote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to 
 do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish in him- 
 self between temper and principle, and I am as confident, 
 as I am that God governs the world, that America will 
 nover be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. 
 V/ars, without ceasing, will break out till that period ar- 
 
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 rives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; 
 for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to 
 shine, the coal can never expire. 
 
 The heart that feels not now, is dead ; the blood of his 
 children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a 
 time when a little might have saved the whole, and made 
 them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, 
 that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by 
 reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but 
 he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his 
 conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own 
 line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a 
 ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I 
 believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, 
 for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, 
 burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to 
 kill me, or those that are in it, and to '^Dind me in all cases 
 whatsoever^' to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? ^Hiat 
 signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a 
 common man; my countryman or not my countryman; 
 whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of 
 them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find 
 no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why 
 we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. These paragraphs come from a pamphlet called "The 
 Crisis," published in 1776 by Thomas Paine. To appreciate it 
 you should keep in mind the two-fold nature of the crisis that 
 confronted General Washington in 1776. He had lost the battle 
 of Long Island, had lost an army under General Greene at Fort 
 Washington, had been compelled to retreat from New York to- 
 
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 ward Philadelphia. Thus the military situation was very bad. 
 The political situation was equally dark. Philadelphia was the 
 center of royalist activities. Many people hoped that England 
 would win. Washington's retreat across New Jersey was met 
 by no sympathy. His soldiers, who had enlisted for short terms, 
 were encouraged to desert or to resign at the end of their terms. 
 Thus it was' a time that indeed tried men's souls. 
 
 2. Find in these paragraphs sentences that show how Paine's 
 pamphlet was designed to help meet the crisis just explained. 
 
 3. Washington ordered this pamphlet read before every com- 
 pany of soldiers in his army. Why did he do this? What effect 
 do you think it must have had? 
 
 4. In what ways do Paine's words seem to you of use now? 
 Memorize sentences that might be made part of a "Four-Minute 
 ^l>eech" about the war. 
 
 SONG OF MARION'S MEN 
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BBYANT 
 
 Our band is few but true and tried. 
 
 Our leader frank and bold ; 
 The British soldier trembles 
 
 When Marion^s name is told. 
 Our fortress is the good greenwood, 
 
 Our tent the cjrpress-tree ; 
 We know the forest round us, 
 
 As seamen know the sea. 
 We know its walls of thorny vines, 
 
 Its glades of reedy grass. 
 Its safe and silent island? 
 
 Within the dark morass. 
 
 Woe to the English soldiery 
 That little dread us near ! 
 
 On them shall light at midnight 
 A strange and sudden fear: 
 
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 When, waking to their tents on fire, 
 
 They grasp their arms in vain, 
 And they who stand to face us 
 
 Are beat to earth again; 
 And they who fly in terror deem 
 
 A mighty host behind. 
 And hear the tramp of thousands 
 
 Upon the hollow wind. 
 
 Then sweet the hours that bring release 
 
 From danger and from toil : 
 We talk the battle over. 
 
 And share the battle's spoil. 
 The woodland rings with laugh and shout. 
 
 As if a hunt were up. 
 And woodland flowers are gathered 
 
 To crown the soldier's cup. 
 With merry songs we mock the wind 
 
 That in the pine-top grieves. 
 And slumber long and sweetly 
 
 On beds of oaken leaves. 
 
 Well knows the fair and friendly moon 
 
 The band that Marion leads — 
 The glitter of their rifles, 
 
 The scampering of their steeds. 
 ^Tis life to guide the fiery barb 
 
 Across the moonlight plain ; 
 'Tis life to feel the night-wind 
 
 That lifts the tossing mane 
 A moment in the British camp — 
 
 A moment^and away 
 Back to the pathless forest. 
 
 Before the peep of day. 
 
 Grave men there are by broad Santee, 
 Grave men with hoary hairs ; 
 
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 Their hearts are all with Marion, 
 
 For Marion are their prayers. 
 And lovely ladies greet our band 
 
 With kindliest welcoming. 
 With smiles like those of summer, 
 
 And tears like those of spring. 
 For them we wear these trusty arms, 
 
 And lay them down no more 
 Till we have driven the Briton, 
 
 Forever, from our shore. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Here is another "little picture" of the Revolution period. 
 Oeneral Francis Marion was a sort of Robin Hood, a popular 
 hero, leader of a band of men who worried the victorious British 
 troops in the Carolinas in 1780-81 and assisted in driving Corn- 
 wallis north, where he surrendered at Yorktown in 1781. 
 
 2. Look up the history of the campaign in the South in 1780-81. 
 They were dark days, — the loss of Cliarleston; the disaster to 
 Gates at Camden; the weakness of the Congress; the treason of 
 Arnold; then the triumph of General Greene and the total col- 
 lapse of British power in the South. 
 
 3. The poem shows admirably the way in which the small ir- 
 regular forces of Marion could annoy and even defeat the trained 
 troops of Cornwallis. They knew the sparsely settled country, — • 
 "Our fortress is the good greenwood." The poem also shows the 
 spirit of Marion's men — like the merry men in Robin Hood's band. 
 
 LAFAYETTE 
 
 ROBERT C. WINTHROP 
 
 Nearly two years before the treaties of Franklin were 
 negotiated and signed, the young Lafayette, then but nine- 
 
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 teen years of age, a captain of French dragoons, stationed 
 at Metz, at a dinner given by the commandant of the gar- 
 rison to the Duke of Gloucester, a brother of George III, 
 happened to hear the tidings of our Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, which had reached the Duke that very day from 
 London. It formed the subject of animated and excited 
 conversation, in which the enthusiastic young soldier took 
 part, and before he had left the table an inextinguishable 
 spark had been struck and kindled in his breast, and his 
 whole heart was on fire in the cause of American liberty. 
 Regardless of the remonstrances of his friends, of the min- 
 istry, and of the king himself, in spite of every discour- 
 agement and obstacle, he soon tears himself away from a 
 young and lovely wife, leaps on board a vessel which he 
 had provided for himself, braves the perils of a voyage 
 across the Atlantic, then swarming with cruisers, reaches 
 Philadelphia by way of Charleston, South Carolina, and 
 so wins at once the regard and confidence of the Conti- 
 nental. Congress by his avowed desire to risk his life in our 
 service, at his own expense, without pay or allowance of 
 any sort, that, on the 31st of July, 1777, before he was 
 yet quite twenty years of age, he was commissioned a 
 major-general in the army of the United States. 
 
 It is hardly too much to say that from that dinner at 
 Metz, and that 31st of July, in Philadelphia, may be dated 
 the train of influences and events which culminated four 
 years afterwards in the surrender of Cornwallis to the 
 allied forces of America and France. Presented to our 
 great Virginian commander-in-chief a few days only after 
 his commission was vo-ted by Congress, an intimacy, a 
 friendship, an affection grew up between them almost at 
 
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 sight. Invited to become a member of his military family, 
 and treated with the tenderness of a son, Lafayette is 
 henceforth to be not only the beloved and trusted associate 
 of Washington, but a living, tie between his native and his 
 almost adopted country. Eeturning to France in Janu- 
 ary, 1779, after eighteen months of brave and valuable 
 service here, during which he had been wounded at Brandy- 
 wine, had exhibited signal gallantry and skill at Mon- 
 mouth, and had received the thanks of Congress for im- 
 portant services in Rhode Island, he was now in the way 
 of appealing personally to the French ministry to send an. 
 army and fleet to our assistance. He did appeal; and the 
 zeal and force of his arguments at length prevailed. The 
 young marquis, to whom alone the decision of the king was 
 revealed, hastens back with eager joy to announce the glad 
 tidings to Washington, and to arrange with him for the 
 reception and employment of the auxiliary forces. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 10th of July, 1780, a squadron of 
 the ships of war brings Rochambeau with six thousand 
 French troops into the harbor of Newport, with instruc- 
 tions "to act under Washington, and live with the Ameri- 
 can officers as their brethren," and the American officers 
 are forthwith desired by Washington, in General Orders, — 
 "to wear white and black cockades as a symbol of affection 
 for their allies." 
 
 Nearly a full year, however, was to elapse before the 
 rich fruits of that alliance were to be developed, — a year 
 of the greatest discouragement and gloom for the American 
 cause. The war on our side seemed languishing. As late 
 as the 9th of April, 1781, Washington wrote to Colonel 
 John Laurens, who had gone on a special mission to Paris, 
 
246 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 "If France delays a timely and powerful aid in the critical 
 juncture of our affairs, it will avail us nothing should she 
 attempt it hereafter. We are at this hour suspended in 
 the balance. In a word, we are at the end of our tether, and 
 now or never our deliverance must come." 
 
 God's holy name be praised, deliverance was to come, 
 and did come, now! On the third of September, 1781, the 
 united armies reached Philadelphia, where. Congress being 
 in session, the French army "paid it the honors which the 
 king had ordered us to pay," as we are told in the journal 
 of the gallant Count William de Deux Fonts. ... On 
 the 19th of October the articles were signed by which the 
 garrisons of York and Gloucester, together with all the 
 officers and seamen of the British ships in the Chesapeake, 
 "surrender themselves prisoners of war to the combined 
 forces of America and France." 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. These paragraphs are from an address delivered in October, 
 1881, on the one hundredth anniversary of the surrender of Corn- 
 wallis, at Yorktown. They are interesting because they tell the 
 circumstances which interested the young Lafayette in the cause 
 of liberty. Lafayette's motto was "Cur non" — "Why not?" and 
 it is a good motto for those who dedicate themselves to a great 
 work. Lafayette did what he could to make a safe place in the 
 world for democracy. Democracy now repays its debt to France. 
 General Pershing's words, when he arrived in Paris — "We are 
 here, Lafayette" — -express the love for France that dwells in 
 American hearts, and America's joy that the service rendered by 
 France in our time of need is now being repaid. 
 
 2. The "treaties of Franklin" were the treaties of alliance 
 between the United States and France, February, 1778. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 247 
 
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 FROM THE FAREWELL TO THE ARMY 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 It is not the meaning nor within the compass of this 
 axidress to detail the hardships peculiarly incident to our 
 service, or to describe the distresses which in several in- 
 stances have resulted from the extremes of hunger and 
 nakedness, combined with the rigors of an inclement sea- 
 son; nor is it necessary to dwell on the dark side of our 
 past affairs. Every American officer and soldier must now 
 console himself for any unpleasant circumstances which 
 may have occurred, by a recollection of the uncommon 
 scenes of which he has been called to act no inglorious 
 part, and the astonishing events of which he has been a 
 witness; events which have seldom, if ever before, taken 
 place on the stage of human action, nor can they probably 
 ever happen again. For who has before seen a disciplined 
 army formed at once from such raw materials ? Who, that 
 was not a witness, could imagine that the most violent local 
 prejudices would cease so soon; and that men, who came 
 from the different parts of the continent, strongly dis- 
 posed by the habits of education to despise and quarrel with 
 each other, would instantly become but one patriotic band 
 of brothers ? Or who, that was not on the spot, can trace 
 the steps by which such a wonderful revolution has been 
 effected, and such a glofious period put to all our warlike 
 toils? 
 
 It is universally acknowledged that the enlarged prospects 
 of happiness, opened by the confirmation of our indepen- 
 dence and sovereignty, almost exceed the power of descrip- 
 tion. And shall not the brave men, who have contributed 
 
248 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 SO essentially to these inestimable acquisitions, retiring 
 victorious from the field of war to the field of agriculture, 
 participate in all the blessings which have been obtained? 
 In such a republic, who will exclude them from the rights 
 of citizens, and the fruits of their labor? In such a coun- 
 try, so happily circumstanced, the pursuits of commerce 
 and the cultivation of the soil will unfold to industry the 
 certain road to competence. To those hardy soldiers, who 
 are actuated by the spirit of adventure, the fisheries will 
 afford ample and profitable employment, and the exten- 
 sive and fertile regions of the West will yield a most happy 
 asylum to those who, fond of domestic enjoyment, are 
 seeking for personal independence. ... 
 
 Every one may rest assured that much, very much of the 
 future happiness of the officers and men will depend upon 
 the wise and manly conduct which shall be adopted by them 
 when they are mingled with the great body of the com- 
 munity. And although the General has so frequently given 
 it as his opinion in the most public and explicit manner 
 that, unless the principles of the federal government were 
 properly supported, and the powers of the Union increased, 
 the honor, dignity, and justice of the nation would be lost 
 forever; yet he cannot help repeating on this occasion so 
 interesting a sentiment, and leaving it as his last injunc- 
 tion to every ofiicer and every soldier, who may view the 
 subject in the same serious point' of light, to add his best 
 endeavors to those of his worthy fellow-citizens toward 
 effecting these great and valuable purposes. . . . 
 
 To the various branches of the army the General takes 
 this last solemn opportunity of professing his inviolable 
 attachment and friendship. He wishes more than bare pro- 
 
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 fessions were in his power; that he were really able to be 
 useful to them all in future life. He flatters himself, how- 
 ever, they will do him the justice to believe, that whatever 
 could with propriety be attempted by him has been done. 
 
 And being now to conclude these his last public orders, 
 to take his ultimate leave in a short time of the military 
 character, and to bid a final adieu to the armies he has so 
 long had the honor to command, he can only again offer 
 in their behalf his recommendations to their grateful coun- 
 try, and his prayers to the God of armies. May ample 
 justice be done them here, and may the choicest of 
 Heaven's favors, both here and hereafter, attend those who, 
 under the Divine auspices, have secured innumerable 
 blessings for others. With these wishes and his benedic- 
 tion, the commander-in-chief is about to retire from serv- 
 ice. The curtain of separation will soon be drawn, and the 
 military scene to him will be closed forever. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. This address was sent out to the army from Princeton, New 
 Jersey, November 2, 1783. 
 
 2. Find, from your history, illustrations of what General Wash- 
 ington means by "the dark side of our past affairs." 
 
 3. In what way did these experiences lead General Washington 
 to plead for the increase in "the powers of the Union"? 
 
 4. Note General Washington's anxiety for the future of his 
 Boldiers. In May, 1782, a movement was started in the army to 
 establish a monarchy, with Washington as King. One reason for 
 the proposal was the fear lest the soldiers should not be fairly 
 treated by the people for whose freedom they had fought. Wash- 
 ington indignantly spurned the suggestion, but pledged his effort 
 to secure the welfare of the men. On this subject look up the 
 story of Washington at Valley Forge, in your history, and com- 
 pare Lowell's tribute, p. 251. 
 
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 THE TWENTY-SECOND OF FEBRUARY 
 
 WILLIAM CTJLLEN BBYANT 
 
 Pale is the February sky 
 And brief the mid-day's sunny hours; 
 The wind-swept forest seems to sigh 
 For the sweet time of leaves and flowers. 
 
 Yet has no month a prouder day, 
 Not even when the summer broods 
 O'er meadows in their fresh array, 
 Or autumn tints the glowing woods. 
 
 For this chill season now again 
 Brings, in its annual round, the morn 
 When, greatest of the sons of men, 
 Our glorious Washington was born. 
 
 Lo, where, beneath an icy shield. 
 Calmly the mighty Hudson flows ! ' 
 By snow-clad fell and frozen field. 
 Broadening, the lordly river goes. 
 
 The wildest storm that sweeps through space. 
 And rends the oak with sudden force. 
 Can raise no ripple on his face, 
 Or slacken his majestic course. 
 
 Thus, 'mid the wreck of thrones, shall live 
 TJnmarred, undimmed, our hero's fame. 
 And years succeeding years shall give 
 Increase of honors to his name. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 251 
 
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 WASHINGTON 
 
 JAMES BUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 Soldier- and statesman, rarest unison ; 
 
 High-poised example of great duties done 
 
 Simply as breathing, a world's honors worn 
 
 As life's indifferent gifts to all men born ; 
 
 Dumb for himself, unless it were to God, 
 
 But for his barefoot soldiers eloquent. 
 
 Tramping the snow to coral where they trod. 
 
 Held by his awe in hollow-eyed content; 
 
 Modest, yet firm as Nature's self; unblamed 
 
 Save by the men his nobler temper shamed; 
 
 Never seduced through show of present good 
 
 By other than unsetting lights to steer • 
 
 New-trimmed in Heaven, nor than his steadfast mood 
 
 More steadfast, far from rashness as from fear; 
 
 Rigid, but with him?elf first, grasping still 
 
 In swerveless poise the wave-beat helm of will ; 
 
 Not honored then or now because he wooed 
 
 The popular voice, but that he still withstood; 
 
 Broad-minded, higher-soul ed, there is but one. 
 
 Who was all this and ours, and all men's — Washington. 
 
 THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
 Washington had attained his manhood when that spark 
 of liberty was struck out in his own country which has 
 since kindled into a flame and shot its beams over the earth. 
 In the flow of a century from his birth, the world has 
 changed in science, in arts, in the extent of commerce, in 
 the improvement of navigation, and in all that relates to 
 the civilization of man. But it is the spirit of human free- 
 dom, the new elevation of individual ilian, in his moral. 
 
252 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 social, and political character, leading the whole long train 
 of other improvements, which has most remarkably dis- 
 tinguished the era. Society, in this century, has not made 
 its progress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness of 
 ingenuity in trifles ; it has not merely lashed itself to an 
 increased speed round the old circles of thought and 
 action; but it has assumed a new character; it has raised 
 itself from beneath governments to a participation in gov- 
 ernments; it has mixed moral and political objects with 
 the daily pursuits of individual men; and, with a freedom 
 and strength before altogether unknown, it has applied to 
 these objects the whole power of the human understand- 
 ing. It has been the era, in short, when the social prin- 
 ciple has triumphed over the feudal principle ; when society 
 has maintained its rights against military power, and es- 
 tablished, on foundations never hereafter to be shaken, its 
 competency to govern itself. 
 
 It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington, that, 
 having been intrusted, in revolutionary times, with the 
 supreme military command, and having fulfilled that trust 
 with equal renown for wisdom and for valor, he should be 
 placed at the head of the first government in which an 
 attempt was to be made on a large scale to rear the fabric 
 of social order on the basis of a written constitution and 
 of a pure representative principle. A government was to be 
 established, without a throne, without an aristocracy, with- 
 out castes, orders, or privileges; and this government, in- 
 stead of being a democracy existing and acting within the 
 walls of a single city, was to be extended over a vast coun- 
 try of different climates, interests, and habits, and of vari- 
 ous communions of our common Christian faith. The 
 
The Builders and Their Work 253 
 
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 experiment certainly was entirely new. A popular govern- 
 ment of this extent, it was evident, could be framed only 
 by carr3^ing into full effect the principle of representation 
 or of delegated power; and the world was to see whether 
 society could, by the strength of this principle, maintain 
 its own peace and good government, carry forward its 
 own great interests, and conduct itself to political renown 
 and glory. By the benignity of Providence, this experi- 
 ment, so full of interest to us and to our posterity forever, 
 so full of interest, indeed, to the world in its present gen- 
 eration and in all its generations to come, was suffered to 
 anmence under the guidance of Washington. Destined 
 ior this high career, he was fitted for it by wisdom, by vir- 
 tue, by patriotism, by discretion, by whatever can inspire 
 confidence in man toward man. In entering on the un- 
 tried scenes early disappointment and the premature ex- 
 tinction of all hope of success would have been certain, had 
 it not been that there did exist throughout the country, in 
 a most extraordinary degree, an unwavering trust in. him 
 who stood at the helm. 
 
 I remarked. Gentlemen, that the whole world was and 
 is interested in the result of this experiment. And is it 
 not so? Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true that at 
 this moment the career which this government is running is 
 among the most attractive objects to the civilized world? 
 Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true that at this moment 
 that love of liberty and that understanding of its true prin- 
 ciples which are flying over the whole earth, as on the -^^ings 
 of all the winds, are really and truly of American origin? 
 
 At the period of the birth of Washington there existed 
 in Europe no political liberty in large communities, except 
 
254 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 in the provinces of Holland, and except that England her- 
 self had set a great example, so far as it went, by her 
 glorious Revolution of 1688. Everywhere else, despotic 
 power was predominant, and the feudal or military prin- 
 ciple held the mass of mankind in hopeless bondage. One- 
 half of Europe was crushed beneath the Bourbon scepter, 
 and no conception of political liberty, no hope even of re- 
 ligious toleration, existed among that nation which was 
 Americans first ally. The king was the state, the king was 
 the country, the king was all. There was one king, with 
 power not derived from his people, and too high to be 
 questioned, and the rest were all subjects, with no political 
 right but obedience. All above was intangible power, all 
 below was quiet subjection. A recent occurrence in the 
 French chamber shows us how public opinion on these 
 subjects is changed. A minister had spoken of the "king's 
 subjects." "There are no subjects," exclaimed hundreds 
 of voices at once, "in a country where the people make the 
 king!" 
 
 Gentlemen, the spirit of human liberty and of free gov- 
 ernment, nurtured and grown into strength and beauty in 
 America, has stretched its course into the midst of the 
 nations. Like an emanation from Heaven, it has gone 
 forth, and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast 
 changing, the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty 
 is to show, in our own example, that this spirit is a spirit 
 of health as well as a spirit of power ; that its benignity is 
 as great as its strength; that its efficiency to secure indi- 
 vidual rights, social relations, and moral order, is equal to 
 the irresistible force with which it prostrates principalities 
 and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us 
 
The Builders and Their Work 255 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit Ill iiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiHii 
 
 with a willing, but something of a fearful admiration. Its 
 deep and awful anxiety is to learn whether free States may 
 be stable, as well as free; whether popular power may be 
 trusted as well as feared; in short, whether wise, regu- 
 lar, and virtuous self-government is a vision for the ^con- 
 templation of theorists, or a truth established, illustrated, 
 and brought into practice in the country of Washington. 
 
 Gentlemen, for the earth which we inhabit, and the 
 whole circle of the sun, for all the unborn races of man- 
 kind, we seem to hold in our hands, for their weal or woe, 
 the fate of this experiment. If we fail, who shall venture 
 the repetition? If our example shall prove to be one not 
 of encouragement, but of terror, not fit to be imitated, but 
 fit only to be shunned, where else shall the world look for 
 free models? If this great Western Sun be struck out of 
 the firmament, at what other fountain shall the lamp of 
 liberty hereafter be lighted? What other orb shall emit a 
 ray to glimmer, even, on the darkness of the world? 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. The selection is from an address delivered in Washington 
 on February 22, 1832, the hundredth anniversary of Washington's 
 birth. 
 
 2. In the first paragraph notice what is said about "the new 
 elevation of individual man." Connect this in your thought with 
 Burns's "A Man's a Man" and with President Wilson's state- 
 ment about the "new plane of privilege." Notice also the sen- 
 tence "Society . . . has raised itself from beneath governments 
 to a participation in governments.'* What does this mean ? What 
 governments did Webster have in mind? 
 
 3. The English Reform Bill was passed June 4, 1832. By this 
 law the so-called "rotten boroughs," that is, districts which still 
 
256 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 sent representatives to Parliament though nearly all the inhabi- 
 tants of the districts had moved away, were abolished. Cities 
 and villages that had not been represented were now allowed to 
 send members to Parliament. Thus the farmers and sliopkeepers 
 — ^the middle class — secured a representation for;iierly denied 
 them. Even with this advance, however, England was not wholly 
 free, since the right to vote was still limited to certain classes. 
 "The American Experiment" trusted all the people, freely. 
 
 4. The nature of the "American Experiment" is explained in. 
 the second paragraph. Make this clear by contrasting England 
 and America in 1832 on the basis of the items set down by Mr. 
 Webster: constitution; pure representative principle; throne; 
 castes, orders, and privileges. What i ; "delegated power" ? 
 
 5. In the first sentence of the fourth paragraph what is meant 
 by "so far as it went"? 
 
 6. To understand this fourth paragraph fully, you should find 
 out something about the French Pevolution. After you have done 
 this, be prepared to. discuss the following topics in class: 
 
 (a) What caused the French Revolution. 
 
 (b) How it differed from our Revolution. 
 
 (c) What Mr. Webster meant by saying that in France "the 
 king was the state." 
 
 (d) "There are no subjects in a country where the people make 
 the king." What event made this statement true of England? 
 
 (e) The responsibility that rests upon America (fifth para- 
 graph). 
 
 SACRED OBLIGATIONS 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTEE 
 
 We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are 
 preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or 
 as better, suited to existing conditions, we leave the prefer- 
 ence to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, 
 that the popular form is practicable, and that with wisdom 
 and knowledge men may govern themselves ; and the duty 
 
 I 
 
The Builders and Their Work 257 
 
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 incumbent on us is to preserve the consistency of this cheer- 
 ing example, and take care that nothing weaken its 
 authority with the world. If, in our case, the representa- 
 tive system ultimately fail, popular governments must be 
 pronounced impossible. No combination of circumstances 
 more favorable to the experiment can ever be expected to 
 occur. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us ; 
 and if it should be proclaimed that our example had become 
 an argument against the experiment, the knell of popular 
 liberty would be sounded throughout the earth. 
 
 These are excitements to duty; but they are not sugges- 
 tions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is 
 gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize the 
 belief that popular governments, though subject to occa- 
 sional variations, in form perhaps not always for the bet- 
 ter, may yet, in their general character, be as durable and 
 permanent as other systems. We know, indeed, that in 
 our country any other is impossible. The principle of 
 free government adheres to the American soil. It is im- 
 bedded in it, immovable as its mountains. 
 
 And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on 
 this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. 
 Those who established ouj* liberty and our government are 
 daily dropping from among us. The great trust now de- 
 scends to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that which 
 is presented to us, as our appropriate object. We can win 
 no laurels in a war for independence. Earlier and worthier 
 hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for 
 us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of 
 states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains 
 to us a great duty of defense and preservation and there 
 
258 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 is open to us also, a noble pursuit, to which, the spirit of the 
 times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improve- 
 ment. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day 
 of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of 
 peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth 
 its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great 
 interests, and see whether we also, in our day and genera- 
 tion, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. 
 Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In 
 pursuing the great objects which our condition points out 
 to us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual 
 feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country. Let 
 our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. I^t 
 us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in 
 which we are called to act. Let our object be, our coun- 
 try, OUR V7H0LE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUN- 
 TRY. And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself 
 become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression 
 and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon 
 which the world may gaze with admiration forever ! 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. These paragraphs are taken from Mr. Webster's famous 
 speech at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill Monu- 
 ment, June 17, 1825. At this fiftieth anniversary of the battle 
 many soldiers of the Revolution were present, but the most dis- 
 tinguished guest was Lafayette. 
 
 2. In the first paragraph, notice once more Mr. Webster's sense 
 of the responsibility resting upon America to prove that popular 
 government may be trusted. Two great charges have been brought 
 against such a form of government: (a) .That it is not stable, 
 being at the mercy of mobs which may commit violent acts and 
 even overthrow the government. On this recall what you learned 
 
The Builders and Their Work 259 
 
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 about the French Revolution. Would the Russian Revolution 
 serve as a further example? (b) That it cannot be organized, 
 made one. Wliat this means may be seen in the idea, held bj 
 some people before the entry of America into the war, that we 
 could not raise a great army, equip it, and train it as efficiently 
 as Germany had done. How would you answer this question as 
 to the efficiency of a democracy now? 
 
 3. Webster, like Washington, felt that the great idea for us to 
 get is that "these States are one country." How is the present 
 war driving this conception home to us? The administration of 
 our railroads? the food administration? the selective draft? the 
 co-operation of all citizens? 
 
 4. Why would Mr. Webster be glad to see all these things as 
 answers to his hope that the American Experiment would not fail? 
 
 5. Commit to memory the last five sentences, changing "twenty- 
 four states" to the proper number. What do the words "oppres- 
 sion and terror" suggest about governments today? Why do you 
 think America stands for "Wisdom, Peace, and Liberty" today? 
 
 ODE 
 
 Sung in the Town Hall, Concord, July 4, 1857 
 
 ralph waldo emerson 
 
 tenderly the haughty day 
 Fills his blue urn with fire ; 
 
 One mom is in the mighty heaven, 
 And one in our desire. 
 
 The cannon booms from tawn to town. 
 
 Our pulses beat not less, 
 The joy-bells chime their tidings down. 
 
 Which children's voices bless. 
 
 For He that flung the broad blue fold 
 O'er mantling land and sea, 
 
 One third part of the sky unrolled 
 For the banner of the free. 
 
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 The men are ripe of Saxon kind 
 To build an equal state, — • 
 
 To take the statute from the mind 
 And make of duty fate. 
 
 And henceforth there shall be no chain. 
 
 Save underneath the sea, 
 The wires shall murmur through the main 
 
 Sweet songs of liberty. 
 
 The conscious stars accord above. 
 
 The waters wild below, 
 And under, through the cable wove. 
 
 Her fiery errands go. 
 
 For He that worketh high and wise. 
 
 Nor pauses in his plan, 
 Will take the sun out of the skies 
 
 Ere freedom out of man. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. This poem is inserted because it is closely connected with 
 what we have been thinking of. John Adams, you remember, 
 thought that July Fourth would become a day of rejoicing for 
 all Americans. Find the passage, 
 
 2. Why is the day called "haughty"? 
 
 3. Explain 
 
 "One third part of the sky unrolled 
 For the banner of the free." 
 You might compare a part of a poem by Joseph Rodman Drake, 
 written in 1819: 
 
 When Freedom from her mountain height 
 
 Unfurled her standard to the air. 
 She tore the azure robe of night, 
 
 And set the stars of glory there; 
 She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
 
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 The milky baldric of the skies, 
 And striped its pure, celestial white 
 With streakings of the morning light; 
 Then from his mansion in the sun 
 She called her eagle bearer down, 
 And gave into his mighty hand 
 The symbol of her chosen land. 
 
 4. Explain, in the fourth stanza, "Saxon kind", "equal state", 
 "statute from the mind." To make duty your fate, ^he ruler of 
 your life, is better than to live in a country where you think and 
 act as some one else tells you to think and act. But the stanza 
 also shows that besides freedom we must have government — that 
 is, liberty is subject to restraint. The result is free government. 
 Now explain some ways in which in America today freedom and 
 government are combined. 
 
 5. In the fifth stanza what invention is referred to? In what 
 other way may the messages of liberty flash across the Atlantic 
 today? 
 
 6. Memorize the last stanza, and find in one of the selections 
 from Webster the expression of a similar idea. 
 
 THE POOR VOTER ON ELECTION DAY 
 
 JOHN GBEENLEAF WHITTIEB . 
 
 The proudest now is but my peer, 
 
 The highest not more high ; 
 Today, of all the weary year, 
 
 A king of men am I. 
 Today, alike are great and small. 
 
 The nameless and the known ; 
 My palace is the people's hall. 
 
 The ballot-box my throne ! 
 
 Who serves today upon the list 
 Beside the served shall stand; 
 
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 Alike the brown and wrinkled fist. 
 The gloved and dainty hand ! 
 
 The rich is level with the poor. 
 The weak is strong today; 
 
 And sleekest broadcloth counts no more 
 Than homespun frock of gray. 
 
 Today let pomp and vain pretense 
 
 My stubborn right abide ; 
 I set a plain man's common sense 
 
 Against the pedant's pride. 
 Today shall simple manhood try 
 
 The strength of gold and land; 
 The wide world has not wealth to buy 
 
 The power in ray right hand ! 
 
 While there's a grief to seek redress. 
 
 Or balance to adjust. 
 Where weighs our living manhood less 
 
 Than Mammon's vilest dust, — 
 While there's a right to need my vote, 
 
 A wrong to sweep away. 
 Up! clouted knee and ragged coat! 
 
 A man's a man today! 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 ■ 1. To what poem previously read does this poem refer? Com- 
 pare the two poems in as many ways as you can. 
 
 2. What else, besides the right to vote, has the poor man gained 
 in this country? 
 
 3. How does this poem help make clear the first paragraph im 
 the Declaration of Independence? 
 
 4. Has the citizen performed his whole duty when he has voted? 
 
The Builders and Their Work 263 
 
 THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 
 
 ABBAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
 on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, 
 and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 
 equal. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great civil war ; testing whether 
 that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, 
 can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of 
 that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
 field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their 
 lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting 
 and proper that we should do this. 
 
 But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not 
 consecrate — we can not hallow this ground. The brave 
 men, living and dead, who struggled here have conse- 
 crated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The 
 world will little note, nor long remember what we say 
 here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is 
 for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the un- 
 finished work which they who fought here have thus far 
 so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated 
 to the great task remaining before us — that from these 
 honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause 
 for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that 
 we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
 in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new 
 birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by 
 the people, and for the people, shall not perish from th« 
 earth. 
 
264 Builders of Democracy 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. This address was given at the dedication of the national 
 cemetery at Gettysburg, November 11, 1863. Like all of Mr. 
 Lincoln's writings it is an illustration of intense thought and 
 feeling compressed into a few simple words. 
 
 2. In the first paragraph, notice the reference to political 
 equality as the basis of the American plan of government. What 
 sentence in the Declaration of Independence is Mr. Lincoln think- 
 ing of? In a speech delivered in Independence Hall in 1861, just 
 before he became president, Mr. Lincoln used these words: "All 
 the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I 
 have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which origi- 
 nated in and were given to the world from this hall. I have never 
 had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments 
 embodied in the Declaration of Independence. ... It was not 
 the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother- 
 land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which 
 gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, 
 to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise 
 that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of 
 all men." Ta what sentiment does he refer? 
 
 3. Do you find anything in this address that makes you think 
 of what Mr. Lane said about the Makers of the Flag? 
 
 4. Do you find anything in the address which you can apply to 
 the part of America in the present war? 
 
 TO MRS. BIXBY 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the 
 War Department a statement of the Adjutant- General of 
 Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who 
 have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how 
 weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which 
 should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so 
 
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 overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to 
 you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of 
 the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly 
 Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and 
 leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, 
 and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so 
 costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 
 FROM THE SECOND ll^AUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 With malice toward none; with charity for all; with 
 firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
 us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the 
 nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne 
 the battle, and for his widow and his orphan — to do all 
 which may achieve a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves, and with all nations. 
 
 O CAPTAIN! IVIY CAPTAIN! 
 
 WALT WHITMAN 
 
 Captain ! my Captain ! our fearful trip is done. 
 
 The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is 
 
 won, 
 The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and 
 daring ; 
 But heart ! heart ! heart ! 
 the bleeding drops of red, 
 
 Where on the deck my Captain lies. 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
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 Captain ! my Captain ! rise up and hear the bells ; 
 
 Eise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills, 
 
 For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths — for you the shores 
 
 a-crowding. 
 For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces 
 turning; 
 Here Captain ! dear father ! 
 This arm beneath your head! 
 
 It is some dream that on the deck. 
 You've fallen cold and dead. 
 
 My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still. 
 My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will. 
 The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and 
 
 done. 
 From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; 
 Exult shores, and ring bells ! 
 But I with mournful tread. 
 
 Walk the deck my Captain lies. 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Walt Whitman wrote several poems about the death of Lin- 
 coln, whom he deeply loved. This is the most famous of the 
 poems, but perhaps you will wish to look up "When Lilacs Last 
 in the Dooryard Bloomed," which describes the journey of the 
 train bearing the body of the martyred President from Washing- 
 ton to Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 2. What does the poet mean by the ship? What port has been 
 reached ? 
 
 OUR MARTYR-CHIEF 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 Such was he, our Martyr-Chief, 
 Whom late the Nation he had led. 
 With ashes on her head. 
 
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 Wept with the passion of an angry grief : 
 Forgive me, if from present things I turn 
 To speak what in my heart will beat and bum. 
 And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn 
 Nature, they say, doth dote, 
 And cannot make a man 
 Save on some worn-out plan, 
 Repeating us by rote : 
 For him her Old- World mold aside she threw. 
 And, choosing sweet clay from the breast 
 Of the unexhausted West, 
 With stuff untainted shaped a hero new. 
 Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. 
 
 How beautiful to see 
 Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed, 
 Who loved his charge but never loved to lead ; 
 One whose meek flock the people joyed to be. 
 Not lured by any cheat of birth, 
 But by his clear-grained human worth. 
 And brave old wisdom of sincerity ! 
 
 They knew that outward grace is dust ; 
 They could not choose but trust 
 In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill. 
 
 And supple-tempered will 
 That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. 
 
 Nothing of Europe here — 
 Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still. 
 Ere any names of Serf and Peer 
 Could Nature's equal scheme deface : 
 Here was a t3rpe of the true elder race. 
 And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. 
 
 I praise him not : it were too late ; 
 And some innative weakness there must be 
 In him who condescends to victory 
 Such as the Present gives, and cannot wait. 
 Safe in himself as in a fate. 
 
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 So always firmly he : 
 He knew to bide his time, 
 And can his fame abide, 
 Still patient in his simple faith sublime, 
 Till the wise years decide. 
 Great captains, with their guns and drums, 
 Disturb our judgment for the hour, 
 
 But at last silence comes : 
 These all are gone, and, standing like a tower. 
 Our children shall behold his fame. 
 
 The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man. 
 Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 
 New birth of our new soil, the first American. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. These lines are taken from a poem written in commemora- 
 tion of the Harvard men who fell in the war. Notice that Mr. 
 Lowell calls Lincoln "the first American." For what reason? 
 Could not Washington be given such a title? Be ready to give 
 your reasons for or against applying the name to Washington. 
 
 2. Explain "Old- World mold," "shepherd of mankind," "noth- 
 ing of Europe here." Plutarch wsls a historian of the first century 
 who wrote biographies of a large number of famous Greeks and 
 Romans. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 WooDRow Wilson 
 
 No more significant memorial could, have been pre- 
 sented to the nation than this. It expresses so much of 
 what is singular and noteworthy in the history of the 
 country; it suggests so many of the things that we prize 
 most highly in our life and in our system of government. 
 How eloquent this little house within this shrine is of the 
 vigor of democracy! There is nowhere in the land any 
 
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 home so remote, so humble, that it may not contain the 
 power of mind and heart and conscience to which nations 
 yield and history submits its processes. Nature pays no 
 tribute to aristocracy, subscribes to no creed of caste, ren- 
 ders fealty to no monarch or master of any name or kind. 
 Genius is no snob. It does not run after titles or seek by 
 preference the high circles of society. It affects humble 
 company as well as great. It pays no special tribute to 
 universities or learned societies or conventional standards 
 of greatness, but serenely chooses its own comrades, its 
 own haunts, its own cradle even, and its own life of adven- 
 ture and of training. Here is proof of it. This little hut 
 was the cradle of one of the great sons of men, a man of 
 singular, delightful, vital genius who presently emerged 
 upon the great stage of the nation's history, gaunt, shy, 
 ungainly, but dominant and majestic, a natural ruler of 
 men, himself inevitably the central figure of the great 
 plot. No man can explain this, but every man can see 
 how it demonstrates the vigor of democracy, where every 
 door is open, in every hamlet and countryside, in city and 
 wilderness alike, for the ruler to emerge when he will and 
 claim his leadership in the free life. Such are the authen- 
 tic proofs of the validity and vitality of democracy. 
 
 Here, no less, hides the mystery of democracy. Who 
 shall guess this secret of nature and providence and a free 
 polity? AVhatever the vigor and vitality of the stock from 
 which he sprang, its mere vigor and soundness do not 
 explain "where this man got his great heart that seemed 
 to comprehend all mankind in its catholic and benignant 
 sympathy, the mind that sat enthroned behind those 
 brooding, melancholy eyes, whose vision swept many an 
 
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 horizon which those about him dreamed not of, — that mind 
 that comprehended what it had never seen, and understood 
 the language of aifairs with the ready ease of one to the 
 manner born, — or that nature which seemed in its varied 
 richness to be the familiar of men of every way of life. 
 This is the sacred mystery of democracy; that its richest 
 fruits spring up out of soils which no man has prepared 
 and in circumstances amidst which they are the least 
 expected. This is a place alike of mystery and of reassur- 
 ance. 
 
 It is likely that in a society ordered otherwise than our 
 own Lincoln could not have found himself or the path of 
 fame and power upon which he walked serenely to his 
 death. In this place it is right that we should remind 
 ourselves of the solid and striking facts upon which our 
 faith in democracy is founded. Many another man besides 
 Lincoln has served the nation in its highest places of coun- 
 sel and of action whose origins were as humble as his. 
 Though the greatest example of the universal energy, rich- 
 ness, stimulation, and force of democracy, he is only one 
 example among many. The permeating and all-pervasive 
 virtue of the freedom which challenges us in America to 
 make the most of every gift and power we possess every 
 page of our history serves to emphasize and illustrate. 
 Standing here in this place, it seems almost the whole of 
 the stirring story. 
 
 Here Lincoln had his beginnings. Here the end and 
 consummation of that great life seem remote and a bit 
 incredible. And yet there was no break anywhere between 
 beginning and end, no lack of natural sequence an3rwhere. 
 Nothing really incredible happened. Lincoln was unaf- 
 
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 fectedly as much at home in the White House as he was 
 here. Do you share with me the feeling, I wonder, that 
 he was permanently at home nowhere? It seems to me 
 that in the ease of a man, — I would rather say of a spirit, — 
 like Lincoln the question where he was is of little signifi- 
 cance, that it is always what he was that really arrests 
 our thought and takes hold of our imagination. It is the 
 spirit always that is sovereign. Lincoln, like the rest of us, 
 was put through the discipline of the world, — a very rough 
 and exacting discipline for him, an indispensable discipline 
 for every man who would know what he is about in the 
 midst of the world's affairs; but his spirit got only its 
 schooling there. It did not derive its character or its 
 vision from the experiences which brought it to its full 
 revelation. The test of every American must always be, 
 not where he is, but what he is. That, also, is of the 
 essence of democracy, and is the moral of which this place 
 is most gravely expressive. 
 
 "We would like to think of men like Lincoln and Wash- 
 ington as typical Americans, but no man can be typical 
 who is so unusual as these great men were. It was typical 
 of American life that it should produce such men with 
 supreme indifference as to the manner in which it pro- 
 duced them, and as readily here in this hut as amidst 
 the little circle of cultivated gentlemen to whom Virginia 
 owed so much in leadership and example. And Lincoln 
 and Washington were typical Americans in the use they 
 made of their genius. But there will be few such men at 
 best, and we will not look into the mystery of how and 
 why they come. We will only keep the door open for them 
 always, and a hearty welcome, — after we have recognized them. 
 
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 I have read many biographies of Lincoln; I have sought 
 out with the greatest interest the many intimate stories 
 that are told of him, the narratives of near by friends, the 
 sketches at close quarters, in which those who had the 
 privilege of being associated with him have tried to depict 
 for us the very man himself "in his habit as he lived" ; but 
 I have nowhere found a real intimate of Lincoln's. I 
 nowhere get the impression in any narrative or remin- 
 iscence that the writer had in fact penetrated to the heart 
 of his mystery, or that any man could penetrate to the 
 heart of it. That brooding spirit had no real familiars. I 
 get the impression that it never spoke out in complete self- 
 revelation, and that it could not reveal itself completely 
 to anyone. It was a very lonely spirit that looked out from 
 underneath those shaggy brows' and comprehended men 
 without fully communing with them, as if, in spite of 
 all its genial efforts at comradeship, it dwelt apart, saw 
 its visions of duty where no man looked on. There is a 
 very holy and very terrible isolation for the conscience of 
 every man who seeks to read the destiny in affairs for 
 others as well as for himself, for a nation as well as for 
 individuals. That privacy no man can intrude upon. 
 That lonely search of the spirit for the right perhaps no 
 man can assist. This strange child of the cabin kept com- 
 pany with invisible things, was born into no intimacy but 
 that of his own silently assembling and deploying thoughts. 
 
 I have come here today, not to utter a eulogy on Lin- 
 coln ; he stands in need of none, but to endeavor to interpret 
 the meaning of this gift to the nation of the place of his 
 birth and origin. Is not this an altar upon which we 
 may forever keep alive the vestal fire of democracy as upon 
 
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 a shrine at which some of the deepest and most sacred 
 hopes of mankind may from age to age be rekindled? For 
 these hopes must constantly be rekindled, and only those 
 who live can rekindle them. The only stuff that can retain 
 the life-giving heat is the stuff of living hearts. And the 
 hopes of mankind cannot be kept alive by words merely, 
 by constitutions and doctrines of right and codes of liberty. 
 The object of democracy is to transmute these into the life 
 and action of society, the self-denial and self-sacrifice of 
 heroic men and women willing to make their lives an 
 embodiment of right and service and enlightened purpose. 
 The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privi- 
 leges and opportunities are wide and generous. Its com- 
 pulsion is upon us. It will be great and lift a great light 
 for the guidance of the nations only if we are great and 
 carry that light high for the guidance of our own feet. 
 We are not worthy to stand here unless we ourselves be in 
 deed and in truth real democrats and servants of mankind, 
 ready to give our very lives for the freedom and justice 
 and spiritual exaltation of the great nation which shelters 
 and nurtures us. 
 
 ^UDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. This address was delivered at the Lincoln Birthplace, Hod- 
 genville, Kentucky, on September 4, 1916. On this occasion the 
 farm on which Lincoln was born was presented to the nation. 
 
 2. Why is the little cabin in which Lincoln was bom "eloquent 
 of the vigor of democracy"? What stanzas in Gray's Elegy speak 
 of the powers that may be possessed by men of humble birth? 
 What, in Gray's time, usually prevented such powers from becom- 
 ing Realized? What had happened in the world since then to make 
 possible what Mr. Wilson speaks of? What are the "authentic 
 proofs of the validity and vitality of democracy"? 
 
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 3. In the second paragraph, Mr. Wilson speaks of the "mys- 
 tery of democracy." What is it? Is the story of Lincoln merely 
 the story of a boy who was born in a log cabin and afterwards 
 attained a high place? Is the log cabin the secret? Or is it some- 
 thing else about Lincoln that is in Mr. Wilson's mind here ? What is 
 said about Lincoln's "heart," his "mind," and his "nature"? 
 
 4. Study the meaning of "catholic and benignant sympathy." 
 Look up the word "familiar," as here used, in your dictionary. 
 
 5. Why is Lincoln's birthplace "a place alike of mystery and 
 of reassurance"? 
 
 6. In the third paragraph is a definition of freedom. Find 
 it. To Sir Thomas Wentworth (see page 207) the sign of liberty 
 was what? What does Mr. Burke say about this? (See page 
 212.) What is a sign of freedom to Burns? (See pages 199, 200.) 
 To Whittier? (See page 261.) Ralph Waldo Emerson said that 
 America means Opportunity. Opportunity for what, as Mr. Wil- 
 son points out here? 
 
 7. "He is only one example among many." Be prepared to tell 
 about some others. 
 
 8. Compare what Mr. Wilson says about Lincoln as a typical 
 American with what you have studied on this subject before. 
 
 9. The key to the last paragraph is in the reference to the 
 vestal fire. Look up "vestal" in the dictionary. Then read care- 
 fully through the paragraph, noting such words as "rekindled," 
 "life-giving heat," "transmute," "lift a great light." Next study 
 the sentence about "the commands of democracy." Does a man 
 keep these commands if he pays taxes, votes, and keeps out of jail? 
 
 10. Thus you need to add to your ideas about freedom (the 
 taxation test, the equality test, the voting test, the opportunity- 
 test) a new definition. You will find it in the sentence about "the 
 object of democracy." Put the idea in your own words. Give 
 some illustrations. 
 
The Builders and Their Work 275 
 
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 THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM 
 William Cullen Bryant 
 
 Freedom, thou art not, as poets dream, 
 
 A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, 
 
 And wavy tresses gushing from the cap 
 
 With which the Roman master crowned his slave 
 
 When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, 
 
 Armed to the teeth, art thou ; one mailed hand 
 
 Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy brow. 
 
 Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred 
 
 With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs 
 
 Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has launched 
 
 His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee ; 
 
 They could not quench the life thou hast from heaven ; 
 
 Merciless Power has dug thy dungeon deep, 
 
 And his swart armorers, by a thousand fires. 
 
 Have forged thy chain ; yet, while he deems thee bound, 
 
 The links are shivered, and the prison-walls 
 
 Fall outward; terribly thou springest forth. 
 
 As springs the flame above a burning pile. 
 
 And shoutest to the nations, who return 
 
 Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies. 
 
 Thy birthright was not given by human hands: 
 
 Thou wert twin-bom with man. In pleasant fields. 
 
 While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him. 
 
 To tend the quiet flock and watch the stars, 
 
 And teach the reed to utter simple airs. 
 
 Thou by his side, amid the tangled wood, 
 
 Didst war upon the panther and the wolf. 
 
 His only foes; and thou with him didst draw 
 
 The earliest furrow on the mountain-side, 
 
 Soft with the deluge. Tyranny himself. 
 
 Thy enemy, although of reverend look. 
 
 Hoary with many years, and far obeyed. 
 
 Is later born than thou ; and as he meets 
 
 The grave defiance of thine elder eye, 
 
 The usurper trembles in his fastnesses. 
 
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 Thou shalt wax stronger with the lapse of years, 
 
 But he shall fade into a feebler age — 
 
 Feebler, yet subtler. He shall weave his snares. 
 
 And spring them on thy careless steps, and clap 
 
 His withered hands, and from their ambush call 
 
 His hordes to fall upon thee. He shall send 
 
 Quaint maskers, wearing fair and gallant forms 
 
 To catch thy gaze, and uttering graceful words 
 
 To charm thy ear ; while his sly imps, by stealth, 
 
 Twine round thee threads of steel, light thread on thread. 
 
 That grow to fetters ; or bind down thy arms 
 
 With chains concealed in chaplets. Oh ! not yet 
 
 Mayst thou unbrace thy corslet, nor lay by 
 
 Thy sword ; nor yet, Freedom ! close thy lids 
 
 In slumber ; for thine enemy never sleeps, 
 
 And thou must watch and combat till the day 
 
 Of the new earth and heaven. 
 
 STUDIES AND NOTES 
 
 1. Mr. Wilson's address, you will remember, closed with the 
 idea that Freedom puts upon us duties as well as privileges. "Con- 
 stitutions and doctrines of right and codes of liberty" — ^the forms 
 of government that we have, do not of themselves make certain 
 that we shall always be a free nation. We are all "makers of 
 the flag." 
 
 2. This poem by Mr. Bryant presents the truth in the form 
 of a picture. He helps you to see the spirit of Freedom as a 
 painter would represent it in colors, or as a sculptor would repre- 
 sent it in marble. Imagine yourself to be the artist and try to 
 see, "in your mind's eye," the picture or the statue. 
 
 3. Freedom, you will see, is not like a young girl, freed from 
 slavery by a Roman master, but a man grown strong through 
 centuries of struggle. See how each line makes clearer the 
 picture. 
 
 4. The picture of the early days, in which the Spirit of Free- 
 dom was like a shepherd, watching his flock, and playing simple 
 
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 tunes upon a reed (an instrument somewhat like a flute), suggests 
 how men lived before Tyranny was born. Why is Tyranny 
 younger than Freedom? 
 
 5. The third picture is of the strong man in danger of being 
 trapped by enemies who seem unimportant. Tyranny is repre- 
 sented here as an old magician, like Comus (see page 166). What 
 fetters do you think the poet has in mind? Notice that Tyranny 
 takes many forms — a jailer, a magician. We might add, from 
 Beowulf, the dragon. 
 
 6. Now return to the passage beginning in line 5 : "A bearded 
 man," etc. Think of the incidents in the long story that has been 
 set forth in this section about THE BUILDERS AND THEIR 
 WORK, from the story of Beowulf to the death of Lincoln, both 
 of them martyrs in the age-long fight for freedom. What are the 
 "old wars" Mr. Bryant refers to and which you now know about? 
 At what times, though the tyrant thought the free spirit of man 
 was bound, has the tyrant been overcome? 
 
 7. Finally, apply this picture of the never-ending contest to 
 Germany, the new form which the dragon has taken, and to the 
 Allies, the new Beowulf. 
 
 THE SHIP OF STATE 
 Henby Wadsworth Longfellow 
 
 Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State ! 
 Sail on, Union, strong and great! 
 Humanity with all its fears. 
 With all the hopes of future years, 
 Is hanging breathless on thy fate! 
 We know what Master laid thy keel. 
 What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel. 
 Who made each mast, and sail, and rope. 
 What anvils rang, what hammers beat. 
 In what a forge and what a heat 
 Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! 
 Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 
 'Tis of the wave and not the rock; 
 
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 'Tis but the flapping of the sail. 
 
 And not a rent made by the gale ! 
 
 In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
 
 In spite of false lights on the shore, 
 
 Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. 
 
 Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 
 
 Are all with thee — are all with thee ! 
 
PART THREE 
 
 SOLDIEES OF FREEDOM 
 
 You remember Arthur's wonderful sword, Excalibur, 
 with its mysterious inscriptions. On one side were the 
 words "Keep Me/' and on the other, "Throw Me Away." 
 Vou are now ready for an explanation of these magic 
 words. It is a sort of initiation into a brotherhood. 
 
 "Keep Me" — that is your life. It is a weapon given 
 you for your work in the world. How it has gained value 
 the long story of Part II has told you, for it is the first 
 great principle of Democracy that every man's life has 
 value, is something to be developed. Democracy gives 
 every man a chance for this development. So "Keep Me" 
 means that you are to get the best education you can and 
 then that you are to make the best possible farmer or mer- 
 chant or engineer or lawyer or doctor out of yourself. You 
 are the builder of your own fortune. In free America you 
 do not follow a calling or business because the government 
 tells you to. You do not hold your opinions because the 
 government tells you what to think. But you should also 
 remember that you have no right to loaf, or to refuse to 
 make for yourself the greatest career of which you are capa- 
 ble, or to think lazily or not at all. Excalibur, Sword of 
 Life, is in your hands. "Keep Me !" is the command ; 
 "Use me like a man, not like a coward or a slave !" 
 
 But A^ou also hear the command, "Throw Me Away!" 
 ^Yhat this means, also, you have learned in this long story. 
 Your life is not yours alone. Or, rather, it is never so 
 
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 much yours as when you throw it away, use it for others, 
 join in those great enterprises of the human spirit of 
 which you have heard so much in this book. 
 
 The most wonderful thing about life in America today 
 is that people are finding out the blessedness of giving 
 themselves. Whether it is going without sugar that the 
 soldiers may have it, or wheat that starving children in 
 France may have it, or some luxury that a smile may come 
 to the tired little face of a Belgian baby — it is all the same. 
 Or whether men give themselves more completely, — the 
 riveter in the ship yard who thinks not of the wages but 
 of the ship that is to carry food to hungry France; the 
 farmer who raises more food crops than ever before, not 
 because he can make more money, but because the world 
 is starving; the business man who thinks only of serving 
 the needs of the country for thorough business organiza- 
 tion ; the soldier and the sailor who fight for the freedom of 
 the world, — once more, it is all the same. And the Eed Cross 
 worker, the physician, the men and women who sell Liberty 
 Bonds and War Savings Stamps, and .all those who deny 
 themselves in order to give or lend their money — all are liv- 
 ing up to the command written on the bright Sword of Life : 
 "Throw Me Away !" In all this we find the second great 
 law of Democracy — cooperation of all for the good of all. 
 
 ^ow let us read two fine expressions of these ideas of 
 brotherhood and of sacrifice. The first was written by 
 a little girl, a school girl of France, as a greeting to 
 America. It tells how the brave, suffering people of 
 Lafayette's country felt when they learned 'that America 
 was coming to their aid. And the second comes from a 
 
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 speech by that great Welshman, Lloyd George, who is Frime 
 Minister of Great Britain. You remember that you learned, 
 earlier in the book, that he belongs to the race to which 
 King Arthur, wielder of the sword Excalibur, belonged. 
 
 TO AIVIERICA 
 
 BY A SCHOOL GIRL OF FRANCE 
 
 It was only a little river, almost a brook; it was called 
 the Yser. One could talk from one side to the other with- 
 out raising one's voice, and the birds could fly over it with 
 one sweep of their wings. And on the two banks there 
 were millions of men, the one turned toward the other, eye 
 to eye. But this distance which separated them was greater 
 than the stars in the sky; it was the distance which sep- 
 arates right from injustice. 
 
 The ocean is so vast the sea gulls do not dare to cross it. 
 During seven days and seven nights the great steamships 
 of America, going at full speed, drive through the deep 
 waters before the lighthouses of France come into view; 
 but from one side to the other, hearts are touching. 
 
 THE HILLS OF SACRIFICE 
 
 DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 
 
 I envy you young people your youth. They have put up 
 the age limit for the Army, but I march, I am sorry to say, 
 a good many years even beyond that. But still our turn 
 will come. It is a great opportunity. It only comes once 
 in many centuries to the children of men. For most gen- 
 erations sacrifice comes in drab weariness of spirit to men. 
 It has come today to you ; it has come today to us all, in 
 
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 the form of the glory and thrill of a great movement for 
 liberty, that impels millions throughout Europe to the same 
 end. It is a great war for the emancipation of Europe from 
 the thraldom of a military caste, which has cast its shadow 
 upon two generations of men, and which has now plunged 
 the world into a welter of bloodshed. Some have already 
 given their lives. There are some who have given more 
 than their own lives. They have given the lives of those 
 who are dear to them. I honor their courage, and may God 
 be their comfort and their strength. 
 
 But their reward is at hand. Those who have fallen have 
 consecrated deaths. They have taken their part in the 
 making of a new Europe, a new world. I can see signs 
 of its coming in the glare of the battlefield. The people 
 will gain more by this struggle in all lands than they com- 
 prehend at the present moment. It is true they will be 
 rid of the menace to their freedom. But that is not all. 
 There is something infinitely greater and more enduring 
 which is emerging already out of this great conflict ; a new 
 patriotism, richer, nobler, more exalted than the old. I see 
 a new recognition amongst all classes, high and low, shed- 
 ding themselves of selfishness; a new recognition that the 
 honor of a country does not depend merely on the mainte- 
 nance of its glory in the stricken field, but in protecting 
 its homes from distress as well. It is a new patriotism, it 
 is bringing a new outlook for all classes. A great flood of 
 luxury and of sloth which had submerged the land is reced- 
 ing, and a new Britain is appearing. We can see for the 
 first time the fundamental things that matter in life and 
 that have been obscured from our vision by the tropical 
 growth of prosperity. 
 
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 May I tell you, in a simple parable, what I think this 
 war is doing for us? I know a valley in North Wales, 
 between the mountains and the sea — a beautiful valley, 
 snug, comfortable, sheltered by the mountains from all the 
 bitter blasts. It was very enervating, and I remember how 
 the boys were in the habit of climbing the hills above the 
 village to have a glimpse of the great mountains in the 
 distance, and to be stimulated and freshened by the breezes 
 which came from the hill-tops, and by the great spectacle 
 of that great valley. 
 
 We have been living in a sheltered valley for genera- 
 tions. We have been too comfortable, too indulgent, many, 
 perhaps, too selfish. And the stern hand of fate has 
 scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great 
 everlasting things that matter for a nation ; the great peaks 
 of honor we had forgotten — duty and patriotism clad in 
 glittering white; the great pinnacle of sacrifice pointing 
 like a rugged finger to Heaven. We shall descend into the 
 valleys again, but as long as the men and women of this 
 generation last they will carry in their hearts the image 
 of these great mountain peaks, whose foundations are un- 
 shaken though Europe rock and. sway in the convulsions 
 of a great war. 
 
 I. ALLIES 
 
 In the selections that follow you will catch something of 
 the spirit of love and devotion that has bound the Allies 
 together through years of bitter struggle. The first two 
 poems show how brave Belgium cast herself in the way of 
 the tyrant and stayed his hordes until France and England 
 could get ready. The three poems about France are filled 
 
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 with the spirit that has made the country of Jeanne d'Arc 
 and Lafayette the admiration of the world. Miss Cone's 
 "Chant of Love for England" is an answer to a famous 
 German poem of hate. This poem contains more allusions 
 to events in history than the others, but most of them you 
 can understand from your reading of Part II and the others 
 you will find explained in the Glossary. 
 
 [N'ext you will read two of the many messages of welcome 
 to America upon our entry into the war. The first of these 
 gives a vivid picture of these great champions of 
 Democracy, Allies, as they attack with the dawn. The 
 second refers to Walt Whitman ("your rugged poet") and 
 to Abraham Lincoln. It also tells why Italy is one of the 
 Allies. The summary of America's reasons for enter- 
 ing the war will help you to recall some matters that you 
 first learned about in Part I, and President Wilson's 
 famous "Force" speech may be regarded as the Pledge of 
 America that the cruel and unrighteous power that attacked 
 Belgium and France shall be completely crushed so that 
 free and inoffensive people shall never again feel its threat. 
 
 BELGIUM THE BAR-LASS 
 
 A. MARY F. EOBINSON 
 
 The night was still. The King sat with the Queen. 
 She sang. Her maidens spun. A peaceful scene. 
 Sudden, wild echoes shake the castle wall. 
 Their foes come crashing through the outer hall. 
 They rush like thunder down the gallery floor . . . 
 . . . Someone has stolen the bolt that bars the door t 
 No pin to hold the loops, no stick, no stave, 
 Nothing ! An open door, an open grave ! • 
 Then Catherine Bar-lass thrust her naked arm 
 
Soldiers of Freedom 285 
 
 (A girPs arm, white- as milk, alive and warm) 
 Eight through the loops from which the bolt was gone 
 "'Twill hold (she said) until they break the bone — 
 My King, you have one instant to prepare !" 
 She said no more, because the thrust was there. 
 
 Oft have I heard that tale of Scotland's King, 
 The Poet, and Kate the Bar-lass. (Men will sing 
 For aye the deed one moment brings to birth — 
 Such moments are the ransom of our Earth.) 
 Brave Belgium, Bar-lass of our western world. 
 Who, when the treacherous Prussian tyrant hurled 
 His hordes against our peace, thrust a slight hand, 
 So firm, to bolt our portals and withstand. 
 Whatever prove the glory of our affray. 
 Thine arm, thy heart, thine act have won the day ! 
 
 HEART OF ALL THE WORLD 
 
 (Belgium) 
 
 MARION C. SMITH 
 
 Heartstruck she stands — Our Lady of all Sorrows — 
 Circled with ruin, sunk in deep amaze ; 
 
 Facing the shadow of her dark tomorrows. 
 Mourning the glory of her yesterdays. 
 
 Yet is she queen by every royal token. 
 
 There, where the storm of desolation swirled : 
 
 Crowned only with the thorn — despoiled and broken- 
 Her kingdom is the heart of all the world. 
 
 She made her breast a shield, her sword a splendor. 
 She rose like flame upon the darkened ways ; 
 
 So, through the anguish of her proud surrender 
 Breaks the clear vision of undying praise. 
 
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 THE SOUL OF JEANNE D'ARC 
 
 THEODOSIA GARRISON 
 
 She came not into the Presence as a martyred saint might 
 
 come, 
 Crowned, white-robed, and adoring, with very reverence 
 
 dumb, — 
 She stood as a straight young soldier, confident, gallant, 
 
 strong. 
 Who asks a boon of his captain in the sudden hush of the 
 
 drum. 
 
 She said : ''Now have I stayed too long in this my place of 
 bliss. 
 
 With these glad dead that, comforted, forget what sor- 
 row is 
 
 Upon that world whose stony stairs they climbed to come 
 to this. 
 
 "But lo, a cry hath torn the peace wherein so long I stayed. 
 Like a trumpef s call at Heaven's wall from a herald un- 
 afraid, — 
 A million voices in one cry, ^Where is the Maid, the Maid?' 
 
 "I had forgot from too much joy that olden task of mine. 
 But I have heard a certain word shatter the chant divine. 
 Have watched a banner glow and grow before mine eyes, 
 for sign. 
 
 "I would return to that my land flung in the teeth of war, 
 I would cast down my robe and crown that pleasure me no 
 
 more, 
 And don the armor that I knew, the valiant sword I bore. 
 
 "And angels militant shall fling the gates of Heaven wide. 
 And souls new-dead whose lives were shed like leaves on 
 
 war's red tide 
 Shall cross their swords above our heads and cheer us as 
 
 we ride. 
 
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 "For with me goes that soldier saint, St. Michael of the 
 
 sword. 
 And I shall ride on his right side, a page beside his lord. 
 And men shall follow like swift blades to reap a sure reward. 
 
 "Grant that I answer this my call, yea, though the end 
 
 may be 
 The naked shame, the biting flame, the last, long agony ; 
 I would go singing down that road where fagots wait for me. 
 
 "Mine be the fire about my feet, the smoke above my head ; 
 So might I glow, a torch to show the path my heroes 
 
 tread ; 
 My Captain! Oh, my Captain, let me go hack!'* she said. 
 
 QUI VIVE? 
 
 GRACE ELLERY CHANNINQ 
 
 Qui vive ? Who passes by up there ? 
 Who moves — what stirs in the startled air? 
 What whispers, thrills, exults up there? 
 Qui vive? 
 
 "The Flags of France." 
 
 What wind on a windless night is this, 
 That breathes as light as a lover's kiss, 
 That blows through the night with bugle notes, 
 That streams like a pennant from a lance. 
 That rustles, that floats? 
 "The Flags of France." 
 
 What richly moves, what lightly stirs, 
 Like a noble lady in a dance. 
 When all men's eyes are m love with hers 
 And needs must follow ? 
 
 "The Flags of France." 
 
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 What calls to the heart— and the heart has heard— 
 Speaks, and the soul has obeyed the word — 
 Summons, and all the years advance, 
 And the world goes forward with France — with France ^ 
 Who called? 
 
 "The Flags of France." 
 
 What flies — a glory, through the night, 
 While the legions stream — a line of light. 
 And men fall to the left and fall to the right. 
 But they fall not? 
 
 "The Flags of France." 
 
 Qui Vive f Who comes ? What approaches there ? 
 What soundless tumult, what breath in the air 
 Takes the breath in the throat, the blood from the heart ? 
 In a flame of dark, to the unheard beat 
 Of an unseen drum and fleshless feet. 
 Without glint of barrel or bayonets' glance. 
 They approach — they come. Who comes ? (Hush ! Hark !) 
 "Qui vive??' 
 
 "The Flags of France." 
 
 Uncover the head and kneel — kneel down; 
 A monarch passes, without a crown. 
 Let the proud tears fall but the heart beat high 
 The Greatest of All is passing by. 
 On its endless march in the endless Plan: 
 "Qui vive?" 
 
 "The Spirit of Man." 
 
 "0 Spirit of Man, pass on ! Advance !" 
 And they who lead, who hold the van? 
 Kneel down! 
 
 "The Flags of France." 
 
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 VIVE LA FRANCE! 
 
 CHARLOTTE H. CRAWFORD 
 
 Franceline rose in the dawning gray, 
 And lier heart would dance though she knelt to pray, 
 For her man Michel had holiday. 
 Fighting for France. 
 
 She offered her prayer by the cradle-side, 
 And with baby palms folded in hers she cried : 
 "If I have but one prayer, dear, crucified 
 Christ — save France ! 
 
 But if I have two, then, by Mary's grace. 
 Carry me safe to the meeting-place. 
 Let me look once again on my dear love's face — 
 Save him for France !" 
 
 She crooned to her boy: "Oh, how glad he'll be. 
 Little three-months-old, to set eyes on thee ! 
 For, 'Bather than gold would I give,' wrote he, 
 'A son to France.' 
 
 Come, now, be good, little stray sauterelle. 
 For we're going by-by to thy Papa Michel ; 
 But I'll not say where for fear thou wilt tell. 
 Little pigeon of France ! 
 
 Six days' leave and a year between ! 
 But what would you have ? In six days clean 
 Heaven was made," said Franceline, 
 "Heaven and France." 
 
 She came to the town of the nameless name. 
 To the marching troops in the street she came. 
 And she held high her boy like a taper flame 
 Burning for France. 
 
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 Fresh from the trenches and gray with grime. 
 Silent they march like a pantomime ; 
 "But what need of music ? My heart beats time — 
 Vive la France r 
 
 His regiment comes. Oh, then, where is he? 
 "There is dust in my eyes, for I cannot see — 
 Is that my Michel to the right of thee, 
 Soldier of France?" 
 
 Then out of the ranks a comrade fell : 
 "Yesterday — 'twas a splinter of shell — 
 And he whispered thy name, did thy poor Michel, 
 Dying for France/' 
 
 The tread of the troops on the pavement throbbed 
 Like a woman's heart of its last joy robbed 
 As she lifted her boy to the flag, and sobbed : 
 "Vive la France !" 
 
 A CHANT OF LOVE FOR ENGLAND* 
 
 HELEN GRAY CONE 
 
 A song of hate is a song of Hell; 
 Some there be that sing it well. 
 Let them sing it loud and long. 
 We lift our hearts in a loftier song; 
 We lift our hearts to Heaven above, 
 Singing the glory of her we love, — 
 England ! 
 
 Glory of thought and gbry of deed. 
 Glory of Hampden and Runnymede;, 
 Glory of ships that sought far goals, 
 Glory of swords and glory of souls! 
 * Glory of songs mounting as birds. 
 Glory immortal of magical words; 
 
 *Taken by permission of the E. P. Button Company from 
 A Chant of Love for England and Other Poems. 
 
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 Glory of Milton, glory of Nelson, 
 Tragical glory of Gordon and Scott; 
 Glory of Shelley, glory of Sidney, 
 Glory transcendent that perishes not, — 
 Here is the story, here be the glory, 
 England! 
 
 Shatter her beauteous breast ye may; 
 The spirit of England none can slay! 
 Dash the bomb on the dome of Paul's — 
 Deem ye the fame of the Admiral falls ? 
 Pry the stone from the chancel floor, — 
 Dream ye that Shakespeare shall live no more ? 
 Where is the giant shot that kills 
 Wordsworth walking the old green hills? 
 Trample the red rose on the ground, — 
 Keats is Beauty while earth spins round! 
 Bind her, grind her, burn her with fire, . 
 Cast her ashes into the sea, — 
 She shall escape, she shall aspire, 
 She shall arise to make men free: 
 She shall arise in a sacred scorn, 
 Lighting the lives that are yet unborn; 
 Spirit supernal, Splendor eternal, 
 England! 
 
 ATTACKING WITH THE DAWN 
 
 DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 
 
 I am the last man in the world, knowing for three years 
 what our difficulties have been, what our anxieties have 
 been, and what our fears have been — I am the last man 
 in the world to say that the succor which is given from 
 America is not in itself something to rejoice at, and to 
 rejoice at greatly. But I also say that I value more the 
 
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 knowledge that America is going to win a right to be at 
 the conference table when the terms of peace are discussed. 
 
 That conference will settle the destiny of nations and 
 the course of human life for God knows how many years. 
 It would have been a tragedy, a tragedy for mankind, if 
 America had not been there, and there with all her influ- 
 ence and her power. 
 
 I can see peace, not a peace to be a beginning of war, 
 not a peace which will be an endless preparation for strife 
 and bloodshed^ but a real peace. The world is an old world. 
 You have never. had the racking wars that have rolled like 
 an ocean over Europe. 
 
 Europe has always lived under the menace of the sword. 
 When this war began, two-thirds of Europe was under auto- 
 cratic rule. Now it is the other way about, and democracy 
 means peace. The democracy of France hesitated; the 
 democracy of Italy hesitated long before it entered; the 
 democracy of this country sprang back with a shudder and 
 would never have entered that caldron had it not been for 
 the invasion of Belgium ; and if Prussia had been a democ- 
 racy, there would have been no war. 
 
 Many strange things have happened in this war, aye, and 
 stranger things will come, and they are coming rapidly. 
 There are times in history when this world spins so leisurely 
 along its destined course that it seems for centuries to be 
 at a standstill. There are awful times when it rushes along 
 at giddying pace, covering the track of centuries in a year. 
 Those are the times we are living in now. Six weeks ago 
 Eussia was an autocracy. She now is one of the most ad- 
 vanced democracies in the world. 
 
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 Today we are waging one of the most devastating wars 
 that the world has ever seen. Tomorrow, tomorrow, not 
 perhaps distant tomorrows, war may be abolished forever 
 from the category of human crimes. This may be some- 
 thing like that fierce outburst of winter which we now are 
 witnessing before we complete the time for the summer. 
 
 It is written of those gallant men who won that victory 
 on Monday, from Canada, from Australia, and from this 
 old country — it has proved that in spite of its age it is not 
 decrepit — it is written of those gallant men that they at- 
 tacked at dawn. Fitting work for the' dawn — to drive out 
 of forty miles of French soil those miscreants who had de- 
 filed her freedom. They attacked with the dawn. It is a 
 significant phrase. 
 
 The great nations represented in the struggle for free- 
 dom — they are the heralds of dawn. They attacked with 
 dawn, and those men are marching forward in the full 
 radiance of that dawn, and soon Frenchmen and Ameri- 
 cans, British and Russians, aye, Serbians, and Belgians, 
 ^lontenegrins, and Roumanians, will emerge into the full 
 light of a perfect day. 
 
 AMERICA, A BEACON LIGHT OF PEACE 
 
 GABBIELE D'ANNUNZIO 
 
 For the soul of Italy today the capitol at Washington has 
 become a beacon light. A Roman garland wreathes the bust 
 dedicated to the hero whom free men call the glorious 
 knight of humanity. 
 
 It is a garland pure as the branch of lilac offered by a 
 poet on the bier of Lincoln. It is sacred as the ever flow- 
 
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 ering bough "with heart-shaped leaves of rich green." It 
 seems as though in this April of passion and tempest there 
 reechoes the cry of that April, tense with joy and anguish 
 "0 captain! My captain, rise up! Hear the bells. Else 
 up, for your flag is flung.'^ 
 
 Now the group of stars on the banner of the great re- 
 public has become a constellation of the spring, like 
 Pleiades; a propitious sign to sailors, armed and unarmed 
 alike; a spiritual token for all nations fighting a righteous 
 war. I give the salute of Italy, of the Eoman capitol, to 
 the capitol at Washington; a salute to the people of the 
 union, who now confirm and seal the pledge that liberty 
 shall be preserved. 
 
 To Italy alone of the allied nations the possibility was 
 open of avoiding war and remaining a passive spectator. 
 Italy took up arms gladly, less for the reconquest of her 
 heritage than for the salvation of all the things which 
 symbolize the grandeur of freedom. She armed herself, as 
 today the American nation is arming herself, for the sake 
 of an ideal. The spontaneous act consummated by the 
 fellow-countrymen of Washington is a glorious sacrifice on 
 behalf of the hopes of all mankind. 
 
 America has achieved a new birth. She has molded for 
 herself a new heart. This is the miracle wrought by a 
 righteous war^ the miracle that unexpectedly today we of 
 Italy see performed beyond an ocean dishonored by assas- 
 sins and thieves. 
 
 Our war is not destructive. It is creative. With all 
 manner of atrocities, all manner of shameful acts, the bar- 
 barian has striven to destroy the ideal which, until this 
 struggle began, man had of man. The barbarian heaped 
 
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 upon the innocent, infamous outrages inspired by hate, 
 alternating senile imprudence and brutal stupidity. The 
 barbarian ground heroism to earth, cast down the airy 
 cathedrals where congregated the aspirations of the eternal 
 soul, burned the seats of wisdom decked with the flowers 
 of all the arts; distorted the lineaments of Christ, tore off 
 the garments of the Virgin. 
 
 Now once again we begin to have hope of the nobility of 
 man. Love's face is radiant, though its eyes are moist with 
 tears, for never was love so much beloved. Love overflows 
 on all the world like a brook in May. Our hearts axe not 
 large enough to gather it and to hold it. 
 
 The people of Lincoln, springing to their feet to defend 
 the eternal spirit of man, today increase immeasurably this 
 sum of love opposed to fury^ the fury of the barbarian. 
 
 "Ah ! Liberty. Let others despair of thee. 1 will never 
 despair of thee," once cried your rugged poet. In this hope 
 your nation arises today, in the north, south, east, west, to 
 offer your strength, proclaiming our cause to be the noblest 
 cause for which men have ever fought. You were an enor- 
 mous and obtuse mass of riches and power; now you are 
 transfigured into ardent, active spirituality. The roll of 
 your drums drowns out the last wail of doubt. 
 
 April 15th is the anniversary of Lincoln's death. From 
 his sepulcher there issue again the noble words which fell 
 from his lips at Gettysburg, on soil sanctified by the blood 
 of brave men. All your states, north, south, east, west, hear 
 them. I say to you that "this nation, under God, shall 
 have a new birth of freedom.'' 
 
296 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 WHY WE ARE FIGHTING GERMANY 
 
 FRANKLIN K. LANE 
 
 Why are we fighting Germany ? The brief answer is that 
 ours is a war of self-defense. We did not wish to fight 
 Germany. She made the attack upon us ; not on our shores, 
 but on our ships, our lives, our rights, our future. For two 
 years and more we held to a neutrality that made us apolo- 
 gists for things which outraged man's common sense of fair 
 play and humanity. At each new offense — the invasion of 
 Belgium, the killing of civilian Belgians^ the attacks on 
 Scarborough and other defenseless towns, the laying of 
 mines in neutral waters, the fencing off of the seas — and on 
 and on through the months we said : ^'This is war — archaic, 
 uncivilized war, but war! All rules have been thrown 
 away, all nobility; man has come down to the primitive 
 brute. And while we cannot justify, we will not inter- 
 vene. It is not our war." 
 
 Then why are we in? Because we could not keep out. 
 The invasion of Belgium, which opened the war, led to the 
 invasion of the United States by slow, steady, logical steps. 
 Our sympathies evolved into a conviction of self-interest. 
 Our love of fair play ripened into alarm at our own 
 peril. . . . 
 
 And so we came into this war for ourselves. It is a war 
 to save America — to preserve self-respect, to justify our 
 right to live as we have lived, not as some one else wishes 
 us to live. In the name of freedom we challenge with ships 
 and men, money, and an undaunted spirit, that word "Ver- 
 boten" which Germany has written upon the sea and upon 
 the land. For America is not the name of so much terri- 
 tory. It is a living spirit, born in travail, grown in the 
 
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 rough school of bitter experience, a living spirit which has 
 purpose and pride and conscience — knows why it wishes to 
 live and to what end, knows how it comes to be respected 
 of the world, and hopes to retain that respect by living on 
 with the light of Lincoln's love of man as its Old and New 
 Testament. It is more precious that this America should 
 live than that we Americans should live. And this Amer- 
 ica, as we now see, has been challenged from the first of 
 this war by the strong arm of a power that has no sympathy 
 with our purpose and will not hesitate to destroy us if the 
 law that we respect, and the rights that are to us sacred, 
 or the spirit that we have, stand across her set will to make 
 this world bow before her policies, backed by her organized 
 and scientific military system. The world of Christ — a 
 neglected but not a rejected Christ — has come again face 
 to face with the world of Mahomet, who willed to win by 
 force. 
 
 With this background of history and in this sense, then, 
 we fight Germany — 
 
 Because of Belgium — invaded, outraged, enslaved, im- 
 poverished Belgium. We cannot forget Liege, Louvain, and 
 Cardinal Mercier. Translated into terms of American his- 
 tory, these names stand for Bunker Hill, Lexington, and 
 Patrick Henry. 
 
 Because of France — invaded, desecrated France, a mil- 
 lion of whose heroic sons have died to save the land of 
 Lafayette. Glorious, golden France, the preserver of the 
 arts, the land of noble spirit — the first to follow our land 
 into republican liberty. 
 
 Because of England — from whom came the laws, tradi- 
 tions, standards of life, and inherent love of liberty which 
 
298 Builders of Democracy 
 
 we call Anglo-Saxon civilization. We defeated her once 
 upon the land and once upon the sea. But Australia, New 
 Zealand, Africa, and Canada are free because of what we 
 did. And they are with us in the fight for the freedom 
 of the seas. 
 
 Because of Eussia — new Eussia. She must not be over- 
 whelmed now. Not now, surely, when she is just born into 
 freedom. Her peasants must have their chance ; they must 
 go to school to Washington, to Jefferson, and to Lincoln 
 until they know their way about in this new, strange world 
 of government by the popular will. 
 
 Because of other peoples, with their rising hope that the 
 world may be freed from government by the soldier. 
 
 We are fighting Germany because she sought to terror- 
 ize us and then to fool us. We could not believe that Ger- 
 many would do what she said she would do upon the seas. 
 
 We still hear the piteous cries of children coming up out 
 of the sea where the Lusitania went down, and Germany 
 has never asked forgiveness of the world. 
 
 We saw the Sussex sunk^ crowded with the sons and 
 daughters of neutral nations. 
 
 We saw ship after ship sent to the bottom — ships of 
 mercy bound out of America for the Belgium starving; 
 ships carrying the Eed Cross and laden with the wounded 
 of all nations ; ships carrying food and clothing to friendly, 
 harmless, terrorized peoples; ships flying the Stars and 
 . Stripes — sent to the bottom hundreds of miles from shore, 
 manned by American seamen, murdered against all law, 
 without warning. . . . 
 
 We are fighting Germany because in this war feudalism 
 is making its last stand against on-coming democracy. We 
 
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 see it now. This is a war against an old spirit, an ancient, 
 outworn spirit. It is a war against feudalism — the right of 
 the castle on the hill to rule the village below. It is a war 
 for democracy — the right of all to be their own masters. 
 
 America speaks for the world in fighting Germany. Mark 
 on a map those countries which are Germany's allies and 
 you will mark but four, running from the Baltic through 
 Austria and Bulgaria to Turkey. All the other nations 
 the whole globe around are in arms against her or are un- 
 able to move. There is deep meaning in this. We fight 
 with the world for an honest world in which nations keep 
 their word, for a world in which nations do not live by 
 swagger or by threat, for a world in which men think of 
 the ways in which they can conquer the common cruelties 
 of nature instead of inventing more horrible cruelties to 
 inflict upon the spirit and body of man, for a world in 
 which the ambition or the philosophy of a few shall not 
 make miserable all mankind, for a world in which the man 
 is held more precious than the machine, the system, or the 
 state. 
 
 AMERICA'S PLEDGE 
 
 WOODROW WILSOX 
 
 [A Speech Delivered at Baltimore, April 6, 1918] 
 Fellow-Citizens : This is the anniversary of our accept- 
 ance of Germany's challenge to fight for our right to live 
 and be free, and for the sacred rights of freemen. every- 
 where. The nation is awake. There is no need to call to 
 it. We know what the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, 
 the lives of our fittest men, and, if need be, all that we 
 possess. 
 
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 miniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiinuiiiiniiiiMniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 The loan we are met to discuss is one of the least parts 
 of what we are called upon to give and to do, though in 
 itself imperative. The people of the whole country are 
 alive to the necessity of it and are ready to lend to the 
 utmost, even where it involves a sharp skimping and daily 
 sacrifice to lend out of meager earnings. They will look 
 with reprobation and contempt upon those who can and 
 will not, upon those who demand a higher rate of interest, 
 upon those who think of it as a mere commercial trans- 
 action. I have not come, therefore, to urge the loan. I 
 have come only to give you, if I can, a more vivid con- 
 ception of what it is for. 
 
 The reasons for this great war, the reason why it had 
 to come, the need to fight it through, and the issues that 
 hang upon its outcome, are more clearly disclosed now than 
 ever before. It is easy to see just what this particular loan 
 means, because the cause we are fighting for stands more 
 sharply revealed than at any previous crisis of the mo- 
 mentous struggle. The man who knows least can now 
 see plainly how the cause of justice stands, and what the 
 imperishable thing he is asked to invest in is. Men in Amer- 
 ica may be more sure than they ever were before that the 
 cause is their own, and that, if it should be lost, their own 
 great nation's place and mission in the world would be lost 
 with it. 
 
 I call you to witness, my fellow-countrymen, that at no 
 stage of this terrible business have I judged the purposes of 
 Germany intemperately. I should be ashamed in the pres- 
 ence of affairs so grave, so fraught with the destinies of 
 mankind throughout all the world, to speak with trucu- 
 lence, to use the weak language of hatred or vindictive pur- 
 
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 pose. We must judge as we would be judged. I have 
 sought to learn the objects Germany has in this war from 
 the mouths of her own spokesmen, and to deal as frankly 
 with them as I wished them to deal with me. I have laid 
 bare our own ideals, our own purposes, without reserve or 
 doubtful phrase, and have asked them to say as plainly 
 what it is that they seek. 
 
 We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no aggression. 
 We are ready, whenever the final reckoning is made, to be 
 just to the German people, deal fairly with the German 
 power, as with all others. There can be no difference be- 
 tween peoples in the final judgment, if it is indeed to be 
 a righteous judgment. To propose anything but justice, 
 even-handed and dispassionate justice, to Germany at any 
 time, whatever the outcome of the war, would be to re- 
 nounce and dishonor our own cause, for we ask nothing that 
 we are not willing to accord. 
 
 It has been with this thought that I have sought to learn 
 from those who spoke for Germany whether it was justice 
 or dominion and the execution of their own will upon the 
 other nations of the world that the German leaders were 
 seeking. They have answered — answered in unmistakable 
 terms. They have avowed that it was not justice, but do- 
 minion and the unhindered execution of their own will. 
 
 The avowal has not come from Germany's statesmen. It 
 has come from her military leaders, who are her real rulers. 
 Her statesmen have said that they wished peace, and were 
 ready to discuss its terms whenever their opponents were 
 willing to sit down at the conference table with them. Her 
 present Chancellor has said — in indefinite and uncertain 
 terms, indeed, and in phrases that often seem to deny their 
 
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 own meaning, but with as much plainness as he thought 
 prudent — that he believed that peace should be based upon 
 the principles which we had declared would be our own 
 in the final settlement. 
 
 At Brest-Litovsk her civilian delegates spoke in similar 
 terms; professed their desire to conclude a fair peace and 
 accord to the peoples with whose fortunes they were deal- 
 ing the right to choose their own allegiances. But action 
 accompanied and followed the profession. Their military 
 masters^ the men who act for Germany and exhibit her 
 purpose in execution, proclaimed a very different conclu- 
 sion. We cannot mistake what they have done — in Eussia, 
 in Finland, in the Ukraine, in Roumania. The real test of 
 their justice and fair play has come. From this we may 
 Judge the rest. 
 
 They are enjoying in Russia a cheap triumph in which 
 no brave or gallant nation can long take pride. A great 
 people, helpless by their own act, lies for the time at their 
 mercy. Their fair professions are forgotten. They no- 
 where set up justice, but everywhere impose their power 
 and exploit everything for their own use and aggrandize- 
 ment, and the peoples of conquered provinces are invited 
 to be free under itheir dominion! 
 
 Are we not justified in believing that they would do the 
 same things at their western front if they were not there 
 face to face with armies whom even their countless divis- 
 ions cannot overcome ? If, when they have felt their check 
 to be final, they should propose favorable and equitable 
 terms with regard to Belgium and France and Italy, could 
 they blame us if we concluded that they did so only to 
 assure themselves of a free hand in Russia and the East ? 
 
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 Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to make all the Slavic 
 people, all the free and ambitious nations of the Baltic 
 Peninsula, all the lands that Turkey has dominated and 
 misruled, subject to their will and ambition, and build 
 upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they 
 fancy that they can then erect an empire of gain and com- 
 mercial supremacy — an empire as hostile to the Americas 
 as to the Europe which it will over-awe — an empire which 
 will ultimately master Persia, India, and the peoples of 
 the Far East. 
 
 In such a program our ideals, the ideals of justice and 
 humanity and liberty, the principle of the free self-deter- 
 mination of nations, upon which all the modern world in- 
 sists, can play no part. They are rejected for the ideals of 
 power, for the principle that the strong must rule the 
 weak, that trade must follow the flag, whether those to 
 whom it is taken yvelcome it or not, that the peoples of the 
 world are to be made subject to the patronage and over- 
 lordship of those who have the power to enforce it. 
 
 That program once carried out, America and all who 
 care or dare to stand with her must arm and prepare them- 
 selves to contest the mastery of the world — a mastery in 
 which the rights of common men, the rights of women and 
 of all who are weak, must for the time being be trodden 
 underfoot and disregarded and the old, age-long struggle 
 for freedom and right begin again at its beginning. Every- 
 thing that America has lived for and loved and grown 
 great to vindicate and bring to a glorious realization will 
 have fallen in utter ruin and the gates of mercy once more 
 pitilessly shut upon mankind! 
 
 The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is 
 
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 not that what the whole course and action of the German 
 armies have meant wherever they have moved? I do not 
 wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment, to 
 judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what the 
 German arms have accomplished with unpitying thorough- 
 ness throughout every fair region they have touched. 
 
 What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, 
 ready still, ready even now, to discuss a fair and just and 
 honest peace at any time that it is sincerely purposed— a 
 peace in which the strong and the weak shall fare alike. 
 But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from 
 the German commanders in Russia, and I cannot mistake 
 the meaning of the answer. 
 
 I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. All 
 the world shall know that you accept it. It shall appear in 
 the utter sacrifice and self-forgetfulness with which we 
 shall give all that we love and all that we have to redeem 
 the world and make it fit for free men like ourselves to 
 live in. This now is the meaning of all that we do. Let 
 everything that we say, my fellow-countrymen, everything 
 that we henceforth plan and accomplish, ring true to this 
 response till the majesty and might of our concerted power 
 shall fill the thought and utterly defeat the force of those 
 who flout and misprize what we honor and hold dear. 
 
 Germany has once more said that force, and force alone, 
 shall decide whether justice and peace shall. reign in the 
 affairs of men, whether right as America conceives it or 
 dominion as she conceives it shall determine the destinies 
 of mankind. There is, therefore, but one response possible 
 from us : Force, force to the utmost, force without stint 
 or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall 
 
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 make right tlie law of the world and cast every selfish 
 dominion down in the dust. 
 
 II. BATTLES AND HEROES 
 
 We have now seen what spirit animates the Allies, how 
 they interpret their cause, and the pledges they have given 
 to overthrow the enemy of Freedom. Now we are to see 
 something of the individual soldier — his bravery, and the 
 victories that he wins. These are stories of men who have 
 obeyed the command, "Throw Me Away!" All may be 
 summed up in the story of the French boy, -whose arm was 
 so crushed in battle that it was necessary to take it off. At 
 the end of the operation, the surgeon said, "It is too bad 
 that you had to lose your right arm." The boy's eyes 
 flashed. "I didn't lose it," he said ; "I gave it — to France !" 
 
 THE HELL-GATE OF SOISSONS 
 
 HERBERT KAUFMAN 
 
 My name is Darino, the poet. You have heard? Oui, 
 
 Comedie Franqaise. 
 Perchance it has happened, mon ami, you know of my 
 
 unworthy lays. 
 Ah, then you must guess how my fingers are itching to 
 
 talk to a pen ; 
 For I was at Soissons, and saw it, the death of the tweWe 
 
 Englishmen. 
 
 My leg, malheureusement, I left it behind on the banks of 
 
 the Aisne. 
 Regret ? I would pay with, the other to witness their valor 
 
 again. 
 A trifle, indeed, I assure you, to give for the honor to tell 
 How that handful of British, undaunted, went into tht 
 
 Gateway of Hell. 
 
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 Let me draw you a plan of the battle. Here we French and 
 
 your Engineers stood; 
 Over there a detachment of German sharpshooters lay hid 
 
 in a wood. 
 A mitrailleuse battery planted on top of this well chosen 
 
 ridge 
 Held the road for the Prussians and covered the direct 
 
 approach to the bridge. 
 
 It was madness to dare the dense murder that spewed from 
 those ghastly machines. 
 
 (Only those who haje danced to its music can know what 
 the mitrailleuse means.) 
 
 But the bridge on the Aisne was a menace ; our safety de- 
 manded its fall : 
 
 "Engineers — volunteers !" In a body, the Royals stood out 
 at the call. 
 
 Death at best was the fate of that mission — to their glory 
 not one was dismayed. 
 
 A party was chosen — and seven survived till the powder 
 was laid. 
 
 And they died with their fuses unlighted. Another de- 
 tachment ! Again 
 
 A sortie is made — all too vainly. The bridge still com- 
 manded the 'Aisne. 
 
 We were fighting two foes — Time and Prussia — the mo- 
 ments were worth more than troops. 
 
 We must blow up the bridge. A lone soldier darts out from 
 the Royals and swoops 
 
 For the fuse! Fate seems with us. We cheer him; he 
 answers — our hopes are reborn ! 
 
 A ball rips his visor— his khaki shows red where another 
 has torn. 
 
 Will he live— will he last— will he make? Helas! And so 
 near to the goal ! 
 
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 A second, he dies ! Then a third one ! A fourth ! Still the 
 
 Germans take toll ! 
 A fifth — magnifique! It is magic! How does he escape 
 
 them? He may — 
 Yes, he does! See, the match flares! A rifle rings out 
 
 from the wood and says "Xay !" 
 
 Six, seven, eight, nine take their places, six, seven, eight, 
 
 nine brave their hail ; 
 Six, seven, eight, nine — how we count them ! But the sixth, 
 
 seventh, eighth, and ninth fail ! 
 A tenth! Sacre nom! But these English are soldiers — 
 
 they know how to try; 
 (He fumbles the place where his jaw was) — they show, too, 
 
 how heroes can die. 
 
 Ten we count — ten who ventured, unquailing — ten there 
 
 were — and ten are no more ! 
 Yet another salutes and superbly essays where the ten 
 
 failed before. 
 God of Battles, look down and protect him! Lord, his 
 
 heart is as Thine — let him live ! 
 But the mitrailleuse splutters and stutters, and riddles him 
 
 into a sieve. 
 
 Then I thought of my sins, and sat waiting the charge that 
 
 we could not withstand. 
 And I thought of my beautiful Paris, and gave a last look 
 
 at the land. 
 At France, my belle Franct, in her glory of blue sky and 
 
 green field and wood. 
 Death with honor, but never surrender. And to die with 
 
 such men — it was good. 
 
 They are forming — the bugles are blaring — they will cross 
 
 in a moment, and then — 
 When out of the line of the Royals — (your island, mon ami, 
 
 breeds men) 
 
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 I 
 
 Burst a private, a tawny-haired giant — it was hopeless, but, 
 
 del! how he ran ! 
 Bon Dieu please remember the pattern, and make many 
 
 more on his plan ! 
 
 No cheers from our ranks, and the Germans, they halted 
 in wonderment, too; 
 
 See, he reaches the bridge ; ah ! he lights it ! I am dream- 
 ing, it cannot be true. 
 
 Screams of rage! Fusillade! They have killed him! Too 
 late, -though ; the good work is done. 
 
 By the valor of twelve English martyrs, the Hell-Gate of 
 Soissons is won ! 
 
 FILE THREE 
 
 PAYSON S. WILD 
 
 ["General Pershing stopped in his walk, turned sharply, and 
 faced File Three." — London Dispatch.] 
 
 File Three stood motionless and, pale, 
 
 Of nameless pedigree; 
 One of a hundred on detail — 
 But would I had been he ! 
 
 In years a youth, but worn and old. 
 
 With face of ivory; 
 Upon his sleeve two strands of gold — 
 
 Oh, would I had been he! 
 
 The General passed down the line, 
 
 And walked right rapidly, 
 But saw those threads and knew the sign — 
 
 Ah, had I been File Three ! 
 
 "Twice wounded? Tell me where you were," 
 
 The man of stars asked he. 
 "Givenchy and Lavenze, sir" — 
 
 Oh3 where was /, File Three ! 
 
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 Then crisply quoth the General: 
 
 "You are a man, File Three." 
 And Tommy's heart held carnival — 
 
 God ! Would I had been he ! 
 
 YOUR LAD, AND MY LAD 
 
 RANDALL PARRISH 
 
 Down toward the deep-blue water, marching to throb of 
 drum, 
 
 From city street and country lane the lines of khaki come ; 
 
 The rumbling guns, the sturdy tread, are full of grim 
 appeal. 
 
 While rays of western sunshine flash back from burnished 
 steel. 
 
 With eager eyes and cheeks aflame the serried ranks ad- 
 vance ; 
 
 And your dear lad, and my dear lad, are on their way to 
 France. ♦ 
 
 A sob clings choking in the throat, as file on file sweep by, 
 
 Between those cheering multitudes, to where the great 
 ships lie; 
 
 The batteries halt, the columns wheel, to clear-toned bugle- 
 call. 
 
 With shoulders squared and faces front they stand a khaki 
 wall. 
 
 Tears shine on every watcher's cheek, love speaks in every 
 glance ; 
 
 For your dear lad, and my dear lad, are on their way to 
 France. 
 
 Before them, through a mist of years, in soldier buff or 
 
 blue. 
 Brave comrades from a thousand fields watch now in proud 
 
 review ; 
 The same old Flag, the same old Faith — the Freedom of 
 
 the World— 
 
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 Spells Duty in those flapping folds above long ranks un- 
 furled. 
 
 Strong are the hearts which bear along Democracy's ad- 
 vance, 
 
 As your dear lad, and my dear lad, go on their way to 
 ^ France. 
 
 The word rings out, a million feet tramp forward on the 
 road. 
 
 Along that path of sacrifice o'er which their fathers strode. 
 
 With eager eyes and cheeks aflame, with cheers on smiling 
 lips,^ 
 
 These fighting men of '17 move onward to their ships. 
 
 Nor even love may hold them back, or halt that stern ad- 
 vance. 
 
 As your dear lad, and my dear lad, go on their way to 
 France. 
 
 A DISPATCH BEARER 
 From the Bulletin of the Alliance Franqaise 
 
 It was when the battle was being fought at Chateau- 
 Thierry. The Germans had got as far as storming the 
 town itself; their attack was breaking against the Marne: 
 the blowing up of the bridge had stopped them, at the 
 moment when they thought themselves masters of that way 
 of access toward the south. They were seeking for other 
 means of crossing the river, incessantly bringing up new 
 forces. Under the shells the houses were crashing down, 
 threatening to engulf the defenders of the burning city. 
 At intervals the scene was lit up by the crude glare of the 
 rockets sent up by the assailants, which preserve their bril- 
 liance for nearly two minutes. 
 
 in the "poste de commandement" of a Colonel there 
 suddenly appears a sort of phantom. It is a man, abso- 
 
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 lutely naked, holding a paper between his teeth. He is 
 soaked, and streaming with water. 
 
 "Who are you ?" asks the Colonel. 
 
 The specter makes a gesture to show that he does not 
 want to touch the paper with his wet hands. It is taken 
 from him, and the contents of the note are read. 
 
 It comes from a major. His battalion has remained in 
 the ruins of the old ramparts overlooking the church on 
 the north side. Surrounded by enemy masses, this bat- 
 talion has been holding fast for twelve hours. The major, 
 determined not to allow himself to be taken prisoner, 
 announces that he is about to attempt to join the French 
 troops on the opposite shore, and requests that an impro- 
 vised foot-bridge be got ready. A sortie, in circumstances 
 such as those, is a mad undertaking, perhaps. But so much 
 heroism is spent each day that this determination can cause 
 no astonishment. 
 
 The naked man, who has brought the news of it, swim- 
 ming across the Marne under cross fires, is a colonial, 
 belonging to the small surrounded garrison. He volun- 
 teered for the mission which he has just accomplished. 
 
 "What is your name ?" asks the colonel. 
 
 "Legars." 
 
 "But how did you manage to get here ?" 
 
 "Well, sir, I hardly know how. I slipped through the 
 hands of the Boches — then, on the edge of the water, I 
 quickly undressed — I am only wondering if I shall find my 
 uniform again." 
 
 "Are you wounded?" 
 
 "No — it is only a bullet scratch. You see, they are fall- 
 ing pretty thick !" 
 
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 "Get warm, my man. I have no coffee to offer you, but 
 take this blanket." 
 
 "No time, sir — I've got to go back there, you see, to give 
 your answer to the major.'' 
 
 "You are going back ?" 
 
 "They are waiting for me." 
 
 The colonel writes a few words and hands them to 
 Legars. 
 
 "Good luck go with you." 
 
 "I shall do my best to make it." 
 
 The colonial, a Breton, is about to disappear. The Colonel 
 calls him back. 
 
 "And I say," he resumes, shaking the man's hand, "it 
 means the medaille militaire when you get back." 
 
 "Oh !" answers Legars, "why ?" 
 
 He sets off. Toward the end of the night, the battalion, 
 by sheer daring and determination, succeeded in cutting 
 a way through the Germans, and under the protection of 
 our machine-gunners, and of the American machine- 
 gunners, it crossed the Marne on improvised rafts. On 
 the other side of the river, it resumed the struggle. ■ 
 
 THE BELOVED CAPTAIN* 
 
 DONALD HANKEY 
 
 He came in the early days, when we were still at recruit 
 
 drills under the hot September sun. Tall, erect, smiling : 
 
 so we first saw him, and so he remained to the end. At 
 
 the start he knew as little of soldiering as we did. He used 
 
 to watch us being drilled by the sergeant; but his manner 
 
 of watching was peculiarly his own. He never looked 
 
 bored. He was learning just as much as we were, in fact 
 
 *Taken by permission of the E. P. Button Company from 
 A Student in Arms. 
 
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 more. He was learning his job, and from the first he 
 saw that his job was more than to give the correct orders. 
 His job was to lead us. So he watched, and noted many 
 things, and never found the time hang heavy on his hands. 
 He watched our evolutions, so as to learn the coi*rect or- 
 ders; he watched for the right manner of command, the 
 manner which secured the most prompt response to an 
 order; and he watched every one of us for our individual 
 characteristics. We were his men. Already he took an 
 almost paternal interest in us. He noted the men who 
 tried hard but were naturally slow and awkward. He 
 distinguished them from those who were inattentive and 
 bored. He marked down the keen and efficient amongst 
 us. Most of all he studied those who were subject to 
 moods, who were sulky one day and willing the next. 
 These were the ones who were to turn the scale. If only 
 lie could get these on his side, the battle would be won. 
 
 For a few days he just watched. Then he started to 
 work. He picked out some of the most awkward ones, and, 
 accompanied by a corporal, marched them away by them- 
 selves. Ingenuously he explained that he did not know 
 much himself ; but he thought that they might get on bet- 
 ter if they drilled by themselves a bit, and that if he 
 helped them, and they helped him, they would soon learn. 
 His confidence was infectious. He looked at them, and 
 they looked at him, and the men pulled themselves together 
 and determined to do their best. Their best surprised 
 themselves. His patience was inexhaustible. His sim- 
 plicity could not fail to be understood. His keenness and 
 optimism carried all with them. Very soon the awkward 
 squad found themselves awkward no longer; and soon 
 
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 after that they ceased to be a squad, and went back to the 
 platoon. 
 
 Then he started to drill the platoon, with the sergeant 
 standing by to point out his mistakes. Of course he made 
 mistakes, and when that happened he never minded ad- 
 mitting it. He would explain what mistakes he had made, 
 and try again. The result was that we began to take al- 
 most as much interest and pride in his progress as he did 
 in ours. We were his men, and he was our leader. We 
 felt that he was a credit to us, and we resolved to be a 
 credit to him. There was a bond of mutual confidence 
 and affection between us, which grew stronger and stronger 
 as the months passed. He had a smile for almost every- 
 one; but we thought that he had a different smile for us. 
 We looked for it, and were never disappointed. On pa- 
 rade, as long as we were trying, his smile encouraged us. 
 Off parade, if we passed him and saluted, his eyes looked 
 straight into our own, and his smile greeted us. It was a 
 wonderful thing, that smile of his. It was something 
 worth living for, and worth working for. It bucked one 
 up when one was bored or tired. It seemed to make one 
 look at things from a different point of view, a finer point 
 of view, his point of view. There was nothing feeble or 
 weak about it. It was not monotonous like the smile of 
 "Sunny Jim." It meant something. It meant that we 
 were his men, and that he was proud of us, and sure that 
 we were going to do jolly well — better than any of the 
 other platoons. And it made us determine that we would. 
 When we failed him, when he was disappointed in us, he 
 did not smile. He did not rage or curse. He just looked 
 disappointed, and that made us feel far more savage with 
 
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 ourselves than any amount of swearing would have done. 
 He made us feel that were not playing the game by him. 
 It was not what he said. He was never very good at talk- 
 ing. It was just how he looked. And- his look of dis- 
 pleasure and disappointment was a thing that we would 
 do anything to avoid. The fact was that he had won his 
 way into our affections. We loved him. And there isn't 
 anything stronger than love, when all's said and done. 
 
 He was good to look on. He was big and tall, and held 
 himself upright. His eyes looked his own height. He 
 moved with the grace of an athlete. His skin was tanned 
 by a wholesome outdoor life, and his eyes were clear and 
 wide open. Physically he was a prince among men. We 
 used to notice, as we marched along the road and passed 
 other officers, that they always looked pleased to see him. 
 They greeted him with a cordiality which was reserved for 
 him. Even the general seemed to have singled him out, 
 and cast an eye of special approval upon him. Somehow, 
 gentle though he was, he was never familiar. He had a 
 kind of innate nobility which marked him out as above 
 us. He was not democratic. He was rather the justification 
 for aristocracy. We all knew instinctively that he was our 
 superior — a man of finer temper than ourselves, a "toff" in 
 his own right. I suppose that that was why he could be 
 so humble without loss of dignity. For he was humble, 
 too, if that is the right word, and I think it is. No trouble 
 of curs was too small for him to attend to. When we 
 started route marches, for instance, and our feet were 
 blistered and sore, as they often were at first, you would 
 have thought that they were his own feet from the trouble 
 •he took. Of course after the march there was always an 
 
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 inspection of feet. That is the routine. But with 
 him it was no mere routine. He came into our rooms, and 
 if anyone had a sore foot he would kneel down on the 
 floor and look at it as carefully as if he had been a doctor. 
 Then he would prescribe, and the remedies were ready at 
 hand, being borne by the sergeant. If a blister had to be 
 lanced he would very likely lance it himself there and 
 then, so as to make sure that it was done with a clean 
 needle and that no dirt was allowed to get in. There was 
 no affectation about this, no striving after effect. It was 
 simply that he felt that our feet were pretty important, and 
 that he knew that we were pretty careless. So he thought 
 it best at the start to see to the matter himself. Never- 
 theless, there was in our eyes something almost religious 
 about this care for our feet. It seemed to have' a touch of 
 the Christ about it, and we loved and honored him the 
 more. 
 
 We knew that we should lose him. For one thing, we 
 knew that he would be promoted. It was our great hope 
 that some day he would command the company. Also we 
 knew that he would be killed. He was so amazingly unself- 
 conscicus. For that reason we knew that he would be 
 absolutely fearless. He would be so keen on the Job in 
 hand, and so anxious for his men, that he would forget 
 about his own danger. So it proved. He was a captain 
 when we went out to the front. Whenever there was a 
 tiresome job to be done, he was there in charge. If ever 
 there were a moment of danger, he was on the spot. If 
 there were any particular part of the line where the shells 
 were falling faster or the bombs dropping more thickly 
 than in other parts, he was in it. It was not that he was 
 
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 conceited and imagined himself indispensable. It was just 
 that he was so keen that the men should do their best, and 
 act worthily of the regiment. He knew that fellows hated 
 turning out at night for fatigue when they were in a "rest 
 camp." He knew how tiresome the long march there and 
 back and the digging in the dark for an unknown purpose 
 were. He knew that fellows would be inclined to grouse 
 and shirk, so he thought that it was up to him to go and 
 show them that he thought it was a job worth doing. And 
 the fact that he was there put a new complexion on the 
 matter altogether. No one would shirk if he were there. 
 No one would grumble so much, either. What was good 
 enough for him was good enough for us. If it were not 
 too much trouble for him to turn out, it was not too much 
 trouble for us. He knew, too, how trying to the nerves 
 it is to sit in a trench and be shelled. He knew what a 
 temptation there is to move a bit farther down the trench 
 and herd together in a bunch at what seems the safest end. 
 He knew, too, the folly of it, and that it was not the thing 
 to do — not done in the best regiments. So he went along 
 to see that it did not happen, to see that the men stuck to 
 their posts, and conquered their nerves. And as soon as 
 we saw him, we forgot our own anxiety. It was : "Move 
 a bit farther down, sir. We are all right here; but don't 
 you go exposing of yourself." We didn't matter. We 
 knew it then. We were just the rank and file, bound to 
 take risks. The company would get along all right without 
 us. But the captain, how was the company to get on 
 without him? To see him was to catch his point of view, 
 to forget our personal anxieties, and only to think of the 
 company and the regiment, and honor. 
 
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 There was not one of us but would gladly have died for 
 him. We longed for the chance to show him that. We 
 weren't heroes. We never dreamed about the V. C. But 
 to save the captain we would have earned it ten times over, 
 and never have cared a button whether we got it or not. 
 We never got the chance, worse luck. It was all the other 
 way. We were holding some trenches which were about 
 as unhealthy as trenches could be. The Boches were only 
 a few yards away, and were well supplied with trench 
 mortars. We hadn't got any at that time. Bombs and air 
 torpedoes were dropping round us all day. Of course the 
 captain was there. It seemed as if he could not keep away. 
 A torpedo fell into the trench, and buried some of our 
 chaps. The fellows next to them ran to dig them out. 
 Of course he was one of the first. Then came another tor- 
 pedo in the same place. That was the end. 
 
 But he lives. Somehow he lives. And we who knew 
 him do not forget. We feel his eyes on us. We still work 
 for that wonderful smile of his. There are not many of 
 the old lot left now ; but I think that those who went West 
 have seen him. When they got to the other side I think 
 they were met. Someone said: ^^Well done, good and 
 faithful servant." And as they knelt before that gracious 
 pierced Figure, I reckon they saw near hy the captain's 
 smile. Anyway in that faith let me die, if death should 
 come my way ; and so, I think, shall I die content. 
 
 "DOING THEIR BIT" 
 
 CONINGSBY DAWSON 
 
 God as we see Him! And do we see Him? I think 
 so, but not always consciously. He moves among us in the 
 
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 forms of our brother men. We see him most evidently 
 when danger is most threatening and courage is at its 
 highest. We don't often recognize Him out loud. Our 
 chaps don't assert that they're His fellow-campaigners. 
 They're too humble-minded and inarticulate for that. 
 They're where they are because they want to do their "bit" 
 — their duty. A carefully disguised instinct of honor 
 brought them there. "Doing their bit" in Bible lan- 
 guage means, laying down their lives for their friends. 
 After all they're not so far from Nazareth. 
 
 "Doing their hit!" That covers everything. Here's an 
 example of how God walks among us. In one of our at- 
 tacks on the Somme all the observers up forward were un- 
 certain as to what had happened. We didn't know whether 
 our infantry had captured their objective, failed, or gone 
 beyond it. The battlefield, as far as eye could reach, was a 
 bath of mud. It is extremely easy in the excitement of an 
 offensive, when all landmarks are blotted out, for our 
 storming parties to lose their direction. If this happens, a 
 number of dangers may result. A battalion may find itself 
 "up in the air," which means that it has failed to connect 
 with the battalions on its right and left; its flanks are 
 then exposed to the enemy. It may advance too far, and 
 start digging itself in at a point where it was previously 
 arranged that our artillery should place their protective 
 wall of fire. We, being up forward as artillery observers, 
 are the eyes of the army. It is our business to watch for 
 such contingencies, to keep in touch with the situation as 
 it progresses and to send our information back as quickly 
 as possible. We were peering through our glasses from 
 our point of vantage when, far away in the thickest of 
 
320 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 the battle-smoke, we saw a white flag wagging, sending 
 back messages. The flag-wagging was repeated desper- 
 ately; it was evident that no one had replied, and probable 
 that no one had picked up the messages. A signaller who 
 was with US read the language for us. A company of infan- 
 try had advanced too far ; they were most of them wounded, 
 very many of them dead, and they were in danger of being 
 surrounded. They asked for our artillery to place a curtain 
 of fire in front of them^ and for reinforcements to be 
 sent up. 
 
 We at once 'phoned the orders through to our artillery 
 and notified the infantry headquarters of the division that 
 was holding that front. But it was necessary to let those 
 chaps know that we were aware of their predicament. 
 They'd hang on if they knew that; otherwise — 
 
 Without orders our signaller was getting his flags ready. 
 If he hopped out of the trench on to the parapet, he didn't 
 stand a fifty-fifty chance. The Hun was familiar with 
 our observation station and strafed it with persistent regu- 
 larity. 
 
 The signaller turned to the senior officer present, "What 
 will I send them, sir?" 
 
 "Tell them their messages have been received and that 
 help is coming." 
 
 Out the chap scrambled, a flag in either hand — he was 
 nothing but a boy. He ran crouching like a rabbit to a 
 hump of mud where his figure would show up against the 
 sky. His flags commenced wagging, "Messages received. 
 Help coming." They didn't see him at first. He had to re- 
 peat the words. We watched him breathlessly. We knew 
 what would happen ; at last it happened. A Hun observer 
 
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 had spotted him and flashed the target back to his guns. All 
 about him the mud commenced to leap and bubble. He 
 went on signalling the good word to those stranded men 
 up front, "Messages received. Help coming." At last 
 they'd seen him. They were signalling, "0. K." It was 
 at that moment that a whizz-bang lifted him off his feet 
 and landed him all of a huddle. His ''bit!" It was what 
 he'd volunteered to do, when he came from Canada. The 
 signalled "0. K." in the battle smoke was like a testimony 
 to his character. 
 
 DISCIPLINE 
 
 CONINGSBY DAWSON 
 
 When men die for something worth while death loses all 
 its terror. It's petering out in bed from sickness or old 
 age that's so horrifying. Many a man, whose cowardice is 
 at loggerheads with his sense of duty, comes to the Front 
 as a non-combatant; he compromises with his conscience 
 and takes a bomb-proof job in some service whose place is 
 well behind the lines. He doesn't stop there long, if he's 
 a decent sort. Having learnt more than ever he guessed 
 before about the brutal things that shell-fire can do to you, 
 he transfers into a fighting unit. Why? Because danger 
 doesn't appal ; it allures. It holds a challenge. It stings 
 one's pride. It urges one to seek out ascending scales of 
 risk, just to prove to himself that he isn't flabby. The 
 safe job is the only job for which there's no competition 
 in fighting units. You have to persuade men to be grooms, 
 or cooks, or batmen. If you're seeking volunteers for a 
 chance at annihilation, you have to cast lots to avoid the 
 offense of rejecting. All of this is inexplicable to civilians. 
 
322 Builders of Democracy 
 
 I've heard them call the men at the Front "spiritual gen- 
 iuses" — which sounds splendid, but means nothing. 
 
 If civilian philosophers fail to explain us, we can explain 
 them. In their world they are the center of their universe. 
 They look inward, instead of outward. The sun rises and 
 sets to minister to their particular happiness. If they 
 should die, the stars would vanish. We understand; a 
 few months ago we, too, were like that. What makes us 
 reckless of death is our intense gratitude that we have 
 altered. We want to prove to ourselves in excess how 
 utterly we are changed from what we were. In his secret 
 heart the egotist is a self-despiser. Can you imagine what 
 a difference it works in a man after years of self -contempt, 
 at least for one brief moment to approve of himself ? Ever 
 since we can remember, we were chained to the prison- 
 house of our bodies ; we lived to feed our bodies, to clothe 
 our bodies, to preserve our bodies, to minister to their pas- 
 sions. Now we know that our bodies are merely flimsy 
 shells, in which our souls are paramount. We can fling 
 them aside any minute; they become ignoble the moment 
 the soul has departed. We have proof. Often at zero hour 
 we have seen whole populations of cities go over the top 
 and vanish, leaving behind them their bloody rags. We 
 should go mad if we did not believe in immortality. We 
 know that the physical is not the essential part. How 
 better can a man shake off his flesh than at the hour when 
 his spirit is most shining? The exact day when he dies 
 does not matter — tomorrow or fifty years hence. The vital 
 concern is not when, but how. 
 
 The civilian philosopher considers what we've lost. He 
 forgets that it could never have been ours for long. In 
 
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 many cases it was misused and scarcely worth having while 
 it lasted. Some of us were too weak to use it well. We 
 might use it better now. We turn from such thoughts 
 and reckon up our gains. On the debit side we place our- 
 selves as we were. We probably caught a train every morn- 
 ing — the same train, we went to a business where we sat 
 at a desk. Neither the business nor the desk ever altered. 
 We received the same strafing from the same employer; 
 or, if we were the employer, we administered the same 
 strafing. We only did these things that we might eat 
 bread; our dreams were all selfish — of more clothes, more 
 respect, more food, bigger houses. The least part of the 
 day we devoted to the people and the things we really 
 cared for. And the people we loved — we weren't always 
 nice to them. On the credit side we place ourselves as we 
 are — doing a man's job, doing it for some one else, and 
 unafraid to meet God. 
 
 Before the war the word "ideals" had grown out-of-date 
 and priggish — we had substituted for it the more robust 
 word "ambitions." Today ideals have come back to their 
 place in our vocabulary. We have forgotten that we ever 
 had ambitions, but at this moment men are drowning for 
 ideals in the mud of Flanders. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is true; it isn't natural to be brave. 
 How, then, have multitudes of men acquired this sudden 
 knack of courage ? They have been educated by the great- 
 ness of the occasion; when big sacrifices have been de- 
 manded, men have never been found lacking. And they 
 have acquired it through discipline and training. 
 
 When you have subjected yourself to discipline, you 
 cease to think of yourself; you are not you, but a part of 
 
324 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 a company of men. If you don't do your duty, you throw 
 the whole machine out. You soon learn the hard lesson 
 that every man's life and every man's service belong to 
 other people. Of this the organization of an army is a 
 vivid illustration. Take the infantry, for instance. They 
 can't fight by themselves; they're dependent on the sup- 
 port of the artillery. The artillery, in their turn, would 
 be terribly crippled, were it not for the gallantry of the 
 air service. If the infantry collapse, the guns have to 
 go back; if the infantry advance, the guns have to be 
 pulled forward. This close interdependence of service on 
 service, division on division, battalion on battery, follows 
 right down through the army till it reaches the individual, 
 so that each man feels that the day will be lost if he fails. 
 His imagination becomes intrigued by the immensity of 
 the stakes for which he plays. Any physical calamity 
 which may happen to himself becomes trifling when com- 
 pared with the disgrace he would bring upon his regiment 
 if he were not courageous. 
 
 A few months ago I was handing over a battery-position 
 in a fairly warm place. The major, who came up to take 
 over from me, brought with him a subaltern and just 
 enough men to run the guns. Within half an hour of their 
 arrival, a stray shell came over and caught the subaltern 
 and five of the gun detachment. It was plain at once that 
 the subaltern was dying — his name must have been written 
 on the shell, as we say in France. We got a stretcher and 
 made all haste to rush him out to a dressing station. Just 
 as he was leaving, he asked to speak with his major. "I'm 
 so sorry, sir; I didn't mean to get wounded," he whis- 
 Dered. The last word he sent back from the dressing 
 
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 station where he died, was, "Tell the major, I didn't mean 
 to do it." That's discipline. He didn't think of himself; 
 all he thought of was that his major would be left short 
 handed. • 
 
 TO OVERCOME THE WORLD 
 
 CONINGSBY DAWSON 
 
 Often at the Front I have thought of Christ's explana- 
 tion of his own unassailable peace — an explanation given 
 to his disciples at the Last Supper, immediately before the 
 walk to Gethsemane: "Be of good cheer, I have over- 
 come the world." Overcoming the world, as I understand 
 it, is overcoming self. Fear, in its final analysis, is noth- 
 ing but selfishness. A man who is afraid in an attack, 
 isn't thinking of his pals and how quickly terror spreads; 
 he isn't thinking of the glory which will accrue to his 
 regiment or division if the attack is a success; he isn't 
 thinking of what he can do to contribute to that success; 
 he isn't thinking of the splendor of forcing his spirit to 
 triumph over weariness and nerves and the abominations 
 that the Huns are chucking at him. He's thinking merely 
 of how he can save his worthless skin and conduct his en- 
 tirely unimportant body to a place where there aren't any 
 shells. 
 
 In London as I saw the work-a-day, unconscious nobility 
 of the maimed and wounded, the words, "I have overcome 
 the world," took an added depth. All these men have an 
 "I-have-overcome-the-world" look in their faces. It's com- 
 paratively easy for a soldier with traditions and ideals at 
 his back to face death calmly; to be calm in the face of 
 life, as these chaps are, takes a graver courage. 
 
326 Builders of Democracy 
 
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 III. ON TO VICTOEY 
 
 And now we have reached the end of our book. Amer- 
 ican boys are being transformed into Soldiers of Freedom. 
 As yon think of this, yonr thoughts will revert to that sec- 
 tion on the C^ll to the Colors, which yon will appreciate the 
 more now that yon see what the Call to the Colors involves. 
 
 On one side of the sword Excalibur were the words 
 "Keep Me" and on the other, "Throw Me Away !" Just 
 such an ideal is voiced in President Wilson's benediction 
 to the American Soldier. 
 
 SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM- 
 To the Soldiers of the National Army: 
 
 You are undertaking a great duty. The heart of the 
 whole country is with you. Everything that you do will be 
 watched with the deepest interest and with the deepest 
 solicitude not only by those who are near and dear to you, 
 but by the whole nation besides. For this great war draws 
 us all together, makes us all comrades and brothers, as all 
 true Americans felt themselves to be when we first made 
 good our national independence. The eyes of all the world 
 will be upon you, because you are in some special sense 
 the soldiers of freedom. 
 
 Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men every- 
 where not only what good soldiers you are, but also what 
 good men you are, keeping yourselves fit and straight in 
 everything and pure and clean through and through. Let 
 us set for ourselves a standard so high that it will be a 
 glory to live up to it and then let us live up to it and add 
 a new laurel to the crown of America. 
 
 My aifectionate confidence goes with you in every battle 
 and every test. God keep and guide you ! 
 
 WooDRow Wilson. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 a society ordered otherwise, a different 
 
 kind of government. 
 abbey precincts, the neighborhood of a 
 
 building occupied by monks. 
 abeam, opposite the middle of the 
 
 ship's side. 
 aboon, above. 
 
 abortive, coming to nothing; fruitless, 
 absolute ruler, one free from restriction 
 
 or limit. 
 absolved, set free. 
 
 accommodation, a peaceful agreement, 
 accountable, likely to be called upon 
 
 to answer or to give an account, 
 actuated, prompted; moved to action, 
 address and stratagem, skillful man- 
 agement and plans to outwit, 
 adjudged, granted legally, 
 aggrandizement, exalting one's self. 
 Alfred, a famous king of early Britain, 
 alien, foreign. 
 allegiance, the loyalty of a subject to 
 
 his government, 
 all-pervasive, diffusing; all permeating. 
 All-wielder, God. 
 ambuscade, an ambush or place where 
 
 troops lie concealed, 
 amity, friendly relations, 
 amnesty, an act of a sovereign granting 
 
 a general pardon for past offenses, 
 animated bust, a bust that is life-like, 
 annals, historical records, 
 annul, to nullify; to abolish, 
 antique majesty, a stately bearing or 
 dignity inspiring awe because of age. 
 Apollyon, the angel of the bottomless 
 
 pit in "Pilgrim's Progress." 
 apostolic, disciple-like, 
 apparition, a phantom; a ghost, 
 approbation, approval; commendation, 
 aristocracy, rule by a privileged class. 
 armada, armed ships, The Great 
 
 Armada, the Spanish Armada, 
 assuage, to lessen. 
 at large, without restraint, 
 athwart, across; from side to side, 
 auspices, guidance. 
 
 authority forgets a dying king, etc, when 
 a king has lost the power of his eye 
 that compels obedience, his authority 
 is gone, and subjects do not obey his 
 commands. 
 avowal, declaration; acknowledgment. 
 awe and ezultatibn, wonder and 
 triumph. 
 
 baldric, belt; the zodiac, 
 baleful-minded, full of deadly influence. 
 
 bar of history, the future historians who 
 
 will judge the events of the present. 
 
 barb, a Barbary horse noted for speed 
 
 and endurance. 
 barons, noblemen. 
 
 battalion, a considerable division of an 
 army operating as a unit; in U. S. 
 army, four companies acting together, 
 beat to quarters, gave the signal for the 
 men to take their positions ready for 
 battle. 
 bedlam, a lunatic, so-called from an 
 insane hospital in London, originally 
 Bethlehem. 
 Beelzebub, one of the princes of hell, 
 beguile, impose on; deceive, 
 behest, command. 
 
 beneficent, doing good; actively kind, 
 benignity, graciousness; kindness. 
 Berserk, in Norse folklore, a wild war- 
 
 _ rior or champion of a heathen age. 
 bickering brattle, sudden scamper, 
 bigoted, narrow-minded ; intolerant. 
 birkie, young fellow, 
 black-stoled, dressed in a long, loose, 
 
 black garment. 
 blanched, pale, 
 blenched not a step, turned aside not a 
 
 step. 
 blinkm' bonilie, shining brightly, 
 boarding pike, an iron-pointed staff, 
 bodes, foreshadows; promises. 
 boggy, marshy. 
 
 Bon Dieu, Gracious Father in Heaven, 
 boon, a favor; a gift. 
 Bourbon, a member of the noble French 
 
 family of Bourbon, 
 brasses, brass plates, used as memorials 
 
 to the dead, 
 brawl, a row; a broil. 
 Brest-Litovsk, the Russian city where 
 the Russo-German treaty was signed, 
 brig, a two-masted, square-rigged vessel. 
 Britannia, the poetic name for Great 
 
 Britain and Ireland, 
 broadside, the side of a ship above the 
 
 water line, from bow to quarter, 
 buckler, a shield worn on the arm. 
 bulwarks, the side of a ship above the 
 
 upper deck. 
 burden, carrj'ing capacity, 
 burgesses, free citizens of a district or 
 
 an old English town, 
 burghers, freemen. 
 
 by these presents, a legal phrase mean- 
 ing present letters or instrument, as a 
 deed, agreement, or other legal docu- 
 ment. 
 
 327 
 
328 
 
 Builders of Democracy 
 
 cable's length, the length of a ship's 
 
 cable, about 600 feet. 
 Canaan, a region corresponding 
 
 roughly to modern Palestine. 
 canister, a kind of shot for close-range 
 
 artillery fire. 
 Cardinal Mercier, the highest church 
 
 official of Belgium, 
 careering, causing to career as a horse ; 
 
 going over, 
 carriage, bearing; demeanor, 
 casque, armor for the head; a helmet, 
 category, class; list. 
 catholic, broad ; liberal. 
 Cavaliers, adherents of the king in 
 
 England in the time of Charles I. 
 celestials, inhabitants of heaven. 
 certes, certainly; in truth. 
 chance, perchance, 
 chancel, that part of the church where 
 
 the altar stands. 
 chaplets, wreaths for the head, 
 charters, instruments in writing from 
 
 the ruling power of a ,state or 
 
 country, granting rights. 
 chivalry, gallantry; knighthood. 
 ciel, heaven. 
 
 circumstanced, situated; conditioned. 
 civil body politic, an organized society. 
 civil rights, the rights of the citizen. 
 cloister, a monastery ; a convent, 
 clouted knee, patched, 
 clutch, a firm grasp. 
 cockpit, in old sailing warships, quarters 
 
 for junior officers; occupied by the 
 
 wounded in engagements. 
 codes, rules and regulations. 
 Com6die Frangaise,|the poet was prob- 
 ably connected with this well known 
 
 Paris theater. 
 commemorated, celebrated, 
 communing, conversing intimately. 
 compass, Umits; range. 
 competence, means sufficient for the 
 
 necessaries and conveniences of life. 
 competency, abiUty. 
 comports, agrees. 
 compulsion, subjection to force; 
 
 coercion, 
 conceit, fanciful notion, 
 concert, planning together. 
 concluded, brought about, 
 concrete plans, real, actual plan, 
 concourse, a gathering; an assemblage, 
 confederates, men in league with one 
 
 another. 
 confirmation, establishment. 
 confounded, confused; perplexed, 
 conjecture, surmise; inference, 
 consecrated, dedicated or declared 
 
 sacred. 
 constellation, a group of fixed stars. 
 constituted authority, the rule of the 
 
 government in power. 
 
 constrains, compels; forces. 
 
 constructive, given to building up. 
 
 consummation, summing up; comple- 
 tion. 
 
 contemporaries, those living or acting 
 at the same time. 
 
 contentation, satisfaction. 
 
 coof, fool. 
 
 copious, abundant; plentiful. 
 
 coral, red, like coral, from the bare and 
 bleeding feet of the soldiers. 
 
 corps of observation, soldiers who 
 gather information about the enemy. 
 
 corselet, armor for the body. 
 
 cottar, a peasant. 
 
 Cotton Mather, an American preacher 
 of early New England days. 
 
 Court of Justice, a tribunal for passing 
 sentence upon wrong doers. 
 
 covert, concealment; a covering. 
 
 crusade, one of the military expeditions 
 made between 1096 and 1270 by 
 Christian powers to recover the Holy 
 Land from the Mohammedans. 
 
 cuisse (kwis) , armor for the thighs. 
 
 culminate, to reach the highest point. 
 
 dais-throne, a raised platform in a hall. 
 
 decrepitude, infirmity; feebleness. 
 
 delegated power, authority to act for 
 another or others. 
 
 deluge, to flood; to overflow. 
 
 delusive phantom, deceptive illusion. 
 
 demi-paradise, half paradise. 
 
 democracy, a government in which the 
 supreme power is retained by the 
 people, as in a republic. 
 
 deploying, spreading out; expanding. 
 
 deputed, appointed; assigned. 
 
 descried, caught sight of. 
 
 desecrated, violated; profaned. 
 
 detractions, slanders. 
 
 devolved, descended; handed down. 
 
 Devon, a county in England. 
 
 diminution of front, reduction or short- 
 ening of the front line. 
 
 disaffection, hostiUty; discontent. 
 
 discredited, disbelieved. 
 
 discretion, prudence; self-control. 
 
 dismemberment, separation of members. 
 
 dispassionate, calmly. 
 
 dispossessed, deprived of property. 
 
 disproportion, want of proportion. 
 
 distorted, perverted. 
 
 diverse, different; unlike. 
 
 dole, give grudgingly. 
 
 dominion, supremacy; control. 
 
 Don, a Spanish nobleman or gentleman. 
 
 don, to put on; to dress in. 
 
 dotard, a foolish old person. 
 
 double-reefed, having two reefs or 
 folds to reduce the size of the sail. 
 
 doughty-minded, strong-willed. 
 
 drab, dull. 
 
Glossary 
 
 329 
 
 drawbridge, a bridge, part of which is 
 made to be raised or moved aside. 
 
 furtherance, carrying out. 
 
 fusillade, a general discharge of firearms. 
 
 effrontery, impudence. 
 
 ego, self-importance. 
 
 egotist, one given to self praise. 
 
 election, choice. 
 
 emanation, a flowing out from. 
 
 emancipation, freedom; liberation. 
 
 embodiment, concrete form. 
 
 emulate, strive to equal or excel. 
 
 encompass, surround. 
 
 endued, endowed. 
 
 endu'th, endureth. 
 
 enervating, enfeebling. 
 
 enterprises, undertakings. 
 
 Epaminondas, a famous Theban general. 
 
 epitaph, an inscription in memory of a 
 
 person. 
 epoch, event, 
 equal state, a state in which all men 
 
 have equal rights. 
 equitable, just; right; fair, 
 eradicated, rooted out; destroyed, 
 essence, fundamental element, 
 evinces a design, shows clearly a plan, 
 evolutions, a series of movements as 
 
 in the drill of troops, 
 exotic, a plant that is not native, 
 exposition, a setting forth for purposes 
 
 of explanation, 
 expostulation, remonstrance; protest, 
 extenuate, to excuse. 
 exultation, see awe and exultation. 
 
 fabric of social order, a form of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 fair professions, promises. 
 
 faith's shrine, a place where a people 
 worship according to their belief. 
 
 familiar, companion. 
 
 fanned, stirred up to activity. 
 
 fastnesses, .strongholds; fortresses. 
 
 fathom, measure Dy sounding. 
 
 fealty, loyalty; homage. 
 
 fell, cruel; a hill or mountain. 
 
 fen-mound, a mound in a marshy region. 
 
 fetters, chains; shackles. 
 
 feudal, a common form of government 
 in the Middle Ages. 
 
 filled away, brought the ship around. 
 
 Final Doom, destiny; the final judg- 
 ment at the end of the world. 
 
 foray, a raid. 
 
 foul of each other, in each other's way. 
 
 fraught, freighted; burdened. 
 
 fretted, adorned with interlacing lines 
 or figures. 
 
 friars, brothers of a rehgious order. 
 
 frigate, a war vessel of secondary size, 
 propelled by sails. 
 
 fronting moonward, looking eastward to 
 the Orient. 
 
 galleon, a Spanish war vessel of the 
 
 15th century, propelled by sails. 
 Gardens of Hesperides, in mythology, 
 
 the Garden of the Gplden Apples, 
 
 supposed to be located in Africa, 
 garish, showy; gay; gaudy. 
 gear, armor; power to act properly. 
 Geats, Goths; Beowulf's tribe, 
 genial, warm; life-giving, 
 gentry, those between the yeomanry 
 
 and the nobility. 
 glade, a grassy, open space, 
 glebe, ground; sod. 
 golden age, a period of greatest growth 
 
 or prosperity. 
 Gordon, Lord Byron, a famous English 
 
 poet, 
 gowd, gold, 
 grape, grape shot; a cluster of small 
 
 iron balls to be shot from a cannon. 
 greaves, armor for the calves of the legs, 
 gree, prize, 
 groat, an English silver coin worth eight 
 
 cents, no longer in use. 
 grouse, to hide away, 
 guinea's stamp, the mark of the coin, 
 
 not its real value. 
 guises, cloaks; shapes. 
 gyves, shackles; chains. 
 
 had struck, lowered the flag in token 
 of surrender. 
 
 haft, the hilt of a sword. 
 
 Happy Isles, the isles of the blest. 
 
 hardly beset, afflicted; troubled. 
 
 harmonies of law, agreement in ideals. 
 
 hauled upon the wind, shifted the course 
 toward the wind. 
 
 heath-stepper, any animal of the moor- 
 land. 
 
 helm, helmet. 
 
 h61as, alas! 
 
 henchman, a trusted follower. 
 
 heraldry, ancestry; hi^h descent. 
 
 Hercules, Gates of, Pillars of, two pro- 
 montaries on the Strait of Gibraltar, 
 supposed to have been placed there 
 by Hercules. 
 
 best, command. 
 
 High-Church, a branch of the Church 
 of England, that emphasizes cere- 
 monials and symbols. 
 
 high-poised, steady; great and true. 
 
 high resolution, noble decision. 
 
 hind, a peasant. 
 
 history ... its processes, the things that 
 influence, make, or determine history. 
 
 hoddin-gray, a coarse gray cloth. 
 
 homely, plain; simple. 
 
 homespun breasts, rustic people. 
 
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 humanities, the ancient classics; 
 
 branches of polite learning. 
 Hyades, a cluster of stars thought by the 
 ancients to indicate the coming of 
 rain when they rose with the sun. 
 ideals, aims; purposes, 
 ignominy, disgrace; dishonor, 
 illusions, unreal images. 
 impeached, called to account for some 
 
 crime or official misconduct. 
 impel, to incite; to urge, 
 imperative, absolutely necessary. 
 imperial, belonging to supreme author- 
 ity; kingly. 
 impious, irreverent; wicked, 
 improvised, made suddenly; offhand, 
 impute, charge; ascribe. 
 in league with, in aUiance with. 
 incarnation of evil, a person exempUfy- 
 
 ing the spirit of evil. 
 incensed, angered; aroused. 
 incident, belonging to. 
 inclement, severe ; rigorous, 
 mcredible, too extraordinary to be 
 
 believed; surpassing belief. 
 incumbent, resting as a duty. 
 inestimable, priceless; precious, 
 inevitable, unavoidable, 
 inexplicable, incapable of being ex- 
 plained. 
 infection, contamination; that which 
 
 taints or corrupts, 
 ingenuous, innocently frank; artless. 
 ingle, fire; fireplace. 
 inglorious, shameful; disgraceful, 
 ingots, nuggets; blocks or bars. 
 inherent, native; inborn, 
 initiative, right or power to introduce a 
 
 new course of action, 
 innative, inborn. 
 
 Inns of Court, the four societies of 
 
 "students and practitioners of the 
 
 law of England" which admit persons 
 
 to the practice of law. 
 
 Inquisition, a Spanish tribunal for the 
 
 punishment of heretics. 
 insidious, deceitful; treacherous, 
 instituted, set up; organized, 
 intangible, not easily touched; vague, 
 intemperately, excessively. 
 interposition, intercession. 
 interpret, to explain the meaning of. 
 into the Presence, before the Deity, 
 intrigue, plotting; secret conspiracy. 
 mured, accustomed; hardened, 
 inviolate, unbroken ; unharmed, 
 isolation, separation from others, 
 issue of victory or death, result; conse- 
 quences. 
 
 Jeanne d'Arc, the French heroine, who 
 led an army and won a great victory 
 over the EngUsh at Orleans, hence 
 called "The Maid of Orleans." 
 
 jocund, cheery; merry. 
 jousted, engaged in combat, 
 junk, a ship of China or Japan. 
 
 kernes, a body of foot soldiers of Ire- 
 land or Scotland. 
 
 knight errant, an adventurer. 
 
 kultur, a German theory of social and 
 mdustrial Ufe. 
 
 laith to tin, loath to run. 
 
 languishing, losing strength. 
 
 larboard, the left-hand side of a ship 
 to one on board facing toward the 
 bow; port is commonly used now 
 instead of larboard. 
 
 latest-left, last remaining. 
 
 lazaretto, a hospital. 
 
 lees, dregs. 
 
 leeward, opposed to windward. 
 
 let them in their journey, hinder, etc. 
 
 lief, beloved. 
 
 lineaments, features. 
 
 lour, look dark and threatening. 
 
 low countries, Netherlands and Belgium. 
 
 luffed athwart, headed across. 
 
 madding, making mad. 
 Magna Charta, the Great Charter, 
 which the EngHsh barons forced 
 King John to sign at Runnymede. 
 magnanimously, nobly. 
 magnifique, magnificent; splendid. 
 Mahomet, Mohammed, the founder of 
 
 the Mohammedan religion, 
 malheiu-eusement, unfortunately. 
 Mammon, the god of riches. 
 maimer born, born to follow or obey a 
 
 certain practice or custom, 
 mantling land, land and sea covered 
 
 with the blue of heaven, 
 march-stalkers, trangressors; poachers, 
 mareschal, marshal. 
 marge, margin; edge, 
 marquis, a title of nobiUty in Europe, 
 marshalled, arranged in a certain order, 
 maskers, people in disguise. 
 matchlock, an old form of gun. 
 maunna fa', may not claim. 
 medaill6 militaire, a military medal 
 
 given for special bravery. 
 menace, that which threatens evil, 
 mercenary, hired ; England hired 22,000 
 Hessians to fight for her in the 
 American Revolution. 
 mere, sea or lake, 
 mete, measure. 
 meteor, bright and flashing, 
 mien, manner; bearing, 
 militant, fighting; combating, 
 minions, willing servants. 
 minstrels, wandering entertainers. 
 miscreants, unscrupulous villains, 
 misprize, undervalue; scorn. 
 
Glossary 
 
 331 
 
 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIinilllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIMIIIIIIIINIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIinillllllllllllllllll 
 
 mitrailleuse, machine-gun. 
 mizzenmast, the aftermost mast of a 
 
 three-masted vessel. 
 mock the wind, to defy the wind, 
 moment, consequence; importance, 
 mon ami, my friend, 
 moors, waste land, often marshy, 
 moping, spiritless. 
 morass, a marsh; wet ground. 
 Muse, one of the nine goddesses that 
 
 preside over song and poetry, 
 musqueteers, soldiers armed with 
 
 muskets. 
 mutinous, in a state of mutiny. 
 myrrh, one of the perfumes brought to 
 
 Christ by the Three Wise Men. 
 
 negative, denial or refusal. 
 Nelson, a famous English admiral, 
 nominal, in name onlj'. 
 
 obligation, duty. 
 
 o£fensive war, making attack; opposed 
 to defensive war. 
 
 offices of tenderness, acta of kindness. 
 
 Old Noll, Oliver Cromwell, con- 
 temptuously so called by the Cava- 
 liers. 
 
 ominous, forshadowing evil. 
 
 onset, assault; attack. 
 
 Oui, yes. 
 
 outlandish, from the outlands; strange. 
 
 overplied, overworked of mind. 
 
 owned the English interest, favored the 
 English side. 
 
 pandemonium, tumult; wild uproar, 
 parable, a short narrative of a possible 
 
 event in life or nature, from which a 
 
 moral is drawn, 
 paramoimt, having higher rank; chief. 
 parchment, the skin of an animal, as a 
 
 lamb or goat, prepared for writing, 
 parish, district. 
 parliamentary system, government by 
 
 the people through representatives, 
 partisans, blind followers of party. 
 patent, a document conferring a privi- 
 lege, 
 patent, evident ; manifest. 
 pattle, paddle for cleaning the plow. 
 Paul's, St. Paul's Cathedral, London. 
 pawn, pledge. 
 Peal of Destiny, fate; that to which one 
 
 is predetermined, 
 peasants, tillers of the soil of lowest 
 
 rank. 
 pecuniary, relating to money, 
 pedant, a person with book learning 
 
 who lacks the judgment to make 
 
 proper use of his knowledge, 
 peers, in early England, noblemen; 
 
 equals. 
 
 peons, common laborers; especially 
 applied to laborers on large estates 
 in Mexico, Central America, and 
 South America. 
 
 permeating, penetrating. 
 
 perpetuate, keep alive; cause to last. 
 
 phrased, told in words. 
 , picturesque, suggesting a picture; 
 graphic. 
 
 Piedmontese, natives of Piedmont, 
 Italy. 
 
 pillory, a framework for publicly pun- 
 ishing offenders, which had holes 
 through which the offender's head 
 and hands were put. 
 
 pinnaces, light sailing vessels used as 
 tenders for warships. 
 
 pittance, a small amount of money. 
 
 Pleiades, a cluster of seven stars. 
 
 political equality, having equal rights 
 in matters of government. 
 
 polity, form of government. 
 
 ponderous states, massive; weighty. 
 
 portcullis, an iron gate to a fortress or 
 castle, hung over the entrance, to be 
 let down to prevent entrance. 
 
 portentous, foreboding evil; fore- 
 shadowing; ominous. 
 
 portray, to describe in words; to picture. 
 
 poste de commandment, army officers' 
 temporary headquarters. 
 
 pound of flesh, an expression, referring 
 to the story of Shylock, in Shake- 
 speare's Merchant of Venice, mean- 
 ing severe terms of settlement, 
 
 precincts, see neighborhood. 
 
 precipitous, steep. 
 
 pre-eminent, surpassing others. 
 
 preferment, preference; state of being 
 chosen. 
 
 preferments, offices of honor or profit. 
 
 pregnant with celestial fire, filled with 
 heavenly spirit or fervor. 
 
 prelacy, church government. 
 
 preposterous conceptions, absurd or 
 ridiculous notions. 
 
 presage, foretell ; point out; forebode. 
 
 prestige, influence or power derived 
 from pa.st successes. 
 
 primacy, first in rank. 
 
 Primate, a bishop of first rank; the 
 archbishop of Canterbury is Primate 
 of all England. 
 
 Primer, a book of church service, con- 
 taining prayers, psalms, and other 
 forms of devotion. 
 
 Prince of Princes, Jesus Christ. 
 
 privateers, armed private vessels 
 bearing the commission of the 
 sovereign power to cruise against 
 commerce or enemy war vessels. 
 
 projects, imdertakings; plans. 
 
332 
 
 Builders of Democracy 
 
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiuiiiiiiujiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 promiscuously, without discrimination; 
 not restricted to an individual or 
 particular group or groups of persons. 
 
 propaganda, plans for spreading a doc- 
 trine. 
 
 propitious, favorable; promising. 
 
 propriety, fitness; suitableness. 
 
 prostrates principalities, overthrows 
 powers. 
 
 provoke, arouse; call forth. 
 
 purple, the color of rank or authority. 
 
 quailed, gave way; lost heart. 
 
 quarter-deck, that part of the upper 
 deck abaft the mainmast, used as a 
 promenade for the officers and some- 
 times the cabin passengers. 
 
 quells, beats down; calms; subdues. 
 
 quit, acquit; conduct. 
 
 qui vive, who goes there? a challenge. 
 
 rabble, a mob. 
 
 rack, a crash ; a shock. 
 
 rage, enthusiasm. 
 
 ransom redemption or liberation. 
 
 ratified, approved ; made valid. 
 
 reach, a level stretch. 
 
 recked, heeded. 
 
 recreant, coward. 
 
 redress, to set right. 
 
 regenerate it, establish it on a better 
 
 basis. 
 remanded, sent back, 
 reminiscence, a statement of what is 
 
 remembered. 
 representative government, govern- 
 ment by the people through chosen 
 
 representatives. 
 repression, restraint; act of subduing. 
 reprobation, censure ; severe disapproval . 
 reverberations, echoes. 
 Rogers, John, an English Protestant 
 
 clergyman burned as a heretic, the 
 
 first martyr of Mary's reign. 
 royalist activities, operations conducted 
 
 by those supporting the British 
 
 government. 
 Royals, a special detachment of EngUsh 
 
 engineers. 
 rude, simple-living; crude, 
 rustic moralist, simple countryman who 
 
 practices moral duties. 
 
 sacre nom, by Jove! 
 
 sacredness, reverence. 
 
 samite, heavy silk cloth. 
 
 sanctuary, a church, temple, or other 
 consecrated building. 
 
 sauterelle, grasshopper. 
 
 Saxon kind, like the Saxons, willing to 
 fight. 
 
 scathe, injure; harm. 
 
 sceptered, royal; invested with sov- 
 ereign authority. 
 
 schooner, a small vessel with two sails. 
 Scotia's realm, poetic name for Scot- 
 land; "Land of Scots." 
 Scott, Sir Walter, a famous Scotch 
 novelist. 
 
 scroll, a roll. 
 
 seat of Mars, the place where the God 
 of War rules. 
 
 sedition, excitement or discontent 
 against the government; conduct 
 which tends to treason, but which 
 lacks an overt act to make it treason. 
 
 seduced, misled. 
 
 self-determination, determining for 
 themselves the kind of government 
 the people of a country prefer. 
 
 senile imprudence, disregard of con- 
 sequences. 
 
 sensible, aware; conscious. 
 
 sensible curse, a curse that was felt. 
 
 sepulcher, burying place; tomb. 
 
 sequel, that which follows. 
 
 sequestered, secluded. 
 
 seris, servants; farm laborers who are 
 sold with the farm. 
 
 setting their fires, encouraging sedi- 
 tion and disloyalty. 
 
 shackles, influences against freedom 
 and self-government. 
 
 Shelley, a famous English poet. 
 
 shepherd of mankind, a guardian of 
 the human race. 
 
 shire, a small division of territory in 
 England corresponding to a county. 
 
 shows his teeth, is angry; billowy. 
 
 shrouds, lateral, supporting ropes lead- 
 ing from the masthead. 
 
 Sidney, an English author and general. 
 
 significance, meaning. 
 
 sinews, things which supply strength. 
 
 sinister, evil ; corrupt. 
 
 siren, a sea nymph that by her singing 
 lui-ed mariners to destruction. 
 
 Slavic, those who speak the language of 
 the Slavs. 
 
 smite, give a blow. 
 
 Smithfield fire, refers to a place in 
 London, where, during the reign of 
 Queen Mary, heretics were burned. 
 
 snare, a noose; a trap. 
 
 social principle, the principle of free 
 cooperation among equals as opposed 
 to autocratic rule and serfdom. 
 
 society, individuals united by some 
 common interest and having some 
 form of organization. 
 
 Soissons, a city on the Aisne River, 
 France, along which was much severe 
 fighting in the early part of the war. 
 
 solidarity of race, making race a basis 
 of forming separate governments. 
 
 Solon, an Athenian lawgiver. 
 
 solution, satisfactory settlement. 
 
 sophistries, deceptions; trickeries. 
 
Glossary 
 
 333 
 
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 sorceress, a female magician. 
 
 sounding furrows, waves in shallow 
 water the depth of which can be 
 measured by the sounding line. 
 
 spiritual exaltation, spirtual advance- 
 ment. 
 
 spiritual unity, oneness of ideals. 
 
 squadron, vessels composing the fleet. 
 
 squire, in England, a title of dignity. 
 
 St. Bartholomew, refers to the massacre 
 of the Huguenots which began in 
 Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day, 
 Aug. 24. 1572. 
 
 St. Michael, the leader of the hosts of 
 angels, the angel of the sword. 
 
 starboard, opposed to port; that side 
 of a ship on the right hand of a person 
 who stands on board facing the bow. 
 
 still, always. 
 
 stocks, pillories. 
 
 storied urn, urn inscribed with a story. 
 
 straitly, tightly. 
 
 stratagem, see address. 
 
 stubborn right abide, await my right. 
 
 subaltern, subordinate. 
 
 subjugation, state of being conquered 
 by force. 
 
 subscribed, agrees; assents. 
 
 subtlest, most delicate. 
 
 succor, aid; help. 
 
 succors, aids; hel^jers. 
 
 sum of love, growing spirit of kindness. 
 
 supernal, celestial; heavenly. 
 
 supinely, heedless; thoughtless. 
 
 supple-tempered, not obstinate. 
 
 swashbuckler, a braggart. 
 
 symbolize, made to represent. 
 
 ta£frail, the rail around a ship's stern. 
 
 temporal, temporary. 
 
 tenant, one who has temporary occupa- 
 tion of lands, the title to which De- 
 longs to another; a renter. 
 
 tenor, general course. 
 
 thanes, bodyguards; attendants. 
 
 thorn, hawthorn tree. 
 
 thralldom, bondage. 
 
 thumb-screw, an old instrument of 
 torture. 
 
 Time's burst of dawn, the coming into 
 view of a new world. 
 
 "tofif," an aristocrat. 
 
 token, evidence ; proof-. 
 
 tradition, custom that has prevailed 
 from year to year. 
 
 Trafalgar, the greatest British naval 
 victory during the wars of Napoleon, 
 off Cape Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. 
 
 transcendent, supreme. 
 
 transient, of short duration. 
 
 transmute, change. 
 
 transported, carried away with emotion. 
 
 travail, suffering; toil; agony. 
 
 treachery, violation of confidence. 
 
 tropical growth, rapid growth. 
 
 trough, a depression, as between waves. 
 
 truculence, savageness; ferociousness. 
 
 unalienable, incapable of being sur- 
 rendered or given up to another, 
 unbrace, loose, 
 uncouth, odd; strange, 
 unquailing, undaunted; not shrinking, 
 unsolders, .separates; divides; disunites, 
 unsullied, untarnished, 
 usurper, one who rules illegally. 
 
 vain pretense, fruitless, false show. 
 Valhalla, in Norse mythology, the 
 
 Hall of Odin, into which he receives 
 
 the souls of heroes slain in battle, 
 validity, soundness; justness. 
 valor-glories, bravery. 
 van, the leading unit of an army, 
 vantage-ground, favorable situation, 
 vassal, a subject; a servant, 
 vaulted roof, arched roof of the hall, 
 vauntingly, boastfully, 
 verboten, forbidden. 
 venerable, worthy of deep respect, 
 vestal fire of democracy, the sacred 
 
 fire or spirit of freedom. 
 V. C, Victoria Cross, a bronze Maltese 
 
 cross, awarded for remarkable valor 
 
 to members of the Britbh army or 
 
 navy, 
 vigil, watch; act of keeping awake, 
 vindicate their ancestry, justify or 
 
 maintain the claims of their ancestry 
 
 to courage and the spirit of free 
 
 government. 
 vive la France, Long live France! 
 votive stone, a stone set to commem- 
 
 rate a vow. 
 vouchsafed, granted. 
 
 ware, aware. 
 
 warm precincts, glowing surroundings. 
 
 wary, cautious; watchful. 
 
 wave-beat helm of will, the firm will, 
 
 unaffected by temptations. 
 wear round, turn the vessel about 
 
 by swinging the bow with the wind, 
 
 instead of against it. 
 weather-quarter, the windward side, 
 weeds, garb; dress, 
 welter, turmoil. 
 Western Ocean, among the ancients, 
 
 the ocean lying to the west of the 
 
 then known world; the Atlantic, 
 wha hae wi', who have with. 
 Winthrop, one of the early governors 
 
 of Massachusetts colony, 
 wroth of mood, angry; wrathful. 
 
 yeoman, one of the poorer class of 
 English freemen. 
 
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