The American Union Speaker Part 57

What we have to do is clear. The dictate of wisdom, the impulse of patriotism, the instinct of safety and preservation, the lessons of the past, the hopes of the future, all bid us uphold the const.i.tutional Government of the United States, and by the power of force--a power which, of necessity, underlies all government--carry it triumphantly through this conflict, till its legitimate results are attained. Upon this power of force, the conspirators against this Government have relied from the beginning. They have expected to appeal to it, as is evident from the extent to which the Northern forts, a.r.s.enals, and people have been robbed of arms and munitions of war, which, during the last administration, were sent into the Southern States in numbers altogether disproportionate to their population, and unauthorized by law. If they believed in the right of peaceable secession from the Government of the United States, as a right clearly admitted and secured by the Const.i.tution, it is strange that they should have made such far-sighted preparations to maintain this right by forcible resistance to its authority. To this power, these conspirators and those whom they had beguiled from their allegiance, made a direct appeal when they fired their first shot upon Fort Sumter. This appeal, the United States Government is compelled to meet, and by the strong arm of its military power, at the point of the bayonet, and beneath the smoke and blaze of its guns, enforce the obedience which reason, if it had not been dethroned, would never have refused, and recover the allegiance which patriotism, if it had not been deceived and bewildered, would never have relinquished. In this case, it is not the Government that inaugurates civil war, but the men who, by treason and rebellion, are seeking to overturn it; and for this gigantic crime,--the crime of disturbing the peace of thirty millions of people, of attempting to dismember a Union fraught with manifest advantages to all embraced in it, and to overturn, by force, a Government benignant in its sway, and mighty in its protection, its benefits, and its blessings,--for this crime they have no justification.

Under civil inst.i.tutions, republican and representative in their character, where there are legitimate, const.i.tutional channels provided for the expression of the popular will, through which the Government can be modified, its organic or its statute laws reached, altered, amended, so as to meet the wishes of the majority, or protect the rights of a minority, there can be no justification of rebellion that will stand before the world, or secure a verdict of approval from the pen of impartial history.

If we would secure for ourselves that approval, let us stand be this const.i.tutional Government of the United States, and at whatever cost, carry it thorough to the legitimate results of this conflict.

S. K. Lothrop.

BOOK SECOND.

RECENT SELECTIONS.

POETRY.

CCCXXII.

OUR COUNTRY'S CALL.

Lay down the axe, fling by the spade: Leave in its track the toiling plough; The rifle and the bayonet-blade For arms like yours were fitter now; And let the hands that ply the pen Quit the light task, and learn to wield The horseman's crooked brand, and rein The charger on the battle-field.

Our country calls; away! away!

To where the blood-stream blots the green, Strike to defend the gentlest sway That Time in all his course has seen.

See, from a thousand coverts--see Spring the armed foes that haunt her track; They rush to smite her down, and we Must beat the banded traitors back.

Ho! st.u.r.dy as the oaks ye cleave, And moved as soon to fear and flight, Men of the glade and forest! leave Your woodcraft for the field of fight.

The arms that wield the axe must pour An iron tempest on the foe; His serried ranks shall reel before The arm that lays the panther low.

And ye who breast the mountain storm By gra.s.sy steep or highland lake, Come, for the land ye love, to form A bulwark that no foe can break.

Stand, like your own gray cliff's that mock The whirlwind; stand in her defence: The blast as soon shall move the rock As rushing squadron's bear ye thence.

And ye, whose homes are by her grand Swift rivers, rising far away, Come from the depth of her green land As mighty in your march as they; As terrible as when the rains Have swelled them over bank and bourn, With sudden floods to drown the plains And sweep along the woods uptorn.

And ye who throng, beside the deep, Her ports and hamlets of the strand, In number like the waves that leap On his long murmuring marge of sand, Come, like that deep, when, o'er his brim, He rises, all his floods to pour, And flings the proudest barks that swim, A helpless wreck against the sh.o.r.e.

Few, few were they whose swords, of old, Won the fair land in which we dwell; But we are many, we who hold The grim resolve to guard it well.

Strike for that broad and goodly land, Blow after blow, till men shall see That Might and Right move hand in hand, And glorious must their triumph be.

W. C. Bryant.

CCCXXIII.

NOT YET.

O country, marvel of the earth!

O realm to sudden greatness grown!

The age that gloried in thy birth, Shall it behold thee overthrown?

Shall traitors lay that greatness low?

No, Land of Hope and Blessing, No!

And we who wear thy glorious name, Shall we, like cravens, stand apart, When those whom thou hast trusted, aim The death-blow at thy generous heart?

Forth goes the battle-cry, and lo!

Hosts rise in harness, shouting, No!

And they who founded, in our land, The power that rules from sea to sea, Bled they in vain, or vainly planned To leave their country great and free?

Their sleeping ashes, from below, Send up the thrilling murmur, No!

Knit they the gentle ties which long These sister States were proud to wear, And forged the kindly links so strong For idle hands in sport to tear-- For scornful hands aside to throw?

No, by our fathers' memories, No!

Our humming marts, our iron ways, Our wind-tossed woods on mountain crest, The hoa.r.s.e Atlantic, with his bays, The calm, broad Ocean of the West, And Mississippi's torrent flow, And loud Niagara, answer, No!

Not yet the hour is nigh, when they Who deep in Eld's dim twilight sit, Earth's ancient kings, shall rise and say, "Proud country, welcome to the pit!

So soon art thou, like us, brought low?"

No, sullen group of shadows, No!

For now, behold the arm that gave The victory in our fathers' day, Strong as of old, to guard and save-- That mighty arm which none can stay-- On clouds above and fields below, Writes, in men's sight, the answer, No!

W. C. Bryant.

CCCXXIV.

THE AMERICAN FLAG.

At last, at last, each glowing star In that pure field of heavenly blue, On every people shining far, Burns, to its utmost promise true.

Hopes in our fathers' hearts that stirred, Justice, the seal of peace, long scorned, O perfect peace! too long deferred, At last, at last, your day has dawned.

Your day has dawned, but many an hour Of storm and cloud, of doubt and tears, Across the eternal sky must lower, Before the glorious noon appears.

And not for us that noontide glow: For us the strife and toil shall be; But welcome toil, for now we know Our children shall that glory see.

At last, at last, O Stars and Stripes!

Touched in your birth by Freedom's flame, Your purifying lightning wipes Out from our history its shame.

Stand to your faith, America!

Sad Europe listen to our call!

Up to your manhood, Africa!

That gracious flag floats over all.

And when the hour seems dark with doom, Our sacred banner, lifted higher, Shall flash away the gathering gloom With inextinguishable fire.

Pure as its white the future see!

Bright as its red is now the sky!

Fixed as its stars the faith shall be, That nerves our hands to do or die.

G. W. Curtis

CCCXXV.