The Poems of Philip Freneau Volume II Part 29

[204] "Hoa.r.s.e-mouth'd whelps."--_Ib._

[205] "And one dark chaos gloom."--_Ib._

[206] "Canonize."--_Freeman's Journal._

[207] "Fallon, the priest."--_Ed. 1786._

THE PROPHECY OF KING TAMMANY[208]

The Indian chief who, famed of yore, Saw Europe's sons adventuring here, Looked, sorrowing, to the crowded sh.o.r.e, And sighing dropt a tear!

He saw them half his world explore, He saw them draw the shining blade, He saw their hostile ranks displayed, And cannons blazing through that shade Where only peace was known before.

"Ah, what unequal arms!" he cried, "How art thou fallen, my country's pride, "The rural, sylvan reign!

"Far from our pleasing sh.o.r.es to go "To western rivers, winding slow, "Is this the boon the G.o.ds bestow!

"What have we done, great patrons, say, "That strangers seize our woods away, "And drive us naked from our native plain?

"Rage and revenge inspire my soul, "And pa.s.sion burns without controul; "Hence, strangers, to your native sh.o.r.e!

"Far from our Indian shades retire, "Remove these G.o.ds that vomit fire, "And stain with blood these ravaged glades no more; "In vain I weep, in vain I sigh, "These strangers all our arms defy, "As they advance our chieftains die!-- "What can their hosts oppose!

"The bow has lost its wonted spring, "The arrow faulters on the wing, "Nor carries ruin from the string "To end their being and our woes.

"Yes, yes,--I see our nation bends; "The G.o.ds no longer are our friends;-- "But why these weak complaints and sighs?

"Are there not gardens in the west, "Where all our far-famed Sachems rest?-- "I'll go, an unexpected guest, "And the dark horrors of the way despise.

"Even now the thundering peals draw nigh, "'Tis theirs to triumph, ours to die!

"But mark me, Christian, ere I go-- "Thou, too, shalt have thy share of woe; "The time rolls on, not moving slow, "When hostile squadrons for your blood shall come, "And ravage all your sh.o.r.e!

"Your warriors and your children slay, "And some in dismal dungeons lay, "Or lead them captive far away "To climes unknown, through seas untried before.

"When struggling long, at last with pain "You break a cruel tyrant's chain, "That never shall be joined again, "When half your foes are homeward fled, "And hosts on hosts in triumph led, "And hundreds maimed and thousands dead, "A sordid race will then succeed, "To slight the virtues of the firmer race, "That brought your tyrant to disgrace, "Shall give your honours to an odious train, "Who shunned all conflicts on the main "And dared no battles on the b.l.o.o.d.y plain, "Whose little souls sunk in the gloomy day "When virtue only could support the fray "And sunshine friends kept off--or ran away."

So spoke the chief, and raised his funeral pyre-- Around him soon the crackling flames ascend; He smiled amid the fervours of the fire To think his troubles were so near their end, 'Till the freed soul, her debt to nature paid, Rose from the ashes that her prison made, And sought the world unknown, and dark oblivion's shade.

[208] Published in the _Freeman's Journal_, December 11, 1782.

Tammany was an Indian chieftain of the Lenni Lennape Confederacy of New York and Pennsylvania during the early colonial era. There is a tradition that he was the first Indian to welcome William Penn to America. Some traditions locate his lodge near the present site of Princeton College and others make him end his long life near a spring in Bucks county, Pa. He figures in Cooper's novel, "The Last of the Mohicans."

RIVINGTON'S REFLECTIONS[209]

I.

The more I reflect, the more plain it appears, If I stay, I must stay at the risque of my ears, I have so be-peppered the foes of our throne, Be-rebelled, be-deviled, and told them their own, That if we give up to these rebels at last,[210]

'Tis a chance if my ears will atone for the past.

'Tis always the best to provide for the worst-- So evacuation I'll mention the first: If Carleton should sail for our dear native sh.o.r.e (As Clinton, Cornwallis, and Howe did before) And take off the soldiers that serve for our guard, (A step that the Tories would think rather hard) Yet still I surmise, for aught I can see, No Congress or Senates would meddle with me.

For what have I done, when we come to consider, But sold my commodities to the best bidder?

If I offered to lie for the sake of a post, Was I to be blamed if the king offered most?

The King's Royal Printer!--Five hundred a year!

Between you and me, 'twas a handsome affair: Who would not for that give matters a stretch, And lie back and forward, and carry and fetch, May have some pretensions to honour and fame-- But what are they both but the sound of a name, Mere words to deceive us, as I have found long since, Live on them a week, and you'll find them but nonsense.

The late news from Charleston my mind has perplext, If that is abandoned,--I know what goes next: This city of York is a place of great note, And that we should hold it I now give my vote; But what are our votes against Shelburne's[211] decrees?

These people at helm steer us just where they please, So often they've had us all hands on the brink, They'll steer us at last to the devil, I think: And though in the danger themselves have a share, It will do us small good that they also go there.

It is true that the Tories, their children, and wives Have offered to stay at the risque of their lives, And gain to themselves an immortal renown By all turning soldiers, and keeping the town: Whoe'er was the Tory that struck out the plan, In my humble conceit, was a very good man; But our words on this subject need be very few-- Already I see that it never will do: For, suppose a few ships should be left us by Britain, With Tories to man them, and other things fitting, In truth we should be in a very fine box, As well they might guard us with ships on the stocks, And when I beheld them aboard and afloat, I am sure I should think of the bear in the boat.[A]

On the faith of a printer, things look very black-- And what shall we do, alas! and alack!

Shall we quit our young princes and full blooded peers, And bow down to viscounts and French chevaliers?

Perhaps you may say, "As the very last shift "We'll go to New-Scotland, and take the king's gift."

Good folks, do your will--but I vow and I swear, I'll be boil'd into soup before I'll live there: Is it thus that our monarch his subjects degrades?-- Let him go and be d.a.m.ned, with his axes and spades, Of all the vile countries that ever were known In the frigid, or torrid, or temperate zone, (From accounts that I've had) there is not such another; It neither belongs to this world or the other: A favor they think to send us there gratis To sing like the Jews at the river Euphrates, And, after surmounting the rage of the billows, Hang ourselves up at last with our harps on the willows; Ere I sail for that sh.o.r.e, may I take my last nap-- Why, it gives me the palsy to look on its map!

And he that goes there (though I mean to be civil) May fairly be said to have gone to the devil.

Shall I push for Old England, and whine at the throne?

Indeed! they have Jemmies enough of their own!

Besides, such a name I have got from my trade, They would think I was lying, whatever I said; Thus scheme as I will, or contrive as I may, Continual difficulties rise in the way: In short, if they let me remain in this realm, What is it to Jemmy who stands at the helm?

I'll pet.i.tion the rebels (if York is forsaken) For a place in their Zion which ne'er shall be shaken I am sure they'll be clever: it seems their whole study: They hung not young Asgill for old captain Huddy,[212]

And it must be a truth that admits no denying, If they spare us for Murder they'll spare us for Lying.

[A] See Gay's Fables.--_Freneau's note, Ed. 1786._

II.

Folks may think as they please, but to me it would seem, That our great men at home have done nothing but dream: Such tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and twisting and shifting about, And some getting in, and others turned out; And yet, with their bragging and looking so big, All they did was to dance a theatrical jig.

Seven years now, and more, we have tried every plan, And are just as near conquering as when we began, Great things were expected from Clinton and Howe, But what have they done, or where are they now?

Sir Guy was sent over to kick up a dust, Who already prepares to return in disgust-- The object delusive we wish to attain Has been in our reach, and may be so again-- But so oddly does heaven its bounties dispense, And has granted our king such a small share of sense That, let Fortune favour or smile as she will, We are doomed to drive on, like a horse in a mill, And though we may seem to advance on our rout, 'Tis but to return to where we sate out.

From hence I infer (by way of improvement) That nothing is got by this circular movement; And I plainly perceive, from this fatal delay, We are going to ruin the round-about way!

Some nations, like ships, give up to the gale, And are hurried ash.o.r.e with a full flowing sail; So Sweden submitted to absolute power, And freemen were changed to be slaves in an hour; Thus Theodore soon from his grandeur came down, Forsaking his subjects and Corsican crown; But we--'tis our fate, without ally or friend, To go to perdition, close hauled to the wind.

The case is too plain, that if I stay here I have something to hope and something to fear: In regard to my carcase, I shouldn't mind that-- I can say "I have lived," and have grown very fat; Have been in my day remarkable shifty, And soon, very soon, will be verging on fifty.

'Tis time for the state of the dead to prepare, 'Tis time to consider how things will go there; Some few are admitted to Jupiter's hall, But the dungeons of Pluto are open to all-- The day is approaching as fast as it can When Jemmy will be a mere moderate man, Will sleep under ground both summer and winter, The hulk of a man, and the sh.e.l.l of a printer, And care not a farthing for George, or his line, What empires start up, or what kingdoms decline.

Our parson last Sunday brought tears from my eyes, When he told us of heaven, I thought of my lies-- To his flock he described it, and laid it before 'em, (As if he had been in its _Sanctum Sanctorum_) Recounted its beauties that never shall fade, And quoted John Bunyan to prove what he said; Debarred from the gate who the Truth should deny, Or "whosoe'er loveth or maketh a lie."

Through the course of my life it has still been my lot In spite of myself, to say "things that are not."

And therefore suspect that upon my decease Not a poet will leave me to slumber in peace, But at least once a week be-scribble the stone Where Jemmy, poor Jemmy, lies sleeping alone!

Howe'er in the long run these matters may be, If the scripture is true, it has bad news for me-- And yet, when I come to examine the text, And the learned annotations that Poole has annexed, Throughout the black list of the people that sin I cannot once find that I'm mention'd therein; Wh.o.r.emongers, idolators, all are left out, And wizards and dogs (which is proper, no doubt) But he who says, I'm there, mistakes or forgets-- It mentions no Printers of Royal Gazettes!

In truth, I have need of a mansion of rest, And here to remain might suit me the best-- Philadelphia in some things would answer as well, (Some Tories are there, and my papers might sell) But then I should live amongst wrangling and strife, And be forced to say _credo_ the rest of my life: For their sudden conversion I'm much at a loss-- I am told that they bow to the wood of the cross, And worship the reliques transported from Rome, St. Peter's toe-nails, and St. Anthony's comb.-- If thus the true faith they no longer defend I scarcely can think where the madness will end-- If the greatest among them submit to the Pope, What reason have I for indulgence to hope?

If the Congress themselves to the Chapel did pa.s.s,[B]

Ye may swear that poor Jemmy would have to sing ma.s.s.

[B] "On the 4th of November last, the clergy and select men of Boston paraded through the streets after a crucifix, and joined in a procession in praying for a departed soul out of Purgatory; and for this they gave the example of Congress, and other American leaders, on a former occasion at Philadelphia, some of whom, in the height of their zeal, even went so far as to sprinkle themselves with what they call _Holy water_."--_Royal Gazette_, of December 11 inst.--_Freneau's note._

[209] Published in the _Freeman's Journal_, December, 1782, in two installments and inserted without change in the edition of 1786. The first installment bore the motto "_Inclusus poenam expectat_.--Virg.,"

and the second the motto "_Incertus quo fata ferant, quo sistere detur_.--Virg." Almost no change was made in the text for the later editions. Rivington bore this attack with coolness; he calmly inserted the first installment of the poem in his _Royal Gazette_ for December 14, and gave to it the following introduction: "Mr. Rivington, having been applied to by many gentlemen for a pleasant publication respecting himself, exhibited in the Philadelphia _Freeman's Journal_, of December 4th, takes leave to copy it into this Day's Gazette, and a.s.sures the Author that a Column shall at any time be most cheerfully reserved to convey that Gentleman's lively Lucubrations to the Public."

[210] "Rivington, in his _Gazette_, fought the _Rebels_, a term of which he made very frequent use while he entertained the opinion that the Americans would be subjected by the British arms."--Thomas's _History of Printing_.

[211] Shelburne was at the head of the British ministry but seven months, yet in that time, by his firmness and zeal, he accomplished a final settlement of the quarrel with the colonies. "The treaty," says Bancroft, "which ruled the fate of a hemisphere was mainly due to Lord Shelburne."