The Columbiad: A Poem Part 18

Thus toned the t.i.tan his tremendous knell, And lash'd his ocean to a loftier swell; Earth groans responsive, and with laboring woes Leans o'er the surge and stills the storm he throws.

Fathers and friends, I know the boding fears Of angry genii and of rending spheres a.s.sail not souls like yours; whom Science bright Thro shadowy nature leads with surer light; For whom she strips the heavens of love and hate, Strikes from Jove's hand the brandisht bolt of fate, Gives each effect its own indubious cause, Divides her moral from her physic laws, Shows where the virtues find their nurturing food, And men their motives to be just and good.

You scorn the t.i.tan's threat; nor shall I strain The powers of pathos in a task so vain As Afric's wrongs to sing; for what avails To harp for you these known familiar tales?

To tongue mute misery, and re-rack the soul With crimes oft copied from that b.l.o.o.d.y scroll Where Slavery pens her woes; tho tis but there We learn the weight that mortal life can be.

The tale might startle still the accustom'd ear, Still shake the nerve that pumps the pearly tear, Melt every heart, and thro the nation gain Full many a voice to break the barbarous chain.

But why to sympathy for guidance fly, (Her aids uncertain and of scant supply) When your own self-excited sense affords A guide more sure, and every sense accords?

Where strong self-interest, join'd with duty, lies, Where doing right demands no sacrifice, Where profit, pleasure, life-expanding fame League their allurements to support the claim, Tis safest there the impleaded cause to trust; Men well instructed will be always just.

From slavery then your rising realms to save, Regard the master, notice not the slave; Consult alone for freemen, and bestow Your best, your only cares, to keep them so.

Tyrants are never free; and, small and great, All masters must be tyrants soon or late; So nature works; and oft the lordling knave Turns out at once a tyrant and a slave, Struts, cringes, bullies, begs, as courtiers must, Makes one a G.o.d, another treads in dust, Fears all alike, and filches whom he can, But knows no equal, finds no friend in man.

Ah! would you not be slaves, with lords and kings, Then be not masters; there the danger springs.

The whole crude system that torments this earth, Of rank, privation, privilege of birth, False honor, fraud, corruption, civil jars, The rage of conquest and the curse of wars, Pandora's total shower, all ills combined That erst o'erwhelm'd and still distress mankind, Box'd up secure in your deliberate hand, Wait your behest, to fix or fly this land.

Equality of Right is nature's plan; And following nature is the march of man.

Whene'er he deviates in the least degree, When, free himself, he would be more than free, The baseless column, rear'd to bear his bust, Falls as he mounts, and whelms him in the dust.

See Rome's rude sires, with autocratic gait, Tread down their tyrant and erect their state; Their state secured, they deem it wise and brave That every freeman should command a slave, And, flusht with franchise of his camp and town, Rove thro the world and hunt the nations down; Master and man the same vile spirit gains, Rome chains the world, and wears herself the chains.

Mark modern Europe with her feudal codes, Serfs, villains, va.s.sals, n.o.bles, kings and G.o.ds, All slaves of different grades, corrupt and curst With high and low, for senseless rank athirst, Wage endless wars; not fighting to be free, But _cujum pecus_, whose base herd they'll be.

Too much of Europe, here transplanted o'er, Nursed feudal feelings on your tented sh.o.r.e, Brought sable serfs from Afric, call'd it gain, And urged your sires to forge the fatal chain.

But now, the tents o'erturn'd, the war dogs fled, Now fearless Freedom rears at last her head Matcht with celestial Peace,--my friends, beware To shade the splendors of so bright a pair; Complete their triumph, fix their firm abode, Purge all privations from your liberal code, Restore their souls to men, give earth repose, And save your sons from slavery, wars and woes.

Based on its rock of Right your empire lies, On walls of wisdom let the fabric rise; Preserve your principles, their force unfold, Let nations prove them and let kings behold.

EQUALITY, your first firm-grounded stand; Then FREE ELECTION; then your FEDERAL BAND; This holy Triad should forever s.h.i.+ne The great compendium of all rights divine, Creed of all schools, whence youths by millions draw Their themes of right, their decalogues of law; Till men shall wonder (in these codes inured) How wars were made, how tyrants were endured.

Then shall your works of art superior rise, Your fruits perfume a larger length of skies, Ca.n.a.ls careering climb your sunbright hills, Vein the green slopes and strow their nurturing rills, Thro tunnel'd heights and sundering ridges glide, Rob the rich west of half Kenhawa's tide, Mix your wide climates, all their stores confound, And plant new ports in every midland mound.

Your lawless Missisippi, now who slimes And drowns and desolates his waste of climes, Ribb'd with your dikes, his torrent shall restrain, And ask your leave to travel to the main; Won from his wave while rising cantons smile, Rear their glad nations and reward their toil.

Thus Nile's proud flood to human hands of yore Raised and resign'd his tide-created sh.o.r.e, Call'd from his Ethiop hills their hardy swains, And waved their harvests o'er his newborn plains; Earth's richest realm from his tamed current sprung; There nascent science toned her infant tongue, Taught the young arts their tender force to try, To state the seasons and unfold the sky; Till o'er the world extended and refined, They rule the destinies of humankind.

Now had Columbus well enjoy'd the sight Of armies vanquisht and of fleets in flight, From all Hesperia's heaven the darkness flown, And colon crowds to sovereign sages grown.

To cast new glories o'er the changing clime, The guardian Power reversed the flight of time, Roll'd back the years that led their course before, Stretch'd out immense the wild uncultured sh.o.r.e; Then s.h.i.+fts the total scene, and rears to view Arts and the men that useful arts pursue.

As o'er the canva.s.s when the painter's mind Glows with a future landscape well design'd, While Panorama's wondrous aid he calls, To crowd whole realms within his circling walls, Lakes, fields and forests, ports and navies rise, A new creation to his kindling eyes; He smiles o'er all; sand in delightful strife The pencil moves and Calls the whole to life.

So while Columbia's patriarch stood sublime, And saw rude nature clothe the trackless clime; The green banks heave, the winding currents pour, The bays and harbors cleave the yielding sh.o.r.e, The champaigns spread, the solemn groves arise, And the rough mountains lengthen round the skies; Thro all their bounds he traced, with skilful ken, The unform'd seats and future walks of men; Mark'd where the field should bloom, the pennon play, Great cities grow and empires claim their sway; When, sudden waked by Hesper's waving hand, They rose obedient round the cultured land.

In western tracts, where still the wildmen tread, From sea to sea an inland commerce spread; On the dim streams and thro the gloomy grove The trading bauds their c.u.mbrous burdens move; Furs, peltry, drugs, and all the native store Of midland realms descended to the sh.o.r.e.

Where summer suns, along the northern coast, With feeble force dissolve the chains of frost, Prolific waves the scaly nations trace, And tempt the toils of man's laborious race.

Tho rich Brazilian strands, beneath the tide, Their sh.e.l.ls of pearl and sparkling pebbles hide, While for the gaudy prize a venturous train Plunge the dark deep and brave the surging main, Drag forth the s.h.i.+ning gewgaws into air, To stud a sceptre or emblaze a star; Far wealthier stores these genial tides display, And works less dangerous with their spoils repay.

The Hero saw the hardy crews advance, Cast the long line and aim the barbed lance; Load the deep floating barks, and bear abroad To every land the life-sustaining food; Renascent swarms by nature's care supplied, Repeople still the shoals and fin the fruitful tide.

Where southern streams thro broad savannas bend, The rice-clad vales their verdant rounds extend; Tobago's plant its leaf expanding yields, The maize luxuriant clothes a thousand fields; Steeds, herds and flocks o'er northern regions rove, Embrown the hill and wanton thro the grove.

The woodlands wide their st.u.r.dy honors bend, The pines, the liveoaks to the sh.o.r.es descend, There couch the keels, the crooked ribs arise, Hulls heave aloft and mastheads mount the skies; Launcht on the deep o'er every wave they Feed tropic isles and Europe's looms supply.

To nurse the arts and fas.h.i.+on freedom's lore Young schools of science rise along the sh.o.r.e; Great without pomp their modest walls expand, Harvard and Yale and Princeton grace the land, Penn's student halls his youths with gladness greet, On James's bank Virginian Muses meet, Manhattan's mart collegiate domes command, Bosom'd in groves, see growing Dartmouth stand; Bright o'er its realm reflecting solar fires, On yon tall hill Rhode Island's seat aspires.

Thousands of humbler name around them rise, Where homebred freemen seize the solid prize; Fixt in small spheres, with safer beams to s.h.i.+ne, They reach the useful and refuse the fine, Found, on its proper base, the social plan, The broad plain truths, the common sense of man, His obvious wants, his mutual aids discern, His rights familiarize, his duties learn, Feel moral fitness all its force dilate, Embrace the village and comprise the state.

Each rustic here who turns the furrow'd soil, The maid, the youth that ply mechanic toil, In equal rights, in useful arts inured, Know their just claims, and see their claims secured; They watch their delegates, each law revise, Its faults designate and its merits prize, Obey, but scrutinize; and let the test Of sage experience prove and fix the best.

Here, fired by virtue's animating flame, The preacher's task persuasive sages claim, To mould religion to the moral mind, In bands of peace to harmonize mankind, To life, to light, to promised joys above The soften'd soul with ardent hope to move.

No dark intolerance blinds the zealous throng, No arm of power attendant on their tongue; Vext Inquisition, with her flaming brand, Shuns their mild march, nor dares approach the land.

Tho different creeds their priestly robes denote, Their orders various and their rites remote, Yet one their voice, their labors all combined, Lights of the world and friends of humankind.

So the bright galaxy o'er heaven displays Of various stars the same unbounded blaze; Where great and small their mingling rays unite, And earth and skies exchange the friendly light.

And lo, my son that other sapient band, The torch of science flamiflg in their hand!

Thro nature's range their searching souls aspire, Or wake to life the canva.s.s and the lyre.

Fixt in sublimest thought, behold them rise World after world unfolding to their eyes, Lead, light, allure them thro the total plan, And give new guidance to the paths of man.

Yon meteor-mantled hill see Franklin tread, Heaven's awful thunders tolling o'er his head, Convolving clouds the billowy skies deform, And forky flames emblaze the blackening storm, See the descending streams around him burn, Glance on his rod and with his finger turn; He bids conflicting fulminants expire The guided blast, and holds the imprison'd fire.

No more, when doubling storms the vault o'erspread, The livid glare shall strike thy race with dread, Nor towers nor temples, shuddering with the sound, Sink in the flames and shake the sheeted ground.

His well tried wires, that every tempest wait, Shall teach mankind to ward the bolts of fate, With pointed steel o'ertop the trembling spire, And lead from untouch'd walls the harmless flre; Fill'd with his fame while distant climes rejoice, Wherever lightning s.h.i.+nes or thunder rears its voice.

And see sage Rittenhouse, with ardent eye, Lift the long tube and pierce the starry sky; Clear in his view the circling planets roll, And suns and satellites their course control.

He marks what laws the widest wanderers bind, Copies creation in his forming mind, Sees in his hall the total semblance rise, And mimics there the labors of the skies.

There student youths without their tubes behold The spangled heavens their mystic maze unfold, And crowded schools their cheerful chambers grace With all the spheres that cleave the vast of s.p.a.ce.

To guide the sailor in his wandering way, See G.o.dfrey's gla.s.s reverse the beams of day.

His lifted quadrant to the eye displays From adverse skies the counteracting rays; And marks, as devious sails bewilder'd roll, Each nice gradation from the steadfast pole.

West with his own great soul the canva.s.s warms, Creates, inspires, impa.s.sions human forms, Spurns critic rules, and seizing safe the heart, Breaks down the former frightful bounds of Art; Where ancient manners, with exclusive reign, From half mankind withheld her fair domain.

He calls to life each patriot, chief or sage, Garb'd in the dress and drapery of his age.

Again bold Regulus to death returns, Again her falling Wolfe Britannia mourns; Lahogue, Boyne, Cressy, Nevilcross demand And gain fresh l.u.s.tre from his copious hand; His Lear stalks wild with woes, the G.o.ds defies, Insults the tempest and outstorms the skies; Edward in arms to frowning combat moves, Or, won to pity by the queen he loves, Spares the devoted Six, whose deathless deed Preserves the town his vengeance doom'd to bleed.

With rival force, see Copley's pencil trace The air of action and the charms of face.

Fair in his tints unfold the scenes of state, The senate listens and the peers debate; Pale consternation every heart appals, In act to speak, when death-struck Chatham fails.

He bids dread Calpe cease to shake the waves, While Elliott's arm the host of Bourbon saves; O'er sail-wing'd batteries sinking in the flood, Mid flames and darkness, drench'd in hostile blood, Britannia's sons extend their generous hand To rescue foes from death, and bear them to the land.

Fired with the martial deeds that bathed in gore His brave companions on his native sh.o.r.e, Trumbull with daring hand their fame recals; He shades with night Quebec's beleagured walls, Thro flas.h.i.+ng flames, that midnight war supplies, The a.s.sailants yield, their great Montgomery dies.

On Bunker height, thro floods of hostile fire, His Putnam toils till all the troops retire, His Warren, pierced with b.a.l.l.s, at last lies low, And leaves a victory to the wasted foe.

Britannia too his glowing tint shall claim, To pour new splendor on her Calpean fame; He leads her bold sortie, and from their towers O'erturns the Gallic and Iberian powers.

See rural seats of innocence and ease, High tufted towers and walks of waving trees, The white wates das.h.i.+ng on the Craggy sh.o.r.es, Meandring streams and meads of mingled flowers, Where nature's sons their wild excursions tread, In just design from Taylor's pencil spread.

Stuart and Brown the moving portrait raise, Each rival stroke the force of life conveys; Heroes and beauties round their tablets stand, And rise unfading from their plastic hand; Each breathing form preserves its wonted grace, And all the Soul stands speaking in the face.

Two kindred arts the swelling statue heave, Wake the dead wax, and teach the stone to live.

While the bold chissel claims the rugged strife, To rouse the sceptred marble into life,

See Wright's fair hands the livelier fire control, In waxen forms she breathes impa.s.sion'd soul; The pencil'd tint o'er moulded substance glows, And different powers the peerless art compose.

Grief, rage and fear beneath her fingers start, Roll the wild eye and pour the bursting heart; The world's dead fathers wait her wakening call; And distant ages fill the storied hall.

To equal fame ascends thy tuneful throng, The boast of genius and the pride of song; Caught from the cast of every age and clime, Their lays shall triumph o'er the lapse of time.

With lynx-eyed glance thro nature far to pierce, With all the powers and every charm of verse, Each science opening in his ample mind, His fancy glowing and his taste refined, See Trumbull lead the train. His skilful hand Hurls the keen darts of satire round the land.

Pride, knavery, dullness feel his mortal stings, And listening virtue triumphs while he sings; Britain's foil'd sons, victorious now no more, In guilt retiring from the wasted sh.o.r.e, Strive their curst cruelties to hide in vain; The world resounds them in his deathless strain.