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10. Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil were first they trod!

They have left unstain'd what there they found!
Freedom to worship God!

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1. I HAD the honor to be a member of the fourteenth Congress. It was an honor then. What it is now, I shall not say. It is what the twenty-second Congress have been pleased to make it. I have neither time, nor strength, nor ability, to speak of the legislators of that day, as they deserve; nor is this a fit occasion. Yet the coldest or most careless nature, can not recur to such associates, without some touch of generous feeling, which, in quicker spirits, would kindle into high and almost holy *enthusiasm.

*

2. Pre-eminent, among them, was a gentleman of South Carolina, now no more, the purest, the calmest, the most philosophical of our country's modern statesmen: one, no less remarkable for gentleness of manners and kindness of heart, than for that passionless, unclouded intellect, which rendered him deserving of the praise, if ever man deserved it, of merely standing by, and letting reason argue for him : the true patriot, incapable of all selfish ambition, who shunned office and distinction, yet served his country faithfully, because he loved her: he, I mean, who consecrated, by his example, the noble precept, so entirely his own, that the first station in a republic was neither to be sought after nor declined; a sentiment so just and so happily expressed, that it continues to be repeated, because it can not be improved.

3. There was, also, a gentleman from Marylandt, whose ashes now slumber in your *cemetry. It is not long since I stood by his tomb, and recalled him, as he was then, in all the pride and power of his genius. Among the first of his countrymen and cotemporaries, as a jurist and statesman, first as an orator, he was, if not truly eloquent, the prince of

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+rhetoricians. Nor did the soundness of his +logic suffer any thing, by a comparison with the richness and classical purity of the language, in which he +copiously poured forth those figurative illustrations of his argument, which enforced while they adorned it. But let others pronounce his eulogy. I must not. I feel as if his mighty spirit still haunted the scenes of its triumphs, and when I dared to wrong them, indignantly rebuked me.

4. These names have become thistorical. There were others, of whom it is more difficult to speak, because yet within the reach of praise or envy. For one who was, or aspired to be, a politician, it would be prudent, perhaps wise, to avoid all mention of these men. Their acts, their words, their thoughts, their very looks, have become subjects of party controversy. But he whose ambition is of a higher or lower order, has no such need of reserve. Talent is of no party exclusively; nor is justice.

5. Among them, but not of them, in the fearful and solitary sublimity of genius, stood a gentleman from Virginia*-whom it were superfluous to designate; whose speeches were universally read; whose satire was universally feared. Upon whose accents, did this habitually listless and unlistening House, hang so frequently, with rapt attention? Whose fame was identified with that body for so long a period? Who was a more dextrous debater? a riper scholar? better versed in the politics of our own country? or deeper read in the history of others? Above all, who was more thoroughly timbued with the idiom of the English language? more completely master of its strength, and beauty, and delicacy? or more capable of breathing thoughts of flame, in words of magic and tones of silver?

6. There was, also, a son of South Carolina,† still in the service of the republic, then, undoubtedly, the most influential member of this house. With a genius eminently *metaphysical, he applied to politics his habits of analysis, tabstraction, and condensation, and thus gave to the *problems of government, something of that grandeur, which the higher mathematics have borrowed from astronomy. The

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wings of his mind were rapid, but capricious, and there were times, when the light which flashed from them as they passed, glanced like a mirror in the sun, only to dazzle the beholder. +Engrossed with his subject, careless of his words, his loftiest flights of eloquence were sometimes followed by colloquial or *provincial +barbarisms. But, though often incorrect, he was always fascinating. Language, with him, was merely the scaffolding of thought, employed to raise a dome, which, like Angelo's, he suspended in the heavens.

7. It is equally impossible to forget or to omit, a gentleman from Kentucky,* whom party has since made the fruitful topic of unmeasured panegyric and detraction. Of *sanguine temperament, and impetuous character, his declamation was impassioned, his retorts acrimonious. Deficient in refinement, rather than in strength, his style was less elegant and correct, than animated and impressive. But it swept away your feelings with it, like a mountain torrent, and the force of the stream left you little leisure to remark upon its clearness. His estimate of human nature was, probably, not very high. Unhappily, it is, perhaps, more likely to have been lowered, than raised, by his subsequent experience. Yet then and ever since, except when that imprudence so natural to genius, prevailed over his better judgment, he adopted a lofty tone of sentiment, whether he spoke of measures or of men, of friend or adversary. On many occasions, he was noble and captivating. One, I can never forget. It was the fine burst of indignant eloquence, with which he replied to the taunting question, "What have we gained by the war?"

8. Nor may I pass over in silence a representative from New Hampshire,† who has almost obliterated all memory of that distinction, by the superior fame he has attained as a senator from Massachusetts. Though then but in the bud of his political life, and hardly conscious, perhaps, of his own extraordinary powers, he gave promise of the greatness he has since achieved. The same vigor of thought; the same force of expression; the short sentences; the calm, cold, collected manner; the air of solemn dignity; the deep, *sepul

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chral, unimpassioned voice; all have been developed only, not changed, even to the intense bitterness of his frigid *irony. The piercing coldness of his sarcasm was, indeed, peculiar to him; it seemed to be an emanation from the spirit of the icy ocean. Nothing could be at once so novel and so powerful; it was frozen mercury, becoming as caustic as red hot iron.

CIV. THE AMERICAN FLAG.
FROM DRAKE.

1. WHEN Freedom, from her mountain hight,
+Unfurl'd her standard to the air,
She tore the tazure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes,
The milky +baldrick of the skies,
And strip'd 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.

2. +Majestic monarch of the cloud!

Who rear 'st aloft thy *regal form,
To hear the tempest trumping loud,
And see the lightning-lances driven,

When strides the warrior of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven;
Child of the sun! to thee 't is given
To guard the banner of the free,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows in the cloud of war,
The tharbinger of victory.

3. Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly
The sign of hope and triumph high.
When speaks the signal-trumpet tone,
And the long line comes *gleaming on,

Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has +dimm'd the glistening bayonet,
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy +meteor glories burn,
And as his springing steps advance
Catch war and vengeance from the glance;
And when the cannon's +mouthings loud,
Heave, in wild wreaths, the battle shroud,
And +gory sabers rise and fall,

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,
There shall thy victor glances glow,
And +cowering foes shall sink below
Each gallant arm, that strikes beneath
That awful +messenger of death.

4. Flag of the seas! on ocean's 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,
The 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.

5. Flag of the free heart's only home!
By angel hands to valor given,
Thy stars have lit the +welkin +dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,

And Freedom's banner waving o'er us?

CV. THE EAGLE.

FROM PERCIVAL.

JAMES G. PERCIVAL, a native of Connecticut, was a poet of distinction. He was also distinguished as a Geologist, Botanist, and Philologist. He was remarkable for his extreme modesty and reserve, as well as for his learning and poetic talent. He has recently died.

1. BIRD of the broad and sweeping wing,

Thy home is high in heaven,

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