* * * * *
My friend, the Rev. Mr. Wilbur, having been seized with a dangerous fit of illness, before this Introduction had passed through the press, and being incapacitated for all literary exertion, sent to me his notes, memoranda, &c., and requested me to fashion them into some shape more fitting for the general eye. This, owing to the fragmentary and disjointed state of his manuscripts, I have felt wholly unable to do; yet being unwilling that the reader should be deprived of such parts of his lucubrations as seemed more finished, and not well discerning how to segregate these from the rest, I have concluded to send them all to the press precisely as they are.
Pastor of a Church in Bungtown Corner.
It remains to speak of the Yankee dialect. And, first, it may be premised, in a general way, that any one much read in the writings of the early colonists need not be told that the far greater share of the words and phrases now esteemed peculiar to New England, and local there, were brought from the mother country. A person familiar with the dialect of certain portions of Massachusetts will not fail to recognize, in ordinary discourse, many words now noted in English vocabularies as archaic, the greater part of which were in common use about the time of the King James translation of the Bible. Shakespeare stands less in need of a glossary to most New-Englanders than to many a native of the Old Country. The peculiarities of our speech, however, are rapidly wearing out. As there is no country where reading is so universal and newspapers are so multitudinous, so no phrase remains long local, but is transplanted in the mail-bags to every remotest corner of the land. Consequently our dialect approaches nearer to uniformity than that of any other nation.
The English have complained of us for coining new words. Many of those so stigmatized were old ones by them forgotten, and all make now an unquestioned part of the currency, wherever English is spoken. Undoubtedly, we have a right to make new words, as they are needed by the fresh aspects under which life presents itself here in the New World; and, indeed, wherever a language is alive, it grows. It might be questioned whether we could not establish a stronger title to the ownership of the English tongue than the mother-islanders themselves. Here, past all question, is to be its great home and centre. And not only is it already spoken here by greater numbers, but with a far higher popular average of correctness than in Britain. The great writers of it, too, we might claim as ours, were ownership to be settled by the number of readers and lovers.
As regards the provincialisms to be met with in this volume, I may say that the reader will not find one which is not (as I believe) either native or imported with the early settlers, nor one which I have not, with my own ears, heard in familiar use. In the metrical portion of the book, I have endeavored to adapt the spelling as nearly as possible to the ordinary mode of pronunciation. Let the reader who deems me over-particular remember this caution of Martial:—
'Quem recitas, meus est, O Fidentine, libellus;Sed male cum recitas, incipit esse tuus.'
A few further explanatory remarks will not be impertinent.
I shall barely lay down a few general rules for the reader's guidance.
1. The genuine Yankee never gives the rough sound to therwhen he can help it, and often displays considerable ingenuity in avoiding it even before a vowel.
2. He seldom sounds the finalg, a piece of self-denial, if we consider his partiality for nasals. The same of the finald, ashan'andstan'forhandandstand.
3. Thehin such words aswhile, when, where,he omits altogether.
4. In regard toa, he shows some inconsistency, sometimes giving a close and obscure sound, ashevforhave, hendyforhandy, ezforas, thetforthat, and again giving it the broad sound it has infather, ashânsomeforhandsome.
5. To the soundouhe prefixes ane(hard to exemplify otherwise than orally).
The following passage in Shakespeare he would recite thus:—
'Neow is the winta uv eour discontentMed glorious summa by this sun o'Yock,An' all the cleouds thet leowered upun eour heouseIn the deep buzzum o' the oshin buried;Neow air eour breows beound 'ith victorious wreaths;Eour breused arms hung up fer monimunce;Eour starn alarums changed to merry meetins,Eour dreffle marches to delighfle masures.Grim-visaged war heth smeuthed his wrinkled front,An' neow, instid o' mountin' bare-bid steedsTo fright the souls o' ferfle edverseries,He capers nimly in a lady's chămber,To the lascivious pleasin' uv a loot.'
6.Au, in such words asdaughterandslaughter, he pronouncesah.
7. To the dish thus seasoned add a drawlad libitum.
[Mr. Wilbur's notes here become entirely fragmentary.—C.N.]
[Greek: a]. Unable to procure a likeness of Mr. Biglow, I thought the curious reader might be gratified with a sight of the editorial effigies. And here a choice between two was offered,—the one a profile (entirely black) cut by Doyle, the other a portrait painted by a native artist of much promise. The first of these seemed wanting in expression, and in the second a slight obliquity of the visual organs has been heightened (perhaps from an over-desire of force on the part of the artist) into too close an approach to actualstrabismus. This slight divergence in my optical apparatus from the ordinary model—however I may have been taught to regard it in the light of a mercy rather than a cross, since it enabled me to give as much of directness and personal application to my discourses as met the wants of my congregation, without risk of offending any by being supposed to have him or her in my eye (as the saying is)—seemed yet to Mrs. Wilbur a sufficient objection to the engraving of the aforesaid painting. We read of many who either absolutely refused to allow the copying of their features, as especially did Plotinus and Agesilaus among the ancients, not to mention the more modern instances of Scioppius, Palæottus, Pinellus, Velserus, Gataker, and others, or were indifferent thereto, as Cromwell.
[Greek: b.] Yet was Cæsar desirous of concealing his baldness.Per contra, my Lord Protector's carefulness in the matter of his wart might be cited. Men generally more desirous of beingimprovedin their portraits than characters. Shall probably find very unflattered likenesses of ourselves in Recording Angel's gallery.
[Greek: g.] Whether any of our national peculiarities may be traced to our use of stoves, as a certain closeness of the lips in pronunciation, and a smothered smoulderingness of disposition seldom roused to open flame? An unrestrained intercourse with fire probably conducive to generosity and hospitality of soul. Ancient Mexicans used stoves, as the friar Augustin Ruiz reports, Hakluyt, III. 468,—but Popish priests not always reliable authority.
To-day picked my Isabella grapes. Crop injured by attacks of rose-bug in the spring. Whether Noah was justifiable in preserving this class of insects?
[Greek: d]. Concerning Mr. Biglow's pedigree. Tolerably certain that there was never a poet among his ancestors. An ordination hymn attributed to a maternal uncle, but perhaps a sort of production not demanding the creative faculty.
His grandfather a painter of the grandiose or Michael Angelo school. Seldom painted objects smaller than houses or barns, and these with uncommon expression.
[Greek: e]. Of the Wilburs no complete pedigree. The crest said to be awild boar, whence, perhaps, the name. (?) A connection with the Earls of Wilbraham (quasiwild boar ham) might be made out. This suggestion worth following up. In 1677, John W.m. Expect——, had issue, 1. John, 2. Haggai, 3. Expect, 4. Ruhamah, 5. Desire.
'Here lyes y'e bodye of Mrs. Expect Wilber,Ye crewell salvages they kil'd herTogether w'th other Christian soles eleaven,October y'e ix daye, 1707.Y'e stream of Jordan sh' as crost oreAnd now expeacts me on y'e other shore:I live in hope her soon to join;Her earthlye yeeres were forty and nine.'
From Gravestone in Pekussett, North Parish.
This is unquestionably the same John who afterward (1711) marriedTabitha Hagg or Ragg.
But if this were the case, she seems to have died early; for only three years after, namely, 1714, we have evidence that he married Winifred, daughter of Lieutenant Tipping.
He seems to have been a man of substance, for we find him in 1696 conveying 'one undivided eightieth part of a salt-meadow' in Yabbok, and he commanded a sloop in 1702.
Those who doubt the importance of genealogical studiesfuste potius quam argumento erudiendi.
I trace him as far as 1723, and there lose him. In that year he was chosen selectman.
No gravestone. Perhaps overthrown when new hearse-house was built, 1802.
He was probably the son of John, who came from Bilham Comit. Salop. circa 1642.
This first John was a man of considerable importance, being twice mentioned with the honorable prefix ofMr.in the town records. Name spelt with twol-s.
'Hear lyeth y'e bod [stone unhappily broken.]Mr. Ihon Wilber [Esq.] [I inclose this in brackets as doubtful.To me it seems clear.]Ob't die [illegible; looks like xviii.]…. iii [prob. 1693.]… paynt… deseased seinte:A friend and [fath]er untoe all y'e opreast,Hee gave y'e wicked familists noe reast,When Sat[an bl]ewe his Antinomian blaste.Wee clong to [Willber as a steadf]ast maste.[A]gaynst y'e horrid Qua[kers] …'
It is greatly to be lamented that this curious epitaph is mutilated. It is said that the sacrilegious British soldiers made a target of the stone during the war of Independence. How odious an animosity which pauses not at the grave! How brutal that which spares not the monuments of authentic history! This is not improbably from the pen of Rev. Moody Pyram, who is mentioned by Hubbard as having been noted for a silver vein of poetry. If his papers be still extant, a copy might possibly be recovered.
No. I
JAYLEM, june 1846.
MISTER EDDYTER:—Our Hosea wuz down to Boston last week, and he see a cruetin Sarjunt a struttin round as popler as a hen with 1 chicking, with 2 fellers a drummin and fifin arter him like all nater. the sarjunt he thout Hosea hedn't gut his i teeth cut cos he looked a kindo 's though he'd jest com down, so he cal'lated to hook him in, but Hosy woodn't take none o' his sarse for all he hed much as 20 Rooster's tales stuck onto his hat and eenamost enuf brass a bobbin up and down on his shoulders and figureed onto his coat and trousis, let alone wut nater hed sot in his featers, to make a 6 pounder out on.
wal, Hosea he com home considerabal riled, and arter I'd gone to bed I heern Him a thrashin round like a short-tailed Bull in fli-time. The old Woman ses she to me ses she, Zekle, ses she, our Hosee's gut the chollery or suthin anuther ses she, don't you Bee skeered, ses I, he's oney amakin pottery[10] ses i, he's ollers on hand at that ere busynes like Da & martin, and shure enuf, cum mornin, Hosy he cum down stares full chizzle, hare on eend and cote tales flyin, and sot rite of to go reed his varses to Parson Wilbur bein he haint aney grate shows o' book larnin himself, bimeby he cum back and sed the parson wuz dreffle tickled with 'em as i hoop you will Be, and said they wuz True grit.
Hosea ses taint hardly fair to call 'em hisn now, cos the parson kind o' slicked off sum o' the last varses, but he told Hosee he didn't want to put his ore in to tetch to the Rest on 'em, bein they wuz verry well As thay wuz, and then Hosy ses he sed suthin a nuther about Simplex Mundishes or sum sech feller, but I guess Hosea kind o' didn't hear him, for I never hearn o' nobody o' that name in this villadge, and I've lived here man and boy 76 year cum next tater diggin, and thair aint no wheres a kitting spryer 'n I be.
If you print 'em I wish you'd jest let folks know who hosy's father is, cos my ant Keziah used to say it's nater to be curus ses she, she aint livin though and he's a likely kind o' lad.
* * * * *
Thrash away, you'llhevto rattleOn them kittle-drums o' yourn,—'Taint a knowin' kind o' cattleThet is ketched with mouldy corn;Put in stiff, you fifer feller,Let folks see how spry you be,—Guess you'll toot till you are yeller'Fore you git ahold o' me!
Thet air flag's a leetle rotten,Hope it aint your Sunday's best;— 10Fact! it takes a sight o' cottonTo stuff out a soger's chest:Sence we farmers hev to pay fer't,Ef you must wear humps like these,S'posin' you should try salt hay fer't,It would du ez slick ez grease.
'Twouldn't suit them Southun fellers,They're a dreffle graspin' set,We must ollers blow the bellersWen they want their irons het; 20May be it's all right ez preachin',Butmynarves it kind o' grates,Wen I see the overreachin'O' them nigger-drivin' States.
Them thet rule us, them slave-traders,Haint they cut a thunderin' swarth(Helped by Yankee renegaders),Thru the vartu o' the North!We begin to think it's naterTo take sarse an' not be riled;— 30Who'd expect to see a taterAll on eend at bein' biled?
Ez fer war, I call it murder,—There you hev it plain an' flat;I don't want to go no furderThan my Testyment fer that;God hez sed so plump an' fairly,It's ez long ez it is broad,An' you've gut to git up airlyEf you want to take in God. 40
'Taint your eppyletts an' feathersMake the thing a grain more right;'Taint afollerin' your bell-wethersWill excuse ye in His sight;Ef you take a sword an' dror it,An' go stick a feller thru,Guv'ment aint to answer for it,God'll send the bill to you.
Wut's the use o' meetin'-goin'Every Sabbath, wet or dry, 50Ef it's right to go amowin'Feller-men like oats an' rye?I dunno but wut it's pootyTrainin' round in bobtail coats,—But it's curus Christian dootyThis 'ere cuttin' folks's throats.
They may talk o' Freedom's airyTell they're pupple in the face,—It's a grand gret cemetaryFer the barthrights of our race; 60They jest want this CalifornySo's to lug new slave-states inTo abuse ye, an' to scorn ye,An' to plunder ye like sin.
Aint it cute to see a YankeeTake sech everlastin' pains,All to get the Devil's thankeeHelpin' on 'em weld their chains?Wy, it's jest ez clear ez figgers,Clear ez one an' one make two, 70Chaps thet make black slaves o' niggersWant to make wite slaves o' you.
Tell ye jest the eend I've come toArter cipherin' plaguy smart,An' it makes a handy sum, tu.Any gump could larn by heart;Laborin' man an' laborin' womanHev one glory an' one shame.Ev'y thin' thet's done inhumanInjers all on 'em the same. 80
'Taint by turnln' out to hack folksYou're agoin' to git your right,Nor by lookin' down on black folksCoz you're put upon by wite;Slavery aint o' nary color,'Taint the hide thet makes it wus,All it keers fer in a feller'S jest to make him fill its pus.
Want to tacklemein, du ye?I expect you'll hev to wait; 90Wen cold lead puts daylight thru yeYou'll begin to kal'late;S'pose the crows wun't fall to pickin'All the carkiss from your bones,Coz you helped to give a lickin'To them poor half-Spanish drones?
Jest go home an' ask our NancyWether I'd be sech a gooseEz to jine ye,—guess you'd fancyThe etarnal bung wuz loose! 100She wants me fer home consumption,Let alone the hay's to mow,—Ef you're arter folks o' gumption,You've a darned long row to hoe.
Take them editors thet's crowin'Like a cockerel three months old,—Don't ketch any on 'em goinThough theybeso blasted bold;Aintthey a prime lot o' fellers?'Fore they think on 't guess they'll sprout 110(Like a peach thet's got the yellers),With the meanness bustin' out.
Wal, go 'long to help 'em stealin'Bigger pens to cram with slaves,Help the men thet's ollers dealin'Insults on your fathers' graves;Help the strong to grind the feeble,Help the many agin the few,Help the men thet call your peopleWitewashed slaves an' peddlin' crew! 120
Massachusetts, God forgive her,She's akneelin' with the rest,She, thet ough' to ha' clung fereverIn her grand old eagle-nest;She thet ough' to stand so fearlessW'ile the wracks are round her hurled,Holdin' up a beacon peerlessTo the oppressed of all the world!
Ha'n't they sold your colored seamen?Ha'n't they made your env'ys w'iz? 130Wut'll make ye act like freemen?Wut'll git your dander riz?Come, I'll tell ye wut I'm thinkin'Is our dooty in this fix.They'd ha' done 't ez quick ez winkin'In the days o' seventy-six.
Clang the bells in every steeple,Call all true men to disownThe tradoocers of our people,The enslavers o' their own; 140Let our dear old Bay State proudlyPut the trumpet to her mouth,Let her ring this messidge loudlyIn the ears of all the South:—
'I'll return ye good fer evilMuch ez we frail mortils can,But I wun't go help the DevilMakin' man the cuss o' man;Call me coward, call me traiter,Jest ez suits your mean idees,—Here I stand a tyrant hater, 151An' the friend o' God an' Peace!'
Ef I'dmyway I hed rutherWe should go to work an part,They take one way, we take t'other,Guess it wouldn't break my heart;Man hed ough' to put asunderThem thet God has noways jined;An' I shouldn't gretly wonderEf there's thousands o' my mind. 160
[The first recruiting sergeant on record I conceive to have been that individual who is mentioned in the Book of Job asgoing to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it.Bishop Latimer will have him to have been a bishop, but to me that other calling would appear more congenial. The sect of Cainites is not yet extinct, who esteemed the first-born of Adam to be the most worthy, not only because of that privilege of primogeniture, but inasmuch as he was able to overcome and slay his younger brother. That was a wise saying of the famous Marquis Pescara to the Papal Legate, thatit was impossible for men to serve Mars and Christ at the same time. Yet in time past the profession of arms was judged to be [Greek: kat exochaen] that of a gentleman, nor does this opinion want for strenuous upholders even in our day. Must we suppose, then, that the profession of Christianity was only intended for losels, or, at best, to afford an opening for plebeian ambition? Or shall we hold with that nicely metaphysical Pomeranian, Captain Vratz, who was Count Königsmark's chief instrument in the murder of Mr. Thynne, that the Scheme of Salvation has been arranged with an especial eye to the necessities of the upper classes, and that 'God would consider agentlemanand deal with him suitably to the condition and profession he had placed him in'? It may be said of us all,Exemplo plus quam ratione vivimus.—H.W.]
No. II
[This letter of Mr. Sawin's was not originally written in verse. Mr. Biglow, thinking it peculiarly susceptible of metrical adornment, translated it, so to speak, into his own vernacular tongue. This is not the time to consider the question, whether rhyme be a mode of expression natural to the human race. If leisure from other and more important avocations be granted, I will handle the matter more at large in an appendix to the present volume. In this place I will barely remark, that I have sometimes noticed in the unlanguaged prattlings of infants a fondness for alliteration, assonance, and even rhyme, in which natural predisposition we may trace the three degrees through which our Anglo-Saxon verse rose to its culmination in the poetry of Pope. I would not be understood as questioning in these remarks that pious theory which supposes that children, if left entirely to themselves, would naturally discourse in Hebrew. For this the authority of one experiment is claimed, and I could, with Sir Thomas Browne, desire its establishment, inasmuch as the acquirement of that sacred tongue would thereby be facilitated. I am aware that Herodotus states the conclusion of Psammetieus to have been in favor of a dialect of the Phrygian. But, beside the chance that a trial of this importance would hardly be blessed to a Pagan monarch whose only motive was curiosity, we have on the Hebrew side the comparatively recent investigation of James the Fourth of Scotland. I will add to this prefatory remark, that Mr. Sawin, though a native of Jaalam, has never been a stated attendant on the religious exercises of my congregation. I consider my humble efforts prospered in that not one of my sheep hath ever indued the wolf's clothing of war, save for the comparatively innocent diversion of a militia training. Not that my flock are backward to undergo the hardships ofdefensivewarfare. They serve cheerfully in the great army which fights, even unto deathpro aris et focis, accoutred with the spade, the axe, the plane, the sledge, the spelling-book, and other such effectual weapons against want and ignorance and unthrift. I have taught them (under God) to esteem our human institutions as but tents of a night, to be stricken whenever Truth puts the bugle to her lips and sounds a march to the heights of wider-viewed intelligence and more perfect organization.—H.W.]
MISTER BUCKINUM, the follerin Billet was writ hum by a Yung feller of our town that wuz cussed fool enuff to goe atrottin inter Miss Chiff arter a Drum and fife, it ain't Nater for a feller to let on that he's sick o' any bizness that He went intu off his own free will and a Cord, but I rather cal'late he's middlin tired o' voluntearin By this Time. I bleeve u may put dependunts on his statemence. For I never heered nothin bad on him let Alone his havin what Parson Wilbur cals apong shongfor cocktales, and he ses it wuz a soshiashun of idees sot him agoin arter the Crootin Sargient cos he wore a cocktale onto his hat.
his Folks gin the letter to me and i shew it to parson Wilbur and he ses it oughter Bee printed. send It to mister Buckinum, ses he, i don't ollers agree with him, ses he, but by Time,[11] ses he, Idulike a feller that aint a Feared.
I have intusspussed a Few refleckshuns hear and thar. We're a kind o'prest with Hayin.
Ewers respecflyHOSEA BIGLOW.
This kind o' sogerin' aint a mite like our October trainin',A chap could clear right out from there ef 't only looked like rainin',An' th' Cunnles, tu, could kiver up their shappoes with bandanners,An' send the insines skootin' to the bar-room with their banners(Fear o' gittin' on 'em spotted), an' a feller could cry quarterEf he fired away his ramrod arter tu much rum an' water.Recollect wut fun we hed, you 'n' I an' Ezry Hollis,Up there to Waltham plain last fall, along o' the Cornwallis?[12]
This sort o' thing aintjestlike thet,—I wish thet I wuz furder,[13]—Ninepunce a day fer killin' folks comes kind o' low fer murder, 10(Wy I've worked out to slarterin' some fer Deacon Cephas Billins,An' in the hardest times there wuz I ollers tetched ten shillins.)There's sutthin' gits into my throat thet makes it hard to swaller,It comes so naturel to think about a hempen collar;It's glory,—but, in spite o' all my tryin' to git callous,I feel a kind o' in a cart, aridin' to the gallus.But wen it comes tobein'killed,—I tell ye I felt streakedThe fust time 't ever I found out wy baggonets wuz peaked;Here's how it wuz: I started out to go to a fandango,The sentinul he ups an' sez, 'Thet's furder 'an you can go.' 20'None o' your sarse,' sez I; sez he, 'Stan' back!' 'Aint you a buster?'Sez I, 'I'm up to all thet air, I guess I've ben to muster;I know wy sentinuls air sot; you aint agoin' to eat us;Caleb haint no monopoly to court the seenorcetas;My folks to hum air full ez good ez his'n be, by golly!'An' so ez I wuz goin' by, not thinkin' wut would folly,The everlastin' cus he stuck his one-pronged pitchfork in meAn' made a hole right thru my close ez ef I wuz an in'my.
Wal, it beats all how big I felt hoorawin' in ole FunnelWen Mister Bolles he gin the sword to our Leftenant Cunnle, 30(It's Mister Secondary Bolles,[14] thet writ the prize peace essay.Thet's wy he didn't list himself along o' us, I dessay,)An' Rantoul, tu, talked pooty loud, but don't puthisfoot in it,Coz human life's so sacred thet he's principled agin it,—Though I myself can't rightly see it's any wus achokin' on 'em;Than puttin' bullets thru their lights, or with a bagnet pokin' on 'em;How dreffle slick he reeled it off (like Blitz at our lyceumAhaulin' ribbins from his chops so quick you skeercely see 'em),About the Anglo-Saxon race (an' saxons would be handyTo du the buryin' down here upon the Rio Grandy), 40About our patriotic pas an' our star-spangled banner,Our country's bird alookin' on an' singin' out hosanner,An' how he (Mister B. himself) wuz happy fer Ameriky,—I felt, ez sister Patience sez, a leetle mite histericky.I felt, I swon, ez though it wuz a dreffle kind o' privilegeAtrampin' round thru Boston streets among the gutter's drivelage;I act'lly thought it wuz a treat to hear a little drummin',An' it did bonyfidy seem millanyum wuz acomin'Wen all on us got suits (darned like them wore in the state prison)An' every feller felt ez though all Mexico wuz hisn.[15] 50This 'ere's about the meanest place a skunk could wal dlskiver(Saltillo's Mexican, I b'lieve, fer wut we call Salt-river);The sort o' trash a feller gits to eat doos beat all nater,I'd give a year's pay fer a smell o' one good blue-nose tater,The country here thet Mister Bolles declared to be so charmin'Throughout is swarmin' with the most alarmin' kind o' varmin.He talked about delishis froots, but then it wuz a wopper all,The holl on 't 's mud an' prickly pears, with here an' there a chapparal;You see a feller peekin' out, an', fust you know, a lariatIs round your throat an' you a copse, 'fore you can say, 'Wut air yeat?'[16] 60You never see sech darned gret bugs (it may not be irrelevantTo say I've seen ascarabæus pilularius[17] big ez a year old elephant),The rigiment come up one day in time to stop a red bugFrom runnin off with Cunnle Wright,—'twuz jest a commoncimexlectularius.
One night I started up on eend an' thought I wuz to hum agin,I heern a horn, thinks I it's Sol the fisherman hez come agin,Hisbellowses is sound enough,—ez I'm a livin' creeter,I felt a thing go thru my leg—'twuz nothin' more 'n a skeeter!Then there's the yaller fever, tu, they call it here el vomito,—(Come, thet wun't du, you landcrab there, I tell ye to le'gomytoe! 70My gracious! it's a scorpion thet's took a shine to play with 't,I darsn't skeer the tarnal thing fer fear he'd run away with 't,)Afore I come away from hum I hed a strong persuasionThet Mexicans worn't human beans,[18]—an ourang outang nation,A sort o' folks a chap could kill an' never dream on 't arter,No more 'n a feller'd dream o' pigs thet he hed hed to slarter;I'd an idee thet they were built arter the darkie fashion all,An' kickin' colored folks about, you know 's a kind o' national;But wen I jined I worn't so wise ez thet air queen o' Sheby,Fer, come to look at 'em, they aint much diff'rent from wut we be, 80An' here we air ascrougin' 'em out o' thir own dominions,Ashelterin' 'em, ez Caleb sez, under our eagle's pinions,Wich means to take a feller up jest by the slack o' 's trowsisAn' walk him Spanish clean right out o' all his homes an' houses;Wal, it doos seem a curus way, but then hooraw fer Jackson!It must be right, fer Caleb sez it's reg'lar Anglo-Saxon,The Mex'cans don't fight fair, they say, they piz'n all the water,An' du amazin' lots o' things thet isn't wut they ough' to;Bein' they haint no lead, they make their bullets out o' copperAn' shoot the darned things at us, tu, wich Caleb sez ainproper; 90He sez they'd ough' to stan' right up an' let us pop 'em fairly(Guess wen he ketches 'em at thet he'll hev to git up airly),Thet our nation's bigger 'n theirn an' so its rights air bigger,An' thet it's all to make 'em free thet we air pullin' trigger,Thet Anglo Saxondom's idee's abreakin' 'em to pieces,An' thet idee's thet every man doos jest wut he damn pleases;Ef I don't make his meanin' clear, perhaps in some respex I can,I know thet 'every man' don't mean a nigger or a Mexican;An' there's another thing I know, an' thet is, ef these creeters,Thet stick an Anglosaxon mask onto State-prison feeturs, 100Should come to Jaalam Centre fer to argify an' spout on 't,The gals 'ould count the silver spoons the minnit they cleared out on 't.
This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur,An' ef it worn't fer wakin' snakes, I'd home agin short meter;O, wouldn't I be off, quick time, ef 't worn't thet I wuz sartinThey'd let the daylight into me to pay me fer desartin!I don't approve o' tellin' tales, but jest to you I may stateOur ossifers aiut wut they wuz afore they left the Bay-state;Then it wuz 'Mister Sawin, sir, you're middlin' well now, be ye?Step up an' take a nipper, sir; I'm dreffle glad to see ye:' 110But now it's 'Ware's my eppylet? here, Sawin, step an' fetch it!An' mind your eye, be thund'rin' spry, or, damn ye, you shall ketch it!'Wal, ez the Doctor sez, some pork will bile so, but by mighty,Ef I hed some on 'em to hum, I'd give 'em linkum vity,I'd play the rogue's march on their hides an' other music follerin'—But I must close my letter here, fer one on 'em 's ahollerin',These Anglosaxon ossifers,—wal, taint no use ajawin',I'm safe enlisted fer the war,Yourn,BIRDOFREDOM SAWIN.
[Those have not been wanting (as, indeed, when hath Satan been to seek for attorneys?) who have maintained that our late inroad upon Mexico was undertaken not so much for the avenging of any national quarrel, as for the spreading of free institutions and of Protestantism.Capita vix duabus Anticyris medenda!Verily I admire that no pious sergeant among these new Crusaders beheld Martin Luther riding at the front of the host upon a tamed pontifical bull, as, in that former invasion of Mexico, the zealous Gomara (spawn though he were of the Scarlet Woman) was favored with a vision of St. James of Compostella, skewering the infidels upon his apostolical lance. We read, also, that Richard of the lion heart, having gone to Palestine on a similar errand of mercy, was divinely encouraged to cut the throats of such Paynims as refused to swallow the bread of life (doubtless that they might be thereafter incapacitated for swallowing the filthy gobbets of Mahound) by angels of heaven, who cried to the king and his knights,—Seigneurs, tuez! tuez!providentially using the French tongue, as being the only one understood by their auditors. This would argue for the pantoglottism of these celestial intelligences, while, on the other hand, the Devil,testeCotton Mather, is unversed in certain of the Indian dialects. Yet must he be a semeiologist the most expert, making himself intelligible to every people and kindred by signs; no other discourse, indeed, being needful, than such as the mackerel-fisher holds with his finned quarry, who, if other bait be wanting, can by a bare bit of white rag at the end of a string captivate those foolish fishes. Such piscatorial persuasion is Satan cunning in. Before one he trails a hat and feather, or a bare feather without a hat; before another, a Presidential chair or a tide-waiter's stool, or a pulpit in the city, no matter what. To us, dangling there over our heads, they seem junkets dropped out of the seventh heaven, sops dipped in nectar, but, once in our mouths, they are all one, bits of fuzzy cotton.
This, however, by the way. It is time nowrevocare gradum. While so many miracles of this sort, vouched by eye-witnesses, have encouraged the arms of Papists, not to speak of Echetlæus at Marathon and thoseDioscuri(whom we must conclude imps of the pit) who sundry times captained the pagan Roman soldiery, it is strange that our first American crusade was not in some such wise also signalized. Yet it is said that the Lord hath manifestly prospered our armies. This opens the question, whether, when our hands are strengthened to make great slaughter of our enemies, it be absolutely and demonstratively certain that this might is added to us from above, or whether some Potentate from an opposite quarter may not have a finger in it, as there are few pies into which his meddling digits are not thrust. Would the Sanctifier and Setter-apart of the seventh day have assisted in a victory gained on the Sabbath, as was one in the late war? Do we not know from Josephus, that, careful of His decree, a certain river in Judaea abstained from flowing on the day of Rest? Or has that day become less an object of His especial care since the year 1697, when so manifest a providence occurred to Mr. William Trowbridge, in answer to whose prayers, when he and all on shipboard with him were starving, a dolphin was sent daily, 'which was enough to serve 'em; only onSaturdaysthey still catched a couple, and on theLord's Daysthey could catch none at all'? Haply they might have been permitted, by way of mortification, to take some few sculpins (those banes of the salt-water angler), which unseemly fish would, moreover, have conveyed to them a symbolical reproof for their breach of the day, being known in the rude dialect of our mariners asCape Cod Clergymen.
It has been a refreshment to many nice consciences to know that our Chief Magistrate would not regard with eyes of approval the (by many esteemed) sinful pastime of dancing, and I own myseif to be so far of that mind, that I could not but set my face against this Mexican Polka, though danced to the Presidential piping with a Gubernatorial second. If ever the country should be seized with another such maniapro propaganda fide, I think it would be wise to fill our bombshells with alternate copies of the Cambridge Platform and the Thirty-nine Articles, which would produce a mixture of the highest explosive power, and to wrap every one of our cannon-balls in a leaf of the New Testament, the reading of which is denied to those who sit in the darkness of Popery. Those iron evangelists would thus be able to disseminate vital religion and Gospel truth in quarters inaccessible to the ordinary missionary. I have seen lads, unimpregnate with the more sublimated punctiliousness of Walton, secure pickerel, taking their unwarysiestabeneath the lily-pads too nigh the surface, with a gun and small shot. Why not, then, since gunpowder was unknown in the time of the Apostles (not to enter here upon the question whether it were discovered before that period by the Chinese), suit our metaphor to the age in which we live, and sayshootersas well asfishersof men?
I do much fear that we shall be seized now and then with a Protestant fervor, as long as we have neighbor Naboths whose wallowings in Papistical mire excite our horror in exact proportion to the size and desirableness of their vineyards. Yet I rejoice that some earnest Protestants have been made by this war,—I mean those who protested against it. Fewer they were than I could wish, for one might imagine America to have been colonized by a tribe of those nondescript African animals the Aye-Ayes, so difficult a word isNoto us all. There is some malformation or defect of the vocal organs, which either prevents our uttering it at all, or gives it so thick a pronunciation as to be unintelligible. A mouth filled with the national pudding, or watering in expectation thereof, is wholly incompetent to this refractory monosyllable. An abject and herpetic Public Opinion is the Pope, the Anti-Christ, for us to protest againste corde cordium. And by what College of Cardinals is this our God's-vicar, our binder and looser, elected? Very like, by the sacred conclave of Tag, Rag, and Bobtail, in the gracious atmosphere of the grog-shop. Yet it is of this that we must all be puppets. This thumps the pulpit-cushion, this guides the editor's pen, this wags the senator's tongue. This decides what Scriptures are canonical, and shuffles Christ away into the Apocrypha. According to that sentence fathered upon Solon, [Greek: Onto daemosion kakon erchetai oikad ekasto] This unclean spirit is skilful to assume various shapes. I have known it to enter my own study and nudge my elbow of a Saturday, under the semblance of a wealthy member of my congregation. It were a great blessing, if every particular of what in the sum we call popular sentiment could carry about the name of its manufacturer stamped legibly upon it. I gave a stab under the fifth rib to that pestilent fallacy,—'Our country, right or wrong,'—by tracing its original to a speech of Ensign Cilley at a dinner of the Bungtown Fencibles.—H.W.]
No. III
[A few remarks on the following verses will not be out of place. The satire in them was not meant to have any personal, but only a general, application. Of the gentleman upon whose letter they were intended as a commentary Mr. Biglow had never heard, till he saw the letter itself. The position of the satirist is oftentimes one which he would not have chosen, had the election been left to himself. In attacking bad principles, he is obliged to select some individual who has made himself their exponent, and in whom they are impersonate, to the end that what he says may not, through ambiguity, be dissipatedtenues in auras.For what says Seneca?Longum iter per præcepta, breve et efficace per exempla. A bad principle is comparatively harmless while it continues to be an abstraction, nor can the general mind comprehend it fully till it is printed in that large type which all men can read at sight, namely, the life and character, the sayings and doings, of particular persons. It is one of the cunningest fetches of Satan, that he never exposes himself directly to our arrows, but, still dodging behind this neighbor or that acquaintance, compels us to wound him through them, if at all. He holds our affections as hostages, the while he patches up a truce with our conscience.
Meanwhile, let us not forget that the aim of the true satirist is not to be severe upon persons, but only upon falsehood, and, as Truth and Falsehood start from the same point, and sometimes even go along together for a little way, his business is to follow the path of the latter after it diverges, and to show her floundering in the bog at the end of it. Truth is quite beyond the reach of satire. There is so brave a simplicity in her, that she can no more be made ridiculous than an oak or a pine. The danger of the satirist is, that continual use may deaden his sensibility to the force of language. He becomes more and more liable to strike harder than he knows or intends. He may be careful to put on his boxing-gloves, and yet forget that, the older they grow, the more plainly may the knuckles inside be felt. Moreover, in the heat of contest, the eye is insensibly drawn to the crown of victory, whose tawdry tinsel glitters through that dust of the ring which obscures Truth's wreath of simple leaves. I have sometimes thought that my young friend, Mr. Biglow, needed a monitory hand laid on his arm,—aliquid sufflaminandus erat. I have never thought it good husbandry to water the tender plants of reform withaqua fortis, yet, where so much is to do in the beds, he were a sorry gardener who should wage a whole day's war with an iron scuffle on those ill weeds that make the garden-walks of life unsightly, when a sprinkle of Attic salt will wither them up.Est ars etiam maledicendi, says Scaliger, and truly it is a hard thing to say where the graceful gentleness of the lamb merges in downright sheepishness. We may conclude with worthy and wise Dr. Fuller, that 'one may be a lamb in private wrongs, but in hearing general affronts to goodness they are asses which are not lions.'—H.W.]
Guvener B. is a sensible man;He stays to his home an' looks arter his folks;He draws his furrer ez straight ez he can,An' into nobody's tater-patch pokes;But John P.Robinson heSez be wunt vote fer Guvener B.
My! aint it terrible? Wut shall we du?We can't never choose him o' course,—thet's flat;Guess we shall hev to come round, (don't you?)An' go in fer thunder an' guns, an' all that;Fer John P.Robinson heSez he wunt vote fer Guvener B.
Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man:He's ben on all sides thet gives places or pelf;But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,—He's ben true tooneparty,—an' thet is himself;—So John P.Robinson heSez he shall vote fer Gineral C.
Gineral C. he goes in fer the war;He don't vally princerple more'n an old cud;Wut did God make us raytional creeturs fer,But glory an' gunpowder, plunder an' blood?So John P.Robinson heSez he shall vote fer Gineral C.
We were gittin' on nicely up here to our village,With good old idees o' wut's right an' wut aint,We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage,An' thet eppyletts worn't the best mark of a saint;But John P.Robinson heSez this kind o' thing's an exploded idee.
The side of our country must ollers be took,An' Presidunt Polk, you know,heis our country.An' the angel thet writes all our sins in a bookPuts thedebitto him, an' to us theper contry;An' John P.Robinson heSez this is his view o' the thing to a T.
Parson Wilbur he calls all these argimunts lies;Sez they're nothin' on airth but jestfee, faw, fum;An' thet all this big talk of our destiniesIs half on it ign'ance, an' t'other half rum;But John P.Robinson heSez it aint no sech thing: an' of course, so must we.
Parson Wilbur sezhenever heerd in his lifeThet th' Apostles rigged out in their swaller-tail coats,An' marched round in front of a drum an' a fife,To git some on 'em office, an' some on 'em votes;But John P.Robinson heSez they didn't know everythin' down in Judee.
Wal, it's a marcy we've gut folks to tell usThe rights an' the wrongs o' these matters, I vow,—God sends country lawyers, an' other wise fellers,To start the world's team wen it gits in a slough;Fer John P.Robinson heSez the world'll go right, ef he hollers out Gee!
[The attentive reader will doubtless have perceived in the foregoing poem an allusion to that pernicious sentiment,—'Our country, right or wrong.' It is an abuse of language to call a certain portion of land, much more, certain personages, elevated for the time being to high station, our country. I would not sever nor loosen a single one of those ties by which we are united to the spot of our birth, nor minish by a tittle the respect due to the Magistrate. I love our own Bay State too well to do the one, and as for the other, I have myself for nigh forty years exercised, however unworthily, the function of Justice of the Peace, having been called thereto by the unsolicited kindness of that most excellent man and upright patriot, Caleb Strong.Patriæ fumus igne alieno luculentioris best qualified with this,—Ubi libertas, ibi patria. We are inhabitants of two worlds, and owe a double, but not a divided, allegiance. In virtue of our clay, this little ball of earth exacts a certain loyalty of us, while, in our capacity as spirits, we are admitted citizens of an invisible and holier fatherland. There is a patriotism of the soul whose claim absolves us from our other and terrene fealty. Our true country is that ideal realm which we represent to ourselves under the names of religion, duty, and the like. Our terrestrial organizations are but far-off approaches to so fair a model, and all they are verily traitors who resist not any attempt to divert them from this their original intendment. When, therefore, one would have us to fling up our caps and shout with the multitude,—'Our country, however bounded!' he demands of us that we sacrifice the larger to the less, the higher to the lower, and that we yield to the imaginary claims of a few acres of soil our duty and privilege as liegemen of Truth. Our true country is bounded on the north and the south, on the east and the west, by Justice, and when she oversteps that invisible boundary-line by so much as a hair's-breadth, she ceases to be our mother, and chooses rather to be looked uponquasi noverca. That is a hard choice when our earthly love of country calls upon us to tread one path and our duty points us to another. We must make as noble and becoming an election as did Penelope between Icarius and Ulysses. Veiling our faces, we must take silently the hand of Duty to follow her.
Shortly after the publication of the foregoing poem, there appeared some comments upon it in one of the public prints which seemed to call for animadversion. I accordingly addressed to Mr. Buckingham, of the Boston Courier, the following letter.
JAALAM, November 4, 1847.
'To the Editor of the Courier:
'RESPECTED SIR,—Calling at the post-office this morning, our worthy and efficient postmaster offered for my perusal a paragraph in the Boston Morning Post of the 3d instant, wherein certain effusions of the pastoral muse are attributed to the pen of Mr. James Russell Lowell. For aught I know or can affirm to the contrary, this Mr. Lowell may be a very deserving person and a youth of parts (though I have seen verses of his which I could never rightly understand); and if he be such, he, I am certain, as well as I, would be free from any proclivity to appropriate to himself whatever of credit (or discredit) may honestly belong to another. I am confident, that, in penning these few lines, I am only forestalling a disclaimer from that young gentleman, whose silence hitherto, when rumor pointed to himward, has excited in my bosom mingled emotions of sorrow and surprise. Well may my young parishioner, Mr. Biglow, exclaim with the poet,
"Sic vos non vobis," &c.;
though, in saying this, I would not convey the impression that he is a proficient in the Latin tongue,—the tongue, I might add, of a Horace and a Tully.
'Mr. B. does not employ his pen, I can safely say, for any lucre of worldly gain, or to be exalted by the carnal plaudits of men,digito monstrari, &c. He does not wait upon Providence for mercies, and in his heart meanmerces. But I should esteem myself as verily deficient in my duty (who am his friend and in some unworthy sort his spiritualfidus Achates, &c.), if I did not step forward to claim for him whatever measure of applause might be assigned to him by the judicious.
'If this were a fitting occasion, I might venture here a brief dissertation touching the manner and kind of my young friend's poetry. But I dubitate whether this abstruser sort of speculation (though enlivened by some apposite instances from Aristophanes) would sufficiently interest your oppidan readers. As regards their satirical tone, and their plainness of speech, I will only say, that, in my pastoral experience, I have found that the Arch-Enemy loves nothing better than to be treated as a religious, moral, and intellectual being, and that there is noapage Sathanas!so potent as ridicule. But it is a kind of weapon that must have a button of good-nature on the point of it.
'The productions of Mr. B. have been stigmatized in some quarters as unpatriotic; but I can vouch that he loves his native soil with that hearty, though discriminating, attachment which springs from an intimate social intercourse of many years' standing. In the ploughing season, no one has a deeper share in the well-being of the country than he. If Dean Swift were right in saying that he who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before confers a greater benefit on the state than he who taketh a city, Mr. B. might exhibit a fairer claim to the Presidency than General Scott himself. I think that some of those disinterested lovers of the hard-handed democracy, whose fingers have never touched anything rougher than the dollars of our common country, would hesitate to compare palms with him. It would do your heart good, respected Sir, to see that young man mow. He cuts a cleaner and wider swath than any in this town.
'But it is time for me to be at my Post. It is very clear that my young friend's shot has struck the lintel, for the Post is shaken (Amos ix. 1). The editor of that paper is a strenuous advocate of the Mexican war, and a colonel, as I am given to understand. I presume, that, being necessarily absent in Mexico, he has left his journal in some less judicious hands. At any rate, the Post has been too swift on this occasion. It could hardly have cited a more incontrovertible line from any poem than that which it has selected for animadversion, namely,—
"We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage."
'If the Post maintains the converse of this proposition, it can hardly be considered as a safe guide-post for the moral and religious portions of its party, however many other excellent qualities of a post it may be blessed with. There is a sign in London on which is painted,—"The Green Man." It would do very well as a portrait of any individual who should support so unscriptural a thesis. As regards the language of the line in question, I am bold to say that He who readeth the hearts of men will not account any dialect unseemly which conveys a sound, and pious sentiment. I could wish that such sentiments were more common, however uncouthly expressed. Saint Ambrose affirms, thatveritas a quocunque(why not, then,quomodocunque?) dicatur, a, spiritu sancto est. Digest also this of Baxter: "The plainest words are the most profitable oratory in the weightiest matters."
'When the paragraph in question was shown to Mr. Biglow, the only part of it which seemed to give him any dissatisfaction was that which classed him with the Whig party. He says, that, if resolutions are a nourishing kind of diet, that party must be in a very hearty and flourishing condition; for that they have quietly eaten more good ones of their own baking than he could have conceived to be possible without repletion. He has been for some years past (I regret to say) an ardent opponent of those sound doctrines of protective policy which form so prominent a portion of the creed of that party. I confess, that, in some discussions which I have had with him on this point in my study, he has displayed a vein of obstinacy which I had not hitherto detected in his composition. He is also (horresco referens) infected in no small measure with the peculiar notions of a print called the Liberator, whose heresies I take every proper opportunity of combating, and of which, I thank God, I have never read a single line.
'I did not see Mr. B.'s verses until they appeared in print, and thereiscertainly one thing in them which I consider highly improper. I allude to the personal references to myself by name. To confer notoriety on an humble individual who is laboring quietly in his vocation, and who keeps his cloth as free as he can from the dust of the political arena (thoughvoe mihi si non evangelizavero), is no doubt an indecorum. The sentiments which he attributes to me I will not deny to be mine. They were embodied, though in a different form, in a discourse preached upon the last day of public fasting, and were acceptable to my entire people (of whatever political views), except the postmaster, who dissentedex officio. I observe that you sometimes devote a portion of your paper to a religious summary. I should be well pleased to furnish a copy of my discourse for insertion in this department of your instructive journal. By omitting the advertisements, it might easily be got within the limits of a single number, and I venture to insure you the sale of some scores of copies in this town. I will cheerfully render myself responsible for ten. It might possibly be advantageous to issue it as anextra. But perhaps you will not esteem it an object, and I will not press it. My offer does not spring from any weak desire of seeing my name in print; for I can enjoy this satisfaction at any time by turning to the Triennial Catalogue of the University, where it also possesses that added emphasis of Italics with which those of my calling are distinguished.
'I would simply add, that I continue to fit ingenuous youth for college, and that I have two spacious and airy sleeping apartments at this moment unoccupied.Ingenuas didicisse, &c. Terms, which vary according to the circumstances of the parents, may be known on application to me by letter, post-paid. In all cases the lad will be expected to fetch his own towels. This rule, Mrs. W. desires me to add, has no exceptions.
'Respectfully, your obedient servant,
'P.S. Perhaps the last paragraph may look like an attempt to obtain the insertion of my circular gratuitously. If it should appear to you in that light, I desire that you would erase it, or charge for it at the usual rates, and deduct the amount from the proceeds in your hands from the sale of my discourse, when it shall be printed. My circular is much longer and more explicit, and will be forwarded without charge to any who may desire it. It has been very neatly executed on a letter sheet, by a very deserving printer, who attends upon my ministry, and is a creditable specimen of the typographic art. I have one hung over my mantelpiece in a neat frame, where it makes a beautiful and appropriate ornament, and balances the profile of Mrs. W., cut with her toes by the young lady born without arms.
I have in the foregoing letter mentioned General Scott in connection with the Presidency, because I have been given to understand that he has blown to pieces and otherwise caused to be destroyed more Mexicans than any other commander. His claim would therefore be deservedly considered the strongest. Until accurate returns of the Mexicans killed, wounded, and maimed be obtained, it will be difficult to settle these nice points of precedence. Should it prove that any other officer has been more meritorious and destructive than General S., and has thereby rendered himself more worthy of the confidence and support of the conservative portion of our community, I shall cheerfully insert his name, instead of that of General S., in a future edition. It may be thought, likewise, that General S. has invalidated his claims by too much attention to the decencies of apparel, and the habits belonging to a gentleman. These abstruser points of statesmanship are beyond my scope. I wonder not that successful military achievement should attract the admiration of the multitude. Rather do I rejoice with wonder to behold how rapidly this sentiment is losing its hold upon the popular mind. It is related of Thomas Warton, the second of that honored name who held the office of Poetry Professor at Oxford, that, when one wished to find him, being absconded, as was his wont, in some obscure alehouse, he was counselled to traverse the city with a drum and fife, the sound of which inspiring music would be sure to draw the Doctor from his retirement into the street. We are all more or less bitten with this martial insanity.Nescio qua dulcedine … cunctos ducit. I confess to some infection of that itch myself. When I see a Brigadier-General maintaining his insecure elevation in the saddle under the severe fire of the training-field, and when I remember that some military enthusiasts, through haste, inexperience, or an over-desire to lend reality to those fictitious combats, will sometimes discharge their ramrods, I cannot but admire, while I deplore, the mistaken devotion of those heroic officers.Semel insanivimus omnes. I was myself, during the late war with Great Britain, chaplain of a regiment, which was fortunately never called to active military duty. I mention this circumstance with regret rather than pride. Had I been summoned to actual warfare, I trust that I might have been strengthened to bear myself after the manner of that reverend father in our New England Israel, Dr. Benjamin Colman, who, as we are told in Turell's life of him, when the vessel in which he had taken passage for England was attacked by a French privateer, 'fought like a philosopher and a Christian, … and prayed all the while he charged and fired.' As this note is already long, I shall not here enter upon a discussion of the question, whether Christians may lawfully be soldiers. I think it sufficiently evident, that, during the first two centuries of the Christian era, at least, the two professions were esteemed incompatible. Consult Jortin on this head,—H.W.]
No. IV
[The ingenious reader will at once understand that no such speech as the following was evertotidem verbispronounced. But there are simpler and less guarded wits, for the satisfying of which such an explanation may be needful. For there are certain invisible lines, which as Truth successively overpasses, she becomes Untruth to one and another of us, as a large river, flowing from one kingdom into another, sometimes takes a new name, albeit the waters undergo no change, how small soever. There is, moreover, a truth of fiction more veracious than the truth of fact, as that of the Poet, which represents to us things and events as they ought to be, rather than servilely copies them as they are imperfectly imaged in the crooked and smoky glass of our mundane affairs. It is this which makes the speech of Antonius, though originally spoken in no wider a forum than the brain of Shakespeare, more historically valuable than that other which Appian has reported, by as much as the understanding of the Englishman was more comprehensive than that of the Alexandrian. Mr. Biglow, in the present instance, has only made use of a license assumed by all the historians of antiquity, who put into the mouths of various characters such words as seem to them most fitting to the occasion and to the speaker. If it be objected that no such oration could ever have been delivered, I answer, that there are few assemblages for speech-making which do not better deserve the title ofParliamentum Indoctorumthan did the sixth Parliament of Henry the Fourth, and that men still continue to have as much faith in the Oracle of Fools as ever Pantagruel had. Howell, in his letters, recounts a merry tale of a certain ambassador of Queen Elizabeth, who, having written two letters,—one to her Majesty, and the other to his wife,—directed them at cross-purposes, so that the Queen was beducked and bedeared and requested to send a change of hose, and the wife was beprincessed and otherwise unwontedly besuperlatived, till the one feared for the wits of her ambassador, and the other for those of her husband. In like manner it may be presumed that our speaker has misdirected some of his thoughts, and given to the whole theatre what he would have wished to confide only to a select auditory at the back of the curtain. For it is seldom that we can get any frank utterance from men, who address, for the most part, a Buncombe either in this world or the next. As for their audiences, it may be truly said of our people, that they enjoy one political institution in common with the ancient Athenians: I mean a certain profitless kind of,ostracism, wherewith, nevertheless, they seem hitherto well enough content. For in Presidential elections, and other affairs of the sort, whereas I observe that theoystersfall to the lot of comparatively few, theshells(such as the privileges of voting as they are told to do by theostrivoriaforesaid, and of huzzaing at public meetings) are very liberally distributed among the people, as being their prescriptive and quite sufficient portion.
The occasion of the speech is supposed to be Mr. Palfrey's refusal to vote for the Whig candidate for the Speakership.—H.W.]
No? Hez he? He haint, though? Wut? Voted agin him?Ef the bird of our country could ketch him, she'd skin him;I seem 's though I see her, with wrath in each quill,Like a chancery lawyer, afilin' her bill,An' grindin' her talents ez sharp ez all nater,To pounce like a writ on the back o' the traitor.Forgive me, my friends, ef I seem to be het,But a crisis like this must with vigor be met;Wen an Arnold the star-spangled banner bestains,Holl Fourth o' Julys seem to bile in my veins. 10
Who ever'd ha' thought sech a pisonous rigWould be run by a chap thet wuz chose fer a Wig?'We knowed wut his princerples wuz 'fore we sent him'?Wut wuz there in them from this vote to prevent him?A marciful Providunce fashioned us hollerO' purpose thet we might our princerples swaller;It can hold any quantity on 'em, the belly can,An' bring 'em up ready fer use like the pelican,Or more like the kangaroo, who (wich is stranger)Puts her family into her pouch wen there's danger. 20Aint princerple precious? then, who's goin' to use itWen there's resk o' some chap's gittin' up to abuse it?I can't tell the wy on 't, but nothin' is so sureEz thet princerple kind o' gits spiled by exposure;[19]A man that lets all sorts o' folks git a sight on 'tOugh' to hev it all took right away, every mite on 't;Ef he cant keep it all to himself wen it's wise to,He aint one it's fit to trust nothin' so nice to.
Besides, ther's a wonderful power in latitudeTo shift a man's morril relations an' attitude; 30Some flossifers think thet a fakkilty's grantedThe minnit it's proved to be thoroughly wanted,Thet a change o' demand makes a change o' condition,An' thet everythin' 's nothin' except by position;Ez, for instance, thet rubber-trees fust begun bearin'Wen p'litikle conshunces come into wearin',Thet the fears of a monkey, whose holt chanced to fail,Drawed the vertibry out to a prehensile tail;So, wen one's chose to Congriss, ez soon ez he's in it,A collar grows right round his neck in a minnit, 40An' sartin it is thet a man cannot be strictIn bein' himself, when he gits to the Deestrict,Fer a coat thet sets wal here in ole Massachusetts,Wen it gits on to Washinton, somehow askew sets.
Resolves, do you say, o' the Springfield Convention?Thet's precisely the pint I was goin' to mention;Resolves air a thing we most gen'ally keep ill,They're a cheap kind o' dust fer the eyes o' the people;A parcel o' delligits jest git togetherAn' chat fer a spell o' the crops an' the weather, 50Then, comin' to order, they squabble awileAn' let off the speeches they're ferful'll spile;Then—Resolve,—Thet we wunt hev an inch o' slave territory;Thet President Polk's holl perceedins air very tory;Thet the war is a damned war, an' them thet enlist in itShould hev a cravat with a dreffle tight twist in it;Thet the war is a war fer the spreadin' o' slavery;Thet our army desarves our best thanks fer their bravery;Thet we're the original friends o' the nation,All the rest air a paltry an' base fabrication; 60Thet we highly respect Messrs. A, B, an' C,An' ez deeply despise Messrs. E, F, an' G.In this way they go to the eend o' the chapter,An' then they bust out in a kind of a rapturAbout their own vartoo, an' folks's stone-blindnessTo the men thet 'ould actilly do 'em a kindness,—The American eagle,—the Pilgrims thet landed,—Till on ole Plymouth Rock they git finally stranded.Wal, the people they listen an' say, 'Thet's the ticket;Ez fer Mexico, 'taint no great glory to lick it, 70But 'twould be a darned shame to go pullin' o' triggersTo extend the aree of abusin' the niggers.'
So they march in percession, an' git up hooraws,An' tramp thru the mud far the good o' the cause,An' think they're a kind o' fulfillin' the prophecies,Wen they're on'y jest changin' the holders of offices;Ware A sot afore, B is comf'tably seated,One humbug's victor'ous an' t' other defeated,Each honnable doughface gits jest wut he axes,An' the people,—their annooal soft-sodder an' taxes. 80
Now, to keep unimpaired all these glorious feetursThet characterize morril an' reasonin' creeturs,Thet give every paytriot all he can cram,Thet oust the untrustworthy Presidunt Flam,An' stick honest Presidunt Sham in his place,To the manifest gain o' the holl human race,An' to some indervidgewals on 't in partickler,Who love Public Opinion an' know how to tickle her,—I say thet a party with gret aims like theseMust stick jest ez close ez a hive full o' bees. 90
I'm willin' a man should go tollable strongAgin wrong in the abstract, fer thet kind o' wrongIs ollers unpop'lar an' never gits pitied,Because it's a crime no one never committed;But he mus'n't be hard on partickler sins,Coz then he'll be kickin' the people's own shins;On'y look at the Demmercrats, see wut they've doneJest simply by stickin' together like fun;They've sucked us right into a mis'able warThet no one on airth aint responsible for; 100They've run us a hundred cool millions in debt(An' fer Demmercrat Horners there's good plums left yet);They talk agin tayriffs, but act fer a high one,An' so coax all parties to build up their Zion;To the people they're ollers ez slick ez molasses,An' butter their bread on both sides with The Masses,Half o' whom they've persuaded, by way of a joke,Thet Washinton's mantlepiece fell upon Polk.
Now all o' these blessin's the Wigs might enjoy,Ef they'd gumption enough the right means to imploy;[20] 110Fer the silver spoon born in Dermoc'acy's mouthIs a kind of a scringe thet they hev to the South;Their masters can cuss 'em an' kick 'em an' wale 'em.An' they notice it less 'an the ass did to Balaam;In this way they screw into second-rate officesWich the slaveholder thinks 'ould substract too much off his ease;The file-leaders, I mean, du, fer they, by their wiles,Unlike the old viper, grow fat on their files.Wal, the Wigs hev been tryin' to grab all this prey frum 'emAn' to hook this nice spoon o' good fortin' away frum 'em, 120An' they might ha' succeeded, ez likely ez not,In lickin' the Demmercrats all round the lot,Ef it warn't thet, wile all faithful Wigs were their knees on,Some stuffy old codger would holler out,—'Treason!You must keep a sharp eye on a dog thet hez bit you once,An'Iaint agoin' to cheat my constitoounts,'—Wen every fool knows thet a man representsNot the fellers thet sent him, but them on the fence,—Impartially ready to jump either sideAn' make the fust use of a turn o' the tide,— 130The waiters on Providunce here in the city,Who compose wut they call a State Centerl Committy,Constitoounts air hendy to help a man in,But arterwards don't weigh the heft of a pin,Wy, the people can't all live on Uncle Sam's pus,So they've nothin' to du with 't fer better or wus;It's the folks thet air kind o' brought up to depend on 'tThet hev any consarn in 't, an' thet is the end on 't.Now here wuz New England ahevin' the honorOf a chance at the Speakership showered upon her;— 140Do you say, 'She don't want no more Speakers, but fewer;She's hed plenty o' them, wut she wants is adoer'?Fer the matter o' thet, it's notorous in townThet her own representatives du her quite brown.But thet's nothin' to du with it; wut right hed PalfreyTo mix himself up with fanatical small fry?Warn't we gittin' on prime with our hot an' cold blowin',Acondemnin' the war wilst we kep' it agoin'?We'd assumed with gret skill a commandin' position.On this side or thet, no one couldn't tell wich one, 150So, wutever side wipped, we'd a chance at the plunderAn' could sue fer infringin' our paytented thunder;We were ready to vote fer whoever wuz eligible,Ef on all pints at issoo he'd stay unintelligible.Wal, sposin' we hed to gulp down our perfessions.We were ready to come out next mornin' with fresh ones;Besides, ef we did, 'twas our business alone,Fer couldn't we du wut we would with our own?An' ef a man can, wen pervisions hev riz so,Eat up his own words, it's a marcy it is so. 160Wy, these chaps frum the North, with back-bones to 'em, darn 'em,'Ould be wuth more 'an Gennle Tom Thumb is to Barnum:Ther's enough thet to office on this very plan grow,By exhibitin' how very small a man can grow;But an M.C. frum here ollers hastens to state heBelongs to the order called invertebraty,Wence some gret filologists judge primy fashyThet M.C. is M.T. by paronomashy;An' these few exceptions airloosus nayturyFolks 'ould put down their quarters to stare at, like fury. 170It's no use to open the door o' success,Ef a member can bolt so fer nothin' or less;Wy, all o' them grand constitootional pillersOur fore-fathers fetched with 'em over the billers,Them pillers the people so soundly hev slep' on,Wile to slav'ry, invasion, an' debt they were swep' on,Wile our Destiny higher an' higher kep' mountin'(Though I guess folks'll stare wen she hends her account in),Ef members in this way go kickin' agin 'em,They wunt hev so much ez a feather left in 'em. 180