Part Three
“Social Freedom”
The Chronicler
The nation being established conceives the empire. The race, born of the romance of empire and nourished upon the adventure of freedom, turns to the wilderness.
The Choir
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
The Chronicler
Beyond these eastern mountains, the adventure of freedom is resumed, and the romance of empire lives anew!
The Choir
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
[Freedom turns at the shout and the music begins a soft, wild march theme. Suddenly possessed again, Freedom evokes the Western migration. As she begins to speak the first of it begins: a few timorous stragglers who appear from the trees at the left of the stage and peer up at her. Her gestures sweep them across the scene and they come, stopping here and there to build their camp fires. At the end of her harangue, five or six groups have spaced themselves along the line of the forestage, and from each group and its camp fire rises a thin column of smoke so that the varied and splendid processional of adventure which is to come will be seen behind this delicate colonnade.]
[Freedom turns at the shout and the music begins a soft, wild march theme. Suddenly possessed again, Freedom evokes the Western migration. As she begins to speak the first of it begins: a few timorous stragglers who appear from the trees at the left of the stage and peer up at her. Her gestures sweep them across the scene and they come, stopping here and there to build their camp fires. At the end of her harangue, five or six groups have spaced themselves along the line of the forestage, and from each group and its camp fire rises a thin column of smoke so that the varied and splendid processional of adventure which is to come will be seen behind this delicate colonnade.]
Freedom
Out of the east,Into the west,A vision of empire, my people,A vision of rivers and prairies,Of western mountains and a western ocean.And of a wider Freedom!New cities sleep unbornOn the shores of the lakes and the rivers,Cities to be erectedIn a loftier image of Freedom,Cities, whence new generations,Forgetful of all save courage,Shall in their turn set outInto further western regions,Building cities and cities,Building always for Freedom,Building, renewing, creating....Westward, westward, and westward,Over the walls of the mountains,Over the blight of the desert,To the urgent, star-scattered horizon,Where the stars and the sun and the moonRise into the wind and the heavens,Out of the western ocean,Out of the west and the east,People, my people, set forward,For Freedom! For Freedom! For Freedom!
The Choir
(Shouting.)
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
[With this, the musical accompaniment to Freedom’s words resolves itself into a triumphal march and the full bulk of the procession appears crossing from left to right of the stage. First are small wagons, so light you might almost carry them, as Birkbeck said of them, “yet strong enough to bear a good load of bedding, utensils and provisions and a swarm of young citizens.” Others have two horses and, sometimes, a cow orso. Other wagons are covered with canvas and blankets. There are Conestoga wagons and prairie schooners with herds of stock and sheep and the crowd of emigrants is gaily dressed as any gang of gipsies, red-shirted men, blue and yellow-skirted women, bright clothes for the children and bright blankets. And a great light grows up on the right of the stage into which this procession moves and all the while the circuit riders and hunters scatter through the crowd on their respective, mimed businesses. At the same time, shouting over the music, the two Spokesmen and the Choir have maintained a steady crescendo comment from the “Pioneers, O Pioneers!” of Walt Whitman.]
[With this, the musical accompaniment to Freedom’s words resolves itself into a triumphal march and the full bulk of the procession appears crossing from left to right of the stage. First are small wagons, so light you might almost carry them, as Birkbeck said of them, “yet strong enough to bear a good load of bedding, utensils and provisions and a swarm of young citizens.” Others have two horses and, sometimes, a cow orso. Other wagons are covered with canvas and blankets. There are Conestoga wagons and prairie schooners with herds of stock and sheep and the crowd of emigrants is gaily dressed as any gang of gipsies, red-shirted men, blue and yellow-skirted women, bright clothes for the children and bright blankets. And a great light grows up on the right of the stage into which this procession moves and all the while the circuit riders and hunters scatter through the crowd on their respective, mimed businesses. At the same time, shouting over the music, the two Spokesmen and the Choir have maintained a steady crescendo comment from the “Pioneers, O Pioneers!” of Walt Whitman.]
The First Spokesman
(With the end of Freedom’s speech.)
Come, my tan-faced children,Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,Have you your pistols, have you your sharp-edged axes?Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
The Second Spokesman
Have the elder races halted?Do they droop and end their lesson wearied over there beyond the seas?We take up the task eternal and the burden and the lesson,Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
The First Spokesman
All the past we leave behind,We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world,Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
The Second Spokesman
We detachments steady throwing,Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways,Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
The First Spokesman
We primeval forests felling,We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing the deep mines within,We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving,Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
The Second Spokesman
All the pulses of the world,Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat,Holding single or together, steady moving to the front, all for us,Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
The First Spokesman
Has the night descended?Was the road of late so toilsome? Did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way?Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious,Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
Freedom
Till with sound of trumpet,Far, far off the daybreak call—hark! how loud I hear it wind,Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your places,Pioneers!
The Choir
O Pioneers!
[At the final shout of the Choir, the western light turns suddenly bloody and the procession hurries off into murk and portent. At the same time a new light breaks over the forestage upon a sinister line of men which has come in between the thrones of the two Spokesmen.These men are negroes, naked, save for loin cloths and girdles, twenty-one in number, and all singers. The hands of each one are chained to the girdle of the one behind and they move up the slope toward Freedom in a slow, melancholy “V.”As they move, they sing. Their song should, indeed, have scattered the echoes of the farewell acclamation of the pioneers. The strain of it is despair that takes refuge in worship. It is one of the old spirituals, “Go Down Moses.” Theymove, singing, up to Freedom and she comes sorrowfully down to meet them and the Chronicler rises.As the negroes finish their song, they kneel at Freedom’s feet and she bends over them.]
[At the final shout of the Choir, the western light turns suddenly bloody and the procession hurries off into murk and portent. At the same time a new light breaks over the forestage upon a sinister line of men which has come in between the thrones of the two Spokesmen.
These men are negroes, naked, save for loin cloths and girdles, twenty-one in number, and all singers. The hands of each one are chained to the girdle of the one behind and they move up the slope toward Freedom in a slow, melancholy “V.”
As they move, they sing. Their song should, indeed, have scattered the echoes of the farewell acclamation of the pioneers. The strain of it is despair that takes refuge in worship. It is one of the old spirituals, “Go Down Moses.” Theymove, singing, up to Freedom and she comes sorrowfully down to meet them and the Chronicler rises.
As the negroes finish their song, they kneel at Freedom’s feet and she bends over them.]
Freedom
While you suffer, I am nothing.
The Chronicler
The trial of the race comes with the attainment of its empire.In the west the factions meet already and the issue is the slave.
Freedom
God alone knows the endYet God understands!
[The Chronicler sits and a blare of madness comes upon the music and a new group is upon the forestage. The center of this is an old man, white bearded, with a bloody head and a halter about his neck. Other figures stand about a gibbet. The music subsides softly into “John Brown’s Body” and continues to weave variations upon this until the final moment when the chorus of Union Soldiers takes it up. In the meanwhile, this old man, John Brown, speaks.]
[The Chronicler sits and a blare of madness comes upon the music and a new group is upon the forestage. The center of this is an old man, white bearded, with a bloody head and a halter about his neck. Other figures stand about a gibbet. The music subsides softly into “John Brown’s Body” and continues to weave variations upon this until the final moment when the chorus of Union Soldiers takes it up. In the meanwhile, this old man, John Brown, speaks.]
John Brown
I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this land will never be purged away but with blood. For God has given the strength of the hills to Freedom. No man sent me here. I acknowledge no master in human form. I pity the poor in bondage that have none to help them. That is why I am here. You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearly disposed of now. But this negro question is still to be settled. The end of that is not yet. I am ready. Do not keep me waiting. In no other possible way could I be used to so much advantage to the cause of God and of humanity.
[He moves toward the gibbet and the scene goes into darkness with the pounding of a drum.]
[He moves toward the gibbet and the scene goes into darkness with the pounding of a drum.]
Four Voices
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
[A pause and the drum again, tapped twice.]
[A pause and the drum again, tapped twice.]
Eight Voices
(Upon a higher note.)
This government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
[Then light upon Freedom.]
[Then light upon Freedom.]
Freedom
(The light only upon her face.)
The day attends the sun and the eventAttends the purpose of a steadfast mind.Always in all upheaval man must findThe purpose of a master’s government.Now in the darkling of calamity,The purpose and the character of oneCalled to a generation’s masteryCome as the sun,Come and are known and spendTheir powers hardily,And, in the end,Leave to the issue clarity again,And wisdom to the memories of men.
The day attends the sun and the eventAttends the purpose of a steadfast mind.Always in all upheaval man must findThe purpose of a master’s government.Now in the darkling of calamity,The purpose and the character of oneCalled to a generation’s masteryCome as the sun,Come and are known and spendTheir powers hardily,And, in the end,Leave to the issue clarity again,And wisdom to the memories of men.
[The light spreading about her discloses the figure of Abraham Lincoln standing at her feet. People gather at the sides of the stage.]
[The light spreading about her discloses the figure of Abraham Lincoln standing at her feet. People gather at the sides of the stage.]
The Choir
Lincoln ... Lincoln ... Lincoln....
Lincoln
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, andnot in mine is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.
The People
(Crescendo.)
Lincoln ... Lincoln ... Lincoln....
[Freedom bends her head upon Lincoln. The negroes look up to him. The people come a little closer, moving restlessly among themselves with disturbed, though soundless, gestures.]
[Freedom bends her head upon Lincoln. The negroes look up to him. The people come a little closer, moving restlessly among themselves with disturbed, though soundless, gestures.]
Lincoln
I would save the Union.... If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could, at the same time, save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could, at the same time, destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
[Suddenly, as Lincoln’s voice concludes, the people divide impetuously, and draw back, in two great bodies, to either side of the stage.A cannon crashes out and all the people are aghast.Darkness obscures the two multitudes and the Spokesmen, in the light, strike antiphonally into the beautiful words which Mr. John Drinkwater wrote for the characters in his play, “Robert E. Lee.”]
[Suddenly, as Lincoln’s voice concludes, the people divide impetuously, and draw back, in two great bodies, to either side of the stage.
A cannon crashes out and all the people are aghast.
Darkness obscures the two multitudes and the Spokesmen, in the light, strike antiphonally into the beautiful words which Mr. John Drinkwater wrote for the characters in his play, “Robert E. Lee.”]
The First Spokesman
The strain comes and men’s wits break under it and fighting is the only way out.
The Second Spokesman
War is the anger of bewildered peoples in front of questions that they can’t answer.
The First Spokesman
The quarrel is so little beside the desolation that is coming.
The Second Spokesman
One year ... two ... three ... perhaps four! Then there will be just graves and a story and America.
[Suddenly a pool of bloody light explodes upon the right of the stage and shows a knoll of gray uniforms about the flag of the Confederacy and the men in the light burst into the wild abandon of “Dixie.”Then another pool of bloody light shows blue uniforms and the men and all the Chorus behind sing “John Brown’s Body” again, full voice.Then the light upon Lincoln is white and includes the group of slaves and the figure of Freedom.]
[Suddenly a pool of bloody light explodes upon the right of the stage and shows a knoll of gray uniforms about the flag of the Confederacy and the men in the light burst into the wild abandon of “Dixie.”
Then another pool of bloody light shows blue uniforms and the men and all the Chorus behind sing “John Brown’s Body” again, full voice.
Then the light upon Lincoln is white and includes the group of slaves and the figure of Freedom.]
Lincoln
All persons held as slaves are and, henceforward, shall be free. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
[His hands bless the negroes and all the people look gratefully up to him and the armies turn their heads toward him.Two figures detach themselves from the two armies. One is Grant. The other is Lee. They walk toward each other and the armies fall back in great weariness. When they meet, the two generals speak.]
[His hands bless the negroes and all the people look gratefully up to him and the armies turn their heads toward him.
Two figures detach themselves from the two armies. One is Grant. The other is Lee. They walk toward each other and the armies fall back in great weariness. When they meet, the two generals speak.]
Grant
Sir, you have given me occasion to be proud of my opponent.
Lee
I have not spared my strength. I acknowledge its defeat.
Grant
You have come—
Lee
To ask upon what terms you will accept surrender.
Grant
(Presents a slip of paper.)
They are simple. I hope you will not find them ungenerous.
Lee
(Having read them.)
You are magnanimous, sir. May I make one submission?
Grant
It would be a privilege if I could consider it.
Lee
You allow our officers to keep their horses. That is gracious. Our cavalry troopers’ horses are also their own.
Grant
I understand. They will be needed for the plowing. Of course, the officers of the Confederacy will also retain their side arms.
Lee
I thank you. It will do much toward conciliating our people. I accept your terms.
[He offers his sword.]
[He offers his sword.]
Grant
No, no! I should have included that. It has but one rightful place.
[They salute and each returns to his army.]
[They salute and each returns to his army.]
Lee
(Speaking the close of Lee’s final orders.)
Valor and devotion can accomplish nothing that willcompensate for the loss that must attend the continuance of the conflict. You may take with you the satisfaction of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection.
Grant
(Speaking the close of Grant’s last message.)
All that it was possible for men to do in battle they have done. Let us hope for perpetual peace and harmony with that enemy whose manhood, however mistaken the cause, drew forth such Herculean deeds of valor.
[The bloody light fades and the two armies spread out into the crowds which now slowly close in.]
[The bloody light fades and the two armies spread out into the crowds which now slowly close in.]
Lincoln
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right; let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
[The darkness has gradually closed in upon the scene except for Freedom’s face.A great toll of the kettledrums and a voice of a man that cries out desperately in the darkness.]
[The darkness has gradually closed in upon the scene except for Freedom’s face.
A great toll of the kettledrums and a voice of a man that cries out desperately in the darkness.]
The Voice
Sic semper tyrannis!
[The answer is a wail of women.]
[The answer is a wail of women.]
A Second Voice
(Again a man’s; more calm and tragic.)
Now he belongs to the ages.
[Again the wail of women.]
[Again the wail of women.]
Freedom
O Lincoln! Lincoln! Lincoln!
[With this, a shaft of light strikes the stair and shows Freedom bending over a bier upon which Lincoln lies dead.A great cry of mourning rises from the crowd, both men and women.The Choir comments, speaking Walt Whitman’s verse and noble words.]
[With this, a shaft of light strikes the stair and shows Freedom bending over a bier upon which Lincoln lies dead.
A great cry of mourning rises from the crowd, both men and women.
The Choir comments, speaking Walt Whitman’s verse and noble words.]
The Choir
This dust was once the man,Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,Was saved the Union of these States.
[Gradually, during these lines, a cold light has spread over the mourning multitude. Every vestige of war is gone. The people stand with drooping heads facing the stair, every hand holding a spray of lilac. The freed negroes kneel about the lower steps. A funeral march, gentle as a song of spring, begins. Men lift up the bier and carry it up the steps to the second landing. Freedom leads the cortege; the girls come after. The crowd closes in. At the second landing, the bier is set down and all the people go past it, filing out into the darkness which closes in again upon either side. In the meanwhile, over the music, Freedom and the two Spokesmen speak from Walt Whitman’s great song of mourning.]
[Gradually, during these lines, a cold light has spread over the mourning multitude. Every vestige of war is gone. The people stand with drooping heads facing the stair, every hand holding a spray of lilac. The freed negroes kneel about the lower steps. A funeral march, gentle as a song of spring, begins. Men lift up the bier and carry it up the steps to the second landing. Freedom leads the cortege; the girls come after. The crowd closes in. At the second landing, the bier is set down and all the people go past it, filing out into the darkness which closes in again upon either side. In the meanwhile, over the music, Freedom and the two Spokesmen speak from Walt Whitman’s great song of mourning.]
Freedom
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,I mourned and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.O powerful western fallen star!O shades of night—O moody, tearful night!O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!O cruel hands that hold me powerless—O helpless soul of me!O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.
The First Spokesman
Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the violets peep’d from the ground, spotting the gray debris,Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, passing the endless grass,Passing the yellow spear’d wheat, every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen.Passing the apple tree blows of white and pink in the orchards,Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,Night and day journeys a coffin.
The Second Spokesman
Coffin that passes through lanes and streets,Through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land,With the pomp of the inloop’d flags, with the cities draped in black,With the show of the states themselves as of crape-veil’d women standing,With processions long and winding and the flambeaus of the night,With the countless torches lit, with the silent sea of faces and unbared heads....Here, coffin that slowly passes,I give you my sprig of lilac.
Four Voices
From the deep secluded recesses,From the fragrant cedars and the ghostly pines so still,Came the carol of a bird.
Freedom
Come lovely and soothing death,Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,In the day, in the night, to all, to each,Sooner or later, delicate death.Prais’d be the fathomless universe,For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious,And for love, sweet love—but praise! praise! praise!For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death.
The First Spokesman
The night in silence under many a star,The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know,And the soul turning to thee, O base and well-veil’d death,And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.
The Second Spokesman
Over the tree tops I float thee a song,Over the rising and sinking waves and the myriad fields and the prairies wide,Over the dense pack’d cities all and the teeming wharves and ways,I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O death.
Four Voices
Loud in the pines and cedars dim,Clear in the freshness moist and the swamp-perfume,And I with my comrades there in the night.
Freedom
Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well,For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands—and this for his dear sake,Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim.
The Choir and All the People
(Very softly.)
That government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
[The light goes again. The crowd goes off. The bier is carried away under cover of the darkness and to the far sound of the negroes who sing the same song which first we heard from them.]
[The light goes again. The crowd goes off. The bier is carried away under cover of the darkness and to the far sound of the negroes who sing the same song which first we heard from them.]