THE RISING.

BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.

Out of the North the wild news came,
Far flashing on its wings of flame,
Swift as the boreal light which flies
At midnight through the startled skies.

And there was tumult in the air,

The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat, And through the wild land everywhere

The answering tread of hurrying feet,
While the first oath of Freedom's gun
Came on the blast from Lexington.
And Concord, roused, no longer tame,
Forgot her old baptismal name,
Made bare her patriot arm of power,
And swelled the discord of the hour.

The yeoman and the yeoman's son,

With knitted brows and sturdy dint, Renewed the polish of each gun,

Re-oiled the lock, reset the flint;
And oft the maid and matron there,
While kneeling in the firelight glare,
Long poured, with half-suspended breath,
The lead into the molds of death.

The hands by Heaven made silken soft
To soothe the brow of love or pain,
Alas! are dulled and soiled too oft

By some unhallowed earthly stain ; But under the celestial bound

No nobler picture can be found

Than woman, brave in word and deed,
Thus serving in her nation's need
Her love is with her country now,
Her hand is on its aching brow.

Within its shade of elm and oak

The church of Berkley Manor stood There Sunday found the rural folk,

And some esteemed of gentle blood. In vain their feet with loitering tread

Passed 'mid the graves where rank is naught : All could not read the lesson taught

In that republic of the dead.

The pastor rose the prayer was strong;
The psalm was warrior David's song;
The text, a few short words of might,
“The Lord of hosts shall arm the right!"

He spoke of wrongs too long endured,
Of sacred rights to be secured;
Then from his patriot tongue of flame
The startling words for Freedom came.

The stirring sentences he spake

Compelled the heart to glow or quake,
And, rising on his theme's broad wing,
And grasping in his nervous hand
The imaginary battle brand,

In face of death he dared to fling
Defiance to a tyrant king.

Even as he spoke, his frame, renewed
In eloquence of attitude,

Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher ;
Then swept his kindling glance of fire
From startled pew to breathless choir;
When suddenly his mantle wide
His hands impatient flung aside,
And, lo! he met their wondering eyes
Complete in all a warrior's guise.

A moment there was awful pause,

When Berkley cried, "Cease, traitor! cease! God's temple is the house of peace!" The other shouted, "Nay, not so, When God is with our righteous cause: His holiest places then are ours, His temples are our forts and towers That frown upon the tyrant foe:

In this the dawn of Freedom's day
There is a time to fight and pray!"

And now before the open door

The warrior priest had ordered soThe enlisting trumpet's sudden soar Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er,

Its long reverberating blow,

So loud and clear, it seemed the ear
Of dusty death must wake and hear.

And there the startling drum and fife
Fired the living with fiercer life;
While overhead with wild increase,
Forgetting its ancient toll of peace,

The great bell swung as ne'er before:
It seemed as it would never cease;

And every word its ardor flung
From off its jubilant iron tongue
Was, "WAR! WAR! WAR!"

"Who dares

this was the patriot's cry
As striding from the desk he came -
"Come out with me, in Freedom's name,
For her to live, for her to die?"

A hundred hands flung up reply,

A hundred voices answered "I!"

- From "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies."

DEFINITIONS. - Bō're al, northern. Yeō'man, a freeholder, a man freeborn. Dint, stroke. Măn'or, a tract of land occupied by tenants. Theme, a subject on which a person speaks or writes. Guişe, external appearance in manner or dress. Sōar, a towering flight.

NOTES. Forgot her

name. The reference is to the meaning

of the word "concord," - harmony, union.

The pastor. This was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, who was at that time a minister at Woodstock, in Virginia. He was a leading spirit among those opposed to Great Britain, and in 1775 he was elected colonel of a Virginia regiment. The above poem describes his farewell sermon. At its close he threw off his ministerial gown, and appeared in full regimental dress. Almost every man in the congregation enlisted under him at the church door.

A DANGER TO OUR REPUBLIC.

BY HENRY CLAY.

Recall to your recollection the free nations which have gone before us. Where are they now?

Gone glimmering through the mist of things that were,
A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour.

And how lost they their liberties? If we could transport ourselves to the ages when Greece and Rome flour

ished in their greatest prosperity, and mingling in the throng should ask a Grecian if he did not fear that some daring military chieftain covered with glory—some Philip or Alexander- would one day overthrow the liberties of his country, the confident and indignant Grecian would exclaim "No! no! we have nothing to fear from our heroes; our liberties will be eternal." If a Roman citizen had been asked if he did not fear that the conqueror of Gaul might establish a throne upon the ruins of public liberty, he would have instantly repelled the unjust insinuation. Yet Greece fell; and Cæsar passed the Rubicon. We are fighting a great moral battle, for the benefit not only of our country, but of all mankind. The eyes of the whole world are in fixed attention upon us. One, and the largest, portion of it is gazing with contempt, with jealousy, and with envy; the other portion, with hope, with confidence, and with affection. Everywhere, the black cloud of Legitimacy is suspended over the world, save only one bright spot, which breaks out from the political hemisphere of the West, to enlighten, and animate, and gladden the human heart.

To

Observe that, by the downfall of liberty here, all mankind are enshrouded in a pall of universal darkness. us belongs the high privilege of transmitting, unimpaired, to posterity, the fair character, the liberty of our country. Do we expect to execute this high trust by trampling down the law, justice, the Constitution, and the rights of the people? by exhibiting examples of inhumanity, and cruelty, and ambition?

Let us beware, then, how we give our fatal sanction to military insubordination. Greece had her Alexander, Rome her Cæsar, England her Cromwell, France her