Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four.

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To the efficacy and permanency of your union a government for the whole is
indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an
adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and
interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible
of this momentous truth, you have improved your essay, by the adoption of
the constitution of a government better calculated than your former for an
intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns.

This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed,
adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in
its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with
energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has
a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its
authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are
duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our
political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their
constitution of government; but the constitution which at any time exists,
till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is
sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of
the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual
to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the executions of the laws, all combinations and
associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to
direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of
the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle
and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an
artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated
will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and
enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate
triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror
of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the
organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and
modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and
then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and
things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to
usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterward the very
engines which had lifted them to unjust dominion.

Toward the preservation of your government and the permanency of your
present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily
discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but
also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its
principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to
effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations which will impair the
energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly
overthrown.

In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and
habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as
of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by
which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country;
that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion,
exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and
opinion; and remember especially that for the efficient management of your
common interest in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much
vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is
indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers
properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed,
little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the
enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the
limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and
tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country
should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its administration, to
confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding
in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another.
The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the
departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a
real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power and proneness to
abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy
us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the
exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different
depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against
invasion by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern;
some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must
be as necessary as to institute them.

If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the
constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an
amendment in the way which the constitution designates. But let there be no
change by usurpation; for, though this, in one instance, may be the
instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments
are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent
evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man
claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great
pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and
citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect
and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with
private and public felicity.

Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation,
for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are
the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with
caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on
minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect
that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of
popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to
every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can
look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened.

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and
affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting
impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the
passions, or prevent our nation from running the course, which has hitherto
marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that they
may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they
may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn
against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures
of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the
solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by the
principles which have been delineated, the public records and other
evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself,
the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself
to be guided by them.

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious
of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to
think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may
be I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which
they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, that my country will
never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years
of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of
incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be
to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that
fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man, who views in it the
native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations; I
anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the
midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free
government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as
I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

* * * * *

THE MEMORY OF OUR FATHERS

HENRY WARD BEECHER

We are called upon to cherish with high veneration and grateful
recollections the memory of our fathers. Both the ties of nature and the
dictates of policy demand this. And surely no nation had ever less occasion
to be ashamed of its ancestry, or more occasion for gratification in that
respect; for, while most nations trace their origin to barbarians, the
foundations of our nation were laid by civilized men, by Christians. Many
of them were men of distinguished families, of powerful talents, of great
learning and of preeminent wisdom, of decision of character, and of most
inflexible integrity. And yet not unfrequently they have been treated as if
they had no virtues; while their sins and follies have been sedulously
immortalized in satirical anecdote.

The influence of such treatment of our fathers is too manifest. It creates
and lets loose upon their institutions the vandal spirit of innovation and
overthrow; for, after the memory of our fathers shall have been rendered
contemptible, who will uphold and sustain their institutions? The memory of
our fathers should be the watch-word of liberty throughout the land; for,
imperfect as they were, the world before had not seen their like, nor will
it soon, we fear, behold their like again. Such models of moral excellence,
such apostles of civil and religious liberty, such shades of the
illustrious dead looking down upon their descendants with approbation or
reproof, according as they follow or depart from the good way, constitute a
censorship inferior only to the eye of God; and to ridicule them is a
national suicide.

The doctrines of our fathers have been represented as gloomy,
superstitious, severe, irrational, and of a licentious tendency. But when
other systems shall have produced a piety as devoted, a morality as pure, a
patriotism as disinterested, and a state of society as happy, as have
prevailed where their doctrines have been most prevalent, it may be in
season to seek an answer to this objection.

The persecutions instituted by our fathers have been the occasion of
ceaseless obloquy upon their fame. And, truly, it was a fault of no
ordinary magnitude, that sometimes they did persecute. But let him whose
ancestors were not ten times more guilty cast the first stone, and the
ashes of our fathers will no more be disturbed. Theirs was the fault of the
age, and it will be easy to show that no class of men had, at that time,
approximated so nearly to just apprehensions of religious liberty; and that
it is to them that the world is now indebted for the more just and definite
views which now prevail.

The superstition and bigotry of our fathers are themes on which some of
their descendants, themselves far enough from superstition, if not from
bigotry, have delighted to dwell. But when we look abroad and behold the
condition of the world, compared with the condition of New England, we may
justly exclaim, "Would to God that the ancestors of all the nations had
been not only almost, but altogether such bigots as our fathers were."

Biographical: Henry Ward Beecher was a noted preacher, orator, and writer.
For forty years he was pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. He lectured
extensively throughout the country, taking up the great issues of his time.
He died in 1887 at the age of seventy-four.

* * * * *

THE AMERICAN FLAG

J. E. DRAKE

When Freedom, from her mountain height,
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there;
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle-bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land!

Majestic monarch of the cloud,
Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest-trumpings loud,
And see the lightning lances driven,
When strive the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven--
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given
To guard the banner of the free,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle-stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war,
The harbingers of victory!

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high,
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on,
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn;
And as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And when the cannon's mouthings loud,
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
And gory sabres rise and fall,
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall;
Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall sink below
Each gallant arm that strikes beneath
That awful messenger of death.

Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave;
When death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea,
Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o'er his closing eye.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home!
By angel hands to valor given;
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?

Biographical and Historical: The name of Joseph Rodman Drake is inseparably
associated with that of his friend, Fitz-Greene Halleck. Together they
contributed a series of forty poems to the New York Evening Post. Among
these was "The American Flag," the last four lines of which were written by
Halleck, to replace those written by Drake:

"As fixed as yonder orb divine,
That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled,
Shall thy proud stars resplendent shine,
The guard and glory of the world."

Drake was a youth of many graces of both mind and body, who wrote verses as
a bird sings--for the pure joy of it. His career was cut short by death
when he was only twenty-five years old. Of him Halleck wrote:

"None knew thee but to love thee,
Nor named thee but to praise."

* * * * *

WARREN'S ADDRESS AT THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL

JOHN PIERPONT

Stand! the ground's your own, my braves!
Will ye give it up to slaves?
Will ye look for greener graves?
Hope ye mercy still?
What's the mercy despots feel?
Hear it in that battle peal!
Read it on yon bristling steel!
Ask it--ye who will.

Fear ye foes who kill for hire?
Will ye to your _homes_ retire?
Look behind you! they're afire!
And, before you, see
Who have done it!--From the vale
On they come!--and will ye quail?--
Leaden rain and iron hail
Let their welcome be!

In the God of battles trust!
Die we may--and die we must:
But, O where can dust to dust
Be consigned so well,
As where heaven its dews shall shed,
On the martyred patriot's bed,
And the rocks shall raise their head,
Of his deeds to tell?

Biographical and Historical: John Pierpont was a Unitarian clergyman of
Connecticut, who published several volumes of poetry. General Joseph Warren
was one of the generals in command of the patriot army at the battle of
Bunker Hill, and was killed in the battle. He was counted one of the
bravest and most unselfish patriots of the Revolutionary War. In this poem
we have the poet's idea of how General Warren inspired his men.

* * * * *

COLUMBUS

JOAQUIN MILLER

Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghosts of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: "Now must we pray,
For lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?"
"Why, say 'sail on! sail on! and on!'"

"My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly wan and weak."
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
"What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"
"Why, you shall say at break of day,
'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow.
Until at last the blanched mate said:
"Why, now not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
For God from these dread seas is gone,
Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say"--
He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate;
"This mad sea shows his teeth to-night.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The words leapt like a leaping sword;
"Sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck--
A light! A light! A light! A light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"

Biographical and Historical: Cincinnatus Heine Miller (Joaquin [hoa'kin]
Miller) was born in Indiana in 1841. Joining the general movement to the
West after the discovery of gold, his parents moved to the Pacific coast in
1850. He died in 1914.

"In point of power, workmanship, and feeling, among all the poems written
by Americans, we are inclined to give first place to 'The Port of Ships,'
or 'Columbus,' by Joaquin Miller."--London Athenaeum.

* * * * *

RECESSIONAL--A VICTORIAN ODE

RUDYARD KIPLING

God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far-flung battle line--
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies--
The Captains and the Kings depart--
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away--
On dune and headland sinks the fire--
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--
Such boasting as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard--
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

_Amen_.

Biographical and Historical: Rudyard Kipling was born Christmas Week, 1865,
in Bombay. After school life in England, he returned to India at the age of
seventeen, to do journalistic work. His tales of Indian. life and his
ballads describing the life of the British soldier won immediate favor.
Perhaps he is best known to the boys and girls as the author of the Jungle
Books. From 1892 to 1896 he lived in the United States. This poem, which
appeared in 1897, at the time of the Queen's Jubilee, struck a warning note
against the arrogance of power.

* * * * *

A DEFINITION OF A GENTLEMAN

CARDINAL NEWMAN

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never
inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes,
accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which
hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs
with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself. His benefits
may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences
in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy-chair or a good fire,
which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides
both means of rest and animal heat without them. The true gentleman in like
manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of
those with whom he is cast;--all clashing of opinion, or collision of
feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great
concern being to make every one at their ease and at home. He has his eyes
on all his company; he is tender toward the bashful, gentle toward the
distant, and merciful toward the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is
speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may
irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome. He
makes light of favors while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he
is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never
defends himself by a mere retort; he has no ears for slander or gossip, is
scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and
interprets everything for the best. He is never mean or little in his
disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or
sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out.
From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage,
that we should ever conduct ourselves toward our enemy as if he were one
day to be our friend. He has too much good sense to be affronted at
insults; he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to
bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical
principles; he submits to pain because it is inevitable, to bereavement
because it is irreparable, and to death because it is his destiny. If he
engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him
from the blundering discourtesy of better, perhaps, but less educated
minds; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack instead of cutting clean, who
mistake the point in argument, waste their strength on trifles, misconceive
their adversary, and leave the question more involved than they find it. He
may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be
unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive.
Nowhere shall we find greater candor, consideration, indulgence: he throws
himself into the minds of his opponents, he accounts for their mistakes. He
knows the weakness of human reason as well as its strength, its province,
and its limits.

Biographical: John Henry Newman, 1801-1890, a distinguished Prelate was
born in London. He graduated from Trinity College, Oxford, and became noted
both as a scholar and a writer. "Lead, Kindly Light," a poem of rare
beauty, was written by him while on a voyage in the Mediterranean Sea. This
selection is from his book, "The Idea of a University". He was made a
cardinal in 1879.

* * * * *

GLOSSARY

abandon (a-ban'dun), give up.

abatement (a-bat'ment), putting an end to.

abbey (ab'i), monastery; convent.

abnegation (ab'ne-ga'shun), denial.

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