Like a grim and surly watch-dog
Stares forth each deep-mouthed gun;
And plumes, and helms, and burnished steel
Are gleaming in the sun.
We have chased the wounded tigress
To the entrance of her lair;
And, mad to battle for her young,
She turns upon us there.
And loudly rings the war-cry,
And wide the flags are cast,
And Mexico will make this hour
Her proudest, or her last;
For all of savage valor,
And all of burning hate,
That have outlived the shocks of war,
Are at the Belen Gate.
"He comes, our mighty leader,
Along the wasted van;
There is no heart in all the ranks
That does not love that man!
He passes 'mid the columns;
And it is a glorious sight
To see him form them for the fray,
But his brow is dark as night.
He is thinking of his brave ones,
Who sleep the eternal sleep,
Among the slaughtered enemy,
On yonder bloody steep.
He is thinking of the succors,
That should have come ere now;
Such thoughts may dim the brightest eye,
And cloud the fairest brow.
But he gazes o'er the causeway,
And he hears the foeman's cry;
And the old stern look is on his face,
And the fire is in his cyc.
"""Forward!' and at the signal,
Beneath the general's glance,
With dauntless mien and measured tread
The lengthened lines advance.
"There comes a blaze of lightning
From gate, and wall, and spire,
As though the city had put on
A girdle all of fire!
There comes a burst of thunder,
As though the teeming earth
Were laboring with volcanic throes,
O'er some sulphureous birth!
There comes a pattering shower
Of iron down the pass,
'Neath which the solid masonry
Is chipped like broken glass!
It was as though the Demons
Had risen 'gainst our plan,
And brought the guns of hell to bear
Upon the march of man!
"But where the invading army,
That stood so proudly there?
Has it all so soon been swept away?
Has it melted into air?
No: far beneath the arches,
At the signal of command,
Protected by the friendly stone,
Behold each little band.
But onward, ever onward!
No time to pause or doubt!
The glancing shot that skip within
Bespeak the storm without.
We are near upon our foemen,
We can count their fierce array,
The bayonet now must do its part,
And end the fearful fray.
"""Charge!" and we break from cover,
With the panther's spring and yell!
Cannon and musket from the gate
Peal back the challenge well.
And now a bullet strikes mo,
And I stagger to my knee;
While past me rush, in headlong race,
The champions of the free.
I rise and totter forward,
Although with failing breath;
For who would follow such a chase
So far, and miss the death?
The smoke has covered all things
In its darkest battle-shroud,
Save where yon living line of firo
Lights up the murky cloud;
And there our gallant fellows
Are raging in the strife,
Before that stern and dangerous Gate, Whose toll is human life!
They are chafing like the billows
Upon a midnight shore,
With a tempest driving on behind,
And a wall of rock before!
"I see our gallant chieftain
In the hottest of the fire;
I see our soldiers gather near,
Like children 'round their sire;
I see him at the portal,
Still calling on his men:
And now the hot blood from my wound
Has blinded me again.
"I hear our fellows cheering,
As though to rend the skies;
And hastily I wipe away
The blood-gouts from my eyes.
And I, too, stand uncovered,
And shout with joy elate;
For the Stars and Stripes are waving high
Above the Belen Gate!'"
From the Mississippian.
QUITMAN AT MONTEREY.
BY JOHN 8. MURPHY.
"On the morning of the battle of Monterey it was observed that Gen. Quitman was the only field-officer of the army dressed in full uniform. A friend remonstrated with the general, and said he would be a conspicuous mark for the Mexicans. The writer of this heard the reply, and challenges the pages of ancient and modern history for a more heroic expression:
"The more balls aimed at me, the less will be directed at my men.""-Brandon Platform.
"Where Sierra Madre's summits sublimely raise their head,
And cast their mighty shadow athwart San Juan's bed,
A beauteous valley lieth, and from its breast of green,
And 'mid its forests olden a city fair is seen,
Before whose ramparts frowning, and battlemented walls,
The bugle of the Northman a band heroic calls.
"San Juan's murmuring river a dirge precursive sings;
The trumpet of the Northman prelusive pæan rings;
For banner'd hosts advancing to where yon walnut-trees*
Umbrageous hang their verdure, and whisper on the breeze
A requiem low chiming with Juan's sorrowing flood,
Speak to the Aztec chieftain of vanquishment and blood.
"Tis the army of Columbia; their lurid battle eve
Gives to the anxious Mexican a bivouac and reprieve;
But short from war the respite, for morning's dawning sun
Is heralded most grandly by Taylor's signal gun;
And forth from groves cascaded the serried troops defile
'Neath bannered stars reflecting the sunlight's vestal smile.
Gen. Taylor's troops encamped at Walnut Springs the night before the battle of Monterey.
"Within thy moated bosom, O splendid Monterey,
Concealed by wall and turret, and firm in their array,
Ten thousand Mex'an soldiers await, with eager brand,
The onset of those squadrons, invasive of their land;
Seven thousand are the foemen; from victor strife they come;
And still, in soul invincible, exultant rolls their drum.
"And foremost, bravely foremost, is seen a small brigade;
Five hundred Tennesseans deploy from yonder glado;
While Mississippi's Rifles, by fearless Davis led,
Give presage to the Mexicans of conflict sternly dread.
Three suns will rise o'er carnage; a chill September night
Shall 'lume with Luna's silver the ghastly of that fight.
"Ho! on a prancing charger, with epaulet and plume,
And sword that swiftly sendeth each foeman to the tomb,
Amid the battle's clangor, confronting gun and spear,
And serried lines of lances in war's resplendent gear,
See yonder placid chieftain, all gaudily arrayed—
L'en as the courtly warrior on holiday parade.
"The sheen of fame already has 'lumed his lofty brow,
Though civic honor's laurel has circled it ere now;
And in the eagle brilliance of that dark, undaunted eye
Is flashed the high expression of the soul that dares to die-
Or conquer for the country that borrows from the stars
The splendors of the banner that guides her in her wars.
"Each gallant of the Mex'ans, who trophy proud would ask
When conflict's din is ended, and doff'd the soldier's casque,
IIns marked with glance expectant that majesty of form,
Which, angel-like, is seeking the battle's fiercest storm:
Ay, trophy proud it would be-that falchion gleaming grand,
And cleaving glory's pathway, in Quitman's strong-nerv'd hand.
"An aid-de-camp upriding, in haste precipitant,
Just as a death-wing'd bullet the hero's cheek has glanc'd,
In accents earnest urgeth his chieftain to retire
Before the foe's persistent and well-concentred fire;
'Oh! see you not,' he pleadeth, 'Ampudia's design?
The city lost were conquest, if still'd that heart of thine!
"My general, our soldiers would sorrow long this day-
Now promising from glory her most effulgent ray-
If muffled drums were pealing the death-roll for thy fall,
And triumph shouts repressed were by Quitman's martial pall!
Nor grant the Mex'an braggart this hour the vauntful boast,
That though we've slain his hundreds, in you we've lost a host.'
"As when with inspiration a prophet's face doth shine,
And dazzles the beholder with brilliancy divine,
So gleamed that hero visage, so mounted high that soul,
Estranged from fear's impellings, disdaining death's control;
While all on earth magnanimous, or god-liko in yon sky
Was haloed round that presence, and flashing from that cyc-
"As thus, with lips expanded, and battle-blade upraised
(Though oft death's leaden missive his glitt'ring person grazed),
The chieftain brief responded, "Tis well at me they aim
The thickly-flying bullets that many braves might maim:
Depart! ambition 's sated, when on this gory field
Your Quitman is at once to you a leader and a shield!'
“'Twas said; and, onward dashing, the city's rear is won;
The strong redoubt is captured, and silenced is each gun;
And still, in trappings gorgeous, conspicuous appears,
Where hearts with joy o'erflowing, the astral standard rears,
That stately chief whose bosom had breasted many balls
That grief might be diverted from Mississippi's halls.
"Oh! mother of the soldier, perennial bay enweave!
Thou daughter of the rifleman, with laurel crown the brave!
And wives by war unwidow'd, and sons unreft of sires,
When, gay of heart, ye gather round your bright autumnal fires,
Remember, in your gladness, that hero's towering plume;
A Quitman's valor peerless averted woe and gloom!"
SPEECII OF JOIIN A. QUITMAN, OF MISSISSIPPI, ON THE POWERS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WITH REGARD TO THE TERRITORIES: DELIVERED DURING THE DEBATE ON THE PRESIDENTS ANNUAL MESSAGE, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 1STH, 1556.
MR. SPEAKER,—When I rose on yesterday it was my intention merely to explain my position on two points of the pending discussion; but since I have the floor this morning, by the courtesy of the house, and have had a night to reflect upon the subject, I shall avail myself more fully of the opportunity, and devote the allotted hour to such notice of the various questions involved in this debate on the President's annual message as my limited time will permit.
The most striking feature of this debate consists in the differences of opinion which exist, not only between the several political parties represented on this floor, but, to some extent, even between members of the same party, on the subject of the relations which the Territories and their inhabitants bear toward the federal government and toward the states. This arises sometimes from erroneous conceptions of the theory of our government, and more frequently from the attempt to apply rules of action to particular cases without reference to any theory whatever. It is my purpose, therefore, to go back to the fountainhead and source of these differences of construction and opinion. While I shall endeavor to present my views of the true theory of our political system, I know that I must do it briefly, and confine myself to a mere glance at the subject.
And here let me premise that, although desirous of hastening to the consideration of that subject, I feel it proper to notice in passing one or two other points of this debate. The first is the declaration of the
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