ELLSWORTH.

MAY 24, 1861.

BY WILLIAM H. BURLEIGH.

WHO keeps his faith in God and man,

By sore temptation unsubdued;

Who trusts the right and loves the good, Lives long, however brief his span.

True life is measured not by days,

Nor yet by deeds, though bravely wroughtIts truest gauge is noblest thought, And this commands our highest praise.

So, though men say, "Alas! how brief

His course whose death we mourn to-day!" The prescient soul must answer, "Nay— Ye wrong him with this bitter grief."

What seems our loss hath this redress-
His life, by generous will and act,
No dream, but an eternal fact,

Is rounded into perfectness.

He is, not was: the pulse that beat
But yesterday within his frame
To-day is like a living flame
In every manly breast we meet.

Poured through a thousand hearts, the life That ebbed in his asserts its sway,

An impulse that forbids delay When Duty summons to the strife.

And hosts, by that grand impulse moved, With eager haste their weapons clasp, And swear to save from Treason's grasp The country and the cause he loved.

So sanctified by martyr-blood,

To us that cause is doubly dear; And who, remembering him, will fear To stand for right, as ELLSWORTH stood?

For faith like his its like begets,

And courage, though the hero die,
Doth multiply and multiply,

In large excess of our regrets.

And thus one soul, that never swerved
From duty, fills a land with light;
And countless arms are nerved for fight
By one strong arm that death unnerved.

So, best

since so, the largest good

Results-nor need we sum the cost,
For lives so lost are never lost
To freedom saved by martyr-blood.

For him henceforth his country claims
The ground as holy where he sleeps,
And, like a loving mother, keeps
His name among her dearest names.

And when Love bids his monument
Lift its pure column to the air,
No fitter legend can it bear
Than his brave words: "I AM CONTENT!"

"Content, whatever fate be mine—

A sacred duty bids me go,

And though the issue none can know,

I hear and heed the voice divine.

"Content-since confident that He

To whom the sparrow's fall is known, Will have some purpose of his own Even in the fate of one like me."*

O golden words! O faith sublime!
O spirit breathing holy breath!
For such an one there is no death,
But crescent potencies through time!

And still where loyal arms roll back

The crimson tide of traitorous war, His memory, like a beacon-star, Shall shine above the battle's rack

A flame, the patriot's heart to cheer,
And give new temper to his sword—
A fire, to blast the rebel horde
And melt their courage into fear.

*In the last letter addressed to his parents, penned but a few hours previous to his assassination, Col. Ellsworth says: "Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation that I was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty; and to-night, thinking over the probabilities of the morrow and the occurrences of the past, I am perfectly content to accept whatever my fortune may be, confident that he who noteth even the fall of a sparrow will have some purpose even in the fate of one like me."

And when-Rebellion's power subdued—
Shall dawn for us a better day,

When peace again resumes her sway
And links the bands of brotherhood—

From North to South, from East to West,
His name shall be a household word,
Revered and loved wherever heard,
And treasured with our worthiest.

So, for his land, the good he meant,
Won in the triumph of the right,

His spirit, starred with heaven's own light, Once more shall say: "I AM CONTENT!"

HUS

PROMOTED.*

USHED be each sorrowing murmur,
And let no hot tear be shed,

As in slow march, with drooping standards,
Ye bear back the gallant dead.

* Colonel E. E. Ellsworth fell May twenty-fourth, 1861.