to the South, I know. Even now we hav many frens in the North, who sympathise with us, and won't mingle with this fight."

"J. Davis, there's your grate mistaik. Many of us was your sincere frends, and thought certin parties amung us was fussin about you and meddlin with your consarns intirely too much. But J. Davis, the minit you fire a gun at the piece of dry-goods called the Star-Spangled Banner, the North gits up and rises en massy, in defence of that banner. Not agin you as individooals, — not agin the South even — but to save the flag. We should indeed be weak in the knees, unsound in the heart, milk-white in the liver, and soft in the hed, if we stood quietly by and saw this glorus Govyment smashed to pieces, either by a furrin or a intestine foe The gentle-harted mother hates to take her naughty child across her knee, but she knows it is her dooty to do it. So we shall hate to whip the naughty South, but we must do it if you don't make back tracks at onct, and we shall wallup you out of your boots! J. Davis, it is my decided opinion that the Sonny South is making a egrejus mutton-hed of herself !"

"Go on, sir, you're safe enuff. You're too small powder for me! sed the President of the Southern Conthieveracy.

"Wait till I go home and start out the Baldinsvill Mounted Hoss Cavalry! I'm Capting of that Corpse, I am, and J. Davis, beware! Jefferson D., I now leave you! Farewell my gay Saler Boy! Good bye, my bold buccaneer ! Pirut of the deep blue sea, adoo! adoo!" [Charles Farrar Browne], Artemus Ward his Book (New York, 1865), 162–169 passim.

76.

"Our Country's Call" (1861)

BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Bryant was the oldest of the greater American poets at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was also a journalist, and as editor of the New York Evening Post had for many years been prominent as a fearless advocate of numerous good causes, including that of anti-slavery. - - For Bryant, see Henry Matson, References for Literary Workers, 322–324. — Bibliography in No. 75 above.

L

AY down the axe; fling by the spade;

Leave in its track the toiling plough;

The rifle and the bayonet blade

For arms like yours were fitter now;

And ye, who throng, beside the deep,
Her ports and hamlets of the strand,
In number like the waves that leap

On his long murmuring marge of sand,
Come, like that deep, when, o'er his brim,
He rises, all his floods to pour,
And flings the proudest barks that swim,
A helpless wreck, against his shore.

Few, few were they whose swords of old
Won the fair land in which we dwell;

But we are many, we who hold

The grim resolve to guard it well.
Strike, for that broad and goodly land,

Blow after blow, till men shall see

That Might and Right move hand in hand,

And glorious must their triumph be.

William Cullen Bryant, Thirty Poems (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1864), 104-107.

77. A War Meeting (1862)

FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Under the editorship of Joseph Medill, the Chicago Tribune became one of the most prominent Republican papers in the West and a firm supporter of Lincoln's administration. The meeting described in this extract is typical of those held in all the larger cities of the North in answer to the president's call, on July 1, 1862, for three hundred thousand more volunteers. — Bibliography as in No. 75 above.

SAT

ATURDAY night was a night long to be remembered in the municipal annals of Chicago, as well as in the history of the State of Illinois. One occasion only has furnished its parallel - the public gatherings at the fall of Sumter. . . .

Bryan Hall was jammed to overflowing; Metropolitan Hall was full; five thousand people were in the Court House square. Earnest, able and eloquent speakers addressed them; patriotic songs were sung; voluntary contributions poured in; by unanimous vote men asked to be taxed to meet the present emergency. The vast assemblages were moved by one common impulse.

Perhaps the most gratifying feature of these meetings was the fixed

determination that Chicago traitors must be rooted out.

Let it be done,

root and branch. Spare none of them, males or females. They must leave this city instantly, every traitor and every sympathizer with a traitor. . . .

A prevailing characteristic of all the meetings was the unanimous and hearty approval of every sentiment favorable to the confiscation of rebel property, foraging upon the enemy, and the employment of the blacks. in fighting against the rebels. Every allusion to either of the measures was greeted with thunders of applause. Every man was in favor of employing the negro upon the trenches, of arming him to fight, if necessary, and of giving him his freedom for it. These sentiments most eloquently urged by noted speakers, spoken in plain terms by common men, found a lodgment in the great popular heart, and that heart gave back a response with no uncertain sound. . . . Vox populi, vox Dei was never better exemplified. The people always loyal, always true, have indeed risen to the full appreciation of the crisis and now demand in thunder tones that every means God has placed in our hands [are] to be used for the vigorous prosecution of this war, the swift and terrible retribution of its authors. . . .

Precisely at the ringing of the bells and firing of cannon, the doors of Bryan Hall were thrown open, and the immense crowd surging around the entrance rapidly poured in and filled up the hall, until every available inch of standing or sitting room was occupied. The stage, which had been han Isomely decorated with flags, was reserved for the speakers, prominent citizens, the committees and the band - Barnard's Light Guard Band.

About eight o'clock the band came forward and played Hail Columbia, Star Spangled Banner, and Yankee Doodle in a manner which appealed to the patriotism of the assemblage and called out the most enthusiastic applause.

After the close of the music, Eliphalet Wood, Esq., announced the . . . officers of the evening, who were elected. . . .

The meeting was then opened with a solemn and impressive prayer by Rev. Wm. H. Ryder, delivered amid profound silence. . . .

Dr. O. H. Tiffany came forward amid the most prolonged applause, which continued for several minutes. He congratulated his fellowcitizens upon the character of the gathering. . . .

They were here to-night not for talk, but to provide for the removal of traitors from our homes, as well as the South; to provide means for action. . .

We first sent 70,000 men. The South sneered at us and said, "Send five to our one and you will not have enough." We would have been wise had we done so. Then we sent 500,000 men. With the first enlistment we taught them to skedaddle, with the second the Virginia reel, and with both the "Rogue's March." Now we propose to send 300,000 to teach them to keep step to the music of the Union. Will you do it? (Cries "We will.") Casting the horoscope of the nation's future, I dare believe when the hour of victory strikes in the hearing of the nations, it will ring out the same old note the first bell of liberty sounded, proclaiming "liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants." Our first struggle was for existence; our second is for carrying liberty to all the earth. Southrons, your doom comes swiftly! A gloom of settled resolution and determination rests on every countenance in the whole land. Men think as they never thought, feel as they never felt before, and will carry out their purposes with a fearful daring. The Southern almanacs are predicting an eclipse. That eclipse will come soon enough. God has made their sun so dark that they can see our stars in day time. Lay the stripes of our flag about traitors till they revere our stars. Say, brothers, you will be with our brave volunteers now in the field, and never lay down your arms till our flag waves triumphantly over every city and citadel in this country. (Tremendous applause.)

Hon. Robert S. Wilson was introduced amidst great cheering. It is well known that we all cannot fight and will not fight. He had a practical proposition to make to his friends Steele, Scammon and Kinzie. They had made a great deal of money under this government.

His proposition to his friends who could not fight, was substantially this He would furnish a list of all the property he had got, and he wanted the rest to do it. He would then give a deed of $200 worth of land to each of two men two straightforward, honest, sober, straighthaired men who would volunteer. He would say to all these men, your property is good for nothing if the Republic is gone. If these men who have made their thousands can't contribute, they don't deserve the protection of the government. We have lived so long prosperously that we have forgotten our benefits. If you don't give down, I don't care how much the Southerners take from you if they ever get up here.

Hon. J. Y. Scammon being called for, said: This war had already cost him $50,000, and he was willing to give $50,000 more if it was necessary. He had given his only son. He would give $1,000 to the volunteers if it was necessary. . .