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America has produced, although his influence will not be so lasting as
that of profounder statesmen. He was a master of the feelings and
could sway the multitude before him as one man. "His style of argument
was by vivid picture, apt comparison, and forcible illustration,
rather than by close reasoning like Webster's, or impregnable logic
like that of Calhoun."--John P. McGuire.
TO BE RIGHT ABOVE ALL.
Sir, I would rather be right than be president. (_In 1850, on being
told that his views would endanger his nomination for the
presidency._)
NO GEOGRAPHICAL LINES IN PATRIOTISM.
I know no North, no South, no East, no West.
MILITARY INSUBORDINATION.
(_From the speech on the Seminole War, delivered 1819._)
I will not trespass much longer upon the time of the committee; but I
trust I shall be indulged with some few reflections upon the danger
of permitting conduct, [Gen. Jackson's arbitrary court-martial], on
which it has been my painful duty to animadvert, to pass without a
solemn expression of the disapprobation of this House. Recall to your
mind the free nations which have gone before us. Where are they now?
"Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were,
A school-boy's tale, the wonder of an hour."
And how have they lost their liberties? If we could transport
ourselves back to the ages when Greece and Rome flourished in their
greatest prosperity, and, mingling in the throng, should ask a Grecian
whether 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 shall be eternal. If a Roman citizen had been asked whether
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; Cæsar passed the Rubicon, and the
patriotic arm even of Brutus could not preserve the liberties of his
devoted country. The celebrated Madame de Staël, in her last and
perhaps her best work, has said that in the very year, almost the very
month, when the president of the Directory declared that monarchy
would never show its frightful head in France, Bonaparte with his
grenadiers entered the palace of St. Cloud, and, dispersing with the
bayonet the deputies of the people, deliberating on the affairs of the
state, laid the foundation of that vast fabric of despotism which
overshadowed all Europe.
I hope not to be misunderstood; I am far from intimating that General
Jackson cherishes any designs inimical to the liberties of the
country. I believe his intentions to be pure and patriotic. I thank
God that he would not, but I thank Him still more that he could not if
he would, overturn the liberties of the Republic. But precedents, if
bad, are fraught with the most dangerous consequences. Man has been
described, by some of those who have treated of his nature, as a
bundle of habits. The definition is much truer when applied to
governments. Precedents are their habits. There is one important
difference between the formation of habits by an individual and by
government. He contracts it only after frequent repetition. A single
instance fixes the habit and determines the direction of governments.
Against the alarming doctrine of unlimited discretion in our military
commanders, when applied to prisoners of war, I must enter my protest.
It begins upon them; it will end on us. I hope our happy form of
government is to be perpetual. But if it is to be preserved, it must
be by the practice of virtue, by justice, by moderation, by
magnanimity, by greatness of soul, by keeping a watchful and steady
eye on the executive; and, above all, by holding to a strict
accountability the military branch of the public force. . . . . . .
Beware how you give a fatal sanction, in this infant period of our
republic, scarcely yet two score years old, to military
insubordination. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her
Cæsar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that, if we
would escape the rock on which they split, we must avoid their errors.
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.
~1780=1843.~
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY was born in Frederick county, Maryland, and was
educated at St. John's College, Annapolis. He became a lawyer, was
appointed District Attorney of the District of Columbia, and spent his
life in Washington City.
A very handsome monument has been erected to his memory in San
Francisco by Mr. James Lick: his song, the "Star-Spangled Banner,"
will be his enduring monument throughout our country. It was composed
during the attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, 1814. Key had
gone to the British vessel to get a friend released from imprisonment,
in which he succeeded, but he was kept on board the enemy's vessel
until after the attack on the fort; and the song commemorates his
evening and morning watch for the star-spangled banner on Fort
McHenry, and the appearance of the flag in "the morning's first beam"
showed that the attack had been successfully resisted. The words were
written on an old envelope. (See illustrations in the _Century
Magazine_, July, 1894.)
WORKS.
Poems, with a sketch by Chief-Justice Taney.
[Illustration: ~Star-Spangled Banner.~]
[Illustration: Obverse
Reverse
~Seal of the United States.~]
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.
Oh! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the clouds of the fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O, say, does that Star-Spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
'Tis the Star-Spangled banner; O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave;
And the Star-Spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when Previous Next |