The Cherokee.

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THE CHEROKEE.

We stand not where our fathers stood

The earth they trod is ours no more ;
And not a drop of kindred blood

Is flowing on our native shore ;
Where'er our vagrant footsteps roam,
We're aliens in a desert home!

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In vain may memory dare to trace

The glories of the days of old;
The ancient dwellings of our race,

By which the eternal rivers rolled ;
All that our fathers held in fee,
All that our sons may never see.
The blue majestic hills, that rose

Like thrones for gods to sit upon,
The plains that spread beneath their snows,

Bequeathed from hoary sire to son —
Given --- back through countless ages fled -

By Nature to the mighty dead !
The forests, lofty as the hills,

And gray beneath a thousand years,
The vales, that gushed with crystal rills,

The fields, that glowed with golden ears,
And, dearer than a monarch's throne,

The rude, rude huts that were our own!
The paths, o'er which our bounding feet

Outstripp'd the deer in headlong race –
The noon-tide covert's cool retreat,

Familiar as a brother's face
Oh, who can love another earth,
Like the bright spot that gave him birth!
Ay, the old trees stand tall and gray,

Beneath whose unforgotten shade
The youthful warrior brought his prey,

At evening, to his dark-eyed maid
And every flower that decked her hair,
Still blooms in summer beauty there.
But there no more shall chieftain hurl

The shaft of war, or sportive lance,
And there no more shall Indian girl

Beneath those verdant arches dance ;
Or pluck the flowers, or in the shade
Her feathery chaplet ever braid !
Our fathers held their sires in awe,

But we must bend, and sue, and seek
For this, they say, is Christian law,

To grind the poor and daunt the weak :
Oh, forest-free the red-bird roams,
But we are slaves in foreign homes !
Not such the tale our warriors told;

And is the eagle-spirit fled ?
Gone, with the fiëry hearts of old,

To slumber with the noble dead?
Gune, like the morning's misty breath
Gone, with the white man's broken faith?
Oh, better far than thus to go,

Withering and dwindling, day by day,
To venture all upon one blow,

Before our spirits melt away,
Scorn this dull life of lingering slaves,
And die around our fathers' graves !

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VOL. VIII.

G. L.

THE PORTICO.

NUMBER TWO.

Ingenuas dedicisse fideliter artes,
Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.

HORACE.

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In our last number, we undertook to display the numerous and important advantages which have been gained both by Europe and our own country, since the revival of learning and reformation in religion in the old world, and the hopes which may be rationally indulged, for the future, from the present condition and improved fortunes of our race. In perusing the records of history, and tracing the progress of human affairs, nothing can be more astonishing to the philosopher, or more afflictive to the laudable pride of the patriot and philanthropist, than to observe the slow advances which are made by science and right understanding, in demolishing the fortifications of ignorance and error, and subduing the dominions of prejudice and superstition. Upon a contemplation of this formidable evil

, this pertinacious adherence to inveterate errors, which seems to be the inherent malady of the social state, we are led involuntarily to exclaim, 'Can it be possible, that our nature is so radically imperfect, and our understandings so irrecoverably blinded to the truth, as that the lights of science cannot by any process be poured into the minds of men ? — that they cannot be made to comprehend those topics which are the most deeply interesting to them, and that in so many communities the great mass of the people must forever grope their way in darkness, and remain the willing dupes of cunning

, and imposture? Is the veil of ignorance, credulity, and delusion, 100 thick to be penetrated by the rays of science, and are the people irretrievably doomed to spend their days, through perpetual generations, enveloped in the darkness, gloominess, and miserable torpor of ignorance, error, and superstition? This deplorable state of things can never have been contemplated by that great and good Being, who has created mankind in his own heavenly image, who has enriched them with such exalted faculties of body and mind, who has inspired them with an ardent appetency for knowledge and insatiable curiosity, and who has stimulated them to the investigation of truth by so many powerful motives of expediency and satisfaction. In our country, it is fervently to be hoped, that as man finds himself in a condition so auspicious to the exercise and utmost cultivation of his talents, he will learn to claim his native honors and privileges, indulge his spirit of inquiry in its largest range, give unbounded scope to that reason wbich is the brightest ray of the divinity enkindled within him, and learn to compass its boldest conclusions. Never was a finer and more glorious field opened than in our country, in which reason may engage in a fair and equal contest of argument, in which truth may manfully wage war with error, and in which right, if its forces be judiciously summoned and adequately conducted, is more sure of an ultimate victory over might. Let us, then, be fully apprized of the inestimable advantages we enjoy in this respect, in this land of freedom, intelligence, and bold inquiry. Morality, religion, public order, have nothing to apprehend, from the fair conflict of opposing intellects, in the open field of argument and free discussion;

and Truth, when invested with her invincible armor, cannot fail to triumph over the stratagems and assaults of error. Where knowledge and sound understanding are allowed to plant their standards and shed their lights, error, ignorance, and superstition must ultimately pale their ineffectual fires.'

Much has been most laudably done, in these United States, for the promotion of science and letters, and the due encouragement of the liberal arts; but before we shall have acquitted ourselves of the duty which we owe to our admirable republic, much more, incalculably more, remains to be done. We have founded colleges and academies, in which our youth are initiated into the mysteries of science, and attain the elements of a polite education; our daughters, in female schools, are nurtured in the principles of elegant literature, and are modelled into the polished corners of our great temple of liberty; institutions are introduced among us for the promotion of learning and improvement in the arts; a thirst for reading, although too generally confined to productions of a lighter kind, is extensively excited; candidates are continually added to the list of those who are contending for distinction in prose and poetry; in every successive age, authors, orators, and artists make their appearance among us, whose efforts of genius reflect augmented lustre upon the scientific and literary characters of their country, while the press

is prolific of indigenous productions of merit, and of re-publications of those which are the offspring of foreign genius. These are infallible indications that the nation is rapidly advancing in the career of scientific and literary exertion, and in the cultivation of all those arts which give aggrandizement to a state, communicate embellishment to its habits of thinking, and polish and refinernent to its manners. What, then, is still wanted to elevate our republic to a perfect equality with the most exalted among civilized nations to model her into the most finished form and proportions, and crown her with the highest honors of a perfect state? We answer, that we shall deem her as having given the finishing touches to her greatness and glory, and reached the most elevated rank among the nations of the earth, as soon as she has made ample provision for her advancement toward improvement and perfection in science, literature, and the elegant and useful arts. This is the career of honor and greatness upon which it now behooves her to enter, with her characteristic activity and enterprise, if she wishes to attain the heights of genuine glory, and rival the most famous states both in ancient and modern times. It next becomes our province to unfold and illustrate the means by which this enviable distinction may be attained.

Perhaps from the first formation of society, and the establishment of a regular government upon the banks of the Nile, to the present moment, no people ever advanced more rapidly than we have since our separation from England, in population, power, and opulence, as well as in all those improvements, accommodations, and refinements, which impart elegance to life, and elevate and aggrandize a community. By our vigilance and prudence, we have already provided ample means of security to our rights and liberties at home, as well as defence against aggression and invasions from abroad. Never has history recorded an example of a more intelligent, industrious, and energetic people. I must also be allowed to believe, without exposing myself to the charge of boasting and undue partiality, that no nation was ever more productive of all kinds of genius, or capacity for excellence in every species of elegant pursuit. But while these high panegyrics are deemed but a tribute due to the undoubted merits of our countrymen, it is not to be denied, also, that we are not equally distinguished by a profound knowledge of the sciences, or by the delicacy and correctness of our taste. Sound learning, a capacity for profound investigation, and a just discrimination in the works of genius, are not the spontaneous products of nature, but the slow acquisitions of time, application, and exclusive devotion to the pursuits of study. The Americans are too active, laborious, and thrifty a people, to find time for those silent contemplations, and toilsome researches, by which alone great masters in science, profound interpreters of nature, or the finest models in prose and poetry are to be formed. Hence, although talents, and no doubt much of the highest order, we have in abundance, to a nice discrimination of the degrees of excellence in writing and eloquence, we certainly can lay no claim. No readers are more easily caught and imposed upon than ours, by counterfeit beau

Hence the crudest productions, and most flimsy and glittering specimens of oratory, find warm encomiasts, a rapid sale, and ready circulation among us.

There really seems as yet no sufficient preparation made in the public mind, which would enable us to pronounce a right decision, or promulge an authoritative sanction, by which the merits of any great and solid work would be accurately ascertained. About such performances, indeed, our readers, for the most part, appear to hold their judgment in a state of perfect supineness and indifference, contenting themselves with relishing lighter pieces, and awaiting the sentence of European critics to determine the pretensions of weightier contributions to science. And shall we long remain in this condition of dependence and intellectual vassalage to foreign critics and reviewers? Is it not high time that we should awake to a perception of our own claims ? But by what process, let us ask, shall this evil be remedied ? What are the expedients to be adopted, in order not only to produce good, deep, and sound authors, but also their only efficient patrons and supports, correct judges, whose approbation will stamp a high character and value upon works, and promote their circulation among intelligent readers, and secure their permanent fame? This is an interrogatory of infinite importance, at this time, to the literary reputation of our country, and of consequence demands from us a distinct, full, and adequate reply.

That deficiency in correct taste, both in the readers and writers of our country, which is perceptible to all scholars, and which has not escaped the observation and strictures of our European libellers, arises out of the operation of many conjoined causes, but first and more especially from the imperfections in that system of education which is prevalent in our colleges and schools. Parents are so excessively eager to have their sons protruded into the world in quest of fortunes, that our seminaries of learning are compelled, by public sentiment, to abridge their course of intellectual discipline, and hastening their under graduates from study to study, in order to compass the whole circle in a given time, at last

let loose from their studious retirement a succession of unfledged scholars, who, becoming soon involved in whirl of business, never afterward find time or opportunity to complete those acquirements which they had just begun, supply those vacuities of which they are sensible, or improve and perfect that taste which was left by their instructors in a state of crudity. And when our young men, thus slenderly supplied with learning, at their departure from the walls of college commence the practice of their several professions, and make their appearance before the public eye, instead of finding a corrective of their own faulty judgments in the decisions of others, they readily discover that the standard to which their efforts are referred is as defective as their own, and that their best qualifications for success, and their most available recommendations to the applause of their hearers and umpires, are those florid harangues and tinsel decorations of style, which the authors whom they studied in youth would have taught them to repudiate. Thus unskilful judges in writing and eloquence encourage and multiply imperfect writers and speakers, and these two classes of men have a reciprocal influence upon each other. In order to produce the finest specimens of composition and oratory in a country, it is indispensable that readers and auditors should have attained to the highest refinement and perfection in taste. The intercourse, in this particular, between writers and speakers, and their readers and hearers, resembles the interchange of commodities which takes place in market — able writers and speakers requiring the most intelligent and highly cultivated assemblies, in order to a just perception and correct estimation of the finished productions of their genius.

But to proceed with the subject of our present remark. The most effectual methods by which we shall refine and perfect the public taste in our country, and give rise among us to the finest productions of genius, is to raise the standard of our early education, and give adequate encouragement to men of letters. And as the next step to be taken at the present moment, in this desirable work, no more efficacious measure could be devised by human wisdom, than that which has been prepared for our republic by a liberal and enlightened foreigner, who has placed ample funds at the disposal of Congress, with the intent of founding a great literary institution at Washington, for the diffusion of useful knowledge among men.' Should the generous bequest of this noblespirited Englishman, which our Congress has judiciously acknowledged, and taken measures to procure, be appropriated to the purpose contemplated by the testator, and the means he has furnished be judiciously applied, the most ardent wish of our Washington will be fulfilled, and an institution founded, which will supply one of the most urgent wants of our republic at this time, raise the standard of education among us, give a new impulse to American intellect, elevate our scientific reputation at home and abroad, and finally produce a succession of American authors and philosophers, who will reflect the highest honors upon their country through all future ages. This, however, is a topic too copious and interesting to be discussed in this article, and we defer its full investigation to our next.

MARIGOLD.

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