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CIV. THE NATIONAL FLAG.

1. There is the national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds, rippling in the breeze, without pride of country. If he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with all its endearments. Who, as he sees it, can think of a State merely?

2. Whose eyes, once fastened upon its radiant trophies, can fail to recognize the image of the whole nation? It has been called a "floating piece of poetry," and yet I know not if it have an intrinsic beauty beyond other ensigns. Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence.

3. It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen States to maintain the Declaration of Independence. Its stars of white on a field of blue proclaim that union of States constituting our national constellation, which receives a new star with every new State. two together signify union past and present.

The

4. The very colors have a language which was officially recognized by our fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and altogether, bunting, stripes, stars and colors, blazing in the sky, make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands.

CHARLES SUMNER.

There is a land, of every land the pride,

Beloved of heaven o'er all the world beside.

Where shall that land, that spot on earth, be found? Art thou a man? a patriot? look around!

O thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam,
That land, thy country-that spot, thy home.

CV. THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

1. Francis S. Key, the author of this national ode, accompanied by a Mr. Skinner, had been sent with a flag of truce to the British fleet to obtain the release of some prisoners taken in Washington. He was obliged to await the bombardment of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore. All night long he and his companion watched from the deck of their vessel, with the deepest anxiety, the terrific scene.

2. The bombardment closed during the night (of the 13th and 14th of September, 1814), and it was uncertain whether the fort had surrendered or not; when, however, "by the dawn's early light," they saw that "our flag was still there," they knew that the attack had failed; and Key, in the enthusiasm of the moment, took an old letter from his pocket, upon which he wrote most of this celebrated song.

3. It was completed as soon as he reached Baltimore, and, being circulated through the city, was sung with patriotic fervor by the inhabitants, becoming soon afterwards one of the national songs of the country.

ANDERSON'S UNITED STATES READER.

4. O, 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 perilous 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?

5. 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?

6. 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 footstep's pollution,

No refuge should 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. 7. O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their loved homes and 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 our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust:

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And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

CVI.- EMIGRATION FOR OUR INTEREST.

Speech made in 1782.

1. I venture to prophesy there are those now living who will see this favored land amongst the most powerful on earth,—able, sir, to take care of herself, without resorting to that policy which is always so dangerous, though sometimes unavoidable, of calling in foreign aid.

2. Yes, sir, they will see her great in arts and in arms, her golden harvests waving over fields of immeasurable extent; her commerce penetrating the most distant seas, and her cannon silencing the vain boasts of those who now proudly affect to rule the waves.

3. But, sir, you must have men,- you can not get along without them. Those heavy forests of valuable timber, under which your lands are groaning, must be cleared away. Those vast riches which cover the face of your soil, as well as those which lie hid in its bosom, are to be developed and gathered only by the skill and enterprise of men.

4. Your timber, sir, must be worked up into ships, to transport the productions of the soil from which it has been cleared. Then, you must have commercial men and commercial capital, to take off your productions, and find the best markets for them abroad. Your great want, sir, is the want of men; and these you must have, and will have speedily if you are wise.

5. Do you ask how you are to get them? Open your doors, sir, and they will come in! In population the Old World is full to overflowing. That population is ground, too, by the oppressions of the governments under which they live. Sir, they are already standing on tiptoe upon their native shores, and looking to your coasts with a wistful and longing eye.

6. They see here a land blessed with natural and polit ical advantages which are not equaled by those of any other country upon earth; a land on which a gracious Providence hath emptied the horn of abundance; a land over which Peace hath now stretched forth her white wings, and where content and plenty lie down at every door.

7. Sir, they see something still more attractive than all this. They see a land in which Liberty hath taken up her abode, that liberty whom they had considered. as a fabled goddess, existing only in the fancies of poets. They see here a real divinity; her altars rising on every hand throughout these happy Štates, her glories chanted by three millions of tongues, and the whole region smiling under her blessed influence.

8. Sir, let but this, our celestial goddess, Liberty, stretch forth her fair hand towards the people of the Old World,- tell them to come, and bid them welcome,— and you will see them pouring in from the north, from the south, from the east, and from the west. Your wilderness will be cleared and settled, your deserts will smile, your ranks will be filled, and you will soon be in a condition to defy the powers of any adversary.

9. But gentlemen object to any accession from Great Britain, and particularly to the return of the British refugees. Sir, I feel no objection to the return of those deluded people. They have, to be sure, mistaken their own interests most wofully; and most wofully have they suffered the punishment due to their offenses.

10. But the relations which we bear to them, and to their native country, are now changed. Their king hath acknowledged our independence; the quarrel is over, peace hath returned and found us a free people. Let us have the magnanimity, sir, to lay aside our antipathies and prejudices, and consider the subject in a political light.

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