[From the same]
There is a strange, mysterious bird, Which few have seen, but all have heard: He sits upon a fallen tree, Through all the night, and thus sings he: Whippowil!
Whippowil!
Whippowil!
Despising show, and empty noise, The gaudy fluttering thing he flies: And in the echoing vale by night Thus sings the pensive anchorite: Whippowil!
Oh, had I but his voice and wings, I'd envy not a bird that sings; But gladly would I flit away, And join the wild nocturnal lay: Whippowil!
The school-boy, tripping home in haste, Impatient of the night's repast, Would stop to hear my whistle shrill, And answer me with mimic skill: Whippowil!
The rich man's scorn, the poor man's care, Folly in silk, and Wisdom bare, Virtue on foot, and Vice astride, No more should vex me while I cried: Whippowil!
How blest!--Nor loneliness nor state, Nor fame, nor wealth, nor love, nor hate, Nor av'rice, nor ambition vain, Should e'er disturb my tranquil strain: Whippowil!
Whippowil!
Whippowil!
SYLPHS BATHING
[From _Crystalina_ (New York, 1816)]
The shores with acclamations rung, As in the flood the playful damsels sprung: Upon their beauteous bodies, with delight, The billows leapt. Oh, 'twas a pleasant sight To see the waters dimple round, for joy, Climb their white necks, and on their bosoms toy: Like snowy swans they vex'd the sparkling tide, Till little rainbows danced on every side.
Some swam, some floated, some on pearly feet Stood sidelong, smiling, exquisitely sweet.
GEORGE ROBERTSON
George Robertson, the most widely quoted Kentucky jurist, and an able writer, was born near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, November 18, 1790. He was educated in the arts and in law at Transylvania University, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Lancaster, Kentucky, in 1809. In 1816 Robertson was elected to Congress, where he remained for two terms. He drew up the bill for the establishment of Arkansaw territory; and he projected the system of cutting public lands into small lots, selling them to actual settlers for one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. He declined another term in the House, as well as the attorney-generalship of Kentucky, in order to devote his whole attention to the law. Robertson was elected against his desire to the Kentucky legislature, in 1822, and he was a member of that body for the next five years. This was the time of the struggle between the Old-Court and New-Court parties, which was one of the most bitter political fights ever seen in Kentucky. Robertson consistently and vigorously championed the cause of the Old-Court party, which finally won. That this disgusted him with political life in any dress, is shown by his subsequent declination of the governorship of Arkansaw, and the Columbian and Peruvian missions. In 1828 he was elected an associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and, in the following year, chief justice. This position was George Robertson's heart's desire--he hated politics with a never-dying hatred, the law and the bench being his earthly paradise. He was chief justice of Kentucky for fourteen years, when he resigned to return to the active practice of law. From 1834 to 1857 Judge Robertson was professor of law in Transylvania University at Lexington. He died at Lexington, May 16, 1874, generally regarded as the ablest jurist Kentucky has produced. He was also the author of four books: _Introductory Lecture to the Transylvania Law Class_ (Lexington); _Biographical Sketch of John Boyle_ (Frankfort, 1838); _Scrap-Book on Law and Politics, Men and Times_ (Lexington, 1855), his best known book; and his very interesting and well-written autobiography, entitled _An Outline of the Life of George Robertson, written by Himself_ (Lexington, 1876), to which his son contributed an introduction and appendix.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. The chief authority for the facts of Judge Robertson's life is, of course, his autobiography; Samuel M.
Wilson's study in _Great American Lawyers_ (Philadelphia, 1908).
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY
[From _Scrap Book on Law and Politics, Men and Times_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1855)]
Yet we have hopes that are immortal--interests that are imperishable--principles that are indestructible. Encouraged by those hopes, stimulated by those interests, and sustained by and sustaining those principles, let us, come what may, be true to God, true to ourselves, and faithful to our children, our country, and mankind. And then, whenever or wherever it may be our doom to look, for the last time, on earth, we may die justly proud of the title of "Kentuckian,"
and, with our expiring breath, may cordially exclaim--Kentucky, as she was;--Kentucky, as she is;--Kentucky, as she will be;--Kentucky forever.
EARLY STRUGGLES
[From _An Outline of the Life of George Robertson, written by Himself_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1876)]
Yet, thus juvenile, poor, and proud, I ventured not only on the rather hopeless prospects of professional life, but, on the 28th of November, 1809, when I was only ten days over nineteen years of age, I ventured on the far more momentous contingencies of marriage, and, linking my destinies with a wife only fifteen years and seven months old, we embarked without freight or pilotage, on the untried sea of early marriage. I had never made a cent, and had nothing but ordinary clothes, a horse, an old servant, a few books, and the humble talents with which God had blessed me. I borrowed thirteen dollars as an outfit, and out of that fund I paid for my license and handed to my groomsman, R. P. Letcher, five dollars for paying the parson, Randolph Hall, father of Rev. Nathan H. Hall. Some days afterwards Letcher rather slyly put into my hand a dollar, suggesting that he had saved that much for me by paying the preacher only four dollars. This looked to me as such minute parsimony as to excite my indignation, important as was only one dollar then to me. And I manifested that feeling in a manner both emphatic and censurious; to which Letcher replied that four dollars was more than was then customary, and that Mr. Hall, when he received it, expressed the warmest gratitude, and said that, old as he was, he had never received so large a fee for solemnizing the matrimonial rite! This reconciled me to the return of the dollar.
My wife and myself lived with her mother until the 9th of September, 1810, when we set up for ourselves in a small buckeye house with only two rooms, built and first occupied by Judge [John] Boyle, and respecting which I may here suggest this remarkable coincidence of successive events:--That Boyle commenced housekeeping in that house, and, while he occupied it, was elected to Congress; that Samuel McKee commenced housekeeping in the same house, and succeeded Boyle in Congress; that I commenced housekeeping in the same house, and succeeded McKee in Congress; and that R. P. Letcher commenced housekeeping in the same house, and, after an interval of two years, succeeded me in Congress. I was unable to furnish it with a carpet, and our only furniture consisted of two beds, one table, one bureau, six split-bottomed chairs, and a small supply of table and kitchen furniture, which I bought with a small gold watch. I had bought a bag of flour, a bag of corn meal, a half barrel of salt, and two hams and two middlings of bacon; and these, together with the milk of a small cow given to my wife by her mother, and a few chickens and some butter, constituted our entire outfit of provisions. But all our supplies were stolen the night we commenced housekeeping. This was, at that time, a heavy blow. I had no money; and, though I had good credit, I resolved not to buy anything on credit. And that was one of the best resolutions I ever made. It stimulated my industry and economy, and soon secured to me peace and a comfortable sense of independence. In adhering to my privative, but conservative resolve, I often cut and carried on my shoulders wood from a neighboring forest.
LITERARY FAME
[From the same]
The classical reader remembers that, when almost all the Greeks, captured with Nicias at Syracuse, had died in dungeons, a remnant of the survivors saved themselves by the recitation of beautiful extracts from Euripides. How potent was the shadowed genius of the immortal Athenian, when it alone melted the icy hearts that nothing else could touch, and broke the captive's chains, which justice, and prayers, and tears, had in vain tried to unloose! And hence "the glory of Euripides had all Greece for a monument." He too was elevated by the light of other minds.
It is said that he acquired a sublime inspiration whenever he read Homer--whose Iliad and whose Odyssey--the one exhibiting the fatality of strife among leading men, the other portraying the efficacy of perseverance--have stamped his name on the roll of fame in letters of sunshine, that will never fade away. No memorial tells where Troy once stood--Delphi is now mute--the thunder of Olympus is hushed, and Apollo's lyre no longer echoes along the banks of the Peneus--but the fame of Homer still travels with the stars.
SHADRACH PENN
Shadrach Penn, one of the ablest of Kentucky journalists, was born at Frederick, Maryland, in 1790. His family settled near Georgetown, Kentucky, when he was a mere boy. Penn began his newspaper career at Georgetown when he was but nineteen years of age; and he subsequently served in the War of 1812. In 1818 Penn removed to Louisville and established _The Public Advertiser_, which was a weekly for the first few years of its history, then a semi-weekly, and, on April 4, 1826, a final change was made "and the first daily newspaper west of the Alleghanies was flung to the public." After the establishment of the _Kentucky Gazette_, this marked the second most epoch-making event in Kentucky journalism. Penn was an able editor, the very ablest in Kentucky, and he was having things his own way in the West, advocating Jacksonian Democracy. In 1828 President Jackson showed his appreciation of Penn's services by offering him a place in his cabinet, which he declined, but he did spend a winter at Washington as the President's warm friend and adviser. Then, _mirabile dictu!_ the Whigs brought George D. Prentice to Kentucky and, in 1830, he established the _Louisville Journal_, and began a most bitter fight upon Penn's paper.
Penn fought back as best he could, but he was quite unequal for the contest. For nearly twelve years the warfare was waged without either editor asking quarter, and to the infinite amusement of the whole country. In 1841 Penn ran up the white flag and went to St. Louis to become editor of the _St. Louis Reporter_. Prentice bade him farewell in the best of temper, and when he died at St. Louis, on June 15, 1846, the old Whig's tribute to his memory was the finest one written.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Pioneer Press of Kentucky_, by W. H. Perrin (Louisville, 1888); _Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky_, by J. Stoddard Johnston (Chicago, 1896).
THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE
[From _The Public Advertiser_ (Louisville, September 10, 1830)]
This gentleman and Mr. Buxton, of Cincinnati, have issued proposals for publishing a daily paper in Louisville, which is to be edited by Mr.
Prentice. Willing that the gentleman shall be known by the people whose patronage he is seeking, we copy today from a Cincinnati paper his account of the late elections in Kentucky. The production may be viewed as a fair specimen of his "fine literature, his drollery, strong powers of sarcasm," and, above all, his "poetical capacity." The respect and attachment he displays toward Kentucky (to say nothing of the Jackson party), must be exquisitely gratifying to the respectable portion of Mr.
Clay's friends in this city. To them we commend the letter of Mr.
Prentice as an erudite, chaste, and veritable production, worthy of the "great editor" who is hereafter to figure as Mr. Clay's champion in the West. We may, moreover, congratulate them in consequence of the fair prospect before them; for with the aid of such an editor they cannot fail to effect miraculous revolutions or revulsions in the political world. The occupants of all our fish markets will be confirmed in their devotion to the opposition beyond redemption.
WILLIAM O. BUTLER
William Orlando Butler, one of General Lew Wallace's favorite poets, was born near Nicholasville, Kentucky, in 1791. He was the son of Percival Butler, a noted Revolutionary soldier. He was graduated from Transylvania University, Lexington, in 1812. Butler studied law for a short time, but the War of 1812 called him and he enlisted. At the River Raisin he was wounded and captured and carried through Canada to Fort Niagara, but he was later exchanged. Butler was with General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and his gallantry attracted the attention of the general, who placed him upon his staff. In 1817 Butler returned to the law, married, and settled in the little river town of Carrollton, Kentucky, on the Ohio, his home henceforth. In July, 1821, the first draft of his famous poem, _The Boatman's Horn_ (then called _The Boat Horn_), was published in _The Western Review_, a monthly magazine of Lexington, Kentucky. In describing his boyhood days at Covington, Indiana, General Lew Wallace very charmingly writes of his early love for the Wabash river, and for old Nebeker, the lonesome ferryman, who "welcomed me for my company. On the farther side, chained to a tree, he kept a long tin horn. A traveller, coming to the bank and finding us on the townward side, blew to get our attention ... when the voice of the big horn on the thither side called to us--How it startled me! What music there was in it! What haste I made to unship my oar!... And if since then I have been an ardent fisherman, believing with my friend Maurice Thompson that
"Halcyon prophecies come to pass In the haunts of the bream and bass;"
and if the song of Butler, the soldier-poet of Kentucky--
"Oh, boatman, wind that horn again!
For never did the joyous air Upon its lambent bosom bear So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain"--
is still a favorite of mine, with power to stir my pulses and return me to a freak of childhood full of joyousness alloyed only with thought of my mother's fears, the shrewd reader will know at once how such tastes inured to me. And as swimming seems to have been one of my natural accomplishments, I must have acquired it during my days at the ferry." This is far and away the best background for Butler's poem that has been done, and with it before the reader the famous poem must mean more to him. The poem was subsequently published as the title-poem in a small collection of his verse, entitled _The Boatman's Horn and Other Poems_. From 1839 to 1843 Butler was a Kentucky Congressman; and in 1844 the unsuccessful candidate for governor of Kentucky. Upon his Mexican War record, General Butler was nominated by the Democratic party for vice-president of the United States with General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the head of the ticket, but they were defeated by Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams. In 1855 General Butler declined the governorship of the territory of Nebraska; and in 1861 he went to Washington as a member of the famous "Peace Congress." General Butler died at his home, Carrollton, Kentucky, August 6, 1880, in the ninetieth year of his age. Though famous as a soldier and politician, _The Boatman's Horn_ is the work that will keep his name green for many years; and several of his other poems are not to be utterly despised.