Th' enamour'd Triton's glittering train Sporting round the liquid main Waving their gold and silver pinions, Bear her o'er their deep dominions, While infant Loves and young desires Dancing 'mid the choral choirs Clasp the beauteous Queen around And sail in triumph o'er the bright profound.
ANACREON'S FIRST ODE
[From _The Western Review_ (Lexington, March, 1821)]
I would Atrides' glory tell, I would to Cadmus strike my shell; I try the vocal cords--in vain!
Love, only love, breathes through the strain.
I strip away the truant wire, And string with deeper chords the lyre, Then great Alcides' toils would sing: Soft love still sighs through every string.
Hence, themes of Glory, hence! adieu!
For what have I to do with you?
My heart and lyre in union make Resounding Love and only Love.
HUMPHREY MARSHALL
Humphrey Marshall, author of the first _History of Kentucky_ that was in any wise comprehensive, was born near Warrenton, Virginia, in 1760.
What little school instruction he received was from the young woman whom he afterwards married. Marshall removed to Kentucky in 1782, after having served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Virginia convention of 1788, as a representative of the district of Kentucky, which adopted the Federal constitution.
Marshall was in the Kentucky legislature for several terms and, from 1795 to 1801, he was United States Senator from Kentucky. Some years later he was again in the State legislature; and at about that time his famous duel with Henry Clay took place. The first edition of his _History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, 1812), appeared in a single volume of 407 pages; but the second and final edition was greatly revised and augmented and published in two octavo volumes (Frankfort, 1824).
Humphrey Marshall's pen was pointed with poison for his enemies (and he had more of them than any other Kentuckian of his time, perhaps), and in his book he lashed them ruthlessly. He was the first as well as the last of Kentucky's "personal" historians. He first endeavored to silence his foes with newspapers and pamphlets, but, not being satisfied with the results, he poured out his wrath in book form to the extent of a thousand pages and more. While prejudice is the most descriptive word possible to use in characterizing Marshall's work, it is not all prejudice. He wrote with wonderful keenness concerning the Spanish conspiracy in Kentucky, his views upon the men that were guilty of bartering Kentucky to Spain in order to obtain free navigation of the Mississippi river having been abundantly affirmed by the latest historical work upon that subject. He also wrote of the Burr conspiracy with great clearness of vision, all of which is very remarkable when one stops to consider that nearly every one of the men connected with these two conspiracies were his bitterest enemies. That Marshall was an able writer all of the Kentucky historians have freely admitted, notwithstanding the fact they have quarreled with his "copy"
many times. He is, as his biographer writes, "the stormy petrel of Kentucky's earlier years," a most remarkable man from several points of view. His _History of Kentucky_, in either edition, is rather scarce at this time, and it is not to be found in many of the rare book shops of the country. Humphrey Marshall died at Lexington, Kentucky, July 3, 1841. He lies buried upon the banks of the Kentucky river, near the capitol of the Commonwealth, Frankfort.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall_, by A.
C. Quisenberry (Winchester, Kentucky, 1892).
PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY
[From _The History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824, v. i)]
The country, once seen, held out abundant inducements to be re-visited, and better known. Among the circumstances best adapted to engage the attention, and impress the feelings of the adventurous hunters of North Carolina, may be selected the uncommon fertility of the soil, and the great abundance of wild game, so conspicuous at that time. And we are assured that the effect lost nothing of the cause. Forests those hunters had seen--mountains they had ascended--valleys they had traversed--deer they had killed--and bears they had successfully hunted. They had heard the howl of the wolf; the whine of the panther; and the heart-rending yell of the savage man; with correspondent sensations of delight, or horror. But these were all lost to memory, in the contemplation of Kentucky; animated with all the enchanting variety, and adorned with all the majestic grace and boldness of nature's creative energy. To nature's children, she herself is eloquent, and affecting. Never before had the feelings of these rude hunters experienced so much of the pathetic, the sublime, or the marvellous. Their arrival on the plains of Elkhorn was in the dawn of summer; when the forests, composed of oaks of various kinds, of ash, of walnut, cherry, buck-eye, hackberry, sugar trees, locust, sycamore, coffee tree, and an indefinite number of other trees, towering aloft to the clouds, overspread the luxuriant undergrowth, with their daily shade; while beneath, the class of trees--the shrubs, the cane, the herbage, and the different kinds of grass, and clover, interspersed with flowers, filled the eye, and overlaid the soil, with the forest's richest carpet. The soil itself, more unctuous and fertile than Egypt's boasted Delta, from her maternal bosom, gave copious nutriment; and in rich exuberance sustained the whole, in matchless verdure.
Here it was, if Pan ever existed, that without the aid of fiction, he held his sole dominion, and Sylvan empire, unmolested by Ceres, or Lucina, for centuries.
The proud face of creation here presented itself, without the disguise of art. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no human habitation raised: even the red man of the forest had not put up his wigwam of poles and bark for habitation. But that mysterious Being, whose productive power we call Nature, ever bountiful, and ever great--had not spread out this replete and luxurious pasture without stocking it with numerous flocks and herds: nor were their ferocious attendants, who prey upon them, wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings.
Here was seen the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the surly bear; the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; the insidious wild-cat; and the haughty buffaloe: besides innumerable other creatures, winged, fourfooted, or creeping. And here, at some time unknown, had been, for his bones are yet here, the leviathan of the forest, the monstrous mammoth; whose trunk, like that of the famous Trojan horse, would have held an host of men; and whose teeth, nine feet in length, inflicted death and destruction, on both animals and vegetable substances--until exhausting all within its range, itself became extinct. Nor is it known, although the race must have abounded in the country, from the great number of bones belonging to the species, found in different places, that there is one of the kind living on the American continent, if in the universe.
STEPHEN T. BADIN
Stephen Theodore Badin, Kentucky's earliest Catholic bard, was born at Orleans, France, in 1768. Though very poor he received a classical and theological training in Paris and Tours; and in 1792 he emigrated to America. In the following year Badin was ordained by Bishop John Carroll at Baltimore, he being the first Roman Catholic priest ordained in the United States. He was subsequently appointed to do missionary work in Kentucky, which was then in the old Baltimore diocese, and he made his home at Georgetown, Kentucky. During the next few years Badin rode more than one hundred thousand miles on horseback in order to meet all of his appointments. He was then the only Catholic priest in Kentucky, though he did have assistants from time to time. In 1797 Badin was made vicar-general, and the large Catholic emigrations from Maryland to Kentucky about this time greatly increased his labors. His _Principles of Catholics_ (1805) was the first Catholic book published in the West, and it gave him a larger audience than his voice could well reach. Badin later organized missions and built churches in Louisville and Lexington, St. Peter's in Lexington being made possible by the generosity of his Protestant friends, of whom he had many. Badin and Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, of the Bardstown diocese, had a misunderstanding as to the settlement of titles to certain church properties which Badin had acquired before Flaget came to Kentucky, and, rather than to have an acrimonious argument with the Bishop, he quit Kentucky, in 1819, and spent the next nine years in European travel. From 1830 to 1836 he worked among the Pottawatomie Indians in Indiana with marked success.
Father Badin died at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1853. He was the author of several Latin poems in hexameters, among them being _Carmen Sacrum_, a translation of which was published at Frankfort; _Epicedium_, an elegy upon the death of Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess at the battle of Tippecanoe; and _Sanctissimae Trinitatis Laudes et Invocatis_ (Louisville, 1843). His brief in memoriam for Colonel Daviess is his best known work and, perhaps, his masterpiece.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Sketches of Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky_, by M. J. Spalding (Louisville, 1846); _The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky_, by B. J. Webb (Louisville, 1884).
EPICEDIUM
In Gloriosam Mortem Magnanimi Equitum Ducis Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Patrii Amoris Victimae In Tippecanoe Pugna ad Amnem Wabaschum, 7. Die Nov. 1811.
Epicedium; Honorabili Viro Joanni Rowan Meo Ipsiusque Amico Dicatum.
[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (February 18, 1812)]
Autumnus felix aderat granaria complens Frugibus; umbrosas patulis jam frondibus ulmos Exuerat brumoe proprior, cum Fama per orbem Non rumore vago fatalia nuncia defert: "Sub specie pacis Slyvaecola perfidus atra "Nocte viros inopino plumbo occidit et hasta; "Dux equitum triplici confossus vulnere, fortis "Occubuit; turmoe hostiles periere fugatoe, "Hostilesque casas merito ultrix flamma voravit."
Mensibus aestivis portenderat ista Cometes Funera; Terra quatit repetitis motibus; aegre Volvit sanguineas Wabaschus tardior undas Ingeminant Dryades suspiria longa; Hymenoeus Deficit audita clade, et solatia spernit Omnia; triste silet Musarum turba; fidelis Luget Amicities, lugubri tegmine vestit Et caput et laevam, desiderioque dalentis Non pudor aut modus est. Lacrymas at fundere inanes Quid juvat? Heu lacrymis nil Fata moventur acerba!
Ergo piae Themidis meliora oracula poscunt Unanimes; diram causam Themis aure benigna Excipit, et mox decretum pronunciat oequum: "Davidis effigies nostra appendatur in aula; "Tempora sacra viri quercus civilis adornet, "Ac non immeritam jungat Victoria laurum.
"Signa sui Legislator det publica luctus; Historioe chartis referat memorabile Clio.
"Praelium, et alta locum cyparissus contegat umbra.
"Tristis Hymen pretiosa urna cor nobile servet; "Marmoreo reliquos cineres sincera sepulcro "Condat Amicities; praesens venturaque laudet "aetas magnanimum David, virtute potentem "Eloquii, belli et pacis decus immortale."
Vita habet angustos fines, et gloria nullos: Qui patrioe reddunt vitam, illi morte nec ipsa Vincuntur; virtutum exempla nepotibus extant.
Pro Patria vitam profundere maxima laus est.
Stephanus Theodorus Badin, Cathol. Mission.
Moerens canebat 15. Dec. 1811.
A TRANSLATION BY "WOODFORDENSIS"
[From the same]
On the glorious death of Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Commander of the Horse, who fell a victim to his love of country, in the late battle on the Wabash, the 7th. Nov., 1811.
Dedicated to John Rowan, Esq.
'Twas late in autumn, and the thrifty swain In spacious barns secur'd the golden grain; November's chilly mornings breath'd full keen; No leafy honors crown'd the sylvan scene.
When Fame with those sad tidings quickly flew Throughout our land; (her tale, alas! too true): "The savage Indian, our perfidious foe, Pretending peace with hypocritic show, Surpris'd our legions in the dead of night And urg'd with lead and steel the mortal fight; Our valiant warriors strew th' ensanguin'd plain, Ev'n our great Captain of the Horse is slain With triple wound!!! At length the foe retires, With loss; and leaves his town to our avenging fires."
When summer gilded our nocturnal sky With astral gems; a comet blazed on high, Portentous of these fates!--the earth, in throes Repeated labors; rueful Wabash flows With slower current, stain'd with mingling blood!
The _Dryads_ fill with plaints the echoing wood!
Hymen, the slaughter heard, dissolves in grief!
Naught can console him, naught can yield relief.
In woeful silence sits the muses' train And Friendship mourns her fav'rite hero slain.
The funeral crape, vain badge of grief! she wears Upon her head, her arms the emblem bears, Her sorrowing mind no moderation knows, Admits no measure to her boundless woes.
Ah, what avails the vain expense of tears?
Fate still unmov'd this fruitless anguish bears!
Therefore to Themis' shrine, with one accord, They come to crave a more benign award.
The direful cause the attentive Goddess hears, And soon this just decree her record bears: "Let Daviess still in semblance grace my halls, Let his bright portraiture adorn my walls; The civic oak his sacred brows entwine, And vict'ry to the wreath his laurel join.
Let Legislative acts of mourning show The voted ensigns of the public woe; In the historic page be ever read The fierce encounter, when great Daviess bled, And be the fatal spot with cypress shade o'erspread; His noble heart let Hymen's care enclose In the rich urn, and friendship's hand compose His other relics in the marble tomb.
Then let the ages present and to come Just praises render to his glorious name; Let honor'd Daviess gild the page of fame, A hero, fit a nation's pow'r to wield, In council wise, and mighty in the field."
His mortal life a narrow space confines, But glory with unbounded lustre shines.
Those virtuous souls, who shed their noble blood A willing off'ring to the public good, Who to their country's welfare freely give The sacrifice of life, forever live As bright examples to the unborn brave, To shew how virtue rescues from the grave.