Cornstalk, the Shawanee Chief [pp. 533-540]

To Pyrrha.-Cornstalk, the Shawanee Chief.
of th rm.Teei oogrteplito
of mistake, or the hope which is hred of uncertainty. The great question must be speedily
settled over the grave of Gen. Taylor, for weal
or for woe. Heaven prosper the issue.
good man who is gone, we cannot refrain from
calling to mind the exquisite agonies to which
that pure heart has been subjected during the
hrief term of his supremacy, by the harsh criticisms of the press and the bitter and malignant
judgments of Congressional orators. He had
not been trained, by the long experience and reciprocation of calumny and vituperation, to estimate these things at their real worthlessness.
But in his new trials, his tender and sensitive
nature was subjected to the constant martyrdom
which was inflicted without feeling and withoni
thought, for the attainment of petty ends an
personal aims. When we remember the servi
ces of General Taylor to his country-service
beyond the reach of party question-and recol
In our melancholy task of doing honor tn the
lect the construction which was put upon his
motives-and the ridicule which was showered
have indulged in such unjust denunciation are' CORNSTALK, THE SIIAWANEE CHIEF.
not guiltless of his death. We fancy that in
Gen. Taylor's last words there are indications of ]BY THE REV. W. It. FOOTE.
the hourly torment of his illustrious and unsought There was a time when the name of Cornoffice. Can those, who have abused him, die stalk thrilled every heart in West Virginia.
with the same conscientious, manly, Christian Here and there among the mountains may be
avowal of a single eye to duty, which formed the found an aged one, who remembers the terrors
last confession of the dying! His last words were of Indian warfare as they raged on the rivers,
the brief history of his life; for he, alone among and in the retired glens, west of the Blue Ridge,
thousands, was one undler that noted savage. Cornstalk was to the
Quem non ambigui fasces, non mobile vulgus IIndians of West Virginia, what Powhatan wvas
Non leges, non castra tenent: qui pectore magno to the tril)es on the Sea Coast, the greatest and
Spe que metuque domt, vitio subliior onni the last chief. At the time of his greatest power
Exemtus fartis, indigfnantemque refellit
Exes.' i u. el. he lived west of the Ohio. His tribe, the Sha Fortunar~i; duibio quem non in turbine r-erum
Deprendit suprema dies, sed abire pardtrn wanees, built their towns on the Scioto ant
Ac plenum vita; Muskingum. They had held part of the valley
* * * of the Shenandoah. but had retired at the ap proach of the whites.
The first settlers in the valley found but few
SONNET TO BRITAIN. Indians, resident east of the Alleghany: and
these few appeared the remains of once flour B Y T H E D U K E O F W E L L I N G T O N. ishing tribes, or as straggling companies from
H T! Shoulder arms! Recover! As o were! tribes farther West. A short timne previous to
Right wheel! EF,es left! Attention! Stand at ease! the war of 1756, called Bradt(lock's war, all
0 Britain! O my country! Words like these
Have made namterorandathe Indians disappeared from the Shenandoah,
To all the nat'ions. Witness Ebro's banks, e and for years never returned except for massacre
Assaye, Toulouse, Nivelle, and Waterloo,
~Where the ~rim despot muiittered sauve qui,peyt!t
or for plunder. The names of all the smaller
And Ney fled darkling.-Silence in the ranks! tribes that were scattered over the country, firom
Inlspiredi by these, amlidst the iron crash
IOspired bhese, in the ro shis the Blue Ridge to the Ohio, cannot be gathered;
Of arm-iies in the centr-e of his troop
The soldier stanids-iunmovable not rash --- and no hist(oric,l fact of importance depends
Unltil thle forces of the foemnan drloop;
Untiml the forces ofteupon their preservation. There was aname apThen knocks the Frienchiman to eternal smash,
Puiid- tleii int IIUIll Soulderplel to tih coll ectis of thle trib)es, but no one
Bon Gabrtier.'has tell ete ie r.it, caonquest,
TO pYRRHA.
(Paraphrase from Horace.)
BY J. A. TURNERt.
Oh! Pyrrha, nymph of pleasant caves
Reclining on a couch of roses,
What youth, bedewed in spicy waves,
Close by thy wanton side reposes.
Doth some lover, steeped in wine,
Mid thy golden tresses twine
Wreath of flowers, with rosy fingers,
While his lip mid nectar lingers?
He knows thee not, thou heartless one,
Inconstant as the changing sea,
But fondly hopes the siiiiliig sun
Will ever mark thy constanlcy.
Wretched they who know thee not
Pity on their hopeless lotWo to him who first hltl mret
Thee, the heartless and coq(uette.
1850.
533